Moby Grape was a victim of an over hyped P.R. campaign by Columbia and exploited by a draconian manager, Matthew Katz, who stole all of the rights to their songs. Katz even prevented them from performing under the name Moby Grape once they fired him. Moby Grape's musical journey was one disaster after another.
This ancient video really doesn't capture the elegant 4 and 5 part harmonies of the group or their blazing three guitar crossfire. I think they were the best live band of the era and many of their songs were high octane garage rock songs. Their music was a adrenalin rush that counterpointed the dreamy psychedelica that many of the San Francisco bands played. At live performances Skip Spence would leap and careen about the stage like a charismatic shaman.
In the video, Skip is the guitar player on the far left standing on the riser. Skip was musical genius and golden boy of psychedelic rock in San Francisco. Skip was also a early member of Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Jefferson Airplane. Moby Grape performs two songs in a very subdued manner.
Spence was hospitalized in New York city for going on a rampage with a fireman's ax in a posh Manhattan hotel. He was committed to Bellvue Hospital and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Skip recorded a swan song solo album, after his release from Bellvue called Oar which was a splendid acid-charred pastiche of folk and country music and turned out to be the worst selling album in the history of Warner Brothers Records. Skip moved to San Jose CA and was periodically homeless over the next 25 years but he never gave up music. He participated in a few of the Moby Grape reunions over the years. He also was frequently seen busking for spare change with his vintage Martin acoustic guitar in parking lots and parks around San Jose.
This video appearance by Moby Grape was on a lame Sixties American afternoon talk show hosted by Mike Douglas. For all of his squareness Douglas was one of the few talk show hosts who invited good bands to perform on his show. John Lennon and Yoko Ono actually spent a week co-hosting the show with Douglas in 1969. Notice how Douglas misintroduces Moby Grape as The Moby Grapes.
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