Died On This Date (August 21, 2005) Robert Moog / Invented Moog Synthesizer
themusicsover Dr. Robert Moog
May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005
Robert Moog is best known for his groundbreaking invention, the Moog Synthesizer, which helped revolutionize music, and became an essential instrument for electronic music in particular. A highly educated electrical engineer by trade, Moog founded two electronic instrument companies and was a vice president at Kurzweil during the ’80s. In 1969, he was awarded his first patent for a synthesizer that utilized a keyboard. He went on to hold several more related patents. Moog has twice been recognized by the Grammys for his contributions to popular music. Since its invention, the Moog Synthesizer was utilized by such musicians as Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, John Cage and Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos), whose Switched On Bach and the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange are became landmark recordings. Robert Moog was 71 when he died of a brain tumor on August 21, 2005.
Larry Knecthel was a Los Angeles session keyboardist and bassist who played on hits by the likes of the Doors, Simon & Garfunkel and the Beach Boys. After spending a few years as part of Duane Eddy’s touring band in the early ’60s, Knechtel went to work in the studio with Phil Spector, adding his own mark to the legendary “wall of sound.” Knechtel also played on several Doors records since they didn’t have their own bassist. He joined the easy rock band, Bread in 1971. In later years, Knecthel did session work for producer Rick Rubin, most notably on albums by the Dixie Chicks and Neil Diamond. Larry Knechtel passed away in a Yakima hospital just two weeks after his 69th birthday.
Michael Been is best remembered as the founding singer and guitarist for American rock band, the Call. Formed in 1980, the group released a string of albums throughout the ’80s and ’90s , making them part of New Wave’s first generation which found a friend in early MTV. The band’s biggest single and video were 1983’s “The Walls Came Down. Their most successful album was 1986’s Reconciled, which included guests, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel, and Jim Kerr. In recent years, Been was working with his son, Robert Levon Been as a sound man for his own popular band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. On August 19, 2010, Michael Been suffered a fatal heart attack while backstage at a BRMC concert in Belgium. He was 60.