Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence

by Cam Cobb with Foreword from Robin Spence  (ISBN-13978-1913172183) Omnibus Press

In review by Alan Dearling

What a great, and appropriate, book cover design. It ideally captures the atmosphere of the lush, over-the-top, authentic San Francisco Summer of Love 1967. For those who are aficionados of 1960s’ American music, Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence is remembered both as a ‘nearly-star’ and something of cult legend. For many, he is also remembered as being in the right place and at the right time, but managed too frequently to self-destruct his own considerable opportunities.

Cam Cobb’s substantial book is the result of almost forensic research. There is considerable detail, some fascinating and some sections which at times, slip into long lists of venues, dates, set lists. But, for those of us who grew up buying albums from the West Coast bands such as the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead and more, Skip Spence is much more than a footnote to the psychedelic underground.

The book reminds us that Skip Spence, born originally in Canada, with a father who was an in-demand session musician, had started out in the folk music scene in cafes and bars. He was briefly in Quicksilver Messenger Service as a guitarist; switched to drums in the line-up of the early Jefferson Airplane for the ‘Airplane Takes Off’ (1966) and a few tracks in the second album, ‘Surrealistic Pillow’, and then co-founded the Moby Grape in 1967, a self-proclaimed super group, who became rather over-hyped by their eventual label, Columbia Records (after other labels like Elektra and Atlantic had been in a bidding war for them). He’d almost become drummer with Buffalo Springfield before forming Moby Grape.

Extremely talented, Skip Spence looked and acted the part of rock music hero. For a while, he and the Moby Grape were regarded alongside the Byrds, Neil Young and Jerry Garcia as one of the hottest acts on the live circuit at legendary venues such as the Fillmore East, Fillmore West, the Matrix and the Avalon Ballroom. The likes of Jimi Hendrix opened for the Grape, as they were often known.

There’s very little footage of the Moby Grape in 1967. Here’s one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x29ggn68PqE

 The back cover blurb proclaims: “Skip Spence was a soldier, a rock star, a folkie, an innovator, an addict, a cult phenomenon and a ward of the state.

The cast of characters in his story include some of the biggest stars in music: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and many more. His life is the story of the Sixties – it’s the story of San Francisco, the biggest bands in America and rock ’n’ roll mayhem.”

‘Weighted Down’ is a lengthy read. Much of it really is rather depressing as it charts the brief burst of transcendent brilliance of Skip’s performances and writing, followed by erratic behaviour, battles with drug addiction and major mental health breakdowns.  In 1968 after he attacked some of his musical colleagues and producers with an axe, he was incarcerated in the Bellevue Hospital prison wing for six months. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

His personal life, his own demons, are meticulously chronicled by Professor Cam Cobb. Alexander Spence comes over in the pages of the book as a car crash about to happen; and a natural-born victim. During my reading through the book, I couldn’t help but remembering the rather similar disintegrating lives of other major musical artists such as Syd Barrett, Peter Green and Gram Parsons. Musos whose potential was never fully realised. Cam Cobb sums this up suggesting that, “Although Spence spent much of his life battling addiction and mental illness, during his lucid moments he performed in several bands and is best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and as the co-founder of Moby Grape. Tracks from his cult solo album ‘Oar’ have been covered by Tom Waits, Beck and Robert Plant.”

Near the end of Skip’s life he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. It came at a time when Moby Grape and the solo ‘Oar’ album were garnering more support and interest. A new tribute and possibly fund-raising album was organised with cover versions of the songs on ‘Oar’ newly recorded by the likes of Robert Plant, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock, Mark Lanegan and many more. It was moderately successful and helped to introduce the songs of Skip Spence to a new and wider audience.  ‘More Oar’ was released in 1999, with tracks organised in the same order as on the original album. The album also contains a hidden bonus track of Spence’s last known recording, ‘Land of the Sun’.

Skip Spence tracks like ‘Blues from an Airplane’, ‘My best friend’ and ‘Don’t slip away’recorded by the Jefferson Airplane are really rather wonderful, and the first Moby Grape album, and some of their first batch of Columbia singles such as ‘Omaha’ heralded a musician and a band to watch out for. But probably Alexander Spence was just too vulnerable, too inclined to self-damage. His solo album, ‘Oar’ is described in the book as the worst-selling Columbia album of all time. It’s certainly dark, poised on the edge of a plunge into madness. It’s a hard listen, quirky, all-over-the-shop, mixing humorous off-kilter ditties such as ‘Lawrence of Euphoria’ with the catchy, ‘Little Hands’, ‘Weighted Down (the prison song)’ and the frankly chaotic, ‘Grey/Afro’ and ‘The time has come’, which are shambolic. 

A number of friends and family of Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence made attempts throughout his life to offer support and lifelines back into music. However, his life as an early married father at 17, father of at least four kids, serial philanderer, and dangerous, probably bi-polar serious drug addict underpinned his gradual demise. Sadly, he spent a lot of his life in and out of mental institutions, prison, in half-way houses and on the street.

‘Weighted Down’ is designed with the rock music historian and dedicated fan in mind. The detail of trailer parks, excess, hard-gigging, and shed-loads of self-damage, mini-disasters with management, poor performances, broken relationships, and even competing with a fake Moby Grape’, together create the story of one of a high-flying bird who fell to earth very early in his life and career and never recovered. Similarly, Moby Grape never matched the output and greatness of the Airplane, the Dead and the Quicksilver Messenger Service. 

The listings of gigs and recordings and references at the back of the book are fascinating. Skip Spence was damaged goods, probably fun and a creative force to be around on the early ‘good’ days and even some of the later ones. Sadly also, he perhaps didn’t leave enough of a musical legacy to accurately judge his lost potential. At least with the likes of Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Syd Barrett and Peter Green there was plenty of great music and playing to allow for a proper assessment.

The back cover suggests: “With family photos, a foreword by Robin Spence, and accounts from his friends, bandmates and family, ‘Weighted Down’ is the first book to tell his (Alexander Skip Spence) story in full.”

Cam Cobb has chosen to top and tail the book with comments from family members. They offer an insight into the many ‘lives’ of Alexander Skip Spence and also the raison d’etre of the book, which is by no means a completely negative story. Speaking to the book’s author, one of Skip’s children, Omar, says about his dad (whom he only met once in his later adult life): “My dad was intimate. He was genuine in his process…He would always give things away.” Omar sums up how he sees Skip’s life: “Just forgiveness, redemption and love. I think that was (in) my dad’s heart.”

‘Chinese Song’ from Moby Grape (Spence playing a koto, 1971): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsBn8hRovrQ

And around 1998 with Brian Vaughan as Eternity’s Gate: https://soundcloud.com/haarp-recording/sets

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