Early life and influences Robert Steven Moore was born in
Nashville, Tennessee on January 18, 1952. His father,
Bob Moore (1932 – 2021), was a
session musician associated with
the Nashville A-Team conglomerate who worked as a recording bassist for
Elvis Presley,
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Patsy Cline,
Roy Orbison,
George Jones,
Chet Atkins, and
Bob Dylan. Steven characterized his father as a "terrible" parent and said that "It was a very intense, dramatic, abusive childhood, with all this money coming in, because he's doing these amazing historical sessions. It's very, very sad. He was very disappointed in me because I was not a get-up-and-go type." Much of his output, he later said, was "uncontrollable—compelled without compulsion. I didn't seek out to do this. It just came out of me. I had this music inside of me and I wanted to be a pop star. It was like a disease that I had to record and write." Over the years he would describe himself as "a huge record collector and music historian" with interests ranging from
beatnik and
avant-garde to
noise and
jazz: "I love attempts at all genres and styles – even if I fail. It doesn't matter." He briefly attended
Vanderbilt University, but dropped out in 1971 to pursue his passions for writing, recording and performing music. That same year, he moved out of his parents' house and rented an apartment at the
Music Row area in Nashville. He formed a close friendship with next-door neighbor Victor Lovera, who he called "one of my best friends and ... very influential for my songwriting." Victor Lovera died in 1998. Throughout the early 1970s, Moore continued to play local shows with a group of high-school friends whose band name changed frequently. His music tastes—which mainly encompassed artists like
the Beach Boys,
the Move, Frank Zappa, and
Todd Rundgren—were mostly out of step with the prevailing music culture in Nashville. Palmer continued to encourage Moore to put his music out, and in 1976,
Phonography was Moore's first album to be released on an outside label (Palmer's HP Music).
Phonography was reviewed in New York's
Trouser Press as "an outrageous collection of musical brain spewage" and "a true slash of genius". Moore credits the review's author,
Ira Robbins, as "the one who helped turn people on to
Phonography and those early independent records."
Phonography later became the best-known album of his career ==1978–2010: New Jersey period==