Killer Sugaree and final DDD: JGB at Country Club, Reseda, May 20, 1984

LN jg1984-05-20.jgb.all.aud-nak300s.79553.flac1644

This Sugaree is in the running for hottest ever, especially in the 6-10 minute range. It opened shows a lot in the 75-77 period, a little less frequently by this time, and it would leave the JGB fold in '86 to become GD only. But, for my money, the Jerry Band ones from this ca. '84 period were the very best. I am told that 8/13/84 is another smoker. I plan to revisit it soon.

I don't think Jim Rismiller still had the Country Club at this point, though I am not 100% sure. I am calling it The Country Club, though the tag still has Rissmiller's name to keep them together with other posts from earlier dates.

Last night out for DeeDee Dickerson. Thank you, DDD!

Jerry Garcia Band

Country Club

18415 Sherman Way

Reseda, CA 91335

May 20, 1984 (Sunday)

Nak 300s shnid-79553 retrack

--set I (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 53:59)--

s1t01. ambience [0:19] 

s1t02. Sugaree [15:32] [0:03] % [0:28]

s1t03. Love In The Afternoon [10:06] [0:02] % [0:02]

s1t04. Rhapsody In Red [11:42] % [0:03]

s1t05. Run For The Roses

s1t06. Deal [10:20] (1) [0:07]

--set II (5 tracks, 4 tunes, 40:31)--

s2t01. ambience [0:18] 

s2t02. Mission In The Rain [12:07] [0:03] % [0:02]

s2t03. [0:10] Harder They Come [14:21] % [0:03]

s2t04. /Gomorrah  [#5:48] ->

s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [7:30] (2) [0:07]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #21a

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass;

! lineup: David Kemper - drums;

! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;

! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - 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/19840520-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-05-20

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/79553 (this fileset)

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. DDD's last gig, and so last night out for JGB #21a. The classic 21b lineup with Gloria would debut ca. 7/10/84.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/A6gX8hd4tfS2

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/rissmillers-country-club-reseda-theatre.html. 1,000 seat room which opened 3/28/80 with Merle Haggard (Jackson 1980).

! listing: Orange County Register, May 20, 1984, p. L7.

! seealso: JGMF, "The Auds Have It," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-auds-have-it-jgb-at-irvine-meadows.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "There is World Class Guitar Playing Here," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1984-05-19jgballaud-rossi.html.

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi CM-300 w/ CP-1 caps (no shotguns) > Sony D5

! R: lineage: MAC > ?? > DAT > HHB 830 CD Recorder (Stand Alone) > ?? > flac1644.

! R: Nice tape, brightness suggestive of improper Dolby decode.

! P: overall I like it less than the night before. Kemper sounds great on this tape. The Sugaree is pretty off the chain, otherwise not much that strikes me as special. The second set clocks in below the Minelli Line.

! historical: Garcia often undertook these compact SoCal tours in the early 80s. This one comprised four nights of earning: Beverly Theatre on Thursday 17th, Irvine Meadows (a very big space for the JGB of the time) on Friday the 18th, Arlington in Santa Barbara on Saturday the 19th, and this show to round things out. A logistics person might have wanted to run it north - south (SB, Reseda, Beverly Hills, Irvine) or the other way around, but I suspect Irvine had to be on the Friday or Saturday, so all bets were off. Robert Hunter opened the last three nights, as far as I am aware.

! P: s1t02 Sugaree in the 9 and 10 this thing is just going nuts. Returning some years or months later: yeah, yeah. Sugaree comes hot out of the gate, and never lets up. Some serious attack variation arises 6:19, goodness still a minute later. Each note has its own little existence, but he constructs half-phrases, half-paragraphs, up and down the fret board, fast-slow, loud and really loud, God damn, Jerry! Jeesus fucking christ, now Kemper 8:35 just CRUSHING to keep up with Jerry and Jerry is running circles like a fucking demon. Crowd is seems to be going crazy 9:10, but Jerry is playing so fucking loud and crazy that it's hard to know. Pure energy happening here. Mamma mia! Now starts some fanning 9:45, and it sounds like he has four hands, because he seems to be fanning chords and picking notes at the same time. Boy. Softens to set up a verse first half of ten, verse comes 10:30. After that verse 11:30 he comps for Melvin, and Kemper @ 12:20, I just love you, man. 

! P: s1t04 I hold my RIRs to very high standards, and this one is not above average.

! P: s1t06 Deal Kemper is a beast here.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks. We're gonna take a break for a few minutes. We'll be back in a little while."

! P: s2t03 HTC going a mile a minute. Right out of the gate, Kemper sounds awesome, John hits a huge note and a little slide!

! R: s2t04 Gommorah clips in

! P: s2t05 Mid Moon goes a mile a freaking minute, and tempo seems to pick up as the song plays. Kemper needs another leg and a couple of arms to keep up.

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Unidentified Nicky Hopkins Instrumentals

update: Mark Mattson has identified the number as "Lucky Old Sun" - wow!

There may be others, but I am right now pondering two distinct instrumentals that Nicky does out of "Lady Sleeps" with the JGB in the last month or so of his run with the band.

11/23/75: about 1:38:30ff here --> https://ia600902.us.archive.org/9/items/jgb1975-11-23MackeyAuditoriumBoulderCO/jgb1975-11-23MackeyAuditoriumBoulderCO.mp3

He announces that one before as one of his originals, I think.

12/19/75: about 51:30ff here--> http://www.archive.org/serve/jgb1975-12-19WinterlandArenaSanFranciscoCA/jgb1975-12-19WinterlandArenaSanFranciscoCA.mp3 a little peppier, sounds kind of Beatles-ish to me (though it's not "Mother Nature's Son")

Help!

Did You Ever Notice the 9/18/81 JGB Rehearsal Has Jerry Playing Acoustic?

The spine of Betty's 9/18/81 JGB rehearsal tape box

A beautiful piece of tape: Betty's reel from the 9/18/81 JGB rehearsal

I just revisited this little 20+ minute rehearsal fragment. Thank you Betty! This is the latest piece of Betty Board of interest to me: some of the abortive Brent solo album material came from later in '81 and into '82, but this is the last scrap of tape with ol' Jer on it.

 A few things to note.

First, Jerry is playing acoustic throughout, and doing so tastily.

Second, this is Ron Tutt drumming. Right before "Dear Prudence", as the reel winds up, Jerry comes in with a "hello?" while beautifully strumming Prudence on his acoustic. Tutt asks "Is that the right tempo, or should that be a little slower than the other'n?" Jerry replies "it should be a little slower than the other one."

Third, Melvin Seals sounds simply wonderful here. 

That's all I've got.

Jerry Garcia Band - Studio Rehearsal

Club Front

20 Front Street

San Rafael, CA 94901

September 18, 1981 (Friday)

MSR -> P -> D shnid-13881 shn2flac

--partial rehearsal (3 tracks, 21:38)--

t01. Tangled Up In Blue [7:36]

t02. Dear Prudence (1) [6:28] (2) [0:49] %

t03. //Tangled Up In Blue// [#6:45#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band

! lineup: Jerry Garcia – acoustic guitar, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn – electric bass;

! lineup: Jimmy Warren – electric piano;

! lineup: Melvin Seals – organ;

! lineup: Ron Tutt – drums.

On Tours and Marketing Records

Over at Jerrybase, we have begun grouping events not only by "runs" (consecutive nights at the same venue), but also "tours". It turns out that the notion of a tour isn't quite as crystal clear as one might want it. I wanted it to be at least three out of town gigs in at least two rooms on a single outbound from San Francisco, but, especially in the Garciaverse, this ends up creating some "tours" that lack face validity as such.

Consider Jerry's March-April 1976. The decision rule above would produce the following "tours" that month:

1) Pacific Northwest (Eugene, Portland, Seattle), March 3-6 (3 cities, 3 shows in 4 nights)

2) Midwest College Towns (Evanston, Oberlin, Columbus), March 12-14 (3 cities, 5 shows in 3 nights)

3) Texas (Houston and Austin), March 18-21 (2 cities, 6 shows in 4 nights)

4) the "real" Spring Tour, March 26 - April 5th (9 cities, 13 shows in 11 nights)

My Jerrybase partners have suggested that's a little too granular, and I don't disagree. While they fit the operational definition I offered above, they lack verisimilitude. We'd welcome you to peruse Jerrybase's Tours Page to see what you think. (The Jerry tours are all entered.The GD tours are still work in progress. Eventually, we will enrich with images, dynamic maps, etc.)

As it happens, this work also allows me to fill in a placeholder post I had been ignoring for awhile, centered on the following image:

Here we have an 8.5" x 11" promotional handbill listing some upcoming Jerry and Merl gigs in various cities in December 1974. I know there is a copy of this in Santa Cruz ("Business: RX-102 - Compliments of Garcia," Grateful Dead Archive, Special Collections, UC Santa Cruz, MS.332.ser. 2, box 17, folder 10), and I know this image is not from there. First, this one seems to have a crease, that one doesn't. Second, they don't allow posting of scans from the collection - a requirement which I respect and I think others do as well. I was about 99% sure I got this from GDAO, but I cannot find it there. So I can't recall how I came into this it. Anyway, I saw it in the GD Archive, and loved it, then found a copy out in the wild which I could reproduce.

Why do I love this?

First, because I love the music this band made. Go get thee to Garcia Live: Volume Three: December 14-15, 1974, Northwest Tour, Legion of Mary (ATO Records, 2013) if you want to hear why.

Second, who doesn't love beardless Jerry?

Third, this particular image of beardless Jerry was drawn by Victor Moscoso for the cover of Jerry's second record, Garcia (by which I mean it was his second record, and his second record with that very title), which we all know as Compliments (Round Records, RX-102, June 1974) and I have the very tall, full color poster of the album art at the framer's, and I can't wait to get that sucker up on the wall. It's a beaut.

Fourth, the handbill promotes JGMS gigs --note, still no public use of the moniker Legion of Mary known to me before January 1975-- at the Paramount Northwest in Seattle on December 13, 1974, at the Paramount in Portland on December 14, 1974, at the Ambassador in St. Louis on December 20, 1974, two nights at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin on December 21-22, 1974, and then three nights, December 25-27, 1974, at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach.

Four-A, I love the Pacific Northwest. Four-B, these PNW theaters hosted some killer GD and Jerry over the years. Four-C, the Ambassador, a "landmark of rococo 1920s theater design"? Yes, please. Four-D, I have an original poster from the Armadillo gigs, and it is allegedly the very copy that was hung in the 'dillo lobby at the time of the show. So, there's that. Four-E, the Golden Bear - again, yes, please and thank you. We don't list capacity for it at JB - anyone know? Four-F, the Golden Bear hosted one of my favorite shows from the last eight months of the Garcia-Saunders band, 12/29/74b, partly because of the amazing tape pulled by "Flashback" Charlie Disalvo and partly because I want that version of "Expressway (To Your Heart)" to be my walk-off music as I leave behind my earthly existence. It KILLS.

Fifth, another one of my longtime favorite Garcia-Saunders shows, 12/15/74 in the EMU Ballroom at the University of Oregon, is *not* listed on this handbill, which gives me a sense that it was booked rather later than the others. Who cares? I kind of do, to tell you the truth.

But the BIG takeaway is, Six-A, that I don't know of any other Round promotions for live gigs. Jerry went to NYC on July 1-3, 1974, to play the Bottom Line just a few days after the record came out. The shows sold out in a minute without advertising, but, of course, the record company could also, y'know, have promoted the record. Same goes with the November '74 tour, Jerry and Merl and crew with Martin blowing and the great Paul Humphrey on the drums - no advertising needed for the gigs, but what about cross-promotion with the vinyl? (Yes, I know the record wasn't JGMS. But if we held strict to that, it'd rule out the hints we do have here of a tie between the record and these gigs.)

So, here we have the imagery from Moscoso's cover art, the same lettering on 'GARCIA', and the Round Records logo. But, - Six-B - there is no evidence of the record besides this. No title. No note that there even is a record. It doesn't say "buy the new record, and come see the show", or, "come see the show and, if you dig it, buy the record. Oh yeah - tell your friends!" Instead, we see allusions to Compliments, but no direct mention of it. The Jerry heads would already have recognized some of this, of course, but mostly because they probably already had the record or, as Jerryheads, didn't need to be marketed to buy tickets to see Jerry. Maybe your average head would go to the show, and Round man Steve Brown would ply them with the advertising cards, maybe a "Here Now" poster --already framed and on my wall--

or  some other schwag, so maybe that was the idea. Maybe Anton Round was signing autographs.

I guess it just seems like a little bit of a missed opportunity. Oh yeah, one last thing, in full-circle mode: those March '76 jaunts were almost certainly "behind" Jerry's third record, Reflections (Round Records, RX-107, February 1976) - maybe by then the tie-ins were being made more explicit. But, then again, that'd redound to the benefit of United Artists, since Round, as such, had gone belly-up. I wonder why?

All By Myself: Legion of Mary, April 5, 1975 late show at the Cap, Passaic, NJ

LN jg1975-04-05.lom.late.aud-SC.147761.flac1644

Ticket stub for Legion of Mary, April 5, 1975, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ - 11:30 PM late show
NB misspelling of "Capital". Image courtesy of gdsets.com

Very listenable audience tape with everything present. Nice show - I like everything here, even "Sitting In Limbo", which I don't always love. "Wicked Messenger" - my goodness, what a great cover. Great energy throughout, including for the public debut of Fats Domino's "All By Myself", which might think would require the boogie-woogie piano, but does just fine here with the organ.

LEGION OF MARY

Capitol Theatre

326 Monroe Street

Passaic, NJ 07055

April 5, 1975 (Saturday) - Late Show

aud shnid-147761

--late show (8 tracks, 93:49)--

t01. /Let It Rock [12:30] [0:09] %

t02. /You Can Leave Your Hat On [14:56] [0:03] %

t03. /All By Myself [6:50] [0:12] %

t04. /Last Train From Poor Valley [8:20] [0:07] %

t05. Boogie On Reggae Woman [15:50] [0:08] %

t06. /Sitting In Limbo [15:12] [0:14]

t07. /Wicked Messenger [7:12] [0:07]

t08. Talkin' 'Bout You [11:44] [0:16]

! ACT1: Legion Of Mary:

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass;

! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;

! lineup: Ron Tutt - 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/19750405-02

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/147646 (same source, deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/147761 (this fileset)

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

! historic: For the two shows, LOM gets $10,000 guarantee, plus 60% over $25,000. This show 3,201 sellout for gross of $19,125.75. For the night the band earned $16,708.

! ad: Village Voice, March 31, 1975, p. 110

! ad: Village Voice, April 7, 1975, p. 104

! seealso: JGMF, "LN jg1975-04-05.lom.early.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448"

! R: Source: Unknown AUD > 7" Reel @ 3 3/4 ips.

! R: Original Transfer: Teac A-2300S playback > Tascam DA-3000 (96k/24bit) > Samplitude Pro X3 > Flac24 (@ 96k) > ID-147646.

! R: Remaster: ID-147646 > TLH > WAV 2496 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH FLAC 1644.

! R: seeder notes: The following changes have been made to the original files from ID-147646: - Tape speed adjustments - Aligned channels & merged to mono - Small edits around crowd noise, song transitions, & tape pauses - SRC to 16bit/44.1kHz. Most songs cut-in slightly. Thanks to everyone at LL for making this available!

! P: t01 LIR in the 6 range Garcia's guitar work is fantastic. Some years later, listening again, I still hear it. Yeah!!!! Check out the peak at 6:29. Again, ca. 6:55.

! P: t03 ABM great energy

! song: All By Myself (t03): This is understood to be the debut of this song in the Garciaverse, and it pops! It seems like such a piano song, but the organ does just fine.

! P: t05 BORW also raging. Great energy!

! R: t05 BORW cut at 10:46

! P: t06 SIL played at a langorous pace, Tutt singing harmonies. Gorgeous run early 5 gets a cheer. This is beautiful stuff.

! P: t07 Wicked Messenger my goodness do I love this. The tone and glassine picking late 4 over 5 just about kill me - daggers.

! P: t08 TBY hear Jerry come in 6:35 with great energy!

Old old old notes: JGB at the Leroy Theatre, Pawtucket, RI, March 11, 1978

LN jg1978-03-11.jgb.all.aud-friend.97682.flac1644

I listened to this years ago, was just doing some housecleaning and thought I'd post.

Bullets:

Really nice tape. Piano sounds especially great .Thank you, Tim Friend! I note that it runs faster than the set II soundboard tape. I also noted that AF's ITAM patch from shnid-14931 (Tom Dalti aud) sounds pitched differently. Not sure which, if any, of these might be on A=440.

Third gig in three nights (whole tour was 11 11 eastern time zone shows in 11 days, March 9-19), poor ol' Jer's voice is already shot. It's not that surprising - the Dead's "laryngitis shows," with all Weir lead vocals, were only two months past, and he wasn't smoking fewer cigarettes nor, by all accounts, doing less blow or inhaling less burnt aluminum foil. He sometimes uses his rough edges to good effect, as when he growls in "Harder They Come" (HTC) about getting his share of what's his. But, this massively percussive band --Keith very loud, Kahn still a monster-- really calls for lots of vocal power, and Jerry just can't deliver the goods.

We do find the big, bad, cokey-Wolfy guitar chords throughout, plenty of power and burning tone. We find plenty of evidence in support of the "compensation hypothesis" --partly induced from the aforementioned laryngitis GD shows-- whereby vocals (and other) challenges drive good and aggressive guitar playing. In "I'll Take A Melody" here, for example, the whole band finds itself tripping over vocal timing, and I hear Garcia rip off an angry, aggressive-embarassed flurry, like he had to peel off that nervous extra skin he grew while the band was out of sync. Similarly, Jerry scrambles back from the brink of a near-unraveling in "Mystery Train" (MT) by picking some special  notes.

I love the ladies' harmonizing --I don't always-- on "Catfish John" here, and Jerry sings along with them, and it really reminds you of the beauty, that Donna has especially noted, that could happen when these people who love each other blend their voices. I need to find the quote of Donna talking about that -- feel free to point me to it! Buzzy sounds great on "That's What Love Will Make You Do", and I hear Kahn "dropping big artillery" in HTC and "rumbling like a motherfucker" in MT. I regularly criticize The Mule's playing after 1980, but in the 1970s the man played world-class electric bass.

"Rhapsody In Red" is one of my favorite Garciaverse tunes, and when it's great it absolutely slays me with some of the loudest and shreddiest rock'n'roll guitar Garcia would ever play. This version does deliver some screaming crazed fanning and other shreddy goodness, and Jerry puts feeling into the question of where playing the blues has led him, but overall I find this version a little ponderous, more in well than in top-shelf territory. So it goes. Crazy that I don't even mention "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home". So it goes.

Oh yeah, for real good fun, check out Dave Davis's writeup of this show and the prior night's Bob Weir Band gig in Provy at Grateful Seconds, Italian exchange student Gianni Rosati's endearing review in Relix, and the best-in-class Garcia Band interview by Andy Gefen from earlier on March 11th, which brings some interesting conversation but, especially, some great laughs. And who can't use more of those?

Jerry Garcia Band
Leroy Theater
66 Broad Street
Pawtucket, RI 02860
March 11, 1978 (Saturday) - 7 PM
Tim Friend 145 minute audience recording

--set I (8 tracks, 79:02)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:35]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:17] [1:05]
s1t03. Catfish John [9:55] [1:22]
s1t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:11] [1:38]
s1t05. I'll Take A Melody [15:15] [1:00]
s1t06. Harder They Come [12:45] [1:11]
s1t07. Gomorrah [6:10] [0:34]
s1t08. % Mystery Train [9:45] (1) [0:21]

--set II (7 tracks, 66:26)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:02]
s2t02. Love In The Afternoon [11:30] [0:28] % [0:11]
s2t03. Rhapsody In Red [8:16] [1:58]
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:39] [0:22]
s2t05. Tore Up Over You [8:11] [1:05]
s2t06. I'll Be With Thee [4:46] ->
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [14:42] (2) [1:17]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! Lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! Lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
! Lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals.

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/19780311-05

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/14931 (Tom Dalti aud); http://etreedb.org/shn/97682 (goodbear various auds); http://etreedb.org/shn/97682 (Tim Friend aud, this source); http://etreedb.org/shn/135199 (s2 sbd AJL). NB the board tap runs a fair bit slower than this aud. I don't know which might be correct.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/BspT8D8hQXT2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/leroy-theater-66-broad-street-pawtucket.html

! venue: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5639. "Pawtucket’s “Million Dollar Theater” opened May 1, 1923 to a packed house, with numerous celebrities in attendence. Designed by local architect John F. O'Malley, the theater featured a mirrored lobby, an electric chandelier with 4,700 bulbs, and the largest Wurlitzer organ in New England. ... After 55 continuous years as a movie and concert showplace, the Leroy was forced to close in 1978 due to fire code violations". So, the place closed within the year of Jerry playing there.

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

! historical / Sue: Promoter: John Scher. Co-promoter: Gemini Concerts (Provy). Sound check 4:30 p.m. $4,000 flat guarantee on gross potential of $17,424. Sell out. Garcia and crew were interviewed by Andy Gefen earlier in the day at WBRU-FM in Provy. It is a classic - check it out!

! review: [positive] Rosati 1978. Rosati was an Italian exchange student at Providence College in Spring 1978. He notes "no opening act for the Mystery Cats, who played twice as much music as the Weir Band [the night before, in Provy] over a span of more than four hours, which included a one-hour break in the middle of the set."

! see also: GratefulSeconds, "A Weekend in Rhode Island with Bobby's Band and Jerry's Band, March 10-11, 1978"

! R: field recordist: Tim Friend

! R: field recording location: Fifth row orchestra, left center section

! R: field recording equipment: 1x AKG D200E (mono) > Sony TC-153SD (Maxell UD-XLII 90's, no Dolby).

! R: Transfer: MAC > Nakamichi DR-8 (with no Dolby) > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 by Andrew F. 02/2009.

! R: JGMF rename to sets (replace 'd' with 's' in filename), plus tagging in foobar2000.

! R: This tape is nice. The piano is especially well-mic'd, but the bass, drums and vocals are all very nice. I bet the acoustics in this place were very good. Thank you, Tim Friend! The taper did a tremendous job of capturing the between-song tunings. I have tried to note the flips where I heard them, but this is a great job of taping. Listening in ITAM, and I'll reiterate: thje piano is beautifully recorded. Wow! That said, from Mystery Train forward I find Garcia's vocals to be a little buried, and for reasons unclear to me things muddy up a little in my ears.

! P: At the start, I was loving this performance. I find a lot to like, but I guess I don't stand up and say WOW! anywhere. The vocals detract.

! P: s1t02 HSII Jerry's voice sounds really, really rough. Ouch.

! P: s1t03 CJ if you want to hear the Donna/Maria vocals working, listen to the opening chorus of Catfish John. Jerry's vocals are nice and careful here. JG is even trying to harmonize more with the ladies in the 2:15ish chorus. Nice! Like a freaking church hymn, I tell ya. JG just running around the fretboard beautifully in the late 6-minute mark, Keith steps up for some really pretty piano playing, light and airy, while Jerry traipses about the melody.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD you can really here what a hot drummer Buzz Buchanan is. He's really good. Keith hits a little rough patch in the late 6-minute mark, but he stays with it and drops some nice bob and weave. Late 7-minute mark and forward for awhile, Jerry Garcia is playing his rock and roll guitar, bending notes around 8:20, pretty big and powerful chords for him to be pulling at this stage of the proceedings, until 8:45, when they hit the '1' very convincingly, and Jerry is doing his coke yelling.

! R: s1t05 seeder note: The end of Melody was cut by a tape-flip. ShnID-14931 provided a patch from 14:51 > 15:01. The patch material was EQ'ed and mixed down to mono to more closely resemble Tim's recording. JGMF note: The patch has a noticeable pitch difference, but I appreciate Andrew F.'s work in putting it together.

! P: s1t05 ITAM Garcia's voice is so scratchy, mournful, weary. The song is a little bit of a mess. For example, around the 13 minute mark they spend a minute or two just trying to get back on the same page, and it had been a struggle getting there in the first place. Jerry and Donna's vocals are just not sync'd up. Then @ 14:30 Keith does a sharp key slide at the same time that Jerry was going to --and indeed does-- rip off an angry, aggressive-embarassed flurry. Like he had to peel off that nervous extra skin he grew around the syncing issues.

! P: s1t06 HTC ouchy ouchy ouchy that voice sounds like it hurts. But Jerry is giving it some blowback, growling about getting his share of what's his. Keith does some nice little piano soloing in the 6-minute mark, Garcia enters 6:43 with some round-and-round chords, Kahn drops some big artillery right around 7-min mark and forward. Mmm-mm-m. Again at 8:16 forward, John Kahn thumping the woofers, higher up around 9-minute mark, but pulling very nicely. They finish with enthusiasm, some extra vocalization from the ladies.

! P: s1t08 MT Kahn is rumbling like a motherfucker as they start. Something pops, they almost false start, but they pick up the pieces. As so often happens, we get some special notes on the scramble back from the brink. Unfortunately, Jerry's vocal mic seems to be having some problems, and worse still his voice is just not up to the challenge. It just sounds a little weak relative to all that percussion, including very upfront piano.

! s1t08 (1) JG: "Thank you. We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a little bit."

! s2t03 RIR is played too ponderously. Garcia is peeling off some wicked pissah guitar licks late in the 2-minute mark, lots of edge, but the tempo just holds things back a little bit. Now, toward the 4-minute mark, the ladies assert themselves, and Jerry makes it clear that he sings the blues, and he wants to know where it has led. Some serious rock star fanning licks in the 5-minute mark, but then it kind of thuds into Keith, who seems to want to shut it down. Garcia does some screaming crazed fanning mid-6 mark forward. Listen @ 6:58. Overall, though, I don't find this version of RIR to be the equal of, say, the mid-1983 barn-burners.

! s2t04 KOHD has a nice bouncy tempo that would really serve it well in the Garcia Band.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. Bye bye."

Ross Valory "has ... jammed with the Jerry Garcia - Mel [sic] Saunders group in Bay Area clubs"

Blumenthal, Les. 1975. Music to make your adrenalin [sic] rush. Spokesman-Review, July 6, 1975, Spokane Week section, p. 1.

This is the kind of tiny little random mention that comes over the transom that I just have to pin down. At some point, Ross Valory apparently sat in with Jerry and Merl. I hope the magic of the internet can happen here, and someone can come up with a concrete memory - preferably dated. Heh heh.

Tasty Fucking Tape: JGB at Paramount Northwest Theatre, Seattle, October 28, 1978 (Severson MAC)

LN jg1978-10-28.jgb.early-late.aud-severson.148540.flac2496

These last few shows of the Keith and Donna JGB are generally strong. And the recordings often sound really nice, not least because the bass, and I'd say generally the whole band, was dialed-in in the rooms. I don't know who was doing room sound, but they did a great job.

Mark Severson pulled the "tasty fucking tape(s)" of the title. That guy never missed, it seems.

Not a lot of notes, but that's kind of been characteristic of what I have been posting lately.

I really like the Reuben and Cherise here. It's not quite flawless, but it's strong. LAALWFH clocks in under 14 minutes, last time played until 7/26/81. 

For those who say that Keith Godchaux was worthless and nodding off in 1978. SHOW ME. I have never seen or heard evidence of this. Of course, maybe he was more engaged in the JGB than in the toxic cesspool of that other band. But, again, don't just repeat the narrative. Show, don't tell. (LIA supplies a bunch of the relevant canonical quotes in comment at LLD.)

Oh yeah, BTW, I also just upped some additional notes to my already-existing 10/27/78 post.

Jerry Garcia Band
Paramount Northwest Theatre
901 Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98101
October 28, 1978 (Saturday)
Severson MAC flac2496 shnid-148540

--early show, main set + encore (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 71:57)--
--early show main set (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 65:41)--
e-t01. ambience [1:14]
e-t02. Harder They Come [11:09] (1) [0:21] % [0:34]
e-t03. Mission In The Rain [9:16] [0:20] % [0:06]
e-t04. They Love Each Other [7:22] [1:11]
e-t05. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:01] [0:08] % (2) [1:54]
e-t06. It Ain't No Use [7:56] [1:36]
e-t07. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:58] (3) [0:16] % [0:10] %
--early show encore (1 track, 6:16)--
e-t08. Reuben And Cherise [6:06] (4) [0:10] %

--late show (9 tracks, 8 tunes, 74:40)--
l-t01. ambience [1:03]
l-t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:14] [2:39]
l-t03. Catfish John [9:40] [0:15] % [0:33]
l-t04. I Second That Emotion [9:19] [0:25] % [0:15]
l-t05. Love In The Afternoon [8:14]
l-t06. Mystery Train
l-t07. Gomorrah [6:18] [0:15]
l-t08. I'll Be With Thee [5:15] ->
l-t09. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [13:32] [0:28]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - 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/19781028-03 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19781028-04 (late)

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12679 (McCaw MAC, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/89135 (Severson master, via minches); https://etreedb.org/shn/148539 (this fileset, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/148540 (this fileset).

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/paramount-northwest-paramount-theatre.html

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

! Sue: For the two shows, $5k guarantee plus percentages on high gross and cost savings, on gross potential of $47,616-$53,568. Monarch got $3,000 for production, looks like co-pro was the John Bauer Concert Company.

! review: [negative] MacDonald 1978: "typically, the shows went on interminably. The first, which began at 7 pm, didn't end until almost 11 p.m. The second show, which was supposed to have started at 10:30 p.m., didn't get under way until past midnight. It was still going strong when I left about 3 a.m." Further, "I felt the second show audience, which was made to wait outside in the cold for hours and got a tired show, were ripped off."

! R: field recordist: Mark Severson

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sony ECM 270 mics > Sony TC-158

! R: Transfer Info: Master Cassette (Nakamichi CR-7A) > Tascam DA-3000 (DSF 1-bit/5.6 MHz)> dBpoweramp (24/96) > Adobe Audition CC 2019 > TLH flac2496

! R: seeder Notes: Thanks to Mark Severson for the master cassette recording. Thanks to Charlie Miller for the transfer and coordinating this effort. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for verifying the pitch. Mastered by Scott Clugston, December 2019.

! R: tasty fucking tape

! P: t02 HTC Garcia's first guitar turn is just so damn lyrical and melodic! Keith's first turn also nice.

! e-t02 (1) JG: "Thank you."

! P: e-t05 KOHD is beautiful! The notes Garcia plays in late 5 just slay me. Keith steps up for a feature 6:20ff.

! e-t05 (2) a guy in the crowd yells out something about "one show tonight, instead of two", and gets a good cheer from the crowd.

! e-t07 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll see ya later."

! P: e-t08 RAC Buzzy just kills some splashes around 3:25 - sounds great! I love how compact this version is. Great energy!

! e-t08 (4) JG: "So long."

! P: l-t09 LAALWFH it is pretty out there, but it never really did anything that interesting.

Peppy: JGB at the Stone, May 31, 1981 (and contemporary data missingess)

LN jg1981-05-31.jgb.s1s2p.aud.137952.flac1644

More spare listening notes, more JGB #12b. I actually like TLEO here (rare), find characteristically strong-for-the-period versions of Sugaree and Tangled Up, enjoy a melodious Simple Twist, pick up some rock-n-roll goodness in Let It Rock, and totally dig the litling beauty of an early Melvin-era Knockin'. Early 80s Knockin's are the best, IMO. Oh yeah, an extremely brisk TWYDTTYD, "about as uptempo as it was ever done", I imagine.

So that's every tune on this truncated recording getting a mention, except for Prudence. In sum, a nice little gig, a random Sunday at the Stone.

Weird how little JGB circulates from this window:

Date	Venue	Notes
1981-05-23 [Sat]	Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-24 [Sun]	Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-27 [Wed]	Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA	complete setlist, no circulation
1981-05-28 [Thu]	Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA	complete setlist, s2 circulates
1981-05-30 [Sat]	Phoenix Theatre, Petaluma, CA	complete setlist from aud
1981-05-31 [Sun]	Stone, San Francisco, CA	s1s2p setlist from aud [jgmf]
1981-06-01 [Mon]	Stone, San Francisco, CA	no setlist, no circ

So, ask your old analog friends if they have tapes of the missing material. The presence of setlists certainly does not guarantee that tapes were made, but it is suggestive. Please and thank you.

update: AF has supplied images of complete cassettes copies of 5/27-28/81 which went up for sale on Ebay but were won by unknown buyers. Here are analog tapes that have never made the jump to 0s and 1s. Let's get tapes like these digitized and circulating!

Jerry Garcia Band

The Stone

412 Broadway

San Francisco, CA 94133

May 31, 1981 (Sunday)

s1s2p aud via AF flac1644 shnid-137952

--set I (5 tracks, 57:29)--

s1t01. //Sugaree [#11:22] [0:03] %

s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#8:08] [0:10] %

s1t03. [0:14] That's What Love Will Make You Do :15-10:38 -10:41 %

s1t04. /Simple Twist Of Fate [#16:25] [0:02] %

s1t05. Tangled Up In Blue [10:37] %

--set II (3 tracks, incomplete, 38:04)--

s2t01. /Knockin' On Heaven's Door [#16:41] [0:03] %

s2t02. /Let It Rock [#9:30] [0:03]

s2t03. [0:15] Dear Prudence [11:30] [0:02] %

! 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/19810531-01

! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/show/1981-05-31

! db: etreedb.org/shn/137952 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

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

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

! R: source: AUD (1st Gen) kindly provided from the collection of DL.

! R: transfer: Maxell XLII > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transfer by Andrew F. 03/2017

! R: seeder Note: "Lo-Fi mono recording of a really hot show. Taper and equipment are unknown, a note on the label says: "First show I taped, well it sure was fun." A big chunk is missing from start of Sugaree, maybe three minutes? Several other songs clip in/out abruptly as the deck was turned off & on. It's likely that one or two songs are missing from end of the Second Set." I'd add that vocals are super back, organ buried, as well.

! R: s1t01 Sugaree clips in

! P: s1t01 Sugaree has great energy.

! R: s1t02 clips in.

! P: s1t02 TLEO I am not usually a big fan of this one, but it's working for me. The twin keyboards sound good, e.g., 4-minute range.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD is about as uptempo as it was ever done. Speedy. Jerry's guitar work is outstanding. Melvin's feature work in 6 is also really strong. 

! R: s1t04 STOF clips in

! P: s1t04 STOF some very melodious picking 12:15.

! P: s1t05 TUIB typically hot '81 version, espec. ca. late 9 to early 10.

! R: s2t01 KOHD clips in

! P: s2t01 KOHD I love the pluck Garcia gives it in the 3 minute mark - it's like the perfect slice of JGB's KOHD, with the reggae lilt.

! R: s2t02 LIR clips in

! P: s2t02 LIR not moving me. Melvin's solo 4 min mark is hard to hear, nothing particularly interesting that I could identify. That said, the shit Garcia does all through the 7 minute mark is some absolutely incredible big chord work.

! R: s2t03 DP ca. 2:30 lots of tape drag and warble. Sounds like batteries are struggling?

Calderone Valentine: JGB in Hempstead, NY, February 14, 1981

LN jg1981-02-14.jgb.all.aud-hance.155565.flac2496

Just did the previous night, and I had just listened to this one to get a load of the fresh transfer from John Jay Hance's master. I hear plenty of stuff to like, don't go into much detail. The "Like A Road" feels really sweet.

Quicky listening notes.

Jerry Garcia Band

Calderone Concert Hall

145 N. Franklin Street

Hempstead, NY 11550

February 14, 1981

Hance MAC shnid-155565

--set I (5 tracks, 53:33)--

s1t01. [0:37] Sugaree [14:38] % [0:09]

s1t02. They Love Each Other [8:14] [0:03] % [1:13]

s1t03. When I Paint My Masterpiece [9:26] % [0:41]

s1t04. Love In The Afternoon [7:44] [0:05] % [0:16]

s1t05. Tangled up in Blue [10:20] (1) [0:04]

--set II (5 tracks, 62:05)--

s2t01. Tore Up Over You [9:10] % [0:03]

s2t02. Like A Road Leading Home [13:31] % [0:44]

s2t03. Harder They Come [15:46] % [1:21]

s2t04. Dear Prudence [13:19] ->

s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:11] (2) [0:03]

! 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; [ ] = 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/19810214-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/14079 (Ohr 2x Sony ECM-23f + 1x Nakamichi DM-500, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/24070 (same specs as Hance, possibly his, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/155565 (this fileset).

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/calderone-music-hall-145-n-franklin-st.html

! historical: Sue: capacity 2,800. $10k guarantee plus 90% gross receipts over $26,499 after taxes plus 100% difference between estimated non-variable expenses and $24,090 and actual expenses, plus $4,000 production fee and $1,000 hospitality.

! R: field recordist: John Hay Hance

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 > Sony D5M (no Dolby) > Technics 686

! R: field recording location: balcony rail, 6' spread

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell UDXLII-C90

! R: Transfer: Nakamichi 582Z > Korg MR2000S (DFF@5.6) Audiogate > 24/96 Wave > Wavelab6 > Ozone Rx7A > Ozone 5 Advance > Ozone Rx7A > CDwave > Flac24

! P: s1t01 Sugaree Jerry digs in at like 4:15 for something, and it just sounds so great.

! P: s1t05 TUIB I love how Shaw drums them into the groove to start this tune. He sounds perfectly awesome.

! R: s1t05 TUIB cut end, patched with shnid-14079 (Taped by Ohr Weinberg, Sony ECM 23-f's w/Nak DM-500 blend > Nak 550)

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll back [a little bit later]."

! P: s2t02 LARLH is really sweet.

 

! P: s2t04 DP KILLER sustain waily tone late 6. Yeah!!! Feedback, great work. Burning metallic. Which brings us to tin foil.

! R: s2t05 Mid Moon glitch @ 5:42

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later on."

DOWN in South Jersey? JGB at Glassboro State College, February 15, 1981

LN jg1981-02-15.jgb.all.aud.137422.flac1644

Rock Scully's book Living with the Dead (1996) gets mixed reviews for all kinds of reasons, among them that he presents lots of factually inaccurate information. But, on another intepretation --and, I think, relaying something Corry has expressed-- the book may not be right, but it contains lots of truth. Here is some of his narrative around early '81:

We use the airlines to ship dope. I have somebody run it out to the airport in an envelope, put it on a plane, and it gets there like clockwork until some weird hippie at TWA recognizes Jerry's name on the package and takes it. The first time it happens, we're in Philadelphia. I'm jonesing in the Philadelphia Arport waiting for the shit to arrive and it never shows up. I know it got onto the plane, but somewhere along the line somebody stole it. This little glitch leads to a day and a half of the shakes. Garcia is too junk sick to perform the following night. Prescriptions from the hotel doctor help, but we use up all the pills the first night to get rid of the shakes.

In Washington, a desperate Garcia decides to do a radio interview in the middle of the night and "put the code out." Garcia's nodding into the mike during the interview. On air he asks fans — in code — to bring their stashes down to the station and he will sign albums for them. He says, "Uh, anybody down with Garcia out there tonight? You wanna come down to the station? I'll come down from up here and sign autographs, but bring me some down." Thirty kids show up at the station reception with grass, 'ludes, uppers. Uh oh, the wrong drugs! Oh God, now he wants to get more specific on the air, spell out what precisely he needs. We send kids out to get downers and tranks to get us through the night (Scully 1996, 314).

I relay this here because seeder extraordinaire AF has relayed the following in connection with a recording of JGB in Esby Gym, Glassboro State College, February 15, 1981:

Before the show, Jerry went on the radio [campus radio WGLS] to invite people DOWN and if you were DOWN with it, then come on DOWN to the show. The story goes that they were at the end of the tour, way down in the boonies of South Jersey, and the stash was dry. Jerry had to put out the call for someone from Philly or nearby to drive over with a fix for him and Kahn.

Naturally, this sounds like the second part of Rock's little vignette above. I trust AF to have the date, time, and specifics more accurate than Scully. As for our jonesing hereo, maybe the trip into Glassboro, a charter flight from E. Farmingdale (Republic Airport) to Philly on an 8-passenger twin-engine King Air 200, had him just a little jumpy. (Take that, Rock!)

Plea: does anyone know of tape of that particular interview, 2/15/81 from campus radio WGLS? I will inquire with the school, though odds are strongly against there being a copy there.

What about the rest of Rock's narrative? It kind of fits Corry's characterization. First, I think he swaps Philly (end of the tour) and DC (start of the tour), with the package of drugs not making it to them in Washington. Second --and, yes, I see how petty this is-- they didn't fly TWA, but United (#58, since you asked). Third, there is no canceled show anywhere in the tour. Fourth, the interview was apparently before the show, not in the middle of the night.

Some of this other stuff might have happened on Dead tour, or on a different Jerry tour. He doesn't explicitly say this is the Feb. 81 JGB jaunt - I am just making the connection because of the radio interview, which it seems safe to say can only have happened once. Overall, all of this stuff probably sort of happened, and so Rock's account is true ("truthy," you might say), if not exactly right.

One of the great benefits to me of doing these listening notes, and trying to integrate them into the broader fabric of the Garciaverse, is how LITTLE the drug stories tell us about the music. Here we have relatively firm evidence that Garcia was jonesing hard for the show, specifically needing stuff to take the edge off, and that he got some stuff to get him DOWN to some level of comfort. Yet the show sounds peppy. I don't make a lot of notes, but they all point in the same direction: torrid scrubby goodness in "Catfish John", punch great energy in "Tangled Up In Blue", Gar sounding enthused on "Tore Up Over You". All of this speaks, as Twitterato and all-around great guy Mr. Completely might say, to the limits of drug determinism.

Ticket for JGB 2/15/81 at Glassboro State College, courtesy of gdsets.com.

Sounds like the place was packed, sweltering hot (Chambers 1981), and ol Jer, jonesing or not, put on a good strong show to end the tour. (Since you were wondering, fly home next day, 10:15 AM departure on United #719 through Denver to land at SFO by  2:30 PM, or TWA #31, out at 3:30 PM to hit tierra santa at 6:30 PM. I leave it to you to imagine which flight Jerry caught, and why.)

Listening notes below the fold.

JGB Debuting Señor and Tears of Rage: The February 1990 Warfield Run

LN jg1990-02-02.jgb.all.aud-darroch-paul.86658.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-03.jgb.all-1.sbd-seaweed.114060.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-04.jgb.all.aud-buick.30811.flac1644

The Jerry Garcia organization embraced a "no taping" policy, for reasons that aren't entirely clear given the principal's own experience recording bluegrass in the Sixties, his oft-stated indifference to audience taping in the Grateful Dead (GD) context ("when we're done with it, they can have it"), the Dead's own allowances in the form, from 1984 forward, of an Official Taping Section (OTS) just behind Dan Healy's soundboard and, frankly, the low commerical appeal of the Garcia Band. What was gonna do, etch some bootleg vinyl of yet another show closing "Midnight Moonlight"? Yet, nevertheless, there the policy was.

Enforcement was another matter, and seems to have been highly variable. Some busts happened at various places and times, tapers such as John Corley seem to have felt that stealth was called for (dismantling his Nak 700s and wiring them up through the top of a very "silly hat"), but generally a lot of tapes walked out of a lot of Jerry shows. Anecdotally, the no taping policy was most assiduously enforced at the Warfield in 1990, which one imagines relates to the fact that Jerry and Co. were recording themselves for an official live release (Jerry Garcia Band, Arista 18690-2), which arrived August 25, 1991 with material culled from Warfield shows in April and August of the prior year, sweetened in some cases with some vocal overdubs, at least.

Campolindo High School alumnus and sound engineer extraordinaire Marcus Buick kept a little journal of his own and his taping buddies' battles against one particularly dedicated Warfield security guy, by the name of Oren David Green. Apparently, at least in '89 and into '90, he was not a BGP bluecoat, but worked for VIP security. Bu kept a running score, and it was good guys 4 (successful complete shows pulled) and Oren 2 (busts) after the last Garcia Band show of '89. Oren then went on a little run to start the new year. He seems to have successfully kept the tapers away from the best recording location in the house, "The Spot" on the first drink rail. Rob Darroch and Sara Paul managed to pull complete analog masters from there the first night, February 2, 1990, but the digital tapers got busted during the first song. On February 3, Buick, Rick Katzeff and Tom Hughes (Campolindo '87) were able to pass equipment, hop seats, and relocate to get the 1st set from row M of the upper balcony, but got busted set II. On Sunday the 4th, Bu finally managed to digitally pull a whole show, but only by jamming his Josephsons into the right floor speaker stack from about a foot away, far too close. Oren thus played the digikids to a tie for the weekend, impressive given how committed and enterprising they were. (To give an indication of this, note that some soundboard material circulates from this run, derived from recordings made by splitting wire running to the hallway speakers, a technique first accomplished at the Lunt Fontanne in 1987, as far as I know.)

So, the tapes are generally sub-optimal, and I know well that this can color my listening experience. Historically, I have found these shows to be just sort of "meh", perhaps partly because of recording limitations and perhaps also from reasoning motivated to support my "one year too late" thesis about the double-live album: as great as that album is --and I do think it's great--, I think it would have been even better if they had taped in '88 and '89, when things were fresher and peppier. By 1990, to my ears, Jerry is sounding a little more fatigued. I like the March 1-2 shows a good deal, remember finding the April shows to be "meh", definitely find the June shows to be relatively weak, have formed no opinion on August, and think things are hotter in November, after GD keyboardist Brent Mydland had died and Jerry seemed to transfer some amount of energy over to the JGB.

I want to revisit all of these and see how my older assessments hold up, and I began over the last week with the February 2-4 shows. The key setlist interest here is the arrival into the Garcia Band repertoire of Dylan's "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" and Dylan and Richard Manuel's "Tears Of Rage", both of which were added, I imagine, with the album in mind. The Señor from 4/15/90 did make it onto the release, while Tears of Rage would wait to be released until the version from that same date appeared on the posthumous How Sweet It Is record (Grateful Dead Records GDCD 4051, April 1997). The former stuck around for over four years --note that Jerry had also played it once at the Warfield with Dylan, way back in 1980-- while the latter lasted less than a year in the repertoire, much to my chagrin. Both find Jerry reaching way down into deep darkness, full of mournful pathos that well-suited his old man period. On their maiden voyages of this February weekend (Señor appeared all three nights, Tears the last two), they show their newness. Things aren't entirely pinned down in terms of Jerry's own or the backing vocals, he hasn't settled into the tunes yet, and so they sound a little uneven. But that is not to say they don't sound great - they do. Whoever picked these tunes for the Garcia Band --one presumes either Jerry or his musical director, bassist John Kahn-- picked well. 

Generally, the shows exhibit I haven't-played-live-in-a-month-itis, which is perfectly reasonable. Jerry headed out to Kona and took no fewer than 26 plunges with Jack's Dive Locker between January 6 and 29, 1990. January '88 found him tan and healthy in a Hawaiian shirt playing the "Blues For Salvador" benefit with Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and lots of others. January '89, again in post-scubal bliss, found him warming up the first night out (1/27/89) and then dropping a true masterpiece of a show on 1/28/89, though the Dead shows the next week were, well, pretty weak. 

None of these February 1990 Warfield shows reaches those peaks, though there are plenty of strong moments. The first two nights, especially, he flubs all kinds of lyrics, like throughout practically every tune. The first night is pretty short for a 90s Warfield show, though I note some nice peppy tempi and an "I Second That Emotion" that is worth a listen. The second night, I don't note much. The set II opener, "Harder They Come", is not present on any circulating tapes, though we can pretty well imagine what it must have sounded like. 2/4/90 is the best show of the run, to my ears, though it's still pretty uneven. I took real notice that he went up an octave to sing the last stanza of Señor, "this place don't make sense to me anymore", which gives it a really worried tone fit to put weaker listeners into the nervous hospital. I think it was like that all three times here, and I doubt it would ever be that way again.

All in all, I enjoyed listening to this three shows as a whole run. I think I will do more of that. Because even though things can get repetitive, it does provide something like a consistent baseline, allowing little things (like the pretty fun "Let's Spend The Night Together" to open set II on 2/3) to stand in sharper relief. I wouldn't tell you to grab these as a first choice from the year -- go ahead and get the record for that. But they do strike me as pretty straightforwardly representative of what the Jerry Band was up to as the 1990s got going.

Listening notes below the fold.

The Bicycle Rule: Don't Stop Pedaling, or You Might Fall Over (JGB at the Stone, November 10-11, 1986)

LN jg1986-11-10.jgb.all.aud-corley.17749.shn2flac
LN jg1986-11-11.jgb.all.aud-ty.94632.flac1644

Not a lot happening here one way or the other. It's a Monday-Tuesday night, Jerry sounds a little tired, even Corley's tape from the 10th sounds a little muffled.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 
November 10, 1986 (Monday) - 9 PM
Corley shnid-17749 sh2flac

--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 52:51)--
s1t01. ambience [0:13]
s1t02. Cats Under The Stars [7:50] -8:31
s1t03. Forever Young [8:43] -9:35
s1t04. They Love Each Other [8:16] -8:57
s1t05. Love In The Afternoon [7:41] [0:11]
s1t06. Run For The Roses [5:08] [0:02] %
s1t07. //Think [#6:00]
s1t08. Deal [6:22] [0:12]

--set II (7 tracks, 60:14)--
s2t01. //Harder They Come [#11:14] -11:42
s2t02. And It Stoned Me [6:51] [0:11]
s2t03. Knockin' On// Heaven's Door [9:58] [0:06]
s2t04. Reuben And Cherise [6:50] [0:22]
s2t05. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [7:42] [0:03]
s2t06. Gomorrah [6:30] ->
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [9:54] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - 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/19861110-01

! db: shnid-17749 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

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

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording gear: 2x disassembled Nak 700s clipped to brim of the "Silly Hat" > Sony TCD5M

! R: field recording location: 20' from stage, first row of tables, dead center

! R: lineage: MAC > ? > CDR > EAC > CDWave (retracked) > Shn. EAC'd / retracked / Shn'd by Charlie Connor. Correct sector boundaries verified with Shntool. Seeded to fungus, tol and abgd 2/5/03. Special thanks to Bob Menke for the audio discs

! R: muffled out of the gate

! P: s1t02 CUTS comes out sluggishly, Jer sounds a little tired.

! R: s1t07 Think cuts in

! R: s2t01 HTC cuts in

! P: s2t01 HTC everyone stops pedaling, and they all almost fall over at 9:28. Don't stop pedaling - you'll fall over!

! R: s2t03 Splice at 8:51 tightened up using Steinberg's Wavlab

! P: s2t04 RAC I am as big a fan of this tune as one can be, but Jer sounds a little tired for sure. Sluggish. I am revisiting this after a bit, and I hear how buried the vocals are.

! setlist: somehow we have always Mid Moon as the show closer, but it is demonstrably TUIB.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
November 11, 1986 (Tuesday)
Taz MAC shnid-94632

--set I (6 tracks, 51:03)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is [#5:26] [0:22]
s1t02. Like A Road [7:05] [0:28]
s1t03. Get Out Of My Life Woman [6:36] [0:13]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:53] [0:10]
s1t05. Run For The Roses [5:15] [0:05]
s1t06. I Shall Be Released [8:07] ->
s1t07. Deal/ [5:24#]

--set II (7 tracks, 54:41)--
s2t01. //The Harder They Come [#10:21] 0:11]
s2t02. Forever Young [8:13] [0:17]
s2t03. Think [6:09] % [0:14]
s2t04. And It Stoned Me [6:01] ->
s2t05. Dear Prudence [9:29] [0:17]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [6:54] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:35] (1) [0:04]

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - 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/19861111-01

! db: shnid-15006 (Corley MAC shnf); shnid-94632 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

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

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

! R: field recordist: Tazuo Yamaguchi;

! R: field recording gear: 1x Nakamichi 100 > Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording location: 5' from stage

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nak Dragon> Grace Lunatec V3 (24/96) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe > Adobe Audition 2.0 > (dither/downsample) > FLAC encoding.

! P: JG sounds tired (somewhat ragged vocals), but the show has energy. STOF quite rough vox. I think the tape isn't doing his voice any justice, either, since it is just capturing direct from Garcia's mouth rather than through the PA, I'd guess. The low vox of an upfront aud.

! R: s1t01 HSII beginning cut

! R: s2t01 HTC beginning cut

! P: s1t04 STOF no bass solo

! P: s1t06 JG flubs first verse of ISBR. But he is singing very delicately and thoughtfully here. 

! R: S1t01 Deal end clipped

! R: s2t01 HTC cuts in

! P: s2t01 HTC comes out much more peppily.

! P: s2t02 Forever Young sounds pretty out of it, but in that endearing, "Jerry's struggling" way, not the "he's out of it" way.

! P: s2t05 DP pretty good guitar solo in the 5-min mark.

! P: s2t06 Melvin's church organ is so perfect for this song

! s2t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."