I think we mean that gruff Bob Mosely "white guy with long hair and a moustache" vocal sound (which I generally don't dig, except John Fogerty). (Not exclusively West Coast, and you don't actually have to grow a moustache, just sound like someone who would, and not a nice Paul McCartney moustache either but one of those droopy hippie versions that illustrators would draw on generic rock musicians when they wanted to indicate "grooviness is present".)
I have to believe the answer would be "Omaha," as that was the album's highest-charting single. (That's the "Listen, my friends" song, for the not-so-familiar with Moby Grape. )
Yeah, it's that forced sounding white soul voice plus a wall of tight harmonies where you get to thinking that there's just too many people singing. And all too loudly. Step it back a tad.
An almost perfect album. Once I made a 40' compilation of the rest of their albums and it wasn't nearly as good as the debut.
Jefferson Airplane would be on my list of offenders. Not that I'm particularly offended. I still like them and I quite like Moby Grape. Just not very keen on the vocal sound. That's all. Can I go now?
I've got the 2007 Columbia Legacy comp Listen My Friends, remastered by Bob Irwin. 01. Hey Grandma 02. Mr. Blues 03. 805 04. Omaha 05. Sitting by the Window 06. Indifference 07. Bitter Wind (version one - 2:41) 08. Murder in My Heart for the Judge 09. Can't Be So Bad 10. He 11. Motorcycle Irene 12. Rose Colored Eyes 13. Sweet Ride (Never Again) (long version - 5:57) 14. Ooh Mama Ooh 15. Ain't That a Shame 16. If You Can't Learn from My Mistakes 17. Going Nowhere 18. Seeing 19. Changes, Circles Spinning 20. Truly Fine Citizen
The Columbia Records move smacked of hype and it did cause some backlash with the cognoscenti of the period who thus perceived The Grape as not so hip (at least as they?!?).
Too bad Don's microphone appears to be off because it's supposed to be Don and Skip singing togetherk, as on the studio track.
Besides the Murder in my Heart riff they also got the idea for the "Stop Hey what's that sound" part from Peter's song "Stop."
With five singles competing for airplay none became a hit. I think the record company seriously thought all five singles would break the top twenty, and were inspired by the Beatles having five singles in the top ten, but that was more due to mass Beatles hysteria at the time and the Beatles being a social as well as musical phenomenon. Moby Grape were unknowns, they needed an initial hit to "break" them.
For mono the Sundazed. It actually sounds better than the original Columbia which was not a great pressing and is pretty noisy. Not sure about the stereo.
Sundazed reissued the lp in 2007 (now out of print), but some prefer the UK Edsel mono lp reissued in 1984. Original US Columbia pressings in stereo and mono aren’t that hard to find, though.