Skip Spence

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Undetermined Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Skip Spence Similar Undetermined Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946& nbsp;– April 16, 1999) was a Canada|Canadian -born United States|American musician and singer-songwriter . He was co-founder of Moby Grape , and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar (album)|Oar , and then largely withdrew from the music industry. He had started his career as a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service , and was the drummer on Jefferson Airplane 's debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off . He has been described on the Allmusic website as "one of psychedelic rock 's brightest lights"; however, his career was plagued by drug addiction s coupled with mental health problems, and he has been described by a biographer as a man who "neither died young nor had a chance to find his way out."Jeff Tamarkin, Chapter extract from

History

Early life: 1946–1965

Alexander "Skip" Spence was born in Windsor, Ontario|Windsor , Ontario , Canada in 1946. His father was a machinist. The family relocated to San Jose, California in the late 1950s, based on his father finding work in the aircraft industry. At the age of ten, Spence was given his first guitar by his parents.Pierre Perrone, . The Independent , April 20, 1999; www.independent. co.uk.

Music career: 1966–1969

Spence was a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service before Marty Balin recruited him to be the drummer for Jefferson Airplane . After one album with Jefferson Airplane, their debut Jefferson Airplane Takes Off , he left to co-found Moby Grape , once again as a guitarist.

During the recording session of Moby Grape's second album, Wow/Grape Jam|Wow , in 1968, Spence attempted to break down a bandmate's hotel room door with a fire axe, while under the influence of LSD . Spence's deterioration in New York and the "fire axe incident" are described by bandmate Jerry Miller as follows: "Skippy changed radically when we were in New York. There were some people there that were into harder drugs and a harder lifestyle, and some very weird shit. And so he kind of flew off with those people. Skippy kind of disappeared for a little while. Next time we saw him, he had cut off his beard, and was wearing a black leather jacket, with his chest hanging out, with some chains and just sweating like a son of a gun. I don't know what the hell he got a hold of, man, but it just whacked him. And the next thing I know, he axed my door down in the Albert Hotel.University Place and East 11th Street, New York City. Now an apartment building, it was at the time a famous hotel originally owned by the brother of artist Albert Pinkham Ryder . The hotel was named in his honour. Robert Louis Stevenson used one of the hotel's rooms as his studio. Other famous guests included Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Wolfe . Patrick Bunyan, All Around The Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities . Fordham University Press , 1999. They said at the reception area that this crazy guy had held an axe to the doorman's head." by Jeff Tamarkin. Contained in "Skip Spence and The Sad Saga of Moby Grape", being chapter extract from

As described by bandmate Peter Lewis (musician)|Peter Lewis , it appears that both Jerry Miller and bandmade Don Stevenson (musician)|Don Stevenson were targets of Spence: "We had to do (the album) in New York because the producer (David Rubinson) wanted to be with his family. So we had to leave our families and spend months at a time in hotel rooms in New York City. Finally I just quit and went back to California. I got a phone call after a couple of days. They'd played a Fillmore East gig without me, and Skippy took off with some black witch afterward who fed him full of acid. It was like that scene in The Doors (film)|The Doors movie . He thought he was the anti-Christ. He tried to chop down the hotel room door with a fire axe to kill Don (Stevenson) to save him from himself. He went up to the 52nd floor of the CBS building where they had to wrestle him to the ground. And Rubinson pressed charges against him. They took him to The Tombs (and then to Bellevue Hospital Centre|Bellevue ) and that's where he wrote Oar . When he got out of there, he cut that album in Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville . And that was the end of his career. They shot him full of Thorazine for six months. They just take you out of the game." by Jud Cost, 1995; www.sundazed.com.

During his six months in Bellevue, Spence was diagnosed with schizophrenia . On the day of his release, he drove a motorcycle, and as the urban myth goes (and not true according to his wife), dressed in only his pajamas, directly to Nashville to record his only solo album, with no other musicians appearing on it, the now-classic psychedelic/folk album Oar (album)|Oar (1969, Columbia Records ).This commonly-accepted version of events has recently been challenged as being mythical. It is asserted, without citation, that Spence first returned to his wife and family in Santa Cruz and that his family accompanied him to Nashville; see Moby Grape .

Decline: 1970–1999

Spence continued to have minor involvement in later Moby Grape projects and reunions. He contributed to 20 Granite Creek (1971) and Live Grape (1978),Karen Schoemer, "A Fragile Mind Bent in a Psychedelic Era". Contained in Peter Guralnick and Douglas Wolk (eds.), Da Capo Press . ISBN 0-306-80999-0. though his bandmates always included at least one of his songs on group recordings, irrespective of whether he was capable of performing with the group at the time.For example, on Truly Fine Citizen (1969), a Jerry Miller-Skip Spence song, "Tongue-Tied", was included. On the album (1989, CD issue 2003), the album starts with a Skip Spence song, "(All My Life) I Love You", originally recorded by Spence in 1972. Spence was no longer with Moby Grape at the time of '' Moby Grape '69 '', yet an earlier song recorded by Spence, "Seeing", was nonetheless included on the album. He had been similarly remembered by Jefferson Airplane , whereby his song "My Best Friend" was included on the group's definitive Surrealistic Pillow album (1967), despite his departure from the group.On the 2003 CD reissue of Surrealistic Pillow . an additional Spence song,"J.P.P. McStep B. Blues", is included as a bonus track.

Due to his deteriorating state and notwithstanding that he was no longer functioning in the band, Spence was supported by Moby Grape band members for extended periods. Voluminous consumption of heroin and cocaine resulted in a further involuntary committal for Spence. As described by Peter Lewis, "Skippy was just hanging around. He hadn't been all there for years, because he'd been into heroin all that time. In fact he actually ODed once and they had him in the morgue in San Jose with a tag on his toe. All of a sudden he got up and asked for a glass of water. Now he was snortin' big clumps of coke, and nothing would happen to him. We couldn't have him around because he'd be pacing the room, describing axe murders. So we got him a little place of his own. He had a little white rat named Oswald that would snort coke too. He'd never washed his dishes, and he'd try to get these little grammar school girls to go into the house with him. He was real bad. One of the parents finally called the cops, and they took him to the County Mental Health Hospital in Santa Cruz. Where they immediately lost him, and he turned up days later in the women's ward." by Jud Cost, 1995; www.sundazed.com

Mental illness, drug addiction and alcoholism thus prevented Spence from sustaining a career in the music industry. Much of his life was spent in third party care, as a ward of the State of California, and either homeless or in transient accommodations in his later years. He remained in and around San Jose, California|San Jose and Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz , California . Peter Lewis regularly visited Spence during the latter years of his life: "The last five years I'd go up‚ he lived in a trailer up there‚ Capitola, California|Capitola . I used to hang around with him; we'd spend the weekends together. But he just basically kind of hit the...he was helpless in a way in terms of being able to define anything or control his feelings." by Doug Collette, July 2007; www.stateofmindmusic.com.

As one of his four children,Aaron, Adam, Omar and Heather. At the time of his death, despite his relatively young age, Spence also had 11 grandchildren. He was also survived by his half-brother, Rich Young and by his sister, Sherry Ferreira. John Pareles, . Obituary, New York Times , April 18, 1999. It is unclear whether half-brother Rich Young is also the same Rich Young who was with the initial lineup of The Chocolate Watch Band and who currently plays on occasion with Spence's former Moby Grape bandmate Jerry Miller . Spence and the Chocolate Watch Band would have crossed paths, since both were in San Jose, California, at the time. The Topsiders, an early band in which Spence was a member as of 1965, pre-Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane, evolved in part into the Chocolate Watch Band. See ; www.bugpop.com. son Omar Spence, recalls, "When I saw my dad, it broke my heart. ...There were moments of clarity when he was genius smart, and then he'd wander off having a conversation with himself. Here's a homeless guy that most people would walk past and pity, and he'd say, 'I've been working on a song', and he'd scratch out some barre chords and musical notes on a napkin."Kimberly Chun, . San Francisco Bay Guardian , May 30, 2007.

In 1994, he participated in a music program for the mentally ill, sponsored by the City of San Jose.Johnny Angel, , April 19, 1999; www.salon.com. Two years later, in 1996, he was commissioned to write a song for the The X-Files soundtrack, Songs In The Key of X ; though not used, it was included on the More Oar tribute record as " Land of the Sun (song)|Land of the Sun ".Matthew Greenwald, Rolling Stone April 19, 1999.John Pareles, Obituary, New York Times , April 18, 1999.

Death

Spence died in 1999 from lung cancer , two days before his 53rd birthday. More Oar: A Tribute To The Skip Spence Album , an album featuring contributions from Robert Plant , Tom Waits , The Durocs and Beck , among others, was released a few weeks after his death. Prior to its release, the CD was played for Spence at the hospital, in his final stages before death.Margaret Moser, . The Austin Chronicle , December 17, 1999; www.austinchronicle.com. by Doug Collette, July 2007; www.stateofmindmusic.com. Spence is interred at Soquel Cemetery in Santa Cruz county.; www.findagrave.com.

Legacy

Spence has been described on the Allmusic website as "one of Psychedelic rock|psychedelia's brightest lights".Heather Phares, ; www.allmusic.com. Spence wrote "Omaha" for Moby Grape (album)|Moby Grape's first album which Rolling Stone Magazine listed in 2008 as one of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

In June, 2008, a Skip Spence Tribute Concert was held in Santa Cruz. The concert featured Spence's son Omar, who has sung with various configurations of Moby Grape in recent years. Omar Spence, singing his father's songs, was backed by the Santa Cruz White Album Ensemble, with Dale Ockerman and Tiran Porter , both formerly of the Doobie Brothers, and both of whom have played with various members of Moby Grape in several bands over the past three decades. Keith Graves of Quicksilver Messenger Service played drums., June 18, 2008 Paul Davis, Metroactive . Retrieved on July 8, 2008. ., Santa Cruz Sentinal released through Free City News , Isaiah Guzman, June 15, 2008. Retrieved on July 8, 2008. Peter Lewis joined the group onstage for the finale., Bret W., music.gather.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2008. An additional Skip Spence tribute concert was held in October, 2008.

Discography

With Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off ( RCA Records|RCA , 1966)

With Moby Grape

;Original albums

Moby Grape (album)|Moby Grape ( Columbia Records|Columbia , 1967)

Wow/Grape Jam (Columbia, 1968)

'' Moby Grape '69 (Columbia, 1969)Includes one song with Skip Spence vocals, "Seeing", originally from "Wow" sessions.

20 Granite Creek ( Reprise Records|Reprise , 1971)

Live Grape (Akarma, 1978)

The Place and the Time ( Sundazed Records|Sundazed , 2009)

Moby Grape Live (Sundazed, 2010)

;Compilations

Omaha (Moby Grape album)|Omaha ( Harmony Records|Harmony , 1971)Release on a discount label of Columbia Records. The album is essentially ''Moby Grape '69'', with Spence's "Omaha", from the first Moby Grape album, added. Cover of Moby Grape '69 is used as the cover for Omaha , with "Omaha" replacing "'69".

Great Grape (Columbia, 1972)

Murder In My Heart (Edsel, 1986); www.deaddisc.com.

Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape (Columbia/Legacy, 1993)

Crosstalk: The Best of Moby Grape (Sony International, 2004)

Listen My Friends& #33; The Best of Moby Grape (Columbia/Legacy, 2007)

Solo

Oar (album)|Oar Columbia (1969)

Land of the Sun (song)|Land of the Sun ( Sundazed Records|Sundazed , 1999) Single release.Featuring Spence's two post- Oar studio recordings, "Land of the Sun" (1996) and "(All My Life) I Love You" (1972).

Oar ( Sundazed Records|Sundazed , 1999) Remastered and expanded version of 1969 release.

Tribute album

More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album ( Birdman Records|Birdman , 1999)

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Skip Spence


1. Alejandro Escovedo 2. The Minus 5 3. Mudhoney 4. Mark Lanegan 5. Moby Grape 6. Diesel Park West 7. Doobie Brothers 8. Flying Saucer Attack

Undetermined Music Artists