Expressway Day: Garcia-Saunders at the Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, December 29, 1974

I woke up this morning with "Expressway (To Your Heart)" playing in my head.

Not just any Expressway, mind you. But the one played by Jerry and Merl and crew (possibly calling themselves Legion of Mary backstage and such) at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach on December 29, 1974, to end (or just about) the late show. And not just any generic representation of it, but the one  captured by "Flashback" Charlie DiSalvo using 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > into his Uher 4400, little 5" reels @ 3.75ips.

You see, way back when my digital home was DeadNetCentral (DNC), and especially the Garcia folder there (shocker). And someone with whom I have just been reconnected, but whose name is eluding my brain right now, either encouraged or brought over legendary East Coast taper Jerry Moore, who brought over his ol show-going pal Flashback Charlie. Or something like that. We also had the great Jimmy Warburton over there at times as I recall, Harvey Lubar maybe on occasion, and other folks. Again, I am foggy on the details, but somehow I got connected with all of those guys. Jerry and I got quite close, and I was lucky to work up the info files for the systematic state-of-the-art digital transfers a group was doing under the "Moore's Masters" moniker.

Charlie had made a tape that made a huge impact on me, and that was this 12/29/74b. Someone, maybe Jerry but not sure, had transferred the tape to DAT, from there it went to CD, from there it came to me, maybe via Sean Cribbs. (At some point Charlie sent me a sweet print of Bob Minkin's pic of the Jerry Band at the Cap, 11/26/77, and a print of his picture of Jerry Garcia and Friends from the Music Hall, 3/25/72, which IIRC Charlie got into by climbing up a fire escape), and I extracted the audio (using EAC with offsets corrected, etc., natch), tracked it using WavMerge and CDWav (guaranteed to cut on sector boundaries, important to us back then), and losslessly compressed it to .shn format using mkwACT. Looks like I forget to make the shn files seekable, which is a major blunder, and someone came along and re-encoded them to make them more usable. I submitted the fileset to the etree database on May 7, 2002 (I presume semester had just ended), where it still lives today as shnid-8643. I assume I circulated it in various ways, and certainly at some point uploaded it to the tol.etree.org FTP server, from where it became forever part of the arcHIVE, the brilliant, massively redundant decentralized repository of bit-perfect clones comprised by all of our collections.

Charlie became unwell, and as far as I know he is still alive, but is not reachable for me. I hope he is OK, because he was a sweet wonderful guy in my experience with him. Jimmy has told me that Charlie's tapes ended up with an ex in a divorce, may still exist, but it's not known how to get a hold of them. If anyone here has any notion of that, please drop me a line!

Charlie said this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002):

That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right.

Anyway, that tape BLEW MY MIND. It is burned into my DNA. Especially the 16+ minute version of "Expressway (To Your Heart)", which is a great Philly soul number in its own right, but which Garcia and Saunders made into a soul-jazz-funk extravagaganza (typo, but I'll keep the extra syllable in there for fun) that burns, drives, hops and grooves, and makes me want to boogie. I had listened to it a few more times over the years, then in January 2021 the GEMS crew polished it up a little bit, put it together with the early show, and circulated it anew as shnid-151373. This invited --no, practically obligated-- me to revisit the ol' favorite and I did so over a few different sessions earlier this year. 

And man does it stand up.

I lack the understanding and vocabulary to do it justice, beyond "jeepers, mister, this is really strong" and whatnot. Here are my real-time listening notes:

I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrast with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

Anyway, here on the show's 47th anniversary, I invite you to get a killer audio setup to enjoy the big stereo separation from the spread mics, settle in with your cuppa coffee or whatever, listen to Jerry and Merl and KAHN and TUTT and Martin absolutely tear it up. Kahn is especially unbelievable here, but I also find Tutt just slaying over and over again. I am not saying this would be the first 16 minutes of Jerry and Merl I would bring to the proverbial desert island, but if I got 5 such chunks it'd be in the running. Two big snaps up.

Let's all give a big shoutout to Flashback Charlie for pulling a masterpiece out of the fog. As self-appointed mayor of my imaginary Garciaville, I hereby decree December 29th to be Expressway Day in his honor. Turn it up!

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Golden Bear
306 Ocean Avenue
Huntingon Beach, CA 90740
December 29, 1974 (Sunday) Early and Late Shows
shnid-151373 GEMS Remaster and Packaging of SHNIDs 8643 and 93978

 --early show (7 tracks, 5 tunes, 83:41)--
e-t01. [0:03] That's A Touch I Like [10:54] [0:07] % [0:16]
e-t02. Favela [16:22] [0:22]
e-t03. ambience [1:35]
e-t04. You Can Leave Your Hat On [16:58] [0:35]
e-t05. Sitting In Limbo [16:26] [0:14] %
e-t06. ambience [1:07]
e-t07. I Second That Emotion [18:32] (1)

--late show (9 tracks, 6 tunes, 93:54)--
l-t08. Mystery Train [14:20] %
l-t09. ambience [1:14]
l-t10. La-La [16:47] ->
l-t11. People Make The World Go Round [428] [0:10] %
l-t12. (I'm A) Roadrunner [15:14] [0:11] %
l-t13. ambience [1:17]
l-t14. Going, Going, Gone [22:07] [0:20] %
l-t15. ambience (2) [1:15]
l-t16. Expressway (To Your Heart)// [16:32#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - electric bass;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute, percussion;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! guest: Maria Muldaur - vocals (e-t05).

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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/19741229-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19741229-02 (late)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8643 (late show, same source tape, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/17019 (same as shnid-8643, seekable shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/93978 (early show, same source tape, but via taperpat's 1st gen reel); http://etreedb.org/shn/151373 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/1bJXKA6b1Kv

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-bear-306-ocean-avenue-huntington.html

! listing: Los Angeles Free Press, December 20, 1974, p. 19;

! personnel: the female singer was long identified (e.g., in "Odds and Ends," Dead Relix 2, 1 [January-February 1975], p. 21) as Donna Jean Godchaux, but in seeding this years back I thought it sounded more like Maria. Listening to this again, definitely Maria.

! R: field recordist: [early show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [early show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! R: source tape: [early show] taperpat's 3.75ips 1st gen reel

! R: transfer: [early show] A > D by Matt Smith: Akai GX 625 playback > Apogee Mini ME (@24/96) > Apogee Mini DAC (monitoring) > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 20/44) > CD

! R: lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [early show] Track & FLAC (jj): EAC > CD Wave > Sony Sound Forge Studio 7.0 (d1t01 fade-in, d2t01-d2t02 fade-out/in, d2t03 fade-out) > Trader's Little Helper (FLAC8 encoding).

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [early show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: recollex: Taper "Flashback" Charlie Disalvo says this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002): "That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right."

! P: e-t02 Favela Martin takes the first feature, good. Jerry steps in around 6:15 and it's his turn, Martin now shaking some percussion. JG only goes three minutes, now Merl 9:15ff. Merl didn't really do much with his turn. 11:46 some muddle as to who's doing what.

! P: e-t05 SIL Garcia plucks ethereally 10.

! P: e-t07 ISTE I am not a big fan of this tune, and this version captures why, at least up to the 11 minute mark. Garcia just doesn't have much place to go with it. Martin quotes "The Entertainer" at 11:10, a second time. Silly.

! e-t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

! metadata: Late show was previously believed to be set II of a two set show, but the taper confirms that this is the late show.

! R: field recordist: [late show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [late show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [late show] MAR > ? > D > CD. Extraction using EAC, slight re-tracking using WavMerge and CD Wave, and .shn compression using mkwACT.  Proper sector boundaries verified using shntool. Seeded by jjoops@attbi.com.

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [late show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: The late show tape sounds much smoother than the early show.

! P: l-t10 La-La JG steps up 6:40 or so.

! l-t15 (2) Member of the crowd is asking "Who's on the bass?" And at least a few people recognize Expressway as it starts.

! P: l-t16 ETYH of course, having been primed by the question in note #2, I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrary with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

! R: l-t16 ETYH cuts out, probably not too much missing, though knowing Jerry I might imagine it dropping into a sweet little How Sweet to wrap up the evening's proceedings.

Da Weez

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-04-23.117598.Sennheiser421.daweez.d5scott.flac16

! db: shnid-117598
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 microphones > Sony TC-D5M
! R: field recordist: Da Weez
! R: transfer: Sony TC-D5M (original record deck) > Pre Sonus Inspire GT > Sound Forge > .wav files > Trader's Little Helper > flac files, by D5scott.

I have no idea who these gentlemen are, but taper Da Weez never made a bad tape, and the good taste in gear suggested by D5scott's name is exceeded only by the straightforward beauty of his transfers of Da Weez's masters. They all come tagged "R.I.P. Sandy - aka 'Bigfoot'", which adds a sad human note to these revelatory sonic documents.

People sometimes imply that there are no more histories to write of the Grateful Dead and affiliated phenomena, but I totally disagree (beyond my own interest in asserting the contrary). There are tapers' histories to write for example, from socio-, Cleo-, musico-, and psychoacousticotechnicoothero-metric lenses. Just think of Flashback Charlie, that even hard-edged Brooklynite Jerry Moore might have recommended for a little meditation outside the Bottom Line, or finding a backdoor broom--closet way into the Academy of Music, just down the street from the Hells Angels' clubhouse in rough mid-70s NYC, or besuited east coaster Barry Glassberg. In the Bay Area, technical genius Jaime Poris, was were joined by James Olness (later a Bill Graham archivist and printer) in the 80s, joined later by Bu and the DAT Brats (working The Rail at the Warfield), then Chuck and Janet Vasseur with the four-digit, vintage Neumanns, a pierrine digital setup and upfront acumen. There's a book right there.

I just wanted to take a minute to give a thought to all involved. Da Weez went to the show and taped, not a cheap or trivial proposition. Sounds like Sandy (RIP) was around. At the very least, D5scott has taken the time, lending gear and skill to transfer the tapes. Tom Anderson's db.etree and Brewster Kahle's archive.org, helped along by casts of countless volunteers, help us fingerprint the fileset and hear it at any time from wherever you are. Deadlists keeps a canonical reference from The List of ca. early 2000s. The ArcHIVE, consisting of thousands of decentralized copies held by fans and collectors everywhere, relentlessly propagates itself, inter alia through "eternal flame reseeds at the torrent site Lossless Legs (shnflac.net). And, literally, on and on It goes: the parameter I'd use to state Its temporal limit asymptotically approaches the limit of humanity itself.

In other news, "Alabama Getaway" sprints out all flared nostrils and deep, grungy guitar from the first break, coked-out and scatterbrained. There's an "Funniculi Finnicula" tease before "Candyman", and Jerry sounds frisky.

GD 6/23/74 Jai Alai Fronton

Play it loud.

https://archive.org/details/gd1974-06-23.akgd1000e.moore.berger.105755.flac24
Sard Thee Well, Jerry Moore.

Only Grateful Dead version of "Let It Rock".

Interviewed by Ken Wardell 6/8/74 backstage after the Dead's Oakland Coliseum show, Garcia talked about the tune, which he put on Compliments:

One of the reasons that we did that song was that, in my opinion, that’s Chuck Berry’s most economical tune. It only has three short verses, and no catchy refrain that made a lot of his other songs popular. And it’s just a direct, hard, simple narrative. It says what it says, and it’s dynamic, and it’s all of that. It’s just a beautiful piece of rock n roll poetry, whatever that is. That’s what that song is to me. The lyrics to it are incredible.

JGB 9/15/76 S.S. Duchess, New York City Harbor, New York, NY

The relationship between the Grateful Dead and the Hells Angels has been pretty well discussed, though I am sure there's tons more to say. That's for others to do.

Here I'll just note that Garcia also worked with the Angels outside the GD framework. I have made a few posts with Hells Angels content. I don't have time to work it all out, but I am not going to let that stop me saying something, anyway.

In 2009 I briefly discussed the Hells Angels benefit at the Anderson Theatre in NYC on 11/23/70, NRPS-GD, mostly to update the setlists.  In 2011 I mentioned 3/25/72 at the Academy of Music in NYC, including this great picture of Bo Diddley and the Dead (billed as Jerry Garcia and Friends), at least parts of which were released as Dick's Pick's 30 (2003).

Jerry Garcia and Friends, 3/25/72, Academy of Music, NYC; photo by Chuck Pulin, published in Carr, Patrick. 1972b. One Full Week Running With: Grateful Dead. Grapevine (Toronto) no. 14, May 17, 1972, p. 15.

At some point I'll write up 9/5/73, on the S.S. Bay Belle, Jerry and Merl's first east coast performance.

Right now, I just want to pick my jaw up off the floor at the video that has just hit the streets: The Jerry Garcia Band aboard the S.S. Duchess, New York City Harbor, 9/15/76 [Jerrybase] in high quality color video:

Amazing. Thanks to all involved in getting this to where a schmoe like me can see it, from pretty much anywhere pretty much at any time. Like so much other great stuff, this was seeded by "Voodoonola". A tip o' the cap to you, sir or madam.

(Also of note: video of JGB playing "Not Fade Away" on the Jersey Shore, 7/9/77, also shared to Youtube. I have noted an audio listen to that, as well as the night before at the Calderone Concert Hall. I can't wait to watch it.)

This show offers awesome triangulation possibilities.

There are posters (IM's amazing poster site had one, but is no longer updated past 1976).

There are live action stills and other eye candy:

Pirates' Ball 9/15/76 photo spread, photogs Craig Silverman, Patricia, Ron Gaiella, Yipster Times, October 1976, p. 24.

Naturally enough, this being the Garciaverse, there's also tape. The legendary Ohr Weinberg had a cassette copy of unknown provenance, which Anne Cohen digitized and shared (shnid-86326).

Finally, there's also a great review:

! review: Moore, Jerry. 1976c. 6 Hours Before the Mast. Relix 3, 6 (October): 14-16. [pdf].

Moore tells us all kinds of neat stuff. This was a Hells Angels party, but adventurous public could join in at $15 a head. That would explain the posters. 2,000, including a couple hundred Angels, took part. By the way, this is the same vessel they cruised in 1973, just rechristened, and it reflects a second triple-crossing of the Garciaverse, Bo Diddley and the Angels (after the aforementioned 3/25/72, and penultimate to the Sandy Alexander Benefit crossing of 6/25/82).

More Jerry color (Sard Thee Well!):

In all that freaky crowd, the Angels were the freakiest. The first thing that hit you was that most of them were pretty big, inspiring awe by size alone. Their garb ran mostly to oily denim and leather, the kind of clothing that makes your nose wish it were in some other state. Naturally, they all wore their colors. Tattoos seem to be almost as popular among the Angels as motorcycles. Scars, missing limbs, and prosthetic devices (hooks and such) were very much in evidence, as were weapons ranging from knives to brass knuckles and chains. One Angel in particular, I wish I had a picture of. He was well over 6 feet tall, and must have weighed over 300 pounds. He was wearing only a·vest over his oily denims, and, wherever he went, his stomach preceded him by feet. He was so festooned with chains that he clanked with every step he took. He was so greasy and ugly that he was beautiful, a veritable human tank.

Moore describes four decks set up with nitrous tanks (free if you could fight your way in), packed bars and food services, speakers everywhere, and TV monitors "with a phenomenal color picture of the performance" (video - check!).

Moore narrates a few things which are confirmed by the video. (Indeed, one wonders if ol' JM didn't have a copy of the video? He always did have a remarkably good memory for stuff, though.) He notes "a rather stoned Angel stumbled onto the stage during the Garcia Band set, seizing control of a microphone long enough to drawl out 'Hey folks some cookin' music. Get it on with that boogie beat there,'" which we do get on the video. He also says, cheekily, "Jerry has a funny little trick of rotating his ass in circles to cue" the amazing, upbeat gospel "Mighty High" [Allan | deaddisc | Jerrybase], and there Garcia is on video, shaking his tail.

The order was an apparently forgettable Bay Area band called Cheyenne, Elephant's Memory, then Bo Diddley backed by EM, then, from 11:55-2:05 or so (actually 2:07 am), the Garcia Band. Jerry mentions a hot "Midnight Moonlight", which is not on the video. I need to revisit that.

I'll just finish with a few quick thoughts on what I got out of watching this incredible video, bullet-style.

• John Kahn mostly can't be heard, which would be familiar from later years. This is basically intended as a criticism.
• Nice to see Ronnie Tutt banging the start of "Mighty High"
• Nice to see Donna Jean singing the beautiful stuff she was doing this period behind "Stir It Up", her groove on "After Midnight", and her power on "Mighty High".
• "Mighty High" (Crawford, Downing) was, per Allan, "originally recorded by The Mighty Clouds of Joy and later covered by Gloria Gaynor". JGB only played it in 1976, it is my favorite song of 1976, and this video is breathtaking. It cuts out only a minute or two in, and as much as I want to lament the Cut Of Death, I must celebrate the couple of minutes that we do get. It's not present on Ohr's old tape, and here we get to listen and watch. Wonderful, amazing, glorious stuff. Thank you, Jay-zuss!

No Donna Tough Mama

LN jg1977-07-08.jgb.early.aud-moore-minches.21478.shn2flac

I like this show a lot.

Donna Jean is not present. Who sings harmonies?

Jerry Garcia Band
Calderone Concert Hall
145 N. Franklin Street
Hempstead, NY 11550
July 8, 1977 (Friday) - Early Show (scheduled 8 PM)
definitive Moore shnid-21478 shn2flac

--(8 tracks, 92:34)--
t01. [0:12] Sugaree [15:28] [3:00]
t02. Stop That Train [13:00] [0:11] % [2:57]
t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [13:48] [0:15] % [0:10] %
t04. crowd % and % tuning [1:18]
t05. That's What Love Will Make You Do [12:25] [0:25] % [0:09]
t06. Mystery Train [10:18] [0:16] % [0:14] % [1:26]
t07. Friend Of The Devil [8:43] [0:29] % [0:28]
t08. Tough Mama [8:00] [0:23] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3a
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, organ, vocals;
! Lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, ?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/19770708-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/21478 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/17054 (deprecated). Since the Jerry Moore tape is the only one ever to have surfaced, all other versions are deprecated by this fileset.

! map: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=145+N.+Franklin+Street+Hempstead,+NY+11550&num=100&client=firefox-a&hnear=145+N+Franklin+St,+Hempstead,+New+York+11550&gl=us&t=h&z=16

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/calderone-music-hall-145-n-franklin-st.html

! band: JGB #3a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). This is the basic 1976-77 Keith and Donna version of the JGB, except that Donna Jean Godchaux does not appear to be present. There are some high harmonies during Stop That Train and Friend of the Devil that I thought were her, but now I don't think so. I think Keith Godchaux and Ron Tutt are covering the harmonies.

! historical: Sue: Wage for the two shows: $12,500 guarantee plus 60% total gross receipts over $32,500, with gross potential $38,400. TJS historical listing said The Persuasions opened. Variety (July 13, 1977, p. 54) reports gross of $42,496 and SRO for the two shows.

! R: recorded by Jerry Moore (RIP), 2x Sony ECM-33P > Sony TC-152 (master cassettes, unnoted media); cassette > cdigital: Nakamichi Dragon playback > ART DI/O > Waveterminal 2496 sound card > Hard Drive Tracking in Cool Edit 2000 > master CD Burned with Feurio Error > undetermined extraction, checked with SHNTOOL > mkwACT (wav > shn compression), by David Minches; shn > flac, notation and tagging by jgmf, 2012.

! R: Among the many amazing things about a Jerry Moore tape is that we can engage the show almost in real time.

! P: t02 Stop That Train starts with Keith's vocals (or is that Tutt?) very prominently upfront as they do the chorus at the start of the song. I don't think Keith wants it that way, but there it is, and he makes the best of it. He is quavery, clearly lacking confidence, but his heart is in it and I love him for his singing here. Donna comes in a little bit, but barely audible. Again on the subsequent choruses, Keith is quite present and Donna is absent. Keith is playing organ during Stop That Train, whereas he had been playing piano during Sugaree.

! P: t03 STOF Keith is playing organ, very interesting.

! P: t03 STOF Jerry is a little bit all over the register vocally, like he just can't decide which key works best.

! R: t03 STOF splice @ 13:19, very brief.

! t04 @ 0:52 some dude says, clear as a bell, "'That's What Love Will Make You Do', Jerry" and he's the guy who called it and is probably soaking up the formation of his legend as TWLWMYD unwinds itself.

! P: t05 TWLWMYD reminds us that we're not necessarily in a rush. Lay back and groove a little bit. This version operates right in your midsection, deeply settled in right from the get-go. @ 3 minutes in, Garcia's guitar has almost a synthesizer sound to it. Keith is back on piano for a little solo late in the six-minute mark. @ 7:15: Hello, Mr. Tutt, I am well, thank you.
! song: That's What Love Will Make You Do (t05):

! P: t06 Mystery Train: You have to admit, it's pretty freaking cool to see Garcia doing Mystery Train with Elvis's drummer.  And holy moley, within the first two and a half minutes John Kahn has hit some positively huge pulls. Keep listening to him into the 3-minute mark, my friends. The man could play bass. He sounds like Jellyroll Troy here a little bit.

! P: t07 FOTD there's a crowd cheer, maybe Donna coming on? She has been offstage all night. I wonder if Jerry called her out to be his friend, as it were. Or maybe it's Mr. Tutt doing the high singing? John Kahn does another good and long bass run @ ca. 3:40.

! song: "Tough Mama" (t08): [Allan | deaddisc | JB]. Jerry played it a million times in 1974-1975 (in JGMS, LOM and the Hopkins JGB), and twice in early 1976 with Keith and Donna, and then shelved it for five years with one random appearance, on July 8, 1977. Twice in summer 1981, twice in fall 1982, five times in 1990, and that’s it. This is a very unusual pattern, suggestive of a song that Jerry absolutely loved, since he kept trying it with many different personnel configurations across a long period of time. The fact that it never stuck suggests that there’s just something that didn’t quite work. Dylan’s Planet Waves (1974) is so brilliant, and Robbie Robertson’s guitar so urgent and compelling across the album, it’s sometimes hard to hear this material any other way, I guess, though some of Jerry’s versions are really, really nice.

! P: t08 Tough Mama again pulling out some big sounds in the 2-3 minute range, while Keith runs with a really nice piano solo. John is hammering deep, more pulls and upward runs.

! historical: Four shows in two days for John Scher, two this night, two the next night on the Boardwalk, head home. For these July 8 shows, Looks like $12,500 guarantee plus 60% over $32,500, with gross potential of $38,400. So it'd be about $15k for a sellout.

'Jerry, is it really ovah?' JGMS at the Bottom Line, November 6, 1974 (early show)

LN jg1974-11-06.jgms.early.aud-moore.117248.flac2496

Garcia’s first professional tour as a named headliner outside the Grateful Dead comprised twenty-one performances over the thirteen days between Tuesday, November 5, 1974 and Sunday, November 17, 1974, inclusive. The first three nights of the tour unfolded at the Bottom Line, 15 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012, two shows per night. So much to process, I can only do the raw “listening notes” dump without much analysis.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

Bottom Line

15 West 4th Street

New York, NY 10012

November 6, 1974 (Wednesday), early show

flac2496 of Jerry Moore audience recording

--Complete Early Show (8 tracks, 97:01)--

t01. crowd and tuning [2:08]

t02. Think [9:04] (1) [2:33]

t03. Valdez In The Country [12:58] (2, 3) [2:38]

t04. (4) I Second That Emotion [16:45] [0:22] % [2:49]

t05. You Can Leave Your Hat On [13:12] (5) [1:50]

t06. Someday Baby [9:32] (6) [1:02]

t07. Mystery Train [13:00] [0:15] % (7) [1:16]

t08. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [6:55] (8) [0:39]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: Paul Humphrey - 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/19741106-01

! db: shnid-6613 (uncertain provenance of same master tape); shnid-16807 (Moore's Masters 2003 seed of same master tape).

! R: "Recorded by Jerry Moore; 2x AKG D1000E > Sony TC-152; Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nakamichi Dragon > Korg MR-1000 (DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo]) Korg AudioGate > WAV [24/96] > Adobe Audition 3.0 > FLAC encoding. Speed/pitch Correction by Joe B. Jones. Thanks to Rob Berger for supplying the master cassettes."

! R: Provenance. Perfect provenance for a quite wonderfully wonderful recording. Quite simply, Jerry Moore was doing it right out on the East Coast. Garcia / GD fans owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Jerry and everyone whose scene he shared. Thanks to all involved in getting this into my ears. Sard Thee Well, JM.

! R: quality: This is quite an excellent audience recording.

! Historical: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders undertook their first out-of-state tour in November 1974. Opened with three nights, six shows at the Bottom Line in NYC. This is third show (second night, early show). NB Paul Humphrey drumming.

! t02 (1) crowd requests for Positively 4th Street, Expressway. 4th Street would be well-known in all kinds of ways to the crowd, not least Dylan and the fact that it appeared on the Live at the Keystone album (Fantasy F-79002, 1973). As the crowd member reminds Jerry @ 10:27, "You're playin' on 4th Street." Expressway To Your Heart [Allan | Scofield] is a little less obvious, though of course it did appear on Merl Saunders's Fire Up (Fantasy 9421, 1973). My point is that this is your typical smart (or at least knowledgeable), engaged NYC audience.

! P: t03 VITC comes out at a breakneck pace, much faster than it was played on other occasions. Merl's lead in the 8-minute mark is very nice. The high-hatting @ 8:26 is something that I think might distinguish Humphrey from any other contemporary drummers, as we try to sort out who's who on any given night. All of these guys were good --they *always* had good drummers-- but I love Humphrey's style.

! t03 @ 13:20-13:30 (2) taper talk: "turn 'em over" "90" ... Jerry and someone else (maybe Harvey Lubar?) are discussing the tape flip.

! t03 R: maybe a tape flip @ 14:13?

! t03 @ 15:10 (3) crowd guy, loud: "Jerry, is it really ovah?" @ 15:19 Jerry: "It's always been over, man."

! t04 (4) crowd member identifies "I Second That Emotion" right in time, and everyone gets a little extra jolt, band included.

! P: t05 You Can Leave Your Hat On: Garcia is playing powerfully and inventively in the 9-10 min range. This is some of the better deep jamming to have occurred in this song by this band. I also like the relatively brisk pace at which they play the song here. It took them awhile to figure tempos on the Merl lead vocals.

! t05 (5) notice the rambunctious crowd. Calling songs, all that. I hear calls for "Bertha" and "Like A Road", inter alia. “Like A Road” request suggests to me that this guy has spent some time with Garcia-Saunders-Kahn-Vitt Live at the Keystone.

! t06 (6) crowd requests: The Harder They Come, Turn On The Bright Lights (from the second Garcia album, colloquially known as Compliments [Round RX 102, released June 1974]).

! business: They certainly weren’t “touring behind” any particular record, except in Garcia’s rather circuitous way. But someone (not necessarily excluding Garcia, but presumably including Ron Rakow), somewhere, at some point, or several of each of these, conceived of this tour as a way to sell records. Notes (5) and (6) above remind me note only that Garcia had a stake in Round Records, but of Corry’s important recent work on the economics of the Garcia-Saunders-Kahn relationship.

! P: t07 Mystery Train the drummer messes up the tempo at the start, so Jerry has to play his 'lectric guitar for a few measures to get them set up for the verse, which comes in around 52 seconds in. It’s a nice minute of playing as they try to get things together.

! t07 (7) tune requests: Like a Road.

! t08 (8) JG: "Thank you. See ya all later."

jgmf.blogspot.com

The April 1975 Legion of Mary Tour

LN jg1975-04-10.lom.early.aud-moore.117250.flac2496

In April 1975, Legion of Mary (Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, Martin Fierro, John Kahn and Ronnie Tutt) went on its only tour, performing, by my count, twenty-five shows in the seventeen days between April 4^th and April 20^th (inclusive). They started in Brooklyn, spent a bunch of time in the core Northeast (New York, Boston, Philly), down a bit further south (Washington, Atlanta) and up to the upper Midwest (Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison), mostly playing mid-size clubs and theaters.

There is a great deal to say about this tour, and I’ll only be able to scratch the surface here. My overarching point would be to remark on the degree of institutionalization represented by this tour by this band. Not only is there a set tour (which the innominate Garcia-Saunders aggregation had test-flown in November 1974), but it’s with a band with a name and fixed membership. It’s not really that surprising – the GD was on hiatus, and there was space for a formalized alternative Garcia outlet—but it is noteworthy. Remember that Garcia had only toured outside the Grateful Dead three times prior to this: January 1972 behind Hooteroll?, briefly (and I think abortively) with Old and In the Way in June 1973, and the November 1974 Garcia-Saunders tour. Looking through the other end of the telescope, this would be the final time Garcia would tour behind a non-GD band that wasn’t eponymous --$5 word … “bearing his name”. When next he returned to the Northeast, he’d be in front of the newly-christened Jerry Garcia Band, which, with tiny variations (e.g., Jerry Garcia and John Kahn) is the name under which he’d cross time zones for the rest of his too-short life when not playing with the Grateful Dead.

The core of the tour, to my reckoning, was a three-night, six-show run (April 8-10) spent at the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, New York, NY, 10012. I should certainly say more about this venue, but Corry has said more than I could, anyway. [see also Jerry's Brokendown Palaces entry for the Bottom Line.] The shows were promoted by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, as indicated by this ticket for the Thursday (April 10) late show, which I believe has been shared at the Merl Saunders Facebook page.

Jerry and Merl had played the Bottom Line twice before, with the July 1-3, 1974 standalone shows (i.e., not part of a tour), and the full November 1974 tour, which had featured the great Paul Humphrey on drums. Somewhere I came across something that said the July shows were envisaged as a dry run for the November tour, but now I can’t find the source. I have more to say about the November tour as well, which features some naming and billing variations that interest me (to say nothing of some pretty decent music). I have already discussed it once in terms of when it ended, but there’s lots, lots more to say.

What fascinates me about the April Bottom Line shows, for whatever reason, is that, as far as I can tell, they went totally unadvertised. If the Grateful Dead have come to be seen as pioneers for what we would now call viral marketing, it’s worth noting that the first extensions beyond that group may have been to Garcia’s side projects. The Bottom Line’s standing ads in the Village Voice just sort of skipped over these three nights (see the issues of March 31, 1975, p. 114, and April 7, 1975, p. 106). Yet the shows quickly sold out (can’t find a cite for that, but I think there is one) and one of them, the Tuesday (April 8) late show, was even reviewed in the New York Times (John Rockwell, “Legion of Mary Fans Cheer Band’s Winning Music,” New York Times, April 10, 1975, p. 47). Again, it’s no big deal, but it just fascinates me as a slight deviation from the otherwise pretty straight institutionalization of the whole affair.

My own judgment has long been that these April 1975 shows are not that great, and revisiting this April 10^th early show as taped by the late, great Jerry Moore does little to dissuade me from that view. Stevie Wonder’s “Creepin’” [Allan] is an interesting novelty, and this version shows some promise, but it never really takes off. Two of the Garcia selections on this night, “It Ain’t No Use” and Jesse Winchester’s “Every Word You Say” [Allan | Schofield], are among my least favorite tunes from the period and just don’t do much for me. The Merl Saunders vocals, “My Problems Got Problems” [Allan | Schofield] (credited on Fire Up+ to Saunders and Carrier) and another great Stevie song, “Boogie On Reggae Woman” [Allan | Schofield] are both a little off, especially the former. It starts off with all kinds of whacked out tempos, way too fast for Merl to keep up with lyrically, and it never really settles in. It ends with kind of a thud after Merl tries, unsuccessfully, to improvise some lyrics to fit the unfamiliar tempo. They pull BORW together a little bit better, albeit after a rough start.

(Aside: I love how Merl got Jerry to play Stevie Wonder tunes. Both “Creepin’” and “Boogie On Reggae Woman” appeared on Fulfillingness’ First Finale [1974]. A propos of nothing, that album also has a track titled “It Ain’t No Use”, but it’s not the same as the Jerry Williams / Gary U.S. Bonds / Don Hollinger track played by Garcia and figuring in the present show’s setlist.)

The only real standout, to my ears – and it is a standout—is Dylan’s “The Wicked Messenger” [Allan | Schofield]. I have no idea where Garcia got the idea to turn this song into a raunchy, grinding, wailing electric guitar dysphony … had someone else covered it this way before? If Dylan’s album version featured a country lilt to contrast the grim lyrics, Garcia’s version met darkness with darkness. It’s a biting, metallic display of anger and virtuosity, not quite the equal of the version from the Great American Music Hall on May 15, 1975 (featured on the bonus disc Absolute Mary), but still a show-stealer and well worth ten minutes of anybody’s time.

All right, listening notes follow. Thanks again to Jerry Moore (RIP, STW), Rob Berger and David Minches for getting this great recording into the ears of the masses.

Legion of Mary

Bottom Line
15 West Fourth Street
New York, NY, 10012

April 10, 1975 (Thursday) Early Show

Moore Minches shnid-117250

(7 tracks, 85:29)

t01. ambience [1:08]

t02. It Ain't No Use [12:20] [1:38]

t03. Creepin' [13:36] [1:07] % [0:33]

t04. My Problems Got Problems [14:42] [2:06]

t05. Every Word You Say [7:24] [0:11] % [2:37]

t06. The Wicked Messenger [10:10] [1:44]
t07. Boogie On Reggae Woman [15:45] [0:24]

! ACT1: Legion of Mary
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: Ron Tutt - 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/19750410-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/14209 (earlier transfer of same tape).

! R: field recordist: Jerry Moore

! R: field recording gear: 2x AKG D1000E > Sony TC-152

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nakamichi Dragon > Korg MR-1000 (DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo]) Korg AudioGate > WAV [24/96] > Adobe Audition 3.0 > FLAC encoding. Speed/pitch Correction by Joe B. Jones. Thanks to Rob Berger for supplying the master cassettes.

! R: this is the only known recording of this show as of 11/2011. It's a characteristically excellent Jerry Moore tape.

! t03 Creepin' they find a nice little groove from 4:53 around Garcia's solo. This has real promise. It's better than the 2/14/75version I just listened to. It even swings a little bit.

! t04 PGP they have the tempo way too fast for Merl, and generally. Around the 12-minute mark they are completely lost, Merl trying to improvise through a tempo that he just doesn't have a handle on, not that successfully.

! P: t06 WM I love the raunchy tone Jerry gets on this during his first solo, late 1-min to early 2-min mark. And he is still shredding in the early 3-min mark. Wow, this is very heavy stuff.

! P: t07 BORW starts off a little rough again, things just out of sync.

! R: t07 some bumping of the microphone early in BORW.

Punch in, mail it in for 90 minutes, punch out and party some more: JGB at the Cap Passaic, 11/26/77b

LNjg1977-11-26.jgb.late.anderson.85051.flac1644

Something told me I wanted to listen to something from the Cats Under the Stars- era sextet of Garcia, Kahn, Buzz Buchanan, Keith and Donna Godchaux, and Maria Muldaur, and I wanted it to be a recording I hadn't made notes on. So, here's what I found: 11/26/77, late show.

psilo.com

This is a pretty subpar performance, IMO. And while I do not endorse the great Jerry Moore's feelings about this late '77 east coast tour, it's never a bad time to see and read what comes off his hand.

"Five Nasty Thoughts on the Jerry Garcia Band," by Jerry Moore, Relix 5, 1 (March-April 1978), p. 33.

I believe I got this scan from Jerry himself, although I can't remember. Anyway, Jerry's "Five Nasty Thoughts" include classics #1 ("The drummer has to go") and #3:

The Garcia Band plays too fucking slow. You can run to the bathroom to piss, buy a magazine, smoke a joint and drink a beer in the lobby, and get back to your seat, all between two notes in one of Garcia's livelier solos.

I do think Jerry is being too harsh, especially on Buzz Buchanan. Looks like the guy had warmup gigs on November 15-16, 1977 at the Keystone, Berkeley (note Tues-Wed night: classic pattern for breaking in a new bandmember; either get off the beaten path, or play a slow night, or both). The GD didn't get back from the east coast until the 7th (TWA 389, scheduled to land @ 3:56 pm), so there wasn't lots of time to rehearse, I'd bet. It's more a band thing than a drummer thing. I think the slow tempos are probably derivative of these "timing" issues, not separate from them.

For a little more on this tour, see these posts:

• The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs  
• JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities 
• LN19771203 JGB Binder Gym Hartwick College Oneonta NY

For this show, looks like John Scher had a pretty good night (though not a sellout): $49,432 gross on 6,912 tickets for the two shows (Billboard, December 10, 1977, p. 48). Sounds like the crowd is having a great time. But it sounds like Jerry and crew are mailing this one in, at least to this listener's ears.

Jerry Garcia Band
Capitol Theatre
Passaic, NJ
November 26, 1977 (Saturday)
Late show, 11 pm, $7.50

Disc One (4 tracks, 41:52)
d1t01. John Scher introduction (1) [0:45], Let It Rock [8:34] [0:30] % [0:36]
d1t02. Love In The Afternoon [9:12] %% [0:49]
d1t03. Midnight Moonlight [9:43] [0:30] % [0:28]
d1t04. Russian Lullaby [10:30] [0:17] %

Disc Two (5 tracks, 46:04)
d2t01. % ramp up [0:19], Tore Up [7:37] [0:37] % [0:19]
d2t02. Gomorrah [6:46] [0:14] % [0:18]
d2t03. The Harder They Come [9:42] [0:31] % [0:13]
d2t04. Mission In The Rain [7:21] [0:38]
--encore--
d2t05. % Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [11:03] [0:24] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals.

Field Recordist: Jim Anderson;
Field Recording Location: unknown;
Field Recording equipment: ?2x? AKG D200E mics > Sony TC-152 cassette deck
Subsequent lineage: > 1 cassette gen > SBM1 > CDR > EAC > CD Wave > FLAC, transfered by Rob Berger.

Berger's Notes:
- fair aud but no cuts;
- thanks to Dave Carey for the source tapes.

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/19771126-02

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/85051/ (this recording); http://etreedb.org/shn/76486/ (unattributed aud)

! R: as Berger says, I'd characterize this as a fair aud. Thanks to Jim Anderson for taping and sharing.

! d1t01 @ 0:10 (1) John Scher introduction: "Good evening. A new member of our band, on drums, Mr. Buzz Buchanan. On keyboards, Mr. Keith Godchaux. ... [inaudible] ... Ms. Maria Muldaur. On bass, the inimitable, the incredible Mr. John Kahn! ... [Garcia intro inaudible due to crowd cheering]"

! R: things get off to a rough start, way overloaded at the start of LIR

! d1t01 crowd is definitely enthusiastic ...

! P: d1t02 LITA Jerry can barely sing here, holy smokes. They aren't even halfway through the tour yet, and his voice is blown - ouch. And he's not really hitting the lyrics very well, either. Sheesh. Not sure why the crowd is so appreciative.

! P: d1t03 Buzzy Buchanan is having a hard time with the pacings ... Jerry has to start Midnight Moonlight. This is a too-slow version, IMO, though it has an interesting place in the setlist. I really wonder how much they rehearsed ol' Buzzy.

! d1t04 Russ Lull has the bass solo 4:45 ... it's actually pretty good.

! Lots of "Jerry!!!" yelling from the crowd. STFU, dude.

! P: d2t03 HTC it takes them 18 seconds to get the tempo right before they can start the song.

! P: d2t05 I even find this LAALWFH flaccid ... WTF?

! P: my overall impression on this listen (3/18/2011) is that this show is pretty weak. Punch in, mail it in for 90 minutes, punch out and party some more.