Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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Singer/songwriter and bassist James Robert Mosley was born December 4, 1942, in Paradise Valley, CA, and spent his teens playing in a number of garage combos, including the Misfits, the Strangers, and the Frantics. the Frantics eventually morphed into Moby Grape, and with a lineup of Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Skip Spence, Don Stevenson, and Jerry Miller, the band recorded the brilliant but ill-fated Moby Grape album, released by Columbia in 1967.

If ever a band was snake-bitten, it was Moby Grape, and thanks to backfiring publicity stunts, poor management, and record company snafus, the band never found a steady mass audience. It didn't help, either, that at least two of the members – Spence and Mosley – begin to show sings of mental disorder. Moby Grape managed to record two more albums with its original configuration participating before Spence and then Mosley left the band.

In 1969 Mosley joined the U.S. Marines, making it through basic training, only to be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic (a mental condition that also afflicted Skip Spence) and was discharged from the Marines nine months later. He rejoined Grape for 1971's 20 Granite Creek album, but the group splintered after the album was completed. Mosley next signed with Reprise Records and his solo album, Bob Mosley, was released in 1972. By 1973 Mosley was listed as a ward of the State of California. He resurfaced in the late '70s as a member of the Ducks, who backed Neil Young on a series of impromptu bar gigs around Santa Cruz in 1977. In 1989 the odd Live at Indigo Ranch by Mosley Grape was released, and Mosley joined former Grape members Miller, Stevenson, and Lewis as the Melvilles (they weren't legally allowed to use the name Moby Grape at this point) to record Legendary Grape, which was released on cassette that same year, and has floated around as a bootleg ever since. Eventually the album was reissued on CD with eight bonus tracks in 2003 by DIG Music.

Moby Grape has reunited in different configurations (and under a variety of names) several times for shows and other projects over the years, sometimes with Mosley and sometimes without him. A soulful singer whose songs deftly bridged the gap between country and blues, Mosley contributed "Mr. Blues," "Bitter Wind," "Rose Colored Eyes," "Trucking Man," "Hoochie," "Lazy Me," "Come in the Morning," and other solid songs to the Grape canon in the early years.

By the mid-'90s he was homeless, sleeping under a freeway overpass in San Diego. Other members of Moby Grape have attempted at various times to help Mosley, and he still occasionally surfaces to play a show, but he appears to prefer life on the street, either by design or as a result of his illness. An album he recorded in the 1970s with members of Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets, was released as Never Dreamed in 1999 by the German label Taxim Records.

Biography by Steve Leggett, Allmusic.com

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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Within a year of Moby Grape sadly crashing to a halt again after the release of the ill-fated reunion album 20 Granite Creek, Bob Mosley (who sang, played guitar, and wrote songs with the group) released his first solo album, and if 1972's Bob Mosley isn't a masterpiece on the order of Moby Grape's peerless debut album, it showed that Mosley's share of the talent that produced that great record was still in working order. Bob Mosley is a decidedly harder-rocking album than much of the Grape catalog, with Mosley and Ed Black loading up the songs with plenty of tough guitar work, but the melodies show the same blend of grace and power that marked his best work, and Mosley's pipes are in strong form here, with his blues-based vocals sounding potent and impassioned throughout (he also gets a great assist from the Memphis Horns, who add their punchy brass accents to several tracks). "Joker" and "Where Do the Birds Go" are fiery rockers, "Let the Music Play" is the sort of anthem Grape needed in the wake of their debut, and "Thanks" and "Gone Fishin'" are country-rock workouts that fit Mosley like a glove. Bob Mosley turned out to be Mosley's first and last solo album (except for an unreleased 1974 set that didn't see release until 1999), but if he fell victim to the same bad luck that haunted Moby Grape, he at least left behind a record that proved he had the talent to make it as a solo act if he'd been dealt a better hand.

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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While most fans of Moby Grape appropriately loathe Matthew Katz and his interminably miserable effect on the band, that is irrelevant in reviewing this CD. Mosley's vocals are as plaintive, powerful, and spare as ever. The backing musicians, while not as good or as brilliant as the Grape, provide a sturdy, tuneful framework for this dark, down-on-your-luck collection of songs. Generally, they share a disappointed, nearly skid row point of view as Bob sings about life near the bottom of the food chain. All that has gone wrong in his life, and those good bits and pieces that keep him going are explored in this heartfelt album. If you like the Grape and Bob Mosley, in particular, this is a must have. And it is a long CD, as well - you certainly get value. When I saw a Moby Grape concert back in 1997, I gave the CD to Bob to autograph and he was almost amazed to see a copy of it.

Review by Gary R. v Rotenberg, Amazon.com

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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For those seeking the gritty West Coast vocals or psychedelic overtones of Bob Mosley's 1972 self-titled debut, or anything resembling Moby Grape, the Never Dreamed album will not only shock, it will show another side of this talented and oft forgotten rock & roll soldier. Contrast the cover of Justin Hayward's "Question" with Mosley's original material from four years earlier, specifically the track "So Many Troubles" on the aforementioned Bob Mosley LP, producer Jean Pierre Whitecloud choosing the song and recording only the half of the tune that is the ballad side of the Moody Blues. Mosley's tone and strength are perfect for such a challenge – but even hardcore Moby Grape fans will be hard-pressed to recognize the voice which sounds like a cross between Richard Harris and Jerry Lee Lewis on this set of country tunes. Though the date on the liner notes states November 1999, this material was recorded in 1976/1977 when Mosley sang and played bass for Fine Wine, a band released on Polydor. Producer J.P. Whitecloud actually recorded this material with Waylon Jennings in mind as Jennings was interested in a couple of the songs Susan Whitecloud and her producer husband – under the pseudonym Pete Delacroix though it is actually J.P. Whitecloud – had written. Without Jennings the stellar tracks – featuring members of Buddy Holly's Crickets as well as James Burton and Glen D. Hardin from Elvis Presley's band – were lost in limbo. Polydor actually showed interest – as did Bill Graham with his Columbia Records distributed label and a potential Eddie Money tour to promote this disc, were it not for the singer's Syd Barrett-style notions of going to the planet Saturn getting in the way. It's truly a great tragedy because the cover of Bill Owens and Dolly Parton's "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" is striking in its authenticity – and could have been a Waylon Jennings smash. "Willy Shakespeare Blues" also proves Mosley could have easily made the transition from rocker to country legend had that been the focus. As Tommy James brilliant My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar album is the textbook for great country music by a name rocker getting lost in the shuffle of the industry, this material didn't even see the light of day until 23 years later when a German label picked it up for issue. And as Tommy James kept active and his album failed to achieve the popularity it deserved despite his high profile, the excellent songs that the Whiteclouds co-wrote here can't be blamed for languishing on the shelf for decades; they were victims of a business that thinks in terms of dollars rather than art. "Shoot the Xylophone Man" not only sounds like the killer, Jerry Lee, it would be perfect for him, the elegant guitar lines running as quick as the bass and piano in wonderful fashion. Mosley cut the vocals in one day, sometimes in one take, but they sound great and give this project added caché bringing the opening track, "There Is the Sun," a commercial flair missing in some of Mosley's own work. This could be likened to Bill Withers participation on Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Just the Two of Us," a collaboration that generated something special. The project is the vision of producer/arranger Jean Pierre Whitecloud and, perhaps, should have been credited to him and Mosley together. For Moby Grape fans it will be an oddity, for Bob Mosley it is a remarkable indication of what could have been.

Review by Joe Viglione, Allmusic.com

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Bob Mosley (ex-Moby Grape) - Albums Collection 1972-2005 (4CD)

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I started on acoustic guitar at fourteen years of age and was playing electric guitar by the time I was sixteen. My first band, called the Misfits, I formed myself in 1964 . We opened for the Rolling Stones that same year in San Diego, California where I was living. In 1965 I joined with Joel Scott HIll and Johnny Barbata to play the San Francisco bay area clubs where I also played some dates with the Vejtables.

In 1966 Moby Grape was formed and we have been working on and off together thru the years. In 1996 Peter Lewis picked me up along the side of a San Diego freeway where I was living, to tell me a ruling by San Francisco Judge Garcia gave Moby Grape their name back. I was ready to go to work again. I started this project recording acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and vocals up in Marin County close to where I had recently moved. Taxim was interested in my project and since the first tracks were laid, I got in touch with J.P. Whitecloud, producer of "Never Dreamed", a recording which was done with James Burton and the Crickets released in 1999 on Taxim. Prairie Sun Studio is where this was finished by adding Dale Ockermon from the Doobie Brothers on keyboards and slide guitar. I called old friend James Preston of the Sons of Champlin to add the drums.

Thank you Hans and JP and especially to my family for your support and love.

– Bob Mosley 2005