Moby Grape at Monterey Pop - footage of 'Hey Grandma'

There's a spice at around 1:20, "Hey Grandma" looks to be a bit later in the evening. But the clothes are identical to when they first scramble on stage.

 

You're absolutely right. Hey Grandma is on the latest Criterion blu-ray reissue of Monterey Pop, which I steadfastly avoided buying because I own the earlier one. I stand corrected. Guess they did play it and possibly other stuff as well!

 

Still with Moby Grape, the latest issue of Shindig! magazine has an excellent 4-page feature on the 50th anniversary of the release of Moby Grape '69, with input from Jerry and Don.

I found Marty Balin's quote about the Monterey Pop movie, it's in Jeff Tamarkin's 'Got A Revolution!' book, as are Spencer's and Grace's quotes - "You don't even see me. When the movie came out, I was really hurt. I was young and I was like, "Awwww, I sing the whole song and I don't even get to be seen."

Spencer : - "That was all of the stupid media focus on Grace. She didn't really want it. She wanted to be one of the guys, and not the focus of the band. But how could you not think that she would be the focus?"

Grace: - "I just thought, any time you have four goats and one pig, you're gonna look at the pig. I didn't think it was anything other than I was a girl."

 

But surely that's Mosley singing backup at 1:53?

 

The blu ray also has the Grateful Dead and Steve Miller Band added

 

I found this review online of the updated Criterion bluray that contains the outtake footage of Moby Grape performing "Hey Grandma"....and this guy calls it a 'mediocre' performance of a 'fairly forgettable' song. Sheesh, someone was clueless when he wrote that. What I see and hear is electrifying, Holy Grail material.

David Reviews The Complete Monterey Pop Festival [Criterion Collection Blu-Ray Review]

 

'mediocre' performance of a 'fairly forgettable'

Bizarre.

 

I still think it was the first song they did: Pennabaker in the commentary said he’d film one or 2 songs so it makes sense it would be the first couple that got filmed.

 

Perhaps they didn't use it because of the mistake Skip Spence made on the last verse.

 

That's fantastic! Thanks for posting it. To my hearing, Moby Grape, though fairly short lived, was one of the greats of that era. Long time fan here.

 

Their performance is well documented in the hapless Moby Grape saga. Their spot in the lineup was punishment for Matthew Katz's ridiculous demands when he was their manager. Part of the reason they were never in the original film was due to his contract to the festival promoters. The opening spot was the worst place they could have been placed in because their was either no audience or an audience that was just arriving and the festival vibes had not yet kicked in. At that time, Moby Grape was just beginning to get their exposure to audiences that had never heard of them. Katz was acting as if the were The Beatles or something. They were a band doomed from the beginning.

 

Yes, it's a Guild Thunderbird, and it goes real well with Peter's buckskin and fringe....

 

My original question was meant to clarify who was singing the harmony part with Skip throughout the song. The fact that Mosley stepped to the mic for a couple of seconds at that moment (note that he didn't do it anywhere else in the verses) doesn't change the fact that it's obviously Stevenson who is singing the harmony with Skip throughout.

 

Man.. This story is almost as sad as Badfinger:

“Moby Grape's success was significantly impeded by decades-long legal disputes with their former manager, Matthew Katz. Legal difficulties originated shortly after the group's formation, when Katz insisted that an additional provision be added to his management contract, giving him ownership of the group name. At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the release of the group’s first album. Despite objecting, group members signed, based in part on the impression that there would be no further financial support from Katz unless they did so. Neil Young, then of Buffalo Springfield, was in the room at the time, and kept his head down, playing his guitar, and saying nothing. According to Peter Lewis, "I think Neil knew, even then, that this was the end. We had bought into this process that we should have known better than to buy into."[6]

The dispute with Katz became more acute after the group members' rights to their songs, as well as their own name, were signed away in 1973, in a settlement made without their knowledge between Katz and the band's manager at the time (and former producer), David Rubinson. It was also a settlement made at a time when Bob Mosley[7] and Skip Spence[8] were generally recognized as being legally incapacitated from the effects of schizophrenia.”

“The group appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival on Saturday, June 17, 1967.[22] Due to legal and managerial disputes, the group was not included in the D.A. Pennebaker-produced film of the event, Monterey Pop. Moby Grape's Monterey recordings and film remain unreleased, allegedly because Matthew Katz demanded one million dollars for the rights.[23] According to Peter Lewis, "[Katz] told Lou Adler they had to pay us a million bucks to film us at the Monterey Pop Festival. So instead of putting us on Saturday night right before Otis Redding, they wound up putting us on at sunset on Friday when there was nobody in the place." [24]

The Moby Grape footage was shown in 2007 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the film. Jerry Miller recalls that Laura Nyro was given Moby Grape's original position opening for Otis Redding, "because everybody was arguing. Nobody wanted to play first and I said that would be fine for me."[25]In addition to the marketing backlash, band members found themselves in legal trouble for charges (later dropped) of consorting with underage females, and the band's relationship with their manager rapidly deteriorated.”
Moby Grape - Wikipedia

 

I guess everyone has different tastes; I couldn't take my eyes of Skippy; he's so electrifying and this would have made a great addition to the original film.