My friend Adam brings a question to me: is Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall) really related to Moby-Dick author Herman Melville. Notes:
- A screenshot of Moby’s Wikipedia page, taken May 2023
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Excerpt from the Afterword of Moby’s 2016 memoir, Porcelain (2016)
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Tweet from Moby (@thelittleidiot): “On this day in 1851…”
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Tweet from Moby (@thelittleidiot): “Happy Birthday Uncle Herman…”
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Background on Moby’s career was compiled from several sources including:
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Moby’s memoirs Porcelain (2016) and Then It Fell Apart (2019);
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Grayson Haver Currin, “All That Moby Needs to Be Good,” NPR, May 22, 2020
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Rob Gordon Bralver documentary, Moby Doc (2021)
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Clip from “Rave Dancing the Night Away,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 13, 1992
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Clip from “Moby Bright Spot in a Colorless World,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1993
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Clip from “Moby: Remixed, repulsed, reborn,” Hartford Courant, March 12, 1995
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Video of Moby’s segment with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards
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Clips of Moby discussing his childhood from Moby Doc (2021)
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Obituary of James Frederick Hall, Bridgewater Courier News, September 26, 1967
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Clip of Moby discussing childhood in San Francisco, taking LSD from Porcelain (2016)
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Clip of Moby talking about his nickname from an interview with Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin
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Melville’s family tree of direct descendents, taken from Hershel Parker’s Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 2 (1851-1891)
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“Metaphors? I hate metaphors…” clip from Parks and Recreation episode “Fluoride” (Season 6, Episode 8)
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“Though I wrote the Gospels in this century…” quote from Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, June [1?], 1851