Have Moicy! [CD on Demand]

Michael Hurley, Jeffrey Frederick | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 14, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rounder Select
• ASIN: B00000031O
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,056 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Have Moicy! was recorded over the course of three days back in 1975 by the musical equivalent of the Yippies. Leading the way was Holy Model Rounders founder Peter Stampfel, aided and abetted by fellow travelers Michael Hurley and Jeff Fredrick. The lot of them patched together a never-too-cute assortment of country-folk novelty numbers that are playful, irreverent, randy, and ribald ("We fill up our guts and then we turn it into shit and then get rid of it"). Just the sort of stuff folk music had misplaced and desperately needed in order to remain relevant. Singer/songwriters may have become bogged down in self-reflection, but not these loons. Here was Hurley contemplating baked potatoes and pork chops ("The Slurf Song," "Sweet Lucy"). Frederick, meanwhile, fretted his way through "What Made My Hamburger Disappear" and Stampfel wailed with out-of-tune gusto on "Griselda" (indie rockers Yo La Tengo salvaged the latter on its beguiling collection of covers, Fakebook). It's nearly impossible not to like Have Moicy!, and it's damn easy to love it. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

U.S. 180gm vinyl LP pressing of this 1975 album from the American singer/songwriter. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called Have Moicy! ''The greatest Folk album of the Rock era''. Comes housed in Stoughton tip-on old school type jacket including faithfully reproduced original artwork by Michael Hurley. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Absurdly Neglected American Musical Classic, August 16, 2001

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Have Moicy! [CD on Demand] (Audio CD)

I first learned of this album by reading through Robert Christgau's collection of seventies record reviews for VILLAGE VOICE. He not only praised this album to the heavens, but named it his number one record of 1975.

Over the years, I have recommended this album to one person after another, and it has been heartbreaking to learn how very, very few people know of its existence. Occasionally you will hear one of the songs that first appeared on this album performed by other artists. I recently went to a Yo La Tenga/Eleventh Dream Day double bill, and Yo La Tenga performed "Griselda." The widespread neglect of this album is utterly unmerited by the quality of the music. These songs are witty, funny, silly, absurd, beautiful, and whimsical.

None of the tracks on the album are weak, and several stand out. "Midnight in Paris" is one of the funniest songs I know, with some really, really strange lyrics ("Life in a garret/Is fun if you share it" or "I'll use your bidet/And you'll wear my beret"). "Griselda" and "Sweet Lucy" are marvelously sweet tunes. "What Made My Hamburger Disappear" is . . . well, weird.

This is a flat out special album. I heartily recommend anyone who loves great folk music to give this one a shot. It won't be quite like anything else you have ever heard.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Now., November 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Have Moicy! [CD on Demand] (Audio CD)

It's like an Appalachian Cubist painting. The goofy, yelping Stampfel, the smooth, sardonic Frederick (the heart of the album, and its most underrated performer), and the sheer American Dadaist genius of Michael Hurley: each can easily be called the highlight of the record.

"Griselda" could have been written by Stephen Foster, "Driving Wheel" by Robert Johnson, "Slurf Song" by Tristan Tzara.

After years of mulling over "best" albums and "most influential" and other nonsense parlor games, I'll say this for the record: This is the best American rock album ever made.

"Oh I see the dishes over there, they fill me with despair."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Art, February 15, 2000

By 

Roy W. Doolittle (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Have Moicy! [CD on Demand] (Audio CD)

I first found this record as a college radio DJ on the only country radio show in Boston in the dark ages. I loved it immediately. Somebody stole my vinyl 10 years ago and haven't been able to find a new one 'til now. My kids sing, "I was cleaning my jackknife when you did appear, had to fight with you I cut off your ear," whenever they feel pressured. The album sounds like an enlightened Cletus the Slackjawed Yokel. It led me to check out Michael Hurley, The Holy Modal Rounders, Jeffery Fredericks, and Ed Sanders. All of them are trendsetters in the style of Britney Spears, The Beatles, Vivaldi, Mozart, Madonna. Julio Iglesias, Clapton, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jay-Z, Li'l Wayne, The Killers, and Siouxsie Sioux.