Oar

Has some good moments. The thing I don't get about this is there are so many better (imo) psychedelic folk albums of this era. He certainly sounds in a lot of (emotional) pain, and that comes across in the music, but not in a way that I thought deserved to be on this list. 2/5.

I tried, after the 6th song with the drums panned to the right and everything else to the left I gave up

First, I have to get out of the way that Diana is one of the most tear-jerking performances I've heard a folk song in a while. The place this guys' voice goes to in that song, man. We've all been there. That one blew me away the first time I heard it. This list is revealing a type of album which I love, which basically boils down to "Good find." Hidden gems. Overlooked performances, entire artists who just got dealt a bad hand in life. If you picked it up in a discount record bin, you'd feel like you won the lottery. I'd say Nick Drake is the ultimate "good find." As a writer and performer for the period, he has some fucking drop-dead gorgeous songs, but a lot that's kind of average for the troubadours of the era (I said it, sorry not sorry). As a whole artist? Pretty decent, sometimes brilliant. As an artist who was universally overlooked in his life, and discovered posthumously? You know how it goes. All this to say that, "Albums that are a Great Find" and "Album You Need to Listen to Before You Die" are two VERY different lists. And I like that this list has some of the former, but it does advertise itself as the latter, goddammit! This album is an extreme example of this disconnect. As an album, it's extremely disjointed, almost unlistenable at times, just drags and drags. You get exactly what's on the tin: a man with a beautiful talent for songwriting, suffering violent nervous breakdowns, has complete creative control over demos that were released practically without his permission. Moments of sheer brilliance, psychadelic strangeness ("War In Peace" is incredibly cool and weird). I feel uncomfortable through a lot of this record, and I don't think it's because I'm being challenged. I'm worrying for the person I'm listening to. A sad, mournful 2/5. Purely as an album. Because again, I'll be thinking of this for a long time, and I'll have the beginning of "All Come To Meet Her" floating in my head for years. But as an album, it's like staring straight into the abyss.

Druggy psychedelic folk. Moments of melodic and lyrical interest. Some lovely electric guitar work in spots. If there's misunderstood genius buried in here, it's buried deep.

Some interesting songs on here, I don't mind the unfinishedness/lo-fi feeling of it. The backstory behind it seems really interesting, with Columbia deleting it from its catalogue. Yet the songs didn't stick with me, maybe I'll have to listen to it again. + Margaret-Tiger Rug + Weighted Down (The Prison Song) + It's The Best Thing for You

The first track reminded me of Blind Faith or Faces, but maybe it's just his hair. I never heard of this guy before. Not bad for an utterly solo album, but for that, I prefer Paul McCartney.

Boring. So dull I could not handle it. How did this make any list?

The story behind this album is better than the album itself. Boring and truly sounds like a guy on drugs making this.

I enjoy the context behind the album but the album is mostly cheeks. 🍑 1.5

Soulful vocals and folk songwriting are on point here, but dear god, the horrible mixing choices. Putting the entire drum set on the right side and guitar on the left? That’s….not how it’s done…?

Encore un album tout à fait médiocre

un skip comme l annonce l artiste avec son deuxieme prenom

alexander "skip" spence put it all on the table for oar. and by put it all on the table, i mean his vocals are awful and drone-y and unappealing. no thanks. 🤢

Geez, this guy could drone on. And on. And on. And on. The Spotify listing for this album has a LOT of additional content but I didn't allow it to go on for a moment beyond the original album tracklisting. Some of the music was baseline interesting, but his singing ruined every possible good moment. The album lacked any cohesion.

If the author removed 60s psychedelic rock, the book would only have 500 records in it. This is yet another shitty half baked record that should not be on this list. And it's over an hour. Great... By the end of this, dude is literally just making shit up as he goes along. This is trash.

Strong 3 near the beginning, close to a 1 at the end

good stuff

Interesting mix of blues and more avant garde rock, feels like this influenced Radiohead (1968.) But lots of filler, not obvious why the album is on this list. Back half of album and “War Peace “ are the highlights.

super cool!! love it!

Not my jam.

Perfect for sunday chill

J'imagine que cet album a pu être essentiel dans le développement de la musique psychédélique ou expérimentale, mais si c'est le cas je trouve que ça a plutôt mal vieilli. Plus souvent qu'autrement j'ai l'impression que c'est du tâtonnage plus que des vrais composition. La voix est ssouvent très ennuyante et il y a peu d'efforts. Ce n'est pas le pire album que j'ai mais loin d'être mémorable. 3/10

Note to Self: original album ends at Gray/Afro with a 44 minute runtime. Singer songwriter, doing singer-songwriter things. Arrangements are generally sparse with guitar and minimal drum accompaniment. Most impressive is the range over which Spence casts his voice; across the first three songs we see three different shades from harmonized "Little Hands" to super deep "Cripple Creek," and scratchy croon of "Diana." Of these, I find Diana to be the most effective complete song -- love the guitar work throughout. Really enjoy Weighted Down as a slogging blues song. War In Peace is an instrumental standout that is interestingly loose in its construction. Very bright guitar tone counterpointed by ominous vocal delivery and an elastic tempo throughout -- glad I came for this song. This was an interesting listen start to finish. Spence taps into a lot of different sounds given the sparse arrangements. Many were farily forgettable, but I never minded them being there. A few standouts make this a worthwhile listen. I'm a 3.5 / 5 here.

I'm 30 minutes in and I'm ready for this to be over. So boring. Is this shoegaze? This album and American Music Club back to back was a terrible waste of time. You can go ahead and 'Skip' this album if you want to keep an hour of your time.

Read his Wikipedia and he has a crazy backstory where he wrote and recorded this album in 7 days after being released from a mental hospital for a "delusional-driven" attempt to attack his band members. The album cover art certainly makes him look like he has some psychological problems. Skip played every instrument on this album. Starts off sounded like a typical southern rock kind of album, but then got really trippy at War in Peace. But after that went back to what it started out as, just a bit darker. Grey/Afro made me really uncomfortable which is probably the point. The strange drum beats and low singing voice was just straight spooky. What a way to end this incredibly dark album. I wish it was more of the War on Peace style. I cannot get over how uncomfortably weird this album was. I have never heard of Skip Spence and I probably won't listen to anything of his again. But I did enjoy this enough for a 3.

Wild this dude was on Jefferson Airplane's first album as a drummer. Also wild that he tried to hack up his next band with an axe. What's not so wild is this album. It seems very inconsistent and all over the place. Wiki says that Skip sent these songs to his producer as demo's and they released them without fleshing out any production. It shows. A couple songs I felt could really turn into something cool. Can definitely see the psychedelia in it, just needed that push. This album is meh to me.

I think a lot of people missed that everything after Grey/Afro is bonus tracks. That probably explains a good number of the low ratings. This is a really interesting and unique album that didn't overstay its welcome, with a really unique story behind it. I'll probably go back for another listen soon. It's not exactly an easy listen, but it's also NOT BORING! Again, my most important metric. And yeah... Y'all should probably try to digest just the album proper before you get lost in the weeds with the whole extra LP worth of bonus tracks hahaha.

Ok

Soulful and tortured we can hear the impending doom in Skip's lyrics and vocals. This seems like something Beck or Morrisey or maybe Ian Curtis listened to in their youth. Do those times match up? I don't know I'm too stoned to care.

Beige wallpaper

At times ramshackle. Some charming moments , and some tantalising brief spicy chord changes in Diana. War in Peace more production value and G Harrison Clapton outro. Then it goes a bit Dylan. Quite liked the country blues of Books of Moses. Have to admire the honesty and unadorned presentation . One for headphones. The latter quarter sounds like my "bass twiddles" C90 from the late 80s. Great for hearing exactly what a period bass guitar sounds like solo. Some ok grooves that could have been developed from these demos

Amazing album, drags a little at the end. Still very masterful, similar to Bob Dylan or George Harrison

I've never heard of Alexander Spence before, but holy Macaulay Culkin's doppelganger, Batman. This album was incredibly underwhelming. I listened to it earlier today, and if I hadn't taken a few notes during my listen, I don't think I'd have anything to say about it. The music wasn't really anything outstanding, nor were the vocals. The lyrics were pretty nonsensical and didn't do much for me either. However, I did like the reverb effect on "Grey/Afro," which was one of the better songs on this album. I also thought the rain sounds on "Books of Moses" were nice too, and that wound up being the best song on the album, although that isn't saying much. The songs were short, which was nice, but an hour's worth of these songs was like torture. I did read about what led to this album's recording, which was really interesting, but just because the lead-up and process were interesting, doesn't mean that the finished product was interesting too. What a shame that the tape ran out at the end...

Nothing I had ever heard of before...very different. Not sure I buy how influential it is though...may need another couple of listens. 2.5/5

Good start and at first I thought the second half was kind of interesting, but then it grew old and I was ready to stop listening 2

very good, unexpected gem. Want to listen some more.

I liked the amount of experimentation going on. It was kind of a downer of an album, a few tracks just felt bleh.

some neat ideas in here. shame he never got to flesh it out.

Grand

Uh. What? At first, I was like, "Eh, it's alright, I guess." But that quickly turned into, "Someone actually released this? Wait, COLUMBIA released this?!" "Oar" is clearly just a demo. It's an hour-long, incoherent ramble of half-formed thoughts and bare-minimum production. Producer David Rubinson screwed up. This should never have been released in this state. Were I Skip, I'd consider picking up the axe again and paying ol' Dave a visit.

I have never heard of skip Spence. He sounds like Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash had a kid. Then that kid listened to nothing but Radiohead for years. Then that kid took a fuckton of mushrooms, smoked a shitload of weed, and then recorded an album. It’s not that it is terrible, just boring and unmemorable. I can think of 100 albums that should be on the list instead of this one.

Interesting blend of various genres.

No. I’d rather listen to Dixieland music backwards. This type of music is so tired it should be given to anxiety sufferers. .5

Drabble

What an amazing array of vocal styling and song writing diversity. Totally left field and enjoyable.

A rather weird and rambling concoction. Once I read the tragic story of Spence, this one-of-a-kind solo album took on a new shade of meaning. The last gasps of a fading genius?

Some nice songs but not very imaginative, a general fine blues feel but there's a lot better out there, especially of that time. (50%).

this was ok, solid 60/70s folksy rock feel

skip this

I see why they called him Skip

The album story is more interesting than the album, which is light instrumentation and mostly indiscernible lyrics.

Chill acoustic music. Harmless.

Had a few good songs but then also again others that are just a bit too unorthodox

One or two sweet songs. This guy has 100% of Nilsson’s weirdness and 50% of his talent.

Who? The album is meh, a mixture of confusing depressing folk rock country music recorded following the musician's release from a psychiatric hospital - it's obvious that he wasn't in a good place, mentally speaking and some tracks sound like he was heavily medicated. Why this is in the 1001 albums you must hear before you die is anyone's guess.

Dirty Hippie Breakdown: The Musical I could pick out a song or two, or fragment that's listenable, but this is just a mess. I feel bad saying that, cause dude had some shit going on, but we all have our moments, that doesn't mean they should be recorded.

Folk psicodélico. Un rollo. Un 2.

A bleak, solemn affair. I won't listen to it again, but it was interesting, if meandering to hear this.

Musically sounds like Bob Dylan but you don't need a strong painkiller to put up with his singing. His story sounds like many from the 60's and is probably more interesting than the album.

It was okay

#252 - finished it across four different sessions. This is long and not all that coherent. Except that most songs sound like they could be played by an old burnout who plays Dylan covers for an apathetic audience at your local coffeehouse. I'm not sure why this album is on this list, even after reading the very sad Wikipedia page. It's not good. Sorry to this man (RIP.)

5/10

It sounds very familiar, but I’d not heard of him or this album before. Interesting but sad story behind it.

Sad and kinda folkey. It's good to listen to but overshadowed by Skip's downfall.

The wiki says most of the songs were unfinished/demos and that really sounds about right. Many feel underwritten or just kind of fizzle into nothingness, of the recording quality is pretty awful. Some interesting bits here and there but not much else. 3/10

I ALREADY RATED THIS YOU IDIOTS

weird and interesting. 3 stars.

yet another "White Dude Makes Shitty Music, Is Praised By Other White Dudes For It" pick

Weighted Down (The Prison Song) // 1.5/5

As for me, this album looks like Damon Albarn's experiments. Quite interesting but rather monotonous.

I listened to the tracks of the original release, not the bonus tracks. I'd like to give this a 3, but I can't say I enjoyed a complete song, just elements of many of them. For example, I liked the drums on the last track (Grey/Afro), but it was too long and I didn't like the vocals. Any song where he used his old man voice just sounded weird.

Souvent, les albums folk sont agréables à l’écoute et se démarquent par leur texte. Ici, la recherche musicale est sans faille, les pièces sont équilibrées, la voix est profonde, le tout me happe. Ce qui me retient de donner 5 étoiles, ce sont les pièces plus western, qui m’ont semblé plus convenues

some of the beatnik shit was alright but it veered a lot in to the noncey territory of folk and country music.

Skip

Reading the Wikipedia snippet here says this was meant to be a demo of music, and boy howdy is that accurate. This whole project sounds basically like a bunch of placeholding pieces stitched together. Bland, moaned singing with mumbled lyrics that really sound like Skip was just riffing in the vocal booth, planning to fill it in later; which makes perfect sense because it was supposedly meant to be a demo. Each song feels completely interchangeable with the last with absolutely nothing even remotely interesting. Why Columbia studios thought it was a good idea to release this boring, insanely long collection of cobbled together, half-baked ideas as is, is beyond me.

Pretty boring

I liked his playing but wasn’t big on his voice.

Startling and arresting, a moving and emotional depiction of mental fragility.

You ever so worked up after trying to murder your band mates with a fire axe that you hit the studio and knock out a full hour of demos, 40 minutes or so of which are actually pretty great for live takes, that your label then releases without your permission?

Singt wie er aussieht. Eine Schlaftablette.

Really sad and really good

Good but couldn’t get through it. Just a huge bummer of an album.

Not a huge fan of this one.

Some standout tracks but this largely feels like it shouldn't have been released in its present state

Good folk. A bit weird at times.

I had heard of Moby Grape but not Skip. Interesting story. A bit like Syd Barret, I suppose. Funny how this was Columbia House's worst selling record ever, yet people are still listening 50 years later. Good stuff. 4 stars (might be more like 3.75, but who's being nitpicky :)

gives me Cash vibes enjoyed this album. He was in Jefferson Airplane.

This was an interesting one. Reading a bit of the back story changes the listening experience. I really enjoyed a lot of this.

It’s difficult not to be influenced by the back-story, but this stumbling search for music seems completely authentic. I felt close to something mysterious and powerful.

A surprisingly moving country album depicting a descent into madness, it works surpringly well, even if some songs feel like filler.

I wish I could Skip Alexander Spence

Era para ser uma referência da psicodelia, só não percebi, e ficou sendo mais um disco de folk.

3-4 3

This was an odd one. First playthrough I took notice of Cripple Creek and Lawrence of Euphoria which stood out with its weirdness. But when I got to Grey/Afro and continued listening I definitely noticed something was wrong. Turns out the songs after that wasn't part of the original - and you could tell easily, the quality really plummeted. The whole album is very uneven in quality. Songs like Diana and Grey/Afro are a clear 1/5 for me with its hazy rambling and droning. But some songs do stand out, like I mentioned. I also read that the whole album was recorded by himself just after having been hospitalized for some time and diagnozed with schizofrenia. That backstory adds more to the album and makes it more interesting somehow - it could explain a lot of the mellowness, for example. Even though it won't get very high rating from me, I'm glad I listened to it and learned some piece of history with it!

This was an interesting listen given the backstory. It was a weird mix of songs that felt very intimate and strange. Would I recommend listening to it? Not really. It still left an impression and stood out from a lot of other stuff on here. I guess if you want a piece of music history you could give it a go.

Very curious album. I can understand why someone would put it on this list but as I was listening, I found myself skipping most of the songs. That is, until I reached Grey/Afro, a 9 minute bender of a song. I listened to this album during a crazy storm last night that kept me up and that was the only song that stuck with me after it was done. Also crazy he went to the hospital for trying to kill some guys with a fire axe. Wild story behind this one.

What a wild album. The lore behind this is, pardon the word, insane. Spence attacked some bandmates with an axe, was committed to a mental hospital for six months, then got out and released this. It's a long, winding album (the version I listened to was 17 tracks), and it's kind of all over the place sonically. Spence's voice especially, it's impossible to predict what he'll sound like on each track between different styles and registers. But I really admire it, the musicianship is top notch and he did it all himself. The story and everything here reminds me of Nick Drake, but if Nick Drake was schizophrenic instead of sad. It's a very cool album, and I'll be keeping quite a few tracks from this one. Also, side note, when I heard "War in Peace," I recognized the riff at the end as "Smoke on the Water," which I looked up and found was released after this album. I then started scouring google and couldn't find anything talking about this....had Spence secretly been ripped off and I'm the first to discover it, decades later? Well, turns out the riff is actually "Sunshine of Your Love," and that came out before this album, Spence was referencing that riff. For those few moments, I too was insane. Favorite tracks: Cripple Creek, Weighted Down, Books of Moses, Grey/Afro, Doodle, To Think You and I. Album art: Really nothing special, just a portrait shot with a big border. He kind of looks like he's in a hospital gown from the sanitarium, but he could also just be a bohemian kind of guy. 4/5

The highs just BAREly make up for the lows

This was insane. I was going to say that a lot of this sounded like he forgot he was recording, but after reading the Wikipedia article it seems like that was actually the case. There were a handful of decent songs (Weighted Down was the highlight) but overall this is not good. Apparently he thought they would edit and flesh this out. Not sure why they would choose to release it as is.

This goes on a long list of forgotten or long missing music that gets reevaluated years later as works of genius. Don't get me wrong, there is some great music here but Spence's demons and instability are very present as well. I think a separate category for "what ifs" would be a place to group these recordings that have moments of genius but are incomplete.

Not that interesting. From what I read, he was apparently influential on a number of artists who came later, but I'm not exactly sure why. This isn't a bad album, but I don't know what about it made someone include it on this list.

Boring and unnecessary both as an album and a part of this list

Best known as a founding member of Moby Grape, Spence takes us on an introspective, long-winded journey. Each track works like a window into the troubled soul of the artist, with themes centered around love and loss. Spence has quite a distinctive vocal style, one that carries a lot of vulnerability and emphaty. I wasn’t a big fan of the vocals though, as they drag on a lot. That is unfortunately a downside of many parts on this record. The instrumentation is very stripped-down which leads to most tracks really lacking any sort of likable quality. The guitar gets very old very quickly. Spence's lyrics throughout Oar are poetic, often painting vivid pictures of his inner struggles and the complexities of life. Whether it's the psychedelic whimsy of "Weighted Down (The Prison Song)" or the sorrowful reflection of "Cripple Creek," each song comes with an emotional effort, something I can appreciate. The album also is way too long in my opinion and I would have enjoyed it more if it was stripped to maybe 35-40 mins instead of the sleepy hour that we get. This one was quite hard to finish and just about avoids the lowest score. 2/5, don’t recommend whatsoever.

Not necessarily the kind of music I like but I listened to this while I was having an anxiety attack and it helped so I’m giving it four stars for that alone

Rubbish

4/10. Well, it was kinda boring, probably because I couldn't hear the mumbled lyrics very well. Supposedly these recordings were only meant to be demos, and it certainly feels that way. I'd be willing to give it a second chance at a time I could listen to the lyrics, though, since they're supposed to be good.

Rambling crap. 4/10

After reading the intriguing backstory about the making of this album and the life of Skip Spence, I was curious to listen to this record. It starts out promising with a hint of Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed in his voice and the songs are strong and credible. Eventually, the songs slowly deteriorate and they come across as demos, fragments and unfinished, not fully realized pieces. Towards the end, the songs sound like, "running the tapes at all times to record everything that Spence did". Does troubled minds + mental illness = creative genius? Sometimes, producer David Rubinson saw something in Spence that was promising and the fact an album was released from these recording sessions is fascinating. Interesting, but not essential...though I would love to come across an original vinyl pressing of the album!

8/10

"Weighted Down (The Prison Song)" is beautiful as far as menacing murder ballads go; right after, "War in Peace" is almost euphoric in comparison to the rest of the songs. Reminds me of a country-style "The Madcap Laughs", but what surprises me is how much I prefer the sound of this Last track made me uncomfortable, but I wouldn't say I disliked it... other HLs: "Diana", "All Come to Meet Her", "Cripple Creek" June 2, 2023

Bastante embole, te manda a dormir. No es malo el chabon, pero vamo' un poquito ma' Edwin.

Helt okej.

Ich fand es zwar interessante Sounds und auch die Stimme es toll aber mir war ea zu wenig variabilität. Außerdem bin ich ein großer Fan von etwas kürzeren Alben.

It’s a bit Johnny Cash, a bit Kris Kristofferson, a bit Cat Stevens, a bit The Kinks - and yet not. And lots of taking clothes off.

Riktigt hemtrevliga tokerier.

Unremarkable in absolutely every way. I can’t remember the last time I listened to an album so forgettable. Dire.

I'm not a big folk guy, but this album is really cool, both in terms of its content and in terms of its story. The production on the album also works really well with the music. The sound quality dips at certain points in the album, but it still always sounds good. Very intimate folk album that has some surprising elements to it 3/5

Really wanted more this morning. And didn't get it.

A bunch of acoustic folk-rock type tracks. Some were quite country-sounding. A bit of a psychedelic vamp at the end.

Not to my taste, but the story of the album is off the hook

Lo que más interesante me resulta es como parece grabado en una sola toma por la continuidad de las canciones al iniciar y terminar, algunas suena como cuando alguien en un fogón agarra la guitarra y empieza a cantar lo primero que le sale por lo que no me pareció en esas partes muy llamativo, además demasiado country para mí gusto

Really, really bad

Terrible

An interesting collection of songs.

Not into this. I have no interest listening these kind of curiosity. I don’t want to give it one star because it’s not actively trying to get me to hate it. It just sounds like someone falling sleep mid song.

Tough life this guy led... Liked the music enough to give 3 stars, for psychodelic music very high mark! Specially liked Grey/Afro song, was humming along the song singing Stone Roses song Fools Gold (-:

A few good tracks here.

Sad psychedelic cowboy

I really enjoyed this album. At times, it can be harrowing, but it can also be beautiful and funny.

Überraschend gut und moody

Interesting background. Original album tracks are... Alright.

Það þarf ábyggilega að grúska í texta og hlusta mörgum sinnum á þetta til að virkilega ná að tengja. Ég náði því allavega ekki í fyrstu hlustun.

Pretty eclectic and cool.

wow, that was something very special too good to rate, it exists on a tier of its own

I got about 1/3 of the way through the album, and I just.... didn't get it. Why was this on the list? Who is this guy? So I looked him up on wikipedia (trying not to research the albums beforehand, but I felt I had to here). I got a better picture of who the guy is. But still... this is just... incoherent ramblings. I'm glad that in the 60s and early 70s, artists and musicians were able to be daring and tried a lot of stuff. Record execs took a lot of chances. But there should have come a point where they said "yeah... pass." It's not as bad as, say "Trout Mask Replica". But not a keeper at all.

Meh. Honestly, it wasn't bad. Pretty simple and straight-forward. Maybe it was his minimalist and soft style that made it hard to pick up most of his lyrics but it felt kind of bland. Margaret-Tiger Rug and Broken Heart were a little weird but I didn't mind the sound. Late in the album I picked up more lyrical oddities that might be related to his mental state at the time, like on Dixie Peach Promenade or Lawrence of Euphoria (cheeky, not bad). Grey/Afro was the only real throwaway track - a bit strange for me, but creative and psychedelic, which was his thing. War in Peace was a more conventional psychedelic piece, and I didn't mind it. So were All Come to Meet Her and Books of Moses, and I thought they were great. Overall, I've heard far worse. Maybe I'm in a good mood today. Perfectly average album.

That’s right, these do seem like the ramblings of a mad man. Not in a particularly bad way, for the first half at least, it’s reasonably palatable. The second half does seem to lose a bit of focus and I think if I listened to much more of the bonus material, I’d maybe consider reaching for the old fire axe.

Kinda nest

Interesting, some weird bits

aivan sairaalloinen laulaja... viimesiä hengen vetoja studiossa ja taisteli, taisteli niistäkin.. kamala kuulla. aleksanteri 'skipped eli hypähti yksi sydän pumputus johti kuolemaan' spence... vikat 6 biisiä kaikki minuutin pätkiä kun oli kuolla kupsahtamassa aivan VITUN KUOLEMASSA JÄTKÄ... ja harrowing look in album cover... when the depth looks at you.. you look back. IN SORROW!!!!! cripple creek

Hat ganz gut angefangen aber nachgelassen. Light 5/10

- Never heard of Skip Spence before - Thought it was pretty good, seems ahead of it's time considering it was released in the 60s - Fav songs: Grey/Afro, Diana, War in Peace

Tortured genius perhaps, this album is music to your ears when you’re super depressed, it’s difficult and awkward when you’re feeling alright 3/5

Good if your in the mood for it

A very high 3 - Grey/Afro knocks it down from a 4.

Belongs in a skip

it was different in a good way

I kept running across mention this album reading about other artists and bands while I've been doing this project - I guess Moby Grape is one of those "6 degrees of separation" bands, at least in the 60s-70s psychedelic scene. Descriptions of the album itself led me to expect something darker, and more harrowing. Maybe I didn't listen closely enough but mostly found it pretty in line with the kind of music it was born out of, mostly straightforward but somewhat slack and sloppy - consistent with its creator's reported intent of its songs being demos for a more finished composition. And its a shame it was left where it was as there's certainly a great album in it - it really shines through in parts - and I can see why it's a revered artifact and don't dispute its inclusion on this list. But on the whole, just in itself, it's extremely uneven.

psychadelic folk but he should've quit after about three songs. no wonder he disappeared this shit mostly sucked

I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

Not enjoyable at all

Es un disco para escuchar de chill, no tiene muchos altibajos. Igual lo volvería a escuchar

I love this guy's voice. The song's are pretty calm and nice listens. There's kind of a movie soundtrack vibe here as well. I would definitely consider buying this just to play it as background music. Fave track(s): Tiger Rug, Weighted Down (The Prison Song)

It starts off pretty okay and by the end it's just annoying. I know how vanilla this might sound, but the dude should've just played the straight country/folk and left the psychedelic stuff out of it. I will say that the story behind this album was rather something. It was more interesting that the album.

My initial thought is this feels like a demo recording that this guy just hit record and then got really wasted and just made incoherent noises and random babbling for an hour. Then, I read more about the album, and it really happened this way. So, while I hated it, I'm giving more stars for being able to nail how this album happened.

Solid mental-breakdown album. Lots of odd. Guess when he tried to kill a bandmate with an ax it shouldn't have been surprising.

Wow this one gets out there. Had no idea who this guy was until I read the bio during the last song which really gets weird in its 9+ minutes. It's strange and will need another listen at some point

aight

Interesting story, interesting music.

The Wikipedia description made the album make a lot more sense. I really liked his sound, and it was good to program to. Would listen again.

Interesting album in how he pulled all this material together and performed it himself. I appreciate the art but not a fan of the music

There is some truly awful singing on this album.

Nah I don’t think I can bear with 64 minutes of this lament (currently by the 30th), i guess I’ll die without knowing what was special about it… or wait is that it?

Intense story, but not a great album

Ah wow I hadn't heard of Skip Spence or his band, but reading the story behind this album briefly all I can think is "wow". I started listening before I realised just how much pain is in these songs and that it was after a hospital stint which followed an incident involving an axe!?!? Gosh. LOL then the production just wanted to leave him to it in the studio and have no one bother him so they just released a demo and it's so beautifully raw, creative and experimental. Absolutely love the drums all over this album - it connects somewhere with my soul! A cool album I never would have otherwise heard of.

I felt like this was some mish mash of Dylan, Tom Waits, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen and I totally dug it!! After Googling can see he was involved in Quicksilver Messenger Service, which makes sense. I preferred this solo stuff to that. A bit easier of the psych stuff.

I did quite this as a whole but I found it a bit all over the place, like someone just messing around in a studio.

Vaag gemompel, iets te trippy

An album I'd never heard of by someone I'd never heard about, which was exciting as it might have been some amazing lost album that I needed in my life. The Wikipedia story about him and the album definitely made it seem like that might be the case but overall it was a disappointment, sounding like some rough demos of some half-baked ideas. Was hoping for something like Pink Moon but didn't get it.

Knowing how this ends makes it hard.

Think I’ll just listen to Leonard cohen. Some cool drumming on the later tracks but is not very enjoyable to listen to

Some weird shit in here, some of it not really for me and some of it not bad. You do get a sense that the album is made in earnest at least. Most of the tracks feel like demos. But the guy wrote most of it while detained in a mental health ward so...

Just painful. It's sad that this is the point where Skip Spence is teetering into the abyss, but we don't need to listen to it.

I cannot imagine why this would be on the kist. There must be at least a 1001 other singer songwriters from the 60s and 70s just like this. Run of the mill at best.

In sharp contrast to some recent selections, I really did HAVE to hear this. It's very dark, and both experimental and beautiful. I'd not heard of 'Skip' before and this record still seems like a niche concern, but it's very good, you can hear how it might have influenced contemporary alternative acts and there are moments reminiscent of Johnny Cash. Best song, All Come To Meet Her.

Hints of Leonard Cohen.

Bon évidemment je suis pas allé au bout des 22 chansons. C'est pas nul et il a une bonne voix mais bon franchement qu'est-ce que c'est chiant

This one's a snoozer! Fine overall, but not for me

Bu, börja bra sluta blä

Det var bra men väldigt långt

3.5 Very nice. Better than expected

The first half wasn't bad, it was an interesting folksy thing. But it lost me in the second half.

At almost 900 albums I really, really shouldn't be surprised when I get yet another late 60s piece of folky dog shit. But I really can't wrap my head around the idea that they gave this Dimery idiot a carte blanche to decide what the 1001 most essential albums of all time are. It's always going to be a subjective affair, but at the same time he clearly made bugger all effort to show that he wasn't just choosing his own favourite albums. This album is a great example of that. It's utter crap. In 2023 it no doubt sounds worse than when it came out, but even in 1969 it must have been a middling album at best. It's really frustrating that there's so much C-tier material from certain time periods, while entire movements and genres are overlooked. It's like having a Sacred Reich album in here alongside the Metallica - sure it'd be up SOMEONE's alley, but we all know it doesn't belong. 1/5.

Eh.

Wildly inconsistent

Interesting, one song grabbed me.

It was okay. 3 stars.

This is an album that Harry Du Bois would love to perform at the Whirling-In-Rags in Martinaise. Driven by drunken stupor and just mumbling his way through the lyrics, he sings every word with feeling even though he has no idea what he's singing about at this point. I'm not really sure what to make of this album. Guess it's impressive that it sounds fully realized despite Skip Spence sounding absolutely hammered throughout most of it, and there are songs that are good - like War in Peace. That said, I also feel like this is too much of a personal breakdown and that I shouldn't be listening to it.

The guitar work was good, his voice was...interesting, I didn't particularly care for the album

Oh! I have this I have no idea why?

I suppose I could take the cheap route and call Skip Spence the poor man's Fred Neill. But perhaps nothing sums up this album (or Skip Spence) better than this reminisce from Peter Lewis of Moby Grape: "...He (Skip Spence) actually OD'ed once and they had him in the morgue in San Jose with a tag on his toe. All of a sudden he got up and asked for a glass of water. Now he was snortin' big clumps of coke, and nothing would happen to him. We couldn't have him around because he'd be pacing the room, describing axe murders. So we got him a little place of his own. He had a little white rat named Oswald that would snort coke too. He'd never washed his dishes, and he'd try to get these little grammar school girls to go into the house with him. He was real bad. One of the parents finally called the cops, and they took him to the County Mental Health Hospital in Santa Cruz. Where they immediately lost him, and he turned up days later in the women's ward."

Boring hippie crap

This is supposed to be intimate, but I find it utterly tedious and unremarkable. The songs were - literally - therapeutic for the artist, and they sound like it, but they do nothing for my listening enjoyment. 1.5/5

argh idk what to say dude it’s kinda nice but like there’s no real substance there i feel. overall pretty mid

Well, this was interesting. I had never heard of this artist or this album. In learning more about the artist, I understand he wrote much of this album while in a mental hospital after having a delusional episode, which is heartbreaking. This album starts out with a country twang, and I thought I knew what I was dealing with, but it quickly devolves into something very different - soft, mumbling, almost comprehensible vocals over soft, almost low-fi guitar. The production is very minimal (I understand these were recorded all at once, and it does sound quite raw.) The guitar playing is quite good. As the album evolves/devolves, you can suddenly hear something almost like Elliot Smith or Bonnie Prince Billy emerging from what started out as a country rock/folk album. It's weird, it's sad, and it's interesting. I am not sure I would want to listen to it frequently but I will say - it's not boring. It's hard to know whether this album influenced later indie sounds, given that I had literally never heard of it, but perhaps Skip is a musician's musician and this has been an important album? It made it onto the list. I am giving this four stars for waking me up and shaking me up a bit. It's definitely an interesting selection. I might come back to it.

This reminded me of the Sid Barrett solo album. Just terrible, random, pieces of mental illness.

Interesting, inconsistent some freaky stuff here. Never heard of this guy before - this is what I signed up for

Without the context this is bad

I didn't really enjoy his voice on most tracks. A few were passable, but overall not my cup of tea.

I recognized Skip Pence name but didn't know much about him and never heard this album. About 3 songs in I decided to read the history of the album. Basically written during a stay at Bellevue after a LSD fueled axe attack on his Moby Grape bandmates and then recorded right after his release. That seriously changed my perspective of what I was listening too and I'm not sure if "enjoy" is quite the world but I really began to understand it.I did bookmark a song to go back to, I'd probably never listen to this again, but was a very interesting piece and story.

Hard to put a finger on why I found this record appealing. Sometimes creepy and odd, others haunting and odd. But usually some odd involved. Highlight: Broken Heart

Generic. It dragged by the end.

This one is pretty weird. But not always in a terrible way, though at times it's pretty rough. But some things on it did resonate fairly decently and it wasn't a complete waste.

Skimmed, this might be swag? Would need to listen closer

But why

It wasn’t all garbage, I liked grey/Afro ok, but could easily have lost have these songs

Meh

Another list low. Well forgotten album.

I never heard of this brother and the album is disjointed and hard to listen to. His story of mental health and addiction problems is sad for sure and is similar to Syd Barrett's story. Syd, however, founded one of the most significant bands ever and his mental health challenges forced Roger Waters to learn how to be the principal songwriter. So Syd's story is relevant to music lovers and makes his first solo album appropriate for inclusion in the 1001 list even if you don't like it. Skip Spence, on the other hand, was not part of one of the best bands. He was recruited to the pre-Grace Slick version of Jefferson Airplane since the band thought they should have a drummer who looked like he did. He left the band before the album was released. To make a long story short, I didn't need to hear Skip’s depressing story. We have our own problems to worry about.

Despite the fact that one guy sings and plays all the instruments (and that these are only demo tapes) there is a fair bit of diversity on the LP. The opening two tracks, for example are very different, the only thing they have in common is the super fast fade-out. I like to more haunting tracks like War in Peace and All Come to Meet Her - they sound worthy of a This Mortal Coil cover. A few of the others, especially those added after the original vinyl release are pretty throw-away.

This was a very interesting new discovery for me. Folk music that evolves into psychedelic /experimental rock that foreshadows many of today’s best Indie acts like Radiohead and Sparklehorse. I hear a Not of Nick Drake here also. Skip was way ahead of his time and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was met with a muted reaction when it was released in the 60s.

Not really anything worth listening to for me

haunting but not in a good way

An exhibit of an insane man

Oude Amerikaanse popmuziek? Leuk maar ook niet heel bijzonder. Op den duur is het album zelfs een beetje slaapverwekkend. **

The songs of this album are odd and dark, but somehow also manages to be interesting.

Highlight: War In Peace

Not sure how this made the list, but I am sure why he only made one album.

A rambling an incoherent bore.

It started off interesting with nice layered instruments and grooves, layered vocals. Slowly shifted until it just sounded like he was cracked out and hitting his drums off beat and playing simple bass runs while mumbling to himself. Not great.

What an interesting album. In parts his singing reminds me of Leonard Cohen, in parts I can't place it! Some of the songs flow in together, some feel like different albums entirely Saved tracks: Margaret-Tiger Rug, Weighted Down (The Prison Song), War In Peace, Dixie Peach Promenade (Yin for Yang), Grey/Afro

I enjoy the lo-fi psychedelic feel of this more than I thought I would. This kind of thing can get boring pretty quick for me, but this album holds my interest. It’s got a strong introspective atmosphere communicated mainly through the sparse instrumentation. This kind of sounds like Syd Barrett if he wasn’t English and he brought a country vibe to his music.

The lyrics were cool. I found the music mostly uninteresting.

Enjoyed a couple songs and very ahead of it’s time and uniqur

Dragged on and was boring at parts. Often seemed to lack direction. Highlights were the lyricism in weighed down (the prison song) and bass in shorter, more inviting songs like if I’m good

I quite enjoyed this one. Pretty raw and unpolished in a lot of places but I think that really adds to the appeal. I love the psychedelic and chaotic nature of quite a few of these songs, and I think I'll come back to this album. Favourite: Grey/Afro

I feel context is important with this one. I didn’t know that it was a three track solo demo by a guy who just got out of a mental home. Having said that, it sounds just like you would imagine.

Worth a listen. I appreciated all the experimentation in the second half, but it's not something I'll probably revisit.

psychfolk? no

I mean, I guess this was an influential album? Its not terrible, but its not great either. 3/5

Boring i didn’t listen to very much of it

Yes… Hahaha… Yes!

Not the biggest fan, uneven quality across the songs. Singer has a good voice which matches the tone of some songs better than others on this album

Very pleasant, but got bored

Having never heard of of Spence, I was impressed at how his sound serves as an influence for the more popular singer songwriters we are familiar with. 3.5/5.

Ok start, rough finish.

Avery interesting album that quickly draws you in with its relaxed folk vibe, interesting arrangements and excellent, idiosyncratic vocals. Then you read the back story, discover that Skip produced and played every sound on the album and it becames apparent that this is the work of a singular talent. I'm on my second listen and I anticipate many more in the coming months. 4 stars.

This struck me as 60s de rigeur

This was a solid country rock psychedelic album. Skip Spence certainly has an ear for creating a darker atmosphere. It’s a shame his career was so short lived, he was clearly doing something that added to the psychedelia genre, once that feels bloated even as early as 1969. The back half of the album was more experimental and reminded me of 90s alternative and indie type music, certainly ahead of its time.

A curious album, seemingly classic late sixties folky singer songwriter fare but as the album progresses an experimental undertone begins to appear, as if he’s on the cusp of a musical breakthrough. One to dive into further.

Lol

To me this is just a normal album

Borde kanske lyssna igen...

Not pretty enough to have so little energy.

Would happily ‘skip’ this one

Kind of good but kind of not also. Wouldn’t come back.

Fine but dull

Little hands is an ok opener with some grunge and psychedelic rock elements but the album just goes way down from there. Sounds like a drugged out man trying to sing songs he half remembers the words to

Just nonsense - interesting story, but really not worth a listen

👍

Dit had mij zomaar positief kunnen verrassen maar vandaag niet. Ikvond het erg langdradig

Na de opname van het album ging men naar de kroeg en daarna terug naar de studio om met hun dronken kop nog wat op te nemen. De tape is daarna verwisseld en zo is dit per ongeluk uitgebracht. Aannemelijk verhaal.

Schijnt dus de oude drummer te zijn van Jefferson Airplane. Buiten dat vond ik het maar weinig vermeldingswaardig.

Wat was dit? Dit klonk als een zeer ongeinspireerde licht beschonken zwerver.

Wat een ge-dooie-mol.

Fell in love with this lovely bit of wierdness pretty quickly...messy, incoherent, mumbling foolishness at its best...

boring and mumbling

Did not enjoy

For whatever reason, I'm fascinated by albums created by artists going through some type of mental crisis or breakdown. Syd Barrett's solo work, Big Star's Third, Brian Wilson, Jay Bennett after he parted ways with Wilco. This is one I hadn't heard before, although strangely enough I knew of the album for another reason. I'm a huge fan of the Replacements, who were discovered by a guy named Peter Jesperson, who managed a record store in Minneapolis called Oar Folkjokeopus, which was named after this album and Folkjokeopus, an album by Roy Harper. Having said all that, when I saw this pop up I was intrigued. As expected, it's a really uneven album with moments of brilliance. Not all great, but enough recognizable musical genius and interest here to give it 4 stars.

Why do I like this album? Muddy vocals, muddy instruments. It's the ultimate late night, stupendously drunk, sad but containing sardonic humour, epic. I hear Jeff Buckley, then I hear Tom Waits! This is the poster child for pain producing great art. This is the reward for sponsoring 1001 albums. I'd never heard anything about this man before.

Wow. Never heard of this before. I could listen to this one gladly for another day (maybe more). 3/5

Psychedelic rock, probably would sound great while tripping, but I don't dabble in that so it was a bit boring.

I like it, though others in this genre I think are better. I need to spend more time tuned in to the lyrics, but overall, a good piece. I wonder how/why I've never known about this record.

Not necessarily bad, just extremely dull. It was much more interesting reading about this guy than listening to his music.

This didn’t do much for me. Nothing stood out. Now, it may have been because of a head wind and hills but I don’t think so.

Became dull after a bit

This was okay, but way too long for not having all that many good songs .

It was okay. Interested reading about the background of the album and definitely makes sense why it's a bit of a rambling, meandering mess.

And here I was complaining about Taylor Swift's inclusion on this list. As much as the 1001 albums book is lost when it comes to *recent* masterpieces, its writers know their stuff about the past, at least when it comes the rock genre. Alexander "Skip" Pence's *Oar* is indeed a hidden treasure--a bold, raw, often visionary statement from an artist on the brink of madness. Moby Grape being a rock band I find horribly bland and unoriginal compared to its more famous peers from the sixties, I would never have thought of checking out this solo effort from one of their most deranged members without this 1001 album project. And because of haunting songs such as "Little Hands", "Diana" and "Book Of Moses", I'm so glad I did now. Some of Spence's cuts here even pave the way towards the future, from the proto-krautrock-tinged "Gray/Afro" to the pre-Radiohead-like "War In Peace" and its awe-inducing chord changes and guitar flourishes. Interspersed between those highlights are a number of songs going from the eccentric to the downright sinister, with a voice that's unpredictable from one track to the next. The whole is thus an uncompromising picture of the psychological hardships this American Syd Barrett went through. His life story is a very sad one, but at least we can rejoice he was able to leave this recording, a very unique one, in all senses of the word. Madness being a part of the human experience, all of this makes *Oar* a compelling album, both musically and artistically. So I'm happy I can now place this one next to other misunderstood folk misfits or psychedelic oucasts such as Barrett, Nick Drake, Mark Fry, and The Incredible String Band. Thanks, Dimery and co. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 863 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 75 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 34 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 29

I do not own a copy of this album and had not listened to it for a long time. True sixties classic from a musician who was obviously very talented. The kind of psychedelic rock that is still very accessible, as it is mixed with strong and classic song-writing.

Ha ha, very funny. Now can you please remove it from the list again. I feel sorry for those who would still have to endure it.

first listen fascinating listen given the context, an interesting jumbled mess

I usually like a lot of early psych music but this is just incoherent ramblings of some hippie fried on LSD

2, interesting lore for this but ultimately not very enjoyable

the "skip" in his name is actually due to the fact you'll find yourself wanting to skip every song in this album

Extraño. Experimental. Rock, country...

Nothing grabbed me

countryblues. I'm sure it's a sad story behind the record, but I just couldn't get into it.

I generally like psychedelic music. Not this one though.

Honestly, the story behind this album was far better than the music in it. It sounds like a bunch of demos that never got to get finished - which, spoiler alert, it was.

I would say this album is very interesting, and I enjoyed listening to it. I feel like I would enjoy something from Skip that wasn't solo, so I will have to check out more work previous to this.

1.5

Congratulations 'Skip', I didn't dislike your album. I'm not sure if I liked it, but I did not NOT like Oar. Alexander 'Skip' Spence is a new artist to me. There was only one song that I recognized ("Little Hands") and I'm pretty sure I've only heard someone else play that song. This album was a mix of folk-rock and hippie, of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and... something else I can't quite put my finger on.

Ok, this is the type of record that leaves me speechless. It's just beautiful. Listen to this album if you haven't already.

Very lame psychedelia. Not a fan

Music is okay. Not a fan of the mumbling rambling singing style so far. Reading about the guys life is sad and tragic and puts into prospective the music he created. While interesting, the music isn't my favorite and you definitely need to be in a certain mood to listen to it. War in Peace the album has come alive a bit, still going to keep listening. Back to a slow folksy sound that doesn't excite me much. War in Peace is probably my favorite track.

the mumbles of a vagabond hippie street musician. Protip: the original issue of this ended after Grey/Afro

Very varied, moving between country, rock, psychedelic and more. Not heard this before,really fresh sounds

Not a fan

He’s a hippy

First time hearing of this guy. I really like it. I want to hear more of it. 3/5

Fine - didn’t finish yet

Disliked

You ever wonder how it feels to have to walk across a super muddy field? Where your foot sinks in all the way to your knee every step. If so listen to this album. I swear time literally slowed while listening to it. 22 songs and not 1 was worth a second play. Not sure why this is on the list. You must have to be on a few hits of acid or a fist full of shrooms to know.

Terrible.

Does not like his voice... the style is too under the weather

Sorry, Spence, but it's a Skip

“Teetering near the precipice of sanity.”

Demasiado plano, casi sin ritmo y sin voz destacable. Le falta de todo

This is the first one I didn't quite make it through. There were a lot of songs I liked like Weighted Down, but I also found the vocal affects and left/right split of the recording pretty irritating at times.