Moby Grape

Certain Songs #1183: Moby Grape – “I Am Not Willing”

April 12, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moby Grape ’69
Year: 1969

On the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Cosmic Psychedelic Country Division, “I Am Not Willing” isn’t just the highlight of Moby Grape’s third album, 1969’s Moby Grape ’69 (nice!), but the greatest song they ever wrote, sporting a melody that is both as old and as deep as the mountains, while remaining fresh today as it was 50 years ago.

I mean, after all, I bought the the two-CD Moby Grape Vintage compilation back in 1993 because I wanted to have their classic debut on CD — and they knew it, as the first disc is all Moby Grape plus outtakes and live versions, leaving their other three records to share the second disc — so when “I Am Not Willing” showed up near the end of the second disc, I was completely gobsmacked. How wasn’t I prepared for this?

Certain Songs #1182: Moby Grape – “Murder in My Heart For The Judge”

April 11, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wow
Year: 1968

One of the myths that grew up around Moby Grape was that they made one great, undeniable album, and then didn’t do anything worthwhile after it. That my was dispelled in 1993, when Columbia reissued a two-CD retrospective called Vintage, which simultaneously reinforced the myth — including the debut in its entirety — and dispelled it forever, as there a bunch of great songs on subsequent records.

The problem was, of course, those great songs were spread out among the rest of their career. Nevertheless, Moby Grape produced a couple of sleeper classics, one of which — “Murder in My Heart For The Judge” — wasn’t really much of a sleeper, as it was almost immediately covered by Three Dog Night and Lee Michaels.

Certain Songs #1181: Moby Grape – “Omaha”

April 10, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moby Grape
Year: 1967

The reason that Moby Grape didn’t become the biggest group from the San Francisco scene wasn’t that they were beset by bad management; nor was it that they allowed Columbia to release five singles from the album on the exact same day; nor was it even the silly name. The reason that Moby Grape never became huge was that that they were too talented to be focused.

This was a band with five lead singers and five songwriters. (And three guitarists, when that kind of thing was still uncommon.) And while many of their competitors had more than one singer, those bands usually had a single focal point — a Jerry Garcia or a Grace Slick or a Roger McGuinn — around whom the rest of the band revolved.