Robert Moog Inducted Into the Inventor's Hall of Fame

I meant to start this by presenting some great example of a song featuring a Moog synthesizer, but that would have been stupid, because the creations of Bob Moog, whether or not they feature his name, are beyond-normal in modern music. That music has become electronic by default; you'll find a modulated sine wave in pretty any popular song out there. Even the most unpolished, primitive synthesizer sounds as normal now as a guitar. This obviously incomplete list of musicians that use Moog synths might be instructive: John Fogerty to Sunn 0))) to Kraftwerk. Etc, for a very long time.

Anyhow, Robert Moog (who died in 2005) is now an inductee to the Inventor's Hall of Fame, along with steam engine inventor Matthias W. Baldwin, George Washington Carver, Louise Pasteur, and the rest of the gang. Moog's crucial patent was, officially, for "Electronic High-Pass and Low-Pass Filters Employing the Base to Emitter Diode Ristor for Bi-Polar Transistors," aka the synthesizer.

For your viewing/learning pleasure, the 2004 documentary Moog, by Hans Fjellestad.

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.