When considering the original Summer of Love, and the bands that were active in the San Francisco Bay area at the time, the list of influential musicians to emerge from the scene is fairly long and impressive: Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Band, Big Brother & The Holding Co. (featuring Janis Joplin), Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service...
When considering the original Summer of Love, and the bands that were active in the San Francisco Bay area at the time, the list of influential musicians to emerge from the scene is fairly long and impressive: Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Band, Big Brother & The Holding Co. (featuring Janis Joplin), Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service ...…
![Moby Grape [Concert Poster] (1967)](http://img44.exs.cx/img44/1340/mobygrapeposter2ve.jpg)
Article comments
26 - Clayton
Just found your page. Thanks for it! Evey once in a while I get this aching nostalgia for the feeling that "just was" back in 66 and 67. And Moby Grape takes me back harder and faster than anything else. My sister bought the Grape's debut album when it came out, simply because they looked cute. As a teenager I had been buying whatever I could lay my hands on the time that seemed cool, but after hearing this disk, nothing then, or since has come close to filling me with such excitement. I've heard it countless time over the past 40 years and still can't get tired of it. Back a few decades... I waited impatiently for the next Grape - and WOW just didn't do it for me - but 69, Truly Fine Citizen, and 20 Granite Creek did - this band was magic. I just checked out the Mike Douglas performance on YouTube and even though the quality is lame, and Mr. Douglas calls them by the plural, and stumbles onto the set before the end of "8:05", it's a revelation. Particularly Skip Spence, whose sheer joy and energy at playing the music makes me want to hang in there and keep believing that we could all be making life a lot more vibrant. These guys were a once in a lifetime phenomenon, and it's great to know that there are a few out there who appreciate what they left us with. Thanks a bunch.
27 - joey b
Jerry Miller also is an outstanding writer and I don't know why he doen't go on tour himself. He can do anything from blues, rock, country and his guitar playing is the best. Just talking to him always makes me feel like a million bucks. One can only learn from a musicion like him.
28 - Chris J
I missed all of the musical excitement of 1965 to 1967 due to my back to back tours in Vietnam in the Marines. When I returned in early 1968, I was listening to "oldies" like Sgt Pepper's and Disraeli Gears. AM radio seemed to be dominated by sugary acts like the Cowsills. I had yet to discover FM radio. Then one day in the summer of 68 I saw Moby Grape on Boss City, a derivative take on American Bandstand produced in Los Angeles.
I searched out and found their 1st album and it was quite different from anything I had heard before. So, I searched around and found Wow/Grape Jam. The studio side was very good but the live side was hard to listen to, so I only played it once.
Vintage is exactly that! A well crafted anthology to a band that deconstructed almost as soon as it assembled; but for that one moment, I can only imagine what it must have been like for those fortunate enough to have been there.
29 - John S
So many memories every time I hear them! Moby Grape was the most under-rated band of the 60's. Their incredible harmonies and cross-talk guitars were so unique. Pure genius! This old hippie will never forget them!!
30 - Dian Villarreal
Back when Moby Grape was starting up, I knew them well. This was before Charlie (forgot his last name) and Bob Hosko left the band. I was actually dating Bob Hosko, and I helped the band find a house to rent in Belmont California where they practiced and slept prior to their gig at the Pink Panther in Redwood City owned by a friend of mine, Ralph, and I used to cocktail there sometimes. They were magic back then and we hung out all the time at their house and went driving around the Bay Area, I showed them what was what around there. If anyone knows where those two guys Charlie and Bob are now, please E-mail me. My current brother in law, Michael, says he plays with Jerry Miller in Santa Cruz sometimes. He plays guitar.
31 - andy segal
Pretty impressive article.
One thing that was missed was the finger on the cover of the first album, the raised middle finger. That was the reason we were not played in 60% of the stations nation wide, not the five singles. Everywhere we did play, all 5 singles were #1. What a summer it was. Our press party @ the Avalon Ballroom even had wine labeled "Moby Grape Juice". Would love to see the band again, but I'm sailing around between the Caribbean & New England, so until they head East......
32 - Pete McCarry
Before they were Moby Grape, they were called The Beans! An original flower child who did sound for Bill Graham told me that. I saw Moby Grape on Halloween '93 at the Beverly Garland in Sacramento. Jerry was there with Beulah, but his '59 Bassman was home in retirement. Bob sang only. Tiran Porter of the Doobie Bros. played bass. Peter sang and fingerpicked. Sam Andrew filled in for Skippy, and they had some other drummer, not Don. Still it was a great show! They dedicated a song to me, and played one of my requests -- Gypsy Wedding. They're good people, and my favorite number is Someday. I like the way they blended country, folk, R&B, jazz, and rock'n'roll into a psychedelic stew.