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Moog synthesizer pioneer Gershon Kingsley dead at 97
12.17.2019
02:08 pm
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I was sad to read on The Quietus today that Moog pioneer Gershon Kingsley—best known for composing the worldwide novelty smash “Popcorn”—died in his Manhattan apartment on December 10th. He was 97 years old.

One half of Perrey and Kingsley with Jean-Jacques Perrey, their two best-selling albums of the mid-60s, The In Sound from Way Out and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations introduced the sound of electronic music to the masses. Their “Baroque Hoedown” provided the music for Disneyland’s “Main Street Electrical Parade” attraction (a fact actually unknown to Perrey until 1980). Their “Electronic Can-Can” became the theme music for the Wonderama children’s program of the early 1970s and the popular 70s game show The Joker’s Wild used their track “The Savers” as its instantly recognizable title tune. (On his own, Kingsley would compose the famous station ident music for WGBH, the PBS station in Boston which was well-known to 70s viewers of Zoom and The French Chef.)
 

Gershon Kingsley, left, and Jean-Jacques Perrey
 
Kingsley conducted several Broadway musicals and composed for film, including 1972’s proto-slasher Silent Night, Bloody Night and the Oliver Stone co-produced softcore crime drama Sugar Cookies the following year. He also worked on TV commercials and was the winner of two Clio awards.
 

 
Although Kingsley’s compositions were wildly eclectic and varied from poppy novelty songs to funky weirdness, he also produced religious music, but with his own twist. His “Shabbat for Today” was an attempt to fuse traditional Jewish religious music with a more contemporary avant-garde sound, to draw in younger people to temple. The “Shabbat” utilized, of course, the then-futuristic electronic instrument Kingsley helped make famous, the Moog Synthesizer. A televised excerpt from “Shabbat for Today” was broadcast on PBS in 1971, conducted by the composer, and featuring cantor Ephraim Biran, Rabbi Gunter Hirschberg, narrator Alfred Drake and Kenneth Bichel on the Moog Modular.
 

 
In 1999, I was invited by Mr. Kingsley to hear his “Shabbat for Today” performed in a synagogue in Manhattan and it was a wonderful experience. I am pretty sure that recital was held in the same synagogue seen in the video below, Temple Rodeph Shalom, located on the Upper West Side. A compilation of Kingsley’s religious compositions, God is a Moog: The Electronic Prayers of Gershon Kingsley was released in 2006.
 

 
More Moog after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.17.2019
02:08 pm
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Jean-Jacques Perrey returns to ‘I’ve Got A Secret’ with Gershon Kingsley, 1966

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As a follow up to yesterday’s post of Jean-Jacques Perrey demonstrating the Ondioline on I’ve Got a Secret in 1960, here’s another of the great man in action on the same show - and it’s even better.

Perrey returned to the quiz show six years after his original appearance, and his secret was exactly the same. Only this time he was given more of a chance to display the range of the Ondioline by comparing its voices to that of the real life corresponding instruments. The panel also take longer to discover the secret, and Perrey takes some pleasure in making them guess.This footage is great, but the real treat here comes in the last three minutes, when Perrey is joined onstage by his musical partner Gershon Kingsley to perform the song “Spooks in Space” from their classic electronic pop album The In Sound From Way Out! (available on the compilation The Out Sound From Way In!). It’s a spirited, joyous performance of music that still sounds unique today, and is guaranteed to bring a smile to even the hardest of faces.

I was lucky enough to see Jean-Jacques Perrey perform in 2005 at the ripe old age of 76, and he was just as jolly (if slightly unhinged) as he appears on this show, like a slightly manic but beloved uncle who used a stuffed lion toy to help communicate. Way out, perhaps, but Perrey has been responsible for bringing early electronica to a large audience, while simultaneously stripping the music of its austere trappings. This clip is a great example of how he did it - when Perrey & Kingsley perform the fun is infectious:
 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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11.15.2011
10:44 pm
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