Beautifully Twisted

The absurd, bizarre and the pure genius Episode 1: Moondog by Paul Griffiths

For thirty years a blind Viking awoke the souls of passers by and slept in the darkest corners of New York. The Viking would stand with his large helmet rested upon his hairy head and grasp a steel spear on the corner of 51st street. “What’s with the spear?” passers by would ask. Moondog the Viking would gaze into the horizon and bark “If you don’t get the point, you can climb up and sit on it!”. Moondog wasn’t a vision of Alejandro Jodorowsky or a New York lunatic but an icon of the burgeoning counterculture. A philosopher, musician, composer and poet, a true nonconformist defying the future generations of Britney Spears, Paris Hiltons and James Mccartneys of this world. Moondog was born Louis T Hardin in the spring of 1916, his father was a missionary worker and exposed young Moondog to Native American tribes. His adult years were profoundly influenced by the experiences of ritual music of Navho and Blackfoot Native American tribes. The tribal dress code influenced the attire of Moondog as he adopted their practice of dressing around a square.

His musical experiences were held in a frozen blanket until aged sixteen. Moondog unfortunately lost his eyesight after divulging in the art of dynamite juggling. He then attended the Iowa School for the Blind where he began his musical path. He learned the piano, viola, organ, violin and musical philosophies such as form and harmony. His education pushed him further and he become a disciple of counterpoint. From the late 50s up till the 70s Moondog was patrolling the streets of New York. He entertained passers by with his philosophies on life and his home made poetry books tied together by shoe laces. He frequently played on unique contraptions that he designed himself, trimbas (triangular drums), yukh (a suspended log struck with rubber mallets), and oo (a triangular stringed instrument).  

His music flowed around the rhythmic past; the four beats of the Indian tribes - boom, boom, boom, boom. His powerful thumping melody fired off his counterpoint structure with dancing flutes and violins entering the core. It seems to flow into the distance, but the compositions were incredibly structured. Echoes of Moondog's work can be seen in the pop world with DJ Shadow and Johann Johannson.

He started recording LPs within the streets of New York using the sights and sounds as extras in his vision. The traffic buzzing down the street, the crying pavements of a thousand foot steps were essential in the overall compositions. In the 50s Moondog released an LP of nursery rhymes with Martyn Green and Julie Andrews. His popularity blossomed and he began a world tour in the 70s. On arrival in Germany he fell in love with the history and the people.

He then began working on his master composition.

"It's written for four conductors - one main conductor and three assistants because at one time, there may be as many as sixty or seventy parts going and one conductor can't handle that. It's all counterpointal. So each conductor would have his own score and be in charge of a certain section of the orchestra. It's based on the first nine overtones and I tried that as a theme in '73 on the northwest corner of 55th Street and Sixth Avenue- that's where I got the idea to use overtones as a theme. After I worked on it, I went to Europe. I was in Hamburg in '75 and I was working on the overtones and I finally realized that I had something interesting here. It was a code. I didn't know it was a code but I cracked the code and found out how to develop it. Ten years later, I found out what it was. I wasn't looking for a code. That code proves that not only whoever created the universe does exist but he, I call him the mega-mind, wants us to know he exists. Within this code, it also proves that contraction must come before expansion. It also proves that a cause can become an effect and an effect can become a cause. It proves the two-directionality of time. It proves that the past is the future and the future is the past. All this fly’s in the face of what Hubble did, saying that there was a big bang and an expansion of the universe. His is a theory but mine is a fact. A fact incontrovertable, as I call it."

Moondog passed away in 1999.

ｩ 2007 Paul Griffiths

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