Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape by Moby Grape (Cassette, May-1993, 2 Discs, Legacy Rock Artifacts Series)

Album Features
UPC:	074645304144
Artist:	Moby Grape
Format:	Cassette
Release Year:	1993
Record Label:	Legacy Rock Artifacts Series
Genre:	Country Rock, Rock & Pop
Number Of Discs:	2

Details
Contributing Artists:	Arthur Godfrey
Distributor:	Sony Music Distribution (
Recording Type:	Mixed, Studio
Recording Mode:	Mixed
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel includes: Bob Mosley (vocals, guitar); Skip Spence, Peter Lewis (guitar); Jerry Miller (bass); Don Stevenson (drums).Additional personnel: Arthur Godfrey (banjo, ukulele); Lou Waxman And His String Orchestra.Compilation producer: Bob Irwin.Recorded between 1967-1969. Includes liner notes by David Fricke.All tracks are in stereo except tracks 22-23 on disc 1 which are mono.Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).VINTAGE - THE VERY BEST OF MOBY GRAPE includes a 27-page booklet containing extensive biographical information, track-by-track annotations and photos.The subject of an intense label bidding war, Moby Grape's eponymous debut held great promise. Their three-part harmonies, trio of chiming guitars and five-man songwriting threat were an anomaly in a San Francisco scene where jamming was held in greater regard than actual song structure. Columbia Records won the bidding and proceeded to overhype the band into oblivion, at one point simultaneously releasing five singles, confusing retailers and the record buying public. Matters were made worse by the band's proclivity for bad behavior, and Moby Grape broke up in 1969, remembered more for their public relations fiascos than their considerable musical prowess.

Precisely what the legal status of Moby Grape's original Columbia Records recordings is, at this writing (in late 2004), is anyone's guess -- the label's own legal department used to change its outlook like a weather vane, one season saying they were free-and-clear, and other months claiming they were the subject of litigation, much as the group's name remains a bone of contention between the surviving members and their original manager. What is certain is that Sony Music's domestic double-CD compilation of the band's work, Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape, appears and disappears from record store bins like the proverbial White Whale, here one day and gone the next, but officially out-of-print. And that set had its problems, offering too much, and especially too many seemingly overlapping tracks for the casual listener who just wanted to find out something about Moby Grape. This single hour-long CD from Sony Music in England is definitely in print as of 2004, and it has some considerable virtues -- the 60 minutes of music here include a couple of tracks that aren't on the double set (as well as leaving out quite a few, including "Mr. Blues," "Naked, If I Want To," "Someday," "Ain't No Use in It," and "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot"), but generally gives a lean, direct cross-section of the band's best work from 1966 through 1968. There's no discography information, and Dave DiMartino's essay is too personal and stylized, and only a shadow of what David Fricke wrote for Vintage, but the music is so cool -- this is some of the most inventive and effortlessly executed psychedelia ever recorded, and listening to this collection, one will come away more astonished than ever that the band never found success. The sound is excellent, seemingly from the same masters as Vintage, though it's just possible that the volume has been tweaked slightly upward, and that's not a bad alteration -- this band played well, but they were meant to be heard loud, something that Columbia's original engineers and the group's producer never quite understood or were unable to realize properly. Here you get the electric playing up close and personal, but also the action on the strings is audible, so you never lose track of the three guitars at work throughout (sometimes playing in completely different styles, but all interlocked), or the group voices. ~ Bruce Eder

Editorial Reviews
9 - Excellent Plus - ...[Moby Grape] produced a sound and vision that was theirs alone....[a] stormer that seethes with 60s teen spirit....
NME

Ranked #9 in the Village Voice's list of the 10 Best Reissues Of 1993.
Village Voice (19940301)