Moby Grape’s Eight Greatest Songs
Looking back on the San Francisco band’s career high points after the passing of founding member Jerry Miller
Although his passing may not have been noticed or even mentioned in the mainstream press, Jerry Miller ought to be considered one of the architects of American rock ‘n’ roll.
Miller, who died this past Saturday at age 81, was a founding member of Moby Grape, a seminal outfit in San Francisco’s revolutionary music scene in the middle ‘60s. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Grape took a broad view of the musical terrain, combining elements of roc and roll, folk, psychedelia, and early Americana in ways that were quite remarkable at the time.
Their variety and versatility can be traced to the fact that all the Moby Grape members — Miller, Don Stevenson, Skip Spence, Bob Mosely and Peter Lewis — were gifted singer/songwriters, a fact that became immediately with their eponymous debut album. Despite ensuing legal issues with their original manager Matthew Katz and subsequently fracturing in their ranks due to personal problems and other internal issues, they released a series of classic albums that still stand the test of time and remain nothing less than spell-binding even today. Those first four albums — the self-titled debut, Wow, Truly Fine Citizen, and Moby Grape ’69 — are archetypical examples of the joy and exuberance that typified the ‘60s, when anything seemed possible any music fully embraced eager experimentation.
Like Buffalo Springfield, one particular band that shared certain similarities to Moby Grape in terms of the era they were involved with and the music they came to make, the Grape boasted three lead guitarists, multiple singers and a sound that was as exuberant as it was expansive. The band’s debut album — featuring Stevenson defiantly giving photographer Jim Marshall a staunch middle finger — epitomized that approach. It even prompted their then-label, Columbia Records, to release five songs simultaneously as singles, an unheard of strategy both then and now. Nevertheless, each of those tracks was worth the added attention and can be considered seminal standards.
Here then, are our choices for a veritable Moby Grape greatest hits, many, but not all of which, are culled from that essential debut.
1. “Hey Grandma”: A vibrant and somewhat bombastic album opener, this track in particular personified Grape’s no holds-barred approach to to their rock ’n’ roll revelry. Its ambiguous lyric nevertheless managed to underscore the decided determination embedded in the music.
“Hey Grandma, you’re so young
Your old man’s just a boy”
As the saying goes, it pays to be young at heart, no matter what one’s age. And, as implied here, there are likely benefits to an autumn/winter romance. The song was later covered by the British band The Move on their own self-titled first album.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Hey Grandma”
2. “8:05”: A beautiful ballad that details the heartache and happenstance of being left behind by a wandering lover. There’s an uncommon tenderness and despair that’s echoed early on, as the singer swears to his departing partner, “I can’t go on without you.” The ache and heartbreak are palatable throughout.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “8:05”
3. “Fall On You”: Another irrepressible rocker, and one which also addresses a similar scenario as the aforementioned “8:05,” that is, what happens when one’s soulmate abandons her partner and opts to wander elsewhere. In this case, it’s all about suspicion.
“Did you ever get the feeling
That your baby’s gonna set you free?
Won’t she tell you why it’s over?
You try and tell her she’ll be sorry
Do you sit and wonder ‘Was it me?’”
There’s obvious recrimination implied as well, giving the rousing refrain a decidedly bitter edge.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Fall On You”
4. “Naked If I Want To”: An ultimate homage to freedom of expression, the song ponders the limits of a personal proviso. It’s not only a beckon call for nudism, but a rebellious anthem overall, going from an innocent request (“Can I pop fireworks on the Fourth of July”) to a plea for economic latitude (“Can I buy an amplifier on time/I Ain’t got no money now, but I will pay you before I die”). Hmmm, the singer might not have been a great credit risk, but this plaintive plea makes for a proposition well worth considering.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Naked If I Want To”
5. “Come in the Morning”: Another driving and dynamic anthem, this particular song is tempered with a soulful vocal anymore than a hint of optimism, as if the singer is leading his listeners to a brighter tomorrow. “You know I love you,” he sings, adding to the reassurance that’s inherent throughout.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Come in the Morning”
6. “Omaha”: Given its thoroughly emphatic delivery, “Omaha” ranks among the most explosive and yet decidedly compelling songs in the entirety of the Moby Grape catalog. Its riveting refrain “Listen my friends” seems directed towards a would-be lover, but given the obvious inclusion of an entire crowd, it appears to tout the precepts of polygamy> Then again, this was the freewheeling ‘60s after all.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Omaha”
7. “Murder In My Heart for the Judge”: An unblemished indictment of a legal system that often dismissed defendants and presumed them guilty from the get-go, there’s no disguising the bitterness and indignity that are inherent throughout. A steady, propulsive beat underscores the anger and outrage.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Murder in My Heart for the Judge”‘
8. “Skip’s Song”: Credited to Skip Spence, first a guitarist with Quicksilver Messenger Service and later the original drummer of the Jefferson Airplane prior to joining Moby Grape, “Skip’s Song” (otherwise known as “Spence’s “Seeing”) reflects the troubled, psychedelic side of the band, and personifies Spence’s own bizarre psyche. The effects of LSD and mental illness led him to go after his fellow band members in a New York City hotel and eventually had him kicked out of the band after being confined to Bellevue mental hospital (where he subsequently wrote and recorded his first solo album, Oar). He died from lung cancer in April 1999, but when Robert Plant (an avowed Moby Grape fan) recorded the song, it assured the fact that his legacy would live on, and with it, that of Miller and Moby Grape overall.
AUDIO: Moby Grape “Skip’s Song”
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I – along with my with close friends in 1967-68 – was fortunate to see Moby Grape many times, first at the Village Theater – before Bill Graham bought it and renamed it the Fillmore and even the reunion in June 1972 a year after it closed….then later at the Wetlands in the late 1990s……your article was outstanding….Dennis Tort ….more to follow, please write me back, I have many stories