My Music Journal 2025: January 10, 2025

 

Friday, January 10, 2025

Time: 1:30 PM
Song: Murder in My Heart for the Judge
Artist: Moby Grape
Mode of Consumption: Spotify – Playlist Pandemonium Playlist Theme “In Memoriam of Artists Lost in 2024.”

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3w4KpXGtlbJPf5gTq3GQPo?si=3910cc47e76240ca

I manage a Facebook group that compiles a playlist each week based off a common theme. Each person in the group is allowed to add three songs to the list each week, and then I post the playlist via link to Spotify on Fridays. 

This song was one of my three picks for the week. It was written by Jerry Miller, who passed away in July of 2024. He was an American songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, and a founding member of the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape. 

Before I go any farther, I have to admit, I had never heard of Moby Grape until a few years ago when their album titled “Wow” was in one of the vinyl lots I bought at an auction. I listened to the album, and while it was interesting, it was one I decided to resell. I think I put $10 on the album, and it sold the first time I had it at a sale. Subsequently, I have had luck selling other copies of Moby Grape’s albums. So, I have decided they are one of those hip bands that hipsters who like vinyl like to buy. Good for them and good me. 

Discovering groups like this is one of best parts of collecting vinyl the way that I do. While I know a lot of popular music, there is a bunch out there featuring good tunes and usually betters stories.

Every time I research something on Moby Grape, I find something interesting. Here are a couple items of note:  

The band name comes from a bad joke: “What’s big and purple and lives in the ocean?” 

All members of the five-piece band were songwriters and lead singers. Two of those members had mental illness issues, causing the band’s first breakup in 1969. 

On their wiki page there is this quote from music critic Jeff Tamarkin: “The Grape’s saga is one of squandered potential, absurdly misguided decisions, bad luck, blunders and excruciating heartbreak, all set to the tune of some of the greatest rock and roll ever to emerge from San Francisco. Moby Grape could have had it all, but they ended up with nothing, and less”