Reaching for the Gold Ring

Uncle Bobo comes on about three minutes in, introduces the band, and they drop into a sublime "Crazy Fingers", one of my favorite songs.

The Final "After Midnight": JGB, March 7, 1983, The Stone

Garcia played J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" a bunch --by my count, 96 times starting 6/30/72-- with a number of different personnel configurations, for about ten years. But then, after Monday March 7, 1983, he just dropped it.

A new fileset of 3/7/83 shows me some killer guitar work in "After Midnight", "Catfish John", and "Tore Up Over You".

Listening notes follow:

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
March 7, 1983 (Monday)
MSC tuppeware CD shnid-135946

--set I (4 tracks, 36:34)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:30] [0:49]
s1t02. Catfish John [11:48] %
s1t03. [0:10] After Midnight [10:19] [0:03] %
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:46] (1) [0:08] %

--set II (5 tracks, 59:24)--
s2t01. Mission In The Rain [10:50] [0:31]
s2t02. Tore Up Over You [10:09] [0:25] %
s2t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:10] ->
s2t04. Dear Prudence [14:10] ->
s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:06] (2) [0:04]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #15c
! 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; [ ] = 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/19830307-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1983-03-07-the-stone-san-francisco-ca/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/102491 (unknown low-gen aud via Brad Tenner); http://etreedb.org/shn/135946 (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. Note that Corry has not updated this band post in some years, and what he calls JGB #15b reflects an incorrect understanding of when Jacklyn and DeeDee arrived, which was at the start of 1983. So I have dubbed this aggregation JGB #15c.

! personnel: because of the mix, this tape provides a great opportunity to hear Gregg Errico with the JGB. He brings some serious thud to the proceedings. He also just about never misses a beat. The other weird thing I didn't quite pin down is the backing vocals - they were only in on a few numbers, that I could hear.

! historical: Big Saturday night at the Santa Cruz Civic was followed by Sunday and Monday night at the Stone - this is Monday. We'd expect him to sound a little ragged, but he actually sounds quite good ("for the period", he thinks). The guitar work in the first set is exceptionally good - now I want to hear more from this period. The vocals are mostly pretty good for the period, not too much mumbling around lost lyrics. The first set is short and hot - 36 minutes is about as short as a JGB set ever got. It sounds considerably amped up - I wonder if they were late driving over the Golden Gate and picked themselves up with a little too much gusto? The second set actually stretches out to a good length, but it compelled me less. CJ and After Midnight both burn very hotly with some outstanding guitar work. I'd even give them a @@. Tempos a little squirrely, as they can be on a horse scampering to barn, on "Midnight Moonlight". All told, a good night's music for your Monday night $xx.

! R: Source: SBD > ? > CDR > WAV, via the jjoops tupperware collection.

! R: Transfer: Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. June 2016.

! R: Seeder Note: "Mostly mono monitor mix (mmmm!) heavy on snare & bass drum. ID-102491 patches as follows; How Sweet 0:00 > 0:49, Run for the Roses entire track, Mission 0:00 > 0:07, Tore Up 2:45 > 3:44, and Simple Twist 0:00 > 3:05. Thanks to Gems and jjoops... enjoy!"

! P: s2t01 CJ is awesome 6 min range, Garcia's fluid lines give John a rubber wall to bounce off of. @ 10 good climax to the "born a slave" verse. Very good. The singing is very forward in the mix, and we can hear Jer sounding all right.

! song: "After Midnight" (s1t03): last known Garcia performance of the JJ Cale classic. JB shows 93 performances as of 3/14/2021.

! P: s1t03 AM I don't like this tempo on the song. I am not hugely fan of the singing here, which is pretty perfunctory. On the other hand, by 4:45 the guitar is *wailing* - this would have left some ears ringing in the club. Long expressive phrases continue through 5:15, he works that really molten sound and is just doing the whole guitar god thing. Whoa. I stopped pricking my ears up after 6 something, but even on the basis of the first six minutes I'd call this very hot.

! s1t04 (1) setbreak announcement mostly inaudible, sounds like "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a little bit".

! P: s1t04 RFTR the ladies don't back him on "chicken to die", as they later would. They aren't even woo-ing during the verses. An interesting arrangement. It's possible that they are just completely absent from the mix, because I am not sure I heard them, but thought I might have, chorus late 1.

! P: s2t01 MITR was good, no major flubs.

! R: s2t02 TUOY in the 4:30ff range Garcia's guitar work shines. The bass is totally inaudible on this recording, drums way forward, organ audible but not loud. There's an argument to be made that TUOY was about as hip-thrusting as guitar got - Hank Ballard -- never hit a note like the one right at 6 in his life -- anyway. Man, very incendiary tone 6:15, glass shredding 6:23. 6:40ff Melvin doing some lead, while guitar comp is still dominant in this monitor tape. Over 7 Melvin is swinging too, taking a good turn -- good piece 7:24ff, classic B3 sound. Man could play some R&B. @ 7:46 Garcia just stomps all over him to the front of the stage for another run - you had your minute, big guy, now step aside. A bit rude. Nice strong finish.

! R: s2t03 STOF when he does another verse, vocals are way loud in the mix. Bass feature 7:06. Having just listened to a 1979 Reconstruction show and then listening to this, four years later, the man's playing has fallen off the face of the earth, his power has dissipated. Garcia re-enters 9:55. That bass feature was lame.

! P: s2t04 DP harmony vocals are back. They have been inaudible most of the tape, need to double check where and not.

! P: s2t05 Mid Moon this is a long version of the song ("for the period", my brain is saying). They could have ended it late 6, but Jerry does the "if you ever feel sorrow" verse again - I feel like he is smiling over to one of the singers, who hit a lyric one extra time that last time 'round - redemption.

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

in lieu of new content

Let me point you to the JGMF date index at http://db.etree.org/jgmf.

Any show that I have addressed explicitly at any length is indexed there, more or less.

Anyway, take a spin and leave a comment!

Half a mil

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