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MOONDOG...Book W/ CD


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I have always been intrigued by Moondog, I even have the 7" ep on Woody Herman's label.

My question is: Has anyone read the book? It (the book) also comes with a 28 track cd. My lady got it for my birthday, and I have read the text but have not listened

to the cd, which includes collaborations w/ Glass, Reich and others.

|What say y'all???

Anything??

Thanks,

HB

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I think that the economic downturn has hit some of us. I know that I am more hesitant about going out and buying everything I would like to hear and read. I read your initial post, found it intriguing, and made a note to myself to check it out someday, when the greenbacks are blowing around more freely.

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AHH, yes the economy has me by the short hairs as well! Esp. since my recent back surgery (can't wait 'till the bills start rolling in, even w/ decent health inssurance).

5 days in the hospital alone would bankrupt most of us!

The Moondog bk. is good, well written, nice production. I have long been a fan...have the OJCs and Columbia lps on vinyl and the treasured 7" ep on Woody Herman's

label. I have plenty of late period Moondog on cd.

The book is quite revealing, so much so that you get that "Jeez, I didnt' really wanna' know that" feeling at times. My lady purchased this for me for my birthday, I think it was

around $25.00 including great illustrations/Photog's plus the cd, which I still have not listened to yet.

Anybody got some amusing anecdotes about Moondog??

Best,

-------HB

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I still have the "folios" - 2 handbound books of poems - inside my LP of "Moondog 2" (Columbia). He used to sell them on 6th Ave & 54th St, in front of the old ABC building (sometimes 55th St - the MGM building - and sometimes 52nd St - the CBS building - these places had ledges in front where he could sit. Strangely, he never sat on the west side of 6th Ave - the Burlington building, etc.). He sold them out of a big leather sack he kept by his feet. It wasn't like he aggressively hawked them; he just sat there and would chat with anyone. I was a teenaged kid who worked as a messenger a few blocks away during summers, so was able to get out of the office a lot. He was a really nice guy; certainly had a lot of patience with me! And he looked and dressed exactly like the cover of Moondog 2 - the leather cape, the spear - but I don't think he wore the leather cap (the one with the horns) often in the hot summer.

What else do I remember? He always had a cigar butt clamped between his teeth, and would periodically discharge his spit into one of those metal tubes cigars used to come in. As you know, he was blind, so this was an easy way to be neat; he'd lift the tube to his lips.

We used to talk philosophy. I remember once he said to me, "the more laws men pass, the more criminals there are."

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Anybody got some amusing anecdotes about Moondog??

Best,

-------HB

Second hand.

I have a friend who was a student at Columbia in the 1960s. He is naturally gregarious and often stopped and chatted with Moondog for five or 10 minutes at a time. Moondog called my friend by his first name; my friend called Moondog Mr. Hardin. One time my friend had a Barnard woman with him; he decided to impress her by showing her how chummy he was with one of the premier Manhattan characters. My friend introduced his girlfriend to Moondog, but Moondog did not acknowledge the introduction or even that my friend was speaking to him. He just stared blankly ahead. After a second try with the same response friend slunk away.

Edited by Brownian Motion
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  • 1 year later...

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