Moby Grape
Moby Grape in a photo used on their debut album cover. Back (l to r) Peter Lewis and Skip Spence, front (l to r) Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson and Bob Mosley.
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, CA, USA
Genre(s)	Rock and Roll Psychedelic
Years active	1966 - 1971, sporadically thereafter
Label(s)	Columbia Records
Members
Peter Lewis Jerry Miller Bob Moseley Skip Spence Don Stevenson

Moby Grape was an American roots rock and psychedelic rock group of the 1960s that was known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of jazz, country, and blues together with rock. Due to the strength of their debut album, several critics consider Moby Grape to be the best rock band to emerge from the San Francisco music scene in the late sixties. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... For psychedelics, see psychedelic drug. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ... Peter B. Lewis is the Cleveland, Ohio-area based Chairman of Progressive Insurance Companies. ... Jerry Miller (born July 10, 1943 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American musician, a guitarist and vocalist for the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape. ... Born April 18, 1946. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. ...

History

The group was formed in late 1966 in San Francisco. (Although the origin of the name is uncertain, it is likely from the punch line of the joke "What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?") Frontman and rhythm guitarist Skip Spence (the original drummer for Jefferson Airplane), lead guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson (both formerly of the Frantics), rhythm guitarist (and son of actress Loretta Young) Peter Lewis (of the Cornells), and bassist Bob Mosley all wrote songs for their debut album Moby Grape (1967). 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 unheard of levels of promotion to what was then considered counter-cultural music genres. Nonetheless, the record was critically acclaimed, and fairly successful commercially, with The Move covering its sardonic ode to hippiedom, "Hey Grandma." Spence's "Omaha" reached the lower rungs of the American singles charts in 1967, and Miller-Stevenson's "8:05" became a country rock standard (covered by The Grateful Dead, Robert Plant, Guy Burlage, and others). Moby Grape has today achieved the status of a highly respected rock album.[1] This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Born April 18, 1946. ... Jefferson Airplane is an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement. ... Jerry Miller (born July 10, 1943 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American musician, a guitarist and vocalist for the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape. ... Frantics is the name of: Frantics (band), a punk rock band. ... Loretta Young in 1935 Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Peter B. Lewis is the Cleveland, Ohio-area based Chairman of Progressive Insurance Companies. ... If you are looking for the band that composed the hit song 74-75 see The Connells The The Cornells is a 1960s band that did surf music. ... Moby Grape is Moby Grapes eponymous 1967 debut album. ... See also: 1960s in music. ... Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ... The Move were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s from Birmingham, England. ... Jerry Garcia later in life The Grateful Dead was an American rock band, which was formed in 1965 in San Francisco from the remnants of another band, Mother McCrees Uptown Jug Champions. ... Robert Anthony Plant (born August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, West Midlands, England) is an English rock singer and songwriter, most famous for his membership in the rock band Led Zeppelin, but also for his successful solo career. ... Guy Burlage Born in Norfolk, Virginia, is an American singer songwriter and guitarist, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. ...

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, was a critical and commercial failure even though Wow charted at #20 in the Billboard Pop Albums charts, partially due to the double-album format. The second LP was one of loose and mostly directionless jams; this detracted from the stronger tunes on the first LP such as the room-shaking shuffle "Can't Be So Bad." Their basic sound remained consistent from the first album, featuring tight harmonies, multiple guitars, imaginative songwriting, and a strong level of musicianship. Wow/Grape Jam is the rock band Moby Grapes sophomore 1968 album. ...

During its recording, Spence, who was supposedly never the same after ingesting large quantities of LSD (see also the biographies of Peter Green, Syd Barrett, and Roky Erickson), started to go through the hotel room door of Stevenson and Miller using a fire axe, intending to murder them. In the words of Miller: "Skippy changed radically when we were in New York. There were some people there that were into harder drugs and a harder lifestyle, and some very weird shit. And so he kind of flew off with those people. They were really strange, almost Nazi-ish. Skippy kind of disappeared for a little while. Next time we saw him he had cut off his beard, and he had a black leather jacket on, 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 axe to the doorman's head." Spence was committed to New York's Bellevue Hospital; on the day of his release, he drove a motorcycle dressed in only his pajamas directly to Nashville to record his only solo album, Oar. The original lineup released an album in 1971, 20 Granite Creek. The remainder soldiered on for a few years, but save for a reunion or two, essentially joining Miller's band in Santa Cruz, the group never returned to the level of excellence and popularity they enjoyed in the early Avalon Ballroom/Fillmore Auditorium days. Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, October 29, 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founding member of the band Fleetwood Mac. ... Roger Keith Syd Barrett (born 6 January 1946 in Cambridge – died 7 July 2006 in Cambridge) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artist. ... Roky Erickson (born Roger Kynard Erickson on July 15, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. ... Oar is a 1969 album by Skip Spence. ...

Moby Grape was an example of a talented band that, through a combination of mismanagement and inexperience, never fully realized its potential. Along with the Flamin' Groovies, they were somewhat of an anomaly in the San Francisco rock scene; their concision and their strong roots in country music and early rock and roll seemed to work against them. In addition, perhaps because they were so versatile, their image was somewhat nebulous; as writer Robert Christgau put it, "All they really lacked was a boss, and what could be more American than that?" The Flamin Groovies were an American rock music band of the 1960s and 70s. ... Robert Christgau (2007) Robert Christgau (sometimes abbreviated in print to Xgau), born April 18, 1942, is an American essayist, music journalist, and the self-declared Dean of American Rock Critics[1] His first reviews were published by Esquire in 1967. ...

Miller carries on today (2007) as the Jerry Miller Band, playing rockin' blues and the occasional Grape song. Homeless for years and suffering from long-term mental illness and a multitude of health ailments, the mercurial and brilliant Spence died in Santa Cruz, California, in 1999. In 2006, after three decades of court battles, the band finally won back its name from its much-hated (in the music industry) former manager Matthew Katz and in celebration announced a reunion show with all of its living members, bolstered by drummer Ainsley Dunbar (Mayall, Zappa, Journey) and keyboardist Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship), to be performed in January 2007 at San Francisco's Fillmore. However, the reunion show did not take place and nothing has been announced about future plans.

Sundazed is releasing the first five albums by the group on cd in October 2007 The 1993 Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape includes their first album in its entirety, as well as selected tracks from 1967 to 1969. The debut is the only one of the original Columbia LPs to have a complete CD reissue with all of the original tracks. The San Francisco Sound label has released a CD version of Wow, but it is a one-disc treatment that has a few tracks edited down and others deleted from the original album. Moby Grape '69 has all of its songs represented on the "Vintage" anthology, but two of these are alternate versions not present on the original.

On Jerry Miller's website, it appears that the Jerry Miller Band, plus guest Don Stevenson, will perform at Monterey for the 40th Anniversary of Monterey Pop and again at the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

In October 2007 Sundazed is reissuing the first 5 albums by the group on cd

Discography

• Moby Grape (1967)
• Wow/Grape Jam (1968)
• Moby Grape '69 (1969)
• Truly Fine Citizen (1969)
• 20 Granite Creek (1971)
• Live Grape (1978)
• Moby Grape '84 (1984)
• Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape (1993)
• Legendary Grape (2003)