Moby Grape - Selftitled (Great 1st Album US 1967 + Bonus)

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Some Artwork Included

Moby Grape is the rock band Moby Grape's eponymous 1967 debut album. Coming from the San Francisco scene, their reputation quickly grew to immense proportions, leading to a bidding war and a contract with Columbia Records. The album peaked at #24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in September 1967.

Production began on Moby Grape in Los Angeles in March 1967. Produced by David Rubinson, it took just six weeks, and $11,000, from March 11 to April 25, to record all thirteen tracks and a fourteenth that was intended for the album but for which lyrics were never written ("Rounder").

The cover photograph is by noted rock photographer Jim Marshall. On the original release, Don Stevenson is shown "flipping the bird" (making an obscene gesture) on the washboard. It was airbrushed out on subsequent pressings, but the UK re-issue on Edsel/Demon restored it.

The flag behind Skip Spence is actually a United States flag that Columbia Records decided to obscure through airbrushing, presumably due to the political climate of the times. On the original release, the flag is colored red. When the cover was revised to remove the offending finger mentioned above, the flag was changed from red to black, again presumably due to possible political interpretations (the association of the color red with communism). The Edsel vinyl (1984) and CD (1989) re-issues restored the photo to its original state, with Don Stevenson's displayed finger and an un-airbrushed United States flag. Other CD re-issues use the cover from the first pressing, with the finger intact and the flag tinted red.

Released on June 6, 1967, Columbia chose also to place ten of the thirteen songs on five singles released on the same day: "Fall on You"/"Changes", "Sitting By the Window"/"Indifference" (2:46 edit), "8:05"/"Mister Blues", "Omaha"/"Someday" and "Hey Grandma"/Come in the Morning". Of these five, only "Omaha" and "Hey Grandma" charted.

Nevertheless, as Gene Sculatti and Davin Seay write in their book San Francisco Nights, Moby Grape "remains one of the very few psychedelic masterpieces ever recorded." Justin Farrar considered that "(i)t's no understatement to hail the group's 1967 debut as the ancestral link between [sic] psychedelia, country rock, glam, power pop and punk." In addition, the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said their "debut LP is as fresh and exhilarating today as it was when it exploded out of San Francisco during 1967's summer of love." In 2003, the album was ranked number 121 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Noted rock critic Robert Christgau listed it as one of The 40 Essential Albums of 1967. As reviewed by Mark Deming, "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."

In 2008, Skip Spence's song "Omaha" was listed as number 95 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". The song was described there as follows: "On their best single, Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis and Skip Spence compete in a three-way guitar battle for two and a quarter red-hot minutes, each of them charging at Spence's song from different angles, no one yielding to anyone else.

" Writing in 1967, shortly after the album's release, Crawdaddy! creator Paul Williams described "Omaha" as "the toughest cut on the album (and) one of the finest recorded examples of the wall-of-sound approach in rock. It surges and roars like a tidal wave restrained by a seawall."

Personnel
♦ Peter Lewis – rhythm guitar, vocals
♦ Bob Mosley – bass, vocals
♦ Jerry Miller – lead guitar, vocals
♦ Skip Spence – rhythm guitar, vocals
♦ Don Stevenson – drums, vocals

01. "Hey Grandma" Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson  02:43
02. "Mr. Blues" Bob Mosley  01:58
03. "Fall on You" Peter Lewis  01:53
04. "8:05" Miller, Stevenson  02:17
05. "Come in the Morning" Mosley  02:20
06. "Omaha" Skip Spence  02:19
07. "Naked, If I Want To" Miller 00:55
08. "Someday" Miller, Stevenson, Spence 02:41
09. "Ain't No Use" Miller, Stevenson  01:37
10. "Sitting by the Window" Lewis  02:44
11. "Changes" Miller, Stevenson  03:21
12. "Lazy Me" Mosley  01:45
13. "Indifference" Spence  04:14


MOBY GRAPE (KSAN Live Bonus Production )
Avalon Ballroom 1967
    
14. "It Depends On You"  07:34
15. "Changes"  04:23
16. "Leavin'"  01:57
17. "Grape Jam with Big Brother...  05:12

Extra Bonus:
MOBY GRAPE - FALL ON AMSTERDAM 1969-02-12

01. I'm Not Willing  05:23
02. Trucking Man  02:07. 
03. Sitting By The Window  03:40 
04. Fall On You 02:23 
05. Murder In My Heart For The Judge 05:13 
06. Untitled Blues 04:57 
07. Omaha  05:38
08. If You Can't Learn From My Mistakes 05:11
09. Hey Grand Ma  04:53
10. Omaha Reprise  05:49

Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
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