The Viking of 6th Avenue (Holly Elson, 201?)

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

In the Todd Haynes Dylan Film 'I'm not there' thread from 2007 the subject of the street musician /Composer Moondog cropped up and I mentioned I had shot footage of the man and was looking for an outlet. Now nearly 7 years later it looks like with some Kickstarting help a project may come to fruition.
If you read about it here I am the garage in France.

[liam fennell]

Cool!!! I have a handsome cd also called Viking of Sixth Avenue that is some kind of compilation of his early work and it is unbelievably beautiful stuff. He's really an exceptional and visionary composer and percussionist. Catchy, too!

Do you have any idea if there will be a decent amount of performance footage? What is your contribution?

I don't really like documentaries with talking head people. Someone is trying to kickstarter a similar thing about Robbie Basho but there is almost no footage of him live in existence, apart from two songs, so I have a hard time getting excited about it (the recent cd reissues are a different story, though!) Still, even if random people story-telling his story is mostly what it ends up being, I still think it's great - anything to get more people listening to the music!!!

[htshell]

Cool project, just reposted it a few places.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Do you have any idea if there will be a decent amount of performance footage? What is your contribution?

It's an ongoing project gathering materials as well as interviews. My own contribution has been offering up an hour long interview and readings by Moondog of his poems and couplets done in London just before his death which I shot on 16mm B&W. I have no control or input on the final product.

[Gregory]

I've been anticipating this for a while and am glad to see it moving ahead. I'll probably contribute at the $35 level not only to support the film of course but to get the Bracelli CD, which I've never heard. I already have nearly all of Moondog's commercially released stuff. It would have been nice to have DVDs or Blu-rays included, and I'm sure the lack of these as rewards just means that it's too early for disc-release plans to have firmed up. Because I don't have high-speed internet, the HD download may not do my any good, but I suppose I'll try it.

For me, the main interest in musician documentaries is seeing/hearing archival footage or interviews with the musicians themselves, but I also like a lot of the talking-head footage in many docs, provided of course that the people have something interesting to say.

Aside from celebrating Moondog's amazing music, it'll be interesting to see if any of the participants open the can of worms about the man's frequently awful personality. Glass did that in his preface to the Scotto biography (with equal or greater measures of praise for Moondog's talent), but the main text of the book seemed very reticent about all of that.

[whaleallright]

It's an ongoing project gathering materials as well as interviews. My own contribution has been offering up an hour long interview and readings by Moondog of his poems and couplets done in London just before his death which I shot on 16mm B&W. I have no control or input on the final product.

that's great! I want to know more about this. how did this happen? I'm impressed.

on the Kickstarter page they mention that if they have extra funds leftover they might apply them to get some of Moondog's unrecorded (even unperformed) pieces recorded. I certainly hope that happens. as far as spreading the word about Moondog, I think that should be a first priority--the majority of his works for larger ensembles have never been recorded, many of them have never been performed. so the picture most of us have of his work is very incomplete.

the Scotto book troubled me, not least because he doesn't clearly reveal where his information comes from. I assume he interviewed Moondog many times, but even so the level of detail (including intimate psychological detail) he presents about Hardin's childhood defies credulity. at the very least he could have included an appendix explaining who his sources where (and when he spoke with them). that he doesn't makes me wonder how much of it is "inference," to put it politely.

I'm psyched for this doc. cautiously psyched, I should say, because these documentaries on cult musicians have become so numerous and they often fall into familiar narrative and stylistic cliches. I don't expect this to avoid all of those, but I hope it's even partly worthy of its subject.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

that's great! I want to know more about this. how did this happen?

At the risk of making this sound like a job application I’ll give you some of the background to how I landed up meeting Moondog. Just after leaving film school I landed a job as an assistant to a London based documentary cameraman attached to a State funded educational project with a very wide arts remit. Yes, those things used to exist! It could be interviews with the artist John Piper or coverage of Stockhausen at the Royal Opera one day and Talmudic scholars or Royal Botanists the next. So, using this as a platform with access to materials, primarily purloined short ends (and some not so short) of precious film stock and lab processing, I moonlighted as a pop promo (video clip) director – along the way Chaka Khan, Swing out Sister and A-Ha.
One day I picked up a copy of an obscure Music magazine called Collusion which had a ‘Where are they Now” type article written by Brian Hogg reporting on Moondog, who had apparently disappeared into obscurity in Germany following an aborted tour there in the 70’s . I was particularly intrigued as I had not long before that picked up from a Charity shop one of those strange pot-pourri CBS samplers ‘The rock machine turns you on’ or some other quaint title like that where Mingus, Laura Nyro and Moondog would line up alongside one another.
I think it was Stomping Ground that hit the spot and I wanted to try and solve the mystery - if there was indeed any. So I contacted Brian Hogg, who said that since he had written the article he had heard from bassist Danny Thompson that there were plans to record Moondog over in the UK and that he had signed a deal with German label Roof Records. The producer of the planned recording was one Will Gregory, who later found fame as the force behind Goldfrapp. He gave me the number of a German lady called Ilona who had taken Moondog in off the streets all those years ago and given him a home, but also warned me that the project was difficult because of finances and getting him over. I rang Germany and offered to put them up at a friends flat in London for a couple of nights and drive them down to the recording studio in Bath (a half a day drive) in exchange for some time to film an interview. They agreed and I fixed up to film it in St Giles Church, which is where John Milton is buried and was the venue of Shakespeare’s marriage. Facts that went some way to smooth Moondog’s doubts about the whole affair. Although mostly affable throughout he was sceptical about a biographical based piece and at one point it erupted into downright petulance and not wanting to continue. However switching to some performance of poetry and couplets out on the street swung it back into a more compliant mood and we finished up recording about 100 minutes of material, of which only about 50% still exists on tape, until Technicolor unearth the original neg from a warehouse in Rome!
After that I shopped around for an outlet for the material, but remember it was a pre-internet / kickstarter age so it was TV slots or nothing. Despite making a little promo trailer cut on U-matic I was asked to produce ‘a couple of pages’ for submission to the various commissioning editors – all of whom deemed it too eclectic or not in line with their format- mainly pre-owned concert footage cobbled together with a few testimonials from ‘accredited sources.’ So into the garage it all went and apart from the odd wistful glance in its direction became mostly forgotten and anyway I had other cats to whip as they say here in France. Until I heard about Holly Elson’s project and rang her to say she could have it if she wanted. Since no other footage of him talking about himself seems to exist it looks like it has finally found a home all these years later.
Re Scotto I also contacted him early on and he was kind enough to send me the first draft which was the size of an elephants foot and numbered about a 1000 pages. I tried to tease some information out of Louis about this bio but he was pretty scornful of it and said that some stories were downright bullshit and fantasy. Mindful not to get back into troubled waters I let it drop but I don’t know if they ever met face to face.

[whaleallright]

thank you! what a wonderful story. I am quite glad you took the initiative to catch Moondog on video. I hope that the full extant footage will be made available somehow, since I imagine it will only be excerpted in the documentary.

seems you caught Moondog at one of his moments of obscurity; a bit later in his life he would receive much more attention--recording more, performing more, giving more interviews--thanks in large part to the German lady you mention, Ilona Sommer, who sadly died in 2011.

do you know of the fate of the UK recording sessions you mention? I don't know off the top of my head where all the material that eventually came out on German-released LPs was recorded. I wonder if the sessions you mention ended up on one of those or simply resides in a vault somewhere.

I tried to tease some information out of Louis about this bio but he was pretty scornful of it and said that some stories were downright bullshit and fantasy

on the one hand, Moondog himself was something of a fabulist and notoriously ornery. on the other hand, his comment about the Scotto book rings true--unfortunately. I am quite surprised that the first edition of the Scotto book (I've only read the 2nd edition) won some kind of scholarly research award, since it hardly conforms to scholarly norms of documenting and citing sources. the book even in its published form is a behemoth; it spends far too much time IMO on Moondog's early life, mostly because Scotto seeks to trace much of Moondog's drive and talents to his early years, a very risky thing for a biographer to do. but--it is the only book we have, so it is invaluable without being entirely trustworthy.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

thank you! what a wonderful story. I am quite glad you took the initiative to catch Moondog on video. I hope that the full extant footage will be made available somehow, since I imagine it will only be excerpted in the documentary.

seems you caught Moondog at one of his moments of obscurity; a bit later in his life he would receive much more attention--recording more, performing more, giving more interviews--thanks in large part to the German lady you mention, Ilona Sommer, who sadly died in 2011.

do you know of the fate of the UK recording sessions you mention? I don't know off the top of my head where all the material that eventually came out on German-released LPs was recorded. I wonder if the sessions you mention ended up on one of those or simply resides in a vault somewhere.

I tried to tease some information out of Louis about this bio but he was pretty scornful of it and said that some stories were downright bullshit and fantasy

on the one hand, Moondog himself was something of a fabulist and notoriously ornery. on the other hand, his comment about the Scotto book rings true--unfortunately. I am quite surprised that the first edition of the Scotto book (I've only read the 2nd edition) won some kind of scholarly research award, since it hardly conforms to scholarly norms of documenting and citing sources. the book even in its published form is a behemoth; it spends far too much time IMO on Moondog's early life, mostly because Scotto seeks to trace much of Moondog's drive and talents to his early years, a very risky thing for a biographer to do. but--it is the only book we have, so it is invaluable without being entirely trustworthy.

Sad to hear about Ilona . She features also in my footage talking about how her little brother Frank persuaded her to take in Louis off the street for Xmas because he looked like Santa Claus. In fact I noticed in the Kickstarter excerpts that there is a glimpse of her from that scene. The recording session is the Sax for Pax CD - with a little nod of thanks to me and my wife in the liner notes! I also hope that I can rescue the missing neg and get it all transferred afresh as with the modern wonders of Final Cut etc I might be able at last to get it in a presentable shape. Re Scotto.The bits that irked Louis most were the bits about the building of his upstate retreat which he described as ludicrous. I think there is a claim that he fashioned a head-harness to lug large tree trunks around which does sound a tad fanciful for a circus act let alone a blind street musician. Don't know if that made it into the final edition though. I'll have to hunt for that great mega-tome in the garage where I found the tape transfer footage

[Gregory]

I'm a little surprised to see the Scotto book described as a behemoth and a mega-tome. The main text (excluding appendices) is about 260 pages, and I thought much more could have been included, especially more discussion of the music itself. I know that there's often a concern about turning off the general reader with rarefied discussions of music, but if memory serves there could have been much more written about Moondog in relation to his predecessors (hardly a marginal issue) and for example Bach's music didn't come up at all, aside from a mention of young Louis playing Bach on the church organ.

[whaleallright]

I guess it's not all that long by biography standards (certainly it doesn't approach Robert Caro size) but perhaps it feels long b/c of the excessive attention given to Moondog's youth and the sometimes fanciful, even purple prose.

I agree that the main disappointment of the book is its in only sporadic attention to the music itself. this is a familiar problem when it comes to biographies (and biopics) of artists, one that I worry or indeed expect will apply to the documentary this thread is (nominally) about. in fact my favorite part of the DVD of the acclaimed Big Star documentary was a bonus featurette where the producer John Fry speaks at length about recording and mixing the band's first two albums. that was way more useful and compelling to me than the whole of the rather ordinary documentary feature.

I think the issue is this: the life is actually easier to write/make a film about than the work. it doesn't require specialized training and has more of the obvious emotional appeals that draw readers/audiences in. Lives of the Great Composers is always going to find a wider readership than something like this.

we await a good book devoted to analyses of Moondog's compositions and recordings, but as long as a huge chunk of his ouevre remains unrecorded and unperformed that's unlikely to happen.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I'm a little surprised to see the Scotto book described as a behemoth and a mega-tome. The main text (excluding appendices) is about 260 pages, and I thought much more could have been included, especially more discussion of the music itself. I know that there's often a concern about turning off the general reader with rarefied discussions of music, but if memory serves there could have been much more written about Moondog in relation to his predecessors (hardly a marginal issue) and for example Bach's music didn't come up at all, aside from a mention of young Louis playing Bach on the church organ.

I was referring to the 1000 page monster that Scotto sent me which was a type-written first draft.

[Gregory]

It may seem too soon to worry, but I don't like the odds of the Kickstarter reaching its goal. After a strong start, it's moving forward very slowly now, 98% of the backers are pledging $100 or less, and one of the most attractive levels ($35 or more) only has 19 spots still available. They (and we) will have to do a major push in the next three weeks if this is going to have a chance.

[whaleallright]

I wonder if there is a kind of "Kickstarter-funded documentaries about cult musicians" fatigue setting in. I know I'm a bit tired of seeing such invitations in my inbox, Facebook feed, etc. All told, I'd rather fund a recording of one of Moondog's rarer scores, but I will still donate to this.

[Gregory]

A film like this can really raise the profile of a musician/composer, so if the film ends up being widely seen, it could lead to new interest and new recordings.

By the way, looks like I wasn't too early to talk about it very possibly falling short of its goal. They'll need to really push to get a big uptick—updates, news, engagement with potential funders, anything they can do.

[Gregory]

The Kickstarter campaign ends tomorrow morning and will probably be a nail-biter. It didn't seem to me that it was going to have much of a chance, but there have been some slight upticks, then a Vanity Fair piece about Moondog and the film with a link to the Kickstarter (the title of the piece assholishly describes his Viking garb as "circus-freak clothing"), and there's been a new outpouring of support, but they still need to raise more than ten thousand bucks in 17 hours.

While mostly forgotten today outside the rarified halls of experimental music festivals, Moondog's genius-in-circus-freak’s-clothing story makes him one of the essential characters of American subculture.

Wrong and wrong—he's pretty far from forgotten, and his music makes him one of the essential characters of American culture.

I recognized a familiar face when this odd image showed up on my Tumblr dashboard today:

What in the fuck, is what I'd like to know.

[htshell]

Funded!

[domino harvey]

Amazing. Congrats!

[whaleallright]

any word on this film's progress? I received my (very very nice) Moondog record bag, which I carry around with me whenever possible. but I don't recall seeing a recent update on the film itself.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I handed the masters of my material over to Holly last month and she said they were heading for a September finish date.

[Gregory]

Newest project update:

It's been a busy month of shooting and archive gathering in NYC. Holly arrived from the UK at the end of March and the whole team has been hard at work - thanks to your support! We were very excited to interview someone who hasn't done any on camera interviews for over 25 years and flew into New York specially to talk to us about working with Moondog. All will be revealed in the film! We've also discovered over 100 new and never before seen Moondog images which are currently being digitised for inclusion in the film. If you or anyone you know has images of Moondog or other Moondog related archive please get in touch. We want to gather as much material as possible so that Moondog tells his own story. ...

[whaleallright]

Good news, thank you! I assume I was sent an update at some point and it just got washed away in a deluge of email.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I spoke to Holly today who had taken time off in 2016 to bring a little live Moondog into the world.
They are in post-production stage, which given all the different formats and standards of the original footage is a formidable task. So it is on course if somewhat delayed.