Customer Reviews

Have Moicy! [CD on Demand]

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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.

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."

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.

Michael Hurley, The Holy Modal Rounders (minus Weber), and Jeffrey Frederick and the Clamtones assembled briefly for this amazing music bash, a tour de force of demented creativity, in 1976, and it's still weird 22 years later. Songs about newts and substance abuse, berets and bidets, magic and death. If you can't afford more than one record from Amazon.com, this is the one to buy.

I love this record. There aren't many albums that stick with you like this one. Putting this album on the box is like having your favorite hippy uncle drop by with a bottle of wine and a load of hilarious stories to tell. It's steeped in a rich tradition of American folk strangeness, the seeds of which can be found in the Harry Smith Folkways collection. These are the psychedelic children of the Grand Ol' Opry in an inspired set of eccentric barn dance songs for the cosmically enhanced rock 'n roll farmboy. "Sweet Lucy" will never let you go...You won't regret buying this one, it's a keeper.

My ex wife broke my first copy in 1976. She said it was an accident...? Anyway, went right out and bought another, wore it out, bought another and now have the CD also. One of my favorites to be sure. Oh yeah, Have Moicy 2 is in the embryonic stages. Yippee!

Words almost fail me in describing this CD. Fast and loose musicianship, smirky lyrics and a general atmosphere of anarchy are all on exhibit here. I find it impossible to remain in a bad mood after listening to this. Toujours l'amor!

This album has been one of my favorites for years. It combines humor and great mastery of "folk" stylings to create an American classic. Post-"Hippies" and other folks like me will LOVE it! Belongs in every true lover of classic rock's CD collection.

Most people either love "Have Moicy!" or they hate it. One friend of mine said "turn it off!" after the first ten seconds, but 30 seconds later, she already loved it. The music has a generally country sound, but I hate most country music, and I just love this. The cynical, smart humor and inspired (if perhaps partly drug-induced) lyrics and music really make it.

High times, lost times, shit, spaghetti, death, and perch from Lake Champlain...it's all here in an album that is both a celebration and refutiation of the American folk movement of the 60s...(did I mention that it's also one of the FUNNIEST records ever made?)...Buy immediately!