Peter Charles Lewis (born July 15, 1945) is one of the founding members of the band

Moby Grape Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting, and who collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz with rock and psychedelic music. They were ...

. Three of his better known songs with Moby Grape are "Fall on You" and "Sitting by the Window" from the self-titled first Moby Grape album and "If You Can't Learn from My Mistakes" from '' Moby Grape '69''.

Background

Peter is the younger of the two sons of actress

Loretta Young Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...

(1913-2000) and writer-producer Tom Lewis (d. 1988), and accordingly spent much of his childhood in Hollywood. His older brother Christopher Lewis (1944–2021) was a writer and producer of films primarily for television. The Lewis brothers are nephews of Young's sisters, actresses

Polly Ann Young Polly Ann Young (October 25, 1908 – January 21, 1997) was an American actress. Biography Young was born in Denver, Colorado. Actresses Loretta Young and Sally Blane were her sisters. From 1917 to 1941, she was featured in over 40 movies, ...

and

Sally Blane Sally Blane (born Elizabeth Jane Young; July 11, 1910 – August 27, 1997) was an American actress who appeared in over 100 movies. Early life Blane was born in Salida, Colorado. She was the sister of actresses Polly Ann Young and Loretta Young ...

. They are also half-brothers of Judy Lewis (d.2011), daughter of Loretta Young and

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

. Musician David Lindley is their cousin. As a youth, Lewis attended military school; after a stint in the Air Force, he became a commercial pilot, initially working for Shell Oil. As for his musical career, Lewis cites

Tim Hardin James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk music, folk and blues music, blues musician and composer. As well as releasing his own material, several of his songs, including "If I Were a Carpenter (song), ...

and

Fred Neil Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material& ...

as important influences, and credits

Linda McCartney Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, vegetarian cookbook author and advocate, and entrepreneur. She was the keyboardist in th ...

(née Eastman) with introducing him to their music.

Moby Grape: Lewis Sensitivity to Mosley and Spence Challenges

Beyond his work as a musician, Lewis has been noted for his efforts in assisting fellow Moby Grape bandmates Bob Mosley and

Skip Spence Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946 – April 16, 1999) was a Canadian-born American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. In the same year, he released his only s ...

(d. 1999) in battling the challenges of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

. Lewis has a personal sensitivity to psychiatric challenges. At age 11, while his parents were embroiled in an acrimonious divorce and custody dispute, he suffered a nervous breakdown in New York City and was involuntarily hospitalized for a period. As of 1969, he recalls, "I was under the care of a psychiatrist, taking all this Librium so I could stay with the band."Interview with Peter Lewis
by Jud Cost, 1995; www.sundazed.com. Mosley credits Lewis with helping him end approximately five years of homelessness in the 1990s. Mosley describes the circumstances as follows: "In 1996, Peter Lewis picked me up along the side of a San Diego freeway where I was living, to tell me a ruling by San Francisco Judge Garcia gave Moby Grape their name back. I was ready to go to work again." With respect to Spence, Lewis was skeptical about him being labeled a schizophrenic because recognized treatments were not resulting in any noticeable improvements. As a result, Lewis sought and participated in alternative healing therapies with Spence involving metaphysics. "Through my dad, who'd become a born-again Christian, I'd met these monks in Lucia above

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ...

, who were really serious about rational metaphysics. Their faith beyond reason overwhelms you every time. Since the doctors couldn't help Skippy - they kept objectifying his problem: 'He's a paranoid schizophrenic' and were never going to heal him. All they were interested in was keeping him out of McDonald's with a machine gun, so it (the monastery) was the only place I could think of to take him."

Recent career

In recent years, in addition to performing occasionally with Moby Grape, Lewis was a guitarist with the reformed

Electric Prunes The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." ...

(2000–2003), contributing to their ''Artifact'' album. He has also developed a career as a solo artist. He has released three albums on the Taxim label: ''Peter Lewis,'' ''Peter Lewis with David West Live in

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

'' and ''Peter Lewis with David West Live at the

Lobero Theatre The Lobero Theatre is an historic building in Santa Barbara, California. The theater was originally built as an opera house, in a refurbished adobe school building, by Italian immigrant José Lobero in 1873. Located downtown at the corner of Ana ...

''. Peter Lewis occasionally performs as a duo with David West, his collaborator on ''Live in Bremen'' and "Live at the Lobero Theatre." In 2010, Lewis appeared with Stu Cook at the

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

festival, performing with The Explosives. As of 2011, Lewis has been writing songs and performing with poet

M.L. Liebler M.L. Liebler (born Michael Lynn Liebler in 1953 in Detroit, Michigan) is the author and editor of several books of poetry including ''Brooding in the Heartlands''. He is a senior lecturer at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan Detroi ...

Solo discography

''Peter Lewis''
(1995)Produced by

John McFee John McFee (born September 9, 1950, Santa Cruz, California) is an American singing, singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and long-time member of The Doobie Brothers. Biography Some of McFee's early and no ...

of the Doobie Brothers and featuring contributions from

Keith Knudsen Keith A. Knudsen ( ; February 18, 1948 – February 8, 2005) was an American rock drummer, vocalist, and songwriter. Knudsen was best known as a drummer and vocalist for The Doobie Brothers. In addition, he founded the band Southern Pacific wit ...

(Doobie Brothers) and Stu Cook (

Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, ...

), all of whom at the time were in

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal ...

band Southern Pacific. Multi-instrumentalist McFee, a well-known contributor to the works of others (such as Van Morrison's ''

Saint Dominic's Preview ''Saint Dominic's Preview'' is the sixth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in July 1972 by Warner Bros. Records. '' Rolling Stone'' declared it "the best-produced, most ambitious Van Morrison record ...

'' and Elvis Costello's ''

My Aim Is True ''My Aim Is True'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, originally released in the United Kingdom on 22July 1977 through Stiff Records. After years of little success performing in Britain, Costello was signed t ...

'') considers this Peter Lewis album to be among the better he has worked. Se
Biography of John McFee
www.doobiebros.com.

(2003, with David West)
"Live at the Lobero Theatre"
(2013, with David West) *Just Like Jack (2017) *The Road To Zion (2019)

References

External links

Peter Lewis unofficial MySpace pagePlay Ball! Musical Services
David West

Electric Prunes, 2001; review by Keith Hannaleck, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Peter 1945 births American rock musicians American people of Luxembourgian descent Songwriters from California People from Hollywood, Los Angeles Living people Moby Grape members