Bob Moog

2005-08-24

For some unfortunate reason we always seem to forget about the innovators until they die and we then heap praise on them reminding the world of their importance, failing in the majority of cases to mention that most people really didn’t care that much about what they’ve been up to until this final moment.

Bob Moog, the inventor of the first affordable, commercially available synthesizer died earlier this week, and true to the above mentioned reality, his passing has garnered him more press coverage than he probably ever received in his heyday.

Moog’s work was so influential in so many ways that today’s modern music would not sound the way it does without his efforts. For some, the eerily unnatural sounds that emanated from the boxes he built sounded alien and threatening. It must have been difficult for him back in the 70s when his synthesizers were beginning to play a more prominent role in recordings to hear the backlash from “real” musicians that synthesizers were the enemy and anyone who used them wasn’t making “real” music.

From all the interviews of Moog I’ve read over the years, I never got the impression that he was trying to displace musicians or musicianship, but rather to augment the creative process by adding a new series of colors to the palette. And this, I believe, is what he did.

I don’t think the synthesizer is any less an instrument than a Fender Stratocaster or a Stradivarius violin. It’s an instrument, that when placed in the hands of a creative power, yields great art.

I’m sure synthesizers would have eventually evolved had Bob Moog decided to become a car salesman, but it was Moog and his synthesizers that spawned a whole technological music industry playing a major role in some of the most famous and important recordings in history.

His toys made it possible for today’s rock and hip-hop icons to make real the sounds they hear in their heads. And for wannabes to create in the comfort of their home with dozens of pieces of outboard equipment containing libraries full of sounds that do everything from add textures to imitate instruments and orchestras.

I met Moog once, a long time ago while I was attending Berklee College of Music (or as I affectionately call it, 13th grade). He was a genuinely nice guy, but I was too young to appreciate what he had done, or to have recognized the impact he would have on me until many years later when my musical horizons expanded, and I became more involved in studio recording.

The Ramones may not have sold as many records as Blink 182 but they came first, they invented their thing, and they laid the groundwork for others to expand upon. There are many success stories in the synthesizer world that probably over shadow the Moog, but Bob Moog was first. He was a dreamer. He was an inventor. He was a changing force.