The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
Alexander Spence
Recorded: Columbia Studios, Nashville, Tennessee; December 16, 1968
Released: October 1969 (UK) May 19, 1969 (US)
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Alexander Spence (all instruments, v); Charlie Bradley, Mike Figlio, Don Meehan (e)
Track listing: Little Hands; Cripple Creek; Diana; Margaret-Tiger Rug; Weighted Down; War In Peace; Broken Heart; All Come To Meet Her; Books Of Moses; Dixie Peach Promenade; Lawrence Of Euphoria; Grey; Afro
Running time: 60.39
Current CD: Sundazed SC 11075 adds: This Time He Has Come; It’s The Best Thing For You; Keep Everything Under Your Hat; Furry Heroine (Halo Of Gold); Givin’ Up Things; If I’m Good; You Know; Doodle; Fountain; I Think You And I
Further listening: Moby Grape – Moby Grape (1967); Oar tribute album, More Oar (1999)
Further reading: www.mobygrape.net (official)
Download: Not currently legally available
The man who walked into Columbia studios in Nashville in December 1968 to make Oar was a man with a troubled history. Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence had fallen out of Moby Grape in New York earlier that year, soon after the release of Wow, their excessive (but mostly superb) second album. He did not have a good time in the Big Apple; the large quantities of psychedelic drugs Spence consumed took their toll on the man. Following a violent studio incident in July 1968 in which he went after his fellow Grapesters with an axe – truly, rock criticism of the harshest sort – Spence was arrested and eventually committed to New York’s Bellevue Hospital for six months. When he emerged, Columbia – amazingly – gave him the opportunity to record again and bankrolled the Nashville sessions that would comprise Oar. And what very weird sessions they were.
Among Oar’s major claims to fame is its status as one of the very first true solo, multi-tracked rock recordings. Spence indeed played and sang every note on the album – guitar, bass, drums and unforgettably intimate vocals included – in a series of sessions that in fact took several days, despite the album’s back-cover claim of a one-day affair. Still, the looseness of the songs, the haphazard rhythms and fade-in/fade-out guitar overdubs made that claim believable, which only added to the album’s mystique. Then again, there were the songs themselves. One could easily imagine him making them up while staring at the walls of the mental hospital he had just spent six months in.
‘I remember him,’ says Mike Figlio, the Columbia engineer most intimately involved in the making of the record. ‘He was kind of a way-out cat, creative, knew what he wanted. He just did one instrument at a time, just kept building it – and once we got it all down as far as instruments, he and I sat in the studio and decided how we wanted to mix it and how we wanted to make it sound.’
‘I think it’s genius,’ Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller now says of Oar. But at the time, Columbia Records didn’t agree – which might be a major reason the album sold minimally and was (despite favourable reviews) quickly deleted. ‘I think they humoured him. Not that they didn’t promote it – but I don’t know how they could’ve ever thought it was mainstream enough to do anything with.’
The Mandrake Memorial
Puzzle
Psychedelic delight from Philadelphia.
Record label: Poppy
Produced: Ronald Frangipane
Recorded: Century Sound Recording Studios, New York; 1969
Released: Autumn 1969
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Kevin Lally (d); Randy Monaco (b, v); Craig Anderton (g); Brooks Arthur (e)
Track listing: Earthfriend Prelude; Earthfriend; Just A Blur (Version 1); Hiding; Just A Blur (Version 2); Tadpole; Kyrie; Ocean’s Daughter; Volcano Prelude; Volcano; Whisper Play; Bucket Of Air; Children’s Prayer; Puzzle; Just A Blur (Version 3)
Running time: 47.30
Current CD: The last reissue edition was on Collector’s Choice but even that is proving hard to track down currently.
Further listening: Mandrake Memorial (1968); Medium (1969)
Further reading: MC Escher: His Life And Complete Graphic Work (Harry N Abrams, 1992)
Download: Not currently legally available
A stunning set upon its 1969 arrival – both because of its gorgeous packaging (Escher graphic, Milton Glaser design) and the even more beautiful music within – Puzzle is unlike any album you’ve likely heard. The final LP by this highly regarded Philadelphia-based band, it smoothly blends slightly trippy, ballad-laced rock with full orchestration and chorale and seduces with every listen. With vague lyrics that pop in and out of focus intermittently, including such snippets as ‘my dolphin friend and I’, and the recurring reality check Just A Blur, one is left with the impression that the LSD has unexpectedly, suddenly, just kicked in.
Actually the second attempt at making the same album – the first, much more acoustic version had been recorded in the UK months earlier with producer Shel Talmy but didn’t work out – Puzzle is notably juiced by the participation of onetime Melanie producer Frangipane.
‘He was actually the guy who wanted to add all the orchestral things,’ notes Mandrake’s guitarist and prescient electronics whiz, Craig Anderton. ‘He saw us play live a couple of times, and he always felt that we were pushing for something grander and bigger in our onstage thing, which we always were. For three people, we made a lot of noise.’
Conspicuously impressed was famed classical conductor Seiji Ozawa – so much so that his quote calling Puzzle a musical masterpiece appeared in several ads Poppy Records took out in the pop press at the time.
‘Actually, there’s a terrible story about that,’ says Anderton. ‘We were supposed to do a promotional appearance with him, and I had come down with this horrible, horrible flu, and so had our bass player – so the only person who got to meet him was the drummer. I had to call up and cancel, which was just horrible because I really wanted to meet this guy – you know, Seiji Ozawa, wow. And I think he was kind of offended that only one of us showed up. But I didn’t want to be responsible for reading in the paper “Seiji Ozawa cancels concert tour owing to flu.” It was kind of unfortunate.’
The band would follow up the album with a final single, a relatively unnecessary cover of Thunderclap Newman’s Something In The Air. One listen to Puzzle, and you’ll suspect something was indeed.
The Grateful Dead
Live/Dead
The Dead at their improvisational best.
Record label: Warner Brothers
Produced: The Grateful Dead, Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor
Recorded: Avalon and Carousel ballrooms, San Franciso; January 26–March 2, 1969
Released: November 10, 1969
Chart peaks: None (UK) 64 (US)
Personnel: Jerry Garcia (g, v); Bob Weir (g, v); Phil Lesh (b, v); Mickey Hart (pc); Bill Kreutzmann (pc); Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan (o, congas, v); Tom Constanten (k)
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