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.

The later years and albums became overshadowed by the story of Skip Spence. Alexander "Skip" Spence had been a guitarist but but became the drummer for the Jefferson Airplane on their first album but was kicked out after that. He went back to guitar when the Moby Grape was formed.

Spence had been using a lot LSD along with many in the San Francisco psychedelic scene. He developed severe mental illnesses, including a belief that he was the Antichrist. He'd attacked two of his bandmates with an axe, and had also gone to the CBS building and attacked people there. Luckily nobody was injured, but he was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Lewis, who had left the band for a time, returned to take his place.

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.

Trivia: Peter Lewis is the son of the film star Loretta Young,

For Contrast: They went to Columbia Studios in March 1967 to cut their first album, which took five days. The Beach Boys were also in Columbia studios over the same five days, in another studio in the complex, and spent all 5 days just doing vocal overdubs for the “Heroes and Villains” single.

Supertramp

Supertramp is an English rock band formed in London in 1969. The band's songwriting founders, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, originally called their band "Daddy" but to avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp." 

That name was inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies, who was a Welsh poet and writer who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo, in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also became one of the most popular poets of his time. His writing focused on nature, observations about life's hardships, his tramping adventures, and the various characters he met. In 1948, the BBC Home Service recorded a version of the book in 15 episodes narrated by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Rick Davies, founder and only constant member, shared the same surname as the Welsh writer, but it was original guitarist and lyricist Richard Palmer-James who suggested the name. Palmer left the band after only 16 months, and they carried on for four decades. In 1986, the group released a collectible compilation titled The Autobiography of Supertramp, a direct reference to the book.

They started as a progressive band but moved to a more pop-oriented approach which led to their most popular album, Breakfast in America. Released in March 1979, it reached number 3 in the UK and number 1 in the US and Canada. The album spawned four successful singles (more than their first five albums combined): three of Hodgson's songs, "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home" and "Breakfast in America," and Davies's "Goodbye Stranger." 

The Very Best of Supertramp is their hits package and Slow Motion is their eleventh and final studio album, released in April 2002.

Official Site www.supertramp.com

38 Special

The band in 2010

38 Special (AKA .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-eight Special) is an American rock band formed by singer-guitarists Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1974, the band practiced in an old barn near Yulee, Florida. They kept the barn locked and nailed down from the outside so their equipment would be safe and entered by climbing a ladder into a second-story loft. One day, someone called the cops thinking there were illegal activities there. 

The barn was surrounded by Nassau County Sheriffs and when the bandmates peered out, they saw a bunch of .38 Special guns pointed at them. The .38 Special was the standard service cartridge for the majority of United States police departments from the 1920s to the 1990s. As the story goes, the band members were unable to come out because of a padlock on the door. One of the cops said, "That's all right. We'll let this .38 special do the talking", and shot off the lock.

They are known for their hit songs, including "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up in You", among various other Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s and early 1990s, including "Rockin' into the Night", "You Keep Runnin' Away", "If I'd Been the One", "Back Where You Belong", "Teacher, Teacher", "Like No Other Night", "Second Chance" and "The Sound of Your Voice."

Though without any original members, a 38 Special band still tours.

The Very Best of the A&M Years (1977-1988)

Anthology -38 Special
The Best of .38 Special - 20th Century Masters
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
Tour de Force
Strength in Numbers
Special Forces
38 Special
38 Special - Live
Rock & Roll Strategy
Rockin' Into the Night
The Millennium Collection: The Best of .38 Special
Live at Sturgis
Best Shots
Drivetrain
Extended Versions Double Bill - Lynyrd Skynyrd / 38 Special
Bone Against Steel
Extended Versions
Wild-Eyed Christmas Night
Special Delivery
Christmas

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane photographed by Herb Greene at the Matrix club, San Francisco, in 1966. 

Top row from left: Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Marty Balin; 

bottom row from left: Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner, Spencer Dryden. 

A cropped version of this photo was used for the front cover of Surrealistic Pillow.  Link

Paul Kantner put together the original Jefferson Airplane and one member he recruited was his college friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Kaukonen is given credit for the band's name because he has said that, "I had this friend [Steve Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people. His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane [kind of a reference to blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson]. When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'"

So the name has no real meaning. But it survived the reincarnation of the band as Jefferson Starship, but not the final version that was simply Starship.

Something that used the band's name as a direct reference is the practice of making a quick roach clip for a marijuana joint by splitting a matchstick into a “V” formation allowing the user to smoke the very end of a joint without burning their fingers. That makeshift clip became known (at least on the West Coast) as a Jefferson Airplane.

The group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. 

Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"

Despite several lineup changes, the band continued and in 1989, the classic 1966–70 lineup of Jefferson Airplane reunited (with the exception of drummer Spencer Dryden) for a tour and album. The self-titled album was released by Epic to modest sales but the accompanying tour was considered a success  Jefferson Airplane is the eighth and final studio album by the band. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all returned for the album and supporting tour, The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jefferson Airplane evolved into Jefferson Starship in January 1974. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albums and had nine top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1975's Red Octopus marked the official return of Marty Balin as vocalist. The Balin-penned single "Miracles” peaked at #3 on the chart, and along with the single “Play on Love” helped to propel the album to eventual multiple-platinum status and topped the Billboard 200 chart. It might surprise fans to know that it would be the biggest-selling album of the band's career. 

Starship was initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship, but because of a different musical direction and loss of personnel, a lawsuit settlement led to a name change that required dropping the "Jefferson" in the name. Their 1985 pop album Knee Deep in the Hoopla had two number-one hits -"We Built This City" and "Sara."

MAIN ALBUMS of the Original Band Lineup

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966)

Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

After Bathing at Baxter's (1967)

Crown of Creation (1968)

Volunteers (1969)

Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969)

Uriah Heep

Uriah Heep is an English rock band formed in London in 1969 that became one of the seminal hard rock acts of the early 1970s. 

Their progressive/art rock/heavy metal fusion featured a lot of keyboards and strong vocal harmonies including in the early years' the vocals of David Byron. 

Of their fifteen albums, it was Demons & Wizards that was the most successful. 

One of their radio hits was "Easy Livin'." They were often grouped with Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as "The Big 4" of hard rock, and although they became more of a 1980s cult band in the United Kingdom and the United States, they still have a significant following and perform at arena-sized venues in the Balkans, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia and Scandinavia.

They have sold over 30 million albums worldwide with over 4 million sales in the U.S.A.

an illustration of Dickens' Uriah Heep

As a four-piece band, they went into the Lansdowne Studios in London under the name "Spice." They changed the name to Uriah Heep, a character from Charles Dickens' classic novel David Copperfield and the change occurred along with the new keyboard-based larger sound. According to biographer Kirk Blows, Dickens was in the news then (December 1969) due to it being the hundredth anniversary of his death.

The character of Uriah Heep is not a pleasant one being the antagonist for the second half of the novel and notable for his "cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own 'humbleness" and his name has become synonymous with being a "yes man."

Perhaps not the best image for a hard rock band, but nevertheless...  

20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best of Uriah Heep

Band site: http://www.uriah-heep.com

Spinal Tap

(L-R) Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean
in 1984's film This Is Spinal Tap

The band Spinal Tap was created by American comedians and musicians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer for the 1979 sketch comedy pilot "The T.V. Show". 

The name "Spinal Tap" was chosen as part of the band's fictional backstory, which was later expanded in the 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap.

In the film, the band members humorously explain that they went through several name changes before settling on Spinal Tap, including "The Originals" and "The New Originals," before becoming the Thamesmen and finally Spinal Tap. 

But how does "Spinal Tap" reflect their new heavy metal musical direction? 

A lumbar puncture is commonly known as a spinal tap. This medical procedure requires a needle to be inserted into the spinal canal, most commonly to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for diagnostic testing. The main reason for a lumbar puncture is to help diagnose diseases of the central nervous system, including the brain and spine.

Spinal Tap (stylized as Spın̈al Tap, with a dotless letter i and a metal umlaut over the n) could be described as a fictional English heavy metal band, but they are actually a band and have recorded albums and done concerts, so are they still fictional? 

The three comedians are also musicians and wrote and performed original songs as the band: Michael McKean, as the lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins; Christopher Guest, as the guitarist Nigel Tufnel; and Harry Shearer, as the bassist Derek Smalls. 

They are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands"

The three added to the group David Kaff (as keyboard player "Viv Savage") and R.J. Parnell (as drummer "Mick Shrimpton"). Parnell had previously been in the band Atomic Rooster, while Kaff had been a member of Rare Bird. The quintet played their own instruments throughout the film.

In 1984, they did an episode of Saturday Night Live to promote their film. The character of Mick Shrimpton having died in the film, Parnell played his "twin brother" drummer Ric Shrimpton for these and later appearances. Kaff dropped out shortly after the SNL appearance.

Their new movie, This Is Spinal Tap 2, is a too-long-awaited sequel to the 1984 mockumentary classic. Directed by Rob Reiner, it brings back the original cast members. The story follows the band as they reunite for a final concert to honor their late manager, with cameos from famous musicians like Paul McCartney, Elton John, and Garth Brooks. What havethe band members have been up to over the past four decades?

Counting Crows

American rock band Counting Crows came out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, bass guitarist Millard Powers, and guitarist Dan Vickrey. Past members include the drummers Steve Bowman (1991–1994) and Ben Mize (1994–2002), and bass guitarist Matt Malley (1991–2005).

The band gained popularity following the release of its first album, August and Everything After (1993) with its hit single "Mr. Jones." The album sold more than 7 million copies in the United States. The band received two Grammy Awards nominations in 1994, one for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" (for "Round Here") and one for "Best New Artist". 

The follow-up album, Recovering the Satellites, reached number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart and reached number one in several other countries. All but one of their subsequent albums reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 list.

The name Counting Crows comes from an old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the number of birds seen.  Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead.  

The band's song "A Murder of One" has one version of the rhyme. Adam Duritz just liked the rhyme. 

"One for Sorrow" is the traditional name for the children's nursery rhyme which according to an old superstition says that the number of crows or magpies seen tells if one will have bad or good luck.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

THE MUSIC

August & Everything After

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (Eco)

Films About Ghosts: The Best of Counting Crows

Recovering the Satellites

Hard Candy

This Desert Life

August Rising

Across A Wire: Live In New York City

New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Dead & Dreaming: Tribute to Counting Crows