Some bands are doomed from the beginning. On paper, Moby Grape's early bio reads just like some of their more successful contemporaries: super-talented, creatively-charged songwriter/musician Alexander 'Skip' Spence left his gig drumming with poised-for-stardom Jefferson Airplane to form his own group, hooked up with a manager, cherry-picked more super-talented songwriter/musicians from various bands and recorded a stellar debut album. So far, you…entire summary
Peter Lewis - guitar, vocals
Jerry Miller - guitar, vocals
Bob Mosley - bass, vocals
Alexander "Skip" Spence - guitar, vocals
Don Stevenson - drums
Some bands are doomed from the beginning. On paper, Moby Grape's early bio reads just like some of their more successful contemporaries: super-talented, creatively-charged songwriter/musician Alexander 'Skip' Spence left his gig drumming with poised-for-stardom Jefferson Airplane to form his own group, hooked up with a manager, cherry-picked more super-talented songwriter/musicians from various bands and recorded a stellar debut album. So far, you could substitute different names and shuffle the facts and come up with the back story for The Byrds, CSN, the Grateful Dead…just about anybody. Unfortunately for the Grape, it's what happens next that gets your name in the history books.
Upon completion of their debut, the Grape's label was so excited by what it heard (the deafening sound of cash registers…not the music) that it released five tracks from the album as singles - all at the same time. Suddenly, this merry band of true-blue psychedelic cowboys looked like The Monkees out for a quick buck. An uneven sophomore effort did little to sway public opinion. For his part, Skip sought to reaffirm his artistic integrity by attacking drummer Don Stevenson's hotel room door with an axe during a recording session, then spending six months in the Bellevue mental institution. Upon his release, he drove straight to Nashville in his pajamas to record the brilliant but largely forgotten solo record, Oar. By the end of the '60s, the band had basically disintegrated, and recorded only sporadically throughout the following decade.
Luckily for everyone who missed them the first time (which is pretty much everyone), this brief recording from the Fillmore Auditorium featuring all five original members stands as a testament to what might have been. "Rounder" is a quick and fierce psych-pop gem penned by Spence and featuring some uneven but spirited vocals by pretty much everybody on stage. Ths slow shuffle "Miller's Blues" showcases some first-rate guitar wailing courtesy of (who else?) Jerry Miller, and "Changes" picks it back up a couple notches with soulful, Traffic-like glee. So now, with the benefit of hindsight, plus 30 or 40 years for the music industry hype to die down, Moby Grape may finally get the audience they always deserved.
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