JGB Debuting Señor and Tears of Rage: The February 1990 Warfield Run

LN jg1990-02-02.jgb.all.aud-darroch-paul.86658.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-03.jgb.all-1.sbd-seaweed.114060.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-04.jgb.all.aud-buick.30811.flac1644

The Jerry Garcia organization embraced a "no taping" policy, for reasons that aren't entirely clear given the principal's own experience recording bluegrass in the Sixties, his oft-stated indifference to audience taping in the Grateful Dead (GD) context ("when we're done with it, they can have it"), the Dead's own allowances in the form, from 1984 forward, of an Official Taping Section (OTS) just behind Dan Healy's soundboard and, frankly, the low commerical appeal of the Garcia Band. What was gonna do, etch some bootleg vinyl of yet another show closing "Midnight Moonlight"? Yet, nevertheless, there the policy was.

Enforcement was another matter, and seems to have been highly variable. Some busts happened at various places and times, tapers such as John Corley seem to have felt that stealth was called for (dismantling his Nak 700s and wiring them up through the top of a very "silly hat"), but generally a lot of tapes walked out of a lot of Jerry shows. Anecdotally, the no taping policy was most assiduously enforced at the Warfield in 1990, which one imagines relates to the fact that Jerry and Co. were recording themselves for an official live release (Jerry Garcia Band, Arista 18690-2), which arrived August 25, 1991 with material culled from Warfield shows in April and August of the prior year, sweetened in some cases with some vocal overdubs, at least.

Campolindo High School alumnus and sound engineer extraordinaire Marcus Buick kept a little journal of his own and his taping buddies' battles against one particularly dedicated Warfield security guy, by the name of Oren David Green. Apparently, at least in '89 and into '90, he was not a BGP bluecoat, but worked for VIP security. Bu kept a running score, and it was good guys 4 (successful complete shows pulled) and Oren 2 (busts) after the last Garcia Band show of '89. Oren then went on a little run to start the new year. He seems to have successfully kept the tapers away from the best recording location in the house, "The Spot" on the first drink rail. Rob Darroch and Sara Paul managed to pull complete analog masters from there the first night, February 2, 1990, but the digital tapers got busted during the first song. On February 3, Buick, Rick Katzeff and Tom Hughes (Campolindo '87) were able to pass equipment, hop seats, and relocate to get the 1st set from row M of the upper balcony, but got busted set II. On Sunday the 4th, Bu finally managed to digitally pull a whole show, but only by jamming his Josephsons into the right floor speaker stack from about a foot away, far too close. Oren thus played the digikids to a tie for the weekend, impressive given how committed and enterprising they were. (To give an indication of this, note that some soundboard material circulates from this run, derived from recordings made by splitting wire running to the hallway speakers, a technique first accomplished at the Lunt Fontanne in 1987, as far as I know.)

So, the tapes are generally sub-optimal, and I know well that this can color my listening experience. Historically, I have found these shows to be just sort of "meh", perhaps partly because of recording limitations and perhaps also from reasoning motivated to support my "one year too late" thesis about the double-live album: as great as that album is --and I do think it's great--, I think it would have been even better if they had taped in '88 and '89, when things were fresher and peppier. By 1990, to my ears, Jerry is sounding a little more fatigued. I like the March 1-2 shows a good deal, remember finding the April shows to be "meh", definitely find the June shows to be relatively weak, have formed no opinion on August, and think things are hotter in November, after GD keyboardist Brent Mydland had died and Jerry seemed to transfer some amount of energy over to the JGB.

I want to revisit all of these and see how my older assessments hold up, and I began over the last week with the February 2-4 shows. The key setlist interest here is the arrival into the Garcia Band repertoire of Dylan's "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" and Dylan and Richard Manuel's "Tears Of Rage", both of which were added, I imagine, with the album in mind. The Señor from 4/15/90 did make it onto the release, while Tears of Rage would wait to be released until the version from that same date appeared on the posthumous How Sweet It Is record (Grateful Dead Records GDCD 4051, April 1997). The former stuck around for over four years --note that Jerry had also played it once at the Warfield with Dylan, way back in 1980-- while the latter lasted less than a year in the repertoire, much to my chagrin. Both find Jerry reaching way down into deep darkness, full of mournful pathos that well-suited his old man period. On their maiden voyages of this February weekend (Señor appeared all three nights, Tears the last two), they show their newness. Things aren't entirely pinned down in terms of Jerry's own or the backing vocals, he hasn't settled into the tunes yet, and so they sound a little uneven. But that is not to say they don't sound great - they do. Whoever picked these tunes for the Garcia Band --one presumes either Jerry or his musical director, bassist John Kahn-- picked well. 

Generally, the shows exhibit I haven't-played-live-in-a-month-itis, which is perfectly reasonable. Jerry headed out to Kona and took no fewer than 26 plunges with Jack's Dive Locker between January 6 and 29, 1990. January '88 found him tan and healthy in a Hawaiian shirt playing the "Blues For Salvador" benefit with Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and lots of others. January '89, again in post-scubal bliss, found him warming up the first night out (1/27/89) and then dropping a true masterpiece of a show on 1/28/89, though the Dead shows the next week were, well, pretty weak. 

None of these February 1990 Warfield shows reaches those peaks, though there are plenty of strong moments. The first two nights, especially, he flubs all kinds of lyrics, like throughout practically every tune. The first night is pretty short for a 90s Warfield show, though I note some nice peppy tempi and an "I Second That Emotion" that is worth a listen. The second night, I don't note much. The set II opener, "Harder They Come", is not present on any circulating tapes, though we can pretty well imagine what it must have sounded like. 2/4/90 is the best show of the run, to my ears, though it's still pretty uneven. I took real notice that he went up an octave to sing the last stanza of Señor, "this place don't make sense to me anymore", which gives it a really worried tone fit to put weaker listeners into the nervous hospital. I think it was like that all three times here, and I doubt it would ever be that way again.

All in all, I enjoyed listening to this three shows as a whole run. I think I will do more of that. Because even though things can get repetitive, it does provide something like a consistent baseline, allowing little things (like the pretty fun "Let's Spend The Night Together" to open set II on 2/3) to stand in sharper relief. I wouldn't tell you to grab these as a first choice from the year -- go ahead and get the record for that. But they do strike me as pretty straightforwardly representative of what the Jerry Band was up to as the 1990s got going.

Listening notes below the fold.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 2, 1990 (Friday)
Darroch-Paul MAC>P>CD shnid-86658

--set I (7 tracks, 52:01)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:40] [0:02] % [0:34]
s1t02. Mission In The Rain [9:00] [0:04] % [0:24]
s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:23] [0:04] % [0:36]
s1t04. Stop That Train [6:24] [0:01] % [0:25]
s1t05. I Second That Emotion [8:16] % dead air [0:07]
s1t06. //Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [#6:15] ->
s1t07. Deal [7:35] (1) [0:05]

--set II (7 tracks, 56:53)--
s2t01. //Harder They Come [#10:33] [0:04] % [0:05]
s2t02. And It Stoned Me [6:50] [0:02] % [0:19]
s2t03. Waiting For A Miracle [6:50] [0:04] % [0:03]
s2t04. Mississippi Moon [8:30] [0:30] % [0:15]
s2t05. Tore Up Over You [6:36] %
s2t06. //My Sisters And Brothers [5:12] [0:05] % [0:37]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [10:11] (2) [0:03]

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = 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 [m:ss] 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/19900202-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/86658 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/114125 (sbd, 1 song).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! R: field recordists: Rob Darroch and Sara Paul

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM 140 > Sony D5

! R: field recording location: "The Spot" (first tier, front drink rail center)

! R: lineage: Nakamichi LX5 playback > Sony PCM 601 > Sony SL-HF 360 Beta/0 > Sony SL-HF 360 playback > Sony PCM 701 > ProTools 3.1/Masterlist 1.2 (no dynamics used) > CD/0 > EAC > FLAC level 8. CD mastering by Marcus Buick, EAC > FLAC by jjoops.

! R: seeder notes: Dedicated to Rob Darroch

! R: quality: A little bit muffled, but the only audience tape circulating AFAIK as of this writing (8/2005).

! P: s1t02 MITR I love the pacing here - he struggled singing the notes of the opening stanza, but it was worse if he went too slowly. Here, he just sort of strides through it. And, in any case, I like the faster pace.

! P: s1t05 ISTE I don't always love this tune, but this version is great. Kemper sounds great, Jerry sounds great. Jerry hits a super high note 3:42ish that gets a spontaneous, disbelieving "whoo" from a crowd member. Listen to his tone in 4:20! A little bit of raunch, even, strikes me as unusual. Really great. Maybe it's just because my morning coffee is hitting me PERFECTLY. A little extra vocalization at 7:45 ish. GREAT @@ version of ISTE.

! R: s1t06 Senor cuts in, tape flip

! P: s1t06 Señor making its public debut. He tries to sing some bits in a higher register. I assume this will go away by the next night, but need to check. A successful debut, though. The ladies are a little more back than they would be once the song reached full maturity, when their belting background reminds me of nothing so much as Merry whatshername on "Gimme Shelter", not in key so much as in vibe, full of worry and even, here, the smouldering terror of being lost at sea.

! P: s1t07 Deal is pretty perfunctory. It'd get bigger and more layered as the year would progress.

! s1t07 (1) JG: "We'll be back ... shortly."

! R: s2t01 HTC cuts in, not much missing

! P: s2t01 HTC voice a little phlegmy, but definitely bringing good intention to the singing.

! P: s2t02 AISM again sounds nicely intentional. It just feels good.

! P: s2t05 TUOY first performance since 6/1/85. Kemper hits it in strong, and it sounds fired up. Actually, tempo is too fast. Jerry can barely keep up.

! R: s2t06 MSAB cuts in, tape flip

! P: s2t07 TUIB - again I notice Kemper just drilling this night.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~

February 3, 1990 (Saturday)
all-1 hallway speaker chord splice sbd shnid-114060

-set I (7 tracks, 60:59)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [10:41] [1:16]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:33] [1:18]
s1t03. Forever Young [9:06] [1:42]
s1t04. Someday Baby [7:09] [0:47]
s1t05. Tore Up Over You [7:03] [0:02] %
s1t06. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [6:19] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:04] %

--set II (6 tracks, missing 1 tune, 52:10)--
[MISSING s2t01. Harder They Come]]
s2t02. //Tears Of Rage [#9:04] % [0:08]
s2t03. Dear Prudence [12:18] [0:07] % [0:08]
s2t04. Gomorrah/ [6:22#] %
s2t05. //Evangeline [#2:39] [0:05]
s2t06. Don't Let Go [14:28]
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:48] (1) [0:03]

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19900203-01

! db: shnid-12843 (s1 sbd, shnf), shnid-81174 (s1 aud), shnid-114060 (this fileset)

! R: Source: SBD > Line feed to hallway speakers (mono) > stealth spliced to MSC. Low gen tapes (1st or 2nd) kindly provided by Seaweed1010.

! R: Transfer: Metal cassettes > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644. Transfer by Andrew F. June 2011.

! R: seeder notes: Final twenty seconds of Tore Up patched with ID-81174. Tears of Rage cuts in during first verse, about forty-five seconds missing. Evangeline cuts in at start of JG solo, about ninety seconds missing. Tape damage in Don't Let Go at 4:00 mark, six seconds removed and ends rejoined seamlessly. It is not clear if the missing parts are to be found on the master tapes, or if the original tapes were partially cut due to the technical issues of splicing into the speaker line in the hallway, and under the watchful eyes of BGP security. Seaweed (who attended these shows) reports that "a serious game of cat and mouse" ensued between the tapers and security during this run, which might explain why the soundboard line feed tapes are so cut up. BGP apparently got wise, because hallway speakers were not used for subsequent JGB Warfield appearances later that year. Thanks to CBass for assistance with this project.

! R: overall: not great

! P: s1t01 CUTS a number of lyrical flubs. I really like the guitar work late 6 over 7. Kemper sounds amazing as usual.

! P: s1t03 FY blows the opening verse right out of the gate.

! P: s1t03 Someday Baby Jerry really doing intentional vocal work.

! R: s2t02 ToR cuts in on "you put us all aside"

! P: s2t03 DP Melvin is playing some nice piano, which had also done in ToR.

! R: s2t04 Gomorrah clips out

! R: s2t05 Evangeline cuts in

! P: overall: very sloppy. Lyrical flubs on just about every tune.

! s2t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

~~~~~~~~~~

February 4, 1990 (Sunday)
Bu MAD shnid-30811

--set I (7 tracks, 64:59)--
s1t01. //I'll Take A Melody [#8:39] [1:08]
s1t02. Get Out Of My Life Woman [8:35] [1:14]
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:31] [0:55]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:09] [0:52]
s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:16] [0:54]
s1t06. Tears Of Rage [8:01] (1) [0:08]
s1t07. Deal [8:18] (2) [0:16]

--set II (7 tracks, 64:10)--
s2t01. Let's Spend The Night Together [9:47] [0:19]
s2t02. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [6:42] [0:46]
s2t03. Think [7:09] [0:37]
s2t04. And It Stoned Me [7:49] [0:40]
s2t05. Waiting For A Miracle [6:18] [0:04]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [11:22] [0:06]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [12:12] (3) [0:16]

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19900204-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/22897 (s1ps2 sbd, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/30811 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/106933 (sbd, possibly derivative of shnid-22897); https://etreedb.org/shn/114126 (s1ps2 lower gen sbd w aud patches from this source).

! R: field recordist: Marcus Buick

! R: field recording gear: Josephson KD-200/C-603 > Aerco 20dB power supply > Panasonic SV-250 DAT master

! R: field recording location: 1st row on the floor, 1st person on the right front stack, mics at 90-100 degrees "for that extra frontal lobe type response".

! R: Transfer: Tascam DA-30 > Digital Domain VSP-P (for sample rate conversion and anti-jitter) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > hard drive > Cool Edit 2000 > Shntool > FLAC.  Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches.

! R: s1t01 ITAM cuts in; muffled, gains clarity for a moment around 40 seconds in, muffled again, levels up with more clarity 1:20. All of this probably has to do with need to stay stealth, as the blue coats got really serious in this period about busting tapers. Mics down again around 7:40, back up.

! P: s1t02 GOOMLW things kind of fall apart at the end. Jerry has been lyrically wobbly this night (also during ITAM), as he was the night previous.

! P: s1t03 STOF bass feature 6:05ff

! P: s1t05 LARLH more lyrical uncertainty

! P: s1t06 ToR here at about 4, as Jerry takes a sweet, sadly lyrical guitar turn, this version has felt the most together of the three. Not that surprising, but there it is.

! s1t06 (1) a guy near Bu is calling for "Reuben And Cherise", as a nearby woman had done earlier. I can only say that I like their thinking and endorse their request. More calls for it after Señor, and another guy wants to hear "Sitting In Limbo". I now recall that the young woman had called for "Going, Going, Gone" at some point earlier. I am trying to think of how she would have known Jerry had ever done that tune, since the '74-'75 versions maybe weren't circulating? I guess he did it at 4/10/82 solo acoustic, but it's certainly a "deep cut" kind of request.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "Be back in a little while."

! R: s2t01 LSTNT again we hear the mics probably down and maybe covered to start set II. Clarity rises markedly around 3:40.

! P: s2t02 Señor AMAZING song. God, this song. In these early versions, he takes the final "this place don't make sense to me" verse to a higher vocal register, which gives it an even more worried feeling. Wonderful.

! P: s2t03 Think good guitar tone. Good chunky fanning 5:45 range.

! P: s2t06 TLOS Jerry is off-time with some of the lyrics. I think he's trying to make things interesting, but things don't always click. He is certainly approaching these lyrics mournfully, seemingly with intention.

! P: s2t07 TUIB gets real hot in the 10 minute mark. Jerry is punctuating the wailing guitar in a unique and interesting way, so this has the nice hot tone we like, but also with some rhythmic originality.

! s1t07 (3) no salutation to close the show. Harumph.