Update August 17th, 2022: Moog foundation forwarded this info: Bob’s biographer joins our executive director, Michelle Moog-Koussa, for an intimate, insightful talk about a work 12 years in the making. This livestream, as well as the foundation’s efforts in facilitating interviews and providing Bob’s biographer access to hundreds of rare historical documents and photos, is part of our mission to protect, preserve, and share the wealth of materials of the Bob Moog Foundation Archives with people from all over the world. We’re honored to host the first appearance of Albert Glinsky in support of his new work, “Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution,” in a ticketed livestream event offering an intimate look into the man who changed music forever.
Afterward, Albert and Michelle will take questions in a 30-minute Q&A.
Details: 3 p.m. ET/12 noon PT/7 p.m. UTC on Sunday, August 21.
August 21 has a poignant significance to our community: it’s the date of Bob’s death in 2005 at age 71, and of the birth of the Foundation one year later.
More info and tickets here.
A new book: Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution, by composer and author Albert Glinsky, will soon see the light and seems to be available for pre-order from the Bob Moog foundation.
Glinsky is also the author of Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage, a fascinating look into the life of inventor and Soviet spy Leon Theremin.
The new book is the first complete biography of the synthesizer pioneer’s life and career. The 496-page hardcover book features 58 black-and-white and color illustrations, and a Foreword by Francis Ford Coppola.
In Switched On, Glinsky draws on exclusive access to Bob Moog’s personal archives and interviews with Moog’s family and associates. The book “takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride. at turns triumphant, heart-breaking, and frequently laugh-out-loud absurd”, offering a window into the public and private worlds of this legendary inventor.
Here’s what they publisher has to say about the book: “Bob Moog was a brilliant engineer and lovable geek with Einstein hair and pocket protectors. He walked into history in 1964 when his early synthesizers unexpectedly became a sensation. A wide variety of musical acts including The Beatles, The Doors, The Byrds, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Stevie Wonder discovered the Moog synthesizer, and it came to be featured in seminal film scores including A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now. The Moog synthesizer’s game-changing sounds saturated ‘60s counterculture and burst into the disco party scene in the ‘70s to set off the electronic dance music movement. Bob had helped create the synth industry, and had unwittingly become a star in the process. But his life was not all it seemed. He was also going broke. Imitators copied his technology, the musicians’ union accused him of replacing live players, and Japanese competitors started overtaking his work. He struggled to hang on to his inventions, his business, and his very name. Bob’s story upends our notions of success and wealth, showing that the two don’t always go together. The biography took Glinsky over 12 painstaking years to research and write. He draws on an astounding depth of original research, including over 65 interviews and thousands of archival documents. His beautiful synthesis of troves of information disrupts many long-held views about Moog’s story by drawing on a host of primary sources to overturn common myths, timelines, and assumptions.”
More details
In Switched On, author Albert Glinsky draws on exclusive access to Bob Moog’s personal archives and his probing interviews with Bob’s family and a multitude of associates, for this first complete biography of the man and his work. Switched On takes the reader on a roller coaster ride at turns triumphant, heart-breaking, and frequently laugh out loud absurd—a nuanced trip through the public and private worlds of this legendary inventor who altered the course of music.
- The first in-depth chronicle of Bob Moog’s full life and career, covering the inventive genius and complicated private world of this iconic musical pioneer
- 58 photos – many never seen before
- Disrupts many long-held views about Moog’s story by drawing on a host of primary sources to overturn common myths, timelines, and assumptions
- Based on exclusive and unprecedented access to Bob Moog’s personal archives, including never-before-seen correspondence, legal and business documents, and unpublished writings
- Profiles Bob Moog as the father of the electronic sound revolution that altered our relationship to music, striving in a world of psychedelia, countercultural upheavals, and technological sea change
“I was honored to be asked by Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, to write Bob’s biography”, Glinsky noted. “The process of writing this book has been an extraordinary experience, and I am proud to be able to offer this definitive story of Bob’s complex life and career.”
The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to have supported Glinsky’s efforts by facilitating interviews and providing access to hundreds of rare historical documents and photos. The Foundation’s Executive Director, Michelle Moog-Koussa, is mentioned in the acknowledgements of the book for her notable role in its fruition. These efforts are an extension of the Foundation’s mission to protect, preserve, and share the wealth of materials of the Bob Moog Foundation Archives with people from all over the world.
Accolades for Switched On – Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution
“Bob Moog. Iconic name, iconic man. His revolutionary instrument made it possible for me to find my true voice. I am forever thankful to him. And that’s why I’m very excited about Switched On for shining a light on this giant of musical history.”
— Jan Hammer, composer, keyboardist, and former member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra
“I loved the book! Based on superb research into the history of the cloak and dagger era that defined the emergence of analog electronic music instruments and the challenges and misunderstandings of what this new technology meant, Glinsky gives us the very human portrait of a man who embodied the intersection of invention, musical culture, business and destiny. I lived through this era, but to see it etched in such defining detail untangles all the loose ends of a sometimes painful story. Switched On is a page-turner.“
— Suzanne Ciani, composer, electronic music pioneer
“In Switched On, Albert Glinsky shows the character and brilliance of Bob Moog ― a wry wizard of applying science to music, and the creator of tones and tools now foundational to our culture. Tracing Moog’s technical advances in close but accessible detail, Glinsky gives an enlightening view of one of the twentieth century’s most important musical innovators.”
— Ian Port, Author of The Birth Of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll