2000 Great Songs #1480: Seeing

One of the virtues of the amazing Moby Grape was that, probably even more so than fellow mid/late-60s Bay Area acts like the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, they mined so many divergent genres. For the heavier, more acid-drenched tracks, they typically turned to singer-guitarist Skip Spence; alas, by the end of the decade, Spence had become something of an acid casualty himself, kind of the US iteration of Syd Barrett, and had to be pushed out of the band.

Still, for their third proper LP, 1969's Moby Grape '69 (making a second appearance here), they salvaged an unfinished Spence track known as "Skip's Song," polished it up a bit, and threw it on to the end of the album as "Seeing." And it's a doozy, the band alternating between amped up rock (with a wicked little guitar lick) and gentler interludes. It's a sad but rousing send-off to a sadly departed member; again borrowing that Floyd/Barrett analogy, it's comparable to that band's "Jugband Blues," the sound of anguished collapse. (Earlier demo versions later showed up on various reissues.)

Remarkable 2010 performance by a few original members, with Spence's son on vocals:

Original demo:

Surprising & fantastic Robert Plant cover:

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