Name: Matt Moore
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Relation to music: listener and dabbler
Industry: Digital librarianship
Introduction
When I first learned of Kristen’s fantastic Five Song Project, I immediately started thinking what sort of theme I might choose if I were ever fortunate enough to contribute. At first it was difficult to narrow things down—that is until I thought of my dad and his influence on my life through music—then the songs came in a flash!
My dad is a remarkable person. He got his bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Texas in the sixties and worked as a ceramicist on Cape Cod and later in his own studio in rural Pennsylvania. After getting drafted into the Vietnam War, he successfully represented himself as a conscientious objector—no mean feat in the Texas judicial system of that time—serving instead at a psychiatric hospital in West Texas. He got a master’s degree in art therapy at the University of Houston, Clear Lake (where I recently learned he spent the day helping Judy Chicago set up The Dinner Party on the second stop of its national tour) and went on to a career in counseling and hospital administration, and then a second career working with assistive technologies for persons with disabilities.
As for music, where to start? He saw Soft Machine open for Jimi Hendrix in San Antonio. The Velvet Underground impressed him enough that he bought tickets to go back and see them two nights in a row. He grew up in the same town as Janis Joplin—Port Arthur, TX. After the grand opening of a used car dealership in West Texas, he had a parking lot discussion with a virtually-unknown Willie Nelson who was curious about the strange, longhaired fans he was just then starting to attract. More recently, he was one of only a handful of people that braved ice and subzero temperatures to see Mercury Rev at the Boulder Theater in the dead of a Colorado winter.
He has also created his own music in many different forms throughout his life. He was deeply engaged in the Austin music scene and played a heavily-distorted guitar in a band called Flamin’ Stamen (oh, the sixties) with his art school buddy, Gerry Patrick. I have never seen anyone more excited about the possibility of hacking a Game Boy into an 8-bit synthesizer.
If the law of generations requires a son to rebel against his father, I have been given an impossible task—I can only ever offer a tribute. I’m so honored to contribute five songs to my dad for Father’s Day, along with a thanks for the amazing influence he’s had on my life, both musically and beyond!
Happy Father’s Day, Pops!
Assignment 18: June 17, 2018
Your assignment is to listen to these five songs that will be talked about this week on Five Song Project. You can hear these songs on the Five Song Project Spotify playlist or by clicking on the song title which will launch the YouTube video. Songs are subject to availability on both platforms.
[1] The 13th Floor Elevators. “Roller Coaster.” The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, International Artists, 1966.
[2] John Zorn. “The Big Gundown” The Big Gundown, Nonsuch, 1984-1985
[3] Jimmy Cliff. “Many Rivers to Cross” Harder They Come, Trojan Records, 1969
[4] Louis and Bebe Barron. “Forbidden Planet: Main Titles (Overture)” 1956
[5] Orchestra Baobab. “Coumba.” Pirates Choice, 1982.
TOMORROW... Pioneers of Psychedelic Rock
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