Moby Grape

Moby Grape是美國的一支早期搖滾樂隊，成立于1966年，為“舊金山之聲”的代表人物，五位成員全都能寫能唱。他們的曲風(fēng)融合了包括Blues，鄉(xiāng)村搖滾，迷幻搖滾等多種風(fēng)格，有人認為他們是那個時期最強的美國迷幻樂隊。這個樂隊“出產(chǎn)”了一位著名的吉他手Jerry Miller，被認為是史上最強的吉他手之一。主唱Skip Spence也是名噪一時的人物，曾經(jīng)參與Quicksilver Messenger Service和Jefferson Airplane樂隊。然而樂隊成員大都用藥成癮，生活放浪不羈，使得他們未能充分發(fā)揮自己的天賦，樂隊成軍5年后即宣告解體。
樂隊的首張專輯《Moby Grape》在滾石雜志評出的500張歷代最強專輯中排名第121位，"Hey Grandma"和 "Omaha"都成為打榜的歌曲，而"8:05"被認為是鄉(xiāng)村搖滾的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)經(jīng)典。
One of the best 60s San Francisco bands, Moby Grape were also one of the most versatile. Although they are most often identified with the psychedelic scene, their specialty was combining all sorts of roots music — folk, blues, country, and classic rock & roll — with some Summer of Love vibes and multi-layered, triple-guitar arrangements. All of those elements only truly coalesced, however, for their 1967 debut LP. Although subsequent albums had more good moments than many listeners are aware of, a combination of personal problems and bad management effectively killed off the group by the end of the 1960s.
Many San Francisco bands of the era were assembled by recent immigrants to the area, but Moby Grape had even more tenuous roots in the region than most when they formed. Matthew Katz, who managed the Jefferson Airplane in their early days, helped put together Moby Grape around Skip Spence. Spence, a legendarily colorful Canadian native whose first instrument was the guitar, had played drums in the Airplanes first lineup at the instigation of Marty Balin. Spence left the Airplane after their first album, and reverted to his natural guitarist and songwriting role for the Grape (the Airplane had already recorded some of his compositions). Guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson were recruited from the Northwest bar band the Frantics; guitarist Peter Lewis had played in Southern California surf bands like the Cornells; and bassist Bob Mosley had also played with outfits from Southern California.
The groups relative unfamiliarity with each other may have sown seeds for their future problems, but they jelled surprisingly quickly, with all five members contributing more or less equally to the songwriting on their self-titled debut (1967). Moby Grape remains their signature statement, though the folk-rock and country-rock worked better than the boogies; Omaha, Sittin by the Window, Changes, and Lazy Me are some of their best songs. Columbia Records, though, damaged the bands credibility with over-hype, releasing no less than five singles from the LP simultaneously. Worse, three members of the group were caught consorting with underage girls. Though charges were eventually dropped, the legal hassles, combined with an increasingly strained relationship with manager Katz, sapped the bands drive.
Moby Grapes follow-up, the double-LP Wow, was one of the most disappointing records of the 60s, in light of the high expectations fostered by the debut. The studio half of the package had much more erratic songwriting than the first recording, and the group members didnt blend their instrumental and vocal skills nearly as well. The bonus disc was almost a total waste, consisting of bad jams. Spence departed while the album was being recorded in New York in 1968, as a result of a famous incident in which he entered the studio with a fire axe, apparently intending to use it on Stevenson. Committed to New Yorks Bellevue Hospital, he did re-emerge to record a wonderful acid folk solo album at the end of 1968, but that would be his only notable post-Grape project; he struggled with mental illness until he died in 1998.
Another unexpected blow was dealt when Mosley, despite his membership in a band that emerged from the Haight-Ashbury psychedelic scene, joined the Marine Corps at the beginning of 1969. The band did struggle on and release a couple more albums during that year, and the best tracks from these (particularly the earlier one, Moby Grape 69) proved they could still deliver the goods, though usually in a more subdued, countrified fashion than their earliest material. The group broke up at the end of the 60s, although they would periodically reunite for nearly unheard albums over the next two decades, in lineups featuring varying original members. Their problems were exacerbated by Matthew Katz, who owns the Moby Grape name, and has sometimes prevented the original members from using the name when they worked together.