Garcia interview ca. August 1974 WPLJ

Just some sketchy notes.

Garcia, Jerry, 1942-1995, “Jerry Garcia interview. Broadcast on WPLJ in New York City in September 1974 [radio broadcast],” Grateful Dead Archive Online, accessed November 10, 2013, http://www.gdao.org/items/show/379907.

28:58

JGMF they say at the end that between the interview and airing the GD announced the hiatus. They are talking about Nixon still president. He resigned August 9. Garcia mentions having recently played with Locomotiv GT, which was July 12-13, 1974. The GD played Hartford on 7/31, Philly on 8/4 and 8/5, and Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City on August 6 (rescheduled from 8/2 for reasons that aren't clear to me). It could be anywhere in this timeframe. I'll label it 8/xx/74.

dead air, weirdness 0:24

0025 early days -- we've never conceived it anyway a plan or a plot or anything remotely resembling that degree of organization. Just sort of happened.

0300 now we represent psychedelic nostalgia

0337 rejection of a central philosophical view point. We're all totally separate views of reality and how to fit into it. We're all completely mad in terms of our private hallucinations regarding reality.

Our main thing is just don't lay your trip too heavy on somebody if they don't want to hear it 0400

0415 cuts in on a question, do you remember where you were

0428 have as much fun? World is a scarier place than it used to be. Moratorium on fun because everything is so strikingly weird

0445 GD as benefit band, people's band. doing benefits not a good way for us to benefit somebody. Information.

0535 political confrontations

0551 "We have the basic distrust of all political happenings"

0609 JG on Revolution – unclear

0640 that's what happening, Revolution is, but I don't think it's been too well defined. A revolution that everybody could totally dig.

0717 mention of Locomotiv GT (JG: "Yeah, we've played, 'played a gig with 'em not too long ago")

0747 the global person

0805 it's just goin' too slow

ca. 0810 The point when everybody's into something, that'd be perfect.

0924 radio I don't listen to enough to have an opinion. Hear it in my car. Same old rap far out people working at the station then the guy who owns the station. 1000 all these trips … those are the limits

1015 it always is a compromise, and all you have to say is, 'that's what you've gotta do to do it'. It's unalterable – don't do it or else try to score your own radio station.

1030 twitchy about this place this role too aware of the limits

1050 when you're playing and the band is improvising well, can you put it into words. JG If you've ever done anything with a group of people any team sport or people you can rap with you get into a hot session and everybody is very fast and everything is smooth. it's like freedom you step out of a cab and the elevator is right there. That thing of being synchronous. It's a get-off.

1155 lame voice over about improvisation … magic

1238 how often "It" happens. Always left this door open where we could fail.

1309 our level of professionalism together enough where we can play pretty well no matter what's happening. 1329 Anything that works, you have to discard it. You can't let it become a formula.

1336 thumbing through an infinite deck of cards.

1408 talking about other people .. why not working for the Airplane … 1418 because everybody's different. We were never into scoring big. We were into getting along. I don't know why. Making the basic assumption that everybody was departing from the same point. 1505 we all knew each other from working coffeehouses … in that space we were all pretty equal. Whoever was succeeding went along with whatever their program was … 1536 reflection on the way the music business is set up

1545 what possibilities do you have? Once succeeded, no place to go from there. That's the real reason for 'why bother' because performing gets to be really a hassle … the things that are meaningful get smaller and smaller and farther and farther away … luxury furniture … success … as much stuff as you want. That's who you are. You've won the game.

1645 scene backstage managers and all that … better onstage

1705 people don't survive it. It kills people. I didn't have to see too many people go through that to realize it was really not happening. It ain't healthy. You have to be ready to try to provide your own excuse for continuing what you're doing.

1751 It's like a one-way street. After that you have to invent your own model.

1815 Q what was Pigpen like?

1837 he was very quiet, he was real shy, which is the reason he drank. He was charming and funny in a real .. he had a real pixie sense of humor. He was a good guy.

1857 Q say something unedited to Nixon

JG oh man thanks for taking on all that worry. Glad I don't have to do it. That poor guy has got the world's worst possible situation. Every morning he wakes up with what must be a sense of total responsibility about everything in America … plus he's blowing it, horribly. I feel for the poor guy, y'know. The scale of failure that it represents. The capper is that he's probably taking the whole system down with him. 2030 funny

2032 music of the 60s vehicle for a new thought … 2109 music is ok it's a get-off when it's good. It doesn't contain any consequences. You can trust it. It's not gonna hurt anybody.  The big void juice out of political scenes there's an attempt for that energy to refind itself, center itself. Countless amounts of weird information.

2200 GD [they sound high now]

2231 we're not trying to be right, and we're not trying to tell anybody anything. But we are into stirring up any activity that we can. Shotgun approach. Contains randomness. So hard to do something on the level of language etc. that doesn't have a trap … put out things that are trapless. We don't have any confidence in statements. How can you believe words, no matter how neat they sound?

2335 what is happening with GD on a chemical level at this point? What is your intake? JG I smoke pot, take a little acid. I don't … I am not … I don't think that you can maintain some kind of discipline and get too far into drugs. I mean really, really far into 'em. Smoking pot is just cool. I think that's good. I think that would be good no matter what you were doing 2355 I think it's basically harmless, and good for you, probably, if anything. I don't really know, though. The drug thing is just beside the point, you know? Everybody knows that America is totally into drugs. Every straight person that you see wandering around is taking three Valiums a day or something. Everybody's into some drug, chemicals … it's a human thing, that's all. Economics alone will always provide a flattening out place. … As soon as everybody in the world wants to *clears throat* get into smack, y'know, there's no smack, so it's not smack anymore, it's methadone, and then it's not methadone anymore, it's … y'know, all these different trips. I feel on a level of telling people what to do, I want to be a citizen, y'know, I don't want to be a politician. I don't wanna be tellin' nobody nothin'. 'cause I don't want anybody tellin' me nothin'; 2454 that's what it comes from … basic anti-authoritarianism.

2508 could be edited down to say "Kids, don't take smack." laughing

2517 do whatever you want with it [the tape? drugs?]. I don't have any active opposition to it, but I just don't feel that that's the right thing for me to do. 2522

2538 Q people start treating rock stars like people frailties too certain people expect perfection

2619 JG That's how hungry the world is for good times. Let's face it, it's grim. … 2632 like a bad joke … any get-off I can understand all that. It would be nice if there was some way for music to be incorporated into people's lives that wasn't so strictly commercial.

2700 who wants the mystique Q

2715 whoever wants it will have it no matter what anybody does or says. I would rather be judged on music. Fame is pointless to anybody who's an artist. It's just something weird you have to deal with. It'd be nice if we could find a cool way to deal with it.

2745 music wants to maintain another role in society. The GD is in that situation, we don't know what we want do to 2758 until we've scored everything. Eventually we'll stop what we're doing and try to figure out what we want to do. That'd be far out.

Between interview and air the GD have announced their decision to take some time off … do what Garcia just said, look around, re-evaluate. -2846

 

Rango's Frost '82 tapes

https://archive.org/details/gd1982-10-09.sonyecm220T.keshavan.miller.93682.sbeok.flac16

https://archive.org/details/gd1982-10-10.sonyecm220T.keshavan.miller.93732.sbeok.flac16

Listen to these tapes and think thanks to taper Rango Keshavan.

These audience recordings will take your breath away. Thanks, rk.

Checking Donna Out While Jamming With Her Husband: JGB, April 2, 1976

VN jg1976-04-02.jgb.late.video-youtube-Deadvids

I'll tag this "VN" in the title, for viewing notes. B&W Monarch Entertainment video from the Cap in Passaic. Not even a crusty aud in circulation, and low-gen video of the complete show drops from the sky, 38 years later. Wow.

Viewing notes below. One of the most interesting things for me is to have some Archimedean leverage on who sings the harmony vocals on the various songs. The higher male parts are Tutt, the baritone is Keith.

Garcia is unbelievably bouncy and animated. There's a lot of great stuff. "Moonlight Mile" is sublime, though imperfect. "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home" could use a little boost out of the gate, but it has some really interesting spaces, including a quite explicit "Fire On The Mountain" theme, as was common during this era.

Great to be able to see this. Astonishing, in fact. Check it out.

Jerry Garcia Band

Capitol Theatre

326 Monroe Street

Passaic, NJ 07055

April 2, 1976 (Friday) – 11 PM (late show)

113 minute low-gen B&W video

introduction (1) 0:28

Sugaree :29-10:06 -11:20

Catfish John 11:21-20:03 –22:30

The Way You Do The Things You Do 22:31-29:05 -29:58

Mystery Train 29:59-39:33 –41:32

A Strange Man 41:33-47:56 –48:40

Moonlight Mile 48:41-58:54 % 59:00

Harder They Come 59:01-74:50 -76:52

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 76:53-87:00 -88:19

My Sisters And Brothers 88:20-95:40 ->

Lonesome And A Long Way From Home 95:41-112:30 (2) -112:41

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3

lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-guitar, vocals;

lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux – vocals;

lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;

lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

lineup: Ron Tutt – drums, 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/19760402-02

! db: none as of this writing (3/11/2014).

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/GSy7A

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/capitol-theater-monroe-st-and-central.html

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1976-04-02-capitol-theater-passaic-nj-2/

! historical: unbelievable. Not even an audience tape, not of either show from this night, and a complete video emerges! Wow.

! (1) John Scher: “On drums, Mr. Ron Tutt. On bass, the indestructible John Kahn.” Etc.

! P: Sugaree Big huge grin and swaying, though the fingers need a little warming up. The tempo is turgid. Keith feature over 5-min mark, ho hum. Tape warbling. Is there any chance the whole thing is running slow? 7:45 Jerry is so blissed out, so is John, checking Donna out. Great little pulls down the neck around 8:20, so animated! He’s putting his whole body into every note.

! P: CJ has the three voice harmonies, Jerry, Donna and Tutt! At 14:06 you can see Tutt singing “walking in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn” … wow! Again, crazy expressiveness over 17 min mark, his whole body swaying, digging into every note. Rocking and singing. Sweet! Tutt again @ 19:33 … they have this choreographed! @ 20:34-20:43 is that Harry Popick talking to Tutt?

! P: TWYDTTYD I think this is Keith singing harmonies! Yes, at start of song can see Tutt, and he is not singing. Garcia’s first solo sounds almost like the melody of (a? another?) Motown. He takes a second run round the bases, crowd, enthused, Jerry responding, Tutt banging. He skipped a beat but no-one else did, and he caught up right on the 1, big cue to Donna for the “you made my life so rich” verse. Nice.

! P: MT @33:07 another run ‘round the bases and it’s good. More good in the late 33 min mark when he is tearing up, nodding shaking his mane over the 34 mark. Outstanding. Smiling and shredding. Another very fluent solo 36:30ish and ff. Pulling @ 37 wow! Some fanning 37:17. He is on fire, gunslinging 37:30, bobbing his head like it’s 1968.

! P: Moonlight Mile. My goodness. Long noodle to start. Vocals come in 51:45. The paragraph Jerry writes up until 53:48 leaves me breathless. It’s like a Nabokov sentence, so richly textured. Just another “mad, mad day on the road” … “just another moonlight mile down the road” …  Nooohhh … they are all ready to do the “down the road … down the road … down the road” shouting, Donna and Ronnie, and Garcia pulls the rip cord. Why, Jerry, why? It rolls to an end, but it should have gone on. Check against other versions #songs-M, but that “down the road” climax is essential, and this version lacks it. Ahh, well. Maybe Jerry needed to pee.

! P: HTC Jerry finds a nice groove 63 over 64, back to bobbing, smiling, gesticulating. Keith nice lead 64:20ff, very pretty, fingers well-filmed 64:40. KG another nice turn after 65. Nice shot 65:39, Keith, clean hair, nose and above over the 9' Steinway baby grand, still grooving nicely, Garcia starts saying hello after 56, chunky underneath and peaking hello, 66:30, Keith some nice scales. Late 66 he steps on Jerry’s solo, Keith was going to go a third time around. He is so loud and percussive. So Garcia soloes and they both do, and that’s fine, Keith pulls back on the volume a little into 67. So Keith’s feature was about two and a half minutes, he was ready for more. Jerry starting to liquefy late 67, then doing a little wailing, looking over at Keith, puts his hips into it 68:20. Really, really nice. 68:40 Jerry starts doing big cords while Keith trills, Garcia making paragraphs of doubled syllables, not as fast or baroque as the earlier stuff, but interesting because he’s doubling his cords and then skipping the ones in between. Nice. Return to vox 69:40ish. 70:30 Donna was going to do another chorus, but Garcia goes to “the oppressors” verse.

! P: TNTDODD can’t tell if that’s Keith singing the baritone part. 86:05 Jerry shredding, again 86:20

! Sisters and Brothers marred by tape problems. But this is a deepy, swampy, Dorothy Love Coates groove. 90:10 Donna holding onto the Steinway and swaying … oh my. Watch Jerry sing @ 90:45! Wow. 94:30ish we can see that the baritone singing is Keith, because Tutt is in frame and he’s just grooving and drumming.

! P: LAALWFH they aren’t quite on the same page to start, need to go round the bases. That’s unfortunate. So, too, is the 1976 tempo. See, this song needs to bust out the gate. And it doesn’t here. So not off to a good start. @ 97:00 Keith hits a clam and Donna shoots him a nasty look, right on camera. See 4/3/76b for how it’s supposed to sound, or 4/1/76. 97:30 ish Jerry goes to see about a technical issue, some distortion. 97:50ish he solos. 100 minute mark we haven’t achieved liftoff, Garcia is working a little to coax the notes out of his guitar, and his bandmates. They get something cooking around 101:45. Now some nice syntactical sustain in the 103 minute mark, very long phrases. 104:30ff JG gets back to the LAALWFH melody, and he’s doing some very interesting work with Keith, looking back directly at him, they are together on this little thing happening over 105 minute mark. Jerry is checking Donna out, jamming with her husband, long run down and back up 105:39ish, there it is Jerry, right there, that’s the spot! Late 106 mark Keith is hitting the FOTM stuff, Jerry joins him 107:15, or nearly, but Keith is definitely on that. Jerry’s phrasing is long extended, here, Tutt starts banging 107:45, Jerry down to FOTM theme, he is playing FOTM over the 108 minute mark, fanning 108:06, 108:18 real high. Tearing it up. 108:33 this if JG playing FOTM, wow, picks something special right at 108:58, so so nice. Back to LAALWFH on the guitar, 109:15ff, really back at 109:30, slow it down, how’s he gonna signal the big return? Silence 110:00-110:10, then the big return, but the tape is dying here. Just in time to get the big return before it dies, thank you tape gods. They are going over “somebody help me” more times than usual, over and over. Return 111:40, but we are in warbleville.

! (2) JG: “Thanks a lot.”

What's Become Of The Betties?

http://www.relix.com/articles/detail/whats_become_of_the_bettys

My Unicorn, Sparkle

a.k.a. the frictionless market.

Grateful Dead Three Ways: December 20, 1975

Selvin (1975c) reviewed the December 19, 1975 Winterland show billing Keith and Donna Godchaux, Kingfish, and the Jerry Garcia Band as "Grateful Dead Divided Three Ways". Hence, my title, even though I am working the crossings through the next night.

Since I have fallen down the rabbit hole of a long post on 10/17/75, and at the risk of dispersing comments and my own thoughts, I thought I could cut and run on a post on 12/20/75. Here are a few takeaways.

First, I don't recall many people talking much about these threeway shows as part of the GD's 1975 revenue model. The first one, 6/17/75, was a benefit, but 10/17/75 and these Winterland shows were intended to be fully paying gigs. I think the results on that score were mixed. For example, here's how it coulda looked for this big weekend:

Grateful Dead Three Ways: JGMF scenario for 12/19-20/75

Friday night would have been significantly undersold, and even Saturday not a sellout, on this scenario. And that notwithstanding the event being a cool happening for teens.

Second, contrary to my expectations, Nicky sounds pretty good, not too slurry. He plays Randy Newman's "Birmingham" for the only known time [JB], does a little "Jingle Bells" for the season, and generally plays well, IMO.

Third, this version of Let's Spend The Night Together -> Edward is top-shelf, grade A JGB #1. Check it out.

More notes, including stuff I didn't bring up top here, below the fold.

Ronnie's Return, Pete's Payoff: JGB in Provy, November 15, 1981

Ticket stub for JGB 11/15/81, contributed by Doc Gillespie to TJS.

LN jg1981-11-15.jgb.all.aud-stankiwiecz.127050.flac2496

Ron Tutt is a great drummer, but am I biased?

Ron Tutt is a beast. Check out the little one-minute fragment discussed in note #1. No biggie, just fun. Then pick some of the other songs I note and hear him play.

Question: Is my perception of Tutt's greatness here perhaps driven by a subconscious desire that it should be so? From a Garcia-on-the-side perspective, his presence is the most interesting thing about these shows, and this could bias my listening.

Tutt's Return and Garcia's Affairs

After two and a half years and a lot of gigs (I could try to count it, probably will when the time comes), Ron Tutt walked --I have no evidence that he was pushed-- away from the gigging/touring Garcia Band in summer 1977. He seems not to have left on bad terms, or otherwise is such a pro that he kept working with these guys, because I am pretty sure I have him in Club Front in September. I need to check the Cats Under The Stars credits, though my sense is that they won't clarify much. Either way, from, say, Fall 1977 they appear to part ways (except for the occasional joint appearance on a tax lien slapped on the Jerry Garcia Band and the three partners in it - Garcia, Kahn and Tutt).

So The Return of Ron Tutt, as Steve Marcus billed this tour on the Grateful Dead Hotline, wants to feel like a Good Thing to me. Why? I think it represents Jerry starting to get on top of his long-blighted financial affairs. I believe that this tour represents an early step in a multistep process of Garcia getting his business affairs together in the first half of the 80s. This feels like closure for Garcia and Tutt, and that's something that Jerry achieved all-too rarely in his relations with others, personal or professional. His biggest character flaw, if I had to pin it down, was that he lacked the courage/capacity to give people bad news, like "I am leaving you", to their faces. He either just ran away and tried to avoid it or he had Parish do it. Really chickenshit stuff, with folks like Merl Saunders, who deserved better.

But maybe here, in late '81, with Tutt and with presumed (but not confirmed) opener Peter Rowan, Garcia is getting in front of something and trying to make it right. I am not saying he wasn't a kind, generous and righteous dude in all kinds of other respects. He could do crazily random, generous things. But if you had had a relationship with him that he had fled, he usually didn't come clean about it. He was just not emotionally equipped to confront hard interpersonal things.

Is this guilt money? Probably. The late work with Merl (e.g., Blues From The Rainforest) feels for all the world like Garcia leveraging his name to sell some records for his friend. The albums with Grisman clearly reflected their rediscovered joy in playing together and shared love of American music, but they also set Grisman, and his record company Acoustic Disc, in good financial stead. But guilt money is better than the silent treatment, the cold shoulder, not Jerry's, but the decidedly uncuddly Parish's; never mind a steel-toed boot in the ass. It's good to help old friends (à la Rowan opening on this tour, I conjecture). It's good to clean up old loose ends (à la Tutt playing on this tour, I hypothesize).

(Aside: if I am correct, that the "function" of this tour was to generate some paydays not just for Jerry and John, but also for Ron Tutt and Peter Rowan; and, if in turn, that suggests that Garcia is tying up some old unfinished professional business, maybe with some personal feelings involved; then I find the timing amazing. As he descended into opiate addiction he also settled some very unsettled (and unsettling) money and personal matters. Persian is like an institution, a variance-suppressing device, in principle a calming and settling (and, if you like, deadening) force. Marx on religion as the opiate of the masses and all that. Making sure you are on a sound financial footing does take some of the thrill out of life, though the alternative is the kind of ride that'll kill you. Who needs the stress? If the Persian "helped" get his mind around stabilizing his affairs, then that would be a positive, and even a possibly intended, in a very diffuse sense, consequence of his drug use. Of course, that ride'll kill you, too, but then again, they all do, eventually.)

Back to my question, reframed and disposed of

Because this tour might represent a small moral and personal victory for Garcia, with whom I obviously sympathize, I might be hoping, needing to hear musical excellence, giving my listening a kind of valence bias. But I don't think that's what's going on. Two other things seem more likely. First, my interest in the topic generates an attention bias. I am listening to and for Mr. Tutt, and I hear him. And what I hear is freaking outstanding. Second, and I think this explains most of the variance, it could just be that the man could and can play the drums.

Yes, I think that's it. Ronnie Tutt is a monster.

Show and Tapers

Oh yeah, there's a guitar player, and he's pretty good on this night, too. Love his energy, tone, power, articulation on this tour. Excellent playing. There are some newly-emerging vocals limitations, but it's in a place where he can still manage it, and often does so through inventive inflections and so forth. I am not saying his voice is better than it had been earlier in the year, rather that his singing is sometimes more interesting.

Richie Stankiewicz made some really nice tapes. Thank (Tetragrammaton) for the tapers! Tim Friend, Steve Rolfe, and probably others walked into the Providence early morning with great pulls from this show.

A nice tape of a nice show. Check it out.

Jerry Garcia Band
Ocean State Performing Arts Center
220 Weybosset Street
Providence, RI 02903
November 15, 1981 (Sunday) - 7:30 PM
Stankiewicz flac2496 shnid-127050

--set I (7 tracks, 67:16-1:15)--
s1t01. crowd [0:32]
s1t02. Sugaree [10:34] [1:46]
s1t03. Catfish John [9:48] [1:52]
s1t04. [0:06] I Second That Emotion [9:41] [0:03] % (1) [1:04]
s1t05. [0:05] Valerie [6:54] [1:10]
s1t06. [0:07] That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:30] [0:24] % [1:02]
s1t07. [0:13] Tangled Up In Blue [11:03] (2) [0:12] % pre-set II [1:15]

--set II (6 tracks, 70:39+1:15)--
s2t01. Mission In The Rain [11:40] % [0:04]
s2t02. The Harder They Come/ [12:11#]
s2t03. [0:49] Russion Lullaby [15:54] [0:27] % [0:27]
s2t04. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:30] ->
s2t05. Dear Prudence [13:50] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight ... [6:35#] %

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

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19811115-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20609 (Steve Rolfe shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/97806 (Tim Friend, flac2496); http://etreedb.org/shn/97807 (Tim Friend, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/127062 (Stanki flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/127050 (Stanki flac2496, this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/urA9i

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/01/palace-theater-ocean-state-theatre.html. The text file called it "Ocean State Theater", which is how I have it in my head. TJS via JGBP lists "Performing Arts Center". I am using the venue name on the ticket stub.

! band: JGB #14b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! R: field recordist: Richie Stankiewicz

! R: field recording location: 1st row balcony

! R: field recording gear: 2x Beyer M-88 mics > Sony TCD-5M

! R: Transfer MAC > Sony TCKA-3es and 1st gen > Sony TCKA-3es (s1t01-s1t03, s2t02), by Richie Stankiewicz.

! R: this is a splendid audience recording.

! historical: Lots of tapers (Rolfe, Friend and Stanki known to have walked out with great pulls), so awesome to see Provy represented. I'd bet there were others. Did Peter Rowan open?

! P Like this show a lot.

! P: s1t03 CJ @ 4:30 Jerry gets some really neat tone, again, sharper, 7:50 ff over the 8 min mark.

! P: s1t04 (1) Wow. The first minute of this material is Tutt leisurely pounding the shit out of his kit, doing some nice runs. I am not sure if they're having technical issues, so he's giving them something to work with, or if he's just moved to play. He's incredible, what a player.

! P: s1t05 Valerie not super high energy.

! R: s1t06 TWLWMYD sounds so nice!

! P: s1t06 TWLWMYD has good energy. Vocal limitations newly discovered on "trying hard to 'spress myself, 'cause baby, that's the way I feel". Beautiful liquid picking around 3:15. 3:40 takes another lovely turn, somehow feels rotated sideways, the show biz trick favorite of heavy metal guitarists, axe slung low and horiztonal to the ground. Melvin took a nice solo. JG solo great tone 7:30, some nice insistent playing, another run around 8-min mark, great peaks 8:01ff, some nice tight guitar work, complementing voice.

! P: s1t07 TUIB has some really nice energy in the 10-minute mark. Even John steps up and plays loudly for a while. Ronnie is right on the '1' just over 11-minute mark. Tight.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a few minutes, we'll be back in a little while."

! P: s2t01 MITR the vocal arrangement, or maybe it's just the delivery, feels a little barren. It's not a bad emotional register for the song, but Jerry sounds rather exposed vocally, which is a little weird to say with a septet.

! P: s2t02 HTC Jerry some very nice playing in the 3-minute mark. 6-min range, maybe some PA problems? Can't hear the keyboards at all. Crowd starts clapping along. Jerry: "Well, guess I'll take a solo." And a nice solo it is. The tempos are a little variable. Late 8, some nice fanning. Tutt is a beast.

! P: s2t03 RL off to a great start! Deep and familial. Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Garcia. He misses the start of the lyrics, but cuts his losses to "hear him croon". Reaching really high on the frets 5:45, risk-kay. Bass feature over 8. By 11:30 he is still playing, takes an extra turn or two even though Jerry has signaled that he's ready. This is not a bad RL bass feature for ol' John. In fact, the playing is nice. By 12:30 Jerry is quite clearly inviting John to step aside, which he does at 12:40. Long solo for John, about 4:40. Jerry's following solo is nice and high up the register.

! P: s2t05 DP nice work in the 7-min mark, again over the 11min mark. Nice playing.

! R: s2t06 MM fades out

Grungy: JGB at the Starry Night in Portland, December 6, 1984

LN jg1984-12-06.jgb.s1s2p.aud-Rice.124941.flac1644

The second half of 1984 is Garcia's Rock Bottom period. But it's not all terrible, and some of it is rather amazing. Ain't that always the way.

My reaction to 12/6/84, a Thursday at the Starry Night in downtown Portland, is similar to my reaction to 8/24/84. The vocals are unprofessional, embarrassingly bad. For a guy who testified to feeling responsible to give at least a professional effort to his paying fans, out of respect to them, in this period he tested and, on some nights and some dimensions, transgressed that boundary. Yet his guitar playing is incendiary, not just hot (really silvery hot), burning, but also very expressive. That's the thing that contravenes my priors. I would not expect such fluidity and articulation to come out of the fingers of a stone-cold junkie. Opiates anesthetize. Yet there's an awful lot of feeling in the guitar playing here.

What a weird little tour, the "1984 Northwest Tour", per the handbill. I have a few random thoughts.

• I infer from the handbill (which looks like it could have been Garcia's personal copy ... har har) that the Friday 12/7 show at Starry Night was sold out and so isn't listed.
• I won't say "only Garcia" and his operation would call this a tour. I guess it is, strictu sensu. But it ain't much of one. 
• I assume that Windham Hill Records paid for Michael Hedges, maybe for the handbills, etc., defrayed costs for Garcia. 
• Every time he's in Eugene, we have to look for a Kesey connection, though I don't have any evidence of one.

Let me elaborate a bit more on one point.

Whenever people make the argument that Garcia's side projects were about drug money for John and him, I think they have something like this little jaunt in mind. Like the handbill, it's a little filthy, grungy, unclean. You know Garcia was rocking the same black t-shirt and the same icky cords night after night, dandruff covering his shoulders, sweating like a greased pig, pungent, feculent (per wk), fingers covered in tar from smoking Persian. He and John had scraped the bottom of the barrel with an acoustic duet tour out east for John Scher, now, a week later, a week later, up to the PNW. It all feels a little like chomping down on the tinfoil from Garcia's bindles. A little zingy.

That's probably "right", but so what? We all gotta eat. Jerry and John in this period had needs, and needs cost money, and you gotta go out and get paid if you want them fulfilled. The nature of the needs is kind of irrelevant. It's not like the guy is lazing around the house all the time. This is the end of a year in which I count 128 musical events, mostly live shows  by the Grateful Dead, the JGB and the Garcia/Kahn duet. That might not sound like much for the average American who works fifty five-day weeks. But the gig must be physically exhausting. I get physically exhausted, to the point of soreness, lecturing about political science. Standing up and blaring away for a few hours in a smoky little place in seedy downtown Portland would take it out of you. Then there's the road. At some point I'll be able to calculate some distances, and 1984 would be a fine place to report on them. But the dude was zigzagging the country all year long. And, if you believe in the frictionless market (I call her Sparkle, my unicorn), then private returns equal social returns, and Garcia probably generated a shitton more revenue in 1984 than any of us did. There's always that about the Dirty Fucking Hippie.

At some point around this time, my sense is January 1985 but it could have been December 1984, the GD and other loved ones apparently stage an intervention and tell Garcia to get clean. Ever the passive-aggressive, he fuck yous them by getting busted in Golden Gate Park on January 18, 1985. I think this 12/6/84 show is an interesting fleck in the whole mosaic, deeply flawed but strangely compelling, a Human Thang.

**update: see also LN for the next night, 12/7/84**

Jerry Garcia Band
Starry Night
8 NW Sixth Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
December 6, 1984 (Thursday) - 7 PM
74 min s1s2p Otto Rice aud shnid-124941

--set I (5 tracks, 53:15)--
s1t01. [0:36] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:47] [0:13] %
s1t02. [0:15] Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:25] [0:15] %
s1t03. [0:05] I Second That Emotion [9:32] [0:02] %
s1t04. [0:15] Mississippi Moon [7:12] ->
s1t05. Tangled Up In Blue [12:32 (1) [0:05] %

--set II (2 tracks, 21:17, missing last three songs)--
s2t06. [0:14] Sugaree [12:35] [0:11]
s2t07. [0:03] Get Out Of My Life, Woman [8:07] [0:06] %
[MISSING: Simple Twist Of Fate]
[MISSING: Run For The Roses]
[MISSING: Midnight Moonlight]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! 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/19841206-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20325 (sbd); http://etreedb.org/shn/124941 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/127067 (Bruce Young flac2496); http://etreedb.org/shn/127068 (Bruce Young flac1644).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/W2atf

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/starry-night-8-nw-sixth-avenue-portland.html

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

! R: field recordist: Otto Rice;

! R: field recording equipment: 2x Sennheiser 441 > Sony D5M

! R: field recording media: 1x cassette, unknown stock;

! R: field recording location: front row balcony;

! R: transfer: Marantz PMD 510 > HHB 850 CD/0 by Otto Rice (jjoops's copy); extraction, mastering, encoding by Jamie Waddell.

! R: seeder comments: "from the Jjoops Tupperware, unconfirmed exact lineage; Very Good Audience Recording by Otto Rice ... seeded at Lossless Legs  7 4 2013 a Project **GEMS** mastered by Jamie Waddell"

! R: yes, nice tape.

! P: The vocals are horrific. Want to cringe in embarassment for Our Hero? Check him out trying to sing @ 2:45 of Miss Moon. The guitar work sounds fine.

! P: t01 HSII Garcia's vocals are truly painful to behold. But, as was so often the case, his guitar work seems not to suffer. The song goes on a couple of extra measures at the end, while Jerry thinks about how he's gonna do the final vocal inflection without a functioning voice.

! P: t03 ISTE brutal vox. The ladies sound good behind him. You can hear why he wanted those big voices behind him on the chorus. He needs to vocally carry as little as possible. Jerry solo late 2 over 3, some tempo management issues early in the solo.

! P: t04 MM horrific, horrific, vocals. @ 2:45 he clams badly. Guitar solo 3:30ff sounds good.

! t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a little bit."

! R: t05 TUIB seeder said it "has a few small glitches, but is mostly complete [missing from sbd source]." IMo these are more than small glitches. From 6:12 to the end, there are lots of tape gremlins.

! P: t05 TUIB oh my God these vocals ... The humanity! He flubs first verse, but it's the croaking that really gets me. Ouch. The guitar playing is quite good, e.g., in late 10-minute mark. Kemper hitting sharply, Melvin watercoloring with purpose. Nice. The "compensation hypothesis", that as has voice got really bad, he made up for it with creative and powerful guitar playing, is worth entertaining.

! P: t06 Sugaree features some scintillating guitar work, e.g. 8-minute mark. Seeder GEMS loves the Sugarees from this time period (e.g., August 1984), and I can see why. This is good.

! P: t07 GOOMLW the note Jerry hits around 15 seconds in is so freaking tasty. He is doing some really fast runs, almost like Viola Lee Blues, while he tries to lock in the tempo. Nice!

Ronnie's and Rowan's Returns

LN jg1981-11-13.jgb.early-late.aud-streeter.123554.flac1644

I cannot believe that things were nearly forgotten that should not have been around this late '81 JGB tour, namely that Ronnie Tutt was back on the skins. Somehow that information didn't make it to Garciabase, and thence to TJS, but thankfully Corry Knows and we have the old McNally-Arnold JG List still available. The tour was billed on the Grateful Dead Hotline as "The Return of Ron Tutt".

I haven't seen any of the papers around this tour in particular, but I know that within four months or so Garcia was busy cleaning up what I believe to be the last of the wreckage of Round Records and the original Jerry Garcia Band partnership (initially Garcia-Kahn-Tutt and Hopkins, then just the first three). So, to me, Tutt's late '81 return feels like them generating revenue together to clear away the old financial entanglements binding them. It could have been a payout for Mr. Tutt, which I don't mean in a negative sense, but just in the sense of making sure everything was buttoned up tight. Garcia and Tutt would never play together after this tour.

I like this night's performances much better than the ones in the same space nine months earlier (2/7/81). Nice punchy show. Tutt is an amazing player. Just about every song in the early show makes me stand up and take note. Only Simple Twist and ISTE didn't move me to note something.

Peter Rowan opened. I have a little bit of the same feeling about this as I do about Tutt. Well, not quite the same. With Tutt, I think they were literally taking care of unfinished business. With Rowan, it feels to me more like Garcia is throwing the occasional gig the Rowans' ways to assuage some old guilt. I have no evidence for this, but it's more than just a flier. The end of OAITW, like the end of so many Garcia relationships, seems not to cast the best light on Our Hero. David Grisman was embittered and would have nothing to do with Garcia for many years, not even wanting to talk about him (Forte 1979a, 1979b). But he was also succeeding on his own. While Peter Rowan is now, and rightfully so, a Living Legend, a guy who probably gets to pick and choose where and when and what he wants to play, ca. 1981 I suspect things were a little less comfortable.

Below I paste a table of what I can confirm in terms of a Rowan opening for (or, at least, being co-billed with), Garcia in the post-OAITW era. I don't know if he played the rest of the shows on this tour. I suspect so, but I'd like confirmation before I list them, because assumptions can be fraught.

Table xxx. Rowan and Garcia co-billings post-OAITW

Boston being the Rowans' hometown, I hope this was a nice time for Peter. I'd love to hear the tape if anyone has one.

Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
November 13, 1981 (Friday)
Frank Streeter MAC flac1644 shnid-123554

--early show (8 tracks, 77:13)--
a-t01. tuning [0:53]
a-t02. Sugaree [11:08] % [0:41]
a-t03. Catfish John [9:21] % [0:22]
a-t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:42] % [0:44]
a-t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [14:08] % [0:15]
a-t06. I Second That Emotion [10:58] % [0:23]
a-t07. Mississippi Moon [10:23] [0:08]
a-t08. Deal [8:54] (1) [0:04] %

--late show (5 tracks, 36:43)--
b-t01. tuning [0:54]
b-t02. The Way You Do The Things You Do [7:20] [0:04] % [0:02]
b-t03. They Love Each Other [7:05] [0:02] % [0:01]
b-t04. [0:09] Valerie [6:55] % [1:02]
b-t05. The Harder They Come [13:01] (2) [0:09]

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

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = 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/19811113-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19811113-02 (late)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/12989 (early and late, Greater Boston Deadheads Who Give A Shit Foundation, Nak 700s, shnf; I presume this is Steve Rolfe's tape, but I am not sure); http://etreedb.org/shn/89005 (late show, John Levene, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/102009 (Bob Morris early show + Steve Rolfe late show, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/123554 (early and late Streeter flac1644, this fileset).

! map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orpheum+Theatre/@42.3563142,-71.0610765,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3709cb51cffcf:0x6575ac76b6bcc90f

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! band: JGB #14b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! context: Peter Rowan opened. Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire.

! R: field recordist: Frank Streeter

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 -> Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording media: xx Maxell MX90

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Sony TC-K677ES) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) ->
Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (2 Discs Audio / 1 DVD FLAC), all Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, January 21, 2013.

! setlist: seeder note: "Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire"

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Frank Streeter for lending me his masters. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction."

! R: very nice tape.

! P: a-t02 Sugaree some very nice guitar work in the 8-minute mark, crowd expresses appropriate enthusiasm.

! P: a-t03 CJ very nice guitar work late 7-minute mark. Jerry sounds good.

! P: a-t04 TWLWMYD Jerry is scorching over 8-minute mark. Wow. These versions from November 1981 are smokin' hot. Tutt is such a rock.

! P: a-t07 MM Melvin plays a nice feature around 8-min mark.

! P: a-t08 Deal Garcia's soloing in the late 6 and over 7-min mark is outtasite.

! a-t08 (1) JG: "See ya later on. Thank you."

! P: b-t05 HTC Tutt is a monster. Late 5 over 6-minute mark, a little Jimmy Warren feature, but Tutt is pounding behind him. Around 6:10 there's a buzz, like the fire alarm. Wow Tutt is doing some of the most amazing drumming behind HTC in the 6-minute range. Now Jerry is stepping up and he has some amazing multistring fingering happening, pulls a pull about 7:45, gorgeous.

! b-t05 (2) JG: "Thanks, we're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a few minutes." The note above ("Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire"), from etree, probably explains why there's no second set in the late show - compare 2/7/81.

Two Keyboards on Tour: JGB, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, February 7, 1981

LN jg1981-02-07.jgb.early-late.aud-streeter.123543.flac1644

I have some pretty bland listening notes to catch up with posting. Might try to plant a few this weekend.

Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
February 7, 1981 (Saturday)
Streeter early and late complete MAC Miller flac1644 shnid-123543 JGMF retrack

--early show (8 tracks,73:36)--
a-t01. tuning [1:54]
a-t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:45] [0:05] % [0:02]
a-t03. Catfish John [11:11] [0:06] % [0:10]
a-t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:12] [0:07] % [0:14]
a-t05. Like A Road [11:44] [0:33]
a-t06. Love In The Afternoon [10:44] [0:05] % [0:03]
a-t07. Sugaree [9:55] [0:07]
a-t08. [0:07] Tangled Up In Blue [8:12] (1) [0:18]

--late show (10 tracks, 94:42)--
--late show, set I (5 tracks, 42:18-0:04)--
b-s1t01. tuning [1:17]
b-s1t02. The Harder They Come [11:54] [0:02] % [0:02]
b-s1t03. They Love Each Other [8:37] [0:04] %  [0:08]
b-s1t04. Tore Up Over You [9:43] [0:05] %
b-s1t05. Mission In The Rain [10:13] (2) [0:09] % pre-set II [0:04]

--late show, set II (5 tracks, 52:24+0:04)--
b-s2t01. I'll Take A Melody [13:29] [0:03] %
b-s2t02. Mississippi Moon [11:14] ->
b-s2t03. Dear Prudence [11:26] [0:05] % [0:06]
b-s2t04. Deal [7:29] ->
b-s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:16] (3) [0:16]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - el-piano;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19810207-01 (A); https://jerrybase.com/events/19810207-02 (B)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8648 (early and late Steve Rolfe, shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/88820 (late show, Jim Vita, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/88927 (early and late John Levene, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/102007 (early and late Bob Morris flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/107333 (early and late shows, pitch/speed correction of Levene source shnid-88927, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/123543 (early and late Streeter, this fileset).

! map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orpheum+Theatre/@42.3563142,-71.0610765,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3709cb51cffcf:0x6575ac76b6bcc90f

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! band: JGB #12b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! R: field recordist: Frank Streeter

! R: field recording location: unknown

! R: field recording gear: ?2x? AKG D330BT mic(s) > Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX90

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Sony TC-K677ES) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) ->
Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (3 Discs Audio / 1 DVD FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, January 20, 2013.

! R: seeder notes: "Late show is seamless. There were a ton of snaps and 'thud' sounds I cleaned up (some remain). Thanks to Frank Streeter for lending me his masters. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction."

! R: JGMF rename for sets 2/23/2014.

! context: A quartet version of this band debuted January 22-23. That was JGB #12a. The second keyboardist (Jimmy Warren on electric piano), arrived for five more local shows in two weeks, and then the band took off on tour. Garcia was nothing if not insistent that his players jump in with both feet, deep end. Three consecutive nights (Warner in DC on the 4th, Lehigh University on the 5th, the Tower in Philly on the 6th, now two shows in Boston. It's not surprising that I don't feel boatloads of energy (which could also reflect my own state of mind, as much as the players'). Note that at least five tapers walked home with recordings this night. I have not A-B'd them, and don't expect to have time to do so, but one never knows.

! P: On this listen (2/23/2014), the shows don't do much for me.

! P: a-t03 CJ some very interesting guitar work. Fanning over 9-min mark. Nice.

! P: a-t05 LAR at end a woman gives a great big "Thank you, Jerry!" This song always had a nice feel of connection Jerry and the audience, as in that early '89 show (1/28/89).

! a-t08 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

! P: a-t08 TUIB PA screech late 4-min mark.

! b1-t05 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a coupla minutes."

! b2-t05 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya."