Moby Grape – underrated and, as rumor had it, not terribly well liked by John Peel.

Moby Grape to end the working week – recorded for John Peel (but not entirely used by him) on February 4, 1969.

As rumor had it, John Peel wasn’t impressed with Moby Grape at all, complaining they had a sort of “take it or leave it” approach to the session they were recording and wound up not using several of the numbers from that session, but rather parceling them out to other shows.

By way of several Moby Grape devotees, this comprises most of that session – with the exception of Five To Eight and If You Can’t Learn – they are still out there, somewhere.

By 1969 Moby Grape were having more than their fair share of problems – a couple of the numbers from this session appeared in studio versions on Moby Grape ’69 and Wow, but by Moby Grape ’69, founding member Skip Spence was pretty much a foregone conclusion and was dropped from the band by the time ’69 was released – he went on to record the perplexing Oar and then vanished. Their last album, Truly Fine Citizen was recorded in July of 1969 was roundly dismissed by the press and didn’t fare too well with the audience. Subsequently, the band quit but reunited several times between 1971 and 1984 and on through 2000. But the meetings were short-lived and towards the end, plagued with health issues and eventually death for co-founder Bob Mosely, as well as Skip Spence and then guitarist Jerry Miller.

But in between all the hysteria and mental illness, there were flashes of brilliance – and despite John Peel’s rumored reaction, these session tracks hold up rather well.

Crank it up and head off to bed.

The post Moby Grape – John Peel – 1969 – Past Daily Night Session appeared first on Past Daily: A Sound Archive of News, History And Music.