Moby Grape: Classic or Dud?

The CD release of "Moby Grape", "Wow" and "Grape Jam" by Sundazed (at the end of 2007?) were withdrawn at the insistance of Matthew Katz.

There are a few of the latter two knocking about GB stores, the first is long gone.

Nobody needs "Grape Jam" save for "The Lake" which is quite funny, especially for the "whatever happened to Hairy Mary?" ending. On which, hangs a tale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHc1pJ9RMLk

dark magic is awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6eGG6Y-zs

the reissue of the first album, on Sundazed, I think, is now OP and goes for $$. Matthew Katz again??

From what I understand it is Katz...again. He gave Sundazed permission basically to bait Sony/Legacy into doing their own reissues. That's the story I was told. I don't know if it's accurate though.

20 Granite Creek is pretty good.

I love Grape '69 and Truly Fine Citizen.

i've got a pretty decent-sounding 17-minute version of "Dark Magic" -- it's on this bootleg comp (with a bunch of different bands) called "San Franciscan Nights" or some such ... it is pretty rockin -- more like "sister ray" than "dark star" i think. "sister ray" as played by the buffalo springfield ...

ysi?

ah, that's what I was afraid of. Well, I'm sure Katz is a crook, but Columbia's not releasing the MG records in a form similar to that taken on the Byrds reissues--certainly, Skip Spence studio chatter has got to be more entertaining than the Michael Clarke stuff on Notorious--is something I hope they'll rectify. Even though I have the 2-CD set they did a while back.

and yeah, 20 Granite Creek is pretty solid, really. "Goin' Down to Texas" is brilliant at 2 minutes.

So how much might an original pressing of their first album with mint-condition poster be worth? Because I just scored one for 20 bucks and saw that the poster alone sells for upwards of $30.

Mono or stereo?

The condition of the jacket as well as the disc will matter too, but if it's stereo, on ebay, maybe $40-70. If mono, more like $50-100 i think.

of course, sometimes a nice stereo copy with poster will sell for $150, like so: http://popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=130154241998

You should just keep it, it's a great record!

I believe it's stereo, it's in good condition though. I was planning on keeping it anyway, it's one of my favorite 60s records, I was just wondering for the collectable value.

The second disk of Vintage is kinda depressing. "Funky-Tunk" is a terrible name for a song. The song is not as bad as the title, though the Kermit-the-Frog vocals highlight something that bugs me about country rock: the suspicion that these guys are kinda making fun of country music. I hated the Beachwood Sparks for that reason. But the Jefferson Airplane on "The Farm", that's another example: too much yee-haw-ing, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GO_glmbqjI

What is it?

Have you guys heard about the live thing that Sundazed is doing?
http://www.sundazed.com/shop/moby_grape_live.php
Looks pretty rad

ooh, just found out about the live thing ... anyone heard it? samples on itunes sound great.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5500082647_9894689743_z.jpg

It's the airbrushed version!

true :(

Fun Fact: Jerry Miller played most of the guitar on the last Chocolate Watchband lp.

First album doesn't quite live up to its rep IMO, though unquestionably still a great straightforward rock LP with nice multipart vocals, triple-threat guitars, and consistantly good (but not great) songwriting. Also mixes hints of folk, blues, jazz, and country adroitly. For a band often labelled "psychedelic", notable that the only drug they sang the praises of was Robitussin!

Wow was the first Grape album I heard, and like many rock acts in that period, decided in the wake of Sgt. Pepper that any leading-edge rock band needed to embellish their music with strings, brass, and studio trickery. Some excellent songs here ("He", "Can't Be So Bad"), several forgettable ones ("Miller's Blues"), some half-baked good ideas, and more gimmicks (a lock groove near the end of side 1; you had to advance the stylus and play the last track at 78rpm). The free bonus disk, Grape Jam, is a collection of boring jam sessions, notable only for the first 45 seconds of the record: "Never" was copped by Led Zeppelin which built "Since I've Been Loving You" around the first verse of this song (after which it diverges completely).

Moby Grape '69 was more consistent than it's predecessor, more countrified, and no longer overproduced. Skip was out of the band by this point.

Don't recall anything all that likeable from the next two albums or the Bob Mosley solo LP. I've heard only a few song's from Oar, and wasn't excited enough to hear the rest. I also have their (again) self-titled 1983 album, which is likeable but utterly unexceptional adult-contemporary fare that could have been the work of, say, Firefall if it were catchier.

From what i understand, the best-sounding reissue of the first album was on Columbia's "Vintage" 2-disc set, which includs the 1st album in its entirety and highlights from the other three Columbia discs, with some outtakes and alternate versions thrown in. The Katz-issued CDs on the San Francisco Sound label sound like crap.

The "Grape Jam" record's only notable track is the one they recorded as a 'prize' in a songwriters competition.

Particularly the end "Whatever happened to hairy mary", which was a madly smutty entry they weren't allowed to choose as the winner.

The live sundazed 2lp is pretty spotty, tbh, but the sidelong "Dark Magic" recorded on new year's ever 1966 is unbelievably great.
Arguably worth the price of the set, but it's a pretty expensive set. They went all out on the packaging.

It's on the CD anyway, innit?

I dunno.

What CD?

oink

waffles

I don't know if anybody's already mentioned these, but I love "Ain't That a Shame" and "I Am Not Willing" from the third album. First LP's great, of course; haven't heard the second.

"dark magic" is kind of the pinnacle of this band imo

s/t > grape 69 > truly fine citizen > 20 granite creek > wow

imo.

First album doesn't quite live up to its rep IMO, though unquestionably still a great straightforward rock LP with nice multipart vocals, triple-threat guitars, and consistantly good (but not great) songwriting. Also mixes hints of folk, blues, jazz, and country adroitly. For a band often labelled "psychedelic", notable that the only drug they sang the praises of was Robitussin!

I never understood where the "psychedelic" label came from (at least, wrt the first record). The Book Of Rock Lists (listing Grape in "Bands That Died Before Their Time") in fact called them one of the only non-psychedelic bands to come out of the Bay Area.

In terms of songwriting, "Mr. Blues" (among others) is some crazy shit. The intro that never reappears? The lack of a chorus? That weird little breakdown just before the end? All in less than 2:00.

Agreed. Moby Grape is not in any way, shape, or form a psychedelic-rock band.

Several of the songs on the 1st album have end sections that don't appear anywhere else in the song (Mr. Blues, Someday, Indifference), or at least oddball codas (Ain't No Use, Lazy Me).

"The Place And The Time" is their craziest songwriting though IMO, to say nothing of production. Nothing even close to a chorus in there.

I'm gonna have to revisit that one; I know the first record like the back of my hand, but the rest of them I'm not as familiar with.

My only gripe with the first record is the production. In fact, aside from CCR and Sly, I can't think of a single Bay Area band that was decently recorded at that time. The snare on the first Grape record sounds like close-miked wax paper.

Moby Grape is not in any way, shape, or form a psychedelic-rock band
you should listen to Dark Magic, because it's sure as shit psychedelic.

OK I've never heard anything but the studio albums. You're referring to the recently released live set?

He is.

My only gripe with the first record is the production. In fact, aside from CCR and Sly, I can't think of a single Bay Area band that was decently recorded at that time. The snare on the first Grape record sounds like close-miked wax paper.

OTM

First Quicksilver album is nice sounding.

surrealistic pillow sounds good imo.

The post-SP Airplane albums sound even better.

First Big Brother, too. Mainstream label stuff had a nice, clean sound.

It was clean, but tame. I get the sense listening to those records that the engineers had no clue how to record/mike a loud drum kit (if those drummers even played loud), and told the drummers to lighten things up a bit.

That's interesting. I do tend to like '60s rock drummers that had a lighter touch, like Ron Edgar in the Music Machine or the guy in the Peanut Butter Conspiracy.

We need a Peanut Butter Conspiracy thread! Listening to "It's a Happening Thing" or "Turn on a Friend" for the first time made me feel like I'd just discovered the unbeknownst missing link between the Spanky & Our Gang and Jefferson Airplane...

the

I got the first one on LP. The record has been played to death, but it is cool to look at the cover.

Mind you the LP was toasted long before I ever got it. Got a feeling a few joints were rolled off it in its heyday.

And I have had the LP over 30 years now…