Oar

Spence, Alexander "Skip"

album cover

A Singer-Songwriter Path Not Taken

Just before this was recorded in 1968, Alexander "Skip" Spence spent six months in the psychiatric prison ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital. He'd threatened a bandmate with an ax during the making of the second Moby Grape record, and was not only kicked out of the band but deemed a threat to himself and others. Upon his release, Spence bought a motorcycle and drove to Nashville, carrying several pads full of song lyrics. There, according to legend, he set up shop in a studio, and recorded these oddly riveting and achingly beautiful songs in four days, playing all the instruments and producing the music himself. The result stands as his peak musical achievement. It's also his artistic epitaph: Though he was briefly involved in Moby Grape reunions and assorted projects, he never recorded his own music professionally again.

Because of the circumstances of its creation, Oar is sometimes lumped in with other records made by rock's certifiably unhinged denizens—Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, the raconteur Daniel Johnston. That shortchanges Spence. From the opening refrain of "Little Hands," which has a touch of John Lennon acidity, it's clear that this is an auteur with a firm grasp on structure, and an ear for doleful melodies that are far more sophisticated than most "savant-art."

Spence covers significant stylistic range—Oar contains folk songs fractured into absurd hallucinations, a couple of straightforward rockers, and a country waltz that shows off his grave baritone. These are feats of great loner reflection, with ethereal vocals that hang heavily in the air and tangles of overlapping guitar carrying on their own conversation. At first, you can't help but appreciate the craft, then the sheer openhearted loveliness of the melodies. Later it becomes clear that Spence is hardly even at the controls. He's working so fast he has to trust the details to the goodwill of the universe, and he gets lucky: These dashed-off songs are full of happy accidents and assorted amazingness.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1969, Columbia
Key Tracks: "Little Hands," "Diana," "War Is Peace," "Books of Moses."
Catalog Choice: Moby Grape: Moby Grape
Next Stop: Syd Barrett: The Madcap Laughs
After That: Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Book Pages: 729–730