Search - Moby Grape :: Grape Jam

Grape Jam
Moby Grape
Grape Jam
Genres: Country, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #1

Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome s...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Moby Grape
Title: Grape Jam
Members Wishing: 6
Total Copies: 0
Label: Sundazed Music Inc.
Original Release Date: 1/1/2007
Re-Release Date: 10/9/2007
Genres: Country, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock
Styles: Blues Rock, Folk Rock, Country Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 090771119223, 0090771119223, 009077111922

Synopsis

Album Description
Originally issued as a companion album to Moby Grape's sophomore set Wow in 1968, Grape Jam remains one of the more adventurous artifacts of late-'60s rock. As much as Wow demonstrated the San Francisco quintet's awesome scope and songcraft, this improvised studio set showed the band's chops. Months before the acclaimed Super Session, Grape Jam let contemporary pop musicians stretch, experiment and cook to their hearts' content. "Boysenberry Jam," "Black Currant Jam" (Al Kooper guests on piano) and the 14-minute "Marmalade" (Mike Bloomfield guests on piano) are juicy instrumental maneuvers, while "Never" is a tough vocal blues, and the effects-laden psychedelia of "The Lake" reminds you just what coast the band comes from.
 

CD Reviews

The least of it, and yet....
feralduck | Austin, TX USA | 10/13/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Of the original Columbia albums the Grape released, this is the slightest of the five. Yet, it does have some merits, even though as a jam session it doesn't equal the quality of, say, Super Session or Spare Chayne on Jefferson Airplane's After Bathing At Baxters. The saving grace of this album is the opening track, Never, notoriously "rewritten" by Led Zeppelin as Since I've Been Loving You on Led Zeppelin III.

The remainder of the album is pleasant, though hardly essential. One wonders what a true guitar jam between Jerry Miller and Mike Bloomfield might have been like, rather than wasting Bloomfield on keyboards at this session.

The Lake is psychedelic silliness, although the Grape can't be entirely blamed for it; this was a contest dreamed up by their then manager for the band to write a tune to a fan's lyric, much like Buffalo Springfield's In The Hour Of Not Quite Rain.

All in all, not the Grape's finest hour, but not a complete waste of time, either."
JAMMIN'
Charles Agee | Tahlequah, Oklahoma United States | 10/23/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"As I wrote in my review of WOW, I can't be totally objective about this album,which came as a "two-fer" with WOW.



For some reason, I never saw or was not interested in the group's debut. Of course, I've learned better.! Maybe my small town record shop never carried their first album. Or just maybe it was the more psychedlic cover, GUARANTEED to get a teen boy's attention in 1968.



Anyway, GRAPE JAM was my first exposure to rock "jams" and while others with greater musical knowledge than I at the time may have found them tedious, I was fascinated. It was a new world to me and I couldn't have been happier.



Someone else noted how Led Zeppelin ripped these guys off. Well, they stole from the masters, so I guess Moby Grape can be included in some mighty fine company.



This album may only appeal those of us who heard it first in 1968, but I can still say it's great fun."
Excellent
William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 08/07/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before top rock names played arenas, they played clubs. So it was common for, just say, Hendrix to jam with Jack Bruce, Jack Cassidy with Charles Lloyd. Big money was not involved yet. Things were looser.



Grape Jam brings this crossbreeding to the studio: Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield and members of Moby Grape. This is a blues record, but an acidy, funky blues.



A different side of Moby Grape is shown. For a San Fransico band, circa 1968, they were song oriented. Here they are loose and loud and ragged. But they are great players, and have ample chops to carry the improvosation.



Al Kopper and Mike Bloomfield. If both were in front of me, who's feet would I kiss first? Thier feel for blues--from the grittiest to the most cosmopolitan-was 100% instinctive. Yet they give it a 1968 rock grit. Listen to Bloomfield's "Buysonberry Jam" Les Paul growl.





This is not the pristine studio Grape, but for top musicans ripping and crunching, you can't do better. Little known fact: Plant and Page wrote "Since I've Been Loving You" after hearing the first song on Grape Jam, "Never"





What is good for the goose is probably good enough for you.



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