Editing Moby Grape (section)

===1966–1967===
The group was formed in September 1966<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=859}}</ref> in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] at the instigation of [[Skip Spence]] and [[Matthew Katz]]. Both had previously been 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 the group had dismissed both of them. 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. According to band member [[Peter Lewis (musician)|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."<ref name="Interview with Peter Lewis">{{cite web|url=http://www.terrascope.co.uk/MyBackPages/Peter_Lewis.pdf|format=PDF|title=PETER LEWIS - THE REBEL HANGS TEN IN HOLLYWOOD |website=Terrascope.co.uk|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the release of the group's first album. Despite objecting, group members signed without seeking outside legal advice, believing in part 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 this was the end. We had bought into this process that we should have known better than to buy into."<ref name="Interview with Peter Lewis" />

The band name, chosen by [[Bob Mosley]] and Spence, came from the punch line of the joke "What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?" Lead guitarist [[Jerry Miller]] and drummer [[Don Stevenson (musician)|Don Stevenson]] (both formerly of [[The Frantics (Seattle, Washington)|the Frantics]], originally based in Seattle)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pnwbands.com/frantics.html|title=Frantics - Seattle (1955-1966)|website=Pnwbands.com|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> joined guitarist (and son of actress [[Loretta Young]]) [[Peter Lewis (musician)|Peter Lewis]] (of [[the Cornells]]), bassist [[Bob Mosley]] (of the Misfits, based in [[San Diego]]),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/misfits/|title=The Misfits|website=Sandiegoreader.com|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> and [[Skip Spence|Spence]], now on guitar instead of drums. Miller and Stevenson had moved the Frantics from Seattle to San Francisco after a 1965 meeting with [[Jerry Garcia]], then playing with [[Grateful Dead|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.<ref name="Interview with Jerry Miller">{{cite web|url=http://www.puremusic.com/pdf/jm.pdf|format=PDF|title=A Conversation with Jerry Miller of Moby Grape|author=Frank Goodman|date=June 2007|website=Puremusic.com|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref>

While 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".<ref>As illustrated by the title to their 2004 compilation album, ''[[Crosstalk: The Best of Moby Grape]]''.</ref> 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 (album)|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."<ref name=Parr>{{cite news|first=Geoffrey|last=Parr|url=http://media.www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2007/01/26/ArtsLiving/Album.Review.In.Search.Of.Moby.Grape-2679261.shtml|title=In search of Moby Grape: Rock and Roll's great white whale|newspaper=The New Hampshire|date=January 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010031658/http://media.www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2007/01/26/ArtsLiving/Album.Review.In.Search.Of.Moby.Grape-2679261.shtml |archive-date=October 10, 2007}}</ref>

All band members wrote songs and sang lead and backup vocals for their debut album, ''[[Moby Grape (album)|Moby Grape]]'' (1967).<ref name="Larkin"/> Mosley, Lewis, and Spence generally wrote alone, while Miller and Stevenson generally wrote together. In 2003, ''Moby Grape'' was ranked at number 121 in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'s'' "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214090141/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2006 |title=Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=December 7, 2011}}</ref> Noted rock critic [[Robert Christgau]] listed it as one of the 40 "Essential Albums of 1967".<ref name="The 40 Essential Albums of 1967">{{Cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rs/albums1967-07.php|first=Robert|last=Christgau|author-link=Robert Christgau|title=The 40 Essential Albums of 1967|website=Robertchristgau.com|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> In 2008, 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:
<blockquote>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."<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20947527 |title=100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530224813/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20947527/page/36 |archive-date=May 30, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon poster.jpg|thumb|left|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.<ref name="Larkin"/> This was during a period in which mainstream record labels heavily promoted what were then considered [[Counter-culture|counter-cultural]] music genres. The record was critically acclaimed and fairly successful commercially, with [[The Move]] covering the album's "Hey Grandma" (a Miller-Stevenson composition) on their [[The Move (album)|self-titled first album]]. More recently, "Hey Grandma" was included in the soundtrack to the 2005 [[Sean Penn]]-[[Nicole Kidman]] film, ''[[The Interpreter (2005 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,{{dubious|date=October 2022}} reaching number 88 in the US in 1967 and number 87 in [[RPM (magazine)|Canada]].<ref name="The 40 Essential Albums of 1967" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.10085.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - August 5, 1967}}</ref> Miller-Stevenson's "8:05" became a [[country rock]] standard (covered by [[Robert Plant]],<ref>Robert Plant included "8:05" as a B-side to a 1993 single; it is also included on the expanded reissue of his album ''[[Fate of Nations]]'' on [[Rhino Records]]. Plant also performed "Hey Grandma" live when with his pre-[[Led Zeppelin]] group [[Band of Joy]], during the 1967–1968 period. See [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~liden/rp_raresongs.html Rare and Unrecorded Songs by Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin.] See also [http://www.rhino.com/rzine/pressrelease.lasso?PRID=448 "Robert Plant albums reborn with nine lives".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111014408/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~liden/rp_raresongs.html |date=November 11, 2013}} News Release, Rhino Records, September 20, 2006.</ref> 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 [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna]] temple. At the event Moby Grape performed along with the [[Bhaktivedanta Swami]], founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, [[Beat poetry|beat poet]] [[Allen Ginsberg]], and fellow rock bands [[Grateful Dead]] and [[Big Brother and the Holding Company]] donating proceeds to the temple.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bromley |first1=David G. |author-link1=David G. Bromley |last2=Shinn |first2=Larry D. |author-link2=Larry Shinn |title=Krishna consciousness in the West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-EuD3M2QYoC&pg=PA106 |year=1989 |page=106 |publisher=[[Bucknell University Press]] |location=Lewisburg, Pennsylvania|ISBN=978-0-8387-5144-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chryssides |first1=George D. |author-link=George D. Chryssides |last2=Wilkins |first2=Margaret Z. |title=A reader in new religious movements |year=2006 |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]] |location=New York City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HgFlebSZKLcC&pg=PA213 |ISBN=978-0-8264-6168-1 |page=213}}</ref> The group appeared at the [[Monterey Pop Festival]] on June 17, 1967.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/moby-grape/1967/monterey-county-fairgrounds-monterey-ca-23d114df.html|title=Moby Grape Setlist at Monterey Pop Festival 1967|website=Setlist.fm|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> 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 Katz demanded one million dollars for the rights.<ref name=Parr /> According to 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."<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.sundazed.com/scene/exclusives/peter_lewis-3.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070904120957/http://www.sundazed.com/scene/exclusives/peter_lewis-3.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 4, 2007|title=PETER LEWIS: Call Him Ishmael : Part Three of an exclusive Sundazed.Com Interview by JUD COST|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref>

The Moby Grape footage was shown in 2007 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the film. Miller recalled that [[Laura Nyro]] was given Moby Grape's original position opening for Redding, "because everybody was arguing. Nobody wanted to play first and I said that would be fine for me."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mods-rockers-festival-gra_b_56699|title=Mods & Rockers Festival: Grapeful For Monterey|first=Jerry|last=Miller|date=July 18, 2007|website=HuffPost.com|access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> In addition to the marketing backlash, band members found themselves in legal trouble for charges (later dropped) of consorting with underage girls, and the band's relationship with their manager rapidly deteriorated.