Legendary Grape

Of all the rock albums to come out of the late 1960s San Francisco counterculture, the self-titled 1967 debut of Moby Grape may be the best of all. The band’s career arc, however, is one of the rock canon’s great tragedies. This 1989 reunion album features four of the five original members—Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis (son of late TV star Loretta Young) and Don Stevenson; only Skip Spence is missing. Originally released as a cassette by “the Melvilles,” because the band’s former manager owns the name “Moby Grape,” this essential rock relic has been remastered and issued by local label Dig! Music. These 18 tracks may not crackle with the electric brilliance of Moby Grape, but they do recapture the perfect fusion of rock, pop, blues and country forms that originally made Moby Grape a legend.