Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MY FAVORITE ALBUM FROM THE LATE 1960S!!!!!!!!!!!!!, November 6, 2007
I have been waiting since CDs came out (during the '80s) for this to be released. Heck, I even burned myself a CD copy of a vinyl copy I owned. I picked it up in Boston yesterday and listened to it on the way to work here in New Hampshire. I just made a turn in the road and before me the sun broke through the clouds, shining on golden leafed trees tinged with frost. At that moment, cut 4 came on, ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY TODAY!!!! (Seriously, this is true, honest to God!!). That says it all. A big fan of Moby Grape, I picked this up in vinyl when it originally came out and it just grabbed me. Beautiful ballads like the one just mentioned, fine country songs like "Ain't that a shame" which I could picture Meryl Haggard singing, out and out rockers like "Truckin' Man" and "Hoochie", heavy rockers like "You ain't goin' nowhere" and even a Skip Spence gem "Seeing"! Personally, I like this album just as much as the first one, but that's just me. Its an honest collection of heart felt songs. God, do I love this band for their musicianship, songwriting and plain feeling!! All my life this album has, and will remain, one of the three or four I would take to a desert island. Another reviewer has supplied ample description of the record. For my part, I have absolutely no reservation in recommending this album as one of the BEST, if not THE BEST and most heartfelt recordings during the transition in California from acid rock to the gentler country sounds of the early '70s. ESSENTIAL LISTENING FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN QUALITY AMERICAN MUSIC, HANDS DOWN!!!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime, November 13, 2007
This album, released in the wake of a series of catastrophes that plagued Moby Grape throughout most of 1968, is uniformly excellent. It's as cohesive an album as their debut and sidesteps most of the indulgences that plagued WOW, the Grape's second album; in fact, MOBY GRAPE '69 sounds so doggone freewheeling in places that you'd never suspect the band was in such turmoil during its recording. There are a lot of gems here. "Ohh Mama Ohh" starts everything off with those "Hey Grandma" harmonies smack in place; Peter Lewis contributes three lovely and lovelorn ballads, "What's To Choose," "I Am Not Willing" and "If You Can't Learn From My Mistakes," the latter sounding a lot like something The Buffalo Springfield might've done if they'd thought of it; Bob Mosley's "Hoochie" and "Trucking Man" are the requisite soul raunch he delivered so well and so often; and the late Skip Spence's "Seeing" is a haunting and somewhat terrifying look into some sort of abyss, perhaps prefiguring his own crack-up and departure from the band.
The extras are all worth having, my favorite being "Big," a sort-of campfire singalong previously available on the best-of VINTAGE GRAPE.
If you've ever heard OF Moby Grape, but haven't actually HEARD them, get their debut album first, then get this one. You'll want everything else they did once you've heard them, they were that good.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I'm so depleted . . .", November 8, 2007
By all accounts, this could easily have been a major disaster, following on the craziness of the New York recording sessions of its predecssor, "Wow," and the departure of group member Skip Spence. Instead, the resulting CA sesssions produced perhaps the group's second strongest album, with more than a few echoes of the debut.
Generally described as a turn to country and roots rock, I see this album through a somewhat darker lens, that is, as an extended meditation on the struggle to prevent disintegration. With various members undergoing their own personal crises--Bob Mosely was to leave soon after this, Skip Spence had his own inner demons to deal with ("Seeing:), and Peter Lewis was undergoing a divorce ("I Am Not Willing")--Moby Grape '69 represented a space of solace, one where the music worked as a positive force against these outside forces, and brought, albeit briefly, a new four-piece band into being.
The playing here is wonderful, too, with acoustic flourishes in "It's a Beautiful Day, Today," and the delicious, lazy opening lick of "Ain't that a Shame." The efforts at up-tempo pieces, while perhaps a bit derivative lyrically (especially "Trucking Man") convey an energy missing from "Wow." Finally, "Going Nowhere" and "Seeing," the set's closers, provide a killer finish; and the latter track, with its repeated invocation to "Save Me!" and "take me far away" remains some sort of acid-fried masterpiece (one doesn't need to know Skip's subsequent history to hear the pangs of genuine angst in his vocals).
An album which the liner notes to Vintage described as "criminally underrated," this one, along with the first, represents the group's true legacy, a band that could cover a diverse range of styles with terse, poignant lyrics. And, once again, the Sundazed remastering does a nice job, making this a worthy addition to any collection. Sadly to say, I can't say the same of the next release in this series, "Truly Fine Citizen," but more on that later . . .
I used to program the Moby Grape '69 tracks on my copy of Vintage to simulate the album, but now I don't have to do that anymore--highly recommended along with the first album, with the other three reiusses remaining reserved mainly for fans of the group.
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