American musician and singer (born 1944)
Maureen Tucker
|
---|
Tucker in 1966
|
|
Birth name
| Maureen Ann Tucker
|
---|
Also known as
| Moe Tucker
|
---|
Born
| (
1944-08-26
)
August 26, 1944
(age 79)
Jackson Heights, Queens
,
New York City
, U.S.
|
---|
Genres
| |
---|
Occupation(s)
|
- Musician
- singer-songwriter
|
---|
Instrument(s)
| - Drums
- percussion
- guitar
- vocals
- bass
|
---|
Years active
| 1963?
c.
2007
; 2017
|
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Formerly of
| |
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Musical artist
Maureen Ann
"
Moe
"
Tucker
(born August 26, 1944)
[1]
is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was the drummer for the New York City-based rock band
the Velvet Underground
. After they 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 (though with frequent guest appearances by her former Velvet Underground bandmates and others), and has periodically toured. She was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground.
Early life
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
The Velvet Underground
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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]
Tucker is a supporter of the
Republican Party
, revealing this in April 2009, during an interview at a
Tea Party
rally in
Tifton, Georgia
, to a
WALB NBC
news crew.
[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
[
edit
]
Solo
[
edit
]
Studio albums
[
edit
]
Live albums
[
edit
]
Compilation albums
[
edit
]
Singles
[
edit
]
With the Velvet Underground
[
edit
]
Studio albums
[
edit
]
Live albums
[
edit
]
Compilations
[
edit
]
†
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
[
edit
]
With Charles Douglas (a.k.a. Alex McAulay)
With the Kropotkins
With Lou Reed
With Half Japanese
With Charlie Pickett
With Shotgun Rationale
- Who Do They Think They Are?
(1992)
- Roller Coaster
(1993)
With Bloodkin
- "Out of State Plates" (1999)
With Magnet
- "Don't be a Penguin" (1997)
With John Cale
With the Raveonettes
Band members
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Moe Tucker Biography, Songs, & Albums"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
October 16,
2021
.
- ^
"Moe Tucker"
.
Nndb.com
. Retrieved
October 11,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Jovanovic, Rob (2012).
Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground
. New York City:
Macmillan
. pp. 42?45.
ISBN
9781429942263
.
- ^
McNeil, Legs
; McCain, Gillian (1996),
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
,
Grove Press
, p. 7,
ISBN
0-8021-1588-8
- ^
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
)
- ^
a
b
Gonson, Claudia
(1997),
"Moe Tucker Interview"
,
DrummerGirl.com
- ^
Tom Barber (director) (2009).
The Velvet Underground: Under Review
(Media notes). Robert Christgau. UK.
- ^
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).
- ^
Bugbee, Tim (May 1999),
"Sun City Girls, Rick Bishop interview"
,
Popwatch Magazine
(10)
- ^
a
b
"Moe Tucker's Bio"
,
Official web site
, archived from
the original
on October 8, 1997
- ^
Butler, Will (October 12, 2017).
"Watch The Velvet Underground's John Cale and Moe Tucker reunite"
.
NME
. Retrieved
June 6,
2021
.
- ^
"All Tomorrow's Parties: How Todd Haynes Made the Perfect 'Velvet Underground' Doc"
.
Rolling Stone
. October 11, 2021.
- ^
a
b
Romero, Michele (January 28, 1994),
"Just Say Moe: Maureen Tucker, Original Riot Grrrl"
,
Entertainment Weekly
, no. 207
- ^
"Taj Moe Hal Gazette"
,
Official web site
, archived from
the original
on October 4, 2010
- ^
a
b
c
d
Pilkington, Ed (October 1, 2010).
"All tomorrow's tea parties: from Velvet Underground to rightwing US group"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
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
.
- ^
Moe Tucker goes right at local Tea Party
on
YouTube
- ^
"I Feel So Far Away: Anthology 1974-1998 - Moe Tucker | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
October 11,
2016
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Studio albums
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Compilations
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Live albums
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EPs
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Related articles
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Studio albums
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Live albums
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Outtakes albums
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Compilations
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Box sets
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Singles
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Other songs
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Tribute albums
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Films
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Related articles
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Performers
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Early influences
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Non-performers
(Ahmet Ertegun Award)
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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