DOWN in South Jersey? JGB at Glassboro State College, February 15, 1981

LN jg1981-02-15.jgb.all.aud.137422.flac1644

Rock Scully's book Living with the Dead (1996) gets mixed reviews for all kinds of reasons, among them that he presents lots of factually inaccurate information. But, on another intepretation --and, I think, relaying something Corry has expressed-- the book may not be right, but it contains lots of truth. Here is some of his narrative around early '81:

We use the airlines to ship dope. I have somebody run it out to the airport in an envelope, put it on a plane, and it gets there like clockwork until some weird hippie at TWA recognizes Jerry's name on the package and takes it. The first time it happens, we're in Philadelphia. I'm jonesing in the Philadelphia Arport waiting for the shit to arrive and it never shows up. I know it got onto the plane, but somewhere along the line somebody stole it. This little glitch leads to a day and a half of the shakes. Garcia is too junk sick to perform the following night. Prescriptions from the hotel doctor help, but we use up all the pills the first night to get rid of the shakes.

In Washington, a desperate Garcia decides to do a radio interview in the middle of the night and "put the code out." Garcia's nodding into the mike during the interview. On air he asks fans — in code — to bring their stashes down to the station and he will sign albums for them. He says, "Uh, anybody down with Garcia out there tonight? You wanna come down to the station? I'll come down from up here and sign autographs, but bring me some down." Thirty kids show up at the station reception with grass, 'ludes, uppers. Uh oh, the wrong drugs! Oh God, now he wants to get more specific on the air, spell out what precisely he needs. We send kids out to get downers and tranks to get us through the night (Scully 1996, 314).

I relay this here because seeder extraordinaire AF has relayed the following in connection with a recording of JGB in Esby Gym, Glassboro State College, February 15, 1981:

Before the show, Jerry went on the radio [campus radio WGLS] to invite people DOWN and if you were DOWN with it, then come on DOWN to the show. The story goes that they were at the end of the tour, way down in the boonies of South Jersey, and the stash was dry. Jerry had to put out the call for someone from Philly or nearby to drive over with a fix for him and Kahn.

Naturally, this sounds like the second part of Rock's little vignette above. I trust AF to have the date, time, and specifics more accurate than Scully. As for our jonesing hereo, maybe the trip into Glassboro, a charter flight from E. Farmingdale (Republic Airport) to Philly on an 8-passenger twin-engine King Air 200, had him just a little jumpy. (Take that, Rock!)

Plea: does anyone know of tape of that particular interview, 2/15/81 from campus radio WGLS? I will inquire with the school, though odds are strongly against there being a copy there.

What about the rest of Rock's narrative? It kind of fits Corry's characterization. First, I think he swaps Philly (end of the tour) and DC (start of the tour), with the package of drugs not making it to them in Washington. Second --and, yes, I see how petty this is-- they didn't fly TWA, but United (#58, since you asked). Third, there is no canceled show anywhere in the tour. Fourth, the interview was apparently before the show, not in the middle of the night.

Some of this other stuff might have happened on Dead tour, or on a different Jerry tour. He doesn't explicitly say this is the Feb. 81 JGB jaunt - I am just making the connection because of the radio interview, which it seems safe to say can only have happened once. Overall, all of this stuff probably sort of happened, and so Rock's account is true ("truthy," you might say), if not exactly right.

One of the great benefits to me of doing these listening notes, and trying to integrate them into the broader fabric of the Garciaverse, is how LITTLE the drug stories tell us about the music. Here we have relatively firm evidence that Garcia was jonesing hard for the show, specifically needing stuff to take the edge off, and that he got some stuff to get him DOWN to some level of comfort. Yet the show sounds peppy. I don't make a lot of notes, but they all point in the same direction: torrid scrubby goodness in "Catfish John", punch great energy in "Tangled Up In Blue", Gar sounding enthused on "Tore Up Over You". All of this speaks, as Twitterato and all-around great guy Mr. Completely might say, to the limits of drug determinism.

Ticket for JGB 2/15/81 at Glassboro State College, courtesy of gdsets.com.

Sounds like the place was packed, sweltering hot (Chambers 1981), and ol Jer, jonesing or not, put on a good strong show to end the tour. (Since you were wondering, fly home next day, 10:15 AM departure on United #719 through Denver to land at SFO by  2:30 PM, or TWA #31, out at 3:30 PM to hit tierra santa at 6:30 PM. I leave it to you to imagine which flight Jerry caught, and why.)

Listening notes below the fold.

JERRY GARCIA BAND

Esby Gymnasium, Glassboro State College

201 Mullica Hill Rd.

Glassboro, NJ 08028

February 15, 1981

Craig L cass shnid-137422

--set I (5 tracks, 53:15)--

s1t01. [0:04] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:52] %

s1t02. Catfish John [10:34] %

s1t03. Mississippi Moon [11:44] %

s1t04. [0:08] I'll Take A Melody [12:55] ->

s1t05. Tangled Up In Blue [9:53] (1) [0:04]

--set II (5 tracks, 53:06)--

s2t01. (2) [0:12] % [0:04] The Harder They Come [14:21] [0:02] %

s2t02. [0:07] Mission In The Rain [9:24] [0:02] %

s2t03. [0:07] Tore Up Over You [8:21] [0:03]

s2t04. [0:05] Dear Prudence [12:05] ->

s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:05] (3) [0:04]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12b

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;

! lineup: Jimmy Warren - el-piano;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;

! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19810215-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9020 (Vita MAC shnf, runs slow); https://etreedb.org/shn/137422 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/vmDCsZTZTD82

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/10/esby-gym-glassboro-state-201-mullica.html

! ad: Glassboro Whit, February 12, 1981, p. 5

! preview: Glassboro Whit, February 12, 1981, p. 7

! preview: Watson 1981 identifies pianist as "Jim Watten" and says there's lots of buzz that other members of the Dead will show up. Silly hippies.

! review: [positive] Chambers 1981.

! R: Source: AUD (1st or 2nd gen) from the Craig L. tape collection.

! R: Transfer: Maxell XLI (normal) > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain SRC > Wavelab (adding 16-bit patches) > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transferred by Andrew F. 12/2016

! R: seeder note: Same taper as ID-136789 (2/5/81). This source does not have the speed problems and digital processing issues of ID-9020. Re-mixed patches from ID-9020; Melody 12:05 > 12:12, TUIB 0:04 > 0:14, crowd after Tore Up 8:29 > Prudence 0:18, and Midnight Moonlight 8:03 > 8:09. Thanks Jon Pasternak & Charlie McGuth for organizing this project!

! ad: Glassboro Whit, February 12, 1981, p. 5

! exante: Glassboro Whit, February 12, 1981, p. 7

! preview: Watson 1981: identifies pianist as "Jim Watten" and says there's lots of buzz that other members of the Dead will show up. Silly hippies.

! review: [positive] Chambers 1981.

! historical: Sue: capacity 2,400, GP of $17,600. $15k flat guarantee, $4,000 production and $750 hospitality. General admission.

! historical: AF: "Before the show, Jerry went on the radio [campus radio WGLS] to invite people DOWN and if you were DOWN with it, then come on DOWN to the show. The story goes that they were at the end of the tour, way down in the boonies of South Jersey, and the stash was dry. Jerry had to put out the call for someone from Philly or nearby to drive over with a fix for him and Kahn." Scully 1996/2001, 314-315 narrates the incident.

! P: s1t01 HSII I have no complaints with Jimmy's feature late 3 to about 4:30.

! P: s1t02 CJ @ 6 what a great torrid scrub

! P: s1t05 TUIB sounds punchy great energy. Nice guitar work, lyrics a little uncertain. Nice feedback 8:30. Thick stacked stuff 9:15. Surprised it didn't go around a few more times, but it's tight.

! s1t05 (1) JG makes set break announcement, didn't quite make it out

! s1t01 (2) JG: "If you people in the back could move back a little bit, everybody sorta relax. So these people survive."

! P: s2t01 HTC Jimmy feature 6 range. Not bad.

! P: s2t03 TUOY Gar sounds enthused, e.g, guitar-wise late 2 over 3.

! s2t05 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."