Moog: A Eulogy

I was sad to hear about Robert Moog's passing. Mr. Moog (Say it with me: it rhymes with 'rogue', not, um... 'bugal'.) managed to combine his technical genius with an uncanny knack for marketing and tremendous media savvy to create the perfect storm of an incredible pop culture oddity which made a lasting impression. I wanted to give him an extra-sparkley send-off by highlighting some of my favorite things, the wonderful by-products of a bygone era, all scanned from my record collection:

Front cover image from Moog Power by Hugo Montenegro, RCA Records, 1969
Click on these images for biggerer, higher-quality pics. How long do you think you can stand to use the above dazzler as your desktop image?

Cover image from Electronic Hair Pieces, Mort Garson, A&M Records, 1970?
This is an entire album of covers of songs from the musical Hair, and it's way better than the original versions.

Back cover image from Music to Moog By by the great Gershon Kingsley, Audio Fidelity Records, 1970. Note the original appearance of the immortal "Popcorn".

One of my favorite album covers, Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine, Richard Hayman, Command Records, 1969, and also one of my favorite albums, with an incredibly manic version of "The Peanut Vendor" which must be heard to be believed.

And here are the liner notes from the album imaginatively titled MOOG! by Claude Denjean, London Records, 1970:

Boy, he talks a big game, doesn't he! I love how high-minded a lot of the rhetoric is on some of these records. It a high-falutin' attitude which is quickly dispelled when you get to the cheesy song list:

Innovative, indeed! But again, the above versions of the Hit Parade from Hell are all better than the originals; rescued from the blahs by Moog's daffy machines.

Thanks for all the great times, Mr. Moog! Straight to Valhalla!