Mr. Moog is Dead and Dead

When he was 14, Robert A. Moog built his first theremin from a kit in the basement of his house in Flushing, Queens. He described himself as "an electronics nerd," and said he liked building stuff in his basement because "there wasn't too much I could do with the guys at school, other than getting beat up." When he was in college he started a little business selling his homemade theremins and other electronic instruments, eventually including his own Moog synthesizer. Moog-playing musicians helped revolutionize music in the 1960s, and made Robert's last name a household word that pretty much nobody ever pronounced correctly. Last Sunday Robert Moog died of an inoperable brain tumor at his home in Asheville, North Carolina. He was 71 years old.

Comments

[Listener Colin]

http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MoogDemo.html

[Krys O.]

The Zambonis put out a great song a while back called,"Andy Moog Meets Robert Moog" as a play on the pronunciation of the hockey player's name versus the electronics genius.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00003A9EE/002-8856116-6796841?v=glance

[tony]

how do you pronounce it?

[Krys O.]

The hockey player's name is pronounced 'moog'(like the common pronunciation of the instrument) and the electronics genius is 'moag'.

[listener dave from n'hampsha]

And not 'moag' like 'Moab', but rather like 'rogue'.