Moby Grape

Columbia Records promotional photo, 1967.
L-R: Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson

Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966 as part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene. The band actually had elements of rock, folk music, pop, blues, and country music.

Their name came from a joke that played off Herman Melville's Moby Dick: What's big and purple and lives in the sea? Moby Grape. member Don Stevenson says that it was a time of rather silly, nonsensical band names like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, and 13th Floor Elevator.

They were one of the few groups in which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters. Before they had recorded, they had played many club gigs with all original songs. 

A trivia bit about the 1967 debut album is that the band photo has Don Stevenson making a middle finger gesture over a washboard. It is airbrushed off later cover and poster photos making the original album quite collectible.

There are several collections of their "best of" songs and reissues of their original albums.

In 2018 a detailed biography - What's Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story by Cam Cobb was published.

In the podcast below, host Mike Stax talks to drummer/songwriter Don Stevenson and Moby Grape biographer Cam Cobb about the band’s formation, name and the making of their 967 debut album.