These are for my purposes, no pretense to completeness.
I find his comments about Joe Garcia to be quite revealing. There are a few other good nuggets in here. Man, even in the depths of his Rock Bottom period, he sounds engaged and articulate. What a mind!
~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977
LN jg1977-12-09.jgb.all.aud-matera-fix.137736.flac2488
Not much time to post much detail, so some bulleted observations.
1) Keith is playing some classical-Spanish sounding thing at the end of s1t01. Then, @ 7:21 of "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home", I hear John hitting some Spanish stuff, too. Check it out because, while Jerry was Swedish-Irish on his mom's side, his father was, of course, full-blown, born-in-Spain Spanish and, well, that's just fun.
2) I love "Reuben And Cérise" (Hunter's spelling, with French-accent-snob-appeal-to-me), and this one has some great power chords, but they repeat the ending figure a large number of times. I didn't count, but it's too many.
3) This LAALWFH is just amazing. It clocks in at 27 minutes, but, more importantly, it's endlessly interesting. It really gets wide open, not just in a noodly-spacey sense, but always remains musical. I was impressed with what young Buzzy, the studio drummer who often, rather necessarily, played metronomically on this first tour, with new material, with a band lacking in temporal discipline, lays out in this open idiom. The whole band sounds great here.
4) Maria is absent. She was on and off this tour.
5) The previews I reference provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheadism, the purest and ur-ist form of the broader genus Deadheadus Eastcoasticus.
6) About 165 minutes of music on a tightly-edited tape. Second set clocks in at 95+ minutes. Good bang for the six bucks and fifty!
Oh, and I found a pic, uncredited. Happy to supply credit if the identity of the photog emerges.
Jerry Garcia Band
Pritchard Gymnasium, State University of New York
1 Center Drive
Stony Brook, NY 11794
December 9, 1977 (Friday)
Matera MAC shnid-137736 fix shnid-137720
--set I (6 tracks, 68:47)--
s1t01. Harder They Come [12:03] [0:06] % [0:15]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:52] [0:10] % [0:08]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:13] [0:03] % [0:08]
s1t04. They Love Each Other [7:11] [0:13] %
s1t05. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [14:22] [0:02] % [0:05]
s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [11:50] (1) [0:05]
--set II (7 tracks, 95:43)--
s2t01. Midnight Moonlight [14:53] [0:07] % [0:06]
s2t02. Gomorrah [8:21] [0:04] % [0:02]
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [9:22] [0:04] %
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:30] [0:07] %
s2t05. /Reuben And Cérise [8:58] [0:02] %% [1:08]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:17] [0:04] % [0:04]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [27:26] [0:09]
! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals.
[! absent: Maria Muldaur - vocals]
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm: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 [mm: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/19771209-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/4444 (s2 Nak 300s shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/16859 (reshn of shnid-4444); https://etreedb.org/shn/77713 (pitch-correct shnid-4444, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137720 (Matera flac2488); https://etreedb.org/shn/137721 (Matera flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137736 (Matera flac2488, this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/137737 (Matera flac1644 fix).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. I denote this configuration as JGB #4*, since Maria Muldaur is not present.
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/efyWYZ1ew4qmbr4v9
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/pritchard-gym-suny-100-nicholls-road.html
! exante: “Ticketron Gets Garcia Tickets Before Campus,” (SUNY Stony Brook) Statesman, October 28, 1977, p. 3, accessed online;
! exante: Grossman 1977;
! exante: Razler 1977;
! review: [positive] Alkon 1977, who liked the show. Misidentifies drummer as Tutt. That said, he didn't like the "irritating" 75 minute intermission. "Outraged" by a five and a half hour concert (8-1:30) with three hours of music: "When Keith and Donna sat down on the piano bench for a smoke and fifteen minute chat I felt like I was invading their privacy! I realize that a group needs frequent breaks, but the Garcia Band abused the privilege, showed disrespect for their audience, and unprofessionalism."
! seealso: JGMF, "The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-of-jerry-garcia-band-112877.html. Wherein I go on at great length about a very small matter of tickets misprinted with the date of 11/28/77.
! pic: URL http://www.dead.net/fanphotos/jerry-stony-brook-1977
! historical: the previews provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheads wanting to camp out for tickets and such. Stony Brook is just about ground zero in the development of campus-based GD mania and the history of the East Coast Deadhead.
! R: field recordist: Phil Matera
! R: field recording gear: unknown mics > unknown cassette deck
! R: lineage: MAC > Reel (Maxell-UD135, 1/4trk @ 3-3/4) > Teac X2000R > Korg MR1000 DSD DFF@ 5.6MHz > AudioGate > 24/88.2 Wave > Wavelab6 > OzoneRx4a > Ozone6A; CD Wave > TLH > Flac24. Transfer by John Hance.
! R: This is a fix of shnid-137720. The last 2 tracks of the second set have changed.
! R: patches from shnid-77713: s2t01-Midnight Moonlight, s2t04-Simple Twist Of Fate and s2t07-Lonesome
! R: seeder note: "Thank you Phil & JJ! Salah Febuary 7, 2017"
! R: very nice recording
! P: overall: voice sounds a little fatigued.
! P: s1t01 KG is playing some Spanish-classical thing at the end of the track.
! P: s1t05 KOHD KD on electric piano
! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little later."
! R: s2t05 RAC cuts in
! P: s2t05 RAC is very good. Some huge chords. But it does on too long. Quite a bit too long.
! P: s2t07 LAALWFH. This LAALWFH gets *way* out there. @ 7:21 John is hitting a Spanish theme. I think this is pretty incredible, though hard to characterize. Just great open playing by every player.
Not much time to post much detail, so some bulleted observations.
1) Keith is playing some classical-Spanish sounding thing at the end of s1t01. Then, @ 7:21 of "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home", I hear John hitting some Spanish stuff, too. Check it out because, while Jerry was Swedish-Irish on his mom's side, his father was, of course, full-blown, born-in-Spain Spanish and, well, that's just fun.
2) I love "Reuben And Cérise" (Hunter's spelling, with French-accent-snob-appeal-to-me), and this one has some great power chords, but they repeat the ending figure a large number of times. I didn't count, but it's too many.
3) This LAALWFH is just amazing. It clocks in at 27 minutes, but, more importantly, it's endlessly interesting. It really gets wide open, not just in a noodly-spacey sense, but always remains musical. I was impressed with what young Buzzy, the studio drummer who often, rather necessarily, played metronomically on this first tour, with new material, with a band lacking in temporal discipline, lays out in this open idiom. The whole band sounds great here.
4) Maria is absent. She was on and off this tour.
5) The previews I reference provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheadism, the purest and ur-ist form of the broader genus Deadheadus Eastcoasticus.
6) About 165 minutes of music on a tightly-edited tape. Second set clocks in at 95+ minutes. Good bang for the six bucks and fifty!
Oh, and I found a pic, uncredited. Happy to supply credit if the identity of the photog emerges.
 |
| Garcia at Stony Brook, 12/9/77. Photographer unknown to me at this time. |
Jerry Garcia Band
Pritchard Gymnasium, State University of New York
1 Center Drive
Stony Brook, NY 11794
December 9, 1977 (Friday)
Matera MAC shnid-137736 fix shnid-137720
--set I (6 tracks, 68:47)--
s1t01. Harder They Come [12:03] [0:06] % [0:15]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:52] [0:10] % [0:08]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:13] [0:03] % [0:08]
s1t04. They Love Each Other [7:11] [0:13] %
s1t05. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [14:22] [0:02] % [0:05]
s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [11:50] (1) [0:05]
--set II (7 tracks, 95:43)--
s2t01. Midnight Moonlight [14:53] [0:07] % [0:06]
s2t02. Gomorrah [8:21] [0:04] % [0:02]
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [9:22] [0:04] %
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:30] [0:07] %
s2t05. /Reuben And Cérise [8:58] [0:02] %% [1:08]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:17] [0:04] % [0:04]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [27:26] [0:09]
! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals.
[! absent: Maria Muldaur - vocals]
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm: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 [mm: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/19771209-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/4444 (s2 Nak 300s shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/16859 (reshn of shnid-4444); https://etreedb.org/shn/77713 (pitch-correct shnid-4444, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137720 (Matera flac2488); https://etreedb.org/shn/137721 (Matera flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137736 (Matera flac2488, this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/137737 (Matera flac1644 fix).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. I denote this configuration as JGB #4*, since Maria Muldaur is not present.
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/efyWYZ1ew4qmbr4v9
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/pritchard-gym-suny-100-nicholls-road.html
! exante: “Ticketron Gets Garcia Tickets Before Campus,” (SUNY Stony Brook) Statesman, October 28, 1977, p. 3, accessed online;
! exante: Grossman 1977;
! exante: Razler 1977;
! review: [positive] Alkon 1977, who liked the show. Misidentifies drummer as Tutt. That said, he didn't like the "irritating" 75 minute intermission. "Outraged" by a five and a half hour concert (8-1:30) with three hours of music: "When Keith and Donna sat down on the piano bench for a smoke and fifteen minute chat I felt like I was invading their privacy! I realize that a group needs frequent breaks, but the Garcia Band abused the privilege, showed disrespect for their audience, and unprofessionalism."
! seealso: JGMF, "The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-of-jerry-garcia-band-112877.html. Wherein I go on at great length about a very small matter of tickets misprinted with the date of 11/28/77.
! pic: URL http://www.dead.net/fanphotos/jerry-stony-brook-1977
! historical: the previews provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheads wanting to camp out for tickets and such. Stony Brook is just about ground zero in the development of campus-based GD mania and the history of the East Coast Deadhead.
! R: field recordist: Phil Matera
! R: field recording gear: unknown mics > unknown cassette deck
! R: lineage: MAC > Reel (Maxell-UD135, 1/4trk @ 3-3/4) > Teac X2000R > Korg MR1000 DSD DFF@ 5.6MHz > AudioGate > 24/88.2 Wave > Wavelab6 > OzoneRx4a > Ozone6A; CD Wave > TLH > Flac24. Transfer by John Hance.
! R: This is a fix of shnid-137720. The last 2 tracks of the second set have changed.
! R: patches from shnid-77713: s2t01-Midnight Moonlight, s2t04-Simple Twist Of Fate and s2t07-Lonesome
! R: seeder note: "Thank you Phil & JJ! Salah Febuary 7, 2017"
! R: very nice recording
! P: overall: voice sounds a little fatigued.
! P: s1t01 KG is playing some Spanish-classical thing at the end of the track.
! P: s1t05 KOHD KD on electric piano
! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little later."
! R: s2t05 RAC cuts in
! P: s2t05 RAC is very good. Some huge chords. But it does on too long. Quite a bit too long.
! P: s2t07 LAALWFH. This LAALWFH gets *way* out there. @ 7:21 John is hitting a Spanish theme. I think this is pretty incredible, though hard to characterize. Just great open playing by every player.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Howard Rheingold Interviews Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir
https://archive.org/details/RheingoldGarciaWeirInterview
Not sure I know this one, pinning it here so I can find it again!
Not sure I know this one, pinning it here so I can find it again!
The Bard on WLIR (Long Island), March 1978
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/asxcards/RobertHunter1978-03WLIRInterviewRoslynNY.html
Robert Hunter
1978-03-xx* Roslyn, New York unknown hotel (Hunter's room)
Interview by Denis McNamara for 92.7 WLIR-FM Garden City, New York (M?-FM)
"Sunday At 9:00" radio program -expanded edition- (3 shows/parts)
"A Conversation With Robert Hunter"
Not sure how close in time this was to the 3/12/78 Long Island show with JGB, NRPS, and Comfort (w/ Hunter). He says some interesting things about particular songs. I will just post annotations for the stuff that interests me.
2826 how about working for JG as a solo performer? Does that affect your writing?
2840 Sometimes. The best that can happen is that I'm just being prolific. some discussion
2915 first Garcia solo album related to the American Beauty and Workingmans field of material
3040 Deal is a reflection of what it's like to be in the rock and roll business
3815ff Bob Weir album
3916 CUTS a tune that I had been working on for years. I started working on it in London. ... a subterranean march of cats
4000 then there's a song which is my Orpheus it's called Reuben And Cérise which is one that I wrote several years ago for his second album Reflections but it just didn't around to gettin done until now. It's an Orpheic epic set in New Orleans ... he narrates this tune beautifully he recites it "her hair hung gently down" - "when Garcia sings this thing, it just brings goosebumps up my arm. It shivers up my spine - the full tragedy. I think we got Orpheus.
4213 record company stuff RH denies that it was economics. "I'll tell ya - I didn't give 'em the material. Here we were, all set up, ready to go, ready to rip, and if I had written albums like I've been writing ... it's just one of those situations where you get this nice snazzy Cadillac and the battery doesn't work for some reason. My streak ended. I don't know what it was. But ... WOTF I think has some excellent songs on it ... didn't grab [inaudible] exceedingly laid back, for one thing ... one of the problems was the choice of tempos on songs like Row Jimmy Row ... Stella Blue ... 1/2 Step ...
4418 first RH album Rum Runners I love the songs my singing is a little short of pathetic 4525
4610ff Blues for Allah 4646 people didn't take to it
4719 Crazy Fingers is his favorite from BFA
5320 JG wanted to do Tiger Rose!
5445 Tiger Rose
5515 "with Rum Runners, I didn't know [it would be released], and I don't think I could have sold that album if I didn't have my own record company, because it doesn't meet professional standards for recordings. It's quite dirty, in some respects."
5536 "Tiger Rose was produced by Garcia. ... I am afraid that the tracks sound more like Garcia music than mine, which may be good or bad. It has that mellowed out sound that he's into, whereas Rum Runners has this real rough-and-ready, which is my own style. ...Cruel White Water / Wild Bill
5652 excuse for TR vocals
5715 Mickey as anti-producer. Mickey Hart is the most wired cat you've ever met in your life. He has so many ideas, we had to like put em in a bag and tie it up and put em in the corner..... 5757 unsupressable ...
Robert Hunter
1978-03-xx* Roslyn, New York unknown hotel (Hunter's room)
Interview by Denis McNamara for 92.7 WLIR-FM Garden City, New York (M?-FM)
"Sunday At 9:00" radio program -expanded edition- (3 shows/parts)
"A Conversation With Robert Hunter"
Not sure how close in time this was to the 3/12/78 Long Island show with JGB, NRPS, and Comfort (w/ Hunter). He says some interesting things about particular songs. I will just post annotations for the stuff that interests me.
2826 how about working for JG as a solo performer? Does that affect your writing?
2840 Sometimes. The best that can happen is that I'm just being prolific. some discussion
2915 first Garcia solo album related to the American Beauty and Workingmans field of material
3040 Deal is a reflection of what it's like to be in the rock and roll business
3815ff Bob Weir album
3916 CUTS a tune that I had been working on for years. I started working on it in London. ... a subterranean march of cats
4000 then there's a song which is my Orpheus it's called Reuben And Cérise which is one that I wrote several years ago for his second album Reflections but it just didn't around to gettin done until now. It's an Orpheic epic set in New Orleans ... he narrates this tune beautifully he recites it "her hair hung gently down" - "when Garcia sings this thing, it just brings goosebumps up my arm. It shivers up my spine - the full tragedy. I think we got Orpheus.
4213 record company stuff RH denies that it was economics. "I'll tell ya - I didn't give 'em the material. Here we were, all set up, ready to go, ready to rip, and if I had written albums like I've been writing ... it's just one of those situations where you get this nice snazzy Cadillac and the battery doesn't work for some reason. My streak ended. I don't know what it was. But ... WOTF I think has some excellent songs on it ... didn't grab [inaudible] exceedingly laid back, for one thing ... one of the problems was the choice of tempos on songs like Row Jimmy Row ... Stella Blue ... 1/2 Step ...
4418 first RH album Rum Runners I love the songs my singing is a little short of pathetic 4525
4610ff Blues for Allah 4646 people didn't take to it
4719 Crazy Fingers is his favorite from BFA
5320 JG wanted to do Tiger Rose!
5445 Tiger Rose
5515 "with Rum Runners, I didn't know [it would be released], and I don't think I could have sold that album if I didn't have my own record company, because it doesn't meet professional standards for recordings. It's quite dirty, in some respects."
5536 "Tiger Rose was produced by Garcia. ... I am afraid that the tracks sound more like Garcia music than mine, which may be good or bad. It has that mellowed out sound that he's into, whereas Rum Runners has this real rough-and-ready, which is my own style. ...Cruel White Water / Wild Bill
5652 excuse for TR vocals
5715 Mickey as anti-producer. Mickey Hart is the most wired cat you've ever met in your life. He has so many ideas, we had to like put em in a bag and tie it up and put em in the corner..... 5757 unsupressable ...
Simple Twist of Fate: JGB #23 at the Kaiser, November 11, 1994
LN jg1994-11-11.jgb.all.aud-CMC5-mk4.145714.flac1644
Like so many of the late-era shows that I have listened to in the last couple of years, this one pleasantly surprised me. The only thing that troubles me is that it brings me into aesthetic disagreement yet again with Nick, who called this show "bad enough to make you want to give Jerry a hug and make him a big pot of soup". I get it. There are certainly parts of this show where Garcia is lost and mumbling, his voice shot (even has moments as bad as 8/8/93), everything off-kilter. "Wonderful World" supplies several such moments. But I find some incredibly touching and beautiful stuff here, as well, I think it's overall pretty good (for the era ...), and I see that with a first set over an hour and a second clocking in over 80 minutes, the man is still putting it out there.
I guess, in looking back over my notes, the one tune that I really like here was "Simple Twist Of Fate", which is odd because, despite its awesome autobiographical resonance ("waterfront bar ... where the sailors all come in"), I don't usually love it. Kahn's bug ... errr ... feature ... is pretty unobjectionable, just about the only time he's audible all night. Donny sounds good to me (that tape captures the drums nicely), Melvin is good, the ladies are very far forward, especially helping Jerry with the lyrical progression of "Wonderful World" and generally putting some lung into the vocals to make up for his that are lacking.
The Maker is a nice microcosm of the show. It's just achingly flawed. He sings the "body is bent and broken" line in the wrong key, and then compensates with a little whoa-oh-oh on the "by long and dangerous sleep" line. (I also noted the body bent and broken line on the show two months before, 9/10/94 in Reno.) He sound absolutely exhausted with living.
"That Lucky Old Sun" gets a merciful e-brake at just over 5 minutes, half its typical length, which is fine. The "Don't Let Go" never really goes anywhere, though I did find him doing a repeated percussive blue note that felt kind of insistent. Some good fanning in "Deal", but it's all note and no power (unlike ten years before, when the opposite was true).
His last gig at the venerable Kaiser, where many a great time was had. Anyway, more data.
Jerry Garcia Band
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center
10 Tenth Street
Oakland, CA 94607
November 11, 1994 (Friday) - 7:30 PM
CMC5-MK4 MAD shnid-145714
--set I (7 tracks, 63:53)--
s1t01. [0:04] Cats Under The Stars [11:16] [1:30]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:31] [2:33]
s1t03. Mission In The Rain [9:31] [0:33]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:18] [0:36]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:52] [0:16]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:53] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:53] (1) [0:07]
--set II (8 tracks, 80:36)--
s2t08. [0:11] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:37] [0:33]
s2t09. Shining Star [20:09] [0:24]
s2t10. Tore Up Over You [8:18] [1:55]
s2t11. The Maker [11:47] [0:13]
s2t12. Wonderful World [4:31] [0:12]
s2t13. Don't Let Go [14:10] [0:08]
s2t14. That Lucky Old Sun [5:14] ->
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:08] (2) [0:06]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - 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.
Like so many of the late-era shows that I have listened to in the last couple of years, this one pleasantly surprised me. The only thing that troubles me is that it brings me into aesthetic disagreement yet again with Nick, who called this show "bad enough to make you want to give Jerry a hug and make him a big pot of soup". I get it. There are certainly parts of this show where Garcia is lost and mumbling, his voice shot (even has moments as bad as 8/8/93), everything off-kilter. "Wonderful World" supplies several such moments. But I find some incredibly touching and beautiful stuff here, as well, I think it's overall pretty good (for the era ...), and I see that with a first set over an hour and a second clocking in over 80 minutes, the man is still putting it out there.
I guess, in looking back over my notes, the one tune that I really like here was "Simple Twist Of Fate", which is odd because, despite its awesome autobiographical resonance ("waterfront bar ... where the sailors all come in"), I don't usually love it. Kahn's bug ... errr ... feature ... is pretty unobjectionable, just about the only time he's audible all night. Donny sounds good to me (that tape captures the drums nicely), Melvin is good, the ladies are very far forward, especially helping Jerry with the lyrical progression of "Wonderful World" and generally putting some lung into the vocals to make up for his that are lacking.
The Maker is a nice microcosm of the show. It's just achingly flawed. He sings the "body is bent and broken" line in the wrong key, and then compensates with a little whoa-oh-oh on the "by long and dangerous sleep" line. (I also noted the body bent and broken line on the show two months before, 9/10/94 in Reno.) He sound absolutely exhausted with living.
"That Lucky Old Sun" gets a merciful e-brake at just over 5 minutes, half its typical length, which is fine. The "Don't Let Go" never really goes anywhere, though I did find him doing a repeated percussive blue note that felt kind of insistent. Some good fanning in "Deal", but it's all note and no power (unlike ten years before, when the opposite was true).
His last gig at the venerable Kaiser, where many a great time was had. Anyway, more data.
Jerry Garcia Band
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center
10 Tenth Street
Oakland, CA 94607
November 11, 1994 (Friday) - 7:30 PM
CMC5-MK4 MAD shnid-145714
--set I (7 tracks, 63:53)--
s1t01. [0:04] Cats Under The Stars [11:16] [1:30]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:31] [2:33]
s1t03. Mission In The Rain [9:31] [0:33]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:18] [0:36]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:52] [0:16]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:53] ->
s1t07. Deal [8:53] (1) [0:07]
--set II (8 tracks, 80:36)--
s2t08. [0:11] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:37] [0:33]
s2t09. Shining Star [20:09] [0:24]
s2t10. Tore Up Over You [8:18] [1:55]
s2t11. The Maker [11:47] [0:13]
s2t12. Wonderful World [4:31] [0:12]
s2t13. Don't Let Go [14:10] [0:08]
s2t14. That Lucky Old Sun [5:14] ->
s2t15. Midnight Moonlight [6:08] (2) [0:06]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - 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/19941111-01
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-11-11
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15882 (Neumann KM440 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/145714 (this fileset).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/syxJeJyHJMB2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/henry-j-kaiser-auditorium-oakland.html
! R: Source Info: FOB Schoeps CMC5 Mk4-> DAT
! R: Transfer Info: Dat Tape (Panasonic SV-3700)-> Marantz CDR-615-> CD (Late 90's); Extract Wav-> Flac Level 8-> Tagged (16/44.1). Transfers by Pete Ebel, Late 90's and March 17, 2019.
! R: quite a nice tape
! P: overall: listening evening of 8/17/2019 I had a warm feeling about this. The vocals are low in the mix, and that's good, because he sounds pretty ragged. Now, returning to WW, then back to The Maker to check myself, I am struck that the vocals are *really* fatigued sounding. There's a fine balance with these Old Jerry shows, between appreciating the weary beauty of an old man and feeling upset at how rough it is.
! P: s1t01 CUTS kicks the show off pretty well.
! P: s1t05 STOF I love this! I have listened to it a second time and still love it. Jerry gets almost all of the lyrics right. John does a feature 7:25-9:15 which is not as much of a bug as at often was. It goes to 9:15, and it's not terrible. But the key to this is Jerry's clarity with the lyrics - very good.
! P: s1t07 Deal some fanning in 6. Not powerful like ten years before, but a game effort.
! s1t07 (1) no setbreak announcement
! P: s2t11 The Maker he sounds so tired. @ 3:24 "Body bent and broken" he sings out of the key he had arranged for it. But then he gives a "whoa-oh-old ?? and dangerous sleep", forgets the rest of that verse. Pitch-bending 9.
! P: s2t11 WW bad vocals out of the gate, and a lyrical miscue. OMG, now his voice is gone. Donny hits an extra beat.
! P: s2t13 DLG he fumbled the first lyric, couldn't remember the second one so took an extra turn. He sounds lost and very rough, hasn't gotten a lyric yet. Oof.
! P: s2t14 TLOS he has to pluck the start several times. It must have been hard to try to drum for him in this period, as he is trying to figure out how stuff goes. This version is paced more quickly than most. Oh goodness, he repeatedly loses himself here, guitar and lyric. Ends prematurely, but it was a mercy killing. At 5:14, that's gotta be the shortest TLOS on record.
! s2t15 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-11-11
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/15882 (Neumann KM440 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/145714 (this fileset).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/syxJeJyHJMB2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/henry-j-kaiser-auditorium-oakland.html
! R: Source Info: FOB Schoeps CMC5 Mk4-> DAT
! R: Transfer Info: Dat Tape (Panasonic SV-3700)-> Marantz CDR-615-> CD (Late 90's); Extract Wav-> Flac Level 8-> Tagged (16/44.1). Transfers by Pete Ebel, Late 90's and March 17, 2019.
! R: quite a nice tape
! P: overall: listening evening of 8/17/2019 I had a warm feeling about this. The vocals are low in the mix, and that's good, because he sounds pretty ragged. Now, returning to WW, then back to The Maker to check myself, I am struck that the vocals are *really* fatigued sounding. There's a fine balance with these Old Jerry shows, between appreciating the weary beauty of an old man and feeling upset at how rough it is.
! P: s1t01 CUTS kicks the show off pretty well.
! P: s1t05 STOF I love this! I have listened to it a second time and still love it. Jerry gets almost all of the lyrics right. John does a feature 7:25-9:15 which is not as much of a bug as at often was. It goes to 9:15, and it's not terrible. But the key to this is Jerry's clarity with the lyrics - very good.
! P: s1t07 Deal some fanning in 6. Not powerful like ten years before, but a game effort.
! s1t07 (1) no setbreak announcement
! P: s2t11 The Maker he sounds so tired. @ 3:24 "Body bent and broken" he sings out of the key he had arranged for it. But then he gives a "whoa-oh-old ?? and dangerous sleep", forgets the rest of that verse. Pitch-bending 9.
! P: s2t11 WW bad vocals out of the gate, and a lyrical miscue. OMG, now his voice is gone. Donny hits an extra beat.
! P: s2t13 DLG he fumbled the first lyric, couldn't remember the second one so took an extra turn. He sounds lost and very rough, hasn't gotten a lyric yet. Oof.
! P: s2t14 TLOS he has to pluck the start several times. It must have been hard to try to drum for him in this period, as he is trying to figure out how stuff goes. This version is paced more quickly than most. Oh goodness, he repeatedly loses himself here, guitar and lyric. Ends prematurely, but it was a mercy killing. At 5:14, that's gotta be the shortest TLOS on record.
! s2t15 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
Saturday, August 17, 2019
New-to-The-List from the Digitized Chronicle
After spending X hours over X years spinning microfilm to try to find the needles of unListed Garcia gigs in the haystack of the Chronicle, the paper has been digitized.
Je ne regrette rien!
That said, I was able to find a few listings for The List. At this point, I cannot imagine we are missing more than a handful of Bay Area gigs about which information was actually printed somewhere.
2/15/71 JGMS at Matrix (via JLW "Something Else").
11/3/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" "").
12/22/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" ""). Just says Jerry Garcia, presume JGMS.
12/28/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
12/29/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
1/31/73 JGMS at Keystone Berkeley (via listings). This one turned up on a search for Tom Fogerty, who is listed, because JG is listed as Jerry Garcilea.
Update your Lists.
Je ne regrette rien!
That said, I was able to find a few listings for The List. At this point, I cannot imagine we are missing more than a handful of Bay Area gigs about which information was actually printed somewhere.
2/15/71 JGMS at Matrix (via JLW "Something Else").
11/3/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" "").
12/22/71 JGMS at Keystone Korner ("" ""). Just says Jerry Garcia, presume JGMS.
12/28/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
12/29/71 JGMS at New Monk ("" "").
1/31/73 JGMS at Keystone Berkeley (via listings). This one turned up on a search for Tom Fogerty, who is listed, because JG is listed as Jerry Garcilea.
Update your Lists.
I actually had to FF: JGB at Portland Meadows, 8/8/93
LN jg1993-08-08.jgb.all.aud-vasseur.145607.flac1644
Nick thought the titular show was OK, but the vocals were so catastrophically bad that I actually couldn't really listen to this. The only other show that has revulsed me in the same way was 11/23/72, and that was as much about the recording (overloaded, especially on the vocals) as it was about the performance (which I would actually like to revisit). But 8/8/93 JGB at Portland Meadows is just a man without a voice insisting, nevertheless, on singing. I bet the crowd would have thought it cool if he had just said "My voice is shot, we'll try to do some tunes as instrumentals", but for better or for worse the protagonist keeps singing.
These are the worst vocals since pre-coma, and among the worst ever. They had played the day before in Seattle, but before that he hadn't played in six weeks or so, having spent some time in Ireland around the month of July (Greenfield 1996, 291). Maybe he was jet-lagged. I don't mean to sound too critical - voices are sometimes lost. My judgment here is purely aesthetic - I just can't listen to this.
The Maker is nice. The show has a few other moments. But, overall, a forgettable afternoon show (unless you were there, in which case maybe it was awesome).
Jerry Garcia Band
Portland Meadows
1001 N. Schmeer Road
Portland, OR 97217
August 8, 1993 (Sunday)
Vasseur shnid-145607
--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 55:53)--
s1t01. [0:21] Cats Under The Stars [8:35] [0:22]
s1t02. [0:53] Mission In The Rain [7:04] [0:50]
s1t03. [0:32] That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:02] [0:11]
s1t04. And It Stoned Me,
s1t05. ambience [1:05]
s1t06. The Maker [7:19] [0:11]
s1t07. Money Honey -5:42] [0:05]
s1t08. My Sisters And Brothers
--set II (7 tracks, 63:42)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do
s2t02. Wonderful World
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [7:42] [0:46]
s2t04. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:05] [0:06]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [7:52] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:11] ->
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [12:17] (xx) [0:10]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [mm: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 [mm:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
Nick thought the titular show was OK, but the vocals were so catastrophically bad that I actually couldn't really listen to this. The only other show that has revulsed me in the same way was 11/23/72, and that was as much about the recording (overloaded, especially on the vocals) as it was about the performance (which I would actually like to revisit). But 8/8/93 JGB at Portland Meadows is just a man without a voice insisting, nevertheless, on singing. I bet the crowd would have thought it cool if he had just said "My voice is shot, we'll try to do some tunes as instrumentals", but for better or for worse the protagonist keeps singing.
These are the worst vocals since pre-coma, and among the worst ever. They had played the day before in Seattle, but before that he hadn't played in six weeks or so, having spent some time in Ireland around the month of July (Greenfield 1996, 291). Maybe he was jet-lagged. I don't mean to sound too critical - voices are sometimes lost. My judgment here is purely aesthetic - I just can't listen to this.
The Maker is nice. The show has a few other moments. But, overall, a forgettable afternoon show (unless you were there, in which case maybe it was awesome).
Jerry Garcia Band
Portland Meadows
1001 N. Schmeer Road
Portland, OR 97217
August 8, 1993 (Sunday)
Vasseur shnid-145607
--set I (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 55:53)--
s1t01. [0:21] Cats Under The Stars [8:35] [0:22]
s1t02. [0:53] Mission In The Rain [7:04] [0:50]
s1t03. [0:32] That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:02] [0:11]
s1t04. And It Stoned Me,
s1t05. ambience [1:05]
s1t06. The Maker [7:19] [0:11]
s1t07. Money Honey -5:42] [0:05]
s1t08. My Sisters And Brothers
--set II (7 tracks, 63:42)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do
s2t02. Wonderful World
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [7:42] [0:46]
s2t04. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:05] [0:06]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [7:52] [0:15]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:11] ->
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [12:17] (xx) [0:10]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [mm: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 [mm: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/19930808-01
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1993-08-08
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6343 (Schoeps MK4 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/13134 (DAUD shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/34588 (Bearpalm MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/78974 (Gindoff MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/90483 (Severson MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/145607 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/145996 (Primo Williams's MAC).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/nyuwi57rKey
! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/portland-meadows-1001-n-schmeer-road.html
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1993-08-08
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6343 (Schoeps MK4 shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/13134 (DAUD shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/34588 (Bearpalm MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/78974 (Gindoff MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/90483 (Severson MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/145607 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/145996 (Primo Williams's MAC).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/nyuwi57rKey
! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/portland-meadows-1001-n-schmeer-road.html
! band: THE Jerry Garcia Band, JGB #21b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)
! ref: Nick, "Aug 93: JGB up north and at home," URL http://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2018/05/aug-93-jgb-up-north-and-at-home.html.
! R: field recordist: 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: seeder's 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
! R: great tape
! P: s1t01 CUTS sluggish out of the gate. Nice tone late 4 over 5. Managed to finish it without going around too many times, which is always good.
! P: s1t02 MITR IMO JG sounds absolutely terrible.
! P: s1t06 Maker is excellent. The guitar work mid-4 is very thrilling. He remembers most of the lyrics.
! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD off key and reedy. He screws up second verse, turns it into a nice little guitar piece.
! P: s1t07 Money Honey completely croaking by the end.
! P: s1T08 MSAB his voice is as croaky here as it ever was in 84-'85.
! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD his voice did not get better over the break
! song: s2t02 WAWW is the Sam Cooke "don't know much about history" one.
! P: s2t03 TUOY coming back to this a few days after hearing the first part of the show. God, his voice is painful to hear. But TUOY finds Melvin bringing some great energy and color, and Garcia tearing it up in the 5 minute mark. The guitar isn't loud in the mix - wish it were louder.
! P: s2t05 RAC he forgets half a verse in mid-2. Man, his voice. I can't wait for this listen to end.
! s2t07 (xx) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
! ref: Nick, "Aug 93: JGB up north and at home," URL http://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2018/05/aug-93-jgb-up-north-and-at-home.html.
! R: field recordist: 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: seeder's 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
! R: great tape
! P: s1t01 CUTS sluggish out of the gate. Nice tone late 4 over 5. Managed to finish it without going around too many times, which is always good.
! P: s1t02 MITR IMO JG sounds absolutely terrible.
! P: s1t06 Maker is excellent. The guitar work mid-4 is very thrilling. He remembers most of the lyrics.
! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD off key and reedy. He screws up second verse, turns it into a nice little guitar piece.
! P: s1t07 Money Honey completely croaking by the end.
! P: s1T08 MSAB his voice is as croaky here as it ever was in 84-'85.
! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD his voice did not get better over the break
! song: s2t02 WAWW is the Sam Cooke "don't know much about history" one.
! P: s2t03 TUOY coming back to this a few days after hearing the first part of the show. God, his voice is painful to hear. But TUOY finds Melvin bringing some great energy and color, and Garcia tearing it up in the 5 minute mark. The guitar isn't loud in the mix - wish it were louder.
! P: s2t05 RAC he forgets half a verse in mid-2. Man, his voice. I can't wait for this listen to end.
! s2t07 (xx) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Chieftains Opening for OAITW
Update 7/22/2022: somehow I got the date wrong by a week, but in any case this Chieftains set is now being released by the Owsley Stanley Foundation!
This interested me for several reasons. First, of course, Garcia's grandfather William Clifford was Irish. Second, I have heard snippets of rumors that when he went to Ireland with Deborah in the summer of '93, he picked some tunes in some pubs and such, and I had even thought that maybe he did so with the Chieftains. (It appears not, since the bio would have mentioned it.) Third, of course, lots of the white roots music Garcia played ultimately derived from various isles off the northwest coast of Europe, not just the sea shanties and all that but also bluegrass as a Scotch-Irish-American compound, so I am just interested in this crossing as a meeting of musics. And, finally, this was just specific enough regarding timeframe --OAITW was recorded on 10/1/73 and 10/8/73-- but also necessarily mistaken (because it was said to be autumn 1974), and so I wanted to try to gain clarity.
Well, I have found it. 1974 is indeed wrong.
If he's right about OAITW being recorded, and the Chieftains gigs happening before that, then we should be closely prior to 10/1 or 10/8/73. Through the magic of digitized newspapers, I find them playing the following:
- 9/29/73: The Gaelic League sponsored a gig this night at 8 PM in the Scottish Rite Memorial Auditorium, 19th and Sloat in the city. (! ad: SFC19730928p57)
- 9/30/73: concert at the Oakland Auditorium Theatre, 8 PM (! listing: SFSECDB19730930p07)
Then I started Googling around for a list of "Live From the Record Plant" KSAN broadcasts, and found none. (Someone, please get on that!) It took me some fine-tuning on the search syntax to find what I was looking for, but I found it.
- 10/7/73: 11 PM, KSAN (94.9) - The Chieftains (! listing: SFSECDB19731007p22)
Update: Chieftains appear to have opened on 10/1. Since I followed the logic closely, it seems that Paddy just had the sequences and timeframes a little unclear, as they were reported in the book.
Update your spreadsheets. And, if you keep records of Garcia's whereabouts even when he wasn't playing, you can place him at the Record Plant on the night of 10/7/73, hanging with Big Daddy and talking with and listening to the Chieftains.
Now, I am contractually obligated to make two further queries.
First, is there tape of the 10/7/73 Live From the Record Plant KSAN broadcast?
update: Yes! At the SF Museum of Performance and Design, which holds the KSAN Vault. Two reels have been digitized and are available for on-site auditioning, by appointment.
Second, did Bear tape the Chieftains on10/8/73 10/1/73 at the Boarding House? update: yes he did!
Let me make one final point, after updating my data: Garcia was a very busy boy right in this timeframe. I now have him as follows for the eight days starting Sunday 9/30:
And on the ninth day, a Tuesday, he rested. As far as I know.
Now, I am contractually obligated to make two further queries.
First, is there tape of the 10/7/73 Live From the Record Plant KSAN broadcast?
update: Yes! At the SF Museum of Performance and Design, which holds the KSAN Vault. Two reels have been digitized and are available for on-site auditioning, by appointment.
Second, did Bear tape the Chieftains on
Let me make one final point, after updating my data: Garcia was a very busy boy right in this timeframe. I now have him as follows for the eight days starting Sunday 9/30:
- Sunday 9/30 OAITW in Stinson Beach
- Monday 10/1 OAITW Boarding House (recorded for release)
- Tuesday 10/2/73 JGMS Legal Aid Benefit
- Wednesday 10/3/73 OAITW at Keystone Berkeley
- Thursday 10/4/73 11 AM and 3 PM sessions for Paul Pena at Heider's
- Friday 10/5/73 OAITW at the Santa Cruz Civic
- Saturday 10/6/73 OAITW at Keystone Berkeley
- Sunday 10/7/73 Record Plant rapping with Big Daddy and the Chieftains
- Monday 10/8/73 OAITW Boarding House (recorded for release)
And on the ninth day, a Tuesday, he rested. As far as I know.
What is the Opposite of a Bat Outta Hell? JGB at Keystone, September 10-12, 1976
I am not a huge fan of the syrupy tempos of 1976 JGB, the ultimate comfort band for Our Hero. There are some great sounding tapes, the occasional killer show (4/3/76b), and some spectacular specific songs ("Right Mighty High", "Moonlight Mile", "Who Was John" and others are some of my faves), but the overall vibe is just too laid back for me. It has been intimated that I lack the patience and sophistication to appreciate this stuff, which is like fine wine or something. Maybe so.
I have been particularly indifferent to the September performances. The Pirates' Ball on 9/15/76 is certainly fun, holds a lot of curb appeal, but the music wasn't the thing for me. The Astor Theatre may have been a deco masterpiece, but Garcia's one show there on 9/20/76 was dull as day-old dishwater. And so on. I haven't felt particularly differently about the hometown weekend on September 10-12 at the Keystone Berkeley. The thing that most interests me is the provenance of the board tapes. They look like Betty Board lineage, but they are not among the tapes lassoed together by the ABCD crew. I suspect that Latvala spun copies for Alligator or Kingbee and they entered the world via those benefactors, but I can't be sure.
Anyway, below I post my listening notes for the three hometown nights, September 10-12, the first of which took place only 5 days after Rex Jackson's passing. Here is the thumbnail.
Friday 9/10
I have been particularly indifferent to the September performances. The Pirates' Ball on 9/15/76 is certainly fun, holds a lot of curb appeal, but the music wasn't the thing for me. The Astor Theatre may have been a deco masterpiece, but Garcia's one show there on 9/20/76 was dull as day-old dishwater. And so on. I haven't felt particularly differently about the hometown weekend on September 10-12 at the Keystone Berkeley. The thing that most interests me is the provenance of the board tapes. They look like Betty Board lineage, but they are not among the tapes lassoed together by the ABCD crew. I suspect that Latvala spun copies for Alligator or Kingbee and they entered the world via those benefactors, but I can't be sure.
Anyway, below I post my listening notes for the three hometown nights, September 10-12, the first of which took place only 5 days after Rex Jackson's passing. Here is the thumbnail.
Friday 9/10
- Nick The Greek opened. He'd do so again on 11/15/76 and then he and Jerry wouldn't share a bill, so far as I know, until the 3/18/87 Artists' Rights Today benefit at the Old Fillmore.
- Reinhart Hohlwein (sp?) pulled a stunning tape.
- "My Sisters And Brothers" grooves low and slinky.
- I liked "After Midnight" and this very long version of "I'll Take A Melody".
- Mighty High has great energy, but it's a little off-kilter here and there.
- Beautiful Betty Board
- Sugaree: what is the opposite of a bat out of hell? Whatever it is, that's how they come in on Sugaree. Sloooowww.
- Short second set at only 40 minutes. Jerry strums HSII, but it either wasn't taped or it was closing time and it didn't happen.
- Maria Muldaur joins along.
I need to check, but I think this is my earliest documented case of her joining the JGB. Sociometrists, take note.
Listening notes below the fold.
Long Ago and Far Away: JGB at Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, June 20, 1982
LN jg1982-06-20.jgb.all.aud-lamarre.139447.flac2496
Great pull by Doug Lamarre, very good JGB from the strong month of June 1982. Bobby Cochran and Bob Weir from Bobby and the Midnites sit in on the encore, which includes the JGB singleton "Johnny B. Goode".
Jerry sounds quite strong. Two new tunes stand out. "Valerie" holds some serious heavy-metal appeal, and "Run For The Roses" involves some uncommon wah-pedaling.
Kahn gets two mentions, first for some big pulling at the start of "Mission In The Rain" and, second, neater, for some noodling he is doing at the start of the show. Here is an mp3 of the snippet, which runs about 20 seconds starting from about 0:23 of the first track of this fileset.
The noodle sounded to me like "Blue Moon", but I don't know squat. Nick urges comparison with Ray Brown's bassline on this Oscar Peterson version of Jerome Kern's "Long Ago (And Far Away)". Getting all musicological up in here, he says that "Kahn is playing what sounds like a C, Am, Dm, and G, which in the language of music theory is a I-vi-ii-V progression. 'Blue Moon' is one famous example of this". So I don't feel totally foolish.
Anyway, I would welcome your analyses. It's always fun when Jerome's namesake comes up, and when a Garcia engagement crosses into uncommon deep Americana.
Listening notes below the fold.
Wednesday, August 07, 2019
Jerry Garcia at the Warfield - August 21, 1982??
What a strange thing this is.
SFC listing for Jerry Garcia at the Warfield, August 21, 1982.
It almost certainly wasn't JGB: that band had last played June 24 out east, and wouldn't play again (in a new configuration) until October 13th.
It was almost certainly planned to be the Garcia/Kahn acoustic duo, two days before they'd play the Kabuki Theater a mile and a half away.
But it almost certainly didn't happen. This is the only whiff of this I have ever seen, and it's just so random ... yet it didn't come from nowhere. Someone in Garcia's orbit called the Chronicle and told them about this. Weird.
I don't know whether to call this is a phantom or a cancellation. Anyone?
Tuesday, August 06, 2019
GD at Freeborn Hall: Friday, October 28, 1966
This is out of my wheelhouse, but since it brings together two loose ends for me I thought I'd post it here.
The Sacramento Bee of 10/23/66 p. W14 has a piece on upcoming homecoming events at Cal Aggie, i.e., UC Davis.
The Grateful Dead are scheduled to play Freeborn Hall Friday 10/28/66, Yellow Brick Road also on the bill.
This ties two things I have discussed here.
First, having gone to Campolindo HS in Moraga, I always wondered why the GD canceled their scheduled gig at little St. Mary's College on this Friday night (10/28/66). I still don't know why, but at least I see that the band played a different gig. Maybe the pay was better.
Second, years back I found a Dead gig at Freeborn on January 6, 1967 which said that the last time they played Freeborn, the GD played to a full house. But there was no "last time" in the record at that point. Now there is: 10/28/66. Add it to your lists.
The Sacramento Bee of 10/23/66 p. W14 has a piece on upcoming homecoming events at Cal Aggie, i.e., UC Davis.
The Grateful Dead are scheduled to play Freeborn Hall Friday 10/28/66, Yellow Brick Road also on the bill.
This ties two things I have discussed here.
First, having gone to Campolindo HS in Moraga, I always wondered why the GD canceled their scheduled gig at little St. Mary's College on this Friday night (10/28/66). I still don't know why, but at least I see that the band played a different gig. Maybe the pay was better.
Second, years back I found a Dead gig at Freeborn on January 6, 1967 which said that the last time they played Freeborn, the GD played to a full house. But there was no "last time" in the record at that point. Now there is: 10/28/66. Add it to your lists.
Sunday, August 04, 2019
Kean College Tour Closer: JGB, November 15, 1982 (Late Show)
jg1982-11-15.jgb.late-1.aud-vita-minches.78008.flac1644
Pretty standard late '82 gig to my ears, not the equal to 11/11/82 late or 11/13/82, IMO. Errico's Gatling Gun start to HTC is awesome.
Three little oddities jump out to my pattern-obsessed brain.
First, no early show tape. Hm. Second ... , both the Vita aud and the soundboard tape are missing the encore. Hm. never mind. Third, all of the newspaper listings, some of the tickets, and the band's in-house itinerary show the venue as De'Angelo Gymnasium, but other tickets, the handbill/poster, and at least one recollection (from someone involved in planning the show) place it in the theatre, as the '80 and '83 shows at the college were. Update: it was moved from the gym to the theatre because of concerns for the court surface.
 |
| One of these is not like the others. |
No biggy, but contradictions are fun.
Jerry Garcia Band
Wilkins Theatre, Kean College
1000 Morris Avenue
Union, NJ 07083
November 15, 1982 (Monday) - Late Show (10 PM)
Vita MAC missing 1 tune shnid-78008
--8 tracks, 7 tunes, missing encore, 74:12)--
l-t01. crowd and tuning [1:23-1:00]
l-t02. Mission In The Rain [1:00 + 8:53] [0:16] % [0:21]
l-t03. Harder They Come [13:45] [0:11] % [0:12]
l-t04. It Ain't No Use [9:55] [0:02] % [0:03]
l-t05. Mystery Train [8:52] [0:27]
l-t06. Run For The Roses [5:01] [0:33]
l-t07. Dear Prudence [12:44] ->
l-t08. Tangled Up In Blue [11:20] (1) [0:12]
[MISSING: --Encore-- Midnight Moonlight]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #15b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Greg Errico - drums; ! lineup: Elisecia Wright - vocals;
! lineup: Shirley Faulkner - 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/19821115-02
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-11-15-wilkins-theatre-kean-college-union-nj-2/. Commenter Matthew Turkin posts (November 25th, 2015): "was one of the people on the concert committe (CCB) that put on this night and the next year's shows at Kean College. Great shows w great people that helped bring these shows 4 ourselves and all the heads that we knew. The theatre was rockin from the seats to the rafters. 'Never had such a goodtime, in my life before'."
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/23339 (sbd, shnf, also missing encore); https://etreedb.org/shn/78008 (this fileset). It appears that the early show does not circulate, though Jerrybase gives a setlist.
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/lhE48
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/wilkins-theatre-kean-college-1000.html
! listing: Daily Record (Morristown, NJ), November 12, 1982, p. 17; Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ), November 13, 1982, p. B-13; Philadelphia Inquirer, November 14, 1982, p. 13-J.
! venue: the band itinerary, three newspaper listings, and some tickets give the venue as De'Angelo Gymnasium, while other stubs and conventional reckoning have it as Wilkins Theatre. The JGC comment by Matthew Turkin seems to confirm it was in the Theatre, so somewhere either wires were crossed or plans were changed. update: plans changed
! seealso: JGMF, "Armistice Day Rocker: JGB at Felt Forum, November 11, 1982," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2018/01/armistice-day-rocker-jgb-at-felt-forum.html; JGMF, "Greg Errico hits like a linebacker," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/greg-errico-hits-like-linebacker.html.
! R: field recordist: Jim Vita
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 > Sony D-5
! R: field recording location: 16th row center
! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master cassette played back on Nakamichi Dragon > ART DI/O > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Cool Edit 2000 > flac encoding > FLAC.
! R: Jim Vita pulled a pretty good one this night - the vocals are low, but that's fine since they sound fatigued here at the end of the tour (as they may well have at the start, in this period). The bass is especially well captured, and the drums are very present, not least because Errico just crushes those fuckers.
! R: l-t01 mistracked, tune starts at about :23
! P: l-t02 MITR vocals shaky out of the gate, as they often were. Nice energy, fluid playing. John is making himself heard here. Errico bashes.
! P: l-t03 HTC man, Errico is just HAMMERING the start. Great energy from John, too.
! P: l-t05 MT frenetically paced
! l-t08 (1) JG: "See ya later."
Saturday, August 03, 2019
Chronicle Pickings
Over the years, when I go to the Bay Area I try to make time to spin the Chronicle microfilm to check out the listings. Corry has done some of this as well, and I don't think he'll mind me aggregating a sense of what we have accomplished together.
It is relatively painstaking, of course, though after awhile you learn that the weekday entertainment stuff comes along after the classifieds (which you can train your eyes to detect moving by at fast speed), after the day's TV highlights. Enough hours of this, and you can spin it fast and land right where you want. I never did quite get the hang of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle in the same way, but now that it's been digitized that's no longer of any moment, and the overall progress is faster. That said, the SFE being digitized also decreases the marginal benefits of hitting the Chron.
Yesterday I did 10/16/68-12/31/68, and 3/16/69-5/31/69 (less 5/1-15/69, which I seem to have overlooked). This took almost exactly two hours. I didn't discover anything totally new in the Garciaverse. It's not that frustrating, it's what I expected given that the SFE and the SFC should have covered much of the same ground, especially with a name as big as Jerry's.
So, below I report what we have covered at some level (Corry mostly captured the Ad Libs in Gleason's columns, I have done those and the Datebook openings) and what we mare missing.
Caveat Lector:
So, here is where we are with the Chronicle:
It is relatively painstaking, of course, though after awhile you learn that the weekday entertainment stuff comes along after the classifieds (which you can train your eyes to detect moving by at fast speed), after the day's TV highlights. Enough hours of this, and you can spin it fast and land right where you want. I never did quite get the hang of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle in the same way, but now that it's been digitized that's no longer of any moment, and the overall progress is faster. That said, the SFE being digitized also decreases the marginal benefits of hitting the Chron.
Yesterday I did 10/16/68-12/31/68, and 3/16/69-5/31/69 (less 5/1-15/69, which I seem to have overlooked). This took almost exactly two hours. I didn't discover anything totally new in the Garciaverse. It's not that frustrating, it's what I expected given that the SFE and the SFC should have covered much of the same ground, especially with a name as big as Jerry's.
So, below I report what we have covered at some level (Corry mostly captured the Ad Libs in Gleason's columns, I have done those and the Datebook openings) and what we mare missing.
Caveat Lector:
- The data are fragmentary in two senses. First, early years especially just snapshot Gleason's Ad Libs - no Datebooks etc. Second, for a time I was trying to get every day, with an eye toward the needs of future researchers (and realizing that it could all be surpassed if the paper is ever digitized, which I hope it is). But the last few visits I just can't justify it to myself. So I look at every listing, but I only capture it if something catches my eye. Unevenly, this can be the Fillmore Tuesday auditions, Matrix gigs, anyone who touches the Garciaverse, other weirdness that seems noteworthy. So even what we have might be quite incomplete when it comes to what other researchers might be looking for.
- Also, I am basically comfortable stopping in the mid-to-late 70s. As the Garcia Band drifts into predictability and comfort, and our existing knowledge presumably becomes more complete, I have less inclination to search for needles in haystacks.
So, here is where we are with the Chronicle: