alexander "skip" spence

ive been familiar with this album for quite some time but the greatness of it has really been hitting me lately. spence was a member of the band moby grape in the late 60s (and an early version of jefferson airplane). long story short, he took way too much acid, lost his mind and tried to kill his bandmates with an axe. because of this he ended up in new yorks bellvue hospital for the criminally insane for six months and recorded this album upon his release. it was his only album. i know its easy to romanticize these kinds of tragic figures but ultimately if the music isnt good people wouldnt be talking about them in the first place.. its a great album. alternately witty, dark, wistful, hopeful and sad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abvqf5lsFdg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ZOjZztGzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrzSQYktqdI&feature=related

truly fantastic album

As described by Peter Lewis, "Skippy was just hanging around. He hadn't been all there for years, because he'd been into heroin all that time. In fact he actually ODed 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."

- Wiki

apparently beck and wilco covered the entire album.

My link

wow, thanks mister...I love not knowing everything

So he's like the American version of Syd Barrett?

sort of. i think this sums it up pretty well -

    Quote

In his 1998 book Unknown Legends Of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Richie Unterberger attempted to explain the album’s out-of-time, therefore timeless, appeal: “Like [syd] Barrett, Spence conveyed a magical sense of childlike wonder with his one-of-a-kind songs, which fascinate with their eerie tightrope walk between coherence and madness. If Skip was a psychedelic cousin of Barrett’s, he drew upon bedrock American blues, country and folk influences to a far greater degree than his British counterpart.”

its a fair point, but for me theres a genuine weariness to his vocal delivery and couple that with weird, witty and sometimes dark lyrics you get the impression that this is someone whos seem better days. but like i said, myth only goes so far. people wouldnt still be talking about the album if the songs werent there.

little hands, all come to meet her, cripple creek and dixie peach promenade are my favourites.

  On 10/11/2009 at 6:50 AM, ieafs said:

yep, those first two youtube links are my favourites from that album... though most of it is great - there's just a few sketchy ones that make it slightly less classic, but even they're all right.

 

i don't know if people would think of it as 'cracked' or whatever if they didn't know his life story beforehand. it just sounds like a really good batch of songs done quickly in the studio... i don't personally hear it as the 'sound of the 60's dream evaporating' or whatever. surely that's where the syd barrett reference is coming from rather than from a bunch of loose country-rock songs done a gravelly baritone>

Yeah I'm not really comparing the two musically. Never heard any of this skip spence before, so just basing it off the drug stuff.

I base everything off the drug stuff...

i based myself off on drugs once

Yet another solid record Leafs can thank me for making him aware of...

"Little Hands" FTW

  On 10/12/2009 at 7:34 PM, ieafs said:

  On 10/12/2009 at 3:31 AM, Mellow U said:

Yet another solid record Leafs can thank me for making him aware of...

 

"Little Hands" FTW

HAHAHA I'm just taking the piss. But seriously where would you be without Oar or Nick Drake?

Plus if it weren't for you I wouldn't be into SOTL or Jandek, so we'll call it even!