After his father died when he was 11, he worked in the family candy store before he was enrolled at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy; he was expelled for fighting shortly before he was due to graduate.

He then attended the University of Chicago, met Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield, became a fan of blues music, and learned guitar.

[4][5] He regularly patronized clubs where Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy and other leading blues musicians played.

[9][10] According to author and pop music critic Joel Selvin, Gravenites was "the original San Francisco connection for the Chicago crowd.

[8] He wrote several songs for Joplin, including "Work Me, Lord"[8] and the unfinished instrumental track "Buried Alive in the Blues".

[8][9] Gravenites produced the pop hit "One Toke Over the Line" for Brewer & Shipley and the album Right Place, Wrong Time for Otis Rush, for which he was nominated for a Grammy Award.

[11][2][additional citation(s) needed] In the early 1980s, Gravenites performed and recorded with a revolving group of San Francisco Bay area rock, blues, and soul musicians called the Usual Suspects.