On August 20, 1975 at the Great American Music Hall, and again on August 30, 1975 at the Orphanage, both times with Garcia, the Keith and Donna Band played a funky instrumental number the title of which has eluded me for well over ten years.
Looks like I asked about it five years ago.
Someone must be able to identify this tune.
I post mp3s of the two versions here to aid in that identification.
Please help!
untitled-19750820 from 8/20/75
Rumor has long had it that Mickey has a massive trove of tape and information related to recordings made at his barn studio, a.k.a. Rolling Thunder, at 2495 Novato Blvd. between about 1971 and sometime in the early 1980s. As usual, Corry has done outstanding work pinning some of this down, but there's probably oodles more to learn.
If anyone here knows or is in touch with Mickey's people -- I saw yesterday they were sharing on social media the SF Chronicle preview I posted of the July 30 - August 1, 1970 New Riders (headlining) and acoustic GD shows at the Lion's Share -- please let him/them know I will help organize their data pro bono, so long as I can use them. I will create a giant database of times, people, tunes, etc. etc. As Mickey's amateur musicology involves him in collecting sounds, instruments, and stories from musicmakers in far-flung locales, so my amateur musicology would have me poring over Rolling Thunder data.
In the meantime, I have just spent some time in the Grateful Dead Archive on the beautiful campus of UC Santa Cruz, and I came across some Warner Brothers' interoffice memos supplying information about some of the dates on which the material appearing on Mickey's Rolling Thunder album (Warner Brothers BS 2635, September 1972) was recorded. The earlier document, dated 9/7, is full of handwritten notes, while the latter, from a week later, is cleanly typed. I should not that one scribble on the earlier document says these are dates on which recording began.
Me being me, I tabulate the existing credit information from deaddisc (linked above) with the new information on dates. (Click to enlarge.)
 |
| Table xxx. Recording credits and information for Rolling Thunder from Warner Brothers interoffice memos. Source: "Business: Rolling Thunder Productions, 1972-1973," Grateful Dead Archive, Special Collections, UC Santa Cruz, MS.332.ser. 2, box 20, folder 11. |
Where the dates align, I obviously pin those. Where they conflict, I make a judgment: that recording was centered in 1972 and not 1971, except for The Chase, which was NOT recorded two months after the memo was written.
Me still being me, of course, the Garcia information draws my eye. (Jerry) Garcia is credited on four tracks: "The Chase" (begun 11/6/71), "Deep, Wide and Frequent" (begun 4/14/72), "Pump Song" (4/6/72) and "Gran'ma's Cookies" (7/20/72). While we can't be entirely sure he attended the initial sessions for any song, it makes sense to pin down the ones we can, and I will do so at Jerrybase with the confidence parameter set to "Uncertain Date" for the ones that don't conflict. Alas, two of the four *do* conflict, dated to when Garcia was manifestly in Europe and thus not, in body at least, at Hart's Barn. So those will just have to float, for now - unless and until Mickey et al. make it possible for me, or someone, to commune with more Rolling Thunder data.
BONUS EYE CANDY: Warner Brothers' Circular (its "weekly news device") pimping Rolling Thunder:
Thanks to commenter Patrick, the following claim has been brought to my attention: "In the ’70s, during which he moved between London, New York and San Francisco, Ike Stubblefield shared the stage with the Jerry Garcia Band."
I guess Mr. Stubblefield just passed away (RIP). His wikipedia page notes gives a timeframe for the JGB sit-in as 1970-1975, so maybe we can assume this was in the Hopkins-era JGB? There certainly other were other keyboardists in the mix in that period.
Anyone have any leads on this?
Broader point: there are so many of these kinds of claims. I really should gather them all together in one place. Bernard Purdie is another one who apparently sat in with Jerry and Merl (and Paul Humphrey, who he knew) at the Bottom Line in November '74. He would go on to do some work on the Keith and Donna LP.
Please feel free to drop others in comments - please also paste URLs or other reference information so I can keep track of the sources of information.
LN jg1984-03-22.jgb.all.aud-corley.22191.shn2flac
Over the years, I thought that maybe February '82 was my least favorite JGB month, supplying a "warmish-dampish-Motel-6-towel feeling, without the hygiene", the drugs starting to really take their toll, not so much terrible as just vaguely gross.
Well, it has come to my attention that March 1984 is pretty bad, too. I lead my 3/4/84 listening notes with the title "A 35 Minute Second Set". True, the tape was tightly edited, and if DATs had been a thing the recording might have topped 40, maybe even approached the Minelli Line of 45. Well, here I am, having listened to Wednesday, March 22, 1984, and its set I, similarly tightly edited, checks in at 31 minutes and 17 seconds. As of this typing, only 9/16/84 set I comes to mind as a shorter, no-excuses electric set, at 30:54. (3/2/85 I nosed 3/22/84 out, at 31:08, but it had the excuse that the ladies apparently showed up late.) It is possible that some acoustic sets were shorter, e.g., 5/23/85 set I, but the circulating tape might be incomplete. In all of these cases, Garcia seems like he's trying to win his age bracket in the 10k.
Anyway, it would be one thing if these sets were hot, as at least one tape shows 3/2/85 I to be. But, to my ears, on this listen to this tape (a great Corley aud, the only one circulating for this date), it's just dull. When a server seems to drop a tray of glasses at 5:12 of Mid Moon, to me it feels far more like a metaphor for Garcia's health than the "orjersmic buildup" that my ol buddy neo_levo, Chris Ladner, heard in it. Your 6.1 miles may vary.
Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
March 22, 1984 (Wednesday)
Corley shnid-22191 shn2flac
--set I (4 tracks, 31:17)--
s1t01. [0:16] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:51] % [0:02]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:47] % [0:18]
s1t03. Rhapsody In Red [8:42] [0:02] % [0:02]
s1t04. Deal [8:05] (1)
--set II (5 tracks, 40:19)--
s2t05. [0:27] I Second That Emotion/ [10:01#] % [0:04]
s2t06. Someday Baby [7:09] [0:02] %
s2t07. Run For The Roses [5:31] [0:10] % [0:21]
s2t08. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:07] ->
s2t09. Midnight Moonlight [7:22] (2) [0:05]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - backing vocals;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840322-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/22191 (this fileset)
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html
! venue: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html; URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html
! band: JGB #21a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)
! seealso: JGMF, "A 35 Minute Second Set: JGB at The Stone, March 4, 1984"
! R: field recordist: John Corley
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > unknown cassette deck
! R: lineage: MAC > D > CD > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode) > Soundforge 6.0 (+2.0 dB gain) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN(mkwact). D > shn via C. Ladner.
! R: seeder comments: Outstanding audience recording. Pauses between some tracks. Tape flip during space between t05-t06. t09 - the orjersmic build up @ the end of the main solo section beginning at 04:56 is punctuated by a seemingly? precisely timed either Jerry glass breaking somewhere close by @ 05:13 - guaranteed to make your pets stand up and take note. Thanks to J.Powell for the CDR source. misSHN in the rain, 2/04.
! P: s1t01 HSII flubs first lyric, opened my eyes at night and there you were
! s1t04 (1) JG: "[inaudible] take a break for lil while. We'll be back in a few minutes."
! R: s2t05 ISTE end clips
! song: "Someday Baby" (s2t06): one of those songs that came up in several different bands, only to disappear. In this iteration, it had returned in December '83, after almost three years off. Here it gets its final run for almost another three years (3/10/87).
! P: s2t06 Someday Baby horrible vocal clam @ 6:32
! s2t09 (2) JG, not perfectly clear, but I think "Thanks a lot, see ya later."
Garcia's local club dates have long been one of the special joys of this burgh. Some will tell you that here resides the true wonders of The Dead, without all the hocus-pocus. Others will tell you it's just a boring old fart. Let those who have ears hear [!]
LN jg1994-02-04.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.146010.flac1644
Friday, February 4, 1994 through Sunday, February 6, 1994 are super interesting, for reasons that may not be independent. The amazing drummer David Kemper was let go at some point between the end of the fall '93 tour and the first night of this run, for reasons that seem unclear even to him. After over ten years in the chair, they didn't give him so much as an explanation. It is well established from the historical record, and has been repeatedly stated by those who knew him best -- I am not going to cite chapter and verse here, so if you want to imagine I am going beyond my paygrade, sure, fine, whatever -- that his greatest personal failing involved an unwillingness to tell (former) lovers and (former) bandmates that they were out. He seemed more inclined to have Big Steve deliver hard news. So, first, this inaugural set of 1994 shows featured the debut of Donny Baldwin, from the Starship orbit and also a veteran of the Elvin Bishop Group. I imagine, but don't have it pinned down, that this latter connection between Donny and Melvin facilitated the drummer's entry into the Garcia Band. Second, as astute student of the music Nick has framed it, the run provides "one last flash of greatness" for Jerry and friends. This is most obvious in the 2/6/94 "Don't Let Go", which my memory tells me is a true monster that stands up to any versions that Jerry ever played. I have found a lot to love in '94 and '95 Jerry Band over the last few years, but I agree that he never again played anything so great as that "Don't Let Go".
Indeed, I have often held February 14, 1994, eight days after that show, to augur Garcia's irreversible (though not monotonic) physical decline. The game of trying to pin such things too precisely doesn't get us very far. I might point to GD keyboardist Brent Mydland's passing on July 26, 1990 as signaling Garcia giving up the emotional ghost, and impresario Bill Graham's death on October 25, 1991, as removing all doubt. (See how this game works?) We can point to plenty of pictures from before Valentine's Day '94, the day on which Jerry married Deborah Koons, showing him looking haggard. But, after that day, he never looked anything but like a man shambling toward death's door. Deadheads held no love for Garcia's "Black Widow", who certainly treated the legendary Mountain Girl and all of the other women in Jerry's life very badly during the probate and other proceedings that followed his death, whose taste in music (no "Reuben And Cherise"??) and cover art (Shining Star - what in the almighty fuck?!??) affronted fan sensibilities, who allegedly either passively accepted or actively abetted Garcia's hard drug use, and whose love of tasteless licensing and merchandising strikes us, from the vantage of 2021, as decidedly Trumpian. Be all of that as it may, the observation I just cannot shake is that Garcia's decline accelerated markedly after those nuptials.
All of which makes the triumph of the February 4-6, 1994 shows so remarkable. Nick speculates that the band actually, y'know, rehearsed some with the new guy. The older pattern would have been to break him in on an off-night, off-the-beaten path, or both. Just about every new addition to the Garcia Band prior to Donny was afforded this possibility. So, they may or may not have gotten any rehearsal time, but they did get a gig. But, by 1994, as Bob Barsotti reported a few years later, "the only place [Garcia] could get it together physically to play with the Jerry Garcia Band was by getting in his car and driving for a half an hour to the Warfield" (Greenfield1996, 300, cited in context on my post on 3/4/95). So we might imagine that there were some rehearsals, and, indeed, as Nick points out, Jerry sounds generally together and the band sounds quite tight, consistent with some rehearsal. I have no data to that effect, but it seems likely.
So, onto my sense of Donny's Debut, 2/4/94. He's good, and it's good. Jerry sounds especially together in the first set, sprightly for the very common --indeed, statistically modal-- How Sweet -> Stop That Train opener, and working some great strong grunge into "Lay Down Sally". Nick elaborates:
The one major [2/4/94] high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam: Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place. The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place. Nice work, old man!
Jerry fades pretty hard at the end of set I (Deal) and through much of set II, sundowning especially noticeably in "The Maker", where I swear he departs from the lyrics and sings @ 1:40 "cannot see for the pain in my life". "Don't Let Go" is the other relative highlight of the show. It's a compact version, 12 minutes, and you'd think they might have held off on it to let the new guy get up to speed. But Donny plays very strongly. True, Jerry does no vocal-instrumental doubling on either the front or the back end of the song, which could often provide him a rare opportunity to engage in true vocal improvisation. But, even listening for limitations, I find a lot to like in this version, and a foreshadowing of the monster that'd spring forth two nights later, before the tune mostly faded into a shadow of its former self in its remaining fourteen months.
All in all, then, a nice show from a characteristically gorgeous Janet and Chuck Vasseur aud pull with the vintage Neumanns. Check it out if you can. If you are feeling impatient, go straight to 2/6/94 - do not pass Go, do no collect $200. If it's as good as I remember it being, and as (more reliably) Nick says it us, you can thank us later.
Oh yeah, one more thing: Melvin Seals sounds awesome this night, all big loud joyful swirly energy.
Listening notes follow.
Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 4, 1994 (Friday)
Vasseur shnid-146010
--set I (7 tracks, 53:29)--
s1t01. [0:05] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:00] [1:04]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:11] [1:16]
s1t03. You Never Can Tell [6:41] [0:08]
s1t04. Lay Down Sally [10:01] (1) [1:39]
s1t05. Struggling Man [6:25] [0:42]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:56] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:11] (2) [0:09]
--set II (7 tracks, 61:16)--
s2t01. Shining Star [15:24] [0:13]
s2t02. Money Honey [6:31] [0:13]
s2t03. Wonderful World [4:29] [0:15]
s2t04. The Maker [7:10] [0:11]
s2t05. Don't Let Go [11:45] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:41] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:04] (2) [0:07]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - 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.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19940204-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15602; https://etreedb.org/shn/94747; https://etreedb.org/shn/95234; https://etreedb.org/shn/146010 (this fileset). Every one of these derives from the Vasseur master.
! band: JGB #23 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs
! ref: Nick, "Feb 94 JGB: one last flash of greatness", URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2017/11/feb-94-jgb.html.
! personnel: Donny Baldwin's first show in the drum chair, succeeding the impossible-to-replace David Kemper. I am typing this listening to Don't Let Go - you have to give the guy his due, because this cannot have been easy.
! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur
! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT
! R: transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)
! R: Source Notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, Here they are! --Shark
! P: s1t01 HSII Jerry sounds stoked. Melvin swirls up huge peaky feature late 3.
! P: s1t01 STT everyone sounds good. Donny hits nicely. Jerry bending some pitch.
! P: s1t03 YNCT Melvin, 3:30 I am typing, is on fire this night. He really sounds enthusiastic.
! P: s1t04 LDS oh man, what a killer grungy tone on LDS in the 7 range. A little modal, very firey. Nick: "The one major high point is a steaming Lay Down Sally jam: Garcia's chugging along, sounding fine, and then decides to hit his distortion pedal and something clicks into place. The audience feels it, Garcia responds, and you get one of those brief moments of aud-tape perfection as everything clicks into place. Nice work, old man!"
! s1t04 (1) JG: "The new guy is, uhh, Donnie Baldwin. Playin' drums."
! P: s1t05 Struggling Man is done peppy - very good. Late 1 it slows down a little bit.
! P: s1t07 Deal a number of lyrical miscues. He is sounding a little tired.
! s1t07 (2) JG: "... take a break for a little bit ..."
! P: s2t04 The Maker he sounds pretty wobbly on the lyrics. @ 1:25 trying to get to second verse, mumbles. @ 1:40 sounds like he says "cannot see for the pain in my life". Goes across the great divide to Jean-Baptiste here early on. @ 2:09 "Body | is bent and broken". Donny nicely triggers Garcia's feature at 3ff.
! P: s2t05 DLG he doesn't do any vocal doubling at all. So by 3:15 he has already stepped back and away from the mic. But I confess that this is just perfectly good Jerry Garcia guitar work happening, e.g., around 6:30, when it has a real edge. I think I came into this listen of this wanting to hear its limitations. They're there, because this is not Eden. And I keep looking at the clock realizing that this is only going to run 12 minutes. But the quality is high. He strums it without quite such thick effects, Melvin swirly, Donny nicely picks up the pace. 8:15 Jerry definitely signals a connection to the tune. 9:20 assertively back to the tune, Donny be damned. Fully back to tun 10:12, no doubling.
! s2t14 (2) JG: "See y'all later."
Apparently 12 people were arrested after this Saturday night show, allegedly for throwing rocks and bottles at police. Ten months earlier had seen unrest in the area, not necessarily caused by Jerry's kids, but related instead to acquittal of the cops in their trial for beating Rodney King in LA. No idea what might have triggered this early '93 issue.
Janet and Chuck Vasseur pulled an absolute masterpiece of a tape this night, as so many others. The show has its moments, including a nice easy start with "I Second That Emotion" (a tune I don't generally favor) and, especially, Old Jerry heart-feeling "I Shall Be Released". "Simple Twist" is also super-gentle. Lots to like in the set II song selection, especially, for me, "Reuben And Cherise". But I spun it three times and didn't get many sparks.
But Jerry sounds exhausted all night. I take to heart Mr. Completely's advice to avoid drug determinism, and I don't think it would be engaging in that fallacy to note 1) that Jerry sounds exhausted, and 2) we know, via Barbara Meier, that he was using in this period. It's not deterministic, but neither is this pure coincidence, IMO, YMMV.
Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
February 27, 1993 (Saturday)
Vasseur shnid-141455
--set (8 tracks, 72:43)--
s1t01. I Second That Emotion [9:48] [0:52]
s1t02. I Shall Be Released [9:12] [1:15]
s1t03. Mission In The Rain [8:22] [1:16]
s1t04. [0:07] Simple Twist Of Fate [10:15] [0:26]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:12] [0:50]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:34] %
s1t07. /My Sisters And Brothers [#4:26] ->
s1t08. Deal [8:00] (1) [0:08]
--set II (7 tracks, 62:10)--
s2t09. Shining Star [13:34] [0:26]
s2t10. Tore Up Over You [7:30] [1:10]
s2t11. Wonderful World [4:38] [0:09]
s2t12. The Maker [8:05] [0:11]
s2t13. Lay Down Sally [9:24] [2:05]
s2t14. Reuben And Cherise [8:24] ->
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:30] (2) [0:05]
! 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: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.
JGMF:
! R: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19930227-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13036; https://etreedb.org/shn/29344; https://etreedb.org/shn/141455 (this fileset). As far as I can tell without A-B'ing, these are all from the Vasseur master.
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html
! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! R: field recordist: Janet and Chuck Vasseur
! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT
! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter); Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)
! R: This is a masterpiece of field recording.
! R: seeder notes: Sometime in the early 2000's, Chuck loaned Kyle all of his 92-95 JGB masters to transfer to CDR. Kyle "mastered" the DATs to CDR, fading in/out as needed, adjusting levels (as needed) and tracking. Kyle then gave Chuck his masters back, with nice CDR copies of all of it. Chuck offered to clone the entire set for me, so I gave him a spool of 100 blank MITSUI CDRs and the next time I saw him, he gave them back to me, filled with his JGB recordings. Many of the Chuck V. JGB recordings do circulate already, but probably not all of them, and those that do may not be the Kyle Porter transfers. So, here they are! --Shark
! P: s1t01 ISTE It's well known that I don't love this song. But I like how this feels coming out of the gate, despite the fact that Jerry definitely sounds vocally fragile.
! P: s1t02 ISBR I hadn't really grokked that he played this as consistently in the 90s as he did. This comes in sounding absolutely wonderful. Old Jerry.
! P: s1t03 MITR Garcia sounds quite wasted.
! P: s1t04 STOF bass feature late 5 is almost entirely inaudible, goes to about 7:10. This is a remarkably gentle version of STOF.
! P: s1t06 TNTDODD Melvin bg swirly feature over 6
! R: s1t07-08 strange to have a discontnuty and a clpped start w a DAT master.
! s1t08 (1) JG: "back in a couple minutes"
! P: s2t02 TUOY some good guitar 5:30ff.
! s2t15 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."
LN jg1980-02-17.jgb.all.aud-gatto.9017.sh2flac
The adjectives in the subject allude to the contrasts that really defined Garcia's guitar playing in 1980. Some tunes, like "I'll Take A Melody" featured both modes, the contemplative and the rockin'. "Friend Of The Devil", here in one of its last electric GOTS performances, features long, gentle, lovely progressions, as does "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry". "That's Alright, Mama" delivers the fire, as do "Money Honey" and "Let It Rock".
For whatever reason, the two obvious setlist highlights, "Positively 4th Street" and the "After Midnight -> Eleanor Rigby -> After Midnight" melody, get no notes. A reviewer noted that Eleanor Rigby kicked off at the stroke of 12, which is a good touch. Apparently John was pretty stationary, as he had a 102 fever and had visited the local Krankenhaus earlier in the day.
I used to do backflips over this show, this time I find it merely very-good-to-excellent. Strong. Fine. Enjoyable.
Jerry Garcia Band
Laker Hall
SUNY Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126
February 17, 1980 (Sunday) - 8 PM
Gatto MAC shnid-9017 shn2flac retrack
--set I (7 tracks, 83:47)--
s1t01. //I'll Take A Melody [#17:35] %
s1t02. Friend //Of The Devil [9:#06] [0:02] %
s1t03. /How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#9:20] %
s1t04. /Catfish //John [#12:#06] %
s1t05. /Deal [#9:14] [0:08] %
s1t06. /Positively 4th Street [#14:17] [0:06] % dead air [0:13]
s1t07. [0:05] /That's Alright, Mama [#11:31] (1) [0:04]
--set II (8 tracks, 79:56)--
s2t01. /Money Honey [#9:12] [0:02]
s2t02. Sitting In Limbo [12:54] %
s2t03. Let It Rock 9:13] %
s2t04. After Midnight [12:21] ->
s2t05. Eleanor Rigby [5:34] ->
s2t06. After Midnight [4:45] [0:06] % dead air [0:11]
s2t07. /It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [#10:45] [0:01] %
s2t08. [0:05] Harder They Come [14:44] (2) % dead air [0:02]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Ozzie Ahlers - keyboards;
! 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.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19800217-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9017 (this fileset)
! band: JGB #11a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/awDzv2i26GP2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/03/laker-hall-suny-oswego-ny.html
! seealso: GratefulSeconds, "JGB's After Midnight>Eleanor Rigby>After Midnight Reigns Supreme in Oswego February 17, 1980," URL http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2019/06/jgbs-after-midnighteleanor-rigbyafter.html.
! ad: Oswegonian, February 7, 1980, p. 12;
! preview: Finn and Donoghue 1980; condensed version appeared as preview: "Jerry Garcia Band to Play at Laker Hall," Pulaski (N.Y.) Democrat, February 13, 1980, p. 12.! review: [positive] Fausner 1980; "Kahn's lack of movement was due to the fact that he played the show with a 102 degree fever and had been taken to the hospital prior to the show." According to reviewer, Eleanor Rigby (in middle of "After Midnight") was started right at midnight - nice touch!
! historical: Rachel Sweet billed to open, but "announced the cancellation of her tour last week, much to the delight of Garcia fans" (Fausner). A ticket from ebay shows "Special Guest The Tom Johnson Band".
! R: field recordist: Keith Gatto
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 300 > Sony TC-D5
! R: lineage: MAC > DAT > CD > WAV > SHN. shn2flac and retrack to sets, jgmf 2/17/2021
! R: Note: This was originally seeded with a corrupt d3t02 (HTC).
! R: good tape but for the cuts
! R: s1t01 ITAM cuts in
! P: s1t01 ITAM Jerry engages in some long wonderful mandolin fanning late 14 over 15.
! R: s1t02 FOTD presumed brief splice @ 0:40
! P: s1t02 FOTD it seems to me that this was relatively rare at this point, but maybe I just haven't paid attention. This version has some very lovely, gentle passages, but it ends a little abruptly. Update: Jerrybase shows it played again 2/22 and 2/23 and 7/24/80 the last GOTS electric version - after that it'd be JGJK, JGAB, JGBW (12/4/88) and JGDG only.
! R: s1t03 HSII levels lower, hiss higher until 8:47.
! P: s1t03 HSII Garcia's guitar work this date feels really round, soft, gentle. Not the least bit shreddy so far, but it's lovely.
! R: s1t04 CJ clips in, splice @ 10:44
! P: s1t04 CJ some really nice stacking chunks 10:15ish
! R: s1t05 Deal clips in
! P: s1t07 TAM shws the first real fire of the evening in Gar's guitar work.
! s1t07 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while ..."
! P: s2t01 Money Honey ol Jer is playing some burning guitar in the 7 min range.
! P: s2t03 LIR huge, huge guitar work 6-7
! P: s2t07 ITALTL, ITATTC back in the gentle, contemplative guitar picking space.
! s2t08 (2) JG: "Thank you."
I first heard 12/13/83 in 2003, when Andrew Faintych sent me tapes from both shows recorded with Senn 421s from the 10th row by "Tom from Avon, NJ". In 2005, Bu lent me his DAT of an unattributed aud, and minches and I did our transferring and lossless thing as shnid-31253. shnid-77710 came around in 2006, and I think I listened to it in 2009. shnid-133469 came by in 2015, and I must have listened to it because I have timings, although I have no performance notes. Most recently came 151810 of the late show. It's a sign of my generalized appreciation for this show and tour that I have spun all of these, while countless hundreds of filesets, and probably a dozen or more from this very tour, sit unheard.
Given that weird batch of data, I thought I'd post all my listening notes, and present some extractions, maybe with rough datings, going in performance order. The listening notes comes last, the extractions of comments through the performance are in the middle, and the executive summary comes first.
Probably not that much.
I am consistent in timing the blast-off of the early set Deal around 3:45 in, and I also note how it finds an open space at the end which I think is quite uncommon. Now of course I want to listen to the rest of the tour to see. But it's cool and worth checking out.
The late show setlist draws my eye throughout time, but I may well find that the performance doesn't quite live up to it (though my 2009 self raved).
One version of me called the late show "Catfish John" an all-timer, though others didn't bother to make a single note. Similarly, on the most recent listen I found the TUIB pretty compelling, but not so much on earlier listens (to other filesets). 2021 me also raved about the Rhapsody In Red from the Nak 300s, while others did not. The Don't Let Go gets similar notations re the vocal-instrumental doubling around 4 minutes in, and two mes also noted the sweet transition into Mid Moon. 2021 me made the particular note that DLG never returned to the song. On current thinking, that seems exceptionally rare. When did Garcia leave a song unfinished like that outside the Dead? Update: 12/4/83b DLG > Deal segue may be another case, need to double-check if DLG reprises.
2021: Mid Moon has an extra special galloping quality to signify not just the end of the show, but the end of the tour. I don't know if it's the fastest version ever, but it's done really fast.
Listening notes below the fold.
I have a stack of listening notes that don't really say much, but I do like to post them just to keep track.
2/26/83: nice tape, good performance, nothing that absolutely slays me, except that "Valerie" absolutely KILLED in this period. I know the esteemed David Minches favors the 3/5/83 version, which I have revisited and do think is very strong. They all are. Otherwise, Jerry sounds pretty ragged vocally, but plays well and does his thing in the South Bay.
Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
February 26, 1983 (Saturday)
all-1 aud shnid-102505
--set I (5 tracks, 43:40)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#8:46] [0:04] %
s1t02. [0:19] (1) Catfish John [10:49] [0:04] %
s1t03. [0:21] Valerie [8:31] [0:05] %
s1t04. [0:20] Run For The Roses [5:23] ->
s1t05. Deal [7:44] (2) [0:10]
--set II (4 tracks, missing 1 track, 40:21)--
s2t01. /Sugaree [#13:29] [0:08] %
s2t02. /They Love Each Other [#7:51] [0:07] %
s2t03. /Let It Rock [#7:41] [0:08] %
[MISING: Dear Prudence]
s2t05. /Tangled Up In Blue [#10:50] (3) [0:08]
! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #15c (First show- January 13, 1983 Keystone,
Berkeley, CA | Last show-June 5, 1983 Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Greg Errico - drums.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19830226-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/32137 (s2 aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/102505 (this fileset)
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/6U9QR2V8UV4YwBDh9
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html
! band: JGB #15c (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).
ads: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, February 13, 1983, p. 19; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, February 20, 1983, p. 24.! source: low gen cassette; Nakamichi DR-1 playback > Tascam 5000 > CDR > wav > flac, uploaded by brad tenner
! R: seeder notes: I can't tell you why the dear prudence is missing i have no notes on how or why i really don't think i missed it on the transfer so who knows but since the 1st set was uncirculated here it is. tracks renamed per etree standard.
! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in, static @ 0:30
! P: s1t02 HSII JG bungles first verse, starting with "open my eyes at night". But then he picks it up by getting back to "needed the shelter" at the start. He sounds rough vocally, for sure.
! s1t02 (1) Taper recognizes CJ, so decides to emcee a little bit: "Friends of the devil bring you 'Catfish John'."
! P: s1t03 Valerie KILLER GRUNGY version.
! P: s1t04 RFTR JG forgets to start singing the tune.
! R: s1t05 Deal sizeable level jump about a minute in
! s1t05 (2) JG: "We'll be back a little while later. Thank you."
! R: s2t01 Sugaree clips in
! P: s2t01 Sugaree kind of a wonky start vocally, like he starts off the beat. Errico sounds so great on this tape. Coming back to this a week or two later, and hear how rough he sounds vocally. 7 he starts doing some fanning, more flirtatious and allusive at this point, suggestive. More to come, I imagine. A little 10:47ff, but it doesn't get huge.
! R: s2t02 TLEO clips in
! P: s2t02 TLEO John sounds nicely, thickly engaged here.
! P: s2t03 LIR great tone, nice and scrubby first part of 6.
! P: s2t05 TUIB never really achieves escape velocity to my ears.
! s2t05 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
I am hoping to find dates for the 1973 Record Plant session work, with Jerry, that ended up on Wing And A Prayer. Email me if you have email for him, or point him here. TIA!
A lot of good material at the Bridge Benefit, 12/4/88 in the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
It's not like 15-20 minutes was very demanding, but Garcia sounds much more enthusiastic belting out the backing vocals here on "Wang Dang Doodle", and giving "Friend Of The Devil" a sprightly run-through, than he did on either of the two previous nights with JGB at the Orpheum (12/2, 12/3).
This is one of the very few documented Shared Stages between Garcia and "Mr. Forever Young", as Bob calls him, Neil Young, who drops some decent harp on WDD.
Jerry did many hundreds of interviews over the years. He had a lot of interesting things to say about a lot of topics. There are also lots of quotes and so forth that circulate without any proper metadata.
So, we, and by we I mean the community, need a Jerry Garcia interviews project. Collect 'em up in video, audio and text formats, and eventually get everything transcribed to text. Dates, as best as possible. Etc. Run a blog that gathers them up, a la LIA's Deadsources.
I don't have time to do it, myself, but I have plenty to contribute. Someone out there would be game for it. Maybe it's you! Step up to the big leagues of obsessiveness and tackle this project!
So I will do the January 12-13, 1994 Warfield shows together.
The performances are delightful, and I don't have tons of comments at that level. They play a number of rarities which had been relatively recently released on Not For Kids Only (Acoustic Disc ACD 9, 1993), and I am a huge fan of that record, which was recently remastered and topped-up with some bonus tracks. The first two tunes on the record are "Jenny Jenkins" and "Freight Train", which I played a LOT for my kiddos and which are both burned into my DNA. JJ kicks off set II of the first night, while Freight Train, which had gotten a one-off breakout with JGB on 11/3/93, happens in set II of night two. Merle Travis's coal miner's lament "Dark As A Dungeon" was a real highlight for me - I recommend it via the video of 1/12/94. But, really, I have to say that I love every single song they played.
There is no banjo playing at these shows, and I think at least "Stealin'" and "Jenny Jenkins" are done as David and Jerry duets.
Set I the second night is quite short, about 36 minutes. Some number of those minutes come out of the great Garcia-Grisman composition "Grateful Dawg", which clocks in here at a mere three-and-a-half minutes. I don't have specific timing for earlier versions, but I want to say they might have gone 6 or 7 or more.
I do want to provide a little repertorial analysis to illustrate the range of (mostly) American musics from which Jerry and David drew, and to which they contributed in turn. Some data next.
I am wide open to suggestions about this set of classifications. In particular, I have in my mind a genre called country blues which I guess is black acoustic, but, again, I don't really know what I am talking about. I have only just come to understand what a standard is. The next table summarizes the shows by genre.
