Listen My Friends:
The Best Of Moby Grape

Moby Grape

What's eight tons, purple and floats in the sea? Why Moby Grape, of course. Or so goes one version of how the band many consider the best of the Bay Area 60s sound got its name. Five guys on a mission from God and a slightly overzealous Columbia Records PR Department. Apparently, the idea was for the Grape to be the American Beatles so good old black rock released not one, but five singles, from the first "middle finger on the washboard" LP, titled Moby Grape, at the same time. My doctor told me about them. And, why, you ask, would your doctor tell you about Moby Grape? Why, because my doctor, who's retired now, had a previous career. He was the soundman for Blue Cheer, arguably the loudest band in history. And the man monitored my heart meds long after tweaking the controls for the Cheer.

Naturally enough, we started on Spirit, a band we both loved and remembered. Then we got around to Moby Grape — guitarist Peter Lewis, Loretta Young's son; guitarist Jerry Miller, bassist Bob Mosley; Skip Spence, late of the early Jefferson Airplane, guitarist and a good man with an ax; and drummer and, for a long time, airbrushed out middle finger man, Don Stevenson. More about Spence's ax later.

They had this "great" manager too — one Matthew Katz, who appropriated their name for 31 years and kept them from being in the Monterey Pop movie when he demanded one million Dr. Evil dollars in order for them to play. He also sent faux Moby Grapes, sans any original members, out on the road for over 30 years until the surviving band members, less the late Spence, won the rights to their name back in 2006. Adding Saul Zaentz to the equation (he stole John Fogerty's songbook for roughly the same amount of time), it's unlikely either Katz or Zaentz can dance.

So my then doctor drops this bombshell on me mid-appointment one day: "Did you know many of the members of the Grape were busted at their first LP release party on Mount Tam for having sex with underage girls?” Well, I didn't used to know that. My doctor went on to twist the dials for Boz Scaggs before going to medical school. And I went on to write reviews like this.

The first six cuts from the new Listen My Friends: The Best of Moby Grape CD — “Hey Grandma,” “Mr. Blues,” “8:05,” “Omaha,” “Sitting By The Window” and “Indifference” — are a little more than half the first LP. “Hey Grandma” celebrates the dresses worn by women then and sometimes since. “8:05” should be instantly recognizable. And who else but the Grape could write a good song about Omaha?

Running through some of the rest of the CD, there's ”Murder In My Heart For The Judge,” which begs a latter-day cover by the Barry Melton Band. “Motorcycle Irene” and “Sweet Ride” (Never Again) are motorcycle songs by Spence in the first instance and the whole band in the other. “If You Can't Learn From My Mistakes” is Peter Lewis' lesson in life from the Wow/Grape Jam sessions. Which leaves “Changes, Circles Spinning” and “Truly Fine Citizen” from the final Grape format of three. Spence had spent some time in Bellevue after wielding axes on the doors of various other band members before heading out on his bike to Nashville to record his twisted solo masterpiece, Oar. Mosley, like all good 60s hippie boys, joined the Marines. Don't ask.

A much touted Fillmore reunion of the surviving band members augmented by Spence's son, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and keyboardist Peter Sears simply never occurred at the Fillmore in SF where it was scheduled for early January 2007. Which, I suppose, makes Lewis' "big Melvillian picture" of Moby, the eight ton floating thingy in the sea, even more poignant. "I was Ishmael," he says. "Then I met these crazy harpooners (Stevenson and Miller?). Skippy was the guy who could see the end but couldn't stop it. And Bob was Queequeg, Katz was Ahab. It goes to show that life really is a self-fulfilling, prophetic event."

~ Gary Peterson

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