Bob Mosley

Singer/songwriter and bassist James Robert Mosley was born December 4, 1942, in Paradise Valley, CA, and spent his teens playing in a number of garage combos, including the Misfits, the Strangers, and the Frantics. The Frantics eventually morphed into Moby Grape, and with a lineup of Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Skip Spence, Don Stevenson, and Jerry Miller, the band recorded the brilliant but ill-fated Moby Grape album, released by Columbia in 1967. If ever a band was snake-bitten, it was Moby Grape, and thanks to backfiring publicity stunts, poor management, and record company snafus, the band never found a steady mass audience. It didn't help, either, that at least two of the members -- Spence and Mosley -- begin to show sings of mental disorder. Moby Grape managed to record two more albums with its original configuration participating before Spence and then Mosley left the band. In 1969 Mosley joined the U.S. Marines, making it through basic training, only to be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic (a mental condition that also afflicted Skip Spence) and was discharged from the Marines nine months later. He rejoined Grape for 1971's 20 Granite Creek album, but the group splintered after the album was completed. Mosley next signed with Reprise Records and his solo album, Bob Mosley, was released in 1972. By 1973 Mosley was listed as a ward of the State of California. He resurfaced in the late '70s as a member of the Ducks, who backed Neil Young on a series of impromptu bar gigs around Santa Cruz in 1977. In 1989 the odd Live at Indigo Ranch by Mosley Grape was released, and Mosley joined former Grape members Miller, Stevenson, and Lewis as the Melvilles (they weren't legally allowed to use the name Moby Grape at this point) to record Legendary Grape, which was released...