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Switched On, a new Bob Moog biography, can be pre-ordered through the Bob Moog Foundation’s online store starting on July 25, 2022
The Bob Moog Foundation is pleased to offer pre-orders of Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution by lauded author Albert Glinsky, the first complete biography of the synthesizer pioneer’s storied life and career. The 496-page hardcover book, with 58 black-and-white and color illustrations and a Foreword by Francis Ford Coppola, published by Oxford University Press, will retail for $39.95. Pre-orders will ship the week of August 19, 2022, and the book will be released to the general public on September 2, 2022.
In Switched On, Glinsky draws on exclusive access to Bob Moog’s personal archives and probing interviews with Bob’s family and a multitude of associates. Switched On takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride. at turns triumphant, heart-breaking, and frequently laugh-out-loud absurd—a nuanced trip through the public and private worlds of this legendary inventor who altered the course of music forever.
Bob Moog was a brilliant engineer and lovable geek with Einstein hair and pocket protectors. He walked into history in 1964 when his early synthesizers unexpectedly became a sensation. A wide variety of musical acts including The Beatles, The Doors, The Byrds, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Stevie Wonder discovered the Moog synthesizer, and it came to be featured in seminal film scores including A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now. The Moog synthesizer’s game-changing sounds saturated ‘60s counterculture and burst into the disco party scene in the ‘70s to set off the electronic dance music movement. Bob had helped create the synth industry, and had unwittingly become a star in the process.
But his life was not all it seemed. He was also going broke. Imitators copied his technology, the musicians’ union accused him of replacing live players, and Japanese competitors started overtaking his work. He struggled to hang on to his inventions, his business, and his very name. Bob’s story upends our notions of success and wealth, showing that the two don’t always go together
The biography took Glinsky over 12 painstaking years to research and write. He draws on an astounding depth of original research, including over 65 interviews and thousands of archival documents. His beautiful synthesis of troves of information disrupts many long-held views about Moog’s story by drawing on a host of primary sources to overturn common myths, timelines, and assumptions.
“I was honored to be asked by Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, to write Bob’s biography,” Glinsky said. “The process of writing this book has been an extraordinary experience, and I am proud to be able to offer this definitive story of Bob’s complex life and career.”
The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to have supported Glinsky’s efforts by facilitating interviews and providing access to hundreds of rare historical documents and photos. The Foundation’s executive director, Michelle Moog-Koussa, is mentioned in the acknowledgements of the book for her role in its creation. These efforts are an extension of the Foundation’s mission to protect, preserve, and share the wealth of materials of the Bob Moog Foundation Archives with people from all over the world.
Switched On can be pre-ordered through the Bob Moog Foundation’s online store starting on July 25, 2022: https://bit.ly/BobMoogSwitchedOn. It will be available in the Moogseum store beginning on September 2, 2022.
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