Mudhoney Articles
Addicted to Noise
9 January '98
Wilco, Flaming Lips Get Psychedelic
For Skip Spence Tribute
Among acts contributing to album honoring work
of ex-Moby Grape singer Alexander 'Skip' Spence.
With popular acts such as Wilco, Robyn Hitchcock, the Flaming Lips,
Mudhoney and Son Volt lining up to record tracks on a new tribute album,
you'd expect the artist they are honoring to be a household name.
So, then, who is Alexander "Skip" Spence?
If the name doesn't ring a bell, you'd be excused for not remembering the
former Moby Grape singer/guitarist, who recorded his wild, experimental, psychedelic
solo album, Oar, in 1969 after leaving the pioneering San Francisco rock
band because of a chronic mental illness.
"I've listened to this album [Oar] a million times and still not understood what
it's exactly about," said Bill Bentley, producer of the upcoming More Oar:
A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence. Bentley's fascination with obscure
but highly influential rock artists was also the fuel behind the wiggy 1990
tribute to Texas psychedelic master and former 13th Floor Elevators leader
Roky Erickson, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, which featured tracks
from R.E.M., ZZ Top, the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Butthole Surfers. (The 13th
Floor Elevators are best known for their improbable mid-'60s Top 40 garage-rock
masterpiece, "You're Gonna Miss Me.")
Bentley said he was inspired to launch the Oar project a few years ago when he
found out that Spence, who before joining Moby Grape played drums for the Jefferson Airplane,
was in financially dire straits. "I felt he could probably use a boost from the
publishing money," Bentley said. "And maybe spiritually from the knowledge
that people would still love to hear his songs." The Reprise Records
publicist said he first bought the album in 1969 because he was fascinated by
the fact that Spence performed every bit of music on his first solo effort.
Bentley said it wasn't too hard to find musicians who felt the same way about
the music on the record and who were equally eager to expose new fans to Spence's
music and lend him a hand in the process.
Although Bentley hasn't spoken about the project to Spence, who he said is
currently living with his girlfriend in a mobile home in Santa Cruz,
Calif., he said the singer's publishing representative has been acting as
a go-between, helping to decipher the album's lyrics. "He [the
representative] basically calls Skip up and, slowly but surely, he remembers
the lyrics to the songs and I pass them along to the artists."
The only snag, so far, is that even Spence can't recall the words to the track
"Grey/Afro", which Bentley said might be turned into an instrumental, since no
one can seem to figure out what Spence was saying. "I've listened to it a million
times and I still can't quite get the lyrics," Bentley explained.
The album, which is scheduled for release in the fall of this year on Birdman
Records, is also slated to feature tracks from Flying Saucer Attack,
Alejandro Escovedo and producer/musician Jim Dickinson [Big Star, Rolling
Stones, Replacements] as well as a mid-1980s version of
"Lawrence of Euphoria" by San Francisco's Ophelias.
"I'm a huge fan, and Skip really wants it to happen," said David Katznelson, 28, CEO
of Birdman and vice president of A&R at Reprise. "And we find out every day about
people who are big fans."
Katznelson cited Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant as just the
latest big name to express admiration for Spence's work.
Also on Katznelson's wish list is "Land of the Sun," the only track Spence
has recorded since Oar, which was intended for inclusion on last
year's Songs in the Key of X-Files album, but didn't make the final
cut. The song, which Bentley said was "too weird," features
Spence repeating the title over and over on top of an eerie drone created by
Spence's drumming and former Jefferson Airplane member Jack Cassidy's bass.
Katznelson also considered finding someone to cover the five "bizarre" bonus
tracks that appeared on the re-issued version of the Oar CD, he
said. "My hope is that people will listen to this and be inspired and search
out Oar and maybe some Moby Grape albums too, because they're worth it."
