Rock History

2005 – A Rolling Stones concert at the University of Virginia is stopped after the venue receives a bomb threat. The concert continues after bomb-sniffing dogs survey the stage.

2005 – Bob Moog, inventor of his namesake range of synthesizers and one of the most significant figures in the evolution of electronic music, dies at his home in Asheville, N.C. He is 71. A native of N.Y., Moog was diagnosed with brain cancer in late April and had since undergone radiation treatment and chemotherapy.

Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (pronounced /ˈmoʊɡ/ to rhyme with “rogue”) (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.

Life

A native of New York City, Robert Moog attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1952. Moog earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Queens College, New York in 1957, another in electrical engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University. Moog’s awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic University (New York City) and Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)

During his lifetime, Moog founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. Moog also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988, helping to develop the Kurzweil K2000. He spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Moog received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. In 2002, Moog was honored with a Grammy Tech Award, and an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music.

He gave an enthusiastically-received lecture at the 2004 New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-04), held in Hamamatsu, Japan’s “City of Musical Instruments”, in June, 2004. Moog was the inspiration behind the 2004 film Moog.

Moog’s first wife was Shirleigh Moog (née Shirley May Leigh) a grammar school teacher whom he married in 1958. The couple had 3 daughters (Laura Moog Lanier, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog) and one son (Matthew Moog) before their divorce. Moog was married to his second wife Ileana Grams, a philosophy professor, for nine years until his death. Moog’s stepdaughter, Miranda Richmond, is Grams’ daughter from a previous marriage. Moog also had five grandchildren.

Robert Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. Nearly four months later, Moog died at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina on August 21, 2005. His end of life journey was captured using CaringBridge. The Bob Moog Foundation was created as a memorial, with the aim of continuing his life’s work of developing electronic music.

Development of the Moog synthesizer

Main article: Moog synthesizer

The Moog synthesizer was one of the first widely used electronic musical instruments. Early developmental work on the components of the synthesizer occurred at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, now the Computer Music Center. While there, Moog developed the voltage controlled oscillators, ADSR envelope generators, and other synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch.

Moog created the first subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller and demonstrated it at the AES convention in 1964. In 1966, Moog filed a patent application for his unique low-pass filter U.S. Patent 3,475,623 , which issued in October 1969. He holds several dozen patents.

Robert Moog employed his theremin company (R. A. Moog Co., which would later become Moog Music) to manufacture and market his synthesizers. Unlike the few other 1960s synthesizer manufacturers, Moog shipped a piano-style keyboard as the standard user interface to his synthesizers. Moog also established standards for analog synthesizer control interfacing, with a logarithmic one volt-per-octave pitch control and a separate pulse triggering signal.

The first Moog instruments were modular synthesizers. In 1971 Moog Music began production of the Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.

One of Moog’s earliest musical customers was Wendy Carlos whom he credits with providing feedback that was valuable to the further development of Moog synthesizers. Through his involvement in electronic music, Moog developed close professional relationships with artists such as Don Buchla, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, John Cage, Gershon Kingsley, Clara Rockmore, and Pamelia Kurstin. In a 2000 interview, Moog said “I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers. They use my tools.”

R.A. Moog Co. and Moog Music
The Moog Music logo
The Moog Music logo

Main article: Moog Music

In 1953 at age 19, Robert Moog founded his first company, R.A. Moog Co., to manufacture theremin kits. During the 1960s, the company was employed to build modular synthesizers based on Moog’s designs.

In 1972 Moog changed the company’s name to Moog Music. Throughout the 1970s, Moog Music went through various changes of ownership, eventually being bought out by musical instrument manufacturer Norlin. Poor management and marketing led to Moog’s departure from his own company in 1977.

In 1978 after leaving his namesake firm, Moog started making electronic musical instruments again with a new company, Big Briar. Their first specialty was theremins, but by 1999 the company expanded to produce a line of analog effects pedals called moogerfoogers. In 1999, Moog partnered with Bomb Factory to co-develop the first digital effects based on Moog technology in the form of plugins for Pro Tools software.

Despite Moog Music’s closing in 1993, Robert Moog did not have the rights to market products using his own name throughout the 1990s. Big Briar acquired the rights to use the Moog Music name in 2002 after a legal battle with Don Martin who had previously bought the rights to the name Moog Music. At the same time, Moog designed a new version of the Minimoog called the Minimoog Voyager. The Voyager includes nearly all of the features of the original Model D in addition to numerous modern features.

Theremin

Robert Moog constructed his own theremin as early as 1949. Later he described a theremin in the hobbyist magazine Electronics World and offered a kit of parts for the construction of the Electronic World’s Theremin, which became very successful. In the late 1980s Moog repaired the original theremin of Clara Rockmore, an accomplishment which he considered a high point of his professional career. He also produced, in collaboration with first wife Shirleigh Moog, Mrs. Rockmore’s album, The Art of the Theremin. Dr. Moog was a principal interview subject in the award-winning documentary film, THEREMIN- An Electronic Odyssey, the success of which led to a revival of interest in the theremin. Moog Music went back to its roots and once again began manufacturing theremins. Thousands have been sold to date and are used by both professional and amateur musicians around the globe. In 1996 he published another do-it-yourself theremin guide. Today, Moog Music is the leading manufacturer of performance-quality theremins.

Pronunciation

The surname Moog is one of the most divergently pronounced names in popular culture. The following interview excerpt reveals Robert Moog’s preferred pronunciation:

— Reviewer: First off: Does your name rhyme with “vogue” or is like a cow’s “moo” plus a “G” at the end?
— Dr. Robert Moog: It rhymes with vogue. That is the usual German pronunciation. My father’s grandfather came from Marburg, Germany. I like the way that pronunciation sounds better than the way the cow’s “moo-g” sounds.

(Note that the English , which has a monophthong and devoiced final consonant.)

In a deleted scene from the DVD version of the documentary Moog, Moog describes the three pronunciations of the name Moog: the original, Dutch pronunciation . Moog reveals that some of his family members prefer the English pronunciation, while others, including himself (and his wife) prefer the Anglo-German pronunciation.

2002 – Lonnie Donegan, known as the “king of skiffle’ dies in his sleep in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. He is 71.

Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is also known as the King of Skiffle and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.

Early life and trad jazz

He was born Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra. His father was unemployed in the 1930s, and in 1933 the family moved to East London. In the early 1940s he mostly listened to Swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar. Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen, around 1945. From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as “Frankie and Johnny”, “Puttin’ On the Style”, and “The House of the Rising Sun”. By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.

The first band he played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his band. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and tried to bluff his way through the audition. More on personality than playing, he was brought into Barber’s band. His stint with the band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but his military service in Vienna gave him contact with American troops, and access to records as well as the opportunity to listen to the American Forces Network radio station.

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians’ names confused, calling them “Tony Johnson” and “Lonnie Donegan”, and Donegan was happy to keep the name.

In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa problem), returned to England and, when invited to play with Chris Barber’s band, became the moving figure in it, more or less taking it over and running it as if it were his own creation. It actually was very much a cooperative. With the new name, Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were Lonnie Donegan’s first commercially released recordings.

Skiffle

Donegan was the first person to become famous playing skiffle in the United Kingdom, and went on to have an influential hit in Britain and America with “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour”, released in 1959 and 1961 respectively.

While playing in Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played both guitar and banjo as part of their Dixieland jazz, and also began playing with two other band members during the intervals to provide what was called on their posters a “skiffle” break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer’s brother Bill after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber’s Jazz Band.

With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan had a lot of fun entertaining the audiences with folk songs and blues by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, casually giving the impression that anyone could do it. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line”, featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with “John Henry” on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full LP album, “An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs”, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 60s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Lonnie made no money from it beyond his original session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in Britain, and reached the top ten in the United States, and Donegan has suggested that it might have influenced the beginnings of white rock and roll, and certainly was an influence of a hybrid version of American country-rock later called Rockabilly.

The skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan’s “Putting On The Style” / “Gamblin’ Man” single was number one on the British charts in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.

After splitting from Barber, Donegan went on to make a series of popular records as “Lonnie Donegan’s Skiffle Group”, with successes including “Cumberland Gap” and, particularly “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour”, his only hit song in America, released on Dot Records. He turned to a music hall style with “My Old Man’s a Dustman” which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic Records in 1960, but reached number one in the UK singles charts. Donegan’s group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevvit’s skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Pete Huggett on upright bass, Nick Nichols – later Pete Appleby – on drums or percussion and Lonnie playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead. Despite appearances that the style was simple and somewhat ‘unpolished’, all were accomplished and highly talented musicians.

Later career

Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the late 1960s and 1970s (although he wrote “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” for Tom Jones in 1969), and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit. There was a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber band in Croydon in June 1975 – notable for a bomb scare, meaning that the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.

He suffered his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States. Donegan underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to the public’s attention in 1978, when he made a record of his early songs with such figures as Ringo Starr, Elton John and Brian May called Putting on the Style. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass surgery following another heart attack.

Then in 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with a long tour with both bands, rather than just a concert. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retains as of 2006). The reunion concert and the tour, were recorded on CD, and also on video (and later released on DVD, though the quality isn’t up to digital standard). As is Chris Barber’s normal style, he generously featured Lonnie in the concerts and the whole original band were much more relaxed than in 1954, making these real collectors’ items as the stereo was real and not electronically created.

He experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison’s album The Skiffle Sessions – Live In Belfast 1998, a critically acclaimed album featuring Donegan sharing vocals with Van Morrison and also featuring Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr John. He also played at the Glastonbury Festival, and was awarded the MBE in 2000.

His last CD was “This Y’ere the Story”, which tells his story – complete with the inaccuracies as to his introduction to the banjo and the Barber band as related above…

Donegan’s influence on the generation of musicians that followed him is unquestioned. He inspired both John Lennon and Pete Townshend to learn to play the guitar, and was responsible for hundreds of other skiffle groups being formed. One of them, The Quarrymen, later evolved into The Beatles.

Personal life

Lonnie married three times. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter by his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons by his third wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1977.

Death

Lonnie died in 2002 aged 71, after suffering a heart attack in Peterborough mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison. He had suffered from cardiac problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks in his last years.

Legacy

Musician Mark Knopfler released a tribute song to Lonnie Donegan called “Donegan’s Gone” on his 2004 album Shangri-La and said that he was one of his greatest musical influences. Donegan’s music formed the basis for a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D – The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which starts the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performs his father’s material. Lonnies eldest son Anthony also formed his own band under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr

Quotations

* “In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that.” — Interview, 2002.
* “He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man.” — Paul McCartney
* “He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock.” — Brian May.

Discography

* Rock Island Line/ John Henry (1955)
* Diggin’ My Potatoes/ Bury My Body (1956)
* On A Christmas Day/ Take My Hand Precious Lord (1956)
* Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956)
* Jack O’Diamonds/ Ham ‘N’ Eggs (1957)
* Lonnie (November 1957)
* The Grand Coulee Dam/ Nobody Loves Like An Irishman (1958)
* Midnight Special/ When The Sun Goes Down (1958)
* Sally Don’t You Grieve/ Betty Betty Betty (1958)
* Lonesome Traveller/ Times Are Getting Hard Boys (1958)
* Lonnie’s Skiffle Party Pt.1/ Pt.2 (1958)
* Tom Dooley/ Rock O’ My Soul (1958)
* Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
* Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour/ Aunt Rhody (1959)
* Fort Worth Jail/ Whoa Buck (1959)
* Fort Bewildered/ Kevin Barry / It Is No Secret / My Lagan Love Buck (1959)
* Battle Of New Orleans/ Darling Corey (1959)
* Sal’s Got A Sugar Lip/ Chesapeake Bay (1959)
* San Miguel/ Talking Guitar Blues (1959)
* Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
* My Old Man’s A Dustman/ The Golden Vanity (1960)
* I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the John B.)/ Jimmy Brown The Newsboy (1960)
* Lorelei/ In All My Wildest Dreams (1960)
* Lively/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today) (1960)
* Virgin Mary/ Beyond The Sunset (1960)
* (Bury Me) Beneath The Willow/ Leave My Woman Alone (1961)
* Have A Drink On Me/ Seven Daffodils (1961)
* Michael Row the Boat/ Lumbered (1961)
* The Comancheros/ Ramblin’ Round (1961)
* Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor (On The Bedpost Over Night) (1961)
* More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
* The Party’s Over/ Over the Rainbow (1962)
* I’ll Never Fall In Love Again/ Keep On The Sunny Side (1962)
* Pick A Bale Of Cotton/ Steal Away (1962)
* The Market Song/ Tit-Bits (1962)
* Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
* Losing My Hair/ Trumpet Sounds (1963)
* It Was A Very Good Year/ Rise Up (1963)
* Lemon Tree/ I’ve Gotta Girl So Far (1963)
* 500 Miles Away From Home/ This Train (1963)
* Beans In My Ears/ It’s A Long Road To Travel (1964)
* Fisherman’s Luck/ There’s A Big Wheel (1964)
* Get Out Of My Life/ Won’t You Tell Me (1965)
* Louisiana Man/ Bound For Zion (1965)
* The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
* World Cup Willie/ Where In This World Are We Going (1966)
* I Wanna Go Home/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today) (1966)
* Aunt Maggie’s Remedy/ (Ah) My Sweet Marie (1967)
* Toys/ Relax Your Mind (1968)
* My Lovely Juanita/ Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1969)
* Lonniepops–Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
* Speak To The Sky / Get Out Of My Life (1972)
* Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton) / Lost John Blues (1973 – Australia only)
* Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
* Country Roads (1976)
* Puttin’ On The Style (February 1978)
* Sundown (May 1979)
* Muleskinner Blues (January 1999)
* The song Lost John was used to open the John Peel tribute album
* This Y’ere The Story (2000?)
* The Last Tour (2006)

2001 – E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons is forced to take an unexpected break during a concert in Asbury Park, N.J., when someone calls in a bomb threat. After two bomb sniffing dogs find no bomb in the legendary Stone Pony nightclub, the crowd is let back in and the show continues.

Bob Dylan

1998 – Bob Dylan wins three Grammys at this year’s ceremony, including Best Album for his career renaissance Time out of Mind. While performing a song from the album, he is interrupted by a rogue performance artist with the words “soy bomb” painted on his chest. The freewheelin’ one doesn’t flinch.

1990 -  While preparing Roger Waters’ ambitious production of The Wall at the Berlin Wall, workers discover an unexploded bomb from the World War II era.

1986 – Following the American bombing of Libya, Stevie Ray Vaughan cancels his European tour in fear of reprisals.

Born: October 3, 1954.  Dallas Texas.

Genre:  Blues

Guitar:  Fender Stratocaster  (No. 1)

Groups :  Double Trouble.

One of the most influential blues guitarists in america during his life and since his death.   Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash in the early morning of August 27, 1990.  His is sorely missed.

1986 – Fine Young Cannibals have to postpone their appearance at a Boston nightclub after a tear gas bomb goes off in the venue. They finally come onstage and perform at 2 a.m.

1972 – Not a great day in Jefferson Airplane history. First police receive a bomb threat before their show in Akron, Ohio. The heavy pig presence incenses the crowd, who throw rocks at a police car. The cops respond by using tear gas, which causes Airplane bassist Jack Casady to denounce them from the stage. He’s arrested. Singer Grace Slick and guitarist Paul Kantner give chase after Casady is taken to the venue’s basement and, after an exchange, Slick is maced in the face and Kantner is knocked to the floor by overzealous cops.

1972 – In Montreal, a bomb destroys several speaker cones inside an equipment truck belonging to the touring Rolling Stones. The musical terrorist responsible remains at large.

1970 – Police fear a Beatles connection when a terrorist organization calling itself Revolutionary Force 9 takes credit for three bombings in New York.

1966 – In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos pulls the Beatles’ police protection after his wife claims the band snubbed her by not attending one of her parties. Later, an angry mob attacks the Fab Four.

“We watched ourselves, not arriving… “  -George Harrison

On July 3rd, the day prior the show, The Manila Sunday Times reported that the Beatles were invited to join the President and Mrs. Marcos (with their 3 children) to their Malacanang Palace at 11am. The Beatles knew nothing of this appointment, hearing only of a request for a short “pop-in” at the palace at 4pm which they respectfully declined due to the fact that their first show started at 4pm! The Beatles claimed they never received the earlier 11am invitation.

Much to the Beatles surprise, the palatial tyrants were extremely angered at the Beatles neglect and the morning after the concert, The Manila Times ran the headline “Imelda Stood Up!!”. The ramifications were to become serious. Philippine promoter Ramon Ramos refused to pay the Beatles for their performance! Bomb and death threats were telephoned to the deluged British Embassy and to the boys hotel suite. Brian Epstein was so distressed with the situation he arranged for a press conference from the hotel to apologize for the misunderstanding. BUT…as fate would have it, some unforeseen static blipped out his interview from most all TV screens in the country! (more than a few thought it was probably more shenanigans by the Marcos clan).

Pulling more strings the next day when the Beatles were scheduled to depart the country, Misael Vera, Philippine Tax Authority, insisted the group could not leave the country until every penny of the taxes owed them was paid! Of course, they never got paid anything but Brian hurriedly forked over a bond out his own funds for P.74,450 (around $18,000) to settle the matter.

To make matters worse, all security detail assigned to the boys were withdrawn leaving them extremely vulnerable. They were literally kicked and jostled as they left their hotel and totally harassed all the way to the airport. Things were no better there where the airport manager has also removed all security for the Beatles. They went so far as to shut down the power to stop the escalators, forcing the boys to scale several flights of stairs with their own luggage, only to face an angry mob of 200 Filipinos brutally manhandling them! Ringo was literally floored by an uppercut and kicked on the ground. He suffered a sprained ankle as well and had to be helped to the customs area. Mal Evans and Brian Epstein were injured as well. Alf Bicknell suffered a cracked rib and a spinal injury.

When they finally approached the plane, a large booing crowd jeered and mocked them chanting “Beatles Alis Dayan!” (Go Home Beatles!) Once in the plane, some scraping government officials “decided” the Beatles were NOT authorized to leave the country due to inaccurate “check in” procedures days earlier… This led to another 40 minute wait on the Tarmac while Mal & Tony Barrow went back to the terminal to clean up the necessary paperwork. Only minutes after the Beatles angrily departed, did the press run a statement by President Marcos stating “Their was no intention on the part of the Beatles to slight the first lady or the government of the Republic Of The Philippines”. Obviously a bit too late to do the Beatles any good.

The Beatles vowed to NEVER return and it’s a vow they kept. It was, indeed, the scariest moment they ever experienced! Their next stop was India, for a planned few days of quiet and rest, but greeting them at the airport and their hotel were more than 600 screaming fans. They returned to England on July 8th. Five weeks later, on August 11th, they flew to Chicago to start their last American tour which, as we all know too well, had its own looming troubles. Needless to say, the Beatles clearly needed the break they gave themselves at the end of August when they performed their last live concert performance at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.

- PC/MM 1998