RN Sandy Troy's One More Saturday Night (1991)

Troy, Sandy. 1991. One More Saturday Night: Reflections with the Grateful Dead, Dead Family, and Dead Heads. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Reading Notes

“by the fall of 1974 the band’s business ventures began to unravel” (Troy 1991, 27). #business

JG and MG moved in together early 1967 (Troy 1991, 68). #women

#v-Carousel as described by MG: “It was a beautiful place; nobody could believe it. It had wooden floors, a fairly low ceiling, plus sets of French doors that opened to let in fresh air. It also had beautiful gold framed mirrors, strange 50’s light fixtures, weird old tables, and red push sofas. It even had a great kitchen and we served dinner, too. (MG in Troy 1991, 91).

#Chet Helms knew Phil first, through the Mime Troupe, though they had a totally non-musical relationship. They’d hang out, smoke grass, and talk politics. (Troy 1991, 98).

#houses #Olompali interview with Rock Scully says when they left Haight they went to Camp Lagunitas, then moved to Olompali. But I think he’s confused. “Olompali was a big old Spanish estate that had a swimming pool, some outbuildings with bedrooms, and enough space so that we all could live there and have a good time. We would [122] get the word out that we were having a party and people would come and jam. It wasn’t a set thing where the Dead would play, but it was a jam session where musicians from the Airplane, Quicksilver, the Charlatans would jam with us. It was a chance for all our friends from the City to come and hang out with us outdoors in the sunshine. We’d set up the stage between the house and the pool and people would being [sic] doing acid and hanging out by the pool naked. Sometimes there would be several hundred people partying” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 120, 122).

“Garcia, Lesh and Weir really enjoyed Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies and I think Crosby’s influence helped the band improve their harmonies” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 122).

ST: How did the concept of AEWTGD come about? Rock: “It came about because Jerry was playing pedal steel, and digging it. John Dawson knew Jerry and asked him to play pedal steel in the New Riders. “An Evening With The Grateful Dead” worked conceptually because the music of both bands went well together. It stopped being a concept when Jerry realized that playing pedal steel was screwing with his electric guitar playing. The instruments were so different from each [other] that his guitar playing was suffering” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 124). #NRPS #pedal steel

Rock on #NRPS: “There wasn’t really one [New Riders] manager.” Rock involved first album and Powerglide. “I remember when the New Riders were living in my house. That picture on the back of the first album, when the band is leaning on the banister, was actually in my house in Kentfield. I guess you could say I was managing them at the time because pretty much all their gigs were with the Dead because Jerry was playing with them. When they got Buddy Cage they started doing shows on their own. Then Dale Franklin and Jon McIntire became their managers for a time” (Scully in Troy 1991, 125).

Chateau d’Herouville 6/21/71 “was Jon McIntire’s baby” (Rock Scully in Troy 1991, 125).

#v-Carousel Healy “It held about eight hundred people … though we would put as many in there as we could get. It was an old ballroom left over from the Swing era. It was owned by an Irishman.” JG: “They had Irish music there on Thursday nights.” DH: “That’s all they had in there. Aside from that it was closed all the time, and had been closed down right after the Swing [145] era. It was still in its original state, right out of the ‘20s, right down to the chandeliers in the place. The interior was beautiful. It wasn’t at all torn up: it was in mind condition.” (in Troy 1991, 144-145).

Lesh on Watkins Glen, the Dead had to run the show, in spite of promoters. “The biggest hassle was convincing the Band to come out and play. Hey man, it’s just down the road a piece, come on out and play. What can you lose? They played great!” (Lesh in Troy 1991, 153).

Constanten: “That’s a chance you have to take in courting serendipity – sometimes serendipity comes to grace your performances and sometimes not” (TC in Troy 1991, 156).

The John “Marmaduke” Dawson chapter (Troy 1991, 164-175) is very important material.

Dawson says he was around in 1958-59, taking guitar lessons from a lady in Palo Alto, when Jerry was with Sara. So that would be 1963. “They dropped in at a guitar thing that my guitar teacher was having at her house one night. I didn’t really meet him until later on at a club called The Tangent” in Palo Alto (Dawson in Troy 1991, 165).  Met Nelson at the Tangent (Troy 1991, 165).

Dawson: Rancho Olompali is a “place where all the Indians used to hang out. There’s an Indian burial ground nearby. It’s quite a lovely place. It had a big old mansion of a ranch house that they lived in for a while” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167).

Dawson got serious in spring of 1969: “I went with a bunch of guys down to a place called Pinnacles National Monument, … and a group of us ate a bunch of what we thought was mescaline but was some weird little chemical cocktail that had some LSD in it. I had an experience on that particular occasion and I made up my mind that I wanted to write songs more seriously and learn how to sing more seriously. I liked the idea of being a country-western singer and started picking up Buck Owens and Merle Haggard records to try to learn how they were doing it.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167).

“Hunter was going to try to be the bass player for a while but he didn't have that many chops together. Bob Matthews tried out but he wasn't able to pick up on the instrument quickly enough because all of the rest of us had been playing for a long time. That's when Phil Lesh finally stepped in and played bass with the New Riders.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167). #NRPS

“What had happened is that I invited myself over to Garcia's house one day after he had come back off the road with a brand-new pedal steel guitar. He had stopped in Denver at a music store that had a bunch of pedal steels in it. So he bought one and brought it back. I [[168] bumped into him at the Dead's practice place in Novato near Hamilton Air Force Base. I asked Jerry if I could come over to his house and listen to the steel guitar that he just bought. He said I could come over later if I wanted to hear it. I brought my guitar when I showed up so he would have something to accompany. I showed him a couple of tunes that I had been working on and I got to listen to the pedal steel. That little duet worked into a thing where Jerry asked me if he could come down and practice his pedal steel at my coffee house gig in Menlo Park. I think it was called The Underground and it was a hofbrau kind of thing where they would carve you up a sandwich from a fresh cut of meat, right on the spot.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 167-168). #NRPS

“they just added Nelson and me to the Grateful Dead tour and we came along with them that way. That's when we first got started on the national scene and you heard us back there in 1970 on the East Coast at the Fillmore - "An Evening with the Grateful Dead featuring the New Riders of the Purple Sage” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). #AEWTGD

“That's when you only had to add Nelson's and my ticket to the tour and you had a whole new five-piece band to open, which made it quite handy. That got my songs exposed to a national audience a lot sooner than they would have been otherwise. We also had a gospel quartet that did some stuff. Nelson would play an acoustic and Bob Weir, Jerry, and I would come out and would sing a couple of gospel tunes.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). I love he says “they had a gospel quartet”. A self-contained hippie hootenanny. #AEWTGD

“Phil at some point said, "Hey, I don't want to do it any more:· So that's when David Torbert joined the band.” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 170). #NRPS

“When we finally met another pedal steel guitar player in the person of Buddy Cage on the ride across Canada in 1970, that gave Garcia a chance to go back to just the Grateful Dead” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 171). #NRPS

Festival Express: “The Band was supposed to be on [the train] but the only person from the Band that actually showed up and rode the train was Rick Danko” (Dawson in Troy 1991, 171).

Port Chester February 1971 run Howard Stein painted the Cap performance surface, and they were the New Riders of the Purple Stage! (Dawson in Troy 1991, 173). #NRPS

Dawson: Garcia “is a picking junkie, first and foremost. He would rather be playing than anything else” (Troy 1991, 174).

RN Abbott 1979 Dead Reckoning and Hamburger Metaphysics

Abbott, Lee. 1979. The Jerry Garcia Feature: Dead Reckoning and Hamburger Metaphysics. Feature (March): 32, 34-37. Also reprinted in Dodd and Spaulding 2000.

Reading Notes

Tags: 1978, Atlanta, interviews, drugs, Army, why, death, fascism, reading notes, GA

Took place in Atlanta 12/18/78, at the Colony Court’s Savannah Suites hotel. Not sure the name address.

Jerry, with his “chemically lit” eyes, is grooving in this interview.

Doesn’t want to talk about himself. He’s old news.

“Jerry is in a self-described ‘state of happiness’ (Abbott 1979, 34).

''I was a fuck-up in high school," Jerry says, easing himself onto the couch. Outside, a hard rain threatens. Inside, Garcia is in high animation, giggling and working over the past with a bantamweight's vigor. "When I was a kid, I was a juvenile delinquent. My mom even moved me out of the city to get me away from trouble. It didn't work. I couldn't stand high school 'cause I was burning my bridges as I went along. But I didn't have any way to go. I don't think I did any more than anybody else. It's just that I was always getting caught-for fighting, drinking, all the stuff you're not supposed to do. … I was involved in more complex ideas. I started reading Schopenhauer, Heidegger and Kant when I was in the seventh grade. After that, school was silly” (Abbott 1979, 34).

Unfiltered Camel

“there were gunfights in the halls, but I didn't fit into that either. I was happening on a different plane entirely. That's one of the reasons I got into drugs. In all that teenage craziness, it was the only good trip around" (Abbott 1979, 34). #drugs

"I had been court­martialed twice and had tons of extra duty and was restricted to barracks. I was just late all the time. 1 would miss roll call. I had seven or eight or nine or ten AWOLs, which is a pretty darn serious offense in the Army. So one day I'm called to the CO's office. No heavy trip or anything. He says, 'Private Garcia, how would you like to get out of the Army?' And I said, ‘I’d like it just fine.' Two weeks later I was out" (Abbott 1979, 34). #army

Car accident changed his life, no more coasting.

"I was in a good automobile accident." Jerry grows anxious. "I was with four other guys in an old Studebaker Golden Hawk- supercharged engine, terrible suspension, ninety-plus miles an hour on a back road and we hit these chatter-bar dividers. It was just Wham! We went flying, I guess. All l know is that I was sitting in the car and that there was this ... disturbance ... and the next thing, I was in a field. I went through the windshield and landed far enough away from the car where I couldn't see it. It was at night. It was very, very quiet, you know. It was like a complete break in continuity-from sitting in the car roaring down the road to lying in a field wondering what had happened- nothing in between." Anybody get hurt? "Yeah," Garcia says with genuine awe. "One guy did die. He happened to be the most gifted of our little group. It was like losing the golden boy, someone who had a lot of promise, the person who had the most to offer" (Abbott 1979, 34).

"You were lucky," I suggest.

"Oh, yeah," Garcia agrees. "The car was like a crumpled cigarette pack. It was almost unrecognizable. And there were my shoes in it, dig? I had been thrown out of my shoes and through the windshield." He pauses over the memory of a pair of scuffed Army-issues lying on the floorboards of a violence sculpture. "That's where my life began." He breathes. "Before then I was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance." [#why] He looks at me hard, his expression earnest, grateful, dead. "Then I got serious.” Another toke. A deep suck of mortality. "I dig the affirmation side of death. Death is one of those things that's been taken from us as an experience. We hide it. As a result, it becomes fearful, scary, because it's unknown. Really, man, it's the other side of being born" (Abbott 1979, 34). #death

“Garcia is on his knees, praying to the coffee table. The toot is vicious, cut with meth, not with quinine, and it’s enough to rip your sinuses out. It goes straight to the forebrain – a howling blizzard of Insight and Truth. The rush is, well, chilling; your scalp tingles, a hospital sourness scours the back of your throat.  Then a Con Ed generator of electricity sizzles your synapses … Your smoke is tasty. You are ready to Talk.” (Abbott 1979, 35). #drugs

“my most palpable experiences have all been psychedelics” … there was one in particular, the ne plus ultra trip, the apocalypse” at the end of what Jerry describes as his psychedelic period” (Abbott 1979, 35). #drugs

"It featured countless-thousands, millions-- births and deaths. The phoenix trip, you know. And in my consciousness, it went all the way from, uh, insects to vegetables to mammals to civilizations-to organisms of every sort."  What happened? ''Everything," Garcia barks, drawing closer, the glint of his eyes grave and dear. "For me, my trips began to take a different kind of form. The first ones were visual, you know, patterns, colors, profound revelations, 'Yeah, I get it'- the standard stuff. Then I started going to the Acid Tests and experiences were happening to more than one person at a time. They had this telepathic quality. Then into that stepped another level which was between and amongst the telepathic explosions. Between the flashes and surprises was this 'You're almost getting it.' An urging. Then there was a presence which I think of as the Teacher, which represents a higher order. There would be this feeling of déja vu. All these little bits of input-people talking, certain sights-would start to coalesce: 'Damn, You Got It! BOOM!' It took on this teacher-pupil relationship: Me and my other mind! … It scared the shit out of me, man. It was like, What do you believe?' It removed everything I was certain of. And in its place was a new set of circumstances. And these circumstances were like pages in a book. They started moving until I was living out a whole lifespan with all the intricacy of one's life, all the way up to the moment of one's death. The final realizations, the summation” (Abbott 1979 35).

"Cosmic is the only word for it," he sighs. "Nothing has happened in my life since then, man. Nothing was as climactic, as complete as that." (Abbott 1979, 36). Everything after was anticlimax.

Story of a tripper with a big knife threatening JG on stage at a ballroom (Abbott 1979, 36). The power of the crowd “comes somewhere close to losing your will” (Abbott 1979, 36). #fascism

Rock Scully is onetime cellmate of Bob Haldeman (Abbott 1979, 37). JGMF: is this true?

"I don't want to be a leader because I don't want to be a mis-leader. I haven't put any safeguards there. I haven't paid the dues to be responsible for leading people. The most I would want to do would be to indicate, using my life as a model, that it's possible for you to, uh, go for it. But following me is like a dead end street. There's nothing here but me. I can't multiply fishes and loaves and turn water into wine” (Abbot 1979, 37).

"I remember going down to Watts Towers after the Watts Acid Tests. It had been a hard night, I'd gone through a lot of heavy changes, and it was dawn. I remember looking at this stuff. It was just junk. Nobody could tear it down, so they made a monument out of it. I remember thinking that I'd rather have a life that gets me off while I'm living it and leave nothing and not litter the world with concrete relics or ideas or things that will hang you up” (Abbott 1979, 37).

REFERENCE:

Dodd, David G., and Diana Spaulding. 2000. The Grateful Dead Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

new snow on top of freezing rain and fog and really poor visibility, just a disaster of a night for travelin', but we didn't wanna miss the show

This ticket stub is an awesome piece of memorabilia - attendee wrote the names of all of his show-going companions. Here are his recollections, posted from Lossless Legs (12/16/2013):

I vaguely recall the weather bein' a combination of new snow on top of freezing rain and fog and really poor visibility, just a disaster of a night for travelin', but we didn't wanna miss the show and drove down to New Haven from Waterbury, parked on campus somewhere, and made the hike across campus on foot (slippin' and a slidin') to the gymnasium.  I seem to remember the ice bein' more the problem than the snow (no surprise there).  With 13 names on my ticket stub we all must've come down in one car - maybe 2.

LN jg1980-02-16.jgb.all.aud-macfarland.102352.flac2496

The show doesn't slay me. It's OK. The tape is pretty good. I am not sure that WIPMM is actually an encore, need to cross-check with other tapes.


Jerry Garcia Band
Charger Gymnasium, University of New Haven
300 Boston Post Road
New Haven, CT 06516
February 16, 1980
MacFarland MAC flac2496 shnid-102352

--set I (5 tracks, 51:23)--
s1t01. [0:38] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:27] [1:00]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:57] [1:30]
s1t03. Let It Rock [9:18] [0:08] % [0:15]
s1t04. Simple Twist of Fate [16:17] % [0:01]
s1t05. That's Alright, Mama [7:36] (1) [0:15] %

--set II + encore (5 tracks, 56:42)--
--set II (4 tracks, 46:49)--
s2t01. /It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [11:04] [0:07] % [0:09]
s2t02. Tore Up Over You [8:46] [0:13] % [0:08]
s2t03. Russian Lullaby [12:42] [0:05] %
s2t04. [0:17] The Harder They Come [12:03] [1:14]
--encore (1 track, 9:53)--
s2t05. When I Paint My Masterpiece [9:48] [0:05] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Ozzie Ahlers - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: John D'Fonseca - 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.

! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1448

! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/21477 (unknown aud shnf); http://db.etree.org/shn/32346 (Scott Vid flac1644); http://db.etree.org/shn/100697 (composite of shnid-21477 and shnid-32346); http://db.etree.org/shn/102353 (MacFarland flac1644); http://db.etree.org/shn/106583 (Morris flac2496); http://db.etree.org/shn/102002 (Morris flac1644); http://db.etree.org/shn/102352 (MacFarland flac2496, this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tffBV7F2wKx

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/charger-gymnasium-300-boston-post-road.html

! band: JGB #11a http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! tags: 1980, JGB, college gigs, listening notes, Bob MacFarland, Charger Gymnasium, University of New Haven, New Haven, CT

! R: field recordist: Bob MacFarland a.k.a. Emoto

! R: field recording location: FOB

! R: field recording gear: ?mics > Superscope/Marantz CD-330

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell UDXL-II90 (Dolby B on)

! R: archivist: Rob Berger

! R: transfer: Nakamichi Dragon > HD-P2 24/96 > HD > Adobe Audition 2.0 > CDWave > flac, 11/3/2009.

! R: seeder notes: "fuckin' killer ... my favorite version of a favorite show ... nice job Emoto!  thanks for sharing your master with us."

! P: overall: Kahn has a nice fat tone this night.

! P: s1t01 HSII I find Jerry's singing to be well articulated on this tour. It's not the 1978 Dylan exaggerations, but he's hitting his hard consonants hard, lots of good 't's and 'f's and 'd's. He's doing a little bit of growling here "open my *eyes* at nigHT" stuff here. Nice strong guitar solo 3:30. Ozzie singing harmony vocals 7-min mark.

! P: s1t03 LIR Ozzie gives a real nice synthesized train effect to set the tone. Nice. Johnny D is a nice drummer, setting the foundation with some hard splashes, Jerry steps right on and starts with the first verse, and takes a strong guitar run late 1-min mark, raunchy rtakinte mark. Late 7 minute mark over 8 Garcia does some ridiculous fanning. He now has the crowd's full attention.

! P: s1t04 STOF meanders, as it tended to. John featuring in the 12-minute range, and I do like his tone this night.

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a short break, we'll be right back."

! s2t01 R: ITALTL, ITATTC clips in, almost nothing missing

! P: s2t02 TUOY does nothing for me

! P: s2t03 RL Ozzie solo late 4-minute mark.

! P: s2t04 HTC some very fine guitar work in the 8-minute mark, Jerry has found a spark, and the crowd is receptive.

! R: s2t04 I think there's a splice about 10 seconds or so after end of HTC, maybe 15. But it's subtle. Otherwise, if this is continuous tape, we should really consider whether this constitutes an encore. I need to check other copies and reviews and such.

! P: s2t05 WIPMM ends with good energy, but it doesn't strike me as equal to the 2/24/80 version.