Freddy Moore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(December 2007)
This article or section resembles a fan site.
Please help improve this article by removing excessive trivia and irrelevant praise, criticism, lists and collections of links.(March 2008)
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (March 2007)

The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter.
It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view.
Please discuss further on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since January 2008.
It has been suggested that Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos, Skogie (band), The Kats, The Nu Kats, Boy (1980s band), The Kat Club and General Records (1972) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
Freddy Moore

Background information
Birth name Frederick George Moore
Also known as Rick 'Skogie' Moore
Born July 19, 1950 (1950-07-19) (age 57)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Genre(s) Rock, rock and roll
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1964–1985, 1990–present
Label(s) Rhino Records, Infinity Records, Radioactive Records, General Records, North Country Music, Mill City Records
Associated acts The Kats, The Nu Kats, Boy, Skogie, Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos, The Kat Club
Website www.demophonic.com
Members
Dennis Peters, Pete McRae, Peter Wingerd, Patrick Boone, Richie Kohan, Loni Specter, Paul Strickland, John Nyman
Former members
Bobbyzio Moore, Al Galles, Mark (Skarkey) McEwen, Mark Goldstein, Jim Greenberg

Frederick George Moore (born July 19, 1950 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is a singer-songwriter, also known as Demi Moore's first husband.

Contents

[edit] History

He grew up obsessed with the newly popular Beatles, and moved to San Francisco, California in June 1964. He grew a Beatle cut and got into hassles with surfing, hot rodding school associates. "I didn't have any friends and really didn't want any. I just sat in my room and played Beatle songs and wrote my own." Moore poured through rock fanzines, absorbed and dissected every Beatles album that came out, and listened exclusively to the Fab Four and the Kinks. By October 1964 he had unequivocally decided his vocation was playing rock and roll music and he started writing. "I noticed that the Beatles wrote their own songs, so I figured that to be a rock musician you had to write your own songs."..[1]


"In the summer of 1964, right after 'A Hard Days Night' came out, my cousin Danny Wick and I spent two weeks making wooden replicas of the Paul McCartney bass, the John Lennon rhythm guitar, George Harrison's lead guitar, and Ringo Starr's drums. We used to lip-synch to records. Danny and I wanted to play real music, the others wanted to lip-synch, but we finally got them going. We learned 'You Really Got Me' by the Kinks, the Beatles' 'And I Love Her' and my first original composition 'Baby Be Mine'."..[2]


Moore pursued his musical ambitions with the same vigor most 13 year-olds apply to major league baseball aspirations. He started putting together bands and teaching reluctant copycat cohorts to play his songs. His narrow interests and extreme diffidence made finding other players difficult...[3]


Moore continued his apprenticeship with the media in Minnesota, keeping to himself, teaching friends to play, writing prolifically, and growing up with the music, always one step ahead of the trends...[4]


Moore's listening interests broadened and he continued to single-mindedly pursue guitar virtuosity and related skills like arranging and recording music. When he graduated from Richfield, Minnesota High School in 1968, the outside world intruded in the form of the military draft. To escape, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study Music Theory and Composition under composer Dominick Argento...[5]


For Moore, who had spent most of his youth hunched over a guitar and tape recorder in his bedroom, his college years were a watershed experience. "I found an organ in Scott Hall, and I was playing around with that one afternoon and somebody came in. I thought I must be using his organ time or something, but he said it was alright, and that he'd show me how to use it, which he did." The organist Randy Pink said he was forming a group The Pink Project, which never made it beyond the rehearsal stage, but before his association with Moore ended, he had interested him in Thelonious Monk and other jazzmen, besides starting him on keyboards...[6]


"When I got into U music, Professor Argento would illustrate his points by pounding something on the piano. It always came out sounding like The Mothers. I thought it was pretty cool, so I started listening to The Mothers more." Frank Zappa joined Lennon, McCartney, and Ray Davies as an audible influence on Moore's writing...[7]


By Fall, 1969, Frederick G. Moore had written out the chords, melody and lyrics for over 90 songs, forgotten or lost perhaps 90 more, begun his second year of college, learned to arrange, score, play guitar, piano, organ and drums, still wanted to be a rock star, and had rarely played in front of an audience. He was 19.[8]

[edit] Early professional days

Moore's first professional band, An English Sky, was invited to perform at the rock festival an Edina, Minnesota junior high school was having on the school loading dock. Moore proposed the matter to An English Sky, and they turned him down flat. He went over to the Euphorium one night and taught some of his tunes to the band Euphoria, and did the gig solo - his first official performance as SKOGIE. Then followed several weeks of rehearsals with An English Sky with Moore, Euphoria, and Skogie with Euphoria. Finally the two groups formed one 10-man unit. Moore wrote a letter and fired everyone but himself and Goldstein, hired 3 people back, and formed Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos phase I...[9]


Skogie spent most of their rehearsal time working out complex song arrangements. Moore pulled thirty songs from the 200 he had written out or saved on tape and each week a new one was drawn out of a hat. A song was usually ready for performance after one week of arranging and an additional week of rehearsal...[10]


The band would close down rehearsal at the Euphorium any time from 10:30 to 12 p.m., and sometimes would go all night. Arranging the never ending stream of work from as prolific a composer as Moore, could get tedious and often did when ideas were sparse. The situation was complicated by the group's obsession with doing things unconventionally or conventionally, but better than ever before...[11]


The whole atmosphere of a Skogie concert was different from most other concerts. As usual there was the reek of cigarettes, pot, and beer, but there was always a few groups of hard-core Skogie fans who were really into the deeper aspects of the music..[12]


Skogie released a single in June 1972 with the help of producer/manager David Zimmerman (Bob Dylan's brother), and released a follow up album in 1974.

Moore's band was later acknowledged by no less than Creem magazine as having been one of the first power-pop bands known to man, during their six-year residency (1970–1976) as Minneapolis' strangest, they were indeed an anachronism...[13]


[edit] Hollywood days

California laid claim to Skogie (three out of four Nu Kats belonged to that band) in 1976, after extensive national touring and recording experience at three Minneapolis studios hinted at unexplored musical and circumstantial possibilities. Los Angeles was not clutching its breast in anticipation...[14]


Hip in El Lay circa 1978 had its finger pointed to New Wave music. "We were in the right place at the right time - making bad business moves..[15]

Frederick G. Moore soon became the San Fernando Valley's answer to England's Jeff Lynne, the guiding influence behind the Electric Light Orchestra. Although ELO's orchestrated pop style bears absolutely no resemblance to the rocky bebop sound of Moore's group, The Kats, the two bands have one thing in common -- strong leadership. Like Lynne, Moore functioned as his band's lead singer, rhythm guitarist, sole composer and conceptual designer. But Moore carried his role as star cat one step further. Onstage he was riveting, especially when he unstrapped his guitar midway through each set..[16]

Young girls responded by enticing Moore toward them with promises of cat food tidbits from Purina and Friskies boxes. The other Kats were pelted with handfuls of dry kibble while Moore bounded back on stage, scrambled on top of an amplifier, and made dramatic feline leaps, marking the end of one song and signaling the beginning of the next..[17]

When it came to everyday life, however, Moore's nervous system slipped into a relaxing lower gear. Stripped of his flamboyant stage mannerisms, he came across as an affable fellow, who looks rather intellectual due to the thick black rimmed glasses he wears when not performing. And it soon became apparent that his appearance was not deceiving since Moore's conversational wit revealed a sharp mind..[18]

The Kats uniqueness was largely the result of one of Moore's most engaging concepts -- an individual appropriately named Freddy, an underdog or in this case an underKat. Buoyed by the band's good-natured rock 'n' roll vibes, this song pattern eventually evolved into a rock opera of sorts. The theme was so subtly presented that Moore's songs did not seem contrived, unlike many rock concepts.[19]

The Kats, who were on the verge of signing a recording contract, were more than ready to graduate from the local L.A. rock scene.

Infinity Records won the bidding war and rushed The Kats into Shelter Studios on Sunset with Tom Petty's production team. Just as final mixes were being completed Infinity Records was dissolved by its Dutch parent company. There was no one left to pay the Shelter Studio bill so "The Kats - Get Modern" became known as "The Great Lost Kats Album". The master tapes remain locked in the Shelter Studios vault. Demi Gene Guynes entered the picture in August 1979, and began using Demi Moore as her stage name. Freddy and Demi were married in February 1980 (divorced in August 1985).

Shortly after the Infinity Records fiasco lead guitarist Pete McRae departed. The four remaining Kats renamed themselves The Nu Kats,[20] fired their management, signed with Rhino Records, recorded "Plastic Facts" and filmed the video "It's Not A Rumour" featuring soon-to-be-famous actress Demi Moore, which went into rotation on MTV.

The Nu Kats dissolved in 1981. Moore moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan and joined local NYC band The Dates. "I answered an ad in the Village Voice that read 'Wanted: Lead Singer/Lead Guitarist influenced by Squeeze and The Beatles'". Moore became a Singer/Guitarist/Composer of The Dates. While living in New York there was a family illness so Moore hopped on a plane for UCLA Medical Center.

Moore remained in LA and formed a new band called Boy. Boy was more pop than any previous Moore band. Boy released a record on Radioactive and Freddy received a Screen Actors Guild/AFTRA card while portraying 'Arn' in the 3-D film 'Parasite', Boy, can be heard on the soundtrack.

In 1983 Boy disbanded. The Moore Brothers continued writing, arranging and recording new material for another year-or-so. They even put a band together and played a few industry showcases as: BFM (Bobbyzio and Freddy Moore).

[edit] Retirement

Freddy and Demi Moore divorced on August 7th, 1985. In 1985 Moore officially retired from the music business.

[edit] Back to the studio

In 1990, Moore started writing again. He and several ex-bandmates began recording and releasing CDs of the new material under the name The Kat Club.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Videography

  • Lost My TV (1979) Hollywood Heartbeat - Pre-MTV rock television series.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  2. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  3. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  4. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  5. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  6. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  7. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  8. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  9. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  10. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  11. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  12. ^ Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos By Tom Mutha. Insider Magazine. May 1972
  13. ^ Nu Kats Grin and Teddy-Bear It. By Laura Fissinger. The Reader. 1980.
  14. ^ Nu Kats Grin and Teddy-Bear It. By Laura Fissinger. The Reader. 1980.
  15. ^ Nu Kats Grin and Teddy-Bear It. By Laura Fissinger. The Reader. 1980.
  16. ^ Freddy Moore is The Kats' Meow. By Laurie Bereskin. L.A.Daily News. 1979.
  17. ^ Freddy Moore is The Kats' Meow. By Laurie Bereskin. L.A.Daily News. 1979.
  18. ^ Freddy Moore is The Kats' Meow. By Laurie Bereskin. L.A.Daily News. 1979.
  19. ^ Freddy Moore is The Kats' Meow. By Laurie Bereskin. L.A.Daily News. 1979.
  20. ^ Nu Kats to Pounce on Riverside. By Mark Muckenfuss. The Highlander. April 17, 1980.