Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960's, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music. Due to the strength of their debut album, several critics consider Moby Grape to be the best rock band to emerge from the San Francisco music scene in the late sixties. The group continues to perform occasionally. As described by Jeff Tamarkin, "The Grape's saga is one of squandered potential, absurdly misguided decisions, bad-luck, blunders and excruciating heartbreak, all set to the tune of some of the greatest rock and roll ever to emerge from San Francisco. Moby Grape could have had it all, but they ended up with nothing, and less."The complete version of Wow was first released on CD in Japan in 1995. A newly remastered version was released by Sundazed Records on October 9, 2007 featuring a number of bonus tracks, most of which are previously unreleased. At the same time Sundazed also released the CD debut of Grape Jam in its entirety with 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks.
Both Wow and Grape Jam were taken out of print on November 3, 2007, along with Moby Grape for reasons that were not officially specified. It has been widely circulated on the Moby Grape mailing list that former manager Matthew Katz, whom the band has been in legal battles with since the late 1960s, threatened to file a lawsuit against Sundazed claiming ownership of the albums' artwork.
Artwork
Artwork of the Wow album (design and illustration) was done by Bob Cato. Cato proposed a surreal image without any input from the band. Cato was influenced by various Victorian woodcuts. According to Peter Lewis the title was left off the cover because "What was in the box was more important than the box." It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1969.
Tracklist:
1. The Place and the Time
2. Murder in My Heart for the Judge
3. Bitter Wind
4. Can't Be So Bad
5. Just Like Gene Autry; A Foxtrot
6. He
7. Motorcycle Irene
8. Three-Four
9. Funky-Tunk
10. Rose Colored Eyes
11. Miller's Blues
12. Naked, If I Want To
13. The Place and the Time (alternate)*
14. Stop (demo rec.)* previously unissued
15. Loosely Remembered* previously unissued
16. Miller's Blues (alternate*) previously unissued
17. What's To Choose* previously unissued
18. Seeing previously unissued
(total CD time for Wow 59:04)
Personnel
* Peter Lewis – rhythm guitar, vocals
* Bob Mosley – bass, vocals
* Jerry Miller – lead guitar, vocals
* Skip Spence – rhythm guitar, piano, vocals
* Don Stevenson – drums, vocals
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Thanks go to COR for sending this post!!!
=== Here it IS ===
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing. Wow gets a bad rap but I consider it a worthy companion to the first album.
The Sundazed re-master is a mess. Some endings of songs are edited in from Needledrops, and in the case of "Gene Autry", dubbed directly from the LP. I don't know what Bob Irwin was doing, as his earlier work with Legacy/CBS (see "Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape" is stellar. The old "San Fransisco Sound" release is unfutzed, but leaves out "Gene Autrey". Best one all around is the Japanese CBS reissue.
BTW I love WOW for its diverseness. Never a boring listen!
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