Moby Grape was a San Francisco band that was created by Skip Spence, the original and versatile drummer for the Jefferson Airplane. Skip left the Airplane (the story is that he was fired for missing too many rehearsals), and formed Moby Grape where he was their lead guitar player. On a technical level, some say the members of Moby Grape were more proficient musicians than either the Jefferson Airplane or most of the other Bay area rock groups of the day. Their first LP, titled Moby Grape, sold well in their home town but was never a national success. This was in part due to inept marketing of Moby Grape by their record label. The label management thought it would be a good idea to release five different 45 singles from the album all at the same time. This was definitely not a good idea as the LP never reached its anywhere near the envisioned sales potential. After you have become familiar with some of the other San Francisco groups, (Airplane, Dead, Big Brother, Quicksilver, Country Joe) you should be sure to check out Moby Grape's 1st album.
Country Joe and the Fish were based in Berkeley, across the bay from the rest of the San Francisco groups. A highly political group of musicians, they appeared at many anti-war rallies in Berkley and other Bay-area gatherings. In June, 1967 Country Joe was one of the local bands that was invited to play at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Their performance of their song "Section 43", a hypnotic trancelike instrumental, was captured on film before an audience that like the band was floating amid a sea of recreational drugs including LSD and Marijuana. Country Joe and the Fish appear in D.A. Pennebaker's film Monterey Pop released in 1968.
This film, shot in 16mm and released in theaters in a non-wide screen format, captures the exact moment in time when rock music pushed aside it's pop music roots and took the stage as musical force to be heard as it was intended...loud, angry, and full of anguish instead of sappy love songs sung with sweet boy-girl harmonies. In the film you can actually see the look of amazement on Mama Cass Elliot's face as she witnessed Janis Joplin's landmark performance of "Ball and Chain".
Before Monterey, the reigning super groups of American popular music were acts like The Mamas and The Papas and The Association. After Monterey, it all changed. These previous top selling acts were yesterday's news even before the last amplifier was unplugged.
Many of the best performances from the Monterey Pop Festival appear in this film, including landmark performances by Country Joe, Big Brother with Janis Joplin, The Who, and the first U.S. appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The film also contains an extraordinary performance by Ravi Shankar, the world famous Indian sitar master. The performance by Ravi Shankar and a small group of Indian musicians captured and held the entire concert audience, perhaps 5,000 people, in a groove for what seems like hours. His daughter is Nora Jones, today a successful musician in her own right.
Woodstock, a much longer film than Monterey Pop, was also directed by Pennebaker. Shot in wide-screen format using multiple cameras, Woodstock captures many of the best musical performances from the original Woodstock Music and Arts Festival from 1969. The Woodstock film is definitely required viewing for any serious student of 60s rock music, but it all began back in Monterey, June 16, 17, 18, 1967.
Regarding Smile, Brian Wilson's long abandoned and never released effort that was to follow the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds album, Brian finally finished his vision in 2004. Working with lyricist Van Dyke Parks and a large ensemble of musicians (none of them current or former Beach Boys except for Brian), the Smile album was completed. It is available on both vinyl and CD.
