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Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music. The group continues to perform occasionally.
As described by Jeff Tamarkin, "The Grape's saga is one of squandered potential, absurdly misguided decisions, bad luck, blunders and excruciating heartbreak, all set to the tune of some of the greatest rock and roll ever to emerge from San Francisco. Moby Grape could have had it all, but they ended up with nothing, and less."
The group was formed in late 1966 in San Francisco, at the instigation of Skip Spence and Matthew Katz. Both had been previously associated with Jefferson Airplane, Spence as the band's first drummer, playing on their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, and Katz as the band's manager, but both had been dismissed by the group. Katz encouraged Spence to form a band similar to Jefferson Airplane, with varied songwriting and vocal work by several group members, and with Katz as the manager.[3] According to Peter Lewis, "Matthew (Katz) brought the spirit of conflict into the band. He didn't want it to be an equal partnership. He wanted it all."
The band name, judicially determined to have been chosen by Bob Mosley and Spence, came from the punch line of the joke "What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?". Lead guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson (both formerly of The Frantics, originally based in Seattle) joined guitarist (and son of actress Loretta Young) Peter Lewis (of The Cornells), bassist Bob Mosley (of The Misfits, based in San Diego) and Spence, now on guitar instead of drums. Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson had moved The Frantics from Seattle to San Francisco after a 1965 meeting with Jerry Garcia, then playing with The Warlocks at a bar in Belmont, California. Garcia encouraged them to move to San Francisco. Once The Frantics were settled in San Francisco, Mosley joined the band.
While Jerry Miller was the principal lead guitarist, all three guitarists played lead at various points, often playing off against each other, in a guitar form associated with Moby Grape as "crosstalk". The other major three-guitar band at the time was Buffalo Springfield. Moby Grape's music has been described by Geoffrey Parr as follows: "No rock and roll group has been able to use a guitar trio as effectively as Moby Grape did on Moby Grape. Spence played a distinctive rhythm guitar that really sticks out throughout the album. Lewis, meanwhile, was a very good guitar player overall and was excellent at finger picking, as is evident in several songs. And then there is Miller. … The way they crafted their parts and played together on Moby Grape is like nothing else I've ever heard in my life. The guitars are like a collage of sound that makes perfect sense."
In a marketing stunt, Columbia Records immediately released five singles at once, and the band was perceived as being over-hyped. This was during a period in which mainstream record labels were giving previously unheard-of levels of promotion to what was then considered countercultural music genres. Nonetheless, the record was critically acclaimed and fairly successful commercially, with The Move covering the album's "Hey Grandma" (a Miller-Stevenson composition) on their eponymous first album. More recently, "Hey Grandma" was included in the soundtrack to the 2005 Sean Penn-Nicole Kidman film, The Interpreter, as well as being covered in 2009 by the Black Crowes, on Warpaint Live. Spence's "Omaha" was the only one of the five singles to chart, reaching number 88 in 1967. Miller-Stevenson's "8:05" became a country rock standard (covered by Robert Plant, Guy Burlage, and others).
One of Moby Grape's earliest major onstage performances was the Mantra-Rock Dance—a musical event held on January 29, 1967 at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. At the event Moby Grape performed along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, The Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, donating proceeds to the temple. In mid-June 1967, Moby Grape appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. Due to legal and managerial disputes, the group was not included in the D.A. Pennebaker-produced film of the event, Monterey Pop. Moby Grape's Monterey recordings and film remain unreleased, allegedly because Matthew Katz demanded one million dollars for the rights. According to Peter Lewis, "[Katz] told Lou Adler they had to pay us a million bucks to film us at the Monterey Pop Festival. So instead of putting us on Saturday night right before Otis Redding, they wound up putting us on at sunset on Friday when there was nobody in the place." The Moby Grape footage was shown in 2007 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the film. Jerry Miller recalls that Laura Nyro was given Moby Grape's original position opening for Otis Redding, "because everybody was arguing. Nobody wanted to play first and I said that would be fine for me." In addition to the marketing backlash, band members found themselves in legal trouble for charges (later dropped) of consorting with underage females, and the band's relationship with their manager rapidly deteriorated.
The second album, Wow/Grape Jam, released in 1968, was generally viewed as a critical and commercial disappointment, even though the album charted at No. 20 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts, partially due to the unusual two albums for the price of one double-album packaging. Though Wow added strings and horns to some songs, their basic sound remained consistent from the debut album, featuring tight harmonies, multiple guitars, imaginative songwriting, and a strong level of musicianship. The album included the track "Just Like Gene Autry, a Foxtrot", a tribute to the ballroom music big band era which was tracked to only be played back properly at the speed of 78 RPM. The Grape Jam LP was one of loose improvised studio jams with outside musicians; this detracted from the stronger tunes on Wow, such as the room-shaking shuffle "Can't Be So Bad." Also in 1968, the band contributed to the soundtrack of the movie The Sweet Ride, and appeared, credited, in the film.
But, amidst this success, troubled times plagued the band when founding member Spence began abusing LSD, which led to increasingly erratic behavior. According to Miller: "Skippy changed radically when we were in New York. There were some people there (he met) who were into harder drugs and a harder lifestyle, and some very weird shit. And so he kind of flew off with those people. Skippy kind of disappeared for a little while. Next time we saw him, he had cut off his beard, and was wearing a black leather jacket, with his chest hanging out, with some chains and just sweating like a son of a gun. I don't know what the hell he got a hold of, man, but it just whacked him. And the next thing I know, he axed my door down in the Albert Hotel. They said at the reception area that this crazy guy had held an ax to the doorman's head." After spending time in the infamous Tombs jail in New York, Spence was committed to New York's Bellevue Hospital, where he spent six months under psychiatric care.
There is an often-repeated myth that on the day of his release, Skip left Bellevue, jumped on a motorcycle dressed only in his pajamas, and headed straight to Nashville for the recording of his only solo album, Oar, on which he played all of the instruments and produced the album himself. However, refuting this, Skip's former wife Pat says that he first came home to the Santa Cruz area, and the whole family then went to Nashville together.
Recalling this troubled time for Spence, Peter Lewis said, "We had to do (the album) in New York because the producer (David Rubinson) wanted to be with his family. So we had to leave our families and spend months at a time in hotel rooms in New York City. Finally I just quit and went back to California. I got a phone call after a couple of days. They'd played a Fillmore East gig without me, and Skippy took off with some black witch afterward who fed him full of acid. It was like that scene in the Doors movie. He thought he was the anti-Christ. He tried to chop down the hotel room door with a fire axe to kill Don [Stevenson] to save him from himself. He went up to the 52nd floor of the CBS building where they had to wrestle him to the ground. And Rubinson pressed charges against him. They took him to the Tombs (and then to Bellevue) and that's where he wrote Oar. When he got out of there, he cut that album in Nashville. And that was the end of his career. They shot him full of Thorazine for six months. They just take you out of the game."
Miller and Stevenson then formed The Rhythm Dukes, later joined by Bill Champlin. The band achieved a degree of success as a second-billed act during much of the latter part of 1969 to 1971, plus recorded one album, which was ultimately released in 2005.
The original five members re-united in 1971 and released 20 Granite Creek for Reprise Records. Prior to Spence again departing and the group again breaking up, the group performed a few concerts to support the album, most notably, during the last days of the Fillmore East. These concerts were described by contemporary accounts as disastrous, and circulating recordings do little to challenge that assessment. These shows are noteworthy, however, due to their inclusion of original material that did not appear on their albums proper. Mosley contributed "When You're Down The Road" and "Just A Woman", Lewis "There Is No Reason", and Spence brought along "We Don't Know Now" and "Sailing", a song which would be all but forgotten until Spence performed it with Moby Grape at a 1996 Palookaville gig. They also performed songs cut for "20 Granite Creek". A Fillmore East gig saw Mosley doing an a capella rendition of "Ode To The Man At The End of The Bar".
With Spence gone again, the remainder soldiered on for a few years, and later reunited on several occasions, with and without Spence. Bob Mosley and Jerry Miller, together with Michael Been on rhythm guitar (later of The Call) and John Craviotto on drums, recorded an LP that was released in 1976 as Fine Wine on Polydor Records in Germany. Thereafter, Mosley and Craviotto joined with Neil Young to form The Ducks, which played in and around the Santa Cruz area during 1977, and were immensely popular during the band's brief life.
In the Summer of 1987 Moby Grape, along with It's a Beautiful Day, Fraternity of Man, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock, got together for a couple of shows. Original Grapes: Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis, Bob Mosley, Skip Spence, and Don Stevenson performed their classics “Hey Grandma,” “Naked, If You Want To,” “Omaha,” “Fall on You,” and “805,” among others, before fans at the Marin Civic and Cupertino’s DeAnza College. Notwithstanding continuing to perform on occasion, the group has never returned to the level of popularity enjoyed in the early Avalon Ballroom/Fillmore Auditorium days.
Fine Wine was one of several band names used by Moby Grape members during the course of a protracted legal dispute with former manager Matthew Katz over ownership of the Moby Grape name. Other names used for performance or recording purposes included Mosley Grape, Legendary Grape and The Melvilles. The Legendary Grape album, originally released in 1989, is considered by some to be a Melvilles recording. This is because, while it was originally issued as a Moby Grape cassette-only release, former manager Matthew Katz took legal action, with reference to his alleged ownership of the Moby Grape name. The tape was withdrawn, repackaged and reissued as being by The Melvilles. Despite Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley and Peter Lewis continuing to release solo records in the 1990s and 2000s, Moby Grape has not released an album of new material since the release of Legendary Grape in 1989. Jerry Miller considers the 2003 remastered and supplemented CD version of Legendary Grape to be an essential Moby Grape album.
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In 2006, after three decades of court battles, the band finally won back its name. Moby Grape's success was significantly impeded by decades-long legal disputes with their former manager, Matthew Katz. Legal difficulties originated shortly after the group's formation, when Matthew Katz insisted that an additional provision be added to his management contract, giving him ownership of the group name. At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the group releasing its first album. Despite objecting, group members signed, based in part on an impression that there would be no further financial support from Katz unless they did so. Neil Young, then of Buffalo Springfield, was in the room at the time, and kept his head down, playing his guitar, and saying nothing. According to Peter Lewis, "I think Neil knew, even then, that was the end. We had bought into this process that we should have known better than to buy into." The dispute with Katz became more acute after the group members' rights to their songs, as well as their own name, were signed away in 1973, in a settlement made without their knowledge between Katz and Moby Grape's then manager (and former producer), David Rubinson.
It was also a settlement made at a time when Bob Mosley and Skip Spence were generally recognized as being legally incapacitated from the effects of schizophrenia. In September 2007, a reunited Moby Grape performed for over 40,000 fans at the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In October 2007, Sundazed Records reissued the Grape's first five albums (with bonus tracks) on CD and vinyl . The following month, the label was forced to both withdraw and recall Moby Grape, Wow and Grape Jam from print on both vinyl and CD because of a new lawsuit by former manager Katz. Sundazed stated on their website that they were directed to withdraw the three titles by Sony BMG (inheritors of the band's original label, Columbia), from whom Sundazed had licensed the recordings. These developments have resulted in a particular emotional setback for Bob Mosley. Of the four surviving band members, three still play to a regular degree. Jerry Miller appears as both a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band, and plays regularly in the Washington State area. Peter Lewis released a debut CD in 1995 and forms an acoustic duo with David West (released Live in Bremen, 2003). Lewis also spent three years (2000–2003) as a guitarist with the reformed Electric Prunes, contributing to the band's Artifact album (2002). Bob Mosley's relocation to the Santa Cruz area has been noteworthy for weekly guest appearances with veteran country artist Larry Hosford, a stalwart of the Santa Cruz music scene, and in occasional duos with ex-Doobie Brothers keyboardist Dale Ockerman.
Don Stevenson, who has rejoined Moby Grape for occasional performances, has developed business interests outside of the music industry, including time share sales of recreational property in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, where he maintains a residence.[8] Moby Grape continues to perform occasionally, performing with core members Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley and Peter Lewis, and in such incarnations as with Skip Spence's son Omar joining on vocals and Jerry Miller's son Joseph on drums. New recording commenced in 2009, following the release of The Place and the Time, a well-received collection of demos, outtakes, alternate versions and otherwise unreleased material from the band's 1960s recording period. In 2010, Don Stevenson, Jerry Miller and Omar Spence performed at the South by Southwest music festival, while Peter Lewis appeared separately.
Moby Grape: Santa Cruz, Jan. 1978,
(((Stereo FM Broadcast)))
Moby Grape Jan. 1978:
Jerry Miller lead guit.
Peter Lewis:l guit.voc.
Bob Mosley: Bass, voc.
Cornelius Bumpus:org., voc.,keyb.
John Oxendine: dr.
Santa Crruz Veteran´s Hall 1/21/78
01. Your Rider
02. Cuttin´in
03. On the Way to New Orleans
04. Yes I know it´s fallin
05. 8.05
06. Stop
Santa Cruz, The Crossroads Jan. 1978
07. All your Life
08. Here I sit
09. (Hard to Handle - variation)
10. Your Rider
11. Love you so much
12. Your real Love
13. Up in the Air
14 My Heart´s Desire
15. Got the Blues
16. Cuttin´ in
17 Yes, I know it´s fallin´
Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
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Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
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