Moondog - The Viking of 6th Avenue

Among my recent acquisitions on vinyl was this double CBS sampler entitled 'Fill Your Head With Rock'. Released in 1970, it was the third in a series of such records promoting the work of artists signed to the CBS label, a series which began two years earlier with the excellent 'The Rock Machine Turns You On'. Most of the acts featured will be familiar to you as they were to me. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago, Leonard Cohen, Spirit, Santana, The Byrds, Johnny Winter and Taj Mahal are just a few.

Almost hidden away in the middle of side three however were a couple of names that were totally unfamiliar to me. Amory Kane and a certain Moondog. Both are actually very fine tracks but there was something about the Moondog song 'Stamping Ground' that seemed vaguely familiar. Further research revealed that this track had featured on the soundtrack to the wonderful Coen Brothers movie, 'The Big Lebowski'. 

But who on earth is or was Moondog?

Thanks to the wonders of a certain search engine that shall remain nameless, it did not take me long to discover that Moondog was actually a certain Louis Thomas Hardin (26 May 1916 - 8 September 1999). 

Owing to his penchant for standing for hours on end on New York's 6th Avenue dressed in a cloak and viking helmet, he became known as the Viking of 6th Avenue.

What most passers-by did not realise was that Hardin was also a well renowned composer, poet and inventor of several musical instruments - despite having been blind from the age of 16.

More can of course be read about Moondog on Wikipedia using this link.

Better still is a German website called Moondog's Corner which has loads of information including a biography and details of all of his recordings. You can visit the site with this link.
I will certainly be investigating this site in more depth once I have the time.

Meanwhile here is the track 'Stamping Ground' which started it all for me. Enjoy.
Stamping Ground.