Farewell to Ronnie at the Rainbow: JGB in Denver, November 19, 1981

LN jg1981-11-19.jgb.all.aud-unk-vamarty.25792.shn2flac

If Garcia's local gigs paid for his smokes and such, his east coast jaunts paid the big bills. In the book I will try to narrate coherently (ha!) that late 1981 through 1982 showed Garcia trying to straighten out his financial and business affairs (including a relatively local early 1982 "tax tour" that never really materialized). I have myself persuaded that the "Return of Ron Tutt" tour of late 1981, mostly in the eastern time zone before working back through Chi and Denver, forms part of this initiative. Even at this late date, Garcia, Kahn and Tutt (dba Jerry Garcia Band) faced tax liens and unpaid bills, and an out-of-town run could have provided what for to reconcile everything. Ronnie also worked on Run for the Roses, and though I don't have much precise session information for that record this presumably also involved him getting paid.

These out-of-town tours fascinate me, not least because they often give the lie to the art-commerce tradeoff, with some great music accompanying the ever-expanding paydays as the years went on. I should compile my various tour posts and bring together some summary judgment on the progression of things, but that might have to wait for actual time to write. I know I have said some explicit stuff about the 11/74, 4/75, 11-12/77, 2/80, and 11-12/83 tours. Just gotta poke around, and all that.

The fall '81 tour is not one I have any inside information about on the commerce side, though I estimate that JGB #14b's swan song, this tour of 19 gigs in 20 nights, grossed about a half million dollars. 

I have written a fair number of listening reports, often connecting to Ron Tutt and sometimes to Pete Rowan:

• 10/31/81: "JGB: Halloween 1981"
• 11/3/81: "Nothing to Write Home About on a Charlie Miller Birthday Show" 
• 11/4/81: "Positively Garcia and the East Coast Deadhead"
• 11/10/81b: "BOAT TWYDTTYD: JGB, Palladium, November 10, 1981 (late show)"
• 11/13/81: "Ronnie's and Rowan's Returns"
• 11/15/81: "Ronnie's Return, Pete's Payoff: JGB in Provy, November 15, 1981"
• 11/17/81: "Old Folks at Home for a Very Long Show: JGB at the Uptown, November 17, 1981"
• 11/19/81: this post

There are some monster performances here, especially, it seems to me, on the back end. Chicago on 11/17/81 has such a long second set (almost 90 minutes) that it was long thought to be a complete late show (i.e., separately ticketed). The windy citizens certainly got their money's worth that night. And the gig in question is another big one, though not as big as we used to think. Forever and ever, 11/19/81 at the Rainbow in Denver was thought to have been one of the only three-set Jerry Band shows (maybe 12/31/75 is the only one that actually happened?). But, as I have long suspected, and can now demonstrate, it was actually an early show and a two-set late show. The smoking gun comes from Mike Cutler, who sent along scans of his ticket stubs, which I reproduce below.

Regardless, this is a kickass show. I *really* wish I could listen blind to stuff, because I worry that knowing it's his last gig leads me to hear Ronnie Tutt playing as well as he ever had with Jerry. About six minutes into the early show-closing "Deal", the band opens the song up in a way I don't really recall hearing before. (Maybe it was always like that in this period, and I haven't noticed or have forgotten.) Things get really spacious and open, I hear Ronnie doing some very inventive stuff, almost like he and Garcia are duetting for awhile. This piece is very worth your ear time. I note Tutt specifically again in the late show's opening set versions of "I'll Take A Melody" ("Tutt is playing so well ... incredible 10:30 ish - so inventive!") and "Harder They Come" ("Ronnie sounds great ... Tutt is on fire!"). During "Dixie Down", toward the end of the show, Tutt spends some time playing a march which is just about the perfect Civil War beat. All it needs is a little fife for color. Again, I don't recall ever having heard him do this.

Garcia sounds great too, in good voice, working carefully with his lyrics, and playing that incendiary 1981 guitar of his. Like so many others from '81, Ronnie's farewell at the Rainbow will reward whatever ear-time you can give it.

Jerry Garcia Band
Rainbow Music Hall
6358 East Evans Avenue
Denver, CO 80222
November 19, 1981 (Thursday) - early (7:30 PM) and late (10:30 PM) shows
aud vamarty shnid-25792 shn2flac rename

Mike Cutler's ticket stub from JGB 11/19/81 early show

--early show (7 tracks, 59:55)--
e-t01. Sugaree [10:01] [0:02] %
e-t02. [0:04] I Second That Emotion [9:36] [0:02] %
e-t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [7:49] %
e-t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [13:35] %
e-t05. [0:07] /Sitting In Limbo/ [#10:12#] %
e-t06. /Deal [#8:33] (1)

--late show, set I (6 tracks, 55:26)--
l-s1-t01. //TWYDTTYD [#6:42] [0:05] %
l-s1-t02. [0:31] ITAM [12:44] [0:06]
l-s1-t03. [0:04] % [0:18] (I'm A) Roadrunner [5:50] [0:08] %
l-s1-t04. [0:10] Valerie [6:41] [0:02] %
l-s1-t05. /Mississippi Moon [#11:05] [0:04] %
l-s1-t06. Harder They Come [10:55] (2) [0:05]

Mike Cutler's ticket stub from JGB 11/19/81 late show

--late show, set II (4 tracks, 39:03)--
l-s2-t01. [0:25] Mission In The Rain [8:57] [0:02] %
l-s2-t02. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:01] ->
l-s2-t03. Dear Prudence [11:04] ->
l-s2-t04. Tangled Up In Blue [10:29] (3) [0:05]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric keyboards;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! lineup: Julie Stafford - vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires - vocals.

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/19811119-01 (early) and https://jerrybase.com/events/19811119-02 (late).

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/25792 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/116909 (early-p, late-p, flac1644).

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

! JGBP: URL http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/rainbow-music-hall-east-evans-avenue.html

! preview: "Jerry Garcia Band to appear at Denver's Rainbow Music Hall Nov. 19," Gazette-Telegraph (Colorado Springs, CO), November 6, 1981, p. 8E

! caption: Gazette-Telegraph (Colorado Springs, CO), November 13, 1981, p. 10E

! personnel: Jerry's last live performance with Ronnie Tutt.

! metadata: this traveled forever as a single three-set show. But Mike Cutler's ticket stubs confirm a single early set and a two-set late show.

! setlist: The setlist still has some fuzziness. First, old lists long included a TLEO between Sugaree and ISTE in the early show. It fits pretty plausibly there, but Cutler didn't remember it there and it is not on the tape. Unless more tape shows up, it's hard to know. We no longer list it at Jerrybase. Second, Mike and friends recalled the late show as two five-song sets, with ITAM not appearing second in set 1, but leading off set 2. Their notations on the back of the ticket stub had it in the former position, crossed out, and then in the latter position. We will leave it where it is on the tape (late show set 1, second song) and hope that another master comes forward to shed more light.

! R: unknown aud, shn2flac and rename by jgmf 9/5/2020. Not bad at all, all things considered. The drums sound amazing. A layer of his becomes more noticeable to me late 5, but maybe it was there and I just wasn't paying close attention. By STOF, the hiss is thick as SF summer fog.

! P: e-t04 TWLWMYD Tutt is killing here! bass feature 6:49ff

! R: e-t04 STOF drop @ 3:43

! P: e-t06 Deal interesting. It gets quiet late 6, Tutt does some amazing shit, and this version is really open here for a bit. Unusual!! It's like Jerry and Ronnie duetting, almost.

! e-t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

! R: l-s1-t01 TWYDTTYD cuts in

! P: l-s1-t02 ITAM JG sounds good, committed to these lyrics late 3. God, Tutt is playing so well. Incredible 10:30 ish - so inventive!

! P: l-s1-t04 Valerie very slowly paced for this tune early in its tenure. Love it!

! R: l-s1-t05 Miss Moon clips in

! P: l-s1-t06 HTC man oh man, Ronnie sounds great, Jerry sounds great here in the 3 minute mark. Tutt is on fire! Tempo seems to pick it up even further 5:20ish.

! l-s1-t06 (2) JG: "Thanks. We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a litle bit."

! l-s2-t01 MITR Garcia is noodling something spookily interesting before MITR

! P: l-s2-t02 TNTDODD Tutt is doing some march beats in 5:30 that are so perfect for the civil war! I don't remember ever hearing him do this.

! P: l-s2-t04 TUIB Garcia on fire 9, crowd appreciative.

! l-s2-t04 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

BS Pass - JGB - Fall 1993 - Slack Tour

A while back I posted the crew tour book for the fall 1993 JGB tour, the band's last. Since I love the look of these, I thought I'd add them to the mix. No idea who coined this the "Slack Tour", but the Paul Mavrides image is great and these are just good clean fun.

The Hypothesis is Wrong - Long Live the Hypothesis!

update: I now have it on good authority that, indeed, the arrangements in the tour book are for the crew, while the band enjoyed a somewhat more upscale experience. So, the hypothesis is correct, I just don't have any parchment evidence for it.

update2: here is link to the whole tourbook as a pdf.

I spoke with Melvin some years ago for a half hour or so. He's a very sweet guy.

I came away with the impression that the late-era east coast Garcia Band tours were first-class affairs, staying in a nice Manhattan hotel and flying to and from shows one at a time from Teterboro. (NYT just had a good article on Teterboro, BTW.) It felt like quite a contrast from the bus-centered tour of late '83.

Well, a copy of the JGB's November 1993 tourbook came up on ebay, and while it was exorbitant, I justified the purchase by using a gift card for a chunk of it. (Our psychologies play all kinds of tricks to enable the consumption that makes markets tick.) I was especially interested in this because, rather ironically, I have had more access to 1970s era business materials than to materials from the 80s and 90s. Because one of my abiding interests in institutionalization, which, as any process, only takes over time, this is really problematic: I have the "before", but not so much on the "after". Beyond institutionalization, there's also the overall difference in Garcia's circumstances, lots more money sloshing around post-coma (post-In The Dark) than before, and I sort of assumed an aging and more affluent Garcia would have done exactly as Melvin gave me to believe - a little higher end hotel, a little higher end travel, etc.

So, when the tour book came, I opened it with alacrity, expecting to see mostly one Manhattan hotel, charters out of Teterboro, maybe even first class seats on the transcontinental pieces to start and end the tour.

Well, not so much. Though I haven't seen the '91 tour info, the '93 materials more or less falsify the hypothesis. My mind immediately went to the narrative I was planning - from straitened circumstances on the bus in '83 to the lap of luxury ten years later. I was crestfallen. For all of about a thirty seconds. And then my mind immediately spun a new narrative - that things hadn't changed that much, and wasn't that cool? That the Garcia Band remained a pretty simple, stripped down affair, even as the money got bigger and bigger. He wasn't playing boutique theaters and sweaty college gyms anywhere, but Madison Square Garden and various other five-figure-capacity sheds, but things were still pretty straightforward.

I can make that work, of course. It's interesting, too. But I was just struck by what anybody who knows a lick about human cognition knows, which is that we are storytellers, and we can pretty much always find a narrative to fit any set of facts.

Anyway, that was all I had to say about that.

Oh, no, actually, one more thing: maybe the tourbook is only, or mostly, crew info. update: yes, that is indeed the case. So the Marriots and Embassy Suites, and the sometimes several-hundred mile drives right after shows ended, were maybe only for the grunts. Maybe Jerry and the band did fly around. I'll have to ask around.

"The Little Cash Cow" - JGB, Early 1980

Last weekend's post "On the Bus with the Garcia Band" looked at the November-December 1983 JGB tour's extensive ground travel - everything was by bus, 3,000 miles on the road in a few weeks in the eastern time zone. Commenter Nick asked a great question comparing that tour with earlier ones, pointing out Ozzie Ahlers's recollections of limos and such on the early 1980 tour. In comments, I noted that that one had been a multimodal affair:

2/13 fly commercial DC-Albany
2/14 drive 165 mi. to Boston
2/16 drive 140 mi. to New Haven
2/17 charter plane to Syracuse
2/20 fly commercial to Hartford
2/21 fly commercial to Newark
2/23 drive 90 mi. to Philly
2/24 drive 110 mi. to Long Island
2/26 drive 180 mi. to Provy
2/27 drive 180 mi. back to NYC

Nick raises the question of whether the later tour maybe just wasn't generating the same amount of cash, so that the bus was a budget-conscious choice. (Corry offers an alternative hypothesis.)

I'd love to be able to compare the money on the two tours, but I lack the '83 piece. I can lay out the '80 piece, and it is quite impressive. Somewhere I have Dennis McNally calling the Garcia Band a "little cash cow", and the numbers affirm.

Table xxx. Jerry Garcia Band Touring Revenues, February-March 1980

In 2015 dollars, that's just over $571k for three weeks' work, not bad.

The last column may also be of interest. $19k (1980$) cash out on the road would have bought Our Hero a lot of cigarettes and chili dogs.

On the Bus with the Garcia Band

I was going through the tour documents for the Jerry Garcia Band's November-December 1983 tour, which was unusually long. I haven't compared the various JGB tours, but this one and/or the late '77 tour are the two longest I can think of, without double checking.

I have more documents from the 70s than the 80s, so I don't know how uncommon this was in the latter decade, but I note that the big middle of the tour involved lots of overnight bus trips, something I have never picked up for any other tour.

The above is a rough map of the tour once the road tripping started, from Cleveland forward. (They had played 11/23 in Chicago and had Thanksgiving Day off, flying on Friday 11/25 to Cleveland.) I figure almost 3,200 miles on the bus, most of them (in the grey-shaded boxes) overnight from the previous night's show. So, on Friday, 12/2 they played the Tower in Upper Darby (outside of Philly), presumably ending rather late (they were wont to do that), hopped a bus for 300 overnight miles to Boston, played two shows, and hopped another bus 275 miles to Long Island, gigged at SUNY Stony Brook, and did 325 miles up to Vermont right after that show, enjoying a much-needed night off on Monday 12/5. What a hectic touring pace!

Again, this strikes me as exceptionally uncommon. They must have been in dire financial straits, or maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I can't imagine how that bus must have smelled, nor do I wish to try.

p.s. DeeDee Dickerson is on the tour documents. This confirms irrefutably what I found on an ad from the tour a while back, i.e., that she was still with the band at this point, and didn't end her stint with the JGB in summer '83 as has been previously understood.

Money Money

Grateful Dead Touring Revenues, 1965-1995, via David Davis's Grateful Seconds blog.

The musical accompaniment is great, even if it prevents me from navigating away. ;-) 

Davis has just provided me with a beautiful gift - an estimate of annual Grateful Dead touring revenue, also with the component data. Wow. While I have posed some questions in comments to his post, this is a great start on what might, from, say, a Braudelian perspective be the time series most essential to understanding the Grateful Dead. 

More prosaically, consider this a general tip o' the cap' to Grateful Seconds, and a strong recommendation that you add it to your RSS feeds (as I have done) and read around over there (as I plan to start doing more).

Jerry Garcia, January 17, 1972-January 29, 1972

Here's a visualization of the Garciaverse from January 17-29, 1972. This being blogger, I hope you can see it.

"Jerry Garcia, January 17, 1972-January 29, 1972"

Here is the Codebook as PDF.

There's no particular reason I am showing this slice, just wanted to give you all a look at how some of the cancellations fit in, and how I have my data visualizations currently configured.

Since we're here, though, we can see the Hooteroll? tour contemporaneous with canceled Dead and Jerry gigs. Which is the chicken and which the egg, which the cause and which the effect, I leave to your speculation.