Podcasts about Moby Grape

Grape Expectations' Episode 8 is the true turning point of the series, a breathless conversation with Moby Grape guitarist/songwriter Peter Lewis which goes to great lengths to illustrate the point a man must reach where it becomes preferable to move furniture for his grandma as a side hustle in lieu of recording a single additional note with his musical soulmates.There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, get the full series, or better yet just subscribe.Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffitiPurchase the full Grape Expectations Collection at a discount: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 300 Patreon episodes.Order Cam Cobb's Skip Spence bio: https://a.co/d/iuSyBGcCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #grapeexpectations #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Welcome to Part 3, and the final installment of my conversation with Don Stevenson, in which we cover the expansive era of 1969 to the present. Don says this will be the very last time he'll be talking about his time in Moby Grape, so you absolutely will not want to miss this. Here's just a few of the many things that Don discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:How Skip Spence's Oar really got made, not the mythological pajama-wearing motorcycle ride to Nashville that's been bandied about for years;The difficulty of Bob Mosley's breakdown occurring in the much larger shadow of Skip's concurrent mental problems;The reasons why their final album, 2010's The Real Potato, was shelved (Director's Cut only);How their disastrous 1971 gig at The Fillmore East really went down;The unimaginable horrors that occurred during the making of 20 Granite Creek;And a track-by-track deep-dive on Truly Fine Citizen, 20 Granite Creek, Live Grape, Legendary Grape, and several other records Moby Grape made during this period!Listen: linktr.ee/discograffitiI support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income. If you're a Moby Grape & Skip Spence superfan like me, The Director's Cut of this episode is ad-free and features 27 additional minutes of essential material. Purchase The Director's Cut as a one-off at Patreon.com/Discograffiti.Purchase the full Grape Expectations Collection: www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon at the Major Tier and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week) of must-hear binge-listening: Patreon.com/DiscograffitiOrder Cam Cobb's Skip Spence bio: https://a.co/d/iuSyBGcCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #grapeexpectations #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Episode 6 of our Grape Expectations Series features Moby Grape & Skip Spence biographer Cam Cobb detailing Skip's June 1968 mental breakdown, as he grabs a fire axe and goes after drummer Don Stevenson.  That error in judgment lands him in Bellevue for six months, and upon his release he heads to Nashville with his family to create his groundbreaking solo album Oar.  Here's just a few of the many things that Cam discusses with Discograffiti in Part 3 of our discussion:Exactly what happened when Skip lost the plot;As much info as is available on the mysterious Joanna Wells, the witchy woman who seemed to be at least partially responsible for Skip's overnight transformation;The creepy details of Don's visit to Joanna's Greenwich Village pad;A peek inside Bellevue, as somehow Skip experiences his most inspired creative surge;And a track-by-track breakdown of not just Oar, but every released moment in the 3-CD AndOarAgain box set collection!There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, get the full series, or better yet just subscribe.Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffitiPurchase the full Grape Expectations Collection at a discount: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 300 Patreon episodes.Order Cam Cobb's Skip Spence bio: https://a.co/d/iuSyBGcCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #grapeexpectations #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Skip Spence's life started in Windsor, but he became a poster boy for the 1960s, playing with groups like Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. His time in the spotlight lasted only three years, but he left a lasting impression on rock and roll. Cam Cobb is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor and a rock journalist. Cobb's writing has appeared in such magazines as Record Collector, Shindig!, and Ugly Things. His liner notes for Skip Spence's single, "Rock & Roll Band," accompanied the release in 2019. Cobb co-directed Buskin' in the Subway for the Windsor International Film Festival, and he coproduced O(A)R, a short documentary on Skip Spence. His books include What's Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story, and Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence.New Rolling Stone Record Guide 2nd ed. 1983. Is cited. More information on the book here. 

Episode 5 of our Grape Expectations Series is the podcast to hear if you ever wondered what it felt like to be hunted down by a psychedelically deranged band member wielding a fire axe.  Welcome to Part 2 of my conversation with Don Stevenson, in which we cover the most harrowing period of his life, not to mention the band's career (1967-1969). Don says this will be the very last time he'll be talking about his time in Moby Grape, so you absolutely will not want to miss this. Here's just a few of the many things that Don discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:How Moby Grape wound up blowing it at Monterey Pop;The point at which their manager Matthew Katz went to war with the band;The experience of touring the country at the same time as The Fake Grape;And a track-by-track discussion of both Wow/Grape Jam and Moby Grape '69.Listen: linktr.ee/discograffitiI support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income. If you're a Moby Grape & Skip Spence superfan like me, The Director's Cut of this episode is ad-free and features 25 additional minutes of essential material. Purchase The Director's Cut as a one-off at Patreon.com/Discograffiti.Purchase the full Grape Expectations Collection: www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon at the Major Tier and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week) of must-hear binge-listening: Patreon.com/DiscograffitiCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #grapeexpectations #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Episode 4 of our Grape Expectations Series features Moby Grape & Skip Spence biographer Cam Cobb talking about Skip's rollercoaster ride through those early days of Moby Grape, a tale which includes disastrous tours, lawsuits, police busts, horribly nefarious managers, a fake touring version of the band, mysterious black magic witches, drug-induced madness, insane asylums, and attempted murder with an axe.  And, no joke—that's just within the band's first two years.  Here's just a few of the many things that Cam discusses with Discograffiti in Part 2 of our discussion:A step-by-step reconstruction of the hunt for talent that wound up pulling together the original band;The manifold ways in which Matthew Katz failed them as a manager;How The Summer of Love ironically wound up beating this great band down;A discussion about why Skip's songs of biblical reckoning took a sharp left into novelty-adjacent Weird Al territory!*** This episode includes a cameo appearance by the great JERRY MILLER, who talks with Cam about the band's early days as they began to gel as a unit!There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, get the full series, or better yet just subscribe.Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffitiPurchase the full Grape Expectations Collection at a discount: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/collection/1467935⁠Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 300 Patreon episodes.Order Cam Cobb's Skip Spence bio: ⁠https://a.co/d/iuSyBGc⁠CONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow:⁠ ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhw⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/Discograffiti⁠Order the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart):⁠ www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404⁠Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp:⁠ https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzak⁠Order the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop:⁠ https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/all⁠Venmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site:⁠ http://discograffiti.com/⁠CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroewww.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #familydog #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Episode 3 of our Grape Expectations Series features two—count ‘em, TWO SEPARATE INTERVIEWS with drummer Don Stevenson and guitarist Peter Lewis, each of whom gives their own Rashomon-like perspective on the fascinating early part of Moby Grape's career. Disastrous tours, lawsuits, police busts, horribly nefarious managers, a fake touring version of the band, mysterious black magic witches, and drug-induced madness.  And, no joke—that's just within the band's first two years. The first episode of my conversations with both Don & Peter features both men discussing their first two records, the self-titled debut and Wow, right up to when Skip had his breakdown.Here's just a few of the many things that Don & Peter both separately discuss with Discograffiti in Part 1 of our conversation:How the band initially coalesced;The early days finding their sound at The Ark;How the major label feeding frenzy over the band wound up impacting them;Don's infamous front cover middle finger;An in-depth discussion of their legendary self-titled debut;The steep downhill slide that began literally on the night of their launch party;And the time Skip broke down crying in the studio when the reaction to his new song wasn't as he'd expected.Then, for good measure, Peter drops a bomb at the end of the whole thing.Listen: linktr.ee/discograffitiI support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income. If you're a Moby Grape & Skip Spence superfan like me, The Director's Cut of this episode is ad-free and features A WHOPPING 52 ADDITIONAL MINUTES of essential material. Purchase The Director's Cut as a one-off at Patreon.com/Discograffiti.Purchase the full Grape Expectations Collection: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon at the Major Tier and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week) of must-hear binge-listening: Patreon.com/DiscograffitiCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #familydog #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

The great Bob Mosley—Mr. Blues himself—is known for a soul-belting voice that is a true force of nature.  As a man who's transcended his share of real blues (a bout of homelessness, a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia that'd sideline the average person), conversely Bob has fronted multiple bands, been idolized by Robert Plant, and played in a late-1970s supergroup with Neil Young called The Ducks. Here's just a few of the many things that Bob discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:What it was like opening for The Rolling Stones;How he first found out that he could sing like that;His favorite song on Moby Grape's classic debut;What it was like living on the street;His relationship with Skip Spence, both of whom endured a lifetime struggle with the same severe psychological diagnoses, yet neither man ever admitted defeat. There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, or better yet just subscribe.Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffitiSubscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. I support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income.It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 300 Patreon episodes.CONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #familydog #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Grape Expectations, an immersive, 5-week-long, Rashomon-style series about the amazing band Moby Grape, featuring all three living band members and their biographer.  There is no crazier story in the history of music than that of The Grape. It includes disastrous tours, lawsuits, police busts, horribly nefarious managers, a fake touring version of the band, mysterious black magic witches, drug-induced madness, insane asylums, and attempted murder with an axe.  And, no joke—that's just within the band's first two years. The first episode features Moby Grape and Skip Spence biographer Cam Cobb talking about Skip's dizzying years leading up to the formation of Moby Grape!Here's just a few of the many things that Cam discusses with Discograffiti in Part 1 of this podcast:Skip's wandering childhood;Coming up with Billy Dean Andrus in the South Bay folk scene;His first (little-known) acid trip;The truth behind the wild legend of Skip passing through both Quicksilver and Jefferson Airplane in literally one afternoon;Skip's initial songwriting efforts;And his whirlwind 10-month tenure in The Airplane!Listen: linktr.ee/discograffitiI support a wife and a six-year-old son with Discograffiti as my sole source of income. If you're a Moby Grape & Skip Spence superfan like me, The Director's Cut of this episode is ad-free and features 11 additional minutes of essential material. Purchase The Director's Cut as a one-off:Purchase the full Grape Expectations Collection: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1467935Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon at the Major Tier and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week) of must-hear binge-listening: Patreon.com/DiscograffitiOrder Cam Cobb's Skip Spence bio: https://a.co/d/iuSyBGcCONNECTJoin our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153Patreon: www.Patreon.com/DiscograffitiPodfollow: ⁠⁠https://podfollow.com/1592182331⁠⁠YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiscograffitiOrder the Digital version of the METAL MACHINE MUZAK 2xLP (feat. Lou Barlow, Cory Hanson, Mark Robinson, & W. Cullen Hart): www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/197404Order the $11 Digital version of the MMM 2xLP on Bandcamp: https://discograffiti.bandcamp.com/album/metal-machine-muzakOrder the METAL MACHINE MUZAK Double Vinyl + Digital package: www.patreon.com/discograffiti/shop/169954Merch Shop: https://discograffitipod.myspreadshop.com/allVenmo Dave A Tip: @David-GebroeWeb site: http://discograffiti.com/CONTACT DAVEEmail: dave@discograffiti.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hooligandaveInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroeThere is no other Patreon in existence where you get more for your money. 4 shows a week is what it takes these days to successfully blot out our unacceptable reality…so do yourself a favor and give it a shot for at least one month to see what I'm talking about.  If you're already a member, please comment below about your experience.  www.Patreon.com/discograffiti#mobygrape #sanfrancisco #sixties #billgraham #fillmorewest #gordonstevens #doobiebrothers #weirdherald #billydeanandrus #donstevenson #peterlewis #bobmosley #jerrymiller #robertplant #skipspence #avalonballroom #familydog #thebyrds #jeffersonairplane #matthewkatz #camcobb #bellevue #jormakaukonen #discograffiti #metalmachinemuzak #soldiersofsound #grapeexpectations #thematrix #martybalin #omarspence 

Joe talks with Dave Gebroe of the Discograffiti podcast about growing up in Livingston, about the rough road he traveled between directing films and producing podcasts, and about his fascination with Moby Grape. Plus, Archana tells us about some of the great programs on our May calendar, Hongmei talks about the therapeutic power of Tibetan flute music, and Jessica highlights some of the most anticipated new books hitting our shelves this month.

In this first of a two part episode of LEGENDS: Podcast by All Day Vinyl, host Scott Dudelson sits down with Don Stevenson, the vocalist, songwriter, drummer and co-founder of the iconic Moby Grape — one of the most dynamic, underrated bands to emerge from the 1960s San Francisco rock scene. From smoky late-night clubs in the Pacific Northwest to the chaos of Monterey Pop, Don takes us on a deeply personal journey through rock history. He opens up about first meeting Jerry Miller (his Moby Grape co-founder), backing up Etta James in after-hours joints, and the wild ride that led to forming Moby Grape alongside Skip Spence, Bob Mosley, and Peter Lewis. You'll hear the story of their audition, the creative fire that birthed classics like Hey Grandma, 805, and Murder in My Heart for the Judge — and what it was like recording their genre-defining debut album in just seven days. ** Don shares behind-the-scenes stories about: The infamous middle finger album cover that became a collector's grail How poor management cost the band a place in the Monterey Pop Festival documentary What it felt like to be touted as “the next Beatles”… and how it all unraveled Recording new solo work with Jerry Miller and Omar Spence, son of Skip Spence

Here is my Monday night radio show The Grateful Dead Hour with Leo Schumaker. I play the music of The Grateful Dead and other bands of that era or influence. Included along with The Dead are Country Joe and The Fish, Moby Grape, Santana, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, The Jerry Garcia Band and more. Also some stories about the band and other facts and figures. Just click on the link/picture and enjoy the music on KMRE 88.3 FM, kmre.org, OnDemand and your Tunein app every Monday 7-8 PM.

Arwen Lewis - an American singer and songwriter - joins us on this episode of Celeb Savant. Arwen is the next generation of success - her grandmother is Oscar winner Loretta Young, and her father, Peter Lewis, is a founding member of Moby Grape. Arwen tells us about how having family in the industry may have helped her, we discuss the current music industry landscape and more. Website - www.arwenlewismusic.com Instagram - @arwenlewis Facebook - @ArwenLewisMusic Twitter - @lewis_arwen YouTube - @arwenlewis8522

Interview with Steve Traina about his new book La Cave.  Steve took time off from childhood activities just long enough to start and run a small business, help raise six kids, and perform various other adult activities. It was just a phase. In his spare time he also managed craft a 30-plus year career as a minor league and college D1 umpire, and fit in an ongoing 22 years as the on-air host of the music history show Steve's Folk Radio Show on WRUW-FM 91.1 in Cleveland. Now that he can form a baseball team with his nine grandchildren, he realized the foolishness of it all and, between grandfatherly duties, reverted to his childhood dream of sitting around reading and writing. In these pursuits he is guided by his ever-vigilant editor Ethel the Very Large Cat.   About the La Cave Book : In a dingy basement music club in inner-city Cleveland, something incredible happened, and kept happening throughout the ‘60s. Except it didn't just “happen.” It was created by a slightly-built visionary named Stanley Kain, and he named this happening “La Cave.” Stan's vision was the future and its language was written in musical notation, fueled by post-adolescent angst amidst a backdrop of the military draft, war, race riots, and social upheaval in general. For a buck, maybe two, suburban kids, college students and other young adults could absorb the wisdom of their elders – future musical Hall of Famers, still unknown, perched behind guitars, mere feet away on a tiny stage, dispensing that wisdom with a 4/4 beat. Performers like The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Moby Grape, The Fugs and countless others were the professors of this new ideology. Mix in political drama, street theater, psychedelic drugs and cheap beer, and you have a microcosm of 1960s America. You have La Cave. History was made nightly, and was it ever fun!   https://www.lacavebook.com/   Steve's info steve-traina 

Guests: Don Stevenson, drummer/songwriter of Moby Grape & Cam Cobb, author of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence. He was one of the Holy Trinity of critically revered and maybe unjustly labeled “acid casualties” of late ‘60s/early ‘70s music. Along with Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and the 13th Floor Elevators' Roky Erickson, Skip Spence was a star-crossed figure idolized for his all-too-brief contributions to shaping psychedelia through his work with Moby Grape and his one incredibly stark and endlessly intriguing solo album, Oar. His briefly burning creativity and agonizingly slow decline are profiled in a wonderfully comprehensive new book, Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence (Omnibus Press). Author Cam Cobb spoke with a multitude of Skip's family, friends, and bandmates to create the first authoritative chronicle of his artistic development and achievements and a sympathetic one of his long battle with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. For this special edition of “Reading Is Funktamental,” we hear direct from one of the musicians who knew Spence best, Don Stevenson, the drummer and co-writer of many of Moby Grape's most popular songs, including “Hey Grandma,” “8:05” and “Murder in My Heart for the Judge.” My written review of the book can be found here at PopMatters, https://www.popmatters.com/moby-grape-skip-pence-biography "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

Clin d’oeil aux Moody Blues, même si on attaque avec T-Rex et les Pretty Things (toujours une référence au magazine Ugly Things…). Les Cramps, Moody Blues, Moby Grape, les Who, voici ce à quoi vous aurez droit… Et on complète avec Love, the Other Half, New Trolls, Le Orme, Small Faces, The Emperors, Love, Frank […] L'article Maggot Brain – Steeling A Night Away est apparu en premier sur Radio Campus Tours - 99.5 FM.

01:00 The latest from Mark Halperin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-WeJ4iC4CM 07:45 Democratic pros worried about early vote, particularly in Pennsylvania, https://x.com/2waytvapp 20:00 If Trump wins decisively, what will it mean for the news media? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFb0D3rdxA 21:00 Megyn Kelly makes the case for Trump 26:30 Harris vs Trump: Predictions are Futile, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZTD5AhwuY 30:00 Pollster Robert Cahaly's 2024 Predictions & the importance of Elon Musk buying X, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ChJzyMhIkI 33:00 Both campaigns have big exuberant events, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCx8SgsXwlw 34:40 Sarah Isgur says that winning campaigns have a lot of staff hooking up, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTzldHsvG4 36:15 Why Trump's Conduct Hasn't Tanked His Chances, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xx2SI8kLZ4 40:00 Mark Halperin, Sean Spicer, Dan Turrentine: Who's done better? JD Vance v Tim Walz? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swdZoafddWQ 55:00 2024 Pre-Election Extravaganza | Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX0AgNL0NHg 56:45 Kamala's Moby Grape problem, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Grape 57:30 Kamala's changing message 58:30 Private polls vs public polls 1:04:00 Kamala campaign got trolled out of its strategy of hiding Kamala from interviews

Singer / songwriter Arwen Lewis, daughter of Moby Grape founder Peter Lewis

It's another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more. This episode's guest is singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Arwen Lewis. Arwen is the granddaughter of Academy Award-winning actress Loretta Young and the daughter of Peter Lewis, a founding member of the band Moby Grape. Her 2015 self-titled debut featured her interpretations of her father's songs and in 2023 she released the EP 'Under The Stars', which she produced and wrote. It includes self-penned tunes along with a cover of her father's song “Black Moon”, Jackson Browne's “Doctor My Eyes”, and Joni Mitchell's “I Think I Understand”. I talk to Arwen about her music, famous lineage, favorite books on rock, and more!Visit Arwen Lewis's WebsiteListen to The Arwen Lewis PodcastListen to a playlist of Arwen Lewis---------- BookedOnRock.com The Booked On Rock YouTube Channel Follow The Booked On Rock with Eric Senich:FACEBOOKINSTAGRAMTIKTOKX Find Your Nearest Independent Bookstore Contact The Booked On Rock Podcast: thebookedonrockpodcast@gmail.com The Booked On Rock Music: “Whoosh” by Crowander / “Last Train North” & “No Mercy” by TrackTribeBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/booked-on-rock-with-eric-senich--4901091/support.

Send us a textOn this week's episode, we discuss what was once considered one of the hottest bands to come out of the late sixties San Francisco scene, Moby Grape and their debut album, 1967's Moby Grape. Moby Grape is one of the most celebrated debut albums ever produced. Recorded by five musicians who could all write and sing, Moby Grape spans multiple genres (rock and roll, folk music, pop, blues, and country) and does so effortlessly. Add a three guitar attack, and some a amazing harmonies to the mix, and you can begin to understand what all the fuss was about. Although over-hyped by the record label at the time of its release, constant issues related to their former manager have kept this album from reaching the future audience it truly deserved. It's never been easier to call 512-766-8495Visit us at www.tappingvinyl.com.

In 1967, Columbia decided to debut a new band called Moby Grape not just with an album—but also five simultaneously released 7-inch singles! Fall On You w/ChangesSitting By the Window w/Indifference805 w/Mr. BluesOmaha/w Hey SundayHey Grandma w/Come in the Morning It might've been a dubious marketing plan, but it produced a ton of great music, and Marc and John delve into why on the latest episode of the Spindle.Call us anytime at 1-877-WASTOIDS. More podcasts and videos at WASTOIDS.com | Follow us on Instagram and YouTube.

In this New Music Friday episode, we speak wth Omad Records recording artist, singer/songwriter Arwen Lewis.  We discuss her musical journey, following in the footsteps of her father, Peter Lewis of Moby Grape and her latest EP Under The Stars.

 The granddaughter of Academy Award winning  actress Loretta Young and the daughter of Peter Lewis, a founding member of ‘60s psychedelic cult heroes Moby Grape . . .  Arwen's  EP is available on the  OMAD RECORDS . . the imprint of Oscar-winning singer/songwriter John DeNicola. . .  While Arwen's self-titled debut, features her interpretations of her father's songs, this time out she's flying higher, as both producer and writer. Self-penned tunes include the layered, wistfully longing “Man on the Moon” and the beautiful heartbreak of “Winter,” showcased in two arrangements—once with gently growling guitar and again accompanied by piano and cello.  Not that Arwen could resist digging into her dad's archive, with a lilting, countrified cover of his “Black Moon.” Plus, she brings her earnest, unaffected gift to a pair of iconic tunes: a trumpet-driven version of Jackson Browne's “Doctor My Eyes” and a frankly folky take on Joni Mitchell's “I Think I Understand.” The EP came together organically, at first just she and a friend—guitar impresario Jonathan McEuen—“scratching out ideas in my living room,” Arwen says. Jonathan mentored me,” Arwen candidly admits. “He also arranged everything perfectly—truly the musical director for this project.” A select few recruits from the deep end of the California talent pool came aboard next, including rock and roll “space traveler” Jason Achilles, Los Angeles film composer/all-around scene staple George Adrian, and trumpeter Jeff Elliott. Plus, yes, Peter Lewis is present as well, slinging a Strat on one track. The recording was finished at Surprise Studio with Graham Palmer as the engineer. “While I had complete creative control,” says Arwen, who also plays guitar on the record, “I was lucky enough to get together with amazing musicians who were in sync with the way I hoped to express these songs.”   “The songs I wrote as well as the ones I chose reflect the music I was raised on: Joni, Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, Nina Simone,” she says, noting that embracing the music of others, adding your unique twist, and the putting it out there is “basic to the communal tradition of folk, passing the songs from person to person, generation to generation.” That's why, while she has no big tour plans, Arwen will play live, here and there, from South X Southwest to the local West Coast venues she loves. Indeed, she might well be singing about the importance of performance on “Man on the Moon” when she promises: “Believing in the stars that I cannot see, I know there's a way to where you are.” Arwen's talked about her famous grandmother Loretta Young hosting episode on her TV Show THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW...here are a couple from youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MhWK6o306Uhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVX0tkfWRN8https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2Ua5T9t7qPY 

Today's program features music without boundaries from the following artists, Joni Mitchell,  Al DiMeola, Steve Miller Band, Grand Funk Railroad, Gabor Szabo, It's A Beautiful Day, Seatrain, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Santana, Allman Brothers Band, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Christopher Cross, Paul & Linda McCartney, The Doors, Tears For Fears, Crosby Stills & Nash, Marshll Tucker Band and Talking Heads.

I already saw the Peter Jackson masterpiece “Get Back” why should I watch the film “Let It Be?” “Let It Be” the 1970 film has been remastered and is finally released in it's original state, I look at it's significance and give it a rating I have never given any documentary I have ever reviewed in the year in a half of the Rock Talk Studio podcast.Plus updates on new projects about Journey, Moby Grape, Michael McDonald, Lollapalooza and Stevie Van Zant. Support the Show.

This afternoon's program features tuneage from The Blue Dolphins, Oliver Nelson, Sting, Van Morrison, Christopher Cross, Chuck Mangione, Style Council, Bob Lind, James Lee Stanley, James Lee Stanley w John Batdorf, Beatles, The Cyrkle, Judy Collins,  Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel,  Moby Grape, Love, Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Steely Dan, Chicago Transit Authority, Gypsy and Blood Sweat & Tears.

Dane Clark is an Indiana native who has been honing his instrumental (drums, bass, guitar and keyboards) and songwriting skills from an early age. His early influences of British Invasion rock and Dylan era folk music still resonate in his musical vision. Clark began making a name for himself as a session drummer in the Indianapolis area in the early 1980's. As well as 28 years with John Mellencamp, Dane has recorded with John Prine, Steve Earle, Ian Hunter, Janis Ian, Carrie Newcomer, The Bob And Tom Band and a multitude of others. Dane has released 7 critically acclaimed singer/songwriter projects of his own including 2019's Americana tour-de-force “Rebel Town” (featuring Carlene Carter) in October of 2019. His latest release “Songs From Isolation”, by Dane Clark and the Backroom Boys featuring John Sebastian was released in August of 2020 to widespread acclaim and national press. He has produced and played multiple instruments on releases by rock and roll hall of fame inductee Donovan( Ritual Groove) and Don Stevenson of the legendary 60's band Moby Grape. His eclectic percussive signature has been heard on stage with diverse musical giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Josh Grobin and John Fogerty. For 20 years he has led his own “full blast rock combo”,The Dane Clark Band, playing in countless regional and local venues as well as opening for artists such as Allman Betts Band, Gin Blossoms, John Waite, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and 38 Special.   Some Things That Came Up:    -2:00 Newest Mellencamp band member has been there 15 years  -2:30 The return of Lisa Germano  -4:45 Working with Nashville bassist Mark Hill at Blackbird Studios  -7:30 Thundersound Studio in Andersen, Indiana  -9:00 Drums are Dave's THIRD instrument  -9:50 The Dane Clark band for 22 years  -10:45 John Prine, Ian Hunter's Janis Ian, and Steve Earle  -11:00 Ian Hunter's “Defiant One”, sharing credits with Ringo Starr, and the late greats Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins. Also features Mike Campbell and Waddy Wachtel -16:30 Embracing all of the ways to record remotely  -18:40 Mellencamp's “Orpheus Descending” and “Sad Clowns and Hillbillies”.  -19:20 Standout tracks are: “Hey God”, “Perfect World” (written by Bruce Springsteen), and “Amen” -21:00 The influence of drummer B.J. Wilson (Procol Harum) -23:20 The 1993 audition -31:00 Too many crashes in modern music?  -42:15 The heaviness of Ginger Baker  -44:00 The performance degree  -45:00 The beauty of Steve Gadd. Checkout “Smokin' in the Pit” by Steps Ahead -46:00 Transcribing Vinnie Colaiuta -47:20 Discovering Tony Williams and The New Tony Williams Lifetime -49:00 Wrote, produced, performed and mixed his “Songs From Isolation” record  -60:00 Dane's Podcast: “The Morning Buzzz” -65:10 Seeing Dane at The Greek Theater -66:15 The Gear -73:00 “The Fave 5”  -78:00 Stephen King's work ethic      Follow:  www.daneclark.com X: @daneclarkmusic IG: @daneclarkmusic   The Rich Redmond Show is about all things music, motivation and success. Candid conversations with musicians, actors, comedians, authors and thought leaders about their lives and the stories that shaped them. Rich Redmond is the longtime drummer with Jason Aldean and many other veteran musicians and artists. Rich is also an actor, speaker, author, producer and educator. Rich has been heard on thousands of songs, over 25 of which have been #1 hits!   Rich can also be seen in several films and TV shows and has also written an Amazon Best-Selling book, "CRASH! Course for Success: 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Personal and Professional Life" currently available at:   https://www.amazon.com/CRASH-Course-Success-Supercharge-Professional/dp/B07YTCG5DS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=crash+redmond&qid=1576602865&sr=8-1   One Book: Three Ways to consume....Physical (delivered to your front door, Digital (download to your kindle, ipad or e-reader), or Audio (read to you by me on your device...on the go)!   Buy Rich's exact gear at www.lessonsquad.com/rich-redmond   Follow Rich: @richredmond www.richredmond.com   Jim McCarthy is the quintessential Blue Collar Voice Guy. Honing his craft since 1996 with radio stations in Illinois, South Carolina, Connecticut, New York, Las Vegas and Nashville, Jim has voiced well over 10,000 pieces since and garnered an ear for audio production which he now uses for various podcasts, commercials and promos. Jim is also an accomplished video producer, content creator, writer and overall entrepreneur.   Follow Jim:   @jimmccarthy www.jimmccarthyvoiceovers.com   RICH REDMOND  Drummer, Speaker, Author, Host, Emcee, Actor www.richredmond.com

Cam Cobb is the author of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence - the biography on the legendary '60s cult musician known for his time in era-defining bands Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Moby Grape. While celebrated by the likes of Tom Waits, Beck, and Robert Plant, Spence's life was sadly plagued by substance abuse, erratic behavior, and poor mental health. Spence's story is the story of the 60s and one that has never been told in full until now. Weighted Down is a first-hand narrative of Skip Spence, told by his friends, bandmates, and family, and includes a trove of never-before-seen photographs. Cobb joins the podcast to tell us about this captivating story of Spence. Purchase a copy of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip SpenceEpisode PlaylistListen To Skip Spence's "Land Of The Sun" (left off of 1996 X-Files tribute album Songs In The Key Of X)---------- BookedOnRock.comThe Booked On Rock YouTube ChannelFollow The Booked On Rock with Eric Senich:FACEBOOKINSTAGRAMTIKTOKXFind Your Nearest Independent BookstoreContact The Booked On Rock Podcast: thebookedonrockpodcast@gmail.comThe Booked On Rock Music: “Whoosh” by Crowander / “Last Train North” & “No Mercy” by TrackTribe

Today''s musical journey features Paul Simon, Beach Boys, Supertramp, Tim Buckley, Peter Paul & Mary, Crowded House, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Simon & Garfunkel, Youngbloods, Jefferson Airplane, Motels, Elton John, Art Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Radiohead, Rod Stewart, Savoy Brown, Sinead O' Connor, Cranberries and John Lennon. 

Esta semana, en Islas de Robinson, territorio clásico, entre 1968 y 1969. Suenan: BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS - "I CAN'T QUIT HER" ("CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN", 1968) / THE IMPRESSIONS - "YOU WANT SOMEBODY ELSE" ("THIS IS MY COUNTRY", 1968) / JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - "HAVE YOU EVER BEEN (TO ELECTRIC LADYLAND)" ("ELECTRIC LADYLAND",1968) / THE ELECTRIC FLAG - "GROOVIN' IS EASY" ("A LONG TIME COMIN'", 1968) / CANNED HEAT - "TIME WAS" ("HALLELUJAH", 1969 ) / SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - "COLOR ME TRUE" ("DANCE TO THE MUSIC", 1968) / TRAFFIC - "WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING" ("TRAFFIC", 1968) / SPIRIT - "UNCLE JACK" ("SPIRIT", 1968) / NAZZ - "NOT WRONG LONG" ("NAZZ NAZZ", 1969) / LOVE - "I'M WITH YOU" ("FOUR SAIL", 1969) / THE GUESS WHO - "6 A.M. OR NEARER" ("CANNED WHEAT", 1969) / THE CITY - "WHY ARE YOU LEAVING" ("NOW THAT EVERYTHING'S BEEN SAID", 1968) / BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD - "FOUR DAYS GONE" ("LAST TIME AROUND", 1968) / MOBY GRAPE - "HE" ("WOW", 1968) / JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - "GREASY HEART" ("CROWN OF CREATION", 1968) / Escuchar audio

Discover the incredible journey of the legendary 1960's San Francisco Country-Psych Rock band, Moby Grape in this episode of the Legends:Podcast by All Day Vinyl featuring founding member, singer/guitarist Peter Lewis of the Moby Grape.  In conversation with host Scott Dudelson, Lewis talks about his new album "Imagination" and shares incredible stories about Skip Spence including the infamous incident where he attempted to attack drummer Don Stevenson with an Axe while believing he was the reincarnation of Alexander the Great, the amazing story behind the iconic Moby Grape debut album cover photo, his recollections of being offered acid by David Crosby at Monterey Pop Festival and so much more. Listeners get a mesmerizing glance into Peter's life from his early beginnings to his current album, all while experiencing the history of one of San Francisco's seminal 1960s bands.  This episode paints an in-depth portrait of the band's trials and tribulations including being ripped off by their manager as well as its high points and the chances of a future Moby Grape reunion concert. Make sure to stay tuned to the 'Legends Podcast' for more behind-the-scene peeks into music history. Please subscribe, rate, and follow us on Instagram and YouTube at All Day Vinyl to stay updated with our latest episodes.

In this episode we speak to singer/guitarist Peter Lewis, founding member of the great 60's band Moby Grape.  We discussthe bands shortened career but long-standing influence on rock and roll.  We also deep dive into Peter's latest great solo album Imagination.

Guest: TG Sheppard, Peter Lewis Country music legend T.G. Sheppard discusses his career and his new duet with his wife, Kelly Lang, "You're Still The One." Peter Lewis looks back on his time with the band, Moby Grape, and talks about his new solo album, "Imagination".                                                    

Don Stevenson of Moby Grape returns for another interview. This time we talk about Moby Grape's grim times in 1968, and go track-by-track on their wonderful yet overlooked third album, Moby Grape '69. The band's biographer, Cam Cobb, joins the conversation.   Cam Cobb's definitive book on the band, "What's Big and Purple and Lives in the Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story", can be found here: http://jawbonepress.com/moby-grape/ Cam's forthcoming book on Skip Spence: "Weighted Down - The Complicated Life of Skip Spence" https://omnibuspress.com/products/weighted-down-the-complicated-life-of-skip-spence For all things Moby Grape, visit the website: https://mobygrape.us/ Please support the podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/uglythingspod, where you can enjoy special bonus content plus much more. Become a Patreon today! Check out Ugly Things Magazine: https://ugly-things.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don Stevenson of Moby Grape returns for another interview. This time we talk about Moby Grape's grim times in 1968, and go track-by-track on their wonderful yet overlooked third album, Moby Grape '69. The band's biographer, Cam Cobb, joins the conversation.   Cam Cobb's definitive book on the band, "What's Big and Purple and Lives in the Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story", can be found here: http://jawbonepress.com/moby-grape/ Cam's forthcoming book on Skip Spence: "Weighted Down - The Complicated Life of Skip Spence" https://omnibuspress.com/products/weighted-down-the-complicated-life-of-skip-spence For all things Moby Grape, visit the website: https://mobygrape.us/ Please support the podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/uglythingspod, where you can enjoy special bonus content plus much more. Become a Patreon today! Check out Ugly Things Magazine: https://ugly-things.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An interview with Peter Lewis of Moby Grape about his 2023 album “Imagination.” He talks about connecting with songwriter John DeNicola, creating music, the music scenes in San Francisco & Los Angeles in the 1960s, song imagery, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this extra-special episode we welcome into the RBP lair not one but two legends of music journalism. Former Smash Hits/Q/MOJO supremo Mark Ellen and Sylvia (I'm Not With The Band) Patterson join us to pay tribute to their late friend and colleague upon the publication of our book Phew, Eh Readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert – the single funniest music journalist who ever lived. Both guests recount their initial and unforgettable encounters with "Hibbs" – Mark's at New Music News in 1980; Sylvia's at Smash Hits in 1986 — before we look back at Tom's early years, his marriage to the marvellous Allyce Tessier and his pop passions from the Byrds to Big Star (via Moby Grape and the 13th Floor Elevators). Interspersing the conversation with quotes from the classic Hibbert pieces collected in Phew, Eh Readers? and the tributes to Tom we commissioned for the book — plus clips from audio interviews with Jon Bon Jovi, Vivien Stanshall and Tom's Smash Hits colleague Neil Tennant — we follow our hero's path through his brilliant career. Stops along the way include his entirely made-up letters to New Music News, his 1987 audience with Margaret Thatcher, his infamous "Who the Hell" interviews for Q and his hilariously irreverent columns for The Observer and the Mail On Sunday. Not forgetting the Love Trousers, the neo-psychedelic covers band he formed with Mr. Ellen... The pathos of Tom's twilight years, following his 1997 hospitalisation with pneumonia and pancreatitis — is touched upon before we wrap up with a fond nod to his old pal "Juggins". We shall not read his like again. Phew, Eh Readers?: The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert is published by Nine Eight Books on 1st February, 2024. Pieces discussed: Tom Hibbert articles on Rock's Backpages, Billy Idol on Majorca, Jon Bon Jovi audio, Neil Tennant on the RBP podcast, Just Like Gene Autry, the Margaret Thatcher interview??!, Who the hell does Ringo Starr think he is? and Who the hell does Roger Waters think he is?

Jerry Miller is the guitarist and a founding member of Moby Grape, the seminal 1960s Bay Area rock group that continues to perform occasionally. Rolling Stone included Miller at number 68 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and Moby Grape's album Moby Grape at number 124 on the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Eric Clapton called Jerry the world's greatest guitarist, and he tells us all about it and more.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

THE JEREMIAH SHOW - Featuring (In Alphabetical Order) Andras Jones, Arwen Lewis, Camilla Cleese (?) Corin Nemec, Jeremiah Higgins, and Tehran! THE 9TH ANNUAL THANKSGIVING SHOW - "The Hippiest-Dippiest Thanksgiving Football Show EVER!" - Tehran Corin Nemec - He's the definition of cool - He's an Actor, Producer, Writer, Graffiti Artist, and a Traveling Man! He was my favorite character in Parker Lewis Can't Lose! His new movie is “Dead Man's Hand” Starring Corin Nemec, Jack Kilmer, Forrie J. Smith, Cole Hauser, and Camille Collard! Basically the cast of Yellowstone, so I am THERE! On Instagram - @imcorinnemec
 Tehran - Returning for the 3rd (or 4th) Year! Our favorite Thanksgiving Comedian and actor! He's at The Laugh Factory in LA Every Thursday at 10 pm! Go to: www.iamtehran.com and on Instagram @iamtehran Andras Jones - Writer, Actor, Musician, Producer, Podcaster (Radio8Ball, The World Is Wrong) and he's a curmudgeon for all seasons! Go to https://previouslyyours.com/ - Check out his latest single: “ABSOLUTELY No Sense of Humor” Starring Andy Dick Camilla Cleese - Joins us from her plane. She's a Comedian, Writer, and Actor - She just landed back in LA, from Nashville, TN, and The Grand Ole Opry House - Fresh off her mid-west tour with John Cleese - "An Evening with The Late John Cleese!" On Instagram - @camillacleese and on YouTube: www.youtube.com/camillacleese Arwen Lewis - She's a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She's the radio host of “The Arwen Lewis Show.” She inhabits our blue planet, but her beliefs belong in the celestial realm. As the daughter of Peter Lewis, founding member of rock and roll cult icons, Moby Grape, and the granddaughter of Oscar-winning actress, Loretta Young, she's been part of the creative cosmos all her life. On Instagram @thearwenlewisshow, @omadrecords, and www.arwenlewismusic.com And your HOST of The Show - Big Lou - Host of The Sports Lounge with Big Lou & The CEO of HolyFit310 - On Instagram @holyfit310. He's a Fitness Professional
ISSA Certified, with 20+ Years Training Experience Happy Thanksgiving!

THE ARWEN LEWIS SHOW - Featuring Don Stevenson, Moby Grape After years of playing a circuit of R&B clubs and events and speakeasies in the Pacific Northwest, Don Stevenson trekked down to the Bay Area in the summer of '65. He'd recently joined The Frantics. The following summer he co-founded the iconic San Francisco band, Moby Grape. Playing ballrooms, like The Fillmore and Avalon, the Grape instantly became the darlings of the Bay Area, and the object of a massive bidding war. In the early weeks of '67, the fivesome shuffled between San Francisco and LA with record company executives from Columbia, Atlantic, and Elektra elbowing each other out of the way, with contracts and pens in hand. Signing with Columbia, Moby Grape recorded their debut in a handful of sessions in the spring of '67. The album came out a few days after Pepper and a couple of weeks later, the Grape played a killer set at the Monterey Pop Festival.   As a songwriting-singing drummer, Don Stevenson was a trailblazer, opening the door for the likes of Levon Helm and Don Henley. Moby Grape's self-titled LP isn't just one of the best debuts in history, it's one of the best albums ever cut. It's now over half a century after those heady days and today Stevenson is putting out his third solo album, Limited Engagement—Volume 1. Produced by Jamie Collins- SoundSuiteMusic, and featuring such talent as Tim Bovaconti (Burton Cummings Band), Dane Clark (John Mellencamp Band), and Dale Ockerman (Doobie Brothers), the album includes 11 stellar tracks tapping into all the genres Moby Grape explored so many years ago.   With another dozen tracks in the can, Stevenson's next album is right around the corner and he's looking into the past, present, and future all at once. At 82, Don Stevenson has every bit as much energy as those two generations younger and you'll witness this when his band hits the stage at Massey Hall. Having shared the bill with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller, The Byrds, BB King, Buddy Guy, Sly Stone, and a host of others, Don Stevenson is no stranger to event concerts, like Chest Fever. Prepare to be bowled over by a seasoned icon. Don Stevenson - https://mobygrape.us The Arwen Lewis Show Host | Arwen Lewis Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Richard “Dr. D” Dugan https://arwenlewismusic.com/ The Arwen Lewis Show is Brought to you by John DeNicola and Omad Records https://www.omadrecords.com/ On Instagram, Follow Arwen Lewis Here: @thearwenlewisshow @arwenlewis www.thejeremiahshow.com On Instagram @jeremiahdhiggins https://linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins

Episode 169 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Piece of My Heart" and the short, tragic life of Janis Joplin. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode available, on "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources There are two Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here — one, two . For information on Janis Joplin I used three biographies -- Scars of Sweet Paradise by Alice Echols, Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren, and Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. I also referred to the chapter '“Being Good Isn't Always Easy": Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, and the Color of Soul' in Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton. Some information on Bessie Smith came from Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, a book I can't really recommend given the lack of fact-checking, and Bessie by Chris Albertson. I also referred to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis And the best place to start with Joplin's music is this five-CD box, which contains both Big Brother and the Holding Company albums she was involved in, plus her two studio albums and bonus tracks. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains discussion of drug addiction and overdose, alcoholism, mental illness, domestic abuse, child abandonment, and racism. If those subjects are likely to cause you upset, you may want to check the transcript or skip this one rather than listen. Also, a subject I should probably say a little more about in this intro because I know I have inadvertently caused upset to at least one listener with this in the past. When it comes to Janis Joplin, it is *impossible* to talk about her without discussing her issues with her weight and self-image. The way I write often involves me paraphrasing the opinions of the people I'm writing about, in a mode known as close third person, and sometimes that means it can look like I am stating those opinions as my own, and sometimes things I say in that mode which *I* think are obviously meant in context to be critiques of those attitudes can appear to others to be replicating them. At least once, I have seriously upset a fat listener when talking about issues related to weight in this manner. I'm going to try to be more careful here, but just in case, I'm going to say before I begin that I think fatphobia is a pernicious form of bigotry, as bad as any other form of bigotry. I'm fat myself and well aware of how systemic discrimination affects fat people. I also think more generally that the pressure put on women to look a particular way is pernicious and disgusting in ways I can't even begin to verbalise, and causes untold harm. If *ANYTHING* I say in this episode comes across as sounding otherwise, that's because I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. Like all people, Janis Joplin had negative characteristics, and at times I'm going to say things that are critical of those. But when it comes to anything to do with her weight or her appearance, if *anything* I say sounds critical of her, rather than of a society that makes women feel awful for their appearance, it isn't meant to. Anyway, on with the show. On January the nineteenth, 1943, Seth Joplin typed up a letter to his wife Dorothy, which read “I wish to tender my congratulations on the anniversary of your successful completion of your production quota for the nine months ending January 19, 1943. I realize that you passed through a period of inflation such as you had never before known—yet, in spite of this, you met your goal by your supreme effort during the early hours of January 19, a good three weeks ahead of schedule.” As you can probably tell from that message, the Joplin family were a strange mixture of ultraconformism and eccentricity, and those two opposing forces would dominate the personality of their firstborn daughter for the whole of her life.  Seth Joplin was a respected engineer at Texaco, where he worked for forty years, but he had actually dropped out of engineering school before completing his degree. His favourite pastime when he wasn't at work was to read -- he was a voracious reader -- and to listen to classical music, which would often move him to tears, but he had also taught himself to make bathtub gin during prohibition, and smoked cannabis. Dorothy, meanwhile, had had the possibility of a singing career before deciding to settle down and become a housewife, and was known for having a particularly beautiful soprano voice. Both were, by all accounts, fiercely intelligent people, but they were also as committed as anyone to the ideals of the middle-class family even as they chafed against its restrictions. Like her mother, young Janis had a beautiful soprano voice, and she became a soloist in her church choir, but after the age of six, she was not encouraged to sing much. Dorothy had had a thyroid operation which destroyed her singing voice, and the family got rid of their piano soon after (different sources say that this was either because Dorothy found her daughter's singing painful now that she couldn't sing herself, or because Seth was upset that his wife could no longer sing. Either seems plausible.) Janis was pushed to be a high-achiever -- she was given a library card as soon as she could write her name, and encouraged to use it, and she was soon advanced in school, skipping a couple of grades. She was also by all accounts a fiercely talented painter, and her parents paid for art lessons. From everything one reads about her pre-teen years, she was a child prodigy who was loved by everyone and who was clearly going to be a success of some kind. Things started to change when she reached her teenage years. Partly, this was just her getting into rock and roll music, which her father thought a fad -- though even there, she differed from her peers. She loved Elvis, but when she heard "Hound Dog", she loved it so much that she tracked down a copy of Big Mama Thornton's original, and told her friends she preferred that: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"] Despite this, she was still also an exemplary student and overachiever. But by the time she turned fourteen, things started to go very wrong for her. Partly this was just down to her relationship with her father changing -- she adored him, but he became more distant from his daughters as they grew into women. But also, puberty had an almost wholly negative effect on her, at least by the standards of that time and place. She put on weight (which, again, I do not think is a negative thing, but she did, and so did everyone around her), she got a bad case of acne which didn't ever really go away, and she also didn't develop breasts particularly quickly -- which, given that she was a couple of years younger than the other people in the same classes at school, meant she stood out even more. In the mid-sixties, a doctor apparently diagnosed her as having a "hormone imbalance" -- something that got to her as a possible explanation for why she was, to quote from a letter she wrote then, "not really a woman or enough of one or something." She wondered if "maybe something as simple as a pill could have helped out or even changed that part of me I call ME and has been so messed up.” I'm not a doctor and even if I were, diagnosing historical figures is an unethical thing to do, but certainly the acne, weight gain, and mental health problems she had are all consistent with PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder among women, and it seems likely given what the doctor told her that this was the cause. But at the time all she knew was that she was different, and that in the eyes of her fellow students she had gone from being pretty to being ugly. She seems to have been a very trusting, naive, person who was often the brunt of jokes but who desperately needed to be accepted, and it became clear that her appearance wasn't going to let her fit into the conformist society she was being brought up in, while her high intelligence, low impulse control, and curiosity meant she couldn't even fade into the background. This left her one other option, and she decided that she would deliberately try to look and act as different from everyone else as possible. That way, it would be a conscious choice on her part to reject the standards of her fellow pupils, rather than her being rejected by them. She started to admire rebels. She became a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music combined the country music she'd grown up hearing in Texas, the R&B she liked now, and the rebellious nature she was trying to cultivate: [Excerpt: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"] When Lewis' career was derailed by his marriage to his teenage cousin, Joplin wrote an angry letter to Time magazine complaining that they had mistreated him in their coverage. But as with so many people of her generation, her love of rock and roll music led her first to the blues and then to folk, and she soon found herself listening to Odetta: [Excerpt: Odetta, "Muleskinner Blues"] One of her first experiences of realising she could gain acceptance from her peers by singing was when she was hanging out with the small group of Bohemian teenagers she was friendly with, and sang an Odetta song, mimicking her voice exactly. But young Janis Joplin was listening to an eclectic range of folk music, and could mimic more than just Odetta. For all that her later vocal style was hugely influenced by Odetta and by other Black singers like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James, her friends in her late teens and early twenties remember her as a vocal chameleon with an achingly pure soprano, who would more often than Odetta be imitating the great Appalachian traditional folk singer Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall"] She was, in short, trying her best to become a Beatnik, despite not having any experience of that subculture other than what she read in books -- though she *did* read about them in books, devouring things like Kerouac's On The Road. She came into conflict with her mother, who didn't understand what was happening to her daughter, and who tried to get family counselling to understand what was going on. Her father, who seemed to relate more to Janis, but who was more quietly eccentric, put an end to that, but Janis would still for the rest of her life talk about how her mother had taken her to doctors who thought she was going to end up "either in jail or an insane asylum" to use her words. From this point on, and for the rest of her life, she was torn between a need for approval from her family and her peers, and a knowledge that no matter what she did she couldn't fit in with normal societal expectations. In high school she was a member of the Future Nurses of America, the Future Teachers of America, the Art Club, and Slide Rule Club, but she also had a reputation as a wild girl, and as sexually active (even though by all accounts at this point she was far less so than most of the so-called "good girls" – but her later activity was in part because she felt that if she was going to have that reputation anyway she might as well earn it). She also was known to express radical opinions, like that segregation was wrong, an opinion that the other students in her segregated Texan school didn't even think was wrong, but possibly some sort of sign of mental illness. Her final High School yearbook didn't contain a single other student's signature. And her initial choice of university, Lamar State College of Technology, was not much better. In the next town over, and attended by many of the same students, it had much the same attitudes as the school she'd left. Almost the only long-term effect her initial attendance at university had on her was a negative one -- she found there was another student at the college who was better at painting. Deciding that if she wasn't going to be the best at something she didn't want to do it at all, she more or less gave up on painting at that point. But there was one positive. One of the lecturers at Lamar was Francis Edward "Ab" Abernethy, who would in the early seventies go on to become the Secretary and Editor of the Texas Folklore Society, and was also a passionate folk musician, playing double bass in string bands. Abernethy had a great collection of blues 78s. and it was through this collection that Janis first discovered classic blues, and in particular Bessie Smith: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Black Mountain Blues"] A couple of episodes ago, we had a long look at the history of the music that now gets called "the blues" -- the music that's based around guitars, and generally involves a solo male vocalist, usually Black during its classic period. At the time that music was being made though it wouldn't have been thought of as "the blues" with no modifiers by most people who were aware of it. At the start, even the songs they were playing weren't thought of as blues by the male vocalist/guitarists who played them -- they called the songs they played "reels". The music released by people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and so on was thought of as blues music, and people would understand and agree with a phrase like "Lonnie Johnson is a blues singer", but it wasn't the first thing people thought of when they talked about "the blues". Until relatively late -- probably some time in the 1960s -- if you wanted to talk about blues music made by Black men with guitars and only that music, you talked about "country blues". If you thought about "the blues", with no qualifiers, you thought about a rather different style of music, one that white record collectors started later to refer to as "classic blues" to differentiate it from what they were now calling "the blues". Nowadays of course if you say "classic blues", most people will think you mean Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, people who were contemporary at the time those white record collectors were coming up with their labels, and so that style of music gets referred to as "vaudeville blues", or as "classic female blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] What we just heard was the first big blues hit performed by a Black person, from 1920, and as we discussed in the episode on "Crossroads" that revolutionised the whole record industry when it came out. The song was performed by Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer, and was originally titled "Harlem Blues" by its writer, Perry Bradford, before he changed the title to "Crazy Blues" to get it to a wider audience. Bradford was an important figure in the vaudeville scene, though other than being the credited writer of "Keep A-Knockin'" he's little known these days. He was a Black musician and grew up playing in minstrel shows (the history of minstrelsy is a topic for another day, but it's more complicated than the simple image of blackface that we are aware of today -- though as with many "more complicated than that" things it is, also the simple image of blackface we're aware of). He was the person who persuaded OKeh records that there would be a market for music made by Black people that sounded Black (though as we're going to see in this episode, what "sounding Black" means is a rather loaded question). "Crazy Blues" was the result, and it was a massive hit, even though it was marketed specifically towards Black listeners: [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] The big stars of the early years of recorded blues were all making records in the shadow of "Crazy Blues", and in the case of its very biggest stars, they were working very much in the same mould. The two most important blues stars of the twenties both got their start in vaudeville, and were both women. Ma Rainey, like Mamie Smith, first performed in minstrel shows, but where Mamie Smith's early records had her largely backed by white musicians, Rainey was largely backed by Black musicians, including on several tracks Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider"] Rainey's band was initially led by Thomas Dorsey, one of the most important men in American music, who we've talked about before in several episodes, including the last one. He was possibly the single most important figure in two different genres -- hokum music, when he, under the name "Georgia Tom" recorded "It's Tight Like That" with Tampa Red: [Excerpt: Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"] And of course gospel music, which to all intents and purposes he invented, and much of whose repertoire he wrote: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] When Dorsey left Rainey's band, as we discussed right back in episode five, he was replaced by a female pianist, Lil Henderson. The blues was a woman's genre. And Ma Rainey was, by preference, a woman's woman, though she was married to a man: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "Prove it on Me"] So was the biggest star of the classic blues era, who was originally mentored by Rainey. Bessie Smith, like Rainey, was a queer woman who had relationships with men but was far more interested in other women.  There were stories that Bessie Smith actually got her start in the business by being kidnapped by Ma Rainey, and forced into performing on the same bills as her in the vaudeville show she was touring in, and that Rainey taught Smith to sing blues in the process. In truth, Rainey mentored Smith more in stagecraft and the ways of the road than in singing, and neither woman was only a blues singer, though both had huge success with their blues records.  Indeed, since Rainey was already in the show, Smith was initially hired as a dancer rather than a singer, and she also worked as a male impersonator. But Smith soon branched out on her own -- from the beginning she was obviously a star. The great jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet later said of her "She had this trouble in her, this thing that would not let her rest sometimes, a meanness that came and took her over. But what she had was alive … Bessie, she just wouldn't let herself be; it seemed she couldn't let herself be." Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923, as part of the rush to find and record as many Black women blues singers as possible. Her first recording session produced "Downhearted Blues", which became, depending on which sources you read, either the biggest-selling blues record since "Crazy Blues" or the biggest-selling blues record ever, full stop, selling three quarters of a million copies in the six months after its release: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Downhearted Blues"] Smith didn't make royalties off record sales, only making a flat fee, but she became the most popular Black performer of the 1920s. Columbia signed her to an exclusive contract, and she became so rich that she would literally travel between gigs on her own private train. She lived an extravagant life in every way, giving lavishly to her friends and family, but also drinking extraordinary amounts of liquor, having regular affairs, and also often physically or verbally attacking those around her. By all accounts she was not a comfortable person to be around, and she seemed to be trying to fit an entire lifetime into every moment. From 1923 through 1929 she had a string of massive hits. She recorded material in a variety of styles, including the dirty blues: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues] And with accompanists like Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, "Cold in Hand Blues"] But the music for which she became best known, and which sold the best, was when she sang about being mistreated by men, as on one of her biggest hits, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do" -- and a warning here, I'm going to play a clip of the song, which treats domestic violence in a way that may be upsetting: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do"] That kind of material can often seem horrifying to today's listeners -- and quite correctly so, as domestic violence is a horrifying thing -- and it sounds entirely too excusing of the man beating her up for anyone to find it comfortable listening. But the Black feminist scholar Angela Davis has made a convincing case that while these records, and others by Smith's contemporaries, can't reasonably be considered to be feminist, they *are* at the very least more progressive than they now seem, in that they were, even if excusing it, pointing to a real problem which was otherwise left unspoken. And that kind of domestic violence and abuse *was* a real problem, including in Smith's own life. By all accounts she was terrified of her husband, Jack Gee, who would frequently attack her because of her affairs with other people, mostly women. But she was still devastated when he left her for a younger woman, not only because he had left her, but also because he kidnapped their adopted son and had him put into a care home, falsely claiming she had abused him. Not only that, but before Jack left her closest friend had been Jack's niece Ruby and after the split she never saw Ruby again -- though after her death Ruby tried to have a blues career as "Ruby Smith", taking her aunt's surname and recording a few tracks with Sammy Price, the piano player who worked with Sister Rosetta Tharpe: [Excerpt: Ruby Smith with Sammy Price, "Make Me Love You"] The same month, May 1929, that Gee left her, Smith recorded what was to become her last big hit, and most well-known song, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out": [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] And that could have been the theme for the rest of her life. A few months after that record came out, the Depression hit, pretty much killing the market for blues records. She carried on recording until 1931, but the records weren't selling any more. And at the same time, the talkies came in in the film industry, which along with the Depression ended up devastating the vaudeville audience. Her earnings were still higher than most, but only a quarter of what they had been a year or two earlier. She had one last recording session in 1933, produced by John Hammond for OKeh Records, where she showed that her style had developed over the years -- it was now incorporating the newer swing style, and featured future swing stars Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the backing band: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Gimme a Pigfoot"] Hammond was not hugely impressed with the recordings, preferring her earlier records, and they would be the last she would ever make. She continued as a successful, though no longer record-breaking, live act until 1937, when she and her common-law husband, Lionel Hampton's uncle Richard Morgan, were in a car crash. Morgan escaped, but Smith died of her injuries and was buried on October the fourth 1937. Ten thousand people came to her funeral, but she was buried in an unmarked grave -- she was still legally married to Gee, even though they'd been separated for eight years, and while he supposedly later became rich from songwriting royalties from some of her songs (most of her songs were written by other people, but she wrote a few herself) he refused to pay for a headstone for her. Indeed on more than one occasion he embezzled money that had been raised by other people to provide a headstone. Bessie Smith soon became Joplin's favourite singer of all time, and she started trying to copy her vocals. But other than discovering Smith's music, Joplin seems to have had as terrible a time at university as at school, and soon dropped out and moved back in with her parents. She went to business school for a short while, where she learned some secretarial skills, and then she moved west, going to LA where two of her aunts lived, to see if she could thrive better in a big West Coast city than she did in small-town Texas. Soon she moved from LA to Venice Beach, and from there had a brief sojourn in San Francisco, where she tried to live out her beatnik fantasies at a time when the beatnik culture was starting to fall apart. She did, while she was there, start smoking cannabis, though she never got a taste for that drug, and took Benzedrine and started drinking much more heavily than she had before. She soon lost her job, moved back to Texas, and re-enrolled at the same college she'd been at before. But now she'd had a taste of real Bohemian life -- she'd been singing at coffee houses, and having affairs with both men and women -- and soon she decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin. At this point, Austin was very far from the cultural centre it has become in recent decades, and it was still a straitlaced Texan town, but it was far less so than Port Arthur, and she soon found herself in a folk group, the Waller Creek Boys. Janis would play autoharp and sing, sometimes Bessie Smith covers, but also the more commercial country and folk music that was popular at the time, like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song that had originally been recorded by Wanda Jackson but at that time was a big hit for Dusty Springfield's group The Springfields: [Excerpt: The Waller Creek Boys, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"] But even there, Joplin didn't fit in comfortably. The venue where the folk jams were taking place was a segregated venue, as everywhere around Austin was. And she was enough of a misfit that the campus newspaper did an article on her headlined "She Dares to Be Different!", which read in part "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break out into song it will be handy." There was a small group of wannabe-Beatniks, including Chet Helms, who we've mentioned previously in the Grateful Dead episode, Gilbert Shelton, who went on to be a pioneer of alternative comics and create the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Shelton's partner in Rip-Off Press, Dave Moriarty, but for the most part the atmosphere in Austin was only slightly better for Janis than it had been in Port Arthur. The final straw for her came when in an annual charity fundraiser joke competition to find the ugliest man on campus, someone nominated her for the "award". She'd had enough of Texas. She wanted to go back to California. She and Chet Helms, who had dropped out of the university earlier and who, like her, had already spent some time on the West Coast, decided to hitch-hike together to San Francisco. Before leaving, she made a recording for her ex-girlfriend Julie Paul, a country and western musician, of a song she'd written herself. It's recorded in what many say was Janis' natural voice -- a voice she deliberately altered in performance in later years because, she would tell people, she didn't think there was room for her singing like that in an industry that already had Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In her early years she would alternate between singing like this and doing her imitations of Black women, but the character of Janis Joplin who would become famous never sang like this. It may well be the most honest thing that she ever recorded, and the most revealing of who she really was: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, "So Sad to Be Alone"] Joplin and Helms made it to San Francisco, and she started performing at open-mic nights and folk clubs around the Bay Area, singing in her Bessie Smith and Odetta imitation voice, and sometimes making a great deal of money by sounding different from the wispier-voiced women who were the norm at those venues. The two friends parted ways, and she started performing with two other folk musicians, Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins, and she insisted that they would play at least one Bessie Smith song at every performance: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, Larry Hanks, and Roger Perkins, "Black Mountain Blues (live in San Francisco)"] Often the trio would be joined by Billy Roberts, who at that time had just started performing the song that would make his name, "Hey Joe", and Joplin was soon part of the folk scene in the Bay Area, and admired by Dino Valenti, David Crosby, and Jerry Garcia among others. She also sang a lot with Jorma Kaukonnen, and recordings of the two of them together have circulated for years: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonnen, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] Through 1963, 1964, and early 1965 Joplin ping-ponged from coast to coast, spending time in the Bay Area, then Greenwich Village, dropping in on her parents then back to the Bay Area, and she started taking vast quantities of methamphetamine. Even before moving to San Francisco she had been an occasional user of amphetamines – at the time they were regularly prescribed to students as study aids during exam periods, and she had also been taking them to try to lose some of the weight she always hated. But while she was living in San Francisco she became dependent on the drug. At one point her father was worried enough about her health to visit her in San Francisco, where she managed to fool him that she was more or less OK. But she looked to him for reassurance that things would get better for her, and he couldn't give it to her. He told her about a concept that he called the "Saturday night swindle", the idea that you work all week so you can go out and have fun on Saturday in the hope that that will make up for everything else, but that it never does. She had occasional misses with what would have been lucky breaks -- at one point she was in a motorcycle accident just as record labels were interested in signing her, and by the time she got out of the hospital the chance had gone. She became engaged to another speed freak, one who claimed to be an engineer and from a well-off background, but she was becoming severely ill from what was by now a dangerous amphetamine habit, and in May 1965 she decided to move back in with her parents, get clean, and have a normal life. Her new fiance was going to do the same, and they were going to have the conformist life her parents had always wanted, and which she had always wanted to want. Surely with a husband who loved her she could find a way to fit in and just be normal. She kicked the addiction, and wrote her fiance long letters describing everything about her family and the new normal life they were going to have together, and they show her painfully trying to be optimistic about the future, like one where she described her family to him: "My mother—Dorothy—worries so and loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in clichés which she really means and is very good to people. (She thinks you have a lovely voice and is terribly prepared to like you.) My father—richer than when I knew him and kind of embarrassed about it—very well read—history his passion—quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about antimatter yet—that impressed him)! I keep telling him how smart you are and how proud I am of you.…" She went back to Lamar, her mother started sewing her a wedding dress, and for much of the year she believed her fiance was going to be her knight in shining armour. But as it happened, the fiance in question was described by everyone else who knew him as a compulsive liar and con man, who persuaded her father to give him money for supposed medical tests before the wedding, but in reality was apparently married to someone else and having a baby with a third woman. After the engagement was broken off, she started performing again around the coffeehouses in Austin and Houston, and she started to realise the possibilities of rock music for her kind of performance. The missing clue came from a group from Austin who she became very friendly with, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the way their lead singer Roky Erickson would wail and yell: [Excerpt: The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me (live)"] If, as now seemed inevitable, Janis was going to make a living as a performer, maybe she should start singing rock music, because it seemed like there was money in it. There was even some talk of her singing with the Elevators. But then an old friend came to Austin from San Francisco with word from Chet Helms. A blues band had formed, and were looking for a singer, and they remembered her from the coffee houses. Would she like to go back to San Francisco and sing with them? In the time she'd been away, Helms had become hugely prominent in the San Francisco music scene, which had changed radically. A band from the area called the Charlatans had been playing a fake-Victorian saloon called the Red Dog in nearby Nevada, and had become massive with the people who a few years earlier had been beatniks: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "32-20"] When their residency at the Red Dog had finished, several of the crowd who had been regulars there had become a collective of sorts called the Family Dog, and Helms had become their unofficial leader. And there's actually a lot packed into that choice of name. As we'll see in a few future episodes, a lot of West Coast hippies eventually started calling their collectives and communes families. This started as a way to get round bureaucracy -- if a helpful welfare officer put down that the unrelated people living in a house together were a family, suddenly they could get food stamps. As with many things, of course, the label then affected how people thought about themselves, and one thing that's very notable about the San Francisco scene hippies in particular is that they are some of the first people to make a big deal about what we now  call "found family" or "family of choice". But it's also notable how often the hippie found families took their model from the only families these largely middle-class dropouts had ever known, and structured themselves around men going out and doing the work -- selling dope or panhandling or being rock musicians or shoplifting -- with the women staying at home doing the housework. The Family Dog started promoting shows, with the intention of turning San Francisco into "the American Liverpool", and soon Helms was rivalled only by Bill Graham as the major promoter of rock shows in the Bay Area. And now he wanted Janis to come back and join this new band. But Janis was worried. She was clean now. She drank far too much, but she wasn't doing any other drugs. She couldn't go back to San Francisco and risk getting back on methamphetamine. She needn't worry about that, she was told, nobody in San Francisco did speed any more, they were all on LSD -- a drug she hated and so wasn't in any danger from. Reassured, she made the trip back to San Francisco, to join Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the epitome of San Francisco acid rock at the time. They were the house band at the Avalon Ballroom, which Helms ran, and their first ever gig had been at the Trips Festival, which we talked about briefly in the Grateful Dead episode. They were known for being more imaginative than competent -- lead guitarist James Gurley was often described as playing parts that were influenced by John Cage, but was equally often, and equally accurately, described as not actually being able to keep his guitar in tune because he was too stoned. But they were drawing massive crowds with their instrumental freak-out rock music. Helms thought they needed a singer, and he had remembered Joplin, who a few of the group had seen playing the coffee houses. He decided she would be perfect for them, though Joplin wasn't so sure. She thought it was worth a shot, but as she wrote to her parents before meeting the group "Supposed to rehearse w/ the band this afternoon, after that I guess I'll know whether I want to stay & do that for awhile. Right now my position is ambivalent—I'm glad I came, nice to see the city, a few friends, but I'm not at all sold on the idea of becoming the poor man's Cher.” In that letter she also wrote "I'm awfully sorry to be such a disappointment to you. I understand your fears at my coming here & must admit I share them, but I really do think there's an awfully good chance I won't blow it this time." The band she met up with consisted of lead guitarist James Gurley, bass player Peter Albin, rhythm player Sam Andrew, and drummer David Getz.  To start with, Peter Albin sang lead on most songs, with Joplin adding yelps and screams modelled on those of Roky Erickson, but in her first gig with the band she bowled everyone over with her lead vocal on the traditional spiritual "Down on Me", which would remain a staple of their live act, as in this live recording from 1968: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me (Live 1968)"] After that first gig in June 1966, it was obvious that Joplin was going to be a star, and was going to be the group's main lead vocalist. She had developed a whole new stage persona a million miles away from her folk performances. As Chet Helms said “Suddenly this person who would stand upright with her fists clenched was all over the stage. Roky Erickson had modeled himself after the screaming style of Little Richard, and Janis's initial stage presence came from Roky, and ultimately Little Richard. It was a very different Janis.” Joplin would always claim to journalists that her stage persona was just her being herself and natural, but she worked hard on every aspect of her performance, and far from the untrained emotional outpouring she always suggested, her vocal performances were carefully calculated pastiches of her influences -- mostly Bessie Smith, but also Big Mama Thornton, Odetta, Etta James, Tina Turner, and Otis Redding. That's not to say that those performances weren't an authentic expression of part of herself -- they absolutely were. But the ethos that dominated San Francisco in the mid-sixties prized self-expression over technical craft, and so Joplin had to portray herself as a freak of nature who just had to let all her emotions out, a wild woman, rather than someone who carefully worked out every nuance of her performances. Joplin actually got the chance to meet one of her idols when she discovered that Willie Mae Thornton was now living and regularly performing in the Bay Area. She and some of her bandmates saw Big Mama play a small jazz club, where she performed a song she wouldn't release on a record for another two years: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Ball 'n' Chain"] Janis loved the song and scribbled down the lyrics, then went backstage to ask Big Mama if Big Brother could cover the song. She gave them her blessing, but told them "don't" -- and here she used a word I can't use with a clean rating -- "it up". The group all moved in together, communally, with their partners -- those who had them. Janis was currently single, having dumped her most recent boyfriend after discovering him shooting speed, as she was still determined to stay clean. But she was rapidly discovering that the claim that San Franciscans no longer used much speed had perhaps not been entirely true, as for example Sam Andrew's girlfriend went by the nickname Speedfreak Rita. For now, Janis was still largely clean, but she did start drinking more. Partly this was because of a brief fling with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead, who lived nearby. Janis liked Pigpen as someone else on the scene who didn't much like psychedelics or cannabis -- she didn't like drugs that made her think more, but only drugs that made her able to *stop* thinking (her love of amphetamines doesn't seem to fit this pattern, but a small percentage of people have a different reaction to amphetamine-type stimulants, perhaps she was one of those). Pigpen was a big drinker of Southern Comfort -- so much so that it would kill him within a few years -- and Janis started joining him. Her relationship with Pigpen didn't last long, but the two would remain close, and she would often join the Grateful Dead on stage over the years to duet with him on "Turn On Your Lovelight": [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, "Turn on Your Lovelight"] But within two months of joining the band, Janis nearly left. Paul Rothchild of Elektra Records came to see the group live, and was impressed by their singer, but not by the rest of the band. This was something that would happen again and again over the group's career. The group were all imaginative and creative -- they worked together on their arrangements and their long instrumental jams and often brought in very good ideas -- but they were not the most disciplined or technically skilled of musicians, even when you factored in their heavy drug use, and often lacked the skill to pull off their better ideas. They were hugely popular among the crowds at the Avalon Ballroom, who were on the group's chemical wavelength, but Rothchild was not impressed -- as he was, in general, unimpressed with psychedelic freakouts. He was already of the belief in summer 1966 that the fashion for extended experimental freak-outs would soon come to an end and that there would be a pendulum swing back towards more structured and melodic music. As we saw in the episode on The Band, he would be proved right in a little over a year, but being ahead of the curve he wanted to put together a supergroup that would be able to ride that coming wave, a group that would play old-fashioned blues. He'd got together Stefan Grossman, Steve Mann, and Taj Mahal, and he wanted Joplin to be the female vocalist for the group, dueting with Mahal. She attended one rehearsal, and the new group sounded great. Elektra Records offered to sign them, pay their rent while they rehearsed, and have a major promotional campaign for their first release. Joplin was very, very, tempted, and brought the subject up to her bandmates in Big Brother. They were devastated. They were a family! You don't leave your family! She was meant to be with them forever! They eventually got her to agree to put off the decision at least until after a residency they'd been booked for in Chicago, and she decided to give them the chance, writing to her parents "I decided to stay w/the group but still like to think about the other thing. Trying to figure out which is musically more marketable because my being good isn't enough, I've got to be in a good vehicle.” The trip to Chicago was a disaster. They found that the people of Chicago weren't hugely interested in seeing a bunch of white Californians play the blues, and that the Midwest didn't have the same Bohemian crowds that the coastal cities they were used to had, and so their freak-outs didn't go down well either. After two weeks of their four-week residency, the club owner stopped paying them because they were so unpopular, and they had no money to get home. And then they were approached by Bob Shad. (For those who know the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Bob Shad in that film is named after this one -- Judd Apatow, the film's director, is Shad's grandson) This Shad was a record producer, who had worked with people like Big Bill Broonzy, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Eckstine over an eighteen-year career, and had recently set up a new label, Mainstream Records. He wanted to sign Big Brother and the Holding Company. They needed money and... well, it was a record contract! It was a contract that took half their publishing, paid them a five percent royalty on sales, and gave them no advance, but it was still a contract, and they'd get union scale for the first session. In that first session in Chicago, they recorded four songs, and strangely only one, "Down on Me", had a solo Janis vocal. Of the other three songs, Sam Andrew and Janis dueted on Sam's song "Call on Me", Albin sang lead on the group composition "Blindman", and Gurley and Janis sang a cover of "All Is Loneliness", a song originally by the avant-garde street musician Moondog: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "All is Loneliness"] The group weren't happy with the four songs they recorded -- they had to keep the songs to the length of a single, and the engineers made sure that the needles never went into the red, so their guitars sounded far more polite and less distorted than they were used to. Janis was fascinated by the overdubbing process, though, especially double-tracking, which she'd never tried before but which she turned out to be remarkably good at. And they were now signed to a contract, which meant that Janis wouldn't be leaving the group to go solo any time soon. The family were going to stay together. But on the group's return to San Francisco, Janis started doing speed again, encouraged by the people around the group, particularly Gurley's wife. By the time the group's first single, "Blindman" backed with "All is Loneliness", came out, she was an addict again. That initial single did nothing, but the group were fast becoming one of the most popular in the Bay Area, and almost entirely down to Janis' vocals and on-stage persona. Bob Shad had already decided in the initial session that while various band members had taken lead, Janis was the one who should be focused on as the star, and when they drove to LA for their second recording session it was songs with Janis leads that they focused on. At that second session, in which they recorded ten tracks in two days, the group recorded a mix of material including one of Janis' own songs, the blues track "Women is Losers", and a version of the old folk song "the Cuckoo Bird" rearranged by Albin. Again they had to keep the arrangements to two and a half minutes a track, with no extended soloing and a pop arrangement style, and the results sound a lot more like the other San Francisco bands, notably Jefferson Airplane, than like the version of the band that shows itself in their live performances: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Coo Coo"] After returning to San Francisco after the sessions, Janis went to see Otis Redding at the Fillmore, turning up several hours before the show started on all three nights to make sure she could be right at the front. One of the other audience members later recalled “It was more fascinating for me, almost, to watch Janis watching Otis, because you could tell that she wasn't just listening to him, she was studying something. There was some kind of educational thing going on there. I was jumping around like the little hippie girl I was, thinking This is so great! and it just stopped me in my tracks—because all of a sudden Janis drew you very deeply into what the performance was all about. Watching her watch Otis Redding was an education in itself.” Joplin would, for the rest of her life, always say that Otis Redding was her all-time favourite singer, and would say “I started singing rhythmically, and now I'm learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.” [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "I Can't Turn You Loose (live)"] At the start of 1967, the group moved out of the rural house they'd been sharing and into separate apartments around Haight-Ashbury, and they brought the new year in by playing a free show organised by the Hell's Angels, the violent motorcycle gang who at the time were very close with the proto-hippies in the Bay Area. Janis in particular always got on well with the Angels, whose drugs of choice, like hers, were speed and alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics. Janis also started what would be the longest on-again off-again relationship she would ever have, with a woman named Peggy Caserta. Caserta had a primary partner, but that if anything added to her appeal for Joplin -- Caserta's partner Kimmie had previously been in a relationship with Joan Baez, and Joplin, who had an intense insecurity that made her jealous of any other female singer who had any success, saw this as in some way a validation both of her sexuality and, transitively, of her talent. If she was dating Baez's ex's lover, that in some way put her on a par with Baez, and when she told friends about Peggy, Janis would always slip that fact in. Joplin and Caserta would see each other off and on for the rest of Joplin's life, but they were never in a monogamous relationship, and Joplin had many other lovers over the years. The next of these was Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, who were just in the process of recording their first album Electric Music for the Mind and Body, when McDonald and Joplin first got together: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Grace"] McDonald would later reminisce about lying with Joplin, listening to one of the first underground FM radio stations, KMPX, and them playing a Fish track and a Big Brother track back to back. Big Brother's second single, the other two songs recorded in the Chicago session, had been released in early 1967, and the B-side, "Down on Me", was getting a bit of airplay in San Francisco and made the local charts, though it did nothing outside the Bay Area: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me"] Janis was unhappy with the record, though, writing to her parents and saying, “Our new record is out. We seem to be pretty dissatisfied w/it. I think we're going to try & get out of the record contract if we can. We don't feel that they know how to promote or engineer a record & every time we recorded for them, they get all our songs, which means we can't do them for another record company. But then if our new record does something, we'd change our mind. But somehow, I don't think it's going to." The band apparently saw a lawyer to see if they could get out of the contract with Mainstream, but they were told it was airtight. They were tied to Bob Shad no matter what for the next five years. Janis and McDonald didn't stay together for long -- they clashed about his politics and her greater fame -- but after they split, she asked him to write a song for her before they became too distant, and he obliged and recorded it on the Fish's next album: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Janis"] The group were becoming so popular by late spring 1967 that when Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles' films among many other classics, came to San Francisco to film Petulia, his follow-up to How I Won The War, he chose them, along with the Grateful Dead, to appear in performance segments in the film. But it would be another filmmaker that would change the course of the group's career irrevocably: [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"] When Big Brother and the Holding Company played the Monterey Pop Festival, nobody had any great expectations. They were second on the bill on the Saturday, the day that had been put aside for the San Francisco acts, and they were playing in the early afternoon, after a largely unimpressive night before. They had a reputation among the San Francisco crowd, of course, but they weren't even as big as the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or Country Joe and the Fish, let alone Jefferson Airplane. Monterey launched four careers to new heights, but three of the superstars it made -- Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and the Who -- already had successful careers. Hendrix and the Who had had hits in the UK but not yet broken the US market, while Redding was massively popular with Black people but hadn't yet crossed over to a white audience. Big Brother and the Holding Company, on the other hand, were so unimportant that D.A. Pennebaker didn't even film their set -- their manager at the time had not wanted to sign over the rights to film their performance, something that several of the other acts had also refused -- and nobody had been bothered enough to make an issue of it. Pennebaker just took some crowd shots and didn't bother filming the band. The main thing he caught was Cass Elliot's open-mouthed astonishment at Big Brother's performance -- or rather at Janis Joplin's performance. The members of the group would later complain, not entirely inaccurately, that in the reviews of their performance at Monterey, Joplin's left nipple (the outline of which was apparently visible through her shirt, at least to the male reviewers who took an inordinate interest in such things) got more attention than her four bandmates combined. As Pennebaker later said “She came out and sang, and my hair stood on end. We were told we weren't allowed to shoot it, but I knew if we didn't have Janis in the film, the film would be a wash. Afterward, I said to Albert Grossman, ‘Talk to her manager or break his leg or whatever you have to do, because we've got to have her in this film. I can't imagine this film without this woman who I just saw perform.” Grossman had a talk with the organisers of the festival, Lou Adler and John Phillips, and they offered Big Brother a second spot, the next day, if they would allow their performance to be used in the film. The group agreed, after much discussion between Janis and Grossman, and against the wishes of their manager: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Ball and Chain (live at Monterey)"] They were now on Albert Grossman's radar. Or at least, Janis Joplin was. Joplin had always been more of a careerist than the other members of the group. They were in music to have a good time and to avoid working a straight job, and while some of them were more accomplished musicians than their later reputations would suggest -- Sam Andrew, in particular, was a skilled player and serious student of music -- they were fundamentally content with playing the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and making five hundred dollars or so a week between them. Very good money for 1967, but nothing else. Joplin, on the other hand, was someone who absolutely craved success. She wanted to prove to her family that she wasn't a failure and that her eccentricity shouldn't stop them being proud of her; she was always, even at the depths of her addictions, fiscally prudent and concerned about her finances; and she had a deep craving for love. Everyone who talks about her talks about how she had an aching need at all times for approval, connection, and validation, which she got on stage more than she got anywhere else. The bigger the audience, the more they must love her. She'd made all her decisions thus far based on how to balance making music that she loved with commercial success, and this would continue to be the pattern for her in future. And so when journalists started to want to talk to her, even though up to that point Albin, who did most of the on-stage announcements, and Gurley, the lead guitarist, had considered themselves joint leaders of the band, she was eager. And she was also eager to get rid of their manager, who continued the awkward streak that had prevented their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival from being filmed. The group had the chance to play the Hollywood Bowl -- Bill Graham was putting on a "San Francisco Sound" showcase there, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and got their verbal agreement to play, but after Graham had the posters printed up, their manager refused to sign the contracts unless they were given more time on stage. The next day after that, they played Monterey again -- this time the Monterey Jazz Festival. A very different crowd to the Pop Festival still fell for Janis' performance -- and once again, the film being made of the event didn't include Big Brother's set because of their manager. While all this was going on, the group's recordings from the previous year were rushed out by Mainstream Records as an album, to poor reviews which complained it was nothing like the group's set at Monterey: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] They were going to need to get out of that contract and sign with somewhere better -- Clive Davis at Columbia Records was already encouraging them to sign with him -- but to do that, they needed a better manager. They needed Albert Grossman. Grossman was one of the best negotiators in the business at that point, but he was also someone who had a genuine love for the music his clients made.  And he had good taste -- he managed Odetta, who Janis idolised as a singer, and Bob Dylan, who she'd been a fan of since his first album came out. He was going to be the perfect manager for the group. But he had one condition though. His first wife had been a heroin addict, and he'd just been dealing with Mike Bloomfield's heroin habit. He had one absolutely ironclad rule, a dealbreaker that would stop him signing them -- they didn't use heroin, did they? Both Gurley and Joplin had used heroin on occasion -- Joplin had only just started, introduced to the drug by Gurley -- but they were only dabblers. They could give it up any time they wanted, right? Of course they could. They told him, in perfect sincerity, that the band didn't use heroin and it wouldn't be a problem. But other than that, Grossman was extremely flexible. He explained to the group at their first meeting that he took a higher percentage than other managers, but that he would also make them more money than other managers -- if money was what they wanted. He told them that they needed to figure out where they wanted their career to be, and what they were willing to do to get there -- would they be happy just playing the same kind of venues they were now, maybe for a little more money, or did they want to be as big as Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary? He could get them to whatever level they wanted, and he was happy with working with clients at every level, what did they actually want? The group were agreed -- they wanted to be rich. They decided to test him. They were making twenty-five thousand dollars a year between them at that time, so they got ridiculously ambitious. They told him they wanted to make a *lot* of money. Indeed, they wanted a clause in their contract saying the contract would be void if in the first year they didn't make... thinking of a ridiculous amount, they came up with seventy-five thousand dollars. Grossman's response was to shrug and say "Make it a hundred thousand." The group were now famous and mixing with superstars -- Peter Tork of the Monkees had become a close friend of Janis', and when they played a residency in LA they were invited to John and Michelle Phillips' house to see a rough cut of Monterey Pop. But the group, other than Janis, were horrified -- the film barely showed the other band members at all, just Janis. Dave Getz said later "We assumed we'd appear in the movie as a band, but seeing it was a shock. It was all Janis. They saw her as a superstar in the making. I realized that though we were finally going to be making money and go to another level, it also meant our little family was being separated—there was Janis, and there was the band.” [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] If the group were going to make that hundred thousand dollars a year, they couldn't remain on Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad was not about to give up his rights to what could potentially be the biggest group in America without a fight. But luckily for the group, Clive Davis at Columbia had seen their Monterey performance, and he was also trying to pivot the label towards the new rock music. He was basically willing to do anything to get them. Eventually Columbia agreed to pay Shad two hundred thousand dollars for the group's contract -- Davis and Grossman negotiated so half that was an advance on the group's future earnings, but the other half was just an expense for the label. On top of that the group got an advance payment of fifty thousand dollars for their first album for Columbia, making a total investment by Columbia of a quarter of a million dollars -- in return for which they got to sign the band, and got the rights to the material they'd recorded for Mainstream, though Shad would get a two percent royalty on their first two albums for Columbia. Janis was intimidated by signing for Columbia, because that had been Aretha Franklin's label before she signed to Atlantic, and she regarded Franklin as the greatest performer in music at that time.  Which may have had something to do with the choice of a new song the group added to their setlist in early 1968 -- one which was a current hit for Aretha's sister Erma: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] We talked a little in the last episode about the song "Piece of My Heart" itself, though mostly from the perspective of its performer, Erma Franklin. But the song was, as we mentioned, co-written by Bert Berns. He's someone we've talked about a little bit in previous episodes, notably the ones on "Here Comes the Night" and "Twist and Shout", but those were a couple of years ago, and he's about to become a major figure in the next episode, so we might as well take a moment here to remind listeners (or tell those who haven't heard those episodes) of the basics and explain where "Piece of My Heart" comes in Berns' work as a whole. Bert Berns was a latecomer to the music industry, not getting properly started until he was thirty-one, after trying a variety of other occupations. But when he did get started, he wasted no time making his mark -- he knew he had no time to waste. He had a weak heart and knew the likelihood was he was going to die young. He started an association with Wand records as a songwriter and performer, writing songs for some of Phil Spector's pre-fame recordings, and he also started producing records for Atlantic, where for a long while he was almost the equal of Jerry Wexler or Leiber and Stoller in terms of number of massive hits created. His records with Solomon Burke were the records that first got the R&B genre renamed soul (previously the word "soul" mostly referred to a kind of R&Bish jazz, rather than a kind of gospel-ish R&B). He'd also been one of the few American music industry professionals to work with British bands before the Beatles made it big in the USA, after he became alerted to the Beatles' success with his song "Twist and Shout", which he'd co-written with Phil Medley, and which had been a hit in a version Berns produced for the Isley Brothers: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] That song shows the two elements that existed in nearly every single Bert Berns song or production. The first is the Afro-Caribbean rhythm, a feel he picked up during a stint in Cuba in his twenties. Other people in the Atlantic records team were also partial to those rhythms -- Leiber and Stoller loved what they called the baion rhythm -- but Berns more than anyone else made it his signature. He also very specifically loved the song "La Bamba", especially Ritchie Valens' version of it: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba"] He basically seemed to think that was the greatest record ever made, and he certainly loved that three-chord trick I-IV-V-IV chord sequence -- almost but not quite the same as the "Louie Louie" one.  He used it in nearly every song he wrote from that point on -- usually using a bassline that went something like this: [plays I-IV-V-IV bassline] He used it in "Twist and Shout" of course: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] He used it in "Hang on Sloopy": [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] He *could* get more harmonically sophisticated on occasion, but the vast majority of Berns' songs show the power of simplicity. They're usually based around three chords, and often they're actually only two chords, like "I Want Candy": [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Or the chorus to "Here Comes the Night" by Them, which is two chords for most of it and only introduces a third right at the end: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And even in that song you can hear the "Twist and Shout"/"La Bamba" feel, even if it's not exactly the same chords. Berns' whole career was essentially a way of wringing *every last possible drop* out of all the implications of Ritchie Valens' record. And so even when he did a more harmonically complex song, like "Piece of My Heart", which actually has some minor chords in the bridge, the "La Bamba" chord sequence is used in both the verse: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] And the chorus: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] Berns co-wrote “Piece of My Heart” with Jerry Ragavoy. Berns and Ragavoy had also written "Cry Baby" for Garnet Mimms, which was another Joplin favourite: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And Ragavoy, with other collaborators

"Moby Grape Just Can't Catch a Break"https://www.npr.org/2007/12/21/17498799/moby-grape-just-cant-catch-a-break

In this 1351st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Moby Grape's Don Stevenson about the rise and fall of Moby Grape, playing the Monterey Pop Festival, busking in TTC subway stations, and making his Massey Hall debut at the age of 82. FOTM Gare Joyce co-hosts. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com

This week's show, after a 1970 Neil Young yodel: brand new Voxtrot, Colored Lights, Plush Machine, Feeders, Treasures of Mexico, Teenage Fanclub, Juliana Hatfield, and Dead Leaf Echo, plus Status Quo, Moby Grape, Baba Brooks, Alvin Crash & the Crawlers...

Life of a Bay Area rock Star  The Sons of Champlin  along with Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape created the enduring 1960s San Francisco sound.  As the Sons' lead guitarist,  Terry Haggerty knows as much about this period in rock-n-roll history as anyone.   He joins Larry Mishkin & Rob Hunt to share many behind the scene stories about the music, the bands and the drugs.  He also talks about his years of perfecting his cannabis seed stash which led him to launch his cannabis business Hagalicious. Produced by PodConxDeadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-showLarry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkinRob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-huntTerry Haggerty - https://podconx.com/guests/terry-haggertyHagalicious - https://terryhaggerty.com/hagaliciousSons of Champlin - https://www.billchamplin.com/sons-of-champlinJay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

There are good reasons why Freddie Steady Krc has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Academy of Music, a Texas Tornado Award from Buddy Magazine, and is in the Texas Music Hall of Fame. His rich musical history all comes together in Freddie Steady's Wild Country project, a setting in which the music of his many incarnations all comes together. Krc (rhymes with search) landed in Austin at the moment that a musical revolution was getting started at a styles-don't-matter joint called the Armadillo. By the time he hit town, he was also passionate about the Tex-Mex mix of the Sir Douglas Quintet (his first concert), the psychedelic sounds of rock innovators the 13th Floor Elevators, and the soulful folk of singer/songwriters like B. W. Stevenson and Jerry Jeff Walker. Session drumming includes studio work with everyone from Sir Douglas Quintet's Augie Meyers to Carole King, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters to The Faces' Ronnie Lane. Freddie's greatest stage memories include performing for Presidents Clinton and Ford, drumming gigs with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and with legendary San Francisco's Charlatans at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His dozens of credits as a record producer include Peter Lewis of Moby Grape, Sal Valentino of The Beau Brummels, and Al Staehely of Spirit. https://www.freddiesteadykrc.com The Arwen Lewis Show Host | Arwen Lewis Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Richard “Dr. D” Dugan https://arwenlewismusic.com/ www.thejeremiahshow.com @jeremiahdhiggins https://linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins

Thanks for the radio drop Peter! - - - And the new album "Imagination!" www.facebook.com/TheMusicOfPeterLewis/ The Arwen Lewis Show Host | Arwen Lewis Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Richard “Dr. D” Dugan arwenlewismusic.com/ www.thejeremiahshow.com @jeremiahdhiggins linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins

Thanks for the radio drop Peter! - - - And the new album "Imagination!" https://www.facebook.com/TheMusicOfPeterLewis/ The Arwen Lewis Show Host | Arwen Lewis Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Richard “Dr. D” Dugan arwenlewismusic.com/ www.thejeremiahshow.com @jeremiahdhiggins linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins

Mike Stax talks to drummer/songwriter Don Stevenson and Moby Grape biographer Cam Cobb. Don shares stories about the band's formation and the making of their monumental 1967 debut album. Cam Cobb's definitive book on the band, "What's Big and Purple and Lives in the Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story", can be found here: http://jawbonepress.com/moby-grape/ Cam's forthcoming book on Skip Spence: "Weighted Down - The Complicated Life of Skip Spence" https://omnibuspress.com/products/weighted-down-the-complicated-life-of-skip-spence For all things Moby Grape, visit the website: https://mobygrape.us/ Please support the podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/uglythingspod, where you can enjoy special bonus content plus much more. Check out Ugly Things Magazine: https://ugly-things.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Bob & Tom Extra: We have Oscar nods, Moby Grape, and Halloween! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices