Notes

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As great of an addition that Moby Grape Live was to my collection, I'd still like to see other concert recordings of my favorite American rock band from the 1960s get the official release treatment. I know that the material is out there, but it may be a matter of the existing master tapes not sounding good enough to warrant such an undertaking. In the process of making my way through the numerous reviews about the aforementioned Sundazed title, it was interesting to see how strongly divided some fans were about their feelings for the psychedelic epic "Dark Magic." For people like me, finally hearing this piece in the best possible audio fidelity - after first just reading about it back in the early 1990s and then having it on various bootleg CDs - was a dream come true. It's one of those songs in which a listener can lose oneself regardless of his or her state of mind. However, there were quite a few who were downright dismissive in their assessment of this track. "Less thrilling" is how one person described it, while another pooh-poohed it as "17 minutes of guitar noodling, feedback, and incomprehensible 'lyrics.'" It's a shame that these people can embrace only the band's shorter and less challenging - but, mind you, no less magnificent - songs as the "real" Moby Grape. It's almost as if they want to deny an important part of the band's legacy: the fact that they could blow any other Haight-Ashbury group off the stage if jamming was the name of the game. In the end, the Grape's versatility is what made this San Francisco quintet such a truly extraordinary outfit. How many other groups could churn out two-and-a-half-minute should-have-been-hit psych rock nuggets AND full-on, mind-expanding improvisatory suites? Answer: none. To enjoy only Moby Grape's more concise material is to appreciate them at only half value. Nevertheless, I'll concede that the in-concert renditions of "Indifference," "Changes," "Omaha," et al. on Moby Grape Live are just as outstanding in their own way as "Dark Magic." You see, I like to have my cake and eat it, too.

THE FANTASTIC FIVE (L TO R): PETER LEWIS, JERRY MILLER,
SKIP SPENCE, BOB MOSLEY, & DON STEVENSON

So what we've got here are two shows that were recorded at a very early point in the band's history. The sound quality is not the best; Jerry Miller's lead guitar often drowns out Skip Spence and Peter Lewis' rhythm work; and the harmony vocals sometimes are a bit ragged. But if you can get past these sonic imperfections, I think that you'll find the performances herein to be quite good. First up is a concert from an unknown venue purported to be from sometime in 1966, although I suppose that it could be from early 1967 as well based on the song list. The version of "Dark Magic" from this gig is nearly the equal of that on Moby Grape Live, with the caliber of the source tape being the major issue. Just a little more than half of the tunes here made it onto their debut LP. "Looper," a personal favorite of mine, never got the respect that it deserved. "It's Gonna Take a Lot" is either a Grape original that was soon discarded or a cover version of a song with which I'm not familiar (but probably should be). It doesn't help that drummer Don Stevenson's vocals are pretty much inaudible. Can anybody out there help me properly identify this song? The accelerated version of "Big Boss Man" that was occasionally included in the band's set lists stands as one of the few instances in which a white boy actually improves upon a blues original. Bob Mosley practically makes the tune his own. I've always gotten a kick out of Peter Lewis' reminiscence (published in a mid-1990s issue of Ptolemaic Terrascope) of the initial time that he saw the bassist play prior to the formation of Moby Grape:
I'll never forget the first time I heard him. He sang "Big Boss Man." And his bass playing was just whatever he felt at the time. It was just this fuckin' noise. And he was looking right at me, singing like I was "big boss man" and "you ain't so tough." I didn't know what to think of Bob. I just knew I had to find him a place to stay because I didn't want him staying with me (laughs). You had the feeling that if you left your wife alone for five minutes he'd be fucking her in the bathroom (laughs).

L TO R: SKIP SPENCE, BOB MOSLEY, & PETER LEWIS

The next set of tracks is especially significant because it comprises the band's first concert at the Fillmore Auditorium on November 25, 1966. Bill Graham indicates this on the opening cut in which he states, "The first of hopefully many, many appearances at the Fillmore, a great bunch of juvenile delinquents: Moby Grape." Unfortunately, the sound quality is worse on these tracks, and I keep waiting for a higher-grade version of this show to appear on Wolfgang's Vault. So far, no such luck. Although many of the same songs that the group plays on the preceding live recording are performed here as well, there are some notable additions such as the Byrdsy "Rounder" and what must have been one of the earliest attempts at "Bitter Wind." To my ears, that sounds like Skip Spence speaking before the band launches into "Stop." The demo version that appeared as a bonus track on one of the recalled Sundazed Moby Grape reissues only hints at the power of this song, which is greatly augmented by Mosley's additional vocals on this live rendition. Oh, what could have been. "Fall on You" and "Miller's Blues" are both capable, while the take on "Dark Magic" from this show is more deliberate and methodical. "Ain't No Use" is pure country rock bliss about two years ahead of schedule. If I understand the intro to "Indifference" (is that Miller doing the talking?) correctly, this marks the first time that this particular song was recorded as it had only just entered Moby Grape's repertory the night before. Amazing. As for "Changes," I have yet to hear a version of this song that I didn't like.

A big, humongous "thank you" to ARK for making these tracks available to me.

Unknown Venue - 1966
1. Dark Magic
2. Mr. Blues
3. Changes
4. Looper
5. It's Gonna Take a Lot
6. Sitting by the Window
7. Big Boss Man
8. 8:05
9. Ain't No Use
10. Omaha

Fillmore Auditorium - November 25, 1966
11. Intro
12. Rounder
13. Bitter Wind
14. Intro
15. Stop
16. Fall on You
17. Miller's Blues
18. Dark Magic
19. Ain't No Use
20. Intro
21. Indifference
22. Changes