A RECORDING ARTISAN
PLAY MYSELF SOME MUSIC
In order to contextualize the present issue, I will now present you with another unprobable scenario: what if the Beatles were a group of anonymous musicians recording obscure masterpieces in a suburban attic, waiting all their lives for a break? How would you feel listening for the first time to Sgt Pepper or the White Album, knowing that you're sharing a precious secret with the few others who had the chance of discovering such wonderful and unknown music?
You would probably feel a lot like me when I first came upon the unsung genius of R. Stevie Moore.
Now, some of you might think that my fantasy of the Beatles producing in obscurity makes no sense because, after all, someone that good can't stay unsung for so many years. Well, if you've never heard R. Stevie Moore, you might be proving my point.
An inspired and prolific singer/song-writer, Moore has created an eclectic body of work composed of more than 400 albums, home-recorded between 1968 and now (2007). Such a compulsive musical activity is as natural to him as breathing - he likes to think of himself as a recording artisan, and of his work as a sound diary.
Obviously, not everything in his huge catalogue is of general interest, but if one filters through all the failed experiments and self-indulgent noodlings within (he never throws anything away), there will still be a core list of dozens and dozens of amazing double albums, containing what some people have referred to as "America's hidden musical treasure."
R. Stevie composes, arranges, produces, sings, plays every instrument (except horns), makes the covers, burns it in CD-Rs and sells it directly through his own bedroom label. The music ranges from pristine pop architecture to wild tape manipulations, and everything inbetween, properly glued together in idiosyncratic sound collages.
Creating at a pace of one song per day, Stevie proposed to detonate the foundations of pop culture, only to reconstruct it as a fascinating wasteland of disjointed bits and pieces, where extremely well crafted songs are interspersed with snippets of found sound, arty experimentalism and odd humoristic skits.
What if the Beatles never existed?
This thought might produce a minor headache - but bear with me, dear reader - for there is a revelation of historical porportions behind this poor attempt at making justice to one of the most fascinating and unsung characters of modern pop music.
There is no question here of fatuous admiration, nor am I suggesting that all of Moore's work is perfect and beyond reaproach. But since his achievments have, until now, been grossly underrated, I feel it is high time RSM was granted the priviliged position he deserves.
| But though eccentric, his music has a surprisingly broad appeal - even a radio-friendly quality. Moore has an acute flair for extremely catchy pop tunes, delivered with such an inventive freshness and heartfelt authenticity, it brings to mind the golden days of British Invasion, Psychedelia and Punk Rock. Once called the man "who wrote the best 100 pop songs that no one ever heard," R. Stevie has recorded a long list of unsung hits that include sophisticated Beatle-esque pop, naive Brian Wilson-like gems, Power Pop anthems, sweet '70s rockers and infectious Punk Rock classics. |
So why is RSM still invisible?
A chronical struck of bad luck, plus continuos lack of support, a self-imposed reclusiveness and a strong reluctance to work by the industry's standards, has led him in an anonymous but highly prolific journey through a long underground tunnel, running parallel with the last 4 decades of music history.
Referring to his obscurity, someone once said": "someday the world will be pleasantly surprised." That time may be far (or not), but one thing is certain: it is inevitable. Not only for the authentic quality of his music, but because R. Stevie Moore has an undeniable historic importance.
Often considered the founding father of DIY Home-Recording, Lo-Fi and Indie Pop, Moore is also one of the progenitors of underground tape culture, that began in the early 80s and later evolved to the CD-R/mp3 revolution of today. Around 1981, he founded the RSM Cassette Club (now the CDRSMCLUB), through which he still sells his music directly to his fans.
"I'm not just putting out cassettes because they're cheaper or because American record companies are ignoring me," he says. "My cassettes are a diary of sound. A very personal kind of thing; this is what I do, writing songs and building soundscapes. It's almost a kind of sickness."
Curiously, it started has an hobbie.
Moore spent most of his teenage life absorbing the wonders of '60s music: Beatles, Zappa, Beach Boys, early Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Kinks, Zombies, Traffic... Everything but Country music. He couldn't stand it. He formed garage bands with his friends and goofed around with the instruments that laid all over the house. In 1966 he started experimenting with home-tape recording, using some of his dad's equipment to record teenage operas in a Mothers of Invention vein.
R. Stevie also began working for his father as a studio musician, in what he described to be "inane Country sessions." When it was over, he would return home to light a joint, put the earphones on and let the VU meters swing to his unique brand of creative music.
In 1971, Moore dropped out of college, got his own pad and started taking his tape recording more seriously. From 1974 to 1976, R. Stevie collected a fascinating and often brilliant diary of sound and music. Dozens and dozens of tapes were recorded and stored. While his listening methods were improving, his musical influences were broadening with the advent of Prog, Glam, Punk and New Wave. Names like Roxy Music, Sparks, Bowie, Todd Rundgren, Ramones and Talking Heads started to play an heavy influence in his music.
But as fate would have it, a copy managed to astound New York's underground magazine, Trouser Press. They wrote raving reviews, declaring it a masterpiece and, consequently, Stevie began to gain some cult status among the growing Punk and New Wave scene. Young music writers like Kurt Loder (later the famous MTV host) and David Fricke (currently the senior editor of Rolling Stone) showered Moore with praises, describing him as a "seemingly bottomless well of talent" and "criminally neglected artist."
In 1977, his eclectic genius reached a peak with a dark, spacey masterpiece called Swing And A Miss and the irreverent Sheetrock. These tapes would be the last ones to be recorded in Nashville. Tired of Music City's cultural hollow, Moore moved north to New Jersey, where he found a job at a local record store and a small attic where he continued recording his music.
During the early 80s, R. Stevie Moore launched the RSM Cassette Club. He made a catalogue which included practically everything he had ever recorded. A xeroxed list with selected song titles and listenability quotient was the road map to Moore's Tapography. And by that time, it already included more than 60 tapes.
HOBBIES GALORE
Born 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee, R. Stevie Moore grew up in the heart of America's Country music empire. His father, legendary session man Bob Moore, was Nashville's top studio musician - who worked with everybody from Elvis Presley to Kenny Rogers. Following hid dad's footsteps, young Stevie took piano and guitar lessons. At the age of 10 he sang a duet with Country's superstar, Jim Reeves (the amusingly corny "But You Love Me Daddy," featured in 2004's retrospective Tra La La Phooey).
It wasn't until 1976 that Moore's uncle, Harry Palmer, helped compile and finance his first LP - a selection of songs and sounds from RSM's extensive musical diary called Phonography (a term meaning "sound writing"). Palmer pressed a limited edition of 100 copies for demonstration purposes only. The album was rejected by the industry's standards, which felt that it was probably a bit too weird to produce any mass sales. On top of that, Moore had no band, let alone a live following; and as such, he represented a risk that no label was willing to take.
Meanwhile, Palmer and Moore decided to issue a 4 song EP from Phonography, as HP Music's (their self-created indie label) first official release. Again, a number of copies were distributed by mail to a number of selected destinations; but still, it seemed that Moore's home in the recording industry was far from materializing.
Phonography included such early gems as the dazzling "I Wish I Could Sing," a very peculiar cross between a garage Brian Wilson and a Prog Rock orchestra; the highly addictive Power Pop of "Why Should I Love You," the breathtaking simplicity of "Hobbies Galore" and the weird and wonderful "Goodbye Piano."
Together with uncle Harry, they released another album, 1978's Delicate Tension - a compilation of later Nashville songs and early Jersey recordings. Inspite of his frustrated efforts to achieve recognition, the tape recording was developing at an incredible pace, namely with 1978's successive double masterpieces Games & Groceries, Delicate Tension/Moore Stuff, The North and Pow Wow.
"The very concept of having too much to choose from is really not of interest to me," Stevie explains, "That's the rub! Ya gonna approach Beethoven's Greatest Hits Cd, or are ya gonna do some research? Ask around? Experiment?"
Also during this time, Moore veered in a more abstract but nevertheless fascinating musical direction - sick of his lack of success, while mediocre hacks everywhere were having too much of it (even more so with the dawning of the MTV era), and excited with the dark new sounds of Post-Punk, No Wave and Industrial, Stevie took his Pop vein aside and dove head-on into a more grudgy, raw sound that went from lose angular rhythms to bass driven funk instrumentals and beyond.
Later, in the mid-80s, he had a Pop renaissance and went on to record some of his most inspired and accessible songs. It was also during this time that a number of indie labels began to get interested in R. Stevie. In 1984, the independent Cuneiform, released What's The Point?!!, one of Moore's most concise compilations. In the same year, French label New Rose compiled a double album from the RSM vaults titled Everything You Wanted To Know About R. Stevie Moore But Were Afraid To Ask.
Throughout the end of the 80s, more records would be sporadically released in France, UK and Germany. A small cult was starting to form in Europe. From 1986 to 1987, New Rose financed two studio albums - the more accessible Glad Music and Teenage Spectacular. The latter included the irresistably catchy mantra of "Everyone But Everyone," a brilliantly hypnotic cover of Dylan's "Who Killed Davey Moore" and the pure Pop perfection of "Play Myself Some Music" ("a heartbreaking ode to the restorative powers of music").
"While unsold copies of his records languished in the import bins, Moore worked a series of music store clerk jobs throughout the 80s and 90s, inhabiting a modest third-floor apartment in suburban New Jersey."
Mojo Magazine, Sept 2003
NAME TAG THE ENTERTAINER
Around 1988, Moore ceased his tape recording to become curator of his own musical museum. With around 200 releases, it was time to try other things. He began using video. According to himself, his VHS tapes (now DVDs) were collections of "visual tomfoolery, intimately revealing soliloquies & rants... classic RSM songs lip-synched or performed...many live concerts gigs, TV appearances... low-quality editing... questionable redeeming social values, homemade uncontrolled mayhem." Most of which is now uploaded and properly documented on YouTube along with more recent footage and exclusive new video clips edited out of his VHS vaults by yours truly.
With the 90s came the recordable CD and the CDRSMCLUB was born. He would burn his old 90 minutes tapes into 2 discs, in order to maintain their original double-sided format. Along with the CD revolution came affordable home-recording technology, and so Moore aquired a home portastudio and with that, his composing re-emerged.
Throughout the 90s and until now, hundreds of new CDs were recorded and released - including collaborations with Dave Gregory (XTC), Jad Fair, Ariel Pink and the Scottish artist David Shrigley. After a 5 years pause, the recording artisan is again exploding with fresh ideas. Technical improvements in home recording gave way to new genre-breaking classics - songs like the hauntingly beautiful "Linger Longer Lucy," the trip-hop delight of "I Go Into Your Mind," the New Age Pop of "Another Day Sleeps Away" and much, much more.
In 1999, R. Stevie went online. The internet turned out to be a blessing to the old DIY pioneer. His Tapography was now fully available to the world, as well as his albums. Eventually, the web became another medium for his creative impulses: "like my foray into video, I've used the internet to become a diarist." More recently, Stevie has stormed MySpace with dozens of pages documentating many of his phases, projects and collaborations.
When asked about the internet's potential to bring forth a second DIY era, Moore answered: "for me? Emphatically yes. For DIY in general? I haven't noticed. Everybody else in the www.underground" continues to appear aiming for the mainstream... All style, no content... I firmly believe that what I'm now doing with the internet, runs smoothly parallel with what I was doing 40 naive years ago. The exact same vison, whatever it may still be."
Ultimately, R. Stevie is one of the last great anti-heroes of the past era. Someone who dared to challenge all conventions just so as he could have enough breathing room to create music that was true to his own artistic vision, throughout long decades of obscurity frustration and near poverty. A sour price to pay for such a bold move.
SAVE R. STEVIE
An early description of Beck seems to resume very eloquently R Stevie's unique musical character. But while 55 year old RSM still produces a "wildly unpredictable" and "vibrantly messy" work in near poverty, an apparently weary version of Beck rides limousines and jet planes, doing the endless summer festival routine, paying his dues to the industry, while his once natural talent seems faded.
Even though history travels through crooked roads, there's a strange kind of lesson to be learned here. Something about the inevitable struggle between creativity and fame. Ultimately, Moore's obscurity gave him the possibility to remain true to his unique artistic vison - away from the anxieties of stardom and its high expectations.
Or like the old philosopher once said: "He shone with the greatest splendor, because he was not seen." RSM survived through 4 decades of obscurity. During that time, he fervently did the only thing he could do. He created.
Like some kind of ragged messiah that followed an enlightened vision to its bitter end. Moore arrived safely in the XXIst century as an uncrowned king of persistency and firm artistic vision. A strong inspiration to anyone creating under the shadow of the mainstream machine.
Until then... "I gotta DIY 'till I bleed... for 100% quality control... No assembly line product here. (RSM fans) expect to get a personalized package completely dubbed, assembled, wrapped & mailed by the artist himself."
EPILOGUE
Fortunately, there is still an open end to this story. After decades of prolific productivity, Moore is still expecting his well-deserved recognition. Now it's up to music lovers and interpreters around the world to dive into this "awesome and seemingly bottomless world of talent."
This compilation you're holding is just a glimpse at some of his most pop oriented material, there are whole other worlds of fascinating music waiting to be discovered.
You are highly recommended to get in touch with Stevie through his site www.rsteviemoore.com so that you can start digging through his legendary Tapography and, in the process, help one of the most unique artists of our time pay the rent.
alternative ending:
and, in the process, help correct one of the most unfair omissions in music history.
The authors accept no responsibility for any loss of home, job, friends or family which might be incurred 400 albums later.......
Nuno Monteiro / Richard Anderson
Amsterdam / London, October 2007
