Moondog (born Louis Thomas Hardin; May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999) was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. He was blind from the age of 17.

Moondog lived in New York from the late 1940s until 1972, and during this time he could often be found on 6th Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet sometimes busking or selling music, but often just standing silently on the sidewalk. He was widely recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who weren't aware of his musical career.

The music of Moondog of the 1940s and 50s is said to have been a strong influence on many early minimalist composers. Philip Glass has written that he and Steve Reich took Moondog's work "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Juilliard".

In July 1956 the British jazz composer and musician Kenny Graham recorded the album "Moondog and Suncat Suites" with a thirteen-piece band featuring such notable performers as Stan Tracey and Phil Seamen. "Moondog" featured Graham's arrangements of ten Moondog compositions, whereas "Suncat Suite" consisted of a sequence of six of Graham's own compositions inspired by Moondog. HMV issued the original vinyl album in 1957, and Trunk Records reissued it on CD in 2010.

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