Moby Grape – Hey Grandma

This week I’m hitting the San Francisco sound of the 1960s. This is one area that I haven’t touched on much since I’ve been blogging besides The Dead and Janis Joplin. Those two I’ve talked about quite a bit so I’ll probably leave those off this week. I can’t tell you how much fun this is. The whole point of blogging for me is to find new songs that I haven’t heard…whether old or new.  I hope you enjoy this week as we visit an area that I’m not familiar with very much.

I’ve read about this band but never heard their music. They really blew me away! They were very tight and their harmonies were great. I will post something else by this band in the future. So far I’ve found out that they are very much a song band. Not a band who will extend a song to 15 minutes…they got to the point and got out.

Alright, buckle up for a trip back to the groovy 60s! Moby Grape was this super cool band from San Francisco that rocked the scene with their unique blend of psychedelic rock. They were formed by Canadian Skip Spence and Matthew Katz. Katz was the former manager of the Jefferson Airplane and Spence was the Airplane’s original drummer. Katz asked Spence to form a band like The Jefferson Airplane.

I listen to this band and I think..how did they not make it? It comes back to some bad luck and some self-sabotage. They had it all…including five members who could all write, sing and play. Record labels were lining up for them. They have since fought for decades between each other and especially their manager Matthew Katz. Other bands like Buffalo Springfield said that Moby Grape was one of the best bands from San Francisco.

They faced more drama than your favorite soap opera. From internal squabbles to management mishaps, it was like they couldn’t catch a break. And for the icing on the cake…they were overhyped by CBS Records.

This next bit of info took me by surprise. CBS actually released 5…yes FIVE singles at once by the band. The label was convinced that each of the 10 sides had the potential to make it to the top of the national charts. The thinking was that a shot-gun approach would ensure that at least one of the five would hit and garner maximum airplay and revenue. It failed miserably. Rock magazines, underground newspapers, and the mainstream press viewed the ploy as a cynical way to move products. Having your record company behind you is good, but who could live up to that? Their reputation suffered greatly.

This was the last single of that batch to be released. It peaked at #127 on the Billboard 100 and #94 on Cashbox. The highest charting single was Omaha, another really good song and it peaked at #88 on the Billboard 100 and #87 in Canada in 1967. The album did much better. The self-titled album Moby Grape peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Moby Grape was formed in 1966 with Peter Lewis as rhythm guitarist. Jerry Miller on lead guitar, Bob Mosley as the bassist and vocalist. Skip Spence on rhythm guitar and experimental drummer, and Don Stevenson on drums and he did some vocals. Their debut album, simply titled Moby Grape was released in 1967. It featured tracks like “Omaha” and “Hey Grandma” became instant Moby Grape classics, showing off the band’s killer harmonies and eclectic sound.

I really like the guitar work in this. Their harmonies sound like the future Grateful Dead would in the early seventies. Things took a darker turn with Skip Spence, one of their star members, battling personal demons. His struggles with mental health and substance abuse led to him leaving the band in 1969. He would return in 1971 and later as they disbanded and came back together.

They are still together with some of the original members. Peter Lewis, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, and Don Stevenson. Skip Spencer died in 1999 of lung cancer. His son Omar Spence is now with Moby Grape…singing his dad’s songs. There is a cult following of this band and they had the talent to do much more. This is a case of a record company really hurting them the opposite way they usually do.

Peter Lewis:  “We were so young. All we wanted to do was be free. What made us feel worse was that Buffalo Springfield seemed to be getting along fine. They didn’t like Katz at all. Neil Young was up there at the Ark, sitting right there when we were told we had to sign this paper giving away rights to the name. I remember him sitting there, playing this orange Gretsch he had and staring down at his feet. He didn’t say anything. But after that meeting, he told us not to do it. Don’t ask me why, but we did. When Rubinson came along, he said that if we signed with Columbia he’d get rid of Katz for us. Then after he got us signed [in February 1967] he came back and said that the Columbia lawyers couldn’t do it, that they’d made a deal behind our backs. Then we were really screwed.”

Hey Grandma

Hey Grandma, you’re so youngYour old man’s just a boyBeen a long time this time (pow-pow-pow)Been a long time this time (pow-pow-pow)Been a long time this time round, this time roundEverything is upside down, upside downSure lookin’ goodYou’re lookin’ so goodYou’re sure lookin’ good

SF freak scene was on my mindFillmore Slim is just a-wasting timeWell I got high this time (pow-pow-pow)Well I got high this time (pow-pow-pow)Well I got high this time round, this time roundEverything is upside down, upside downCause your lookin’ goodYou’re lookin’ so goodYou’re sure lookin’ good

Robitussin make me feel so fineRobitussin and Elderberry wineHey GrandmaHey GrandmaHey GrandmaHey Grandma

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

45 thoughts on “Moby Grape – Hey Grandma”

  1. Great learn more about good old Moby Grape. I had them in my list of rarities! What a series of misadventures and I didn’t know they released five singles at once, what band can live up to that! Always thought of them as similar to The Band.

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  3. One of the longest-lived obscure bands around. Even back then they were fairly obscure. Even being introduced by Tommy Smothers didn’t help. “Omaha” might be the only song that most people would know – and even then, they wouldn’t know the title. “8:05” is beautiful.

    And who else in rock was playing a Gibson L5?

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    1. Their music really impressed me… I was going to post Omaha….I liked that one as well.
      Not many with that guitar…I saw Keith Richards with one before but not regularly.

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  4. Putting some flowers in your hair this week, eh? good idea for a feature, San Fran.
    Moby Grape is once again another band I’ve heard of since I was little but I wouldn’t be able to think of a song by them…likely have heard the odd track along the way but I can’t specify what they might have been. On this one at least, two thoughts popped into my head within a minute. One, yep,sounds like someone who hang out with the Grateful Dead – it sounded like a more energetic, hopped up Dead to me. And two – they fall into that trap we’ve talked about that gives your blog it’s name. That song, to me, is pure power pop. The guitar is too strident and high up in the mix to fit in with top 40 hits of that time and the song itself was probably too melodic, harmonic and well, “pop” for real hard rock fans or what few album rock stations existed at that time. But you’re right too, the record company carpet-bombing the public with singles was dumb.

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    1. I didn’t know if you have heard of Skip Spence…I know you don’t know every Canadian lol…but I wasn’t sure if he was something up there.
      Yea…releasing 5 singles at once…I never heard of that in my life. The hype machine was running wild…and we thought The Counting Crows were hyped.
      I just picked one of out of many songs…they had a variety….

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      1. I didn’t really know Spence’s name, but quite a few Canadian artists found their way to California in the ’60s, that’s for sure!
        That was ludicrous of the company. I mean, suppose they did get program managers or music directors to listen to all5 in their busy day. What if the guy in Omaha picks ‘Omaha’, the one over in Des Moines likes this one, the one in Chicago picks another. At best you have five different regional hits, maybe selling 10 000 a week each. And that gets them to maybe #90 on billboard. Whereas, if they just choose the song for radio, maybe Omaha, Des Moines, etc all play the same one and its’ selling 50 000 a week. That puts them at, maybe #20. And by being at #20, stations not playing it will say ‘ooh, look at that. #20 and rising. I guess we better get on the bandwagon and spin it.” Soon you have a gold single and the album starts selling. Basic marketing really.

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      2. They created the same problem as today…too many songs to pick from and one doesn’t get total air play.
        If you want to release them…fine…release them within two months apart…it was such a crazy idea…but it would catch on a decade later…but…not all at once!

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      3. oh yeah, very much … releasing maybe 5 singles off an album is a good idea if it sustains it. Just, like you say, 2 even 3 months apart,so it will keep the album selling for a long time and keep the name in the public’s mind for months or even years.

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  5. Nice music, Max. In 1968, after a gig at New York’s Fillmore East, Skip Spence went off with a woman – sometimes described as a witch of sorts – who fed him some particularly potent acid. Spence flipped out, and took a fire axe to the Albert hotel in search of Moby Grape drummer Don Stevenson (whom he thought was possessed by Satan), breaking down the door to the room Stevenson shared with Grape guitarist Jerry Miller. Finding it empty, he went into the studio, where producer David Rubinson disarmed him. The incident culminated in Spence being committed to New York’s notorious mental institution, Bellevue Hospital, for six months. I hope you write about Quicksilver Messenger Service and Santana this week.

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    1. Quilksilver yes…I’m not finished on all yet though…but I have the Quilksilver done already.
      That is a great story…sad but great.

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  7. I had heard the band name but not their music. So cool to see Tommy Smothers introduce them in the live video. They’ve got talent. Too bad another talented group got put through the management grinder.

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  8. Moby Grape sound great. I like their combination of neat harmony singing and rock. Like it appears you did when starting to work on the post, I only knew them by name. And, yes, releasing multiple singles at the same time hoping one sticks is a terrible tactic and, frankly, something I don’t recall reading before.

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    1. No I never read where a record company did that before. Their songs are really good and with the right handling…I could have seen them doing big things.

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  9. Yet another one whose name I knew but that was about it. Sound-wise they DO sort of fall between the cracks of Rock and Pop, at least on ‘Grandma.’ And the five singles approach was just stooopid.

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  10. Like many of those SF bands, Grape, Quicksilver Messenger, Big Brother and Grateful Dead, they were very rough sounding. Attribute that to the mind set of ” not selling out to the man” that Garcia pushed. Eventually, they had to make a record in a studio in order to make the evil “money.” LA embraced it and the scene was much different. I did see Jefferson Airplane twice, once in 69 and again in 70, both times in Dallas. The best thing I can say about the 70 show, is the audience was glad when they left the stage. Iron Butterfly opened the show and made JA sound like a garage band.

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    1. Yea they made a lot of that evil money later on lol. I have Quicksilver coming up.
      Iron Butterfly had to be massively loud….I would have liked to see them.

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      1. They were loud, but I can’t imagine them at a low volume, the tunes wouldn’t have worked. Back then, in the good old days, we all played loud. The acoustics in Moody Colosseum were exactly that, hard surface basketball place, terrible venue for a concert. Loudest band I heard was Led Zeppelin. Momo and me were seated about ten rows back, center, and Zeppelin cleared the first five rows or so, everyone moved to the back wall and stood. How do those guys have any hearing left?

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      2. Pete Townshend said the same thing…it wouldn’t have worked quiet…I can’t imagine how loud Zeppelin was…yea Pete doesn’t have any hearing left.

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      3. My hearing is shot. Too many years, standing in front of a Fender amp. The more the loss, the louder the volume. Our lead guitar had doble aids, me only one, drummer now has two, bass and singer, one: compliments of the biz.

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  12. I had a double CD compilation which had the whole first album, then a bunch of other stuff.

    I didn’t like most of the stuff outside the first album, but I loved ‘Murder in my Heart for the Judge’.

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  13. I remember Moby Grape from my childhood years growing up in the S.F. Bay Area, but never really listened to their music, as I can’t remember ever hearing them on the radio. How stupid and misguided was CBS to release five singles all at the same time! It might work for superstars like Elvis, The Beatles, Elton John, Madonna, Beyonce or Taylor Swift, but not a then-obscure band like Moby Grape.

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