Moby Grape

Moby Grape

Columbia Records promotional photo, 1967. (Left to Right) Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson
Background information
Origin San Francisco, California, United States
Genres Rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock, country rock
Years active 1966–1971, 1973–1975,
1977–1979, 1983–1984,
1987–1991, 1995–2001,
2006–present
Labels Columbia, Reprise, Polydor, Legacy, Dig Music, Sundazed
Associated acts The Frantics, The Cornells, The Misfits, Jefferson Airplane, The Rhythm Dukes, Lovecraft, The Ducks, The Call, The Electric Prunes
Members Peter Lewis
Jerry Miller
Bob Mosley
Don Stevenson
Joseph Miller
Omar Spence
Past members Skip Spence

Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting[1] and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz, together with rock and psychedelic music. The group continues to perform occasionally.

As described by Jeff Tamarkin, "The Grape's saga is one of squandered potential, absurdly misguided decisions, bad luck, blunders and excruciating heartbreak, all set to the tune of some of the greatest rock and roll ever to emerge from San Francisco. Moby Grape could have had it all, but they ended up with nothing, and less."[2]

Career

1966–1967

The group was formed in late 1966 in San Francisco, at the instigation of Skip Spence and Matthew Katz. Both had been previously associated with Jefferson Airplane, Spence as the band's first drummer, playing on their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, and Katz as the band's manager, but both had been dismissed by the group. Katz encouraged Spence to form a band similar to Jefferson Airplane, with varied songwriting and vocal work by several group members, and with Katz as the manager.[3] According to band member Peter Lewis, "Matthew (Katz) brought the spirit of conflict into the band. He didn't want it to be an equal partnership. He wanted it all."[4]

The band name, judicially determined to have been chosen by Bob Mosley and Spence, came from the punch line of the joke "What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?".[5] Lead guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson (both formerly of The Frantics, originally based in Seattle)[6] joined guitarist (and son of actress Loretta Young) Peter Lewis (of The Cornells), bassist Bob Mosley (of The Misfits, based in San Diego),[7] and guitarist Skip Spence. Spence, now on guitar instead of drums, was a major force in the Grape. Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson had moved The Frantics from Seattle to San Francisco after a 1965 meeting with Jerry Garcia, then playing with The Warlocks at a bar in Belmont, California. Garcia encouraged them to move to San Francisco. Once The Frantics were settled in San Francisco, Mosley joined the band.[8]

While Jerry Miller was the principal lead guitarist, all three guitarists played lead at various points, often playing off against each other, in a guitar form associated with Moby Grape as "crosstalk".[9] The other major three-guitar band at the time was Buffalo Springfield. Moby Grape's music has been described by Geoffrey Parr as follows: "No rock and roll group has been able to use a guitar trio as effectively as Moby Grape did on Moby Grape. Spence played a distinctive rhythm guitar that really sticks out throughout the album. Lewis, meanwhile, was a very good guitar player overall and was excellent at finger picking, as is evident in several songs. And then there is Miller, "The way they crafted their parts and played together on Moby Grape is like nothing else I've ever heard in my life. The guitars are like a collage of sound that makes perfect sense."[10]

All band members wrote songs and sang lead and backup vocals for their debut album Moby Grape (1967). Mosley, Lewis, and Spence generally wrote alone, while Miller and Stevenson generally wrote together. In 2003, Moby Grape was ranked as number 121 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[11] Noted rock critic Robert Christgau listed it as one of The 40 "Essential Albums of 1967".[12] In 2008, Skip Spence's song "Omaha", from the first Moby Grape album, was listed as number 95 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". The song was described as follows:

On their best single, Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis and Skip Spence compete in a three-way guitar battle for two and a quarter red-hot minutes, each of them charging at Spence's song from different angles, no one yielding to anyone else."[13]
The Mantra-Rock Dance promotional poster featuring Moby Grape.

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 previously 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 the album's "Hey Grandma" (a Miller-Stevenson composition) on their eponymous first album. More recently, "Hey Grandma" was included in the soundtrack to the 2005 Sean Penn-Nicole Kidman film, The Interpreter, as well as being covered in 2009 by the Black Crowes, on Warpaint Live. Spence's "Omaha" was the only one of the five singles to chart, reaching number 88 in 1967.[12] Miller-Stevenson's "8:05" became a country rock standard (covered by Robert Plant,[14] Guy Burlage, and others).

One of Moby Grape's earliest major onstage performances was the Mantra-Rock Dance—a musical event held on January 29, 1967 at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. At the event Moby Grape performed along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, donating proceeds to the temple.[15][16] In mid-June 1967, Moby Grape appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. Due to legal and managerial disputes, the group was not included in the D.A. Pennebaker-produced film of the event, Monterey Pop. Moby Grape's Monterey recordings and film remain unreleased, allegedly because Matthew Katz demanded one million dollars for the rights.[17] According to Peter Lewis, "[Katz] told Lou Adler they had to pay us a million bucks to film us at the Monterey Pop Festival. So instead of putting us on Saturday night right before Otis Redding, they wound up putting us on at sunset on Friday when there was nobody in the place." [18]

The Moby Grape footage was shown in 2007 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the film. Jerry Miller recalls that Laura Nyro was given Moby Grape's original position opening for Otis Redding, "because everybody was arguing. Nobody wanted to play first and I said that would be fine for me."[19] 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.

1968

The second album, Wow/Grape Jam, released in 1968, was generally viewed as a critical and commercial disappointment, even though the album charted at No. 20 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts, partially due to the special low price double-album packaging. Though Wow added strings and horns to some songs, their basic sound remained consistent from the debut album, featuring tight harmonies, multiple guitars, imaginative songwriting, and a strong level of musicianship. The album included the track "Just Like Gene Autry, a Foxtrot", a tribute to the ballroom music big band era which was tracked to only be played back properly at the speed of 78 RPM. The Grape Jam LP was one of loose improvised studio jams with outside musicians; this detracted from the stronger tunes on Wow, such as the room-shaking shuffle "Can't Be So Bad." Also in 1968, the band contributed to the soundtrack of the movie The Sweet Ride,[20] and appeared, credited,[21] in the film.

The band was also introduced to a wide group of UK listeners in 1968 through the inclusion of "Can't Be So Bad", from the Wow album, on the iconic sampler album The Rock Machine Turns You On (CBS).

But, amidst this success, troubled times plagued the band when founding member Spence began abusing LSD, which led to increasingly erratic behavior. According to Miller: "Skippy changed radically when we were in New York. There were some people there (he met) who were into harder drugs and a harder lifestyle, and some very weird shit. And so he kind of flew off with those people. Skippy kind of disappeared for a little while. Next time we saw him, he had cut off his beard, and was wearing a black leather jacket, 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.[22] They said at the reception area that this crazy guy had held an ax to the doorman's head." [23] After spending time in the infamous Tombs jail in New York, Spence was committed to New York's Bellevue Hospital, where he spent six months under psychiatric care.

Recalling this troubled time for Spence, Peter Lewis said, "We had to do (the album) in New York because the producer (David Rubinson) wanted to be with his family. So we had to leave our families and spend months at a time in hotel rooms in New York City. Finally I just quit and went back to California. I got a phone call after a couple of days. They'd played a Fillmore East gig without me, and Skippy took off with some black witch afterward who fed him full of acid. It was like that scene in The Doors movie. He thought he was the anti-Christ. He tried to chop down the hotel room door with a fire axe to kill Don [Stevenson] to save him from himself. He went up to the 52nd floor of the CBS building where they had to wrestle him to the ground. And Rubinson pressed charges against him. They took him to the Tombs (and then to Bellevue) and that's where he wrote Oar. When he got out of there, he cut that album in Nashville. And that was the end of his career. They shot him full of Thorazine for six months. They just take you out of the game."[24]

1969–1971

After the forced departure of Spence, the remaining four members continued recording throughout 1968 and released Moby Grape '69 in January 1969. Spence's "Seeing" (also known as "Skip's Song") was finished by the foursome, and it is one of the highlights. Despite the collaborative effort to complete the song, the songwriting credit was left solely with Spence. After a tour of the UK in February 1969 (the band toured as a 4 piece, minus Skip Spence) Bob Mosley then left the group, shocking the remaining members by joining the Marines.[25] The remaining three released their final album for Columbia, Truly Fine Citizen, in late 1969, with session bassist Bob Moore filling in for the departed Mosley.

Miller and Stevenson then formed The Rhythm Dukes, later joined by Bill Champlin. The band achieved a degree of success as a second-billed act during much of the latter part of 1969 to 1971, plus recorded one album, which was ultimately released in 2005.[26]

The original five members, along with friend Gordon Stevens, re-united in 1971 and released 20 Granite Creek for Reprise Records. Prior to Spence again departing and the group again breaking up, the group performed a few concerts to support the album, most notably, during the last days of the Fillmore East. These concerts were described by contemporary accounts as disastrous, and circulating recordings do little to challenge that assessment. These shows are noteworthy, however, due to their inclusion of original material that did not appear on their albums proper. Mosley contributed "When You're Down The Road" and "Just A Woman", Lewis "There Is No Reason", and Spence brought along a song referred to as "We Don't Know Now" (a misinterpretation of Miller on an audience recording telling the them that they were "going to do Omaha now" before launching into the song) and "Sailing", a song which would be all but forgotten until Spence performed it with Moby Grape at a 1996 gig near Spence's home in Santa Cruz, California, at the Palookaville nightclub. They also performed songs cut for "20 Granite Creek". A Fillmore East gig saw Mosley doing an a Capella rendition of "Ode To The Man At The End of The Bar".

1970s–1980s

With Spence gone again, the remainder soldiered on for a few years, and later reunited on several occasions, with and without Spence. Bob Mosley and Jerry Miller, together with Michael Been on rhythm guitar (later of The Call) and John Craviotto on drums, recorded an LP that was released in 1976 as Fine Wine on Polydor Records in Germany. Thereafter, Mosley and Craviotto joined with Neil Young to form The Ducks, which played in and around the Santa Cruz area during 1977, and were immensely popular during the band's brief life. Miller and Been went on to form The Original Haze", also originating around the Santa Cruz area.

In the Summer of 1987 Moby Grape, along with It's a Beautiful Day, Fraternity of Man, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock, got together for a couple of shows. Original Grapes: Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis, Bob Mosley, Skip Spence, and Don Stevenson performed their classics "Hey Grandma," "Naked, If I Want To," "Omaha," "Fall on You," and "8:05," among others, before fans at the Marin Civic and Cupertino’s DeAnza College.[27] Notwithstanding continuing to perform on occasion, the group has never returned to the level of popularity enjoyed in the early Avalon Ballroom/Fillmore Auditorium days.

"Fine Wine" was one of several band names used by Moby Grape members during the course of a protracted legal dispute with former manager Matthew Katz over ownership of the Moby Grape name. Other names used for performance or recording purposes included Mosley Grape,[28] Legendary Grape, Maby Grope and The Melvilles. The Legendary Grape album, originally released in 1989, is considered by some to be a Melvilles recording.[29]

This is because, while it was originally issued as a Moby Grape cassette-only release, former manager Matthew Katz took legal action, with reference to his alleged ownership of the Moby Grape name. The tape was withdrawn, repackaged and reissued as being by The Melvilles.[30] Despite Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley and Peter Lewis continuing to release solo records in the 1990s and 2000s, Moby Grape has not released an album of new material since the release of Legendary Grape in 1989. Jerry Miller considers the 2003 remastered and supplemented CD version of Legendary Grape to be an essential Moby Grape album.[31]

1990s–2000s

The debut album and Wow/Grape Jam were first released on CD during the late 1980s by the San Francisco Sound label, a company owned by their former manager, Matthew Katz. These releases suffer from mediocre sound and poor quality packaging. It is also contended that Moby Grape has never been properly compensated for recordings released by this label. The 2 CD 1993 Legacy Recordings compilation Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape includes their entire first album and most of Moby Grape '69, selected tracks from Wow and Truly Fine Citizen, as well as studio outtakes and alternate versions, in much better quality. This compilation attracted new attention to the band and helped to re-introduce their music to a new audience. In 1994, the group members commenced an action against Matthew Katz, Sony Music Entertainment and Columbia Records (Sony being the successor corporation to CBS Records), seeking to have the settlement overturned. This settlement from 1973 meant that the group members would receive no royalties whatsoever from the well-regarded Vintage: The Best of Moby Grape, which Sony had released as part of its Legacy Records series in 1993. At the time of the commencement of the lawsuit, Bob Mosley had been homeless in San Diego since the early 1990s, while Skip Spence was living in a residential care facility in northern California.[32] Production of the Vintage collection soon ceased. Homeless for years and suffering from long-term mental illness, alcoholism and a multitude of health ailments, Skip Spence nonetheless experienced a marked improvement in his domestic life in his later years before passing away of lung cancer in 1999, days before his 53rd birthday.

2006–present

In 2006, after three decades of court battles, the band finally won back its name.[33][34] Moby Grape's success was significantly impeded by decades-long legal disputes with their former manager, Matthew Katz. Legal difficulties originated shortly after the group's formation, when Matthew Katz insisted that an additional provision be added to his management contract, giving him ownership of the group name. At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the group releasing its first album. Despite objecting, group members signed, based in part on an impression that there would be no further financial support from Katz unless they did so. Neil Young, then of Buffalo Springfield, was in the room at the time, and kept his head down, playing his guitar, and saying nothing. According to Peter Lewis, "I think Neil knew, even then, that was the end. We had bought into this process that we should have known better than to buy into."[4]

The dispute with Katz became more acute after the group members' rights to their songs, as well as their own name, were signed away in 1973, in a settlement made without their knowledge between Katz and Moby Grape's then manager (and former producer), David Rubinson. It was also a settlement made at a time when Bob Mosley and Skip Spence were generally recognized as being legally incapacitated from the effects of schizophrenia.[35]

In September 2007, a reunited Moby Grape performed for over 40,000 fans at the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In October 2007, Sundazed Records reissued the Grape's first five albums (with bonus tracks) on CD and vinyl . The following month, the label was forced to both withdraw and recall Moby Grape, Wow and Grape Jam from print on both vinyl and CD because of a new lawsuit by former manager Katz. Sundazed stated on their website that they were directed to withdraw the three titles by Sony BMG (inheritors of the band's original label, Columbia), from whom Sundazed had licensed the recordings.[36] These developments have resulted in a particular emotional setback for Bob Mosley.[37] Of the four surviving band members, three still play to a regular degree. Jerry Miller appears as both a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band, and plays regularly in the Washington State area.[38]

Peter Lewis released a debut CD in 1995 and formed an acoustic duo with David West (released Live in Bremen, 2003). Lewis also spent three years (2000–2003) as a guitarist with the reformed Electric Prunes, contributing to the band's Artifact album (2002). Bob Mosley's relocation to the Santa Cruz area has been noteworthy for weekly guest appearances with veteran country artist Larry Hosford, a stalwart of the Santa Cruz music scene, and in occasional duos with ex-Doobie Brothers keyboardist Dale Ockerman.[39] Don Stevenson, who has rejoined Moby Grape for occasional performances, has developed business interests outside of the music industry, including time share sales of recreational property in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, where he maintains a residence.[8] Moby Grape continues to perform occasionally, performing with core members Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley and Peter Lewis, and in such incarnations as with Skip Spence's son Omar joining on vocals and Jerry Miller's son Joseph on drums. New recording commenced in 2009, following the release of The Place and the Time, a well-received collection of demos, outtakes, alternate versions and otherwise unreleased material from the band's 1960s recording period. In 2010, Don Stevenson, Jerry Miller and Omar Spence performed at the South by Southwest music festival (the performance at the Dirty Dog was recorded by Eric Sigsbey),[40] while Peter Lewis appeared separately.[41][42]

Later releases

Subsequent to the withdrawal of Vintage, Sony released Cross Talk: The Best of Moby Grape (2004), followed by Listen My Friends! The Best of Moby Grape (2007). Legendary Grape was issued for the first time in CD by Dig Music in 2003. In 2009, Sundazed Music issued The Place and the Time, a two disc collection of alternate takes, live versions and other previously unreleased material. In February 2010 Sundazed released the First Official Live Moby Grape 'Live' Album on Vinyl and Compact Disc formats.

Tribute albums

Moby Grape has been the subject of five fan-initiated tribute albums, whereby Moby Grape songs are covered by fans of the band. The series commenced with Mo'Grape (2000) and Even Mo'Grape (2002) and has been followed by Still Mo' Grape, Forever Mo and Just Say Mo.[43]

Discography

Contains Billboard (BB) and Cashbox (CB) chart peak positions.

Singles

Studio albums

Fine Wine

Live albums

Compilations

– almost '69 album without tracks 'Ooh Mama Ooh' and 'Seeing', with 'Omaha' from 1st album.

See also

References

  1. ↑ A band model adopted with great success in the early 1970s by The Eagles, and involving similar musical diversity. One difference is that most songwriting and lead singing in The Eagles was by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, whereas Moby Grape involved greater band member equivalency in songwriting and lead vocal work.
  2. ↑ Jeff Tamarkin, Skip Spence and The Sad Saga of Moby Grape. Chapter extract from Got A Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.
  3. ↑ Moby Grape Profile Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews. Jefferson Airplane nonetheless remained on good terms with Spence and on decidedly mixed terms with Katz. [support required]
  4. 1 2 Interview with Peter Lewis by Jud Cost, 1995. www.terrascope.co.uk; longer version at www.sundazed.com.
  5. ↑ Musician Guide, Moby Grape Biography. See also here for recent California Appellate Court and Superior Court decisions in relation to Moby Grape litigation and band name ownership.
  6. ↑ A profile of The Frantics is available here.
  7. ↑ See profile of The Misfits from the San Diego Reader.
  8. 1 2 Interview with Jerry Miller by Frank Goodman, June, 2007. www.puremusic.com
  9. ↑ As illustrated by the title to their 2004 compilation album, Crosstalk: The Best of Moby Grape.
  10. ↑ Geoffrey Parr, In search of Moby Grape: Rock and Roll's great white whale. Review of Moby Grape. The New Hampshire (Student Publication of the University of New Hampshire), January 26, 2007.
  11. ↑ "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
  12. 1 2 Robert Christgau, The 40 Essential Albums of 1967
  13. ↑ Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time
  14. ↑ Robert Plant included "8:05" as a B-side to a 1993 single; it is also included on the expanded reissue of his Fate of Nations album on Rhino Records. Robert Plant also performed "Hey Grandma" live when with his pre-Led Zeppelin Band of Joy, during the 1967–1968 period. See Rare and Unrecorded Songs by Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin. See also "Robert Plant albums reborn with nine lives". News Release, Rhino Records, September 20, 2006.
  15. ↑ Bromley, David G.; Shinn, Larry D. (1989), Krishna consciousness in the West, Bucknell University Press, p. 106, ISBN 978-0-8387-5144-2
  16. ↑ Chryssides, George D.; Wilkins, Margaret Z. (2006), A reader in new religious movements, Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 213, ISBN 978-0-8264-6168-1
  17. ↑ Greg Volpert, commenting on In search of Moby Grape. The New Hampshire, January 26, 2007; comment posted January 28, 2007.
  18. ↑ Interview with Peter Lewis by Jud Cost, 1995. www.terrascope.co.uk; longer version at www.sundazed.com.
  19. ↑ Interview with Jerry Miller, "Mods & Rockers Festival: Grapeful for Monterey". Huffington Post, July 19, 2007; www.huffingtonpost.com.
  20. ↑ Contributing the song "Never Again". A film clip containing the performance is accessible via YouTube; direct link not provided due to potential breach of copyright issues.
  21. ↑ Identified in script as "The Moby Grape" band playing that night at the club.
  22. ↑ University Place and East 11th Street, New York City. Now an apartment building, it was at the time a famous hotel originally owned by the brother of artist Albert Pinkham Ryder. The hotel was named in his honour. Robert Louis Stevenson used one of the hotel's rooms as his studio. Other famous guest was Thomas Wolfe. Patrick Bunyan, All Around The Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Fordham University Press, 1999.
  23. ↑ Interview with Jerry Miller by Jeff Tamarkin. Contained in "Skip Spence and The Sad Saga of Moby Grape", being chapter extract from Got A Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.
  24. ↑ Interview with Peter Lewis by Jud Cost, 1995; www.sundazed.com.
  25. ↑ It was during basic training with the Marines that Bob Mosley was first diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was discharged from the Marines nine months after basic training. See Profile of Bob Mosley by Steve Leggett, www.allmusic.com.
  26. ↑ See Jerry Miller.
  27. ↑ "Extract from Relix newsletter archived on www.kippel.com". Kippel.com. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
  28. ↑ Generally considered to be exclusively a Bob Mosley project; see Bob Mosley.
  29. ↑ "Information at". Answers.com. 1942-12-04. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
  30. ↑ ChrisGoesRock Moby Grape commentary.
  31. ↑ The Many Incarnations of Moby Grape Mick Skidmore interview with Jerry Miller, December 29, 2003.
  32. ↑ Entertainment Weekly, What's eating Moby Grape? March 4, 1994,
  33. ↑ Copies of the July 7, 2006 California Appellate Court decision and the 2005 California Superior Court decision may be found here .
  34. ↑ An earlier victory, in 1996, was apparently short-lived. As described in 1998 by David LaFlamme of It's A Beautiful Day fame, "Yes (Moby Grape) did, eventually they did win their case. In that case and in the (Jefferson) Airplane case, in both cases, the judge determined that (Matthew Katz) did business in a fraudulent and deceptive manner and that over the years he had continued to, what they call, "muddy the water" by continually firing attorneys, making postponements and that these decisions could have been made years ago but he was making it impossible for that to happen. Now they have regained the rights to their songs and so on. Thank God. But most of the money that he has made doing to them what he has been doing to me is money he has already made. You can’t get that. It’s gone! It’s gone! Interview with David LaFlamme by John Barthal, 1998.
  35. ↑ Disabled World, Famous People with Schizophrenia
  36. ↑ The specific November, 2007 news release from Sundazed Records reads as follows: "Sundazed Music, along with the members of Moby Grape and their management, regret to announce that Sundazed has discontinued the sale and distribution of the first three Moby Grape titles, Moby Grape, Wow and Grape Jam. The two remaining albums, Moby Grape '69 and Truly Fine Citizen, will continue to be available from Sundazed. (Editorial emphasis) These titles were manufactured under license for Sundazed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment. It was Sony BMG Music Entertainment' s decision to cease production of the first three titles, as a result of a longstanding and ongoing dispute over control of the Moby Grape album catalog between Sony BMG Music Entertainment and an outside party. As Moby Grape's fans are well aware, the band's career has long been dogged by business disputes far beyond the musicians' control. These issues have contributed to keeping the band's music out of print for lengthy periods, a situation that Sundazed Music had hoped to redress with its exhaustive Moby Grape reissue series. Sony BMG's decision comes as a surprise to Moby Grape and Sundazed, to say the least. Both band and label had invested considerable time, energy and attention into reissuing these albums with the respect and loving care that they have always deserved, and were excited to have the opportunity to make this music available once again to old and new fans. We at Sundazed are disappointed to be unable to continue to distribute the first three Moby Grape titles, but we remain honored to have Moby Grape '69 and Truly Fine Citizen as part of the Sundazed catalog." As reprinted by www.60sgaragebands.com.
  37. ↑ Paul Conley, Moby Grape just can't catch a break "All Things Considered" newsletter, December 21, 2007.
  38. ↑ See. for example, Notice of Jerry Miller Regular Weekly Appearance; www.unclesamsbarandgrill.com; retrieved 2010-07-05.
  39. ↑ Ockerman played the keyboards on Mosley's CD, True Blue, and Jerry Miller's CD Life's Like That. Ockerman, plus ex-Doobie Brother bassist-vocalist Tiran Porter and John "Fuzzy" Oxendine also perform with Jerry Miller.
  40. ↑ As "New Wine"; see SXSW Events: New Wine (Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson and Omar Spence of Moby Grape); www.mysxsw.com.
  41. ↑ Raul Hernandez, Live Shots: SXSW Music 2010, Austin Chronicle, March 26, 2010; www.austinchronicle.com.
  42. ↑ Lewis joined Stu Cook in performing with legendary Austin band The Explosives, which Cook had produced. See SXSW Events: The Explosives with Peter Lewis and Stu Cook; www.my.sxsw.com. The Explosives were notable as assisting Roky Erickson in addressing psychiatric challenges and in Erickson's return to recording and performing: see Roky Erickson.
  43. ↑ Details of these initiatives may be found here and here . It is unclear whether these endeavours are subject to general CD distribution, though the cover songs have been released into the public domain and are freely downloadable. It is assumed, given the non-profit and tribute nature of these endeavours, that these releases are approved by Moby Grape members, who now control all rights to their songs. See California Appellate Court and California Superior Court decisions confirming such control. An additional fan-generated collection, Plucked, appears to be more of collected songs from the 1966–1969 era, rather than specifically Moby Grape songs.
  44. ↑ Archived November 21, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  45. ↑ "Grateful Dead Family Discography:Murder In My Heart". Deaddisc.com. Retrieved 2011-12-07.

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