Moe Tucker

Last updated

Maureen Tucker
Maureen Tucker circa 1966.jpg
Tucker in 1966
Background information
Birth nameMaureen Ann Tucker
Also known asMoe Tucker
Born (1944-08-26) August 26, 1944 (age 80)
Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • singer-songwriter
Instruments
  • Drums
  • percussion
  • guitar
  • vocals
  • bass
Years active1963–c. 2007; 2017
Formerly of

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) [1] is an American musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the drummer of the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. After the band disbanded in the early 1970s, she left the music industry for a while, though her music career restarted in the 1980s, and continued into the 1990s. She has released four solo albums, where she played most of the instruments herself, with frequent guest appearances by her former Velvet Underground bandmates and others, and has periodically toured. Tucker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground.

Contents

Early life

Maureen Tucker was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, [1] and grew up in Levittown, New York in a middle-class Catholic family. [1] Her father, James, was a housepainter and her mother, Margaret, was a clerical worker. She had an older brother, Jim, who was friends with Sterling Morrison, and a sister, Margo. [2]

As a teenager, Tucker was an avid fan of Babatunde Olatunji, [1] whose music she first heard on Murray the K's radio show. Olatunji, along with Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones, inspired her to become a musician. [3] She began playing the drums in 1963, at age 19. Without any formal instruction, she learned by playing along with popular songs on a second-hand drum kit. [3]

Career

The Velvet Underground

When she was asked to join the Velvet Underground, Tucker had dropped out of Ithaca College and was working for IBM as a keypunch operator. [1] The band's original percussionist, Angus Maclise, had left in November 1965 because he felt the band sold out when it took a paying gig. Tucker was drafted because Velvets guitarist Sterling Morrison remembered her as the younger sister of his high school friend, Jim, who played the drums. [1] Tucker was frequently noted for her androgynous appearance. [4] In spite of this, Tucker has said that she never experienced difficulties due to sexism during this time. [5]

Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum), [6] using a simplified drum kit of tom toms, a snare drum and an upturned bass drum, playing with mallets rather than drumsticks. [1] She rarely used cymbals; she claimed that since she felt the purpose of a drummer was simply to "keep time", cymbals were unnecessary for this purpose and drowned out the other instruments. [6] Rock critic Robert Christgau said of Tucker, "Mo was a great drummer in a minimalist, limited, autodidactic way that I think changed musical history. She is where the punk notion of how the beat works begins." [7]

Apart from drumming, Tucker sang co-lead vocals on three Velvet Underground songs: the acoustic guitar number "After Hours" and the experimental poetry track "The Murder Mystery", both from 1969's The Velvet Underground album, as well as "I'm Sticking with You", a song recorded in 1969 but left (officially) unreleased until it appeared on the 1985 outtakes compilation VU . Lou Reed said of "After Hours" that it was "so innocent and pure" that he could not possibly sing it himself. In the early days, Tucker also occasionally played the bass guitar during live gigs, an instrument that was usually played by the band's regular bassist John Cale. Morrison would normally play the bass if Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards, despite his lack of enthusiasm for playing the instrument. [8] However, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars and Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards and as a result, nobody was on bass: two examples of this are "Heroin" and "Sister Ray".

Tucker temporarily left the group when she became pregnant with her first child, Kerry "Trucker" Tucker, in early 1970. Because of her pregnancy, Tucker was only able to play on a couple of outtakes for Loaded , which would become the band's fourth and final album with Lou Reed. Billy Yule, the younger and high-school-age brother of bassist Doug Yule, filled in the role of drummer for live performances and some of the songs on the album.

1970s and 1980s

Tucker returned to the band in late 1970, by which time Reed had left the group and Doug Yule had assumed leadership. She toured North America (United States and Canada) and Europe (United Kingdom and the Netherlands) with the band during 1970 and 1971; shortly afterward, she quit the band and the music business altogether to raise a family.

Tucker moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, where she lived with her husband and children. While living in Phoenix, she played drums in the short-lived band Paris 1942 with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls. [9] In the early 1980s, she divorced and relocated to Douglas, Georgia, where she was hired at a Wal-Mart distribution center. [10] She quit the job in 1989 when she was asked to go on tour of Europe with the band Half Japanese. [10]

1990s: Solo albums and Velvet Underground reunion

Tucker started recording and touring again, releasing a number of albums on small, independent labels that feature her singing and playing guitar, fronting her own band. This band at times included former Velvets colleague Sterling Morrison. Tucker also participated in the 1993 Velvet Underground reunion, touring Europe and releasing the double album Live MCMXCIII .

Apart from releasing her own records, Tucker has made guest performances on a number of others' records, including producing Fire in the Sky (1992) for Half Japanese, whose guitarist, John Sluggett, plays drums on her own recordings. In Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary about Half Japanese, The Band That Would Be King, Tucker performs and is interviewed extensively. Also, she has appeared with Magnet and former Velvet Underground band members Lou Reed ( New York ) and John Cale ( Walking on Locusts ).

Tucker also played drums on and produced the album The Lives of Charles Douglas by indie rocker and novelist Charles Douglas (also known as Alex McAulay) in 1999.

She played bass drum, wrote songs, and sang with the New York/Memphis punk rock–delta blues fusion group the Kropotkins with Lorette Velvette and Dave Soldier, whom she met in John Cale's band, in 1999–2003, recording "Five Points Crawl".

2000s and onward

In 2017 she played at the Grammy Salute to Music Legends awards ceremony. A band, amongst others, consisting of John Cale, played two Velvet Underground classics "Sunday Morning" and "I'm Waiting For The Man". The Velvet Underground was the recipient of the 2017 Merit Award. [11]

In 2021, Tucker participated in Todd Haynes' documentary The Velvet Underground . [12]

Personal life

Tucker was married in the early 1970s, and divorced some time in the early 1980s. [13] She has five children: Kerry, Keith, Austen, Kate, and Richard. [13] Tucker lives in Douglas, Georgia, where she raised her family. [14] [15] In a 2010 interview, she said she had ceased making music several years prior, saying caring for her grandson was a "full-time job". [16]

During an April 2009 interview at a Tea Party rally in Tifton, Georgia, Tucker revealed to a WALB NBC news crew that she is a supporter of the Republican Party. [15] [17] She voiced support for the Tea Party movement and said she was "furious about the way we're being led towards socialism". [15] On the official "Tea Party Patriots" website, Tucker stated: "I have come to believe (not just wonder) that Obama's plan is to destroy America from within." [15]

Discography

Solo

Studio albums

Live albums

  • Oh No, They're Recording This Show (1992)
  • Moe Rocks Terrastock (2002)

Compilation albums

  • Waiting for My Men (1998)
  • I Feel So Far Away: Anthology 1974–1998 (2012) [18]

EPs

Singles

With the Velvet Underground

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

† Although Tucker did not appear on the original release of the band's 1970 album Loaded, a 1997 2CD re-issue by Rhino Records subtitled Fully Loaded Edition includes two late 1969/early 1970 demos, "I Found a Reason" and another take on "I'm Sticking with You", which feature her on drums and vocals, respectively.

With others

With Charles Douglas (a.k.a. Alex McAulay)

With the Kropotkins

With Lou Reed

With Half Japanese

With Charlie Pickett

With Shotgun Rationale

With Bloodkin

With Magnet

With John Cale

With the Raveonettes

Band members

Related Research Articles

<i>The Velvet Underground</i> (album) 1969 studio album by the Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground is the third studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Released in March 1969 by MGM Records, it was their first record with multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule, who replaced previous member John Cale. Recorded in 1968 at TTG Studios in Los Angeles, California, the album's sound—consisting largely of ballads and straightforward rock songs—marked a notable shift in style from the band's previous recordings. Lead vocalist Lou Reed intentionally did this as a result of their abrasive previous studio album White Light/White Heat (1968). Reed wanted other band members to sing on the album; Yule contributed lead vocals to the opening track “Candy Says” and the closing track "After Hours" is sung by drummer Maureen Tucker.

<i>Loaded</i> (The Velvet Underground album) 1970 studio album by the Velvet Underground

Loaded is the fourth studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground, released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records subsidiary Cotillion. It was the final album recorded featuring the band’s remaining original members, including the lead singer and primary songwriter Lou Reed, who left the band shortly before the album's release, and the guitarist Sterling Morrison, who left the band in 1971 along with the drummer Maureen Tucker. For this reason, it is often considered by fans to be the last "true" Velvet Underground album. The multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule remained and released the album Squeeze in 1973 before the band's dissolution the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterling Morrison</span> American musician (1942–1995)

Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Yule</span> Musical artist

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<i>The Very Best of The Velvet Underground</i> 2003 greatest hits album by The Velvet Underground

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<i>Squeeze</i> (The Velvet Underground album) 1973 studio album by the Velvet Underground

Squeeze is the fifth and final studio album released under the Velvet Underground band name, recorded in the autumn of 1972 and released in February 1973 by Polydor Records. The album features Doug Yule from the Lou Reed-era lineup of the group, who wrote and recorded the album almost entirely by himself. Yule had joined the Velvet Underground in October 1968, prior to the band recording their self-titled third album, and Yule had also contributed significantly to the fourth album, Loaded. Following the departures of the remaining founding members, Yule was positioned as the de facto leader of the band. Longtime drummer Maureen Tucker was slated to appear on Squeeze by Yule, but she was dismissed by the band's manager, Steve Sesnick.

<i>Live MCMXCIII</i> 1993 live album by the Velvet Underground

Live MCMXCIII is a live album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground, released in 1993 by Sire Records. It was released simultaneously in single and double CD/cassette formats on October 26, 1993. In 2006, a DVD version of the concert was released as Velvet Redux Live MCMXCIII by Warner Music Vision and Rhino Home Video.

<i>Gold</i> (The Velvet Underground album) 2005 greatest hits album by The Velvet Underground

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<i>VU</i> (album) 1985 compilation album by the Velvet Underground

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<i>Final V.U. 1971–1973</i> 2001 live album box set by the Velvet Underground

Final V.U. 1971–1973 is a box set by the Velvet Underground, comprising live recordings from after founding members Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison had left the group. It was released by Japanese record company Captain Trip Records in August 2001.

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Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records.

"Sister Ray" is a song by the Velvet Underground that closes side two of their 1968 album White Light/White Heat. The lyrics are by Lou Reed, with music composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker and Reed.

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The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. It originally comprised the singer and guitarist Lou Reed, the Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, the guitarist Sterling Morrison and the drummer Angus MacLise. In 1965, MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker, who played on most of the band's recordings. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde resulted in little commercial success, they are now widely regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. Their provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and nihilistic attitude was also instrumental in the development of punk rock, new wave and several other genres.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Moe Tucker Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic . Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Moe Tucker". Nndb.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Jovanovic, Rob (2012). Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground. New York City: Macmillan. pp. 42–45. ISBN   9781429942263.
  4. ↑ McNeil, Legs; McCain, Gillian (1996), Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Grove Press, p. 7, ISBN   0-8021-1588-8
  5. ↑ Women of the underground : music : cultural innovators speak for themselves. Burden, Zora von, 1968-. San Francisco: Manic D Press. 2010. ISBN   9781933149509. OCLC   701110652.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. 1 2 Gonson, Claudia (1997), "Moe Tucker Interview", DrummerGirl.com
  7. ↑ Tom Barber (director) (2009). The Velvet Underground: Under Review (Media notes). Robert Christgau. UK.
  8. ↑ Hoffman, Eric. "Examinations: An Examination of John Cale". Mental Contagion. Retrieved October 24, 2014. When I had to play viola, Sterling had to play bass, which he hated. According to the website, the quote is from John Cale’s autobiography, What’s Welsh for Zen (NY: St. Martin’s Press (2000).
  9. ↑ Bugbee, Tim (May 1999), "Sun City Girls, Rick Bishop interview", Popwatch Magazine (10)
  10. 1 2 "Moe Tucker's Bio", Official web site, archived from the original on October 8, 1997
  11. ↑ Butler, Will (October 12, 2017). "Watch The Velvet Underground's John Cale and Moe Tucker reunite". NME. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  12. ↑ "All Tomorrow's Parties: How Todd Haynes Made the Perfect 'Velvet Underground' Doc". Rolling Stone . October 11, 2021.
  13. 1 2 Romero, Michele (January 28, 1994), "Just Say Moe: Maureen Tucker, Original Riot Grrrl", Entertainment Weekly , no. 207
  14. ↑ "Taj Moe Hal Gazette", Official web site, archived from the original on October 4, 2010
  15. 1 2 3 4 Pilkington, Ed (October 1, 2010). "All tomorrow's tea parties: from Velvet Underground to rightwing US group". The Guardian .
  16. ↑ Appelstein, Mike (October 18, 2010). "Interview: Moe Tucker of the Velvet Underground Sets the Record Straight". Riverfront Times . Archived from the original on October 22, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  17. ↑ Moe Tucker goes right at local Tea Party on YouTube
  18. ↑ "I Feel So Far Away: Anthology 1974-1998 - Moe Tucker | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
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