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"Land of the Sun" | |
---|---|
Single by Skip Spence | |
B-side | "All My Life (I Love You)" |
Released | 1999 |
Recorded | 1996 |
Genre | Rock, psychedelic rock |
Label | Sundazed |
Songwriter(s) | Skip Spence |
Land of The Sun is one of the last recordings, if not the last known recording by Alexander "Skip" Spence, a founding member of Moby Grape, whose promising career was largely finished by the mid-1970s, due to schizophrenia, compounded with drug addiction [1] and alcoholism. Spence died of lung cancer in 1999, at the age of 52, after many years of transient accommodation, third party care and homelessness.
The song, recorded in 1996, was originally released in 1999 by Sundazed Records as a 7-inch vinyl single, along with another rare Spence recording from 1972, "All My Life (I Love You)". [2]
The song is noteworthy as an illustration of Spence's attempts to overcome his significant obstacles in the later years of his life. The song was commissioned [3] for inclusion in the spinoff soundtrack to the X-Files, Songs in the Key of X, but were not used. [4]
The song is included as a hidden track on More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album , being a tribute album by Beck, Tom Waits, Mudhoney and others to Spence's only solo album, Oar , released in 1969. [5] As described by Raoul Hernandez, "(i)t's Spence himself, who died at the age of 52...who saves the back end of More Oar with the mumbled, spacey, bongo madness of "Land of the Sun." A hidden bonus track deemed unworthy of 1996's X-Files spinoff, Songs in the Key of X, "Land of the Sun" brings More Oar full circle...(to) bookend an obscure chapter of rock & roll history that is finally becoming public record." [6]
Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966. Part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene, the band merged elements of rock and roll, folk music, pop, blues, and country. They were one of the few groups of which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters. The group's first incarnation ended in 1969, in part due to members Bob Mosley and Skip Spence suffering from mental illness. The group has reformed many times afterwards and continues to perform occasionally.
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Sundazed Music is an American independent record label founded in Coxsackie, New York and currently based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. It was initially known as a '60s-centric surf, garage, and psych label. Over time with the additions of imprints such as Modern Harmonic, Americana Anthropology, Beat Rocket, Dot Matrix Recordings, and Liberty Spike Recordings, their reach spans most genres and many decades while still firmly rooted as an archival label.
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Alexander "Skip" Spence was a Canadian-born American singer-songwriter and musician. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. In the same year, he released his only solo album, Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry. He had started his career as a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and was the drummer on Jefferson Airplane's debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. He has been described on the AllMusic website as "one of psychedelia's brightest lights"; however, his career was plagued by drug addiction coupled with mental health problems, and he has been described by a biographer as a man who "neither died young nor had a chance to find his way out."
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Moby Grape is the 1967 debut album by rock band Moby Grape. Coming from the San Francisco scene, their reputation quickly grew to immense proportions, leading to a bidding war and a contract with Columbia Records. The album peaked at #24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in September 1967.
Oar is the only studio album by American singer-songwriter Alexander "Skip" Spence, released on May 19, 1969, by Columbia Records. It was recorded over seven days in December 1968 in Nashville, and features Spence on all of the instruments.
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Birdman Records is an independent record label based in South San Francisco, California, that was founded in 2000 by David Katznelson, former A&R vice president of Warner Bros. Records.
Wow/Grape Jam is the second album by the rock band Moby Grape. It was first released in April 1968. It is different from most double album releases in that it was released as two different albums in separate covers, but packaged together and sold for only one dollar more than price of a single LP.
Moby Grape '69 is the third album by the psychedelic rock band Moby Grape, released on January 30, 1969.
James Robert "Bob" Mosley is principally known as the bass player and one of the songwriters and vocalists for the band Moby Grape. Some of his best-known songs with Moby Grape are "Mr. Blues", "Come In The Morning", and "Lazy Me" from the first Moby Grape album (1967), and "Gypsy Wedding" from the 20 Granite Creek (1971) album.
Peter Charles Lewis is one of the founding members of the band Moby Grape. Three of his better known songs with Moby Grape are "Fall on You" and "Sitting by the Window" from the self-titled first Moby Grape album and "If You Can't Learn from My Mistakes" from Moby Grape '69.
Don Stevenson is the American drummer and a singer and songwriter for Moby Grape, a band which was formed in San Francisco in 1966 and continues to perform occasionally today.
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More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album is a 1999 tribute album completed shortly before and released shortly after the death of Moby Grape founding member Skip Spence. The album contains cover versions by various artists of Spence's music from his Oar album, released in 1969, presented in the same order as on the original album. The album also contains a hidden bonus track of Spence's last known recording, "Land of the Sun", which was originally commissioned for the X-Files soundtrack, Songs in the Key of X, but not used.
Moby Grape Live is a 2010 album, released by Sundazed Records, of previously unissued live recordings of the band Moby Grape. Included are recordings of the band in its prime in 1966 and 1967, as well as 1969 recordings, subsequent to the 1968 collapse and departure of founding member Skip Spence. A particularly notable inclusion is the band's performance at the historic Monterey International Pop Festival. According to critic Mark Deming, "While Moby Grape's studio work might offer a clearer picture of the strength of their songs, Moby Grape Live does a brilliant job of revealing what made them great as a band, and the best tracks here should prompt any serious fan of late-'60s rock to reaffirm Moby Grape's status as one of the finest acts of their time." According to another reviewer, "After the essential debut record, this is the Moby Grape record I would recommend next."
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