Moby Grape - Live 1967 us, classic west coast psych

Moby Grape - Live 1967 us, classic west coast psych

Moby Grape was a great American rock band in the 1960s, but they also seemed to be cursed. They were exceptionally talented, with all five band members able to sing lead vocals and write songs. They managed one great album, their 1967 debut album "Moby Grape." Rolling Stone Magazine has put it high in their top 500 albums of all time list, and it's made other such lists.
One music critic is quoted about the album in the Moby Grape Wikipedia page: "'Moby Grape' is as refreshing today as it was upon first release, and if fate prevented the group from making a follow-up that was as consistently strong, for one brief shining moment Moby Grape proved to the world they were one of America's great bands. While history remembers the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane as being more important, the truth is neither group ever made an album quite this good."

But, as I mentioned, the band seemed to be cursed. Their manager (Matthew Katz) was about as terrible as a manager could be. They fired him in 1967, but he'd got them in legal troubles that would bedevil them for decades before they finally beat him in court. One band member, Skip Spence, lost his mind in 1968 and had to be institutionalized. Another, Bob Mosley, strangely joined the Marines in 1969. Bad things kept happening that stopped the group from reaching their full potential. But for a brief time in early and mid-1967, everything was working and they were great.

This album attempts to collect the best live recordings from that special time.

January 1968. Moby Grape had relocated to New York to record their 2nd album for Columbia records at the insistence of their producer and it had proven to be a miserable experience for all involved. Their 'leader' Skip Spence had gotten involved with some heavy new friends. His undiagnosed schizophrenia combined with the mountains of LSD he was being fed, had finally blown all his fuses. He was arrested after trying to attack his band-members and producer with an axe and was subsequently put in jail, before being committed to New York's Bellevue Hospital, where he spent six months under psychiatric care. The band was left in disarray. Nevertheless, Rubinson completed the album.

April 1968. Wow/Grape Jam is released. It proves to be a failure after the artistic and relative commercial success of the first LP. The band informs Columbia Records they are breaking up, rendering their 4-album contract void.

June 1968. In an effort to regain some of their expanses, Columbia readies one last Moby Grape album, consisting of live recordings made in 1967. Upon hearing this news, the band reacts by re-grouping as a foursome and demanding the forthcoming live album to be shelved.


01 talk by Tommy Smothers (Moby Grape) 0:00

02 Hey Grandma (Moby Grape) 1:14

03 Indifference (Moby Grape) 3:45

04 Mr. Blues (Moby Grape) 7:00

05 Sitting by the Window (Moby Grape) 8:53

06 Omaha (Moby Grape) 11:49

07 Fall on You