JGB at Queens College, October 30, 1975

LN jg1975-10-30.jgb.all.aud-cooper.124251.flac2496

Have barely had time to write a word about the Hopkins-era JGB these last 4+ years of blogging and hiatuses. That remains true, so the writeup will be short. Bottom line is that I think Nicky sounds really good (i.e., reasonably sober). I sort of figure that the day off the day before had done everyone some good. The tempos are upbeat. Pretty good tape of a pretty good show.

Jerry Garcia Band

Colden Auditorium, Queens College

Kissena Blvd.

Flushing, NY 11367

October 30, 1975 (Thursday)

Cooper MAC 2496 shnid-124251

--set I (8 tracks, 85:02)--

s1t01. / Let It Rock [10:38] %

s1t02. Sugaree [8:09] [0:02] % 8-12-9:29

s1t03. That's Alright Mama [11:35] [0:03] % [0:45] % [0:25]

s1t04. Catfish John [10:39] %

s1t05. /Pig's Boogie [#6:54] % [0:23]

s1t06. I'll Take A Melody [12:21] % [0:55]

s1t07. Money Honey [8:48] [0:02] %

s1t08. [0:23] (I'm A) Roadrunner [10:51] %

--set II (10 tracks, 98:15)--

s2t01. //It Ain't No Use [9:54] [0:02] % [0:27]

s2t02. Russian Lullaby [8:36] % [0:10]

s2t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:47] [0:02] % (1) [0:59]

s2t04. Friend Of The Devil [5:38] % [0:15]

s2t05. Lady Sleeps [5:09] [0:03] %

s2t06. [0:56] Mission In The Rain [5:49] [0:04] % [0:01]

s2t07. Mystery Train [13:01] [0:02] %

s2t08. [1:08] The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:11] [0:05] % [0:03]

s2t09. Let's Spend The Night Together [18:26+0:17] ->

s2t10. [-0:17] Edward The Mad Shirt Grinder [7:02] (2) [0:03]

! Band: Jerry Garcia Band

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

! lineup: Nicky Hopkins - piano;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;

! 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/19751030-01

! band: Jerry Garcia Band #1 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/124251 (this fileset), http://etreedb.org/shn/124248 (1644 fileset, same source), http://etreedb.org/shn/92780 (Gerry Moskal aud).

! map: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Colden+Auditorium,+Queens+College,+65-30+Kissena+Blvd.,+Flushing,+NY+&hl=en&sll=38.997934,-105.550567&sspn=7.374835,16.907959&t=h&hq=Colden+Auditorium,&hnear=Queens+College,+65-30+Kissena+Blvd,+Flushing,+New+York+11367&z=16&iwloc=A. As of this date (11/9/2013), Google Maps locates Colden Auditorium on Reeves Avenue. The [hard contemporary evidence] says "Kissena Blvd." (no number). JGBP gives street number 65-30, but I don't quite know, so I am sticking with the hardest contemporary evidence, for as far as it will go.

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/colden-auditorium-queens-college-65-30.html

! R: field recordist: Jim Cooper

! R: field gear: Sony ECM-22P > Hitachi TRQ-232, Maxel UD-C90, no NR

! R: transfer: Nakamichi Dragon > benchmark ADC1 24/96 > pc > adobe audition 2.0 > cd wave > flac. Transfer & seeded by Rob Berger 3/13.

! R: seeder notes: “brilliant!”

! R: running slow? Reporting now during TWLWMYD, and it sounds just fine.

! historical: $9,000 guarantee plus $1,500 lights and sound. Staying 5 nights at the St. Moritz on Central Park South, so this was just a drive to Flushing from Manhattan. Candace doing the lights.

! seealso: JGMF, "Bloody Hell," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/01/bloody-hell.html.

! P: s1t01 LIR Nicky some really nice runs at the start of the song

! P: s1t02 Sugaree JG pretty nice solo over the 6-mark.

! P: s1t03 TAM sounds like After Midnight to start. Nicky sounds great.

! R: s1t05 PB clips in

! P: s1t07 MH @ 5:30- JG guitar solo, starts off low and a little fuzzy, then 5:45 he sharpens up with a jagged run that's very, very, nice. A little faster run 6:10-6:23, they pick up the energy a little bit, swinging more now. Jerry playing very well. Fanning @ 6:45, Nicky errs late in the 6-min mark, not letting the solo play, then he's gone for awhile, until Jerry settles back into the swooping hook that is really the trademark of "Money Honey". Still not hearing Nicky much until late in the 7-min mark. Maybe he was cleaning his mirror?

! P: s1t08 IARR Jerry never quite settled on how he wanted to present Roadrunner in terms of key, tempo, etc. In every iteration, it reflects the idiosyncrasies of its human and pharmacological context. A temporal cipher. In early '74, it was young Jerry running a little too hot (e.g., 2/9/74), with tons of color from Merl's organ. With JGMS and LOM it really benefited from Martin's saxophone as well in terms of the overall palette. The Garcia-Hopkins JGB was a lot more stripped down, of course. Especially on a tape (night?) like this, where Nicky is really hard to hear, things are just too percussive, or something. Nicky solos in the 5-min mark, the rest of the guys chugging behind him. Sounds like Jerry practically had to write him an engraved invitation to take a run. With that said, the Garcia-Hopkins tempos are generally pretty good, still some juice like earlier, but not the swampy dirges of 1976-1978. So, this is a pretty good tempo for IARR, even though I don't find this version to be very good. It just never really cooks.

! R: s2t01 IANU cuts in, not much missing

! P: s2t02 Russian Lullaby: Love this tempo! Very upbeat. Such great Hot Club swing, Nicky providing some really nice saloon groove. Coffee or whisky? Why not both? Jerry's attack in the 2:30 mark is really inventive, like he's skipping two notes down instead of a more continuous scale. In the late-5 over 6 minute mark Jerry has almost a Midi sound, very interesting. It's rather trumpet-like, his playing here. Nicky another solo late-6 over 7 minute mark. NB that RL did not have the bass solo at this point.

! s2t03 (1) After John runs through the chord progressions for FOTD, knowledgeable fans call it out. Good call!

! P: s2t04 Crowd clapping enthusiastically to the familiar (because played by the GD) "Friend Of The Devil". This tempo is great, very upbeat. Nicky's playing shows lucidity that was too rare during his time with JGB. Jerry takes a fine solo over the 4-minute mark, compact but reasonably dextrous. He's getting warmed up, I hope.

! song: "Friend Of The Devil" (s2t04) [Jerrybase]: One of the rare tunes Jerry played inside and outside of the GD with any regularity, this one, like other switch-hitters such as "Sugaree" and "Deal", a Garcia-Hunter joint that Jerry just seemed to love.

! setlist: s2t05 was listed in this info file as "Waltzing Matilda", but it is "Lady Sleeps".

! song: "Lady Sleeps" (s2t05) [Jerrybase]: Nicky wrote and performed this pretty piano instrumental as a solo, spotlight piece during his time with the JGB. In most live JGB renditions he segued it into the unfortunate "No Time", a forgettable nasal lament which also appeared on Nicky's 1975 release No More Changes (Mercury SRM 11028). Here it stands on its own, and nicely, a velvety soft, gentle feel sharpened by Nicky's clean strokes.

! P: s2t06 MITR: These early versions of MITR are so great. There was only really a brief window when he could truly handle the vocals, including the opening lines. Here he flubs some lyrics in the mid-3 range.

! P: s2t09 LSTNT some nice fanning over the 10-minute mark. Late in the 14-minute mark there appears to be some discord, not sure who contradicts whom, but Jerry and Nicky don't seem on the same page as one of them returns hard to the LSTNT theme, the other stiff-arms. Now to mid-15 minute mark they are dueling vigorously, late 15-minute mark Tutt picks up the tempo, and they get into a very tasty romp, a little bit to the tempo of "Caution" for the GD fans, Jerry running around now, building to some nice fanning @ 17:15, back to LSTNT theme 17:30, Tutt banging like an animal late in the 17-minute mark, some great drumming, Jerry rises in response late 17-minute mark, now everyone digging in real deep, Jerry more theme then winds down into Edward.

! R: s2t09 LSTNT a brief splice @ 16:46?

! P: s2t10 Edward is a tremendously exciting piece of music, getting Jerry to sound like John Cipollina and David Gilmour in one song is no mean feat. Tip o’ the cap to ya, Session Man.

! s2t10 (2) JG: "Thank you. See y'all later on."

! Staying at St. Moritz, 30 Central Park South, New York, NY, 10019 (http://goo.gl/maps/gQOgv), five nights. Jerry's the only one of the traveling party with a double room, so I presume he's with Deborah Koons or another woman not named Mountain Girl. Players Nicky Hopkins, John Kahn and Ron Tutt, manager Richard Loren, and drivers/'quippies Steve Brown, Kidd Candelario, Steve Parish, and B. Zachary all get single rooms. The band members had hit the road on Tuesday the 21st, the drivers probably a few days earlier, so everyone's a week or more on the road. Nine shows in seven consecutive nights, Wednesday (10/29) off in NYC, then, starting this night, six shows on four consecutive evenings, flying home the next day (Monday, November 3rd). "You've 'ad yer fun ... now pay fer it!" Back to the old salt mines. Hop in the limo, dozen mile ride to Queens, and play this long-ass gig.

JGB April 2, 1976 Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ

Wow. Earliest known JGB video. Wonderful.



Hopefully there's more video from the Cap yet to emerge!

Thanks to whomever unearthed and shared this. Great, great stuff.

Reminder: Date Index

Just a little reminder that I try to keep a reasonably complete list of dates I have discussed at any length at a db.etree list, http://db.etree.org/jgmf. Happy hunting!

Fishing Reports: Fall 2011

I was going through some old posts, trying to update tags, and somehow this must have only been a draft. So it was posted in 2013, two years after the fact.

I don't have time to do this up right, and I know these are just notes-to-self, but let me just lay them down anyway.

10/28/2011, 1000-1300: St. Vrain from the white gate.

Started lower than in 2009, while river still on the right. Water is low, shop guys said 3 weight and small bugs would be good. Suggested nymphing earlier in the day, maybe weighting down an ant underneath. Also underwater: Rainbow Warriors, a blue tungsten bug. Small, 22 ish. 6x line-leader-tippet.

Ca. 10 am - ca 1 pm, sunny, probably got into 50s in the sun in the canyon. Banks are still super-snowy. Water looks great.

I put a caddis fly up top as a strike indicator and started with the rainbow warrior down low for some flash (mostly shady on the water). Caught a couple of small browns. Switched to the blue tungsten underneath, caught a few more small browns.

Walked up to where the road runs to right of the river, a hundred yards maybe and fished up for awhile. Caught one decent-sized (by which I mean maybe 10") rainbow on the rainbow warrior.

Last time (only other time) I got skunked, so 5-6 fish in 3 hours isn't terrible. But it wasn't in any way obvious. There are some great pools and lots of nice channels, but I mostly caught stuff when I could swing my wet fly underneath an underwater rock shelf. They mostly came out of crevices, not much happening out in the open.

10/24/2011, 0900-1300: South Boulder Creek, El Dorado Canyon

Parked right down and off to the right inside the park and fished the lower section of the river. I almost never go here, just because the fish are so obvious (cf. the St. Vrain, 10/28/2011), so visible in the high-traffic areas of the park (the bridge, the little path along the water for a few hundred yards or whatever it is), so accessible that I figure they get hardware thrown at them constantly and are gonna be curmudgeonly. But with traffic to the park down from the summer season, and the water coming down, I have been eyeing it and decided to try it.

Good times. Not trivially easy to catch fish, and they're bigger down here than in the middle section I usually fish (from 60 yds down from the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead, up to the big pool or the upper bridge). So I am so used to this water that I was pretty well able to find the fish and persaude them to say hello. I think it was BWOs that were killing, on a slightly overcast day. Dry only, 3-weight rod, 6x line/leader/tippet.

10/21/2011, 0700-1200, Big Thompson River, b/w mile markers 70 and 71 on Highway 34

Came out way too early, but I had insomnia so what better was I gonna do? It was chilly in the morning, boy, but it warmed up to 50s by early afternoon.

Already having a hard time remembering what I was doing this day ... 5 weight I think (first time with the new reel), 5x line/leader/tippet. I probably caught a half-dozen fish, mostly browns and one rainbow. I can't really remember. It was nice, but not ridiculously better than what I can get a lot closer to home. Not as good as when I want at this same time of year in 2009.

ca. mid-October 2011, South Boulder Creek (1) west of highway 36, and (2) between South Boulder Road and Highway 36.

I have commuted past South Boulder Creek on highway 36 hundreds of times, but I have only fished the water you can see from the road once, and to my recollection only very briefly. Having been riding my bike to work, I have been watching the progress and regress of the fly shops located in the Table Mesa Shopping Center. While Rocky Mountain Anglers continues to thrive (I hope) because of its amazing people, gear and knowledge, "the other shop" on Table Mesa has had a bunch of turnover. Anyway, this shop had a sign in the window saying that Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) was creating some habitat in this flat area of the creek, at least the bits on either side of Highway 36.

Alligator

I didn't mean to publish this drafty fragment. It published itself. IIWII.

anonymous comment: 

Russian River connection might have to do with them spending time at the Warnecke Ranch out on Chalk Hill Rd in Healdsburg. Alligator was supposed to be written there.

7/16/67 interview Garcia says they are looking to move to the Southwest, with specific mention of New Mexico. I would be stunned if this were not connected with Hunter.

Here's what The Bard says in Box of Rain (1):

This was one of my first lyrics recorded by the Dead. I got paid two hundred fifty dollars from the record advance for Anthem of the Sun with which I bought a used car and headed north to Seattle, where I tried to make a living restringing beads from Goodwill for a friend's boutique. I made about five dollars at this occupation. The car broke down, which was okay, since I couldn't afford gas for it, so I hitchhiked back to S.F. and decided to hang out there with the Dead.

Dodd (2) doesn't say much about the near origins of the song (i.e., through any Hunter biography), but has characteristically brilliant and fascinating analysis of its various historical progenitors and other relatives.

REFERENCE:

(1) Hunter, Robert. 1990. A Box of Rain: Collected Lyrics of Robert Hunter. New York: Viking Press (s.v. "Alligator", pp. 6-7).

(2) Dodd, David, ed. 2005. The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, annotations by David Dodd, Foreword by Robert Hunter. New York: Free Press (s.v. "Alligator", pp. 36-38).

LN Reconstruction May 19, 1979 Old Waldorf, set II

Corry attended the Reconstruction show at the Old Waldorf on May 19, 1979, and has written it up very nicely from all of the angles that matter. He saw the 1st set. The second set, probably most of it, circulates from a very nice but unattributed audience recording. It's not the best Reconstruction set around, but I like it OK. This material has circulated as set I, but it's set II.

Garcia was clearly trying not to have attention drawn to himself in Reconstruction. He seemed to want to efface himself in the band, stand back in the shadows. Many of the show advertisements listed him as a featured player, in part because Reconstruction seems to have played some shows with Jerry Miller on guitar, and in part, well, to sell tickets. Garcia was always the goose that laid the golden egg in his side projects. Or, he was Midas, even for middling, disco-inspired funk, soul and disco outfits like Reconstruction. As David Grisman would say in another context, "Jerry kind of takes care of the profitable part" (or something like that).

My main reason for queueing this up is that it has some banter up front that I have always found revealing. Saxman Ron Stallings handled the emcee duties for Reconstruction. After the first few songs on this tape (shnid-14804), we hear the following exchange:

"Jerry Garcia on the guitar. On guitar, Jerry Garcia. Our guitar player, Jerry Garcia."

[Crowd getting louder and louder, cheering more each time he says Jerry's name.]

Crowd member: "Hey, who's on the saxophone?" Another: "Take it, Merl!" They ask again: "Who's on the saxophone?" Stallings: "That's a very good question."

Someone in the back: "Who's on guitar?" Stallings: "Guitar? Jerry Garcia." Crowd: "Who? Who?"

No big deal, right? I know. But it is interesting to hear the slightly uncomfortable evidence of Garcia's stardom and fawning fan-base, even in the presence of badass players like Reverend Ron Stallings and drummer Gaylord Birch. Everyone who ever played a paid gig with Jerry had to reconcile himself or herself to the fact that Garcia was going to get all the attention, Garcia was probably going to bring in dollars, etc. One had to just deal with some over-the-top fans.

For the rest of the gig, Stallings makes a big deal of repeating the players' names over and over. But I think he's just compensating for the awkwardness of this earlier exchange. I can imagine Garcia being a little bit mortified by all of this. Revisiting the 6/23/79 show in Guerneville, I hear Garcia and Kahn trying to start up Dear Prudence before Jerry could be announced from stage. I swear, that's what I hear. And here I hear him cringeing a little bit for his fans and for himself. Just part of the "Burden of Being Jerry" (see also ca. 4/12/73 with Old And In The Way).

Listening notes follow.

Review of Legion of Mary 12/15/74 EMU Ballroom

With the release of this show, thought I'd post the review that I have in my collection. The release sounds fantastic, and I am loving it so far. If I had time to blog, I'd analyze the liner notes and the music and the gigs and all that. But, no time. Deaddisc has an entry up.

Darryl Norsen wrote the liner notes, a version of which appears online at http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/10/15/legion-of-mary-december-14-15-1974-northwest-tour/. The booklet looks nice, but the liner notes are horrifically edited, with numerous grammatical errors. Oh well.

Anyway, here's the review:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7TAYus5LRzuelZJUmhORzNmYUk/edit?usp=sharing

Lee, Greg. 1975. One of the best shows ever. Oregon Daily Emerald, January 9, 1975, p. 9.

It's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing

LN jg1984-08-24.jgb.s1.aud-GEMS.124940.flac1644

There are lots of ways to interpret this performance. One reasonable way would be to say that this is just about the nadir of Garcia's performing career (perhaps 8/26/84), a professional embarrassment shocking only because playing at least competently for a paying audience formed perhaps the only real commitment in his life, a tangle of opiate gauze. But one could just as reasonably say "it's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing."

[update/aside: I titled a subsequent post on this show "I stand corrected - it *is* that bad"]

I feel comfortable with two evaluative statements. First, the vocals are horrifically bad. Second, the guitar work is much better than the vocal work, and is occasionally great. With more room, I'd elaborate each in turn. I'd also entertain a "compensation hypothesis", whereby when is vocals are really spectacularly, obviously, let's-just-get-this-out-in-the-open horrible, he tries to give the patrons their money's worth by tearing it up, in magnesium bursts, on the git-tar.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
August 24, 1984 (Friday)
45 min s1 aud GEMS shnid-124940

--set I (5 tracks, 45:03)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [7:53] [0:05] %
s1t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:03]
s1t03. [0:08] Get Out Of My Life Woman [10:14] %
s1t04. ... Let It Rock [#6:41] ->
s1t05. Deal [7:50] (1) [0:08]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals.
         
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/19840824-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/124940 (this tape)

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/L0BBt

! venue:http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html.  #21b: THE Jerry Garcia Band.

! P: There are lots of ways to interpret this performance. One reasonable way would be to say that this is just about the nadir of Garcia's performing career (perhaps 8/26/84), a professional embarrassment shocking only because playing at least competently for a paying audience formed perhaps the only real commitment in his life, a tangle of opiate gauze. But one could just as reasonably say "it's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing." Croz comparison. I feel comfortable with two evaluative statements. First, the vocals are horrifically bad. Second, the guitar work is much better than the vocal work, and is occasionally great. With more room, I'd elaborate each in turn.

! R: audience tape > ? > CD x > Harry Angus CD > jjoops CD > GEMS flac1644.

! R: "a Project **GEMS** Jamie Waddell

! R: "from the Jjoops Tupperware"

! R: "exact lineage unconfirmed"

! R: 1st source in circulation for this date

! R: taper pauses very abruptly at start and end of tunes, crossfades applied after tracks 1, 2 and 3

! R: seeder: "hope to see these and other masters surface for this show"

! R: seeder: "seeded on July 4, 2013 to Lossless Legs"

! R: first part of set II exists from this source, but it is garbled and not really worth hearing. Per the seeder: "Partial battery/deck failure/bad tape storage/smitten by audio gods: Harder They Come, Sugaree > Don't Let Go/".

! P: s1t01 CUTS: Jerry is a wreck. This is very near the bottom. But his very down and dirty instrumentation about 5-min mark suggests that he can still play a little bit of guitar, even if he can't sing. Vocal chords and lots and lots and lots of blow are not a good mix.

! P: s1t02 KOHD: again, Jerry is wrecked, but this tempo is not bad, may even lean a little peppy. I anticipate a short set where he runs out of gas at the end, but maybe I am being too cynical. So far so good. Over the 9-minute mark, Jerry evinces true world-weariness, the kind that makes you think he's chosen the song for its truth. His voice is brutal, he is struggling to finish his sentences, but, on the other hand, he's giving it his all, including a little yell at 10:40 that the crowd enjoys, followed by some nice reggae runs.

! P: s1t03 GOOMLW the vox are, again, very bad. @ 6:41 some good raunchy guitar work. But I think the whole thing kind of runs out of gas.

! song: GOOMLW (s1t03): first played 7/28/84, played pretty much every show from then until 8/24. See https://jerrybase.com/songs/799

! P: s1t04 LIR Garcia sounds horrific. Great fanning @ 3:40 ff, some very aggressive and articulate playing. Leaning in, sweating like a pig, I am sure. Listen to the little thing @ 4:35, just a quick little circle, a third time around from 4:50, very silvery-hairy tonality.

! R: s1t05 Deal some little clip around 1:20.

! P: s1t05 Deal Jerry sounds absolutely terrible. Terrible. And I don't find that the guitar work compensates.

! s1t05 (1) "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a little bit."

Rare GD Post: 1976 vs. 1977, DNC, ca. early 2000s

DNCers will recognize.

By Chimbley, with his apologies to Berkeley Breathed. Thanks to SC for sharing.

Happy Birthday, Croz!

"You can't improvise on nothing, man."

--Charles Mingus to Timothy Leary

Santoro, George. 2000.Myself When I am Real : The Life and Music of Charles Mingus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Via Google Books, URL http://books.google.com/books?id=qdWqrp9z5isC&lpg=PA270&pg=PA270#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 7/5/2013.

Sometimes appended with "You've got to improvise on something." http://secondlanguage.blogspot.com/2008/07/between-bullshit-and-plagiarism.html.

Collective Improvisation

Kernfield, Barry. 1995. What To Listen For In Jazz. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

??

Eye, Ear and Brain Candy

http://vimeo.com/bsarles/review/67766989/7f649e0f5a

Nicely done, it seems to me. Well-chosen material!

h/t yellowshark

Feed Your Head: The Psychedelic Era

From Kesey's early "Acid Tests," to the San Francisco's Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms, Monterey, LA's Sunset Strip, and London's UFO club, culminating with the Woodstock Festival, the birth and evolution of psychedelic music is explored in this documentary film. The film incorporates interviews with the musicians and promoters who shaped the scene with rare and classic peformance clips. Produced for exhibit at the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, this film was part of the RockHall's "I Want To Take You Higher" exhibit which ran for two years beginning in 1997. With Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, Jack Casady, David Crosby, Gary Duncan, David Freiberg, Jerry Garcia, Dave Getz, Bill Graham, James Gurley, Mickey Hart, Chet Helms, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Ray Manzarek, Paul McCartney, Country Joe McDonald, Roger McGuinn, Carlos Santana, Pete Townshend and Bob Weir.

'Feed Your Head' a Ravin' Film
Produced by Tenth Planet Productions for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum
Directed + Edited by Bob Sarles
Produced by Dave Cunningham
Executive Producer Joel Gallen
Associate Producer Jay Karas
Cinematography by Ted Leyhe
Sound Mix by Samuel Lehmer
Research by Jessica Berman Bogdan and Kathy Blake
Additional camera by Bill Zarchy

22:29

NRPS: November 26, 1969, Poppycock, Palo Alto

A few years ago Corry uncovered a whole trove of previously unknown NRPS shows in 1969. Among others, these included gigs in their old Palo Alto stomping grounds, playing the Poppycock (135 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94301) on consecutive Thursdays in November (November 13, 1969 and November 20, 1969). I am still hiatus, so I don't have time to contemplate these guys playing Palo Alto in 1969 at the Poppycock --about which, of course, Corry is also authoritative-- for very long. But it sure does have a lot of intuitive appeal.

So, this new to The List is for him: a Wednesday night NRPS gig at the Poppycock. The night before Thanksgiving. November 26, 1969.

entertainment listings, Good Times vol. 2 no. 45 (November 20, 1969), p. unknown.

Recall that the NRPS reprised the night-before-Thanksgiving gig the next year, 11/25/70 at the Keystone Korner. That, of course, would be an auspicious occasion: the first booking with Freddie Herrera, who would be the second cornerstone of Garcia's non-GD professional musical life (after John Kahn, the rock of the church) until Garcia left for Bill Graham and a bigger room in 1987. But gigging with friends around Thanksgiving does seem to have been a nice little tradition. Sure wish I could have been around to hear them on this night, on well-trod ground, in 1969!

New to The List

I'll be posting some new-to-The-List dates ad seriatim.

JGMS: Wednesday, December 9, 1970, Matrix

San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 1970, p. 62.

 JGMS: Wednesday, January 6, 1971, Matrix

Wasserman, John L. 1971. A Talent Bigger Than Her Name. San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 1971, p. 38.

NRPS: Monday, January 11, 1971, Lion's Share
JGMS: Tuesday, January 12, 1971, Matrix
JGMS: Wednesday, January 13, 1971, Matrix

Wasserman, John L. 1971. John Lennon's Windy Candor. San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1971, p. 38.

"Opening Today," San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 1971, p. 35.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. Big Names on the Peninsula. San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 1971, p. 44.

JGMS: Monday, February 8, 1971, Matrix. Note that the Chicken's Matrix List shows a second night on Tuesday, February 9, but that is contradicted by the Chronicle listing, which tips John Lee Hooker.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. The Man Who Picks The Hits. San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 1971, p. 42.

 JGMS: Thursday, March 25, 1971, Keystone Korner.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. On the Town: Some Travesties in the Music Biz [Something Else]. San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1971, p. 42.

"Strung Between Dreams and Reality": June 4, 1968, Carousel Ballroom

Handbill for Jam at Carousel Ballroom, Tuesday, June 4, 1968.

The "Tuesday Night Jam" on May 21, 1968 [JB ] shnid-22727] is the uhr moment for Garcia On The Side (GOTS), representing the first time that Garcia was billed under his own name since the birth of the Dead in 1965. The 1968 Side Trips have a feeling all their own, for sure. Much, much more to say about all of it. (For a taste, see my post on 10/30/68 and Hartbeats as Tempo Études.)

Here, because I am going through some San Francisco Chronicle scans I gathered, I wanted to provide some lengthy quotes from Ralph Gleason to provide some context around the seemingly-similar Tuesday Night Jam from June 4, 1968. The handbill identifies Jerry Garcia, Elvin Bishop, Barry Melton, Tim Davis, Lonnie Turner, Steve Miller, Fred Walk, Dino, Marcus Magnificent Malone, plus others.

This was the night that Robert Kennedy was shot, of course. Ralph Gleason (1) offers a pretty good snapshot of the yin and yang of the night, which can of course be taken as capturing some essential things about the hippie dream and, darkly, life itself.

At midnight Tuesday night it was a beautiful scene at the Carousel Ballroom. People came in off the street with late election news and inside there was a long jam session going on with all kinds of guitar players and saxophones and rhythm men and on the floor there was more dancing than I've seen anywhere in months. Throughout the ballroom an outstanding feature was the peacefulness and the joy as a wondrous assortment of people relaxed. There were Hells Angels and hippies, many black people and many men long-hair youth [sic]. It seemed for a moment like the hope of the future.

And then I went outside, got into the car and punched the radio button only to hear a voice saying 'When Senator Kennedy was shot tonight ...' and the terrible real world came crashing in on me again.

And, late the next night:

[a] man slowly died ... this terrible feeling came on again, the feeling of doom I had lost in the Carousel the night before, and the country seemed fated to keep spinning out of control down some grim spiral to madness.

REFERENCE:
(1) Gleason, Ralph J. 1968. Strung Between Dreams and Reality. San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1968, p. 49.

 

Gleason, Ralph J. 1968. Strung Between Dreams and Reality. San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1968, p. 49.

Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders - February 22, 1971, Matrix, San Francisco

Wasserman, John L. 1971. The Big Sound At Lake Tahoe ["Something Else" subhead], San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 1971, p. 40.

The Chicken's Matrix list  doesn't show a few of these Matrix gigs, so I'll throw them out there.

Monday; February 22, 1971; Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders
Tuesday; February 23, 1971; Larry Coryell
Wednesday; February 24, 1971; Larry Coryell

I think you guys will also be interested in the Tuesday night Fillmore West rehearsals. Since there were no posters (and presumably not terribly many attendees), these have probably been a little more elusive. All of this will be entered into shared data at some point.

Don't even get me started about Hubbard and Hancock. I don't know if Herbie was into Mwandishi by this time or not. I have a sense of what Freddie was playing around this time, interpolating through a few 1970 and 1971 dates that are out and about. Red Clay and all that ... would be absolutely smokin', I am sure. I wonder what was the capacity of the Both/And?

My main thing was to point out Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders gigging at the Matrix. By this time, Jerry and Merl were a regular thing. So here's a nice little instance of where Jerry's out of town with his day job, Merl is working gigs of his own. Naturally enough. Gotta eat.

But that this was Carlos and Merl at the Matrix makes it all the more interesting. I assume there are Santana freaks out there who know about this. I should assume that it's in McNally and Jackson and probably that Corry has already blogged about this, at length. :) But I, for one, don't recall hearing about this.

2/22/71, Monday night. Carlos and Merl (and who else??) jamming at the Matrix. Yeah, I'd soak up some beer for the privilege. Must have been a good payday all around. I wonder how the music was? I wonder if it was taped? This is just a marker, have at it.

Hope you are all well. While I still need to be on hiatus from this material, one has to be opportunistic when the research opportunities present themselves. I'll probably do more of this as summer rolls around.

Lizless Sextet: JGB at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, June 23, 1982

LN jg1982-06-23.jgb.s1s2p.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448

This date interests me because Liz Stires is said to have left the JGB tour after the previous night's gig (6/22/82). So this would be a show with only one backing vocalist (Julie Stafford), a rare JGB sextet with two keyboards (JGB #14d, I have proposed we catalogue it). Truth is, I can't hear from this tape whether there is one vocalist or whether there are two. I plan to put ears on the other partial tape (which looks to complement this tape nicely; concatenated, they should provide the complete show). Anyway, the review (Allison 1982a) seems to say pretty clearly there is a single vocalist, so given the provenance [redacted] of the information that Liz left on 6/22, it's a pretty sure bet she's not here.

Oh, yeah. There's a really outrageous, ripping guitar solo about 8 minutes into Tangled Up In Blue. As I say in  my notes, I bet Garcia was sweating like a greased pig. But it's good stuff.

So, review, then listening notes.

Jerry Garcia Band
Stanley Theater
830 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
June 23, 1982 (Wednesday)
Closet Call 2nd gen s1s2p cassette (81 minutes)

--Set I (6 tracks, 59:01, complete)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [3:48]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:21] [1:48]
s1t03. I'll Take A Melody [14:55] [2:12]
s1t04. Valerie [7:31] [0:06]%
s1t05. (I'm A) Road Runner [8:48] [0:19]
s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [10:13] (1) %

--Set II (3 tracks, 22:12, incomplete, start of set)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:11]
s2t02. The Harder They Come [11:29] [1:53]
s2t03. Let It Rock [7:36] [0:02] %

[MISSING Russian Lullaby ->]
[MISSING Dear Prudence ->]
[MISSING Run For The Roses]
[MISSING --Encore-- Deal]

! Band: Jerry Garcia Band #14d
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! Lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric piano;
! Lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;
! Lineup: Julie Stafford - backing vocals.

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.

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-06-23

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19820623-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/90876, incomplete unlineaged audience tape.

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/oab9c

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/stanley-theatre-830-liberty-avenue.html

! seealso: JGMF, "A JGB drum solo by Bill Kreutzmann - Cape Cod Coliseum, June 18, 1982," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-jgb-drum-solo-by-bill-kreutzmann-cape.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "Long Ago and Far Away: JGB at Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, June 20, 1982," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/08/long-ago-and-far-away-jgb-at-cumberland.html.

! personnel: The key historical interest of this show lies in the personnel. This is an odd, fleeting, sextet configuration with Garcia and Kahn (of course), featuring two keyboardists (Melvin Seals on organ and Jimmy Warren on electric piano). Bill Kreutzmann is on drums, which would happen periodically for reasons that are not very clear, but worth thinking through at some point. Yet this is a rare night with only a single backing vocalist (Julie Stafford, as I presently understand things). I think the last time Garcia would have played with a single backup singer (always a "girl singer", as he once referred to Dolly Parton) would probably have been late '77, with Donna Jean Godchaux but without Maria Muldaur. In this instance, there were two backing vocalists for the tour, but Liz Stires left the Garcia Band after the June 22nd show at the Richmond Mosque in Richmond, VA [TJS]. A review in the Penn State Daily Collegian (Allison 1982a) identifies the band personnel (though only Garcia and Kreutzmann by name) as including "a woman vocalist", going on to note that "the woman vocalist had few opportunities to perform, but was always a fine addition." I think this is pretty solid confirmation that there was only one singer, and that, indeed, Liz Stires left the tour a few days early. According to Corry's typology, this should be JGB #14d, which would have done three shows on 6/23/82 and 6/24/82 (early and late).

! setlist: Allison 1982a says "Let It Rock" ended the second set, but he also says that LIR is a Garcia original. This tape runs continuously from the warmup before HTC through the end of LIR, so if LIR was last (before the encore), then HTC was also the penultimate tune.

! historical: see note about personnel. The Allison review (1982a) notes that Garcia will play two shows, at 6 and 9, Sunday night (6/27) at the Tower Theatre in Philly (actually, Upper Darby), and that as of the the 24th tickets were still available. (Note that the Tower show was Garcia/Kahn.)

! R: this is definitely a different recording than the one embodied in shnid-90876, and on a quick listen I think this one is better. I have to check more carefully, but it looks like these tapes will fit nicely together and, hopefully, can be concatenated to provide the complete show.

! R: source tape: "2nd gen aud", 1x Maxell XLII (no Dolby)

! R: transfer: Nakamichi BX-300 playback (no Dolby) > Pyle Pro cables > WaveTerminal 2496 > Samplitude 10.1 Download Version (record @ 24 bits/48kHz) > CDWave 1.9.8 (tracking) > Adobe Audition 3.0.1 Build 8347.0 (fades) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC 2448 encoding, level 8) > Foobar (tagging).

! R: This is a classic Closet Call tape. It's not great, but it's not bad. Things are a little overloaded, and there's definitely some room feel, but the (unknown) recordist was in a pretty good spot and did a pretty good job. The keyboards and backing vocals are a little washed out, while the bass sounds pretty good. The recordist just left the tape rolling, 45 minutes at a time, by the sound of things, which is really nice.

! R s1t03 ITAM about 7 and a half minutes in there is a real-time blank spot. You can sort of hear the music imprinted underneath it. Maybe someone forgot to pop the tabs on their tapes?
! personnel: s1t06 TUIB I can't tell if I hear two backing vocalists?

! P: s1t06 TUIB Garcia is tearing it up in this TUIB. This is some pretty outrageous guitar. Easily some of his @@ best licks of the year. Solo around 8 minutes into TUIB. Late 8-min mark and forward, just very, very lengthy phrasings, also at blowout intensity and some great raunch. I bet Garcia was sweating like a fucking hog here.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks, we're gonna take a break for a little while. See y'//".

! Disclaimer: This is part of a "Closet Call" project aimed at getting missing Garcia dates into the digital realm. These are "warts and all" ... straight transfers of the source cassettes with editing only of the most offensive tape transitions and such. If you don't like hiss, possible speed problems, etc., etc., then move along. And, to anticipate a FAQ: no, I don't plan on doing 16/44s of these. Thanks to wk for supplying these tapes!

References:
Allison, John. 1982a. Garcia band hot at the Stanley. Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State University), June 25, 1982, p. 13.
Arnold, Corry. 2012. Jerry Garcia Band Personnel 1975-1995. Lost Live Dead, January 12, 2012, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html, consulted 3/24/2013.

jgmf.blogspot.com

Matrix footage

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/210748

KRON-TV News report from February 3rd 1967 at The Matrix nightclub in San Francisco, at 3138 Fillmore Street. Features views of rock band The Only Alternative & His Other Possibillities rehearsing onstage and an interview with new singer Kay and songwriter Tor Olson. They discuss the difficulty of defining their 'sound' and the creativity of the San Francisco music scene.

Wow. h/t Yellow Shark.