Customer Reviews

Oar

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of "halfway houses", and thus a lot of pretty disturbed people. When I was in High School there was a rumor that a certain local panhandler was none other than Skip Spence, the founder of Moby Grape. My friendds and I, sons of Bay Area Hippies, all, took a lot of plaeasure in imaging that it really was the 60's legend leaning up against 7-11 drunk and bewildered. We wondered what kind of drugs we'd have to take to end up like that. Anyway, I figured I could get a little perspective on the guy if I actually listened to his music. So I borrowed a copy of Oar, and hated it. It was mostly slow, and seemed tedious and self-involved. Of course, I was 17 years old. Now, I'm glad I got it. This record is so good in it's way that it's hard to describe. It's sort of straight-ahead folk as done by a guy who's run the gamut of 60's psychedelia. The music isn't overtly psychedelic, but the guy can't help leaving serious traces of all the weird places he's been. It's amazing how far a guy with a guitar can take you. This is a real eerie recording and it's not always pleasant, but it does things few albums can. For that it's worth the money. By the way, my friends and I were wrong all along about the drunk guy at 7-11.

If Death ever picks up a few chords and takes it to the studio, the result is likely to sound a lot like this. From the haunted vocals of "Cripple Creek," the choking heart of "Diana" and the ferocious guitar licks on "War In Peace," perhaps the album's best track, something darkly powerful lurks beneath the surface of this masterpiece. Amid so many tossed-off attempts at marketable psychedelia in Spence's day, this is one of the few with at least an air of authenticity. Though as song after well-wrought song unfolds, it becomes less of an "air" and much more of the real thing. Equally as startling as Spence's sense for great songwriting is the range of voices and tones he explores. The oddly comforting "Little Hands" descends into the possessed "Cripple Creek." "Books of Moses" might as well be the only recorded vocal performance of Moses himself, it sounds that rusty and raw; yet this too floats quietly into that other end of Skip's endless spectrum with the unassuming "Dixie Peach Promenade."

Skip's story is the stuff of legend now: frustrated with Jefferson Airplane's refusal to allow the guitarist any more than the role of a drummer, he fled to the briefly brilliant Moby Grape before strapping his guitar to his back and taking a motorcycle ride to Nashville, where he recorded this album in a haze of drugs and alienation. His is one of those cases in which the confidence of genius is the thing that kept him from glory in his day, but assured him a longer-lasting spotlight among the rock 'n roll immortals. The indignity of his mental illness and the decades he spent wasting away in asylums is compounded only by the alleged "tribute album" released for him in 1999. The hope was that it would pay his medical expenses, but Spence died just around the release of the album. Even so, why guys like the squealing money-bags of rock, Robert Plant, couldn't simply cut a check for the man's bills rather than releasing this "tribute album," bound to fail commercially because hardly anyone living had given a second's thought to its tributee in at least thirty years, is beyond me. At least it served up a classic rendition of "Book of Moses" by the always reliable Tom Waits, as well as a weirdly effective cover of "Halo of Gold" by Beck. Yet only one or two of the various artists featured on the tribute has ever managed the simultaneously accessible and challenging music Spence achieved on this, his only solo album. A solid affair from start to finish, it testifies to the combination of talent and substance so rarely bestowed upon the music world.

"Oar" has the dubious distinction of being the worst selling album in the massive Columbia Records catalog, and it effectively torpedoed the professional music career of Skip Spence. In 1969, Skip was committed to Bellvue Hospital after a drug fueled rampage with a fireman's axe, in a Manhattan hotel, while on tour with Moby Grape. Following his release from Bellevue, Skip headed to Nashville and recorded "Oar" a stunning coda to Moby Grape, the Summer of Love and his career.

Skip cobbled this album together with few resources aside from his own musical brilliance. The frequent comparisons to Syd Barrett really don't hold up. Skip was in full command of his mental facilities during the "Oar" sessions and to praise this album as the work an "acid casualty" is to trivialize the visionary intent of "Oar". True...this album has inspired an entire genreration of do-it-yourself, low-fi, outsider music but Skip's singular talent demands that "Oar" be accepted on it's own terms. Beneath the pastoral feel of "Oar" lurks a knotty tension that threatens to explode, even on a "good time" song like "Lawrence of Euphoria". It's all there...the full range of Skip's struggle with sanity... the creeping paranoia, the mania, the isolation and finally a sense of resignation. "Grey/Afro" a circular drum-driven tour de force is "Oar's" touchstone. This is where all of Skip's conflicting emotions collide in a mantra that slowly builds into a frenzy of disjointed drumming only to collapse and restart almost endlessly. It's listening to a stalled automobile trying to kick over, again and again.

In 1989, I caught up with Skip Spence who had lived in and out of homeless shelters for many years since "Oar". He was using psychotropic medications and finally had his own apartment in San Jose California. Skip never lost sight of the fact that he was first and foremost a musician and was always trying to get back in the game. Skip was writting some exceptional music, which he said was "floating around" on tape somewhere. I hope that music eventually sees the light of day because it is the equal of anything on "Oar". Skip seemed geneuinely suprised that I knew the Moby Grape classic "Omaha" and could sing and play the song along with him. Skip told me he always considered "Oar" to be his ultimate artistic statement and hoped that someday it would find an audience, however small. From time to time he'd send me a funny postcard, even though we'd met only once for a couple of hours. His last postcard said a group of great musicians were recording a tribute album to "Oar" and he was plotting the biggest comeback in the history of mankind. Skip's death went unreported by most of the major news services and I read about his passing on an internet site devoted to noted homeless people, three weeks after his death. I wish he would have stuck around long enough to finish his comeback.

The late Skip Spence {R.I.P. 1946-1999} has been credited for being an early member of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. Unfortunately, 'Oar' is Spence's only solo recording. Some have said he is like the U.S. reply to Syd Barrett, which I thought is sort of apparent on certain tunes here, like "War In Peace", the psych gem "Broken Heart", "It's The Best Thing For You" and maybe "Furry Heroine". Check it out for yourself and see how you like this twenty-two track compilation that Sundazed put out awhile back. Sure took me long enough to get around to hearing. Once again, a pure case of just too many 'new' good releases coming out every month.

What can I say about this album? Just buy it. It is one of the most moving pieces of work I've heard ever. I've been telling everyone I know to buy it. Please just do. When you hear this album you'll know why it is a legend. Just put it on - turn the lights off - and close your eyes. You can almost see Skip singing around a camp fire. Or singing on a old house's porch in a thunderstorm. Just get it and be one of the lucky few to see why this album is one of the best ever.

Despite some reviewers comments, I am a fan of this album who never heard of Spence or even Moby Grape and no one knows I what music I listen to, so I am not just loving this album because of the hype. Instead, I just was listening to an internet radio station when "Cripple Creek" came on and I was immediately attracted to it.

Why? I think it is Spence's voice, which has this authenticity to it that is missing even in many "wanna-be authentic" singer/rocker voices. Maybe it is the melody that is never lost even though the lyrics ramble and the beat slows. I just know this is an album I listen to a lot, and it has nothing to do with me putting on some kind of "poseur" attitude because this album is supposedly trendy-cool. I am just glad it was available 30-odd years later and that I got the chance to be exposed to it!

I recommend listening to the song excerpts and deciding for yourself -- does this appeal to you? Don't think too hard about it -- if it grabs you like it did me, then go ahead and buy it. I will say that when you do, it won't be one of those albums you throw into your collection and never listen to after a month -- it doesn't grow "old" the way some albums do.

I'm not a Moby Grape fan, but I love this album. The almost-unhinged demo all-acoustic sound makes it a good one to put on when you're reading, writing, or awake at 3 in the morning.

None of the songs are organized enough to be commercial radio friendly, but "Little Hands" and "Weighted Down" get the closest. Though he wrote it in prison, "Weighted Down" isn't the Nick Drake "Black Dog" kind of song you'd expect; it has an odd country-music brightness to it. "Grey/Afro" is the most psychedelic, experimental, clearly 60s track on the original LP, though compared to the rest of the album it's a little dull before the 7-minute point. My favorites on the CD are

"Diana" -- a real end-of-the-line love song. sweet and strung out.

"Books of Moses" -- a huge, frightening sound achieved with an acoustic guitar, Spence's vocals and some echo. includes rain sound effects, but not as bad as that sounds. oh, I love it.

"Laurence of Euphoria" -- carnival silliness.

The "Extra Oar" tracks extend "Grey/Afro" in a good direction. The additional bonus tracks aren't remarkable.

In a simpler time people made records as a nessesary extension of their need to express themselves,not for money or fame..well eventually for money and fame but a true artist can`t help but do what they have to do to be heard.After spending about a year in a mental ward in New York after a drug induced episode that led to his arrest,he contacted a friend at Moby Grapes lable and borrowed some cash,bought a motorcycle and went to Nashville to do some recording of songs he had written while incarcerated.The result was a spooky and dark album called Oar.
Playing all the instruments himself,he created a batch or moody yet great songs - Little Hands,War In Peace,Grey Afro are some of my favorites...Syd Barrett comes to mind and like Syd after a brief flash of brilliance all that was left was the music.
It might take a few listens but eventually it will feel like a visit from an old dear friend.....R.I.P Skip - a disc worth buying.

Well, clearly enough people here have raved about the music, and it's great, so I won't go on about that. The truly wonderful thing with this release is the sound quality--I had the original CD reissue which was pretty poorly done. Now we seem to live in the age when serious reissues are done with "scholarly" liner notes, extra tracks, etc. Sundazed has cleaned up the sound on this record quite a bit--it's like a giant woolly blanket has been lifted off your ears. Be sure to crank the volume knob!!!

I purchased 'Oar' the day it came out in 1969 and put it on as my buddies and I sat down to play some poker, but I have never recovered from the ether issuing from the confluence of my turntable with that indescribable hunk of vinyl.

That vinyl is now mighty valuable (in the E-Bay sense) but even more valuable to me as one of those 'constants' one finds in one's life. The fact that Bob Irwin at Sundazed was able to absolutely replicate the original vinyl sound is quite astonishing.

I would recommend that you listen to the original track list, starting with "Little Hands" and ending with "Grey / Afro". These songs have nothing stronger in any discography to compare with.

Unfortunately, some folks just don't "get" Oar. If you are one who does assimilate these contents, lucky you. Note the beatific smile on Skip's face on the cover. Sorry, but this whole thing is really pretty elusive and non-conducive to analysis. It's just "Oar".

It's one of those few "forever" works of art.