alexander spence Fountain

Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946 April 16, 1999) was a musician and singer-songwriter best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and as a solo artist. His career was plagued by drug addictions 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."[1] During his tenure in the public eye, he had a profound impact on the outsider music and psych-folk genres.Alexander "Skip" Spence was born in 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. 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. It was with Moby Grape that Spence found his greatest musical fame, writing among other songs, "Omaha", from Moby Grape's first album (1967)--a song identified in 2008 by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.Spence is acknowledged as having been instrumental in the formation of the Doobie Brothers, by way of introducing John Hartman to Tom Johnston, and encouraging their musical development, as well as occasionally sitting in with their pre Doobie Brothers band Pud, though Spence never was an official member.

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• alexander
• spence
• Fountain
• Skip
• 1969
• oar
• psych
• folk
• Jefferson
• Airplane
• Moby
• Grape
• musician
• singer-songwriter
• psychedelic
• rock