skip spence's "oar" -- visionary underground classic or over-romanticized obscurist sham?

And in hand. It's very lovely.

Love the title

this original columbia advertisement is included in the booklet (!!!)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/18/9f/61189fecb72650b5f6468c0842a2a29e.jpg

at this point i haven't made it through the original tracks yet but am v excited.

and yeah it's an awesome title, very head, very sundazed xp

never liked this album, and this paragraph from his wiki entry always made me think he sounded p skeevy. Having spent plenty of time in Santa Cruz and being familiar with its panoply of hippie burnout creeps this is just... not someone that sounds v interesting, to me.

"Skippy was just hanging around. He hadn't been all there for years, because he'd been into heroin all that time. In fact he actually ODed once and they had him in the morgue in San Jose with a tag on his toe. All of a sudden he got up and asked for a glass of water. Now he was snortin' big clumps of coke, and nothing would happen to him. We couldn't have him around because he'd be pacing the room, describing axe murders. So we got him a little place of his own. He had a little white rat named Oswald that would snort coke too. He'd never washed his dishes, and he'd try to get these little grammar school girls to go into the house with him. He was real bad. One of the parents finally called the cops, and they took him to the County Mental Health Hospital in Santa Cruz. Where they immediately lost him, and he turned up days later in the women's ward."[

i mean, it's entirely possible he was a creep, exacerbated no doubt by years of drug abuse and untreated mental illness.

that said, i'm not really interested in the legend of skip spence, nor do i think it's cool or mysterious or whatever that he freaked out and never made another record (or any other music, really) -- and, perhaps most importantly, i don't think any of these sordid biographical details have any bearing on my enjoyment of this strange record. that shit depresses me and i'm just grateful he had this brief moment of lucidity and put something beautiful and honest into the world.

you might even say that that quote says a lot more about peter lewis than it does about skip, trying to turn the tragedy of spence's instability into this like "har har you dirty dog!" story

anyway, the first ten seconds of "my friend" sounds like it could be the fall

I too have never been able to understand what people see in this record. Just seems like average singer songwriter weirdo stuff, the kind you find done a lot better on literally hundreds of private press "loner folk" LPs

Yup

What in the world is average about any of these songs? You might not like them but they are very unique.

average singer songwriter weirdo stuff, the kind you find done a lot better on literally hundreds of private press "loner folk" LPs

More buzzwords. Who are we talking about that you're asserting is similar to Skip Spence?

ts: skip spence vs. dave bixby

you might even say that that quote says a lot more about peter lewis than it does about skip, trying to turn the tragedy of spence's instability into this like "har har you dirty dog!" story

― budo jeru

one might, but then one would be in essence saying "maybe skip spence isn't the bad person, peter lewis is the bad person!", which would be slightly reductionist.

if people like listening to the record, like the songs, that's wonderful, but often mentally ill people get miscategorized as being "too pure for this world" or some such bullshit. we're not.

above average singer songwriter weirdo stuff, the kind you find done a lot better not quite as well on literally hundreds of private press "loner folk" LPs

="If you like this, you may also like..."

Forgot about this thread! This is one album I think is somewhat similar to Oar.

i went to listen to this album one day about 6 years ago. my ex-wife owned it and we lived together at the time. the vinyl was smashed inside the intact sleeve. i've still never heard it

Re:budo jeru, i definitely side with how he's or she's looking at things. The art is whats important, sordid details of an artists personal life are (or should be) peripheral or secondary. And yes you could say i'm generalizing, as there are some artists who make their private/personal life the fodder of the work. But there are exceptions to EVERY rule. Doesn't change the rule.

And i just saw, you dropped the name of The Mighty Fall!! Now i def need to hear that. Actually the Oar re-ish is quite affordable on Amazon. Next payday, it's mine. Speaking of Fall i got a MES trading card off eBay today. It's pretty funny looking and fairly accurate. Lol! It'll make a swell bookmarker. Y'know I miss that geezer.

rush, i think it’s entirely possible that skip was a shitty person AND peter lewis was shitty for characterizing skip’s behavior in the way that he did. more generally, calling out somebody for having a shitty take re: sexual assault e.g. is in no way diminishing said assault — like, we have conversations about the discussions / attitudes surrounding these things. surely this isn’t controversial.

also not sure if that “too pure” thing was directed at me, but i explicitly wrote that i’m not interested in the “legend” of skip spence, by which i meant essentially the same thing that you did. you’re right, it’s bullshit.

also the late great otm

I finally got the "book/3CD" version thanks to someone who bought it, didn't like it and sold it on ebay. Cheaper.

Anyhow, I am enjoying it! For someone who at that point had been apart from music, it's loose but accomplished in places too.

So finally listening to this (17 years after I said I would lol) and I can't believe there was a tribute album! Bloody funny to have Tom Waits and Flying Saucer Attack on the same record.