Switched On, Albert Glinsky
Switched On, Albert Glinsky
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Switched On
Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution

Author: Albert Glinsky, Francis Ford Coppola

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Unabridged: 21 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/21/2023


Synopsis

The Moog synthesizer "bent the course of music forever" Rolling Stone declared.

Bob Moog, the man who did that bending, was a lovable geek with Einstein hair and pocket protectors. He walked into history in 1964 when his homemade contraption unexpectedly became a sensation—suddenly everyone wanted a Moog. The Moog's gamechanging sounds saturated sixties counterculture and burst into the disco party in the seventies to set off the electronic dance music movement. Bob had singlehandedly founded the synth industry and became a star.

But he was also going broke. 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.

In Switched On, author Albert Glinsky draws on exclusive access to Bob Moog's personal archives and his probing interviews with Bob's family and a multitude of associates, for this first complete biography of the man and his work. Switched On takes listeners on a rollercoaster ride at turns triumphant, heartbreaking, and frequently laugh out loud absurd—a nuanced trip through the world of this legendary inventor who altered the course of music.

About Albert Glinsky

Albert Glinsky is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed throughout the US, Europe, and the Far East. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School and a PhD from New York University, and his work has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. An emeritus professor of composition at Mercyhurst University, he is the author of Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Trace on August 21, 2024

Glinksy is a great biographer and a really enjoyable writer all around. I loved his book on Theremin, and now his book on Moog. While there was more intrigue in the Theremin book, the book on Moog nonetheless was also a real page turner for me. Glinsky deftly balances the content between Moog's dome......more

Goodreads review by Will on February 25, 2024

Very detailed biography of who was widely considered the inventor of the music synthesizer. Robert Moog was a genius in science and electronics. He also struggled in both his business and personal life, some of which was his own doing, only to overcome them in his final years.......more

Goodreads review by Austin on March 05, 2023

An inspiring and cautionary tale. It was a page turner for me, but that doesn’t mean it was fun throughout. It was sadder than I expected. There were so many money woes. It’s a tragic, angst-ridden story with a happy ending. It was well told.......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy on December 03, 2024

A powerhouse bio that also reads like a tour through electronic music and pop culture. I loved Glinsky's book on Theremin and he's outdone himself covering Moog.......more

Goodreads review by Silas on May 03, 2023

This was a very thorough biography, as well as documenting Moog's contemporaries along the way, to better understand his place in the landscape of synthesizers at the time. It begins with his father, and continues with quite a bit of detail through his youth and school years, into his marriage and t......more