“What’s eight tons, purple and floats in the sea?” In 1967, Moby Grape dropped one of the greatest debut albums of all-time, and then were savaged by every form of bad luck known to hit a rock band, save having their drummer burst into flames. They suffered through poor management, idiotic promotion, personnel issues (a nice euphemism for insanity and drug abuse), and a string of under-appreciated albums, each not quite as good as the one before, that finally sunk their battleship.
The Grape featured five songwriters who could sing, three of whom were solid guitarists, and harmonies that sounded like the product 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 music, guitarist Peter Lewis and bassist Bob Mosley played in surf bands, and drummer Don Stevenson and Miller played together in garage bands around Seattle. But they instantly clicked, and their live shows were powerful enough that within two months of their formation, Columbia Records awarded them what was then the largest contract in that company’s storied history.
Contrary to their San Francisco brethren, Moby Grape made melodic, three-minute songs that didn’t feature a drop of psychedelic nonsense. Instead, their sound was an easy blend of country, folk and rock, with hard-charging guitars when the mood called for them. No spacey jams or endless noodling solos, just one great tune after another. Their debut was so chock full o’ goodness that Columbia smothered them in kindness, making the monumental misjudgment of releasing ten of the album’s songs on five singles, all at the same time.
’8:05′ and ‘Omaha’ are songs for the ages, but confused disc jockeys had no idea which of the five singles to play, and consequently all of them tanked (‘Omaha’ somehow managed to reach #88 on the charts). With one grave misstep, Columbia Records killed Moby Grape’s momentum and made the rest of their career an uphill climb. But that was small potatoes compared to what came next: when Spence broke down Stevenson’s hotel room door with a fire ax and earned six months in the psych ward, The Grape were effectively done. Against all odds, they would go on to release several more very good albums (including the massively underrated 20 Granite Creek, and guitar showcase Grape Jam), but none reached the level of their debut. Even more tragic, Mosley and Spence ended up schizophrenic and homeless, while Moby Grape’s sleazy ex-manager blocked both reunions and reissues by invoking his ownership of the band’s name.
The original cover art of Moby Grape (pictured above) featured Stevenson staring daggers and flipping the bird. Their cursed fates deserved nothing less than two middle fingers…
“Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.” ~ Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, on digital downloads
Mac Gayden | Skyboat
Moby Grape | Moby Grape
Average White Band | Cut The Cake
Various Artists | Lagos Disco Inferno
Jean Michel Jarre | Oxygene
Wilco | Summerteeth
Miles Davis | Volume 1
Jimmy Smith with Stanley Turrentine | Prayer Meetin’
Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker | Hooker ‘N Heat
Mance Lipscomb | Vol. 4
[album cover not pictured]
I take a fair amount of heat in the comments section of this blog – most of it deserved, some of it semi-coherent, drive-by noise that goes on all over the internet. Certain posts have drawn sustained ire over the three-year run of this blog, most particularly those that aren’t kind (although none more than my selections for the greatest Hip-Hop albums – that post practically has gunshots ringing out in the comments section). I’ve come to expect and enjoy the inevitable friction that some of my opinions stir up, and I appreciate passionate fans speaking out, even when their passion is pointed angrily at me.
One of my early posts on this blog was a list of the most overlooked albums of all-time. As an addendum to that post, I included a list of what I considered to be the most overrated albums of all-time (now I would totally make that into its own post, but whatever…). The overrated list included Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, any Jimmy Buffett (shudder), Dave Matthews (double shudder), The Eagles’ awful Hotel California and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, which unbelievably is the best selling double-album of all-time.
But the two albums on that list that have earned me the harshest fire over the years are The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s… and Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow. The comments from incredulous Beatles fans are there for your enjoyment. I know it’s hard for some people to believe that I can simultaneously like this album and think it’s overrated, but that is the case. Sgt. Pepper’s was important because it elevated the LP to the place of art. The iconic cover image, the lyrics printed inside (the first album to do so), the “concept” behind it – all of this made people take music more seriously, which made musicians take themselves more seriously, which was both a good and bad thing. It’s a great album, but Sgt. Pepper’s is not the greatest album of the 20th century, which means it’s overrated by the army of critics who call it that.
Surrealistic Pillow‘s inclusion on that list has drawn little in the way of reader comments. Instead, it was a red-faced friend of my hippie uncle who lowered the boom on me for daring to besmirch the name of the Airplane. His voice rising an octave or two, he scolded me that they were “a great band that could tear it up on stage.” From there we quickly progressed to I’m-shaking-my-head-sadly-because-you’re-a-worthless-piece-of-crap-who-will-never-get-it. In the years since that conversation, I’ve spent more time on Jeff Air, and I’ve come to think of them as a band whose whole was actually less than its parts. Their stage harmonies were horrible, and they had no business out-selling SF contemporaries like Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service. But that said, Jefferson Airplane had a few great tunes and some charismatic personalities on board (I’m not crazy about Grace Slick’s voice, but she carried herself like a superstar), and they wouldn’t be on that overrated list if I were compiling it today. Sgt Pepper’s however, still isn’t the greatest album of the 20th century, so it stays put…
Your vote will help determine next week’s ‘Buried Treasure’ and ‘Masterpiece’ features. One vote per poll per person, polling will be open until midnight PST on Sunday…
Here’s my latest mix, dedicated to songs under a minute long. In the spirit of its wee little theme, this mix was burned onto mini (200MB) discs and sent out in mini jewel cases. This idea had been kicking around my brain for a couple of years, but The P and I were both concerned that at least one person who got the mix would try to toss it into a front-loading CD player and ruin something, so I stayed away from it, until now.
To anyone out there who got a physical copy of this mix, please be sure to use it in standard tray-style cd players only. As the warning on the CD packaging so eloquently put it, “Please consult with your hardware supplier or manufacturer to confirm compatibility (particularly for front loading CD devices).” In other words, this little disc can mess up your equipment. Listener beware…
A few words about the selections here: I was looking for songs that felt like complete tunes even though they’re short. In other words, “preludes” and “intros” need not apply. The songs included here prove that musical genius can come in small packages. Moby Grape pretty much sum up the spirit of the 60′s in 57 seconds. Jerry Douglas plays a hot pedal steel guitar and packs more into 41 seconds than most musicians get out of four minutes. Elvis Presley managed to influence not one, but two Beastie Boys songs (‘Girls’ and ‘To All The Girls’) with one compact display of horny showmanship. And Joe Walsh has to be the only artist on earth who can fart around for 20 seconds and still fit an entire song comfortably within a minute.
With that, here’s the artwork…
Here’s the front:
Here’s the front gatefold:
Here’s the inside gatefold:
Notes read:
TRIUMPHS OF THE TINY…
1) E.B. White’s classic children’s book ‘Stuart Little’
2) The world’s first microprocessor – the Intel 4004
3) ‘Mini-Me’ – the incomparable Verne Troyer
4) 5’5” Spud Webb wins the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest
5) The Mini Cooper is reintroduced, April 2001
6) Everybody loves Leprechauns
7) Monopoly makes it cool to be the thimble
and
This mix has been APPROVED by The Peanut! [editor's note - She was bribed with cat treats]
