I don’t remember if I had to or chose to, but in the 7th grade I took a class in Classical Music Appreciation. Now that I think about it, over my multi-decade educational journey, this was one of only two music classes that I’ve ever taken. It was the dim dark days of 1972 and the teacher, who had already suffered with us as our 5th grade teacher, clearly had doubts that there was anything that she could play for us that would reach our Grand Funk Railroad/Led Zeppelin addled brains. Then she put an LP of something brand-new that combined classical music with this weird modern electronic stuff. That was my introduction to Robert Moog and the album “Switched on Bach.” The funniest thing was that after she played the selection she didn’t believe us when we told her that we really liked it. I don’t know if the other students were bullshitting her, but there was something about this weird “space” music that I really did like. Lord knows, that this stuff would have to wait another couple decades until it’d be rediscovered via such veteran artists such as Kraftwerk, and more recently through such electronica artists like Dirty Vegas. Being a guitarist and wanna-be keyboardist, I don’t know that my life was totally changed by Robert Moog’s creation, but I do know that the landscape of popular music and the sounds that musicians can now make was greatly enriched by this man’s creativity and genius. Thanks Bob.

Robert Moog, creator of the Moog Synthesizer, died on Saturday, August 20, 2005 at the age of 71. JBB