During the recording of Wow/Grape Jam, founding Moby Grape member Skip Spence started to deteriorate mentally, generally credited to too much LSD abuse. Most famously he tried to break down bandmate Jerry Miller's hotel room door with an axe. In the end he was forced out of the band and spent six months under psychiatric care.Moby Grape was then reduced to the foursome of Jerry Miller (lead guitar/vocals), Peter Lewis (guitar/vocals), Bob Mosley (bass/vocals) and Don Stevenson (drums/vocals). They recorded their third album in 1968, and it was released in January 1969. They still had their signature style intact, though like on Wow/Grape Jam they were trying out new ideas and sounds. Parts of Moby Grape '69 has hints of a country-rock sound, but they never fully explored the genre, and most of the album consists of their familiar psychedelic rock style.
The last song on the album, "Seeing", is a Skip Spence song and was probably left over from the Wow sessions.
It's always difficult to truly judge an album like this when it's still in the shadow of a perfect debut, and it's true that they had still not managed to produce something as good as their first record. But nevertheless, Moby Grape '69 is still a great album (though it didn't exactly chart well).
Wow/Grape Jam (1968) <|> Truly Fine Citizen (1969)
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