1970: WENDY CARLOS and her MOOG SYNTHESISER | Music Now | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

Is this... Is this woman wearing fake sideburns?

That's actually Walter Carlos

I remember when Switched on Bach was released. Sensational stuff.

His name is Walter Carlos btw

Weird calling him Wendy when he was Walter Carlos then.

Stanley was ON IT !

Her look was radical for some but her skill was without question. LOVE her music for the original TRON

At this time HE was known as Walter Carlos.

Breh that looks a LOT like Walter Carlos.😂 let's all pretend though.

Switched on Bach was performed by Walter Carlos not Wendy Carlos!

Live at the Necropolis brought me here, thanks adult swim!

How exactly did she learn to use this equipment?

wait who is talking ? WENDY CARLOS looking like a guy ? im confused

She looks like the 70s condensed.

If she would have met Alan Turing, the world would explode.
Togheder as living AI.
Love you both.

Every trans woman knows, in one way or another, what its like to have to convince people of a lie about your identity. Wendy, in what was undoubtedly a very uncomfortable period of her life, managed to carry herself with dignity and grace. If you look away from the screen and listen to her voice, it's remarkable how un-compromised she managed to present herself in this interview. Though she never really wanted to be seen as a figurehead of the queer community she has inspired generations of trans women. She showed us that it was possible, that a world that didn't want us could only deny our talents for so long.

Those are some pretty groovy mutton chops, Wendy.

By early 1968, Carlos had begun hormone replacement treatment under Benjamin's care, which began altering her appearance. That created some problems for Carlos when Switched-On Bach became an unexpected hit after its release in October 1968. Prior to a live performance of excerpts from the album with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Carlos felt terrified about appearing in public. She cried in her hotel room, before putting on fake sideburns and a man's wig, and drawing on facial hair with an eyebrow pencil to appear more masculine. She did the same thing again when she met Kubrick, and for an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970.

Reading the comments of losers getting mad at a trans person interview that's half a century old is fkn hilarious 😂😂

I love watching experts talking passionately about their subject. Wendy's such a professional, and her music is so good. I wish she could have been her true self outwardly at this point, but she shines through regardless.

I LOVE HER

Not too many people realize the dedication & sheer madness involved in recreating Bach's works on a monophonic analog synth, note by note, waveform by waveform. If not for Wendy showing us it can be done, the Moog synth--and possibly all synthesizer music--could've died out as a mere curiosity like the Theramin. What she did was the musical equivalent of making the first airplane flight across the Atlantic, just to prove what the new technology can do.

When I saw the thumbnail, I thought it was the Argentinean presidential elections, Milei...

Walter Carlos and his Moog.

why is Wendy dressed like a man?

Pour le coup, il s'appelait encore Walter Carlos.

She....has nice feminine mutton chops like lemmy kilmieaster.

Fake sideburns.

Carlos was changing to a woman at this point.

Such an original/innovative American

Just fantastic.


Music of "Clockwork Orange" grabbed me fr first note-Alex jumping out window

I wonder what Bach would make of synthesisers? I can imagine him typing hex decimal into his Roland mc8.

She's so amazing 😍

Crazy to think today you can buy a keyboard that easily fits on your lap and select virtually every one of these once "advanced" tones simply by pressing a single button.

🙏🧡💚Good idea to show her, Wendy, how she was before being herself delivered from her necessary lie. This aside She was a Musicology theorist graduated in this Domain, and our ''grand Mother'' about electronic Musc Creation!
Good Idea from AI on YT giving me the occasion as I'm a writer about biological brain intersex condition and a practicer about electronic music!🙏🧡💚🙋🤗

One of the Three Lords of Synth (two lords and a lady)

Very annoyed. I kept waiting for this guy to introduce Wendy Carlos only to find out from the comments that Wendy Carlos has been trying make my head spin. It’s one thing if you are just biologically a bit blurred but to make obvious efforts to dress as what you are not is just deceitful, rude, and bordering on perverted.
And for all you bandwagoneers out there who take offense at my remarks… we do not live in a bubble. We have responsibility toward those around us and our actions will affect them whether we like it or care about it or not. By giving into perversions or even our imperfections on a waiver of self-pity, we tacitly encourage others to do the same and ultimately contribute to the moral breakdown seen today.
You may think that a permissive attitude is kind and just and merciful, and you may take courage from the millions who think like you, but look at your world. Has being “progressive” led to real progress?

What a pity that most of her records are unavailable - nor on streaming platforms like spotify... Glad that I own some old ones especially a CD of Switched on Bach where seh explains in a bonus track how she recorded the tracks

Doesn't look like a Wendy. Wasn't his name Walter at the time?

Fifty years later she is still incredibly influential. I admire her so much! Thank you for all your work, Wendy!! The musical world would be so different without her.

Days when it was a young beautiful man named Walter...
I don't know how he was afraid of being a boy, it is ridiculous. After he came through surgery, he lost his real, male beauty, lost his attractiveness.

I can imagine many music purists of this generation thinking and afraid this was gonna replace traditional instruments.

Icon

she helped saved humanity cooling the comet Live at the Necropolis

There's 2 exceptions where trans people can have a pass:1) If he really looks like a woman 2) if he contribute something to the society or culture and makes it better. In this case it's 2nd so i can call her Wendy.

i have no idea what she had just said but i was fixated on her impressive sideburns why is there no interesting people on tv anymore

Wendy y con esas patillas... qué raruno.

Yah so much fun when your backing up in your car with one of thes sounds in 2023

I love how even before she came out she still looked and sounded like a girl with a pixie cut (and fake sideburns)