Tuesday, December 16, 2014
NRPS 12/15/73 Winterland w/ guests
Uhhh, wow.
The amazing NRPS archivist Rob Bleetstein not only responded to my query about the source for the NRPS official concert history listing that shows Garcia (guitar) and Sandy Rothman (banjo) sitting in with the New Riders on "Glendale Train", 12/15/73 at Winterland (see also Corry). I say, he not only responded to my query, he went ahead and posted video of the thing at YouTube.
Check it out.
Thank you, Rob.
Since this is JGMF, I'll allow myself a few Garciacentric observations.
Our Hero steps up for a little twirl from about 4:45ff, on Marmaduke's invitation. Not that there's any doubt about provenance, but he's beardless, as he should be during this particular period, wearing what I can only think of as an "Atlanta" dye, similar in pattern to what he wore on 5/10/70.
This is a great little piece of evidence around Garcia's traveling habits. One might have thought he'd stay in the southeast between the Dead's gigs in Atlanta on 12/12 and Tampa on 12/18, but no - back home he goes. Since it seems a safe assumption that the Dead's gear didn't need to breathe the salt air of The City, and thus stayed in the east, Jerry doesn't have his regular guitar, and is playing one I don't recognize here with the New Riders - I assume it's one of Nelson's. Gear heads (not me!) take note.
Sociometrically, I believe this is the only known Garcia-Rothman shared stage until Thanksgiving 1986 (which wasn't really a stage, but was a performance together in front of other people). Garcia would sit in again with the Riders a few months later, at Keystone Berkeley on 2/2/74, and as far as I know would not play live with Nelson again until the same Thanksgiving '86 reunion.
Wow. What a world we live in. Thanks again, Rob!
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i took a crack at this once, too, in 2011. Of course, with the same information you had I wrote three times as much, and learned nothing extra. I was hoping someone would come out of the woodwork and say "yeah, I saw that!" but so far no luck.
ReplyDeleteI did have an email exchange with Sandy Rothman, where I asked him if he recalled sitting in with Jerry and the Riders at Winterland on that date. He said:
>>Highly unlikely...no memory of it...although in terms of chronology it wouldn't be impossible, as I had moved back to the Bay Area after about 5 years in Ohio somewhere around that time.<<
So, there's that. It could have happened, but Sandy doesn't recall it nor think it likely. He does recall sitting in with the NRPS a few months later (no Jerry) at Sonoma State or somewhere like that:
>>The thing I've always wanted to find is a recording of a NRPS show at Sonoma State or maybe it was a different college in the Santa Rosa area, probably also in 1973 or could've been early '74, when I sat in for a song or two. It was notable to me because the sound techs. got my banjo as loud as anything else and that has certainly never happened any other time with an electric band. But so far, nobody's ever found a tape.<<
I had forgotten that. Now linked.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely amazing. The last stand of the New Riders, on video. I hope Hunter was backstage
ReplyDeleteThis was not actually Jerry's last live appearance with NRPS. Garcia sat in with them for the second set at Keystone Berkeley on February 2, 1974. My theory is that Garcia had just finished producing Home, Home On The Road, so he knew the material anyway.
This was also Dave Torbert's last show with the New Riders. Glad you're into it and I'm just stumbling onto this page 6 years later! I've since launched an official NRPS Archive Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/newridersofthepurplesageofficialarchive
ReplyDeleteThanks, RB! So, it was a big night all around. Did they know it was Torbert's swan song when they were playing?
ReplyDeleteA new video has been posted on youtube, Chuck Berry's "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell)"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5de61eySlE
There is no Sandy and Jerry only takes a brief third solo after Nelson and Cage.
youtube also has Frankie Ford/Huey Piano Smith's "Sea Cruise"
again with Jerry but no Sandy Rothman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGNSVihiREI
and a Buddy Cage instrumental feature "Rose City Chimes" with no visible Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N4TwmzwS-k