Flashback: Moby Grape Debut 1967

[MichaelJ]

I don’t know what I got last year but I do remember Christmas 1967. I was 13. I wanted to play drums and my parents bought me a Ludwig snare. I wanted to increase my record collection (I had Sgt Pepper’s) and my sister doubled my collection by giving me the self titled debut album by Moby Grape. I must have been a good boy that year.

Moby Grape was one of the great San Francisco bands and easily the most versatile. They recorded some fine albums but their debut was their crowning achievement. It is as close to perfect as any rock album ever produced, in any era. It transcends it’s time and place and is as fresh and exciting today as it was a life time ago. Although they were a Frisco band don’t expect long LSD fueled guitar solos. Moby Grape wrote and performed short, perfectly constructed songs that ranged from blues, folk, rock and jazz, (sometimes in one song), typically clocking in under three minutes. They did this with Great Chops, a triple guitar attack, a fine rhythm section, and strong vocals from all five members.

Unfortunately, bad luck, bad management and mental health problems kept them from reaching this peak again but for one shining moment, Moby Grape managed to create something close to magic.

Moby Grape seems to go in and out of print but I have managed to buy both the CD and the Vinyl copy of it in the last year. Put it on your list! No rock collection is complete without it.

Original release date: June 1967
Label: San Francisco Sound



Tracks
1. Hey Grandma
2. Mr. Blues
3. Fall on You
4. 8:05
5. Come in the Morning
6. Omaha
7. Naked, If I Want To
8. Someday
9. Ain't No Use
10. Sitting by the Window]
11. Changes
12. Lazy Me
13. Indifference

[stoney]

Hey MJ
Thanks for stirring up the old memory. I recall that album and music. I also recall that there was a bonus Jam session included with that album entiled "Grape Jam" I have not heard that album in a very long time.
I agree they were good but I think what happened was that they became over shadowed by the likes of Jefferson Airplane ,Steppenwolf,Canned heat etc.

8:05,Hey Grandma & Omaha were my favorites.

great post MJ, keep em coming.

[MichaelJ]

Stoney, you're thinking of the second Moby Grape album "WOW". WOW contained the bonus "Grape Jam" LP. Mental Illness hit them HARD. Both Guitarist/Singer Skip Spence (he was the original drummer with Airplane oddly enough), and Bob Mosely Bass/vocals were diagnosed with Schizophrenia. During the Wow sessions, Spence went after Grape drummer Don Stevenson with an axe. He was committed and after his release he put out an interesting solo LP called OAR (think Syd Barrett). He ended up dying on the street years later. Bob Mosely had somewhat better luck staying with the band on and off, better doctors? meds? but needless to say when two members of the band are faced with that kind of problem the band’s work suffers.

[stoney]

Originally Posted by MichaelJ

Stoney, you're thinking of the second Moby Grape album "WOW". WOW contained the bonus "Grape Jam" LP. Mental Illness hit them HARD. Both Guitarist/Singer Skip Spence (he was the original drummer with Airplane oddly enough), and Bob Mosely Bass/vocals were diagnosed with Schizophrenia. During the Wow sessions, Spence went after Grape drummer Don Stevenson with an axe. He was committed and after his release he put out an interesting solo LP called OAR (think Syd Barrett). He ended up dying on the street years later. Bob Mosely had somewhat better luck staying with the band on and off, better doctors? meds? but needless to say when two members of the band are faced with that kind of problem the band’s work suffers.

obviously you have a better memory than me and I did not keep my lp collection. After I bought my first cd player I knew I would never go back to vinyl.

The Grape did produce some fine music.

[dgridley]

Crooked Fingers, "I Am Not Willing", Milwaukee, WI, June 24, 2010 (Moby Grape cover)

YouTube - Crooked Fingers, "I Am Not Willing",...