[Today: Skip Spence unpacks his mind...]
Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence, one-time drummer for Jefferson Airplane and guitarist for Moby Grape, recorded his only solo album – the awkward, fragile, haunting Oar – on December 16th, 1968. During the recording of the Grape’s second album, Wow, Spence went after drummer Don Stevenson with a fire ax, and ended up under psychiatric observation at New York’s Bellevue Mental Hospital for six months. “I thought [Stevenson] was possessed by Satan, and I had to save him,” Spence explained.
Upon his release from Bellevue, legend has it that Spence spent part of his $1,000 advance for Oar on a motorcycle, and hit the open road for Nashville, where he recorded the odd batch of songs that make up this strange album. It consists of some complete songs, and many half songs and sketches of tunes that collapse under their own rudimentary construction. But wisps of brilliance swirl amongst the musical wreckage, making for an album that sounds like a funeral for itself.
In spite of its cryptic, often indecipherable lyrics, and shambling, broken melodies, Oar is a compelling listen. ‘Weighted down by possessions/Weighted down by the gun/Waited down by the river, for you to come” he half sings on ‘Weighted Down’, over a tune that’s been drowned in molasses. ‘Little Hands’ is almost a pretty folk ballad, but its jagged edges tip it off as the work of a man losing his grip on things. The cover art shows a shaggy Spence, partially obscured by darkness, and the music pays off that image.
Predictably, the album sold miserably upon release, and Oar is reportedly the single worst-selling album in the esteemed history of Columbia Records. After this failure, and the demise of Moby Grape, Spence eventually found himself in and out of institutions, partly schizophrenic, and often homeless. But while his life was spiraling downward, his long lost solo LP was taking on a life of its own as perhaps the most popular cult album ever.
Oar steadily gained an audience of rabid admirers that culminatined in the rerelease of the album, as well as the curation of a star-studded tribute album that features the likes of Robert Plant and Beck. Spence died in 1999, and according to the Village Voice, he “literally spent his final hour listening to [the tribute album] More Oar for the first and, yep, last time.”
One of my favorite visions in the long spectacle of rock history is Skip Spence on a brand new motorcycle, speeding down a cold December highway toward Nashville. He’s humming the tunes for Oar, and hearing in his head the complex time-release masterpiece that would take the rest of the world decades to catch on to. The cold breeze nips at his face, but Spence smiles, from ear to ear.
Listen: Little Hands
Listen: Weighted Down (The Prison Song)
Listen: War In Peace
*****
More on Oar:
The Memory Of Music: Skip Spence’s Oar by Louis Black
Tags: Oar, Skip Spence
17 December 2008 at 6:36 am |
yep, the jjb and i both dig this album.
little hands has made the cut on many a few mixes and comps by the 2 of us.
kudos
19 December 2008 at 2:25 am |
he beat me to it….
16 July 2010 at 12:27 pm |
[...] of years of practice. In truth, the band was a hasty assemblage of diverse musical parts. Guitarist Skip Spence had previously been the drummer in Jefferson Airplane, guitarist Jerry Miller had roots in country [...]