Maureen Tucker
Moe Tucker (1992)
Background information
Birth name	Maureen Ann Tucker
Also known as	Moe Tucker
Born	(1944-08-26) August 26, 1944 (age 68) Levittown, New York, United States
Genres	Experimental rock, protopunk, rock & roll, art rock, avant garde, folk-rock
Occupations	Drummer, musician, singer-songwriter, singer
Instruments	Drums, percussion, guitar, vocals, bass guitar, saxophone
Years active	1963–present
Associated acts	The Velvet Underground
Website	www.spearedpeanut.com/tajmoehal/

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944, in Levittown, New York) is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.

Career [edit]

The Velvet Underground [edit]

Tucker first began playing the drums at age 19. 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. 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 one of his college friends who played the drums. Tucker was frequently noted for her androgynous appearance.^[1]

Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum^[2]), using a simplified drum kit of tom toms, a snare drum and an upturned bass drum, playing with mallets rather than drumsticks. 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.^[2]

Apart from drumming, Tucker sang co-lead vocals on three Velvet Underground songs: the acoustic guitar number "After Hours" and the strange poem set to music "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 has 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.

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 a few songs on 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 most of the songs on the album and live performances.

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.

Tucker moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1971, where she lived with her husband and several children. While living in Phoenix, she played drums in the short-lived band Paris 1942 with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls.^[3] In the early 1980s, she divorced her husband and relocated to Douglas, Georgia, where she was hired at a Wal-Mart distribution center.^[4] She quit the job in 1989 when she was asked to go on tour of Europe with the band Half Japanese.^[4]

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 1992–1993 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 (1993) 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 in 1999–2003, recording "Five Points Crawl".

Personal life [edit]

Moe Tucker was married in the early 1970s, and divorced sometime in the early 1980s.^[5] She had five children: Kerry, Keith, Austen, Kate, and Richard.^[5] Tucker lives in Douglas, Georgia, where she has raised her family.^[6][7] In a 2010 interview, she said she had ceased making music or songwriting several years prior, noting, "No time for it anymore. I take care of my eight-year-old grandson and it's a full-time job."^[8]

In April 2009, Tucker gave a brief man in the street-style interview at a Tea Party rally in Tifton, Georgia to a WALB NBC news crew;^[7][9] during the interview, she voiced support for the Tea Party movement, and said she was "furious about the way we're being led towards socialism."^[7] In October 2010, British newspaper The Guardian discovered a personal page for a Maureen Tucker on The Tea Party Patriots official website, wherein it was stated, "I have come to believe (not just wonder) that Obama's plan is to destroy America from within." The page goes on to encourage readers to send the White House "a letter/postcard" addressed to "King Obama."^[7]

Tucker expanded on her political views later to the Riverfront Times, saying: "To be honest, I never paid attention to what the hell was going on. My always voting Democrat was the result of that. My philosophy was and is all politicians are liars, bums and cheats."^[8] In the interview, she remained adamant about the need to change the Obama administration.

Discography [edit]

With The Velvet Underground [edit]

Studio albums

• The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
• White Light/White Heat (1968)
• The Velvet Underground (1969)

Live albums

• 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (1974 [1969])
• Live MCMXCIII (1993)
• Final V.U. 1971–1973 (live box set, 2001 [1971–1973])
• Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes (live, 2001 [1969])

Compilations

• VU (outtakes compilation, 1985 [1968–1969])
• Another View (outtakes compilation, 1986 [1967–1969])
• Peel Slowly and See (box set, 1995 [1965–1970])
• Loaded (Fully Loaded Edition) (1997 [1969–1970])†

† 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 Charles Douglas (aka Alex McAulay) [edit]

• Charles Douglas - "The Lives of Charles Douglas" (1999)

With The Kropotkins [edit]

• Five Points Crawl (2000)

With Lou Reed [edit]

• New York (1989)

Moe Tucker & Half Japanese [edit]

• Half Japanese - Fire in the Sky (1990)

Solo [edit]

Albums [edit]

• Playin' Possum (1981)
• Life in Exile After Abdication (1989)
• I Spent a Week There the Other Night (1991)
• Oh No, They're Recording This Show (live, 1992)
• Dogs Under Stress (1994)
• Waiting for My Men (compilation, 1998)
• Moe Rocks Terrastock (live, 2002)
• I Feel So Far Away: Anthology 1974-1998 (compilation, 2012)^[10]

EPs [edit]

• Another View (1985)
• Moejadkatebarry (1987)
• GRL-GRUP (1997)

Singles [edit]

• "Modern Pop Classics" (1980)
• "Around and Around" (Chuck Berry) / "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (1981)
• "Hey Mersh!" (1989)
• "Too Shy" (1991)
• "I'm Sticking with You" / "After Hours" (2002)

Band members [edit]

• John Sluggett
• Sonny Vincent
• Victor DeLorenzo
• Hank Beckmeyer
• Tico Zamora
• Lance Cagle

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Taj Moe Hal , Maureen's official website
• Discography
• Interview with drummergirl.com, conducted by Claudia Gonson