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From the Vault...
10/24/2010
#1226 |
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info
Moby Grape
"Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape"
© Columbia Records
Year of Release: 1993
Rating:
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track listing
Disc One:
Hey Grandma
Mr. Blues
Fall On You
8:05
Come In The Morning
Omaha
Naked If I Want To
Rounder (Instrumental)
Someday
Ain't No Use
Sitting By The Window
Changes
Lazy Me
Indifference
Looper (Audition Version)
Sweet Ride
Bitter Wind
The Place And The Time
Rounder (Live)
Miller's Blues (Live)
Changes (Live)
Hey Grandma
(Mono/
Single Version)
Omaha
(Mono/
Single Version)
Big
Disc Two:
Skip's Song (Demo)
You Can Do Anything
(Demo)
Murder In My Heart
For The Judge
Bitter Wind
Can't Be So Bad
Just Like Gene Autry
A Foxtrot
He
Motorcycle Irene
Funky-Tunk
Rose Colored Eyes
If You Can't Learn From Your Mistakes
(Peter Solo Version)
Ooh Mama Ooh
Ain't That A Shame
Trucking Man
Captain Nemo
What's To Choose
Going Nowhere
I Am Not Willing
It's A Beautiful Day Today
Right Before My Eyes
Truly Fine Citizen
Hoochie
Soul Stew
Seeing
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Moby Grape
"Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape"
While growing up, I was not familiar with the Rock / Psychedelic Rock band called Moby Grape. (The name was
pretty cool, I thought.) One of their songs was on a 2-LP vinyl compilation from Columbia Records, Somethin'
Else Again! -- the song "Right Before My Eyes." Obviously, this compilation was never available on CD,
as I therefore started hunting down the songs from it. Moby Grape's Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape
included that song, and after learning more about the band, one of their album's had a controversial cover. It was
their self-titled debut album, released in 1967. The original cover showed drummer Don Stevenson displaying the
middle finger on the washboard. This part was airbrushed on future releases. Yet, it's considered one of the best
album covers, due to its controversy.
The Vintage collection includes the entire debut album on Disc One, with 8 unreleased tracks, and 2
mono/single versions. There are the sounds of Rock and Psychedelic Rock from the debut album. There are many
great comparisons of styles too, such as The Grateful Dead "8:05," "Naked, If I Want To", Jefferson Airplane
"Omaha," "Lazy Me", The Byrds "Ain't No Use" and The Monkees "Changes" (vocally, sounds a bit
like Mickey Dolenz).
The second disc contains practically the entire contents of Moby Grape's next two albums, Wow/Grape Jam
and "Moby Grape '69. A few tracks are on this compilation from their fourth album, Truly Fine Citizen,
and more unreleased tracks and demos.
Interesting reading from the liner notes on this band: Yet against all of the apparent odds, Moby Grape
went on to become the moswt notorious "noble failure" story in rock & roll, an object lesson in how not to
succeed in the music business. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Grape during their first three,
star-crossed years together: legal nightmares, police busts, stolen equipment, disatrous road and recording
experiences, even drug-induced madness. (Hold on, wasn't that EVERY band's experiences in the late-1960s Rock & Roll?)
The live cuts and unreleased tracks on Disc One are worth listening to: "Miller's Blues" (Live) -- If the
1960s Psychedelic band 13th Floor Elevators didn't use their strange sound, they could easily have sounded like this
song. Moby Grape's is a fine blues version, and could even measure up to a band that would later surface in the 1970s,
Led Zeppelin. On that note, another live track, "Changes" could be compared to the late-1960s/1970s band,
Humble Pie.
Second Disc highlights: The soulful "Murder In My Heart For The Judge" is a song best remembered for me
by Three Dog Night. "Can't Be So Bad" is anything but... bad... It's a great rocking song. "Just Like
Gene Autry, A Foxtrot" is totally different, giving its sound to that of Gene Autry's. "He" definitely
compares to The Grateful Dead. Most, if not all of the songs on the second disc relates to the sounds of the Grateful
Dead and the later years of The Byrds.
The first disc is probably considered the best of the two. Although the entire album is basically an "A-Z" of
Moby Grape's music, it's a fantastic entourage of a band that was destined for stardom in its early beginnings.
But, like many other bands before and after them, bad legal issues, drugs, law enforcement problems would keep them
from being more popular. But, to those who enjoyed there music, no matter what the issues were, Moby Grape is a
great band for the 1960s Rock/Psychedelic fan, likewise for the "off-Country" fan as well.
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Review or any portion may not be reproduced
without written permission. Cover art is the
intellectual property of
Columbia Records
and is used for reference purposes only.
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