The next batch of albums feature three artists I’ve never heard of, and one that I have heard *of* but (aside from a collaboration with Frank Zappa), I’ve never heard (Captain Beefheart).
But first, Moby Grape, part of the San
Francisco sound, and maybe a little like Jefferson Airplane in sound, but more
towards country rock and less psychedelic. And they’re good, by gum, when
they’re good. I’m picking up a bit of Wishbone Ash as well, which is
unsurprising perhaps as both groups have multiple inter-weaving lead guitars.
Maybe a little like another overlooked group, Fanny (yes, British readers, that was their name).
The
trajectory of Moby Grape is a sad one, because they could have been much bigger
than they were, could easily have been a familiar name like many of the other
groups arising from the Summer of Love. But they were beset with mental
illness, legal and money problems, lengthy disputes with a grasping manager,
but they somehow limped on into the start of the twenty-first century, so full
marks for perserverence.
Most of the tracks are quite short,
especially the whimsical Naked If I Want To. Omaha features a fast driving
rhythm and hot guitar licks over the top, Changes is a classy track and
probably the most complete feeling tune on the album; as a whole it builds and
grows on you, what seems like some fairly typical country/folky hippy rock
suddenly makes you sit up and take notice at the skill going on. Apart from
them maddeningly sounding like something else that I can’t quite work out. My
first thought was the overlap in a Venn diagram of The Rolling Stones and The
Eagles, but that doesn’t do them justice. They are just Moby Grape.
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