expand Moby Grape

What do you get if you add rock, country, blues, folk and psychedelic music to the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory through bad luck, bad judgment and even worse behavior? You get the 60s San Francisco band, Moby Grape. For the band that should have had it all they walked away with a Buddhist brag,' I worked hard all my life and have nothing to show for it.'

The Grape was conceived and started in San Francisco, in 1966, by Skip Spence after his short drumming stint in the Jefferson Airplane.  Skip's legendary appetite for LSD made him the American counterpart to Pink Floyd's Syd Barret.  After taking an axe to band mate Jerry Miller's hotel room door, holding that axe to the hotel doorman's head and thinking he was the Anti-Christ, he was apprehended on the 52nd floor of the CBS building, wrestled to the ground, sent to the Tombs and finally to Bellevue and a steady diet of  Thorazine. The other guys continued on without Skip recording a final album without him. Although they still occasionally play together, having Bill Mosely joining the Marines was the final nail in their commercial coffin.

RDC.


With a 3 guitar lead that was something new, and few have ever matched, they were the opening act at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. With sparse attendance, it was the Artists in the following days who received more acclaim. Here's an advert (from the LA FP, natch) for a later day performance.
Photo: With a 3 guitar lead that was something new, and few have ever matched, they were the opening act at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. With sparse attendance, it was the Artists in the following days who received more acclaim. Here's an advert (from the LA FP, natch) for a later day performance.

  • John J. Woods - I'm missing something. Who had the "3 quitar lead"? Or was that the three groups? I'm so confused...
  • The Los Angeles Free Press 60's Music Site Moby Grape - 3 guitars that uniquely interchanged / played off /challenged one another. Others groups have done it since, but those who know about such things say that the talent and familiarity of those guitarists made it work in a phenomenally good way.
  • Bob Ohsiek Caught them at the Shrine too.
  • Ernie Hernandez Jr never got to see the Grape live but me and my high school friends were into them had their album on reel to reel
  • Brian Hart Awesome country-roots influences...probably the inventors of southern rock
  • Mike S Handley their first lp still holds up, every cut is excellent! Saw Jerry Miller a couple years back and he's still playin excellent guitar!
  • The Los Angeles Free Press 60's Music Site Yes... I heard he still plays, and 2 others as well!
  • Rick Taylor This is one of the Kaleidiscope shows i went too...wow

Like now, we often pick a 'theme' and then provide some tangential clues - things so way out there you might not even see the relationship till we get to the 'heart' of the subject - take a guess... and enjoy the trip till we arrive!

  • The Los Angeles Free Press 60's Music Site If you know how to 'chat' this would be a good time... want to see folks stop by here more regularly - what else can we do?
  • Brian Hart You mentioned to me earlier that you were into politics.Well since this an extremely political time,you may try to intigrate politics into the page
  • The Los Angeles Free Press 60's Music Site Will be using the LosAngelesFreePress.com to make political comments - am looking now for those who want to post there - a point/counterpoint game... will fire it up again, tomorrow, with your good wishes. Hope you liked the Moby Grape video... have a poster coming up in a moment!
  • Bob Ohsiek What clips, relics from an era. Skip's tune, then Peter Lewis' trippy flashback. Thxxx much.
Skip Spence, after being dismissed as the drummer from the Jefferson Airplane, went on to co-found Moby Grape in 1966 with, the son of actress Loretta Young, Peter Lewis on guitar and bassist Bob Mosely of 'The Misfits", a San Diego band.
They were also joined by lead guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson from the Seattle band 'The Frantics' who had moved to San Francisco at the urging of Jerry Garcia, then playing with the Warlocks. Matthew Katz, former manager of the Airplane became manager of the Grape. 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." nv
Bad advice, bad advice, and bad behavior are said to have caused the demise of this bad that could have had it all. David Fricke of Rolling Stone said this about their debut album: "It's one of the few rock 'n' roll albums of any era that
you can say, 'That is a perfect debut album.' The songwriting on it is memorable — you take those songs with you wherever you go. The triple-guitar orchestration... it's not just power chords. Everyone is playing melodies and counter-melodies and rhythms. Very funky, also very country, very punk, very surf. And they were all singers."...nv
See video

Moby Grape M68M1H0730ACX | The Los Angeles Free Press 60's Music Site
www.lafpmusic.com
Political posters, 1960s articles, 60's music reviews and vintage concert ads from the original Los Angeles Free Press (1964-1972) for purchase. Counter culture newspaper content.