tagged w/ Barbarella
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The New York Times...
Moogy Klingman, Songwriter and Original Member of Utopia, Dies at 61
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November 21, 2011
Moogy Klingman, Songwriter and Original Member of Utopia, Dies at 61
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
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If pop music, at its best, can be called a series of evanescent but magically eternal moments, Moogy Klingman lived the concept. He jammed with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, produced a rare album featuring Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and other superstars, and helped write the song that Bette Midler made her theme, “Friends.”
He was best known for his association with Todd Rundgren, the singer, songwriter and producer. It was Mr. Rundgren who announced that Mr. Klingman, an original member of his band Utopia, died on Nov. 15 in Manhattan. He was 61.
Mr. Klingman lived most of his life out of the limelight, though he and his groups, most recently the Peaceniks, had long been part of the New York music scene.
As Mr. Klingman’s health declined, starting with bladder cancer, Mr. Rundgren summoned him and the other original members of Utopia to play a series of concerts. They had not played together in more than 30 years. They are continuing their tour to help pay Mr. Klingman’s medical expenses. Information on survivors was not available.
Mr. Klingman produced and played keyboards on “Buckets of Rain,” Ms. Midler’s duet with Bob Dylan of the Dylan song for her 1976 Atlantic album, “Songs for the New Depression.” “Friends,” also known as “(You Got to Have) Friends,” a song Mr. Klingman wrote with Buzzy Linhart, was a hit for Ms. Midler in 1973.
Original compositions included on Mr. Klingman’s own first album, “Moogy” (Capitol, 1972), were later recorded by Carly Simon, Johnny Winter, James Cotton and Thelma Houston.
Mark Klingman was born on Sept. 7, 1950; sources differ on whether he was born in New York City or Great Neck, N.Y. His nickname from childhood, Moogy, had nothing to do with the Moog synthesizers he played.
As a youth Mr. Klingman developed a distinctive style of piano playing informed by boogie-woogie and jazz, and by the time he was 16 he was spending more time in Greenwich Village than in high school. He formed a rock group and sat in with top musicians, including Hendrix.
In 1968 he played on the soundtrack for the Jane Fonda science fiction film “Barbarella.” He met Mr. Rundgren outside the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village that same year.
Mr. Rundgren and Mr. Klingman built a recording studio, Secret Sound, in Mr. Rundgren’s Manhattan loft. When Mr. Rundgren formed Utopia in 1973, he used members of Mr. Klingman’s band, Moogy and the Rhythm Kings, as the core.
Mr. Rundgren was scheduled to produce a “super session” in 1969 involving Mr. Clapton, Mr. Beck, Dr. John, Linda Ronstadt and other musicians. But after Mr. Rundgren’s manager refused the payment offered, Mr. Klingman, at 18, took on the project and found himself supervising his musical idols. The effort led to a single album, “Summit Meeting,” and a double album, “Music From Free Creek,” both released in England in the 1970s. The musicians used pseudonyms on the album. Mr. Clapton was “King Cool” and Mr. Beck “A. N. Other.”
In a 2001 interview with the magazine Heavy Metal Mayhem, Mr. Klingman said he had approached the sessions dreading that someone would say, “Who are you, Sonny, to tell us what to do?” No one did. “I knew when to back off,” he said.
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Some will be sad, some will rejoice, others still will shrug but Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan’s proposed Barbarella is, according to the man himself, dead. Talking to MTV, the director has revealed that he turned down $70 million in finance because of a tricky little clause in the small print.
The money would have come from a German company and they were requesting he shoot and carry out post in Germany too. He says:
Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, ‘God, I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know if I can be away that long.’
I can understand this, completely. There was an option to take his kids to Germany too, I suppose, but that wouldn’t necessarily be fair on them either. Or… the other version of events might be true - those old rumors about Rodriguez and McGowan splitting up and that scuppering the movie. Though I don’t know why he’d not just make the film with another star….?Some will be sad, some will rejoice, others still will shrug but Robert Rodriguez and... more
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