Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes

We know that Jerry Garcia was playing around outside the GD to a varying, but always non-zero, extent throughout the career of his most famous band. We have a sense that this was happening more, and more loosely, in the early days (at least pre-1976) and less, and in a more routinized/institutionalized way after that. How much this was happening in the "early days" is probably impossible to fathom, because by definition the less institutionalized stuff leaves less of a footprint (tapes, advertisements, etc.) than the more so. Measurement is harder, and the data are biased against the real loose stuff. We are left with some stories, a vague sense, but little else.

I don't want to go into more detail about all that here, but I want to report on a few tantalizing tidbits I found in the Oakland Tribune in 1974. A first reads as follows (1):

The Merl Saunders Band, which featured Jerry Garcia on guitar and Martin Fierro on sax on alternating weeks at the Sand Dunes in San Francisco, has changed its name to Aunt Monk featuring Saunders and Fierro with equal billing. Mondays at the Sand Dunes.

A second article discussing the Sand Dunes (2) at slightly greater length also notes that "Merl Saunders and Martin Fierro play Monday nights when not with Jerry Garcia, and Garcia has shown up on some Mondays, too."

Gaaahhh.

It certainly sounds plausible. We know that 1974 was a busy year for Jerry playing around (TJS has 119 entries for the year). We know that Merl had regular non-Jerry gigs as the house performer around this time (as, apparently, at the Generosity in 1975), at which Jerry would sometimes drop in (as, apparently, at the Generosity on Feb. 14, 1975 and May 9, 1975). As the information below will show, Jerry had almost every Monday night in 1974 free as far as is known to me: 27 free and not known to be outside Bay Area, 12 booked and/or out of town. So what's to stop him?

Regarding the venue, based on another mention from earlier in the year (3), it seems that the Sand Dunes was at 46th and Taraval. Here is a regular Google map of the location:


View Larger Map

Here is a street view:

View Larger Map

Hard for me to tell on this basis where the bar might have been. I am intrigued by the idea that it might be 3639 Taraval, apparently a watering hole now called The Riptide ("On the edge of the Western world"). It's not the corner of 46th and Taraval, but it's less than a block away and may have been the obviously intended location at the time, who knows.

[update: in comments, Yellow Shark has confirmed the address as 3599 Taraval St, San Francisco, CA 94116]

Anyway, below is a list of the Mondays in 1974 up until the October 6th article. I have provided info where there seems to be a conflict. That leaves lots of open dates, about which we are of course very unlikely ever to know anything. BTW, the dates with (*) probably warrant some explanation (i.e., a further post), and I do think I'll get to the 7/22 one at some point, but not now.

19740107
19740114
19740121
19740128
19740204
19740211
19740218
19740225
19740304
19740311
19740318
19740325
19740401
19740408
19740415
19740422 - JG probably in LA*
19740429
19740506
19740513 - GD between Reno and Missoula
19740520 - GD between Portland and Seattle
19740527
19740603
19740610
19740617 - GD between Des Moines and Louisville
19740624 - GD between Miami and Providence
19740701 - JGMS in NYC
19740708
19740715
19740722
19740729 - GD in Landover
19740805 - GD in Philly
19740812
19740819
19740826 - Merl Saunders's Aunt Monk at Macarthur's in San Anselmo
19740902 - JGMS gig in Marx Meadow, Golden Gate Park
19740909 - GD in London
19740916 - GD still in Europe
19740923
19740930

References:

- (1) "Rap-Up's Wrap Up," Oakland Tribune, August 25, 1974, p. 2-RAP.
- (2) Art George, "The State of the Small Club," Oakland Tribune, October 6, 1974, p. 4-RAP.
- (3) "Rap Up's Wrap Up," Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1974, p. 2-RAP.

1969 NRPS: new data

Just a tip of the hat to Lost Live Dead, which has been doing yeoman's work unearthing early New Riders gigs based on various sources, but especially on careful digging through late 1969 San Francisco Chronicle (and notably Gleason's column).

Because of their hard work, TJS has recently added inter alia the following dates:

Aug 6, 1969  The Matrix **including first known public usage of the NRPS moniker

Aug 8, 1969  The Matrix

Aug 9, 1969  The Matrix

Aug 13, 1969  Family Dog at The Great Highway

Oct 9, 1969  Inn of the Beginning

Oct 16, 1969  Mandrake's, Berkeley

Nov 3, 1969  The Matrix

Nov 4, 1969  The Matrix

Nov 6, 1969  Inn of the Beginning

Nov 13, 1969  The Poppycock, Palo Alto

Nov 18, 1969  Family Dog at The Great Highway

Nov 20, 1969  The Poppycock, Palo Alto

Nov 27, 1969  Family Dog at The Great Highway

Nov 28, 1969  Inn of the Beginning

Nov 29, 1969  Inn of the Beginning

This is just awesome stuff. It really helps to flesh out the heretofore relatively obscure early gig history of the New Riders. Thank you, gentlemen!

Eyjafjallajökull

JGMF is stuck in Paris. Anyone know anywhere in town where there might be some rock & roll memorabilia?

Teabonics

Awesome.

ht Sully.

Garcia, Gravenites, Jules Broussard: ca. 1973, San Quentin Prison

**update: I have it in my mind that this never happened. I spoke with Nick the Greek once and seem to have come away with that idea**

On 4/29/90, Garcia sat in with "Nick Gravenites and Animal Mind" for a Brian Wilson Defense Fund Benefit at the South of Market Cultural Center in San Francisco. If you haven't heard it, the circulating fileset is well worth seeking out. The whole thing is great, but "Small Walk-In Box" will leave you marveling at Jerry's ability to pick up a tune (presumably with little preparation) and nail it. I tend to conceive of Jerry's various one-off guest shots from the 1986-1990 period as of a piece with each other, with a relatively healthy/happy Jerry really on his game, but that's a matter for another post or several.

What I want to mention here is an otherwise unknown-to-me gig that Garcia seems to have played around 1973 at San Quentin.  Lost Live Dead did a post on Grateful Dead performances at San Quentin, to which this might need to be added.

In Jimbo Juanis's regular Relix column that discusses the 4/29/90 thing (seemingly mis-dated 4/30, but anyway), he reports a bit of chatter with Nick Gravenites. Nick the Greek says that he had played with Garcia once before:

About 17 years ago, Garcia and I and Jules Broussard (a local sax player) played for the inmates at San Quentin Prison. All the inmates at the gig were musicians and they all brought their horns and we all played together. We did the gig in the room that used to house the gallows.

I don't have a lot to add, except that I sure would like to learn more! I wonder if records of this sort of thing might be requestable under some kind of state of California open records provision?

REFERENCE: 
(1) Jimbo Juanis, "Bay Area Bits," Relix 17, 4 (August 1990): p. 25.

Guitars Unlimited, Menlo Park

This is a bit beyond my ken, but since I have one Warlocks post, and an early Phil post, and since LLD has a Menlo Park angle, I thought I'd make a note of it. This may well be in the record, but I don't recall it. This is from a ca. early 1991 interview with John Dawson.

Describing his hook-up with the GD and eventual NRPS people, Dawson notes that Garcia and Nelson gave music lessons "at various and sundry music stores around Palo Alto." He mentions Dana Morgan's of course, but also describes Dana Morgan, Jr. leaving and Phil coming in thusly: "It was in a different music store called Guitars Unlimited, which is in Menlo Park."

Again, I haven't consulted my old GD stuff in a long time, so this could well be well-known. I thought I'd put it out there for you Menlo Park types, just in case.

BTW, Dawson also mentions a place called Pinky's Pizza in Menlo Park as the place where Dana Morgan played with the Warlocks. I have no idea if that's new information or a muddle of Magoo's, but, again, there you have it.

Source: Brown, Toni A. 1991. New Riders of the Purple Sage Interview. Relix 18, 3 (June): 19-20.

The 1974 Garcia/Saunders instrumental previously listed as "Bags' Groove"

UPDATE 1/24/2015: Commenter Nick has determined that this is actually "Darben The Redd Foxx".

For fans of Jerry Garcia's pre-1975 excursions beyond the Grateful Dead, one of the great fun things is to hear Jerry trying on really unusual material, seemingly without much preparation. I think of the instrumental versions of "Day By Day" (from Godspell--previously misidentified as Jesus Christ, Superstar-- thanks to anonymous for the correction), the Motown "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and "Cucumber Slumber" as examples, but there are many others (and presumably more than we know based on circulating tapes).

Even more tantalizing is when there's a tune that "we" --i.e., the community of people who chronicle this stuff-- don't know. Sleuthing around and discovering the name and provenance of a mysterious jazz instrumental is a real challenge for someone as illiterate as me, but is also a lot of fun and is very rewarding when a previous unknown gets a designation.

I think we have a case of that here, though this is not 100% and should be further discussed.

The tune in question is the instrumental that appears on circulating recordings of Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders from the Lion's Share in San Anselmo on June 4, 1974, and the Keystone in Berkeley on June 6, 1974. I know of no other versions. The song has forever been listed at TJS as "Bags' Groove," but that is not what it is. I'd like to get more ears on the alternatives, so below I post (1) links to the Garcia/Saunders tunes; (2) hypothesized song titles, with links; (3) some existing analysis provided by folks more expert than me; and (4) a tentative conclusion.

(1) Here are links to the Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders versions:

June 4, 1974: [sorry, these are dead]

June 6, 1974: [sorry, these are dead]

(2) Here are the hypotheses we have in terms of what song this is:

H1: "Bag's Groove" (Milt Jackson)
http://www.last.fm/music/Milt+Jackson/_/Bag%27s+Groove (listening link at top right)

H2: "The Crossing (Oubour)" (Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band)
http://www.rushhour.nl/store_detailed.php?item=38588, then down to the playlist for the track in question.

H3: "Ptah the El Daoud" (Alice Coltrane)
http://www.last.fm/music/Alice+Coltrane/_/Ptah,+the+El+Daoud (listening link at top right). This was first identified by nick in an email to the Jerry Site.

(3) analyses

Santos L. Halper from DNC first proposed H2. When I suggested I didn't think that was it, he replied thusly:

after a few more listens, I agree with your assessment. The Crossing and the theme from 6.4/6.6 jam aren't exactly the same, though the middle phrase is so similar that I was thinking that the G/S version could be a simplified arrangement. But the G/S version certainly lacks the second half of the head from The Crossing.

And actually, having finally tracked down a copy of Ptah last night, it also sounds very similar to the 6.4/6.6 jam, though once again, the G/S verions lack the second half of the head where the melody is resolved into deep held notes. But something by Alice Coltrane seems more likely to have been in one of their record collections at the time.

Making things even more complicated, the two Garcia/Saunders versions also take different approaches compared to each other, with the 6.4 version played as straight ahead jazz with a walking bassline and the 6.6 version played more as a march with a simpler thumping bassline.

DNCer Blacula weighed in with this:

In listening to the two sound clips you provided against 6/4/74, it is my opinion that this is the head of Ptah, The El Daoud that has been stuck on a standard I-IV-V progression. It is also in a different key.

The middle (solo) section is different, but that is like comparing two versions of Dark Star (or Don't Let Go). They both have an identifiable theme which then progresses to the solo (jam) section. The theme is typically restated at some point near the end.

The track by Salah Regab is surprisingly similar at the head, but is not the theme from 6/4/74.

Then we had a little Q&A, Qs by me and As by Blac:

Q: What does "the head" mean? I assume it's just the start, but does it have a more precise meaning than that?

A: Basically it is the theme. It is performed at the "head" of the tune, and is a basis to launch off from. There may be a more specific definition, but this is how I've always understood it.

Q: Explain for a musical ignoramous?

A: The "I" is the root, usually the key of the song. The "IV" is a musical fourth which describes the interval between the root and this note. The "V" being the fifth.

Basically in layman's terms, this means a blues progression.

Q: So, would it be most accurate to call this "Ptah, the El Daoud"? How would you refer to this?

A: That was/is a tough call. If the head is the same, but the underlying chord progression is not, can it still be called Ptah?

I say yes, if you consider that it is likely derived from Ptah and extrapolated from there.

It could be called a Ptah jam, but to my ears there is a stating of the theme, a jam/solo section, and the theme is stated again before the end of the song. My contention is that this is a complete performance of Ptah, even though it has been slightly adapted. You'll notice that the Alice Coltrane version does not restate the theme before the end of the song.

(4) tentative conclusion

I tentatively conclude that we should be calling this tune "Ptah, the El Daoud" in our Garcia setlists. Thoughts/reactions/etc. most welcomed!

update: It is "Darben The Redd Foxx"

Jerry Garcia at the Matrix, 1970-1971

As I noted a little bit ago, Ross Hannan sent some wonderful info on Matrix gigs. In this post I respond to some of his listings with questions, additional or different information, etc. I was just going to email this, but one never knows when someone else might see this and be able to weigh-in.

So this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of Garcia at the Matrix. This only touches on dates about which I have something to say. Perhaps after we hash this out I'll just post a full list of Garcia @ the Matrix for the record.

So, top line of each is Ross's entry. His comments, if any, appear on 2nd line in quotes. My response follows.

Monday, April 20, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have Garcia and Wales. Source: Berkeley Barb, April 17-23, 1970, p.6.

Monday, April 27, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have Garcia and Wales.. Source: Berkeley Barb, April 24-May 1, 1970, p. 8.

Thursday, April 30, 1970 Sandy Bull
"Seemingly spurious New Riders of The Purple Sage show listed on The Jerry Site for this date - with associated recording."
I assume there's evidence for Sandy Bull. How does that stack up with the evidence for NRPS (a tape)?

Monday, May 18, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
Tuesday, May 19, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
Wednesday, May 20, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
What is the basis for the second two nights? Sources traditionally list Monday, 5/18.  Evidence for this includes an ad in Good Times (v.3 n.20, 5/15/70, p. 24), and information from the Garcia vault. (Coincidentally, I believe that this is the show that was released as Side Trips.) I'd love for these shows to have happened, so please do tell!

Monday, May 25, 1970    Monday Night Jam
Scenedrome listing in Berkeley Barb (May 22-28, 1970, p. 18) lists "Howard Wales, Jerry Garcia & Friends". I realize that Garcia was probably not home from England ...

Monday, June 01, 1970    Monday Night Jam
I show this as Wales/Garcia, based on calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.22 (5/29/70), p. 24. (I  know these are not mutually exclusive listings ... just want to fill in artists, as possible.)

Wednesday, July 29, 1970 Harvey Mandel
Thursday, July 30, 1970 Harvey Mandel
"The Jerry Site lists NRPS as performing - but it seems spurious to me."
I have the same question as for 4/30/70. Is it possible that NRPS also played? TJS listing is based on tapes, nothing more. AFAIK, FYI and FWIW.

Wednesday, September 02, 1970 Seatrain, Kracker Jacks
"The Jerry Site lists NRPS as performing - but it seems spurious to me."
As just above: the tape is the only evidence for a NRPS gig, AFAIK.

Monday, October 12, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Obviously, if GD were in New Jersey, JG would not have been at Matrix, however it was billed. Deadlists says this about this GD date: "According to Marc Schaeffer the Dead played another, unscheduled concert at this venue [Marion Shea Auditorium - Paterson State College, Wayne, NJ] on 10/12/70. There is a review in the student newspaper (not informative, according to Schaeffer) but apparently no tapes of the show. There is no SBD of this show in the vault." I'd like to find this review. In its absence, I'd be willing to consider that this GD date is a phantom.

Tuesday, October 13, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Wednesday, October 14, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
After 10/12 GD gig in NJ, they were in Philly on 10/16. Of course they could have come home in between, though why they would have done so isn't clear to me. I am skeptical that Garcia was at the Matrix on these nights.

Monday, October 19, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Seems more possible to me than the previous. GD were in Minneapolis on 10/18 and would go to DC on 10/23. Everyone has always assumed that they didn't fly home (one of the many reasons that the "10/21/70 Matrix Jam" tape, said to include JG, has been called into question). But the more I learn from Lost Live Dead & related, the more closely I look, the more I am open to the possibility that, for whatever reason, he could well have gone from Minn to CA back out to DC.

Wednesday, October 21, 1970 Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service [without John Cippolina]
Some day there needs to be a whole post on this. Any thoughts on whether the circulating tape has Garcia on it? Some discussion of circulating recordings at db.etree.org.

Monday, October 26, 1970 Jerry Garcia and Friends
GD were in St. Louis on 10/24 and would head out to Stony Brook for show on 10/30. The more I know, the more I buy that Garcia could have flown home in between and played this Monday night Matrix session with Merl.

Tuesday, November 03, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
In years past I would have doubted this (from Stony Brook on 10/31/ to Port Chester on 11/5, via San Francisco in between?). But given other evidence (e.g., here and here), I find this date plausible.

Monday, February 08, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
Tuesday, February 09, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have never seen these dates. What info supports this listing?

Wednesday, March 03, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
Didn't GD play Fillmore West this night? It's on the COAU Carousel list. Wouldn't that preclude Garcia at Matrix, ads notwithstanding?

Mickey and the Hartbeats, October 28, 1968, Matrix, San Francisco, CA

Deadlists no longer lists (if it ever did) a Hartbeats show at the Matrix on Monday, 10/28/68. It doesn't appear on the Chicken on a Unicycle Matrix list, either. But what are we to make of this tidbit, from Deadlist's 10/29/68 Hartbeats entry?

On page 26 of issue #34 (Summer 1996) of Dupree's Diamond News, Dick Latvala stated in an interview "What I know exists in our Vault are the shows, and they are on four-track 15 i.p.s." and "There are two dates, 10/28 and 10/29, both of which have four reels."

Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales: June 7, 1970, Matrix, San Francisco, CA (PHANTOM)

The Jerry Site still doesn't have any way to keep a list of deleted shows. If one is deleted or its date is changed, the old entry evaporates. So I am trying to keep track of what disappears under this "TJS-deletion" tag.

Anyway, TJS has listed a Garcia/Wales show for Sunday, June 7, 1970, probably based on a listing in the Berkeley Barb contributed by Joey Newlander. Gordon Sharpless was also credited as an information contributor, though I don't know in what capacity. Here was the note for the show:

Billed as "Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends". Listing from newspaper advertisement. The Dead played this same date at the Fillmore West. Although it's a possibility both shows took place (this being in the afternoon), it's unlikely.

As Ross points out to me, Sunday shows almost never happen at the Matrix. Gary Jackson's list of Matrix dates has the club closed on June 7th. The GD were playing at Fillmore West, as noted above. Finally, there is good evidence, apparently including a recording in the Garcia vault, for a June 8, 1970 Garcia/Wales gig at Matrix, their usual Monday Night thing.

In brief: seems like there was no HWJG thing at the Matrix on June 7, 1970. I'd guess that the Barb had a typo or other misinformation.

JGB: November 17, 1981, Uptown Theatre, Chicago, IL

A couple of quick notes about the Jerry Garcia Band @ Uptown Theatre in Chicago, IL, in late 1981.

[note that the Trib appeared to be misspelling it as "Theater" in this timeframe.]

First, it appears the show might have originally been scheduled for 10/29/81.

That would have made it the first show of the tour, but it looks like it was bumped toward the end and held on November 17th.

Second, the Jerry Site has always shown early and late shows for this date. But a listing in the Chicago Tribune from November 15 shows only one show, beginning at 7:30:

Does anyone know if there were actually two shows on this night?

While I am in this time-period, does anyone really believe that the JGB played three sets at the Denver Rainbow on 11/19/81? I don't.  But I do hope to find out. You'll be the first to know.

update: Mason Taylor aud listening notes

The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs

I just don't know what to make of this.

 

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, are five unique ticket stubs for a Jerry Garcia show at SUNY Stony Brook (Gym) on November 28, 1977.  There is another stub that used to be linked from the Jerry Site which is distinct from these five.

So, unless we have six beautifully-concocted fakes, it certainly seems the people had tickets for a Jerry Garcia show on this date at this location. The stubs are torn and so they appear to have been honored and used.

Here's the kicker: there is simply no other evidence that this show happened on this date. It happened on December 9th. How do we know this?

First, there are multiple eyewitness accounts.

Second, there are ticket stubs:

Third, there is a delightful recording, which, after pitch-correcting, shows this to be a typically fun and hot late 1977 JGB east coast tour show.

Fourth, there is loads of evidence from the SUNY Stony Brook Statesman (happily, online!) that the show happened on 12/9, and none whatsoever that points to 11/28.

a) For ex ante evidence, there is a piece from 10/28 that describes a ticketing snafu, whereby Ticketron was able to sell tickets before the SUNY Student Box Office could (1). The article clearly states that the show is scheduled for December 9th.

b) For more ex ante evidence, ads published in the Statesman (I think ... not sure why I didn't note the publication info) that span the 11/28 and 12/9 dates show nothing happening on 11/28, and the Garcia show on 12/9:

c) For ex post evidence, there is a show review (2).

Fifth, if you look again at the scans of the 11/28/77 tickets, you'll see the middle one on the left has handwritten "Dec. 9" under the date.

Sixth, I have now seen the gig contract, and there it is - 12/9.

So, what are we to make of the 11/28 ticket stubs?

H1: reschedule. Historically, the Jerry Site worked under the reasonable assumption that there was a reschedule.But there is simply no evidence for this. Given the coverage in the Statesman, this would have been all over the paper. Eyewitnesses also say it just wasn't so. So I think we can reject this possibility.

H2: the "11/28" stubs are counterfeits. Pro: don't these stubs look like GDP design? Should they look like that? Cons: The scans certainly have a lot of verisimilitude. Why would someone go through all the trouble of making such realistic fakes (of objects that just aren't worth that much, anyway!), only to get the date wrong?  I suppose it could give the sense of rarity or something, but this just doesn't seem likely. Not impossible, just highly unlikely.

H3: the date mis-printed. Note that the ones that are correctly dated are Ticketron tickets, while the "11/28" ones have the different style. The Neilssen piece (1) indicates at least that there was separate ticketing from the campus and from Ticketron. Maybe the student activities group putting the show on put some stoner in charge of getting the tickets together, and he/she just goofed.

I don't really know. I kind of lean to H3, but just can't bring myself to think that such an error would have slipped through the cracks.We'd really need some folks who were there, preferably involved, to weigh in. So please send your Stony Brook alums here to clear up the mystery!

REFERENCES
(1) Tom Neilssen, "Ticketron Gets Garcia Tickets Before Campus," Statesman (SUNY Stony Brook), October 28, 1977, p. 3.
(2) Mitchell Alkon, "Garcia Is Alive Without the Dead," Statesman (SUNY Stony Brook), December 14, 1977, p.9

busy busy busy busy busy

Phil Lesh pre-GD dates

Corry once posted about Mickey Hart's pre-GD days. And while this stuff isn't of particular interest to me, I have gathered a bit so I thought I might as well spill, too. Perhaps someone will be interested. I am sure it'll format badly, but, anyway, here's a list of pre-GD Phil Lesh gigs I have come up with. This has more information than Philbase.

Sorry this is so tiny, but if you had tried to paste this from Excel directly into Blogger, you'd throw out a tiny image, too.

NRPS: Bear's Lair, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, August 1, 1969

update: LIA has posted text from the various goings-on at the Family Dog On The Great Highway this night.

Corry at Lost Live Dead has just posted a GD/JG performance list from July-August 1969.

I don't have much to add, but since he mentions the New Riders of the Purple Sage gig(s) from August 1, 1969 at the Bear's Lair, UC Berkeley, I thought I'd post some scans that I have.

I especially like the one above ... "Jerry Garcia with Marmaduke", but the picture shows Jerry and Mickey Hart.

 

A few notes from all of this.

1) there seem to have been two shows, at 8:30 and 10:30

2) Mickey Hart was on drums (no surprise there), but as Corry notes we don't know who played bass. I'd have to guess Phil, but it's just a guess. update: Bob Matthews, I guess!

3) they appear not yet to be called the New Riders of the Purple Sage, though that's how I'll refer to this. As Corry notes, Ralph Gleason's "Ad Lib" column from August 6th first publicized that name.

Reconstruction: August 10, 1979, Temple Beautiful, San Francisco, CA

I don't think I have blogged much about Reconstruction, the jazz-R&B-soul-funk-rock-disco outfit formed by John Kahn that performed in 1979 and that regularly "featured" Jerry Garcia on guitar. This is one of Garcia's most unusual side trips. It features lots of tunes that he had never done before and would never do again, with my favorites being instrumental numbers such as "Welcome to the Basement" (Saunders/Moore), "The Mohican and the Great Spirit" (Horace Silver), "Fast Tone" (Tony Saunders/Ed Neumeister), "Nessa" (?composer?), "Linda Chicana" (Mark Levine), "Sama Layuca" (McCoy Tyner) and "Another Star" (Stevie Wonder). It is also unusual in that this was Jerry's only relatively regular post-1975 excursion that didn't have his name on it. I have a lot to say on that general issue, but I'll save it for another time.

This particular show, on August 10, 1979 at the Temple Beautiful in San Francisco is one of my favorites.  Lost Live Dead has reported in characteristically informative fashion on the venue itself. It's a fascinating story. This show holds a special place in my heart, though, both because my friends Julie and John Anzaldo hooked up for good on this occasion and, especially, because the band ends the show with one of my favorite half-hours of Garcia music ever. Starting with McCoy Tyner's "Sama Layuca", they drift into a very spare space for a couple of minutes before Garcia starts picking some beautiful melodic stuff that morphs into one of the early Jerry versions of Dear Prudence. I used to say that the melodic passage contained Jerry's most beautiful stuff since the 2/18/71 "beautiful jam" between Dark Star and Wharf Rat, but I eschew such hyperbole here.

Bob Menke's tape is the best of the two circulating, though as I understand it a new transfer of the Phil Jaret tape may be in the offing, which is good news.

But I digress. My real purpose for posting was to seek identification of the unknown song that appears toward the end of the song.  I confess that I can't recall whether it's Ron Stallings or Gaylord Birch singing, but whoever it is it's the same guy who handles Reconstruction vocals besides Jerry. Anyway, it sounds kind of like an R&B standard, so I am hoping it'll be easy to identify.

Here's a link to a 25-second mp3 from the start of the song:  Unknown song link.

I have just been compiling a list of tunes that are represented among circulating Garcia on the Side recordings but that remain unidentified. So I expect that this will be a series of sorts.

GD/NRPS: May 28, 1971, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (CANCELED)

In an earlier post I discussed the infamous May 29, 1971 Grateful Dead show at Winterland at which a large number of people reacted adversely to being dosed.

As Corry noted in comments, the Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage show scheduled for the night before (May 28, 1971) was canceled due to Jerry Garcia being ill. It was apparently rescheduled for May 30, 1971.

The amazing Gary L. Jackson is having his massive personal archive of SF-related music stuff scanned and shared by "Strength N. Numbers" at Facebook. This includes his personal diaries, which are really quite wonderful.  Anyway, here's the entry for May 28, 1971:

I only post this because, well, I like it. And also because it seems like things just weren't going fantastically well right around that time in the Bill Graham enterprise. So much so that the Winterland dosing incident is discussed in contemporary news pieces (some of which were pasted into, and are thus now reproduced in, Gary's diary) as a contributing factor to Graham's seemingly abrupt decision to close the Fillmore West.

Lots of people presumably know lots about this, of course, but I just thought it was worth dropping this part of the picture onto the canvas.

Garcia on Stephen Stills albums

Matt Scofield's discography, at http://www.deaddisc.com/, is one of those incredible community resources that I have vowed never to take for granted. It's amazing, obviously a labor of love, and it contains a wealth of information about the GD, Garcia, and lots of the related and contemporaneous acts, venues, albums and individuals of interest.

Here I'll just mention a few things that have not traditionally been represented there regarding Garcia's work with Stephen Stills. This information comes from an interview with Jerry conducted, I think, in March of 1981 and published in the amazing British 'zine Swing '51 (1). Both quotes are from page 26.

Regarding Stephen Stills 2, deaddisc has traditionally said that "Garcia possibly plays pedal steel on one track." Matt has now included what follows on the site, but unless Jerry is talking out his ass it doesn't sound like there's much doubt about what's what. Here's what Jerry told Ken Hunt of Swing 51: "that's me playing pedal steel [on 'Change Partners'] and there's an uptempo tune on that LP that I played on." Steve Silberman has told me that Change Partners is a well-known Garcia appearance despite being uncredited, though I don't know where things stand in terms of the "uptempo tune" that Jerry mentions (nor which tune it is - I don't own the album yet).

Regarding Manassas, deaddisc has recently included this Garcia quote from the Swing 51 article, though indicating that things are still uncertain: "There are a couple of tunes on there where I play pedal steel and maybe even guitar on one, but there's at least two that I'm not credited on. But I did the sessions and it's me playing." Silberman is much more enthusiastic about this possibility, suggesting that has been previously unknown. He also reports that while Al Perkins probably did most of the (and arguably the finest) steel work on Manassas, the style suggests that Jerry might well be playing on "Jesus Gave Away Love For Free."

We may never know. Garcia describes working with Stills in the studio in this way:

Sometimes they were very weird experiences. Like, for [Stephen Stills 2 and Manassas] I didn't know what records they were for or anything. The way Stills worked at the time was he just accumulated endless tracks. He worked on dozens of tunes. He actually flew me into Florida for a week, me and Ramrod, my equipment guy, with my pedal steel and guitars. I went down there and did sessions at the weirdest hours! Stills had two teams of engineers, two shifts. The way he worked in the studio was totally crazy. At the time he was really happenin', really doing well, could afford it easily. They were not only studies in over-indulgence, but there was some pretty OK music too!

Anyone know the dates that Jerry was down in Florida for this? :)

Anyway, as is the typical MO here, I am mostly just putting this down so I don't forget it. Best thing about a blog, far and away.

REFERENCE:
Hunt, Ken. 1983. Jerry Garcia: Folk, Bluegrass and Beyond [part II]. Swing 51 no. 7: pp. 22-28.

The other Warlocks

So the story I have preserved in my memory about the Warlocks' change of name in 1965 says that it was proximately caused by Phil Lesh's discovery of another local band using the name. I also have it in my head that the existence of these other Warlocks remains mysterious. I would put money on the fact that I am wrong on the latter count, especially.

Just in case, I thought I'd just note that the "chit chat" column of the Oakland Tribune, October 23, 1965, p. 7B makes mention of a local battle of the bands in which one of the competitors is The Warlocks, from Encinal High. (The column also has information on a tiddly winks contest, I shit you not ... no wonder that world was turned upside down by psychedelics. But I digress.)

Anyway, again, I am sure this is well-known, but I didn't know it, so I post it here for my own reference.

The New Peanut Butter Sandwich: October 16, 1966, Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA

Having just posted about Garcia's October 1966 sit-in with Big Brother and the Holding Company, I'll follow on with what is even more interesting-sounding (though it apparently didn't come off that well).

Mojo Navigator R&R News no. 9 (October 17, 1966) gives a brief account of the evening, which apparently included a configuration ("One Night Only!", I assume) called The New Peanut Butter Sandwich, composed of the following (instruments are mostly presumed):

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (GD): ?organ?
Jerry Garcia (GD): guitar;
David Getz (BBHC): drums;
David Freiberg (QMS): bass;
?? (Sir Douglas Quintet): rhythm guitar;
Gary Duncan (QMS): guitar;
John Cipollina (QMS): guitar;
?? ("negro blues singer"): ??.

The only other detail is that "They did a very long and boring pseudo-Butterfield blues instrumental." Not clear what the blues singer was doing sitting in on an instrumental, but anyway ... sounds interesting!

Jerry sitting in with Big Brother, October 1966: which date?

Lost Live Dead posted about a Garcia sit-in with Big Brother and the Holding Company on October 15, 1966. Based on the context of an account in Mojo Navigator no. 9 (October 17, 1966), I am going to argue that this is incorrect. According to MN, this all happened on a Sunday, while 10/15 was a Saturday.

The actual date is probably October 16th, though October 9th deserves some consideration.

Here's the operative part of the MN account:

On the 6th of October there was a rally in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle with the Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Co., and the Wildflower, followed last Sunday by another Panhandle festival, the Artists [sic?] Liberation Front's Free Fair. Bands appearing were the Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish. ... After the Fair the Family Dog held its first anniversary dance at Avalon, with Big Brother & the Holding Company, sounding great, the Sir Douglas Quintet, sounding terrible, the Oxford Circle, the 13th Floor Elevators, and a couple of jam groups. Jerry Garcia played one song with the Holding Company, which came off extremely well ...

My first thought was that this was October 9th, not October 16th. Here's why.


In American English (unlike, say, French), we usually reserve a phrase like "last Sunday" for something that was more than a day ago. If Sunday was the day prior, we'd just say "yesterday", with "last Sunday" being 8 days prior. Even out 2-3 days I would refer to "this past Sunday" rather than "last Sunday", though this may be my own idiosyncracy.

Sorry to be pedantic (but I'll continue, anyway). Th context of the quote above could be taken to imply October 9th, for two reasons. First, the linkage of the ALFFF event to the October 6th event with the "followed" formulation implies to me that they were closer in time than ten days. Second is the "last Sunday" formulation. This MN was published on Monday, October 17, 1966, and therefore probably written on 10/16. Even if it was written during the day on 10/17, I find the "last Sunday" formulation unlikely to refer to the previous day.

I was originally leaning toward October 9th, but two things militate strongly against (and/or in favor of 10/16).

First, there is the GD date at the Fillmore Auditorium on October 9th. I don't know what evidence there is for this, but I assume it's strong given how impressively things tend to be nailed down for the main ballroom gigs. The logistics also seem to militate against all of these things having happened on the same day. Hard to imagine they could do the Golden Gate Park thing, the Fillmore thing, and the Avalon thing in the same day, unless this was a morning-afternoon-night arrangement. The context given in MN makes this less likely ... in the quote's ellipsis is reference to the fact that it was a warm afternoon. I take all of this as pretty strong against 10/9.

Second, Chicken on a Unicycle shows Big Brother at the Avalon on 10/15-16, but not on 10/9. Having recently spent a lot of time with Ross and Corry's careful research, I have great faith that all of this is correct.

In short, despite the fact that I find the construction of the account to be strange, I think I have to go with 10/16.  I'll post shortly about the next Jerry-on-the-side (JOTS, interchangeable with GOTS when I am in a last-name mood) thing from this same night.

JGMS: July 11, 1973, Keystone, Berkeley, CA

A while back I did a little miniseries linking the July 1973 Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders shows at Keystone Berkeley to the official releases. I did it from the show perspective and from the album perspective. I.e.,

July 10, 1973: what goes on which albums;
Live at Keystone, vol. 1 (CD): which songs come from which dates;
Live at Keystone, vol. 2 (CD): which songs come from which dates;
Live at Keystone, Encores (CD): which songs come from which dates

Looks like I forgot to turn it around for July 11th, so I'll do that here. Here is where 7/11 songs ended up on the CD releases, based on the most complete circulating copy of the show.

--Set I--
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (1)
Finders Keepers (1)
One Kind Favor (3)
That's Alright Mama (2*)
My Funny Valentine (2)
(MISSING I Second That Emotion)

(MISSING Money Honey)

--Set II--
(MISSING Someday Baby)

Harder They Come (4)
Merl's Tune (1**)
Like a Road Leading Home (2)
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (3)

 - The parenthesized numbers refer to officially released (CD) material:
(1) appears on Live at the Keystone, vol. 1 (Fantasy FCD 7701-2)
(2) appears on Live at the Keystone, vol. 2 (Fantasy FCD 7702-2)
(3) appears on Keystone Encores (Fantasy FCD 7703-2)
(4) not on any of the releases
- * TAM on the album comes in at 5:19 of this version.
- ** Merl's Tune from 6:27-10:11 on this version supplies the "Space" track on volume 1 of the official releases.

JGMS: January 15, 1972, Keystone Korner, San Francisco, CA

I have been needing to revisit recordings of the very early Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders stuff, and with a bit of time I thought I'd give this show, from a Saturday in mid-January 1972 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, some attention on its birthday. I am not sure who's drumming ... could have been Bill Vitt or could have been Kreutzmann .. anyone know? Anyway, it's a quartet, with Jerry, Merl, John and the percussionist.

The existing recording is actually mostly quite nice despite the lineage of MAR > 2 cassettes > digitalia, except for early in set II ("I Was Made to Love Her", "That's The Touch I Like", and "Who's Loving You Tonight?") when there is some awful warbling and such. Also, listener SP at DNC says that there are speed problems, which doesn't surprise me at all. I'd sure love to see this particular master (and any of its contemporaries!) come into the light. It's historically very important, as is every bit, piece and fragment of this early Jerry-on-the-side stuff.

"How Sweet It Is" starts things off and is a pretty complete trainwreck. This is the earliest version (of 449 as of this writing) listed at Jerrybase, and even if there are earlier ones I doubt there are many ... it certainly sounds like this is a rough draft of what would become a Garcia-on-the-Side (maybe I'll just coin GOTS right now) staple.

After that rough start things do about a 180, both in terms of the possibilities being explored and their success -- "Save Mother Earth," a Saunders composition, is a freaking monster. It starts off within the structure of the song and pretty thoroughly maps that terrain for awhile before dropping off into *deep* space for a couple of minutes from 7:45. This is not unlike contemporary Grateful Dead deep space, and even has some proto-Tigering going on. I have to check the timings on this, but at one point Garcia starts strumming a sad, slow thing that I think might be "Imagine" ... you can hear him say something to the rest of the band (couldn't quite make it out), and then he changes tack and returns to the SME theme to end. Here's a great little piece of context (the revelation of which is one of the reasons I love audience recordings): after the song, a little kid, maybe 4 or 5 by the sound of it, exclaims "I don't know about that!" A woman (presumably mom) repeats the exclamation as a query and chuckles. It's awesome. The kid's mind has been blown, he's not sure what to make of it (and in any case he occupies that deeply psychedelic realm known as the child's mind), and he can't contain himself. The fact that he's there at all, one of the relatively few (less than about 300, which IIRC was about the capacity of the KK), is pretty neat all by itself.

"One Kind Favor" follows this up with the slinkiest, swampiest, spookiest country blues you have ever heard. I absolutely love this song, and I love the GOTS versions much more than the few (ca. 1966) GD versions in circ ... much slower and darker. "Expressway" is a wonderfully compact little barn-burner (not the lonnnggg trip it would become in a few years), and "Mystery Train" ends set I with some terrific rockabilly, done much more Elvis style (and complete with the repeated "sixteen sixteen coaches long" bit) than it sound later on.

"Train to Cry" bores me (blasphemy alert) and I can't really judge the next three songs because of the tape problems. Thank God whomever is taping changed batteries or whatever for what comes next, because it is a truly monumental "Man-Child," the Merl Saunders composition. If you don't know this number, go check it out. This song puts me in mind of a Sioux warrior in South Dakota, maybe only his ghost blowing through a high plains butte, but with a heroin-tinged urban twist. . Anyway, this is some very deep, dark and contemplative stuff. Jerry again flirts with the Tiger around the 15-minute mark. (I have it on good authority, from Peter Lavezzoli over on DNC, that the Tiger nearly appears in late '71 GD and makes a certain appearance on 3/23/72, so this is right in that window ...) There's a couple of minutes of deep space, the theme returns and is worked out, and then from 22 minutes in or so there's a beautiful engagement with "Summertime". That theme is crystal clear right before the 25 minute mark, and remains the basic thematic driving force for the rest of the tune, which clocks in around 32 minutes. Whew! Definitely two snaps up -- check it out.

The Jerry Lee Lewis number "She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye" follows, with its somewhat more melancholy feel than I might expect from that author, for what little I know. It reminds me a lot of "Long Black Limousine." "Hi-Heel Sneakers" is a lot of fun and definitely works well in the context of a small club gig. Not sure anyone needed to bring their boxing gloves, but you never know.

A very rare (on tape) reading of "Tupelo Honey" follows ... it gets a wow from me for rarity, but not being a big Van fan I can say it doesn't knock me out. It reminds me a lot of "Crazy Love", which is fine, but I am just as glad that "And It Stoned Me" became the latter-day GOTS stape, rather than either of the other two. This song, though, is a reminder to me of how substantially overlapping the Van and Jerry circles were at this time. I know that Ozzie Ahlers and Daoud Shaw, both of whom would materialize in JGBs of the early 80s, both played with Van around this time. The Lion's Share was everyone's favorite haunt. I wonder why the never played together (if, indeed, they didn't)?

"That's Alright Mama" closes without much of a bang for this listener, though Jerry does go on a few pretty good tears.

All in all, very enjoyable. Check it out for the rarities, but keep it and return to it for the playing in the Saunders compositions "Save Mother Earth" and "Man-Child." Very deep, exploratory stuff going on there that would stand up well to some of the deepest explorations of the 1972 vintage GD (though not for as long, to be sure).

Listening to this also reminds me not to take the tapes we have for granted. As much as I try to hunt down new-to-me stuff, it's useful to remember that we are already blessed with a non-trivial amount of stuff to hear, even from this early in the game. Thanks to AJL for supplying this recording. And, recordist ... please ... come out, come out, wherever you are! Oh yeah, and don't forget to thank a taper while you're at it.

Mid-1975 album mixing at Heider's

Can you tell I am going through some fragments?

Anyway, this little tidbit, from August 1975, has me a bit puzzled. Which album is this? I just don't recall any Jerry-related work at Heider's at this time.

The Grateful Dead might have been referred to in this way at this time (they had played the SNACK Benefit in March and the Bob Fried Memorial in June billed this way, IIRC), and the timeline just about works for Blues for Allah, which was released in September. But I don't recall any Heider's connection (though I see from deaddisc that Stephen Barncard is thanked in the liner notes). It says that the album was mastered at Artisan Sound Recorders, an outfit with which I am not familiar. This seems like the likeliest candidate, to me.

Reflections seems unlikely, both because this is too early for mixing and because according to Matt Scofield's amazing resource (see link on album title) it was mixed at His Master's Wheels.

Just not sure.

Garcia first solo album, tidbit

Not sure whatever became of this ... am I missing something? The only Douglas Records release with Jerry that I know of is Hooteroll? I don't recall any direct Commander Cody involvement with Jerry, on-stage or in-studio. File under "maybe was" or something like that, I guess.

Wally Heider's, July 1971

Of course, we already knew that Jerry was recording Garcia in July of 1971 (though I have never been able to find any precise dates, and Bob Mathews won't answer my queries). We also already knew that Heider's was absolutely happening. I keep hoping that someday Steve Silberman will write a book about the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (PERRO) scene, because while we have a lot of the fragments it really hasn't been put together comprehensively, either in terms of the empirics or in terms of an analysis, e.g., in terms of San Francisco music.

Anyway, this little mention from Billboard just reminds me. Presumably the Airplane album referenced is Sunfighter, the GD album is Skullfuck, and of course Jerry's is Garcia (1972), with all of which Jerry would have been involved.

The rest don't involve Jerry playing directly, but of course there are a million connections. Pretty remarkable that Jerry and Van never seem to have played together, given how intense the overlap is between their scenes (in terms of venues and players -- there's a long post to be done about that). (Playing as I type, serendipitously: "Tupelo Honey" by Garcia & Saunders, 1/15/72.) Mike Finnegan would later play with Maria Muldaur, perhaps at the same time as John Kahn. Brewer & Shipley of course had hosted Jerry for Tarkio and all the rest.

Again, nothing we didn't already know, but just a small snapshot into a seemingly healthy, relatively happy, and certainly productive time in Garcia's life.

Hartbeats: October "1969" misidentification

I just briefly posted some time back with an image of the Matrix poster that I bought myself. I have now had it framed and I have to say that it looks wonderful. The nice thing about having obscure taste is that some of the stuff that really interests me (e.g., New Riders) has less of a premium on it than more mainstream items (e.g., related to the Grateful Dead).

Sort of in conjunction, I picked up Grushkin's Art of Rock. "My" poster is in there at plate 2.118, but it is misidentified as 1969. I think this might account for the October 1969 listings that show up on lists based on Gary Jackson's Matrix Concerts data (e.g., at sixtiesposters.com). I had suspected that these were a duplication of the October '68 dates, and now am about 99% sure. Not sure the direction of causality (i.e., Grushkin -> Jackson or Jackson > Grushkin), but it's immaterial. As of now, I am no longer listing Garcia and Friends at the Matrix in October of 1969.

GD: May 16, 1969, Campolindo High School, Moraga, CA

(From the 1969 Campolindo yearbook -- thanks to Marcus Buick for the scan!)

--Caveat Lector: the really colorful account that follows seems to be somewhere between partly and wholly fictionalized. It's still a good read. Please read it as a story of what might have been.--

Campolindo High School (Moraga, CA) is my alma mater. Below are the recollections of the gentlemen --Evan Hunt-- who [claims to have] organized the Grateful Dead concert there on May 16, 1969. If you have ever been to Moraga, CA, and can imagine what it must have been like in 1969, this scene is absolutely hilarious (but for some mildly offensive language -- not mine!). In any case, if you love this kind of history and the English language, I have to think that this bit will knock you out (so good I'll reproduce it twice)!

-->There were hundreds of longhaired, dope-smoking zonked-out young kids writhing around in the dirt between parking strips. The cops consisting of four off duty sheriffs reserves were hopelessly beleaguered by  banshee-cheering maniacal Deadheads, and flanked by frantic bouffant coiffured housewives pleading with anyone who could still stand for decorum and decency. Marijuana smoke rollicked out of the ceiling fans. Cans of dayglo paint were slathered against school walls. Terror ruled the hearts of most. There was virtual pandemonium. People of all sorts of dress and persuasion were staggering about mumbling into the vinegar sky. They'd all been dosed with Owsley LSD unsuspectingly lying wait in ladles of pink lemonade punch.
Anyway, the whole account follows. Happy reading.
-->

Here's the story of the Grateful Dead at Campolindo—hope you’re not easily bored.

It was early 1969, maybe January, I was attending Diablo Valley College and involved in student activities such as concerts and dances. Some of my friends were in rock bands and asked me to get them gigs at DVC. I became more and more involved in booking and auditioning local talent and often went around to the high schools and frats to drum up business. As a result, I got to meet lots of people and listen to a lot of music.  Since early 1966 I went to the city and/or Berkeley at least once a week to hear the latest acts that came to the bay area and that played the most popular venues at the time-- Fillmore (& Fillmore west), Avalon Ballroom, The Family Dog, and The Matrix.

Some friends of friends (I don't recall their names) were students at Campolindo High in Moraga. They wanted to hire the Grateful Dead to play at their spring concert, but all of their efforts fell flat because the Dead’s management didn't want to play at some suburban, teenybop high school. The Campo crowd had planned the date for May 16th and it was locked into the school's calendar. Here they'd spent all this time telling everybody in school that they were going to get the Dead, and they had no Dead. In the meantime, they signed Frumious Bandersnatch--a local band from Lafayette that had a considerable following, and they also signed school faves The Velvet Hammer to be on the concert bill.

One of the students on the concert committee found my name and number in the "Band Folder" and called me at DVC to ask me if I knew anyway to get in contact with the Dead. So, I went early to where the Dead were playing in S.F. and hung around outside until I spotted the Dead’s manager. I had seen him before at Dead shows and I knew his name--Danny Rifkin--and I walked up to him and explained the situation. He gave me his phone number and a week later I went to the Dead’s office in the Haight. Rifkin was very nice to me, but told me that the Dead were already booked May 16. I asked if there was any possibility that they had a cancellation for that date to call me. I also asked him how much the dead would charge to play a high school dance--the figure was a whopping $3,000.00, which was an extremely high price for those days--but Campolindo had to make it worth the Dead’s while, and, to their credit, they did.

A month went by. February became March. Out of the blue, Rifkin called and told me that the Dead’s tour itinerary had changed and they were free for May 16. I contacted the concert committee, arranged the contracts, and did the legwork.

The committee was supposed to give me $60.00 as a finder's fee, four free tickets, and a backstage pass for me and my girlfriend (who was a senior at Acalanes--my alma mater, too!). I never did get the 60 bucks, and when I tried to use the backstage pass the Dead’s roadies wouldn't let me in. so, we went out front to join the masses. The bleachers were pulled out, but it was festival seating on the floor.

In the gym the acoustics were dreadful. Velvet Hammer opened and were okay (more on them later). Frumious Bandersnatch was next and they were as good as any band could sound under those circumstances. The bass player was another Acalanes class of '67 grad you've probably heard of--Ross Valory--of Journey fame. Later that year, they released a record in the bay area that actually sold a few thousand copies, but they never went anywhere with their act.

Sadly I cannot supply much info about the Dead’s performance other than it was pretty awful. I think they were enroute to Seattle on their tour and really mucked-up on acid. I don't even remember one song except "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" off their first album. Me and my girlfriend left before the show ended. What we observed outside before the last Garcia solo will forever be etched in the grainy netherlands of my cerebral cortex. But there were the Dead’s people grabbing little teenaged girls who were barely in bleeding stage, and throwing them into the back of the 'quipment van and were helping themselves carnally. The girls did not seem afraid so we moved on about our business.

Though Campolindo made a lot of money from ticket sales the gym floor was thrashed by cigarette butts and Thunderbird wine bottles. There were hundreds of longhaired, dope-smoking zonked-out young kids writhing around in the dirt between parking strips. The cops consisting of four off duty sheriffs reserves were hopelessly beleaguered by  banshee-cheering maniacal Deadheads, and flanked by frantic bouffant coiffured housewives pleading with anyone who could still stand for decorum and decency. Marijuana smoke rollicked out of the ceiling fans. Cans of dayglo paint were slathered against school walls. Terror ruled the hearts of most. There was virtual pandemonium. People of all sorts of dress and persuasion were staggering about mumbling into the vinegar sky. They'd all been dosed with Owsley LSD unsuspectingly lying wait in ladles of pink lemonade punch.

What did I get out of it? Funny. The lead guitarist for Velvet Hammer caught my eye that night--he a skinny little 15 year old punk laying down these bodacious jazz licks. Nine years later I auditioned him in a group called "Climate" whom I managed into obscurity. Nonetheless the skinny lead guitarist from Velvet Hammer became a close friend and to this very day we write music together. My girlfriend married an Arab oil sheik. 

OAITW: September 7, 1973, First Annual Harpers Ferry West Virginia Indian Summer Bluegrass Folk Music Festival, Harpers Ferry, WV (UNCERTAIN)

Man, what a mouthful some of these bluegrass festival names are. And what's with the "Indian Summer" thing? Scanning through Muleskinner News, it comes up a lot.

An ad in Muleskinner News v4 n8 (August 1973), p. 37, announces the titular festival and lists, among the acts for Friday, September 7 (12 noon to midnight) one Jerry Garcia. Vassar Clements is listed for the next day but not the 7th, and there are no other references that shed any light. Let's assume this would have been Old and in the Way.

We know that Jerry was in Passaic, NJ for a Garcia/Saunders gig at the Capitol Theatre on September 6th, and that the Grateful Dead were at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on September 7th. The trajectory from Passaic (A) to Harpers Ferry, WV (B) to Uniondale (C) looks like this:


View Larger Map

Definitely not the most intuitive itinerary in the world. I don't know off hand when the GD came on on 9/7, nor what the airport situation might have been around Harpers Ferry, WV and Uniondale, NY.

Seems unlikely to me that old Spudboy would have been able to pull this one off, so I'll file this one under uncertain/unlikely.

OAITW: September 1-2, 1973, Blue Grass Park, Camp Springs (?), North Carolina

This is why I pick up old copies of Muleskinner News and such whenever I can.

It appears based on the image below that Old and in the Way played the "9th Labor Day Weekend Original Blue Grass Music Festival" in Camp Springs (?), North Carolina on September 1-2, 1973.

The only thing standing in the way of this possibility as things currently stand is the Garcia/Saunders outing dated September 2, 1973. I have long held that this date is erroneous. If you look at the liner notes to Merl Saunder's Keepers, it dates "Georgia on My Mind" and "Keepers (Finders)" as from The Record Plant on this date. Yet those tracks are identical to what circulates as a KSAN Broadcast (from ... you guess it ... the Record Plant in Sausalito) dated July 8, 1973. Now, I have no idea if the material was broadcast on September 2, re-broadcast on that date, or if there's just some error that led to this dating in the Keepers liner notes. But either way, I always had pre-existing doubts about this date.

Now comes some evidence that OAITW played a bluegrass festival in North Carolina over Labor Day weeked. It makes sense from a money perspective (I assume that as the "special guest" OAITW got well-paid,  relatively speaking). It makes sense from a logistical perspective: barring the 9/2/73 Record Plant thing, I have Garcia/Saunders at the Keystone on 8/31 and then in New York City Harbor for the Hell's Angels gig on September 5th. Heading east anyway for the GD tour, we know that Jerry did the SS. Bay Belle and the Capitol Theater on September 6th ... why not start a bit farther south, do a gig on Labor Day, have a good time, and then go up to the city?

Makes sense to me.

Any thoughts on the town name?

GD: August 17, 1970, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA

I am sure this has been gone over many, many times over the years. I imagine that in the days before ubiquitous tapes and information the Playboy article "Grateful Dead I Have Known" by Ed McClanahan (1) was probably scrutinized very closely, like some Rosetta Stone capable of unlocking the 1970-era GD. That it was published in the national and widely available and read (or, "read" -- tee hee) magazine makes it even more likely that people would have analyzed it. But I think we can get more out of it than what I have found, so at the risk of reinventing the wheel I am going to plough ahead.

As Deadlists notes, this is definitely written in Beat style and plays fast and loose with things like chronology (as befits the Prankster author, I guess). Yet it's reasonably clear from the context of the article that the specific show that is discussed throughout the article is August 17, 1970 at the Fillmore West. I argue that we should be confident enough in this that we should use information from the article to fill out the Grateful Dead setlist from this show along the lines laid out below.

I'll proceed in three parts. First, I'll discuss why we should think of the show detailed by McClanahan as 8/17/70. Second, I'll consider the countervailing evidence. Third, I'll lay out a more complete setlist than is presently available, based on McClanahan 1972.

1) Arguments for 8/17/70: four observations and an upshot.

First, the show was at the Fillmore West.

Second, it was billed as "An Evening With the Grateful Dead" and followed the three-set structure of that format: acoustic Dead, New Riders, electric Dead. Deadlists places the beginning of this format (among circulating tapes) as May 1970.

Third, McClanahan notes that the show he discusses will be followed by two more: "reworking my notes on last night's three sets at the Fillmore ... Jerry played all three sets ... and will do the same tonight and again tomorrow night." I don't think he explicitly says this is only a three-show run, but that's what I am inferring.

Fourth, partly based on this, the evidence points in favor of this being the August 1970 run at Fillmore West. Recall that the Grateful Dead played four stands at the Fillmore West in 1970: February 5-6-7-8; April 9-10-11-12; June 4-5-6-7; August 17-18-19.

We can rule out the February and April runs because they didn't follow the "Evening With ..." format.

The June shows can't be ruled out with 100% confidence, but I see three reasons that cut against this run: 1) setlists McLanahan describes don't match setlists from the June '70 shows; 2) McLanahan (per point #3 above) seems to be referring to a three-night stand, while the June run is four nights; 3) he references songs from Workingman's Dead, which wouldn't be released until later in the month. (True, he could be looking back from the perspective of what he knew when writing the article, but from the context he seems to be speaking from the perspective of his contemporary notebook.) #1 is probably most important, and it's where I am at greatest risk of being infected by material outside the article (e.g., Deadlists).

The upshot is this: in order to think that we are in the realm of a specific, coherent show, we have to trust a Prankster. On this score, I don't doubt the utility of McClanahan's account as much as Deadlists seems to. Here's what Deadlists says:

He doesn't get all the details right (or necessarily mean to -- he doesn't aim to publish a setlist) and it's definitely self-indulgent writing in the manner of Hunter Thompson & Tom Wolfe, but he does catch a hint of the flavor of the venue and the event, if from a tourist's point of view.

I think it's actually much more precise than that *on the particular issue of the setlist for a specific show*. McClanahan makes a point of saying that he is carefully noting the shows in his "Official Accuracy Reporter's Notebooks". He is very precise in describing the components of the "Evening With ..." format and in enumerating the songs that go with each part.

Finally, what he describes makes *perfect* sense based on what we know about setlist structures from the era.

Putting all that together, I believe that the show in question is the first show of the August 1970 "Evening with the Grateful Dead" run at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, i.e., August 17, 1970.

2) Counterarguments/evidence

First, McClanahan says "tonight's the first time the Dead have tried a strictly acoustic set on the Fillmore Audience." I don't believe this is true, for I believe that they did this during the June 1970 run. So this line would point in the direction of the June shows. But, again, we have reasonably complete setlists of the June 1970 GD sets, and what McClanahan describes isn't one of them.

Second, there is the issue of the tape that Deadlists (and thereby the LMA) associates with this date:



It is an 11-minute audience-recorded fragment that includes "Let Me In (83968's My Dad)," "Attics of My Life," and "Friend of the Devil". Deadlists points out that Teddy Goodbear and Dave Tamarkin both feel this is from an east coast show, and leaves this an open question. I have no view on this. If the material is from this show, it does not support the 8/17/70-as-described-by-McClanahan thesis, since none of these songs are from Workingman's Dead. (Though it is possible that McClanahan is trustworthy as far as he goes, but just incomplete, thus making room for these songs in the acoustic GD set he describes.)

Third is the issue of the Michael Lydon piece in Rolling Stone # 66 (2), which Deadlists ascribes to this show. The Lydon account is less complete than the McClanahan one, but they correlate nearly perfectly. There are two discrepancies, only one of which is particularly troubling. The first, minor one is that Lydon notes that David Nelson joins the acoustic Dead on mandolin about halfway through that set. McClanahan says nothing: let's just assume that he didn't notice. The second, more important, is that Lydon is quite specific in saying that the acoustic GD set begins with "Juggin'", i.e., Truckin', while McClanahan is quite specific in saying that it begins with Cumberland Blues and places Truckin' in the electric set. I can't reconcile this. I would be more inclined to buy that the show began with Truckin', or anyway that Truckin' was played acoustic rather than electric, but I honestly don't know. At this point it's just evidence contrary to my hypothesis.

Upshot: there is some evidence pointing away from my hypothesis, but on balance I'd say it is supported.

3) setlist as reconstructed from McClanahan 1972.

Anyway, I have gone too long already, so here's what I have come up with:

Acoustic Dead (Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Pigpen, Kreutzmann)
Cumberland Blues (opener)
New Speedway Boogie
Dire Wolf
Candyman
"two or three others, mostly from the Workingman's Dead album"
Swing Low Sweet Chariot (last song)

New Riders of the Purple Sage (Garcia, Torbert, Nelson, Hart, Marmaduke)
Six Days on the Road (opener)
Connection
Henry
Dirty Business
Last Lonely Eagle
a Marmaduke "yodeler"
Honkey Tonk Women (last song)

Electric GD (as GD acoustic, plus Hart)
Dancing in the Streets
Mama Tried
It's a Man's World
Not Fade Away
Truckin'
Uncle John's Band
Casey Jones ->
Turn on Your Lovelight

REFERENCES:
(1) McClanahan, Ed. 1972. Grateful Dead I Have Known. Playboy 19, 3 (March): 84-86, 108, 218-228.
(2) Lydon, Michael. 1970. An Evening with the Grateful Dead. Rolling Stone no. 66 (September 17, 1970), pp. 22-23.

June 1969 Community in Musical Efforts (COME) program, Oakland, CA

I have found two 1969 articles related to Community and (some say "in") Musical Efforts (COME), a two week series of seminars and workshops in "now" music to be held at Mills College, Oakland, CA, in June of 1969. Teachers were set to include Jerry Garcia, John Handy, Mickey Hart, Roland Kirk, the Tape Music Center, Big Black and Mike Bloomfield. Bill Freeman, said to be an old hand from Carousel Ballroom during its ownership by the JA, the GD and QMS. The other two founders and directors of COME were Leonard Sheftman (half-owner of the Both/And jazz club) and Clancy Carlile, a musician, songwriter and record producer (1). A later article (2) also lists Elvin Bishop, Harvey Mandel, and Phil Lesh as possible teachers.

Dates were initially listed as June 16-27, 1969 (1), though the later article gives a starting date of June 8 (2).

It looks to me like the program never materialized, as I can find no further mention of it (there is an Oakland Trib article in March that basically reproduces #1, below).

There are also some interesting details in the articles about plans to form a San Francisco College of Contemporary Music that might interest those readers specializing in Bay Area music stuff more generally.




REFERENCES
(1) "Modern Music Project is Planned in Oakland," Hayward Daily Review, February 25, 1969, p. 22.
(2) "SF Community Group Backs Pop Seminars," Billboard, April 19, 1969, p. 82. Available through Google Books.

OAITW: June 6, 1973, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ

update 20230704: I can't go back and revise this post 13 years later. It'll show up in Fate Music, believe me. With a LOT more specifics on Tex Logan, Peter Rowan, Boston, John Scher, and so much more!

Old and in the Way did a small east coast tour in June of 1973, the band's only shows outside of California except for the May 8 show in Eugene and the May 9th show in Portland about which I know nothing. update 20230704: I know more now.

The tour looked like this:

June 5: Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA
June 6: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ
June 7: Palace Theatre, Waterbury, CT
June 8: Lake Whippoorwill, Warrenton, VA (festival)
June 11: Temple Festival Theater, Ambler, PA

updated 20230704: Here's the current Jerrybase OAITW June 1973 tour view

There are some interesting things to say about the other shows, too, but here let me just add two songs to the known setlist from the June 6th show: Lonesome L.A. Cowboy in the 2nd set (probably late); Blue Mule to end the show. These come from a review by John Swenson in the "Riffs" colum of the Village Voice, June 14, 1973, p. 60 (available from Google News). I am happy about this because I had noted on my latest copy of the recording of the show as follows: "Unless someone knows otherwise, it would seem that the show continued after Wild Horses.  This tape contains a full two minutes of tuning at the end, before cutting out on Grisman saying something ("I'd like to call on the Old and in the W//")." These two songs should be added to the end of the setlist at the Jerry Site.

As noted on the setlists and such, Tex Logan sits in on fiddle at the end of set I. Bonus Question: does anyone know this man's birthdate? I am quite desperate to know it (including year) for reasons that I'll make clear if I ever discover it.