Marble Falls      Recently, there was an obit for Jerry Miller, the lead guitarist for the 60s West Coast band, Moby Grape, that had quite a moment during their time.  It used to be that there couldn’t have been an article about him or the group without a mention of another band member, Peter Lewis, who was a son of the actress Loretta Young. Fast-forward almost sixty years and likely there are few that remember any of this crew, from Young to Lewis to Miller.

For my part, I remember them well.  My old New Orleans high school buddy, Danny Russell, then going to Hamilton, and me, then in my equally brief career at Williams, were meeting in New York City with music on our mind.  We went by the Village Theater early, which in my memory was always called the East Village Theater, but that might not have been correct, to see if we could get tickets to that night’s bill.  When we arrived, the road crew for Moby Grape happened to be unloading the truck with their equipment.  The road manager, seeing two young and healthy 19-year-olds, asked if we’d be willing to help in exchange for getting us in the show.  Darned tooting!  We were totally down for a little work for a big payoff.

The show was amazing.  We got to see the legendary British super group The Cream with Ginger Baker on drums and Eric Clapton on guitar.  Richie Havens with “Here Comes the Sun” was the opener.  We didn’t know much about Moby Grape, but they were a solid addition, and I became a fan.  I loved their song, “Naked, If I Want To” with these opening lyrics:

Would you let me walk down your street
Naked if I want to
Can I pop fireworks on the fourth of every single july
Can I buy an amplifier, oh, on time
My sweet time

Well I ain’t got no money
I will pay this time
And I ain’t got no money

But I will pay you before I die

For a broke-ass kid raised in the West and South, that whole sentiment worked for me.  It was an amazing night to remember.

Here’s an interesting twist, though.  Going on the internet to confirm my memory, there was a picture of the Village Theater marquee touting the show on September 23, 1967.  Sounds right to me.  I reached out to Russell to confirm.

I also stumbled on two different items that were tracking Moby Grape that cast doubt on whether or not they were a “no show” for that date with Canned Heat substituting for them.  Danny and I might be among the few who could solve this mystery definitively, because as I said, we were there.

A blogger, whose name I couldn’t find, undertook the thankless task of trying to chart the gigs that Moby Grape played during their brief history.  He confirmed the date with the following item:

September 23, 1967 Village Theater, New York, NY  Cream/(Moby Grape) (2 shows)
The Village Theater was an old movie theater in Greenwich Village on 2nd Avenue and 6th Street, that would later become famous as The Fillmore East. I am reliably informed that the Grape did not play these shows, however, and were replaced by Canned Heat.

With apologies to whomever “reliably informed” him, Danny and I can confirm that they absolutely played one show on the bill, because we hauled the equipment and stayed glued to our seats for the whole shebang.

Another rock-and-roll connoisseur from that period, Frank Mastropolo, also makes the claim that what we witnessed never happened in a piece he did a couple of years ago in the Medium.  He was focused on the history of the Village Theater, which later became known as Fillmore East, which might explain why I continued to remember the name as the East Village Theater.  Mastropolo writes,

I didn’t realize that Moby Grape was supposed to be on that show. It was Richie Havens, Canned Heat, Cream, and us. Village Theater poster by …

Not sure who the “us” was, but, presumably, it was someone else on the bill.  You would think they might have a better claim than Danny and I would make, but I don’t think so.  Maybe there was a second show where Canned Heat subbed for Moby Grape?  I have vivid, incontrovertible memories of the few rock concerts that I’ve ever seen.  This one is right at the top, but there’s also James Brown at the Auditorium, Jimi Hendrix at City Park, Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Warehouse, all in New Orleans, and Bob Dylan in Memphis.  I’m not sure that Danny or I had even ever heard of Moby Grape until that night hauling their gear and sitting in the audience, even though we had come for The Cream and had some notion of Havens’ work.

Who else knows?  We know!  “Those were the days, my friend,” back then “I thought they would never end.”