|
We take a moment to remember the synth pioneer Robert Moog (pp. 74-75 in The Rock Snob*s Dictionary), who died yesterday. Neither rock nor Rock Snobbery would have been the same without this gentle fellow–think of the stately BWOMP-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-BWAAAH that follows the line “Love is old/ Love is new” in the Beatles’ “Because,” or the Buh-buh bup-bup-BUP! bassline of Devo’s “Whip It,” or just about anything on Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions–all Moog-driven (or Mini-Moog-driven) songs. And if you must, think also of Keith Emerson’s contributions to the prog canon. Whatever your musical persuasion, your raw nerves have been salved by this man at one point or another, and, if the obits are anything to go by, he was a lovely, thoughtful man as well. Rest well, Bob–and make sure all the Snobs in Snob Heaven know it’s pronounced “MOAG.” August 22, 2005 More Rock Snobbery »
|
Rock SnobberyFilm SnobberyFood SnobberyWine Snobbery
Read more from the Rock Snob's Dictionary » 
Monthly Archive
|
|
Sylvester. Aggressively queeny black disco singer of the late 1970s (1947–1988), posthumously regarded by dance-music Snobs and queer theorists as the spangly materfamilias of modern, hedonistic club culture. (He paraded about in drag years before RuPaul and OutKast’s Andre 3000.) Though such amyl-popper anthems as “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat)” were never huge chart hits, they won the crucial appreciation of the Studio 54 cognoscenti, making Sylvester a chic name-drop in Manhattan to this day. His hefty backing singers, Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, later scored their own gay-disco hit as the Weather Girls, with “It’s Raining Men.”