Round Square

updated post on Garcia's unidentified guests

I have cleaned up and slightly updated my ten-year old post on Garcia's unidentified guests.

Garcia Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, ca. fall 1975

jg1975-xx-xx.interview.ben-fong-torres.gdao-379555

Garcia, Jerry, 1942-1995, "Ben Fong-Torres interviews Jerry Garcia. Interview recorded circa 1975 for the documentary radio program "What was that?" broadcast on KSAN-FM in San Francisco [radio broadcast]," Grateful Dead Archive Online, accessed November 10, 2013, http://www.gdao.org/items/show/379555.

The interview is given as 1975, at least some of it takes place at His Master's Wheels, and there's a snippet with Nicky Hopkins. I have Jerry and Nicky et al. there working on what would become Reflections mostly in September-October 1975, so this seems the most likely timeframe.

Sketchy notes below the fold.

Old And In The Way Performance List

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7TAYus5LRzuWXRydUZFLVJ5UzRsQ2RWSjFLTHBrQUtLY2dR/view?usp=sharing

Here's a list of all known-to-me performances by Old And In The Way. It includes a few rehearsals and a handful of studio dates, but is mostly live gigs (N=49). Date-venue combos that show up twice indicate early and late shows. This info is in my spreadsheets (as is all kinds of other stuff), but for ease of presentation as a document I didn't include it here.

Comments and all that most welcomed!

YouTube Audience Tape Preservation Channel

Someone mentioned this at LL, new to me, thought I'd bring it here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAojTlp99hCvEmKSJ71t4A

Jerry, tògòtigi - JGB at the Warfield, Wednesday, March 9, 1994

Marquee for Jerry (who?) at the Warfield, March 9, 1994. I would LOVE to find out who the photographer is and give credit.

I love the image above, of the Warfield marquee reading just "Jerry" for the March 9, 1994 JGB show, because, assuming his last name is not photoshopped out, it speaks to who Jerry had become by the last year of his life. In the Bamana language of the Mandé culture of West Africa, he had become a tògòtigi - "proprietor of his own name" (Skinner 2004, 157). "In Mandé social thought," musicologist Ryan Skinner has elaborated,

the purpose of these acts of self-making is to make a name for oneself (ka tògò sòrò, literally “to find one’s name”) and become what people call a tògòtigi, or an individual who is the owner (tigi) of his or her given name (tògò)".  Malian literary critic and cultural theorist Chérif Keïta summarizes that "The togo is the axis of individuality and desire for personal distinction" (Skinner 2015a, 22).

The concept applies across artistic fields in the Mandé world, especially among griots "expert hereditary professional" (Dubois 2016, 32) storytellers --musicians, poets and artists-- charged with carrying forward the collective knowledge embodied especially in the oral tradition (but see Chérif Keïta 2005). In the musical realm,

the artist who improvises a running solo, incites the dance with a syncopated rhythm, and makes his instrument sing with a novel melody asserts his dynamic and creative agency as a performer. He claims his individuality, a distinctive subjectivity symbolized by his first name, or tògò, and the status and identity of being a tògòtigi the achieved state of making a name for oneself, of being an owner (tigi) of one's name (tògòtigi ) ... There is an existential risk in such acts of musical distinction and innovation (Skinner 2015a, 88).

Anyway, not that, in certain circles, people didn't know who just-Jerry was before 3/9/94, but I have always loved this marquee for capturing it, the culmination of the name-claiming journey which began on a seasonal May day in 1968, when the name "Jerry Garcia" appeared on a sheet of paper billing a musical event for the first time since the formation of the Warlocks. Over decades of gradual assertion and musical differentiation, and eventual commodification, he had successfully made his name. That progression is probably the main arc of Fate Music, where I'll get into it hopefully more artfully and definitely at greater length.

The show is off-pattern in a few other ways. First, it was a single-shot on a Wednesday night. While midweek Warfield gigs were not unheard of, they almost always took the form of multinight runs. Indeed, though I have not gone and checked, I can't think of another Warfield one-off like this one in the Wolfgang-Warfield era (December 1989-April 1995). Second, the handbill is especially lame.

I wonder if this show was pinned down late, and/or if ticket sales were slow, or if BGP was just on a tight budget, but this is about as basic as it ever got.

Third, as to the show, it's fine, but what jumps out at me is that there is not a single Garcia-Hunter original here - it's all covers. Jerrygarcia.com makes this relatively easy to see, since the originals have hyperlinks and the covers do not. I spun through '93-'95, I think, and didn't see any other shows without at least a "Deal" or a "Run For the Roses" or something else. If I find time and motivation I might dig deeper, though I understand that this has no particular importance, it's just a curiosity. But it's a Garciaverse curiosity, which is kind of the bread and butter of JGMF, so there you go.

An hour first set was just about what he seemed to be going for, and 75+ minute second set is nothing to sneeze at. Chuck Vasseur pulled a typically great tape. The performance is fine, all pluck and less fire, which was his style at the time (no onion on his belt, as far as I know). Donny does some nice hard trapping in Don't Let Go, and everyone sounds just fine. Well, John doesn't "sound" much at all, but that was pretty much par for the course in this timeframe, too, and it's all good by me.

Listening notes below the fold.

Dawn of the NRPS

I am sure you have already pre-ordered, as I just did, but just in case, here's link to the upcoming Owsley Stanley Foundation (OSF) release called "Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage". I cannot freaking wait to hear this!

https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/dawn-of-the-new-riders-of-the-purple-sage/

ca. November 1-2, 1970 fragments

Having just posted on Janis's wake, which is said to have taken place on 10/26/70, I find myself wanting to at least take a stand on a few other gigs which have left me a little befuddled over the years.

The first involves a "First Annual San Francisco Halloween Marathon Festival of the Performing Arts", running 8 PM Friday 10/30/70 through midnight Sunday, 11/1/70 at the Harding Theater. Among the artists scheduled to appear during the 40 continuous hours of music we find Thelonious Monk, Les McCann, NRPS, Bobby Hutcherson, the Rafael Garrett Circus, Shades of Joy, Beefy Red, Pemmican, the Hot Hush Puppy Rocking and Jamming Society, the Ann Halprin Dance Troupe, theater groups and filmmakers. Subtitled "Marathon '70", the event was put together by Delano Dean, Lenny Sheftman and Gerry Pearlman of the Both-And, with proceeds going toward establishment of the Harding as an ongoing center for the performing arts.

Wasserman wrote the event up in general terms on 11/4/70, though he didn't mention the New Riders. Let's assume they performed as advertised. Since they were in Stony Brook on 10/30 and 10/31, I list this as a NRPS gig on 11/1/70 at the Harding. I guess I have already written this up, so you can just consider this pinned in my own data, and enjoy the above snippet of the Chron.

! announce: "A Halloween Marathon at the Harding," San Francisco Chronicle, October 23, 1970, p. 50;
! listing: San Francisco Chronicle, October 30, 1970, p. 45;
! expost:  Wasserman, John L. 19701104. On the Town: Marilyn Maye--Zing in the Anthem. San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 1970, p. 58;
! mention: "From the Music Capitals of the World", Billboard, November 21, 1970, p. 25 (accessed via Google Books);
! JGMF: "NRPS: ca. 11/1/1970?" URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2009/11/nrps-ca-1111970.html.

The second is also at the Harding, and comes from a listing I found once the digital Examiner came to my attention. From that entry: "11/2/70 (Monday): Jerry Garcia / BBHC / Ice / Cleveland Wrecking Company. Harding Theater. Benefit for A Learning Place. I don't know if this would have been NRPS or JGMS; I am listing as JGMS for no particular reason."

So, another benefit, same building, the next night. Odd, but, OK.

! listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, November 1, 1970, p. 27;

! listing: San Francisco Examiner, November 2, 1970, p. 35;

! JGMF: "New-to-The-List from the Examiner, 1970-1972," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2018/10/new-to-list-from-examiner-1970-1972.html.

As a final point, I'd just note that this timeframe really shines a light both on how much our boy liked to play, and on how ready he was to fly back home between gigs in other time zones, when logistics might suggest he not do so.

October 10-12, he does three gigs in New York and Jersey, then flies home to play the Matrix for two nights, before flying back to Philly for a gig on the 16th. Then Cleveland and Minneapolis, back home to the Matrix, three nights off before gigs in DC and St. Louis on 10/23-24. Home for Janis's wake, two nights in Stony Brook, home for these two benefit gigs and, on November 3rd, a session with Crosby at Heider's as well as a Matrix gig, Heider's again on the 4th, then playing somewhere in the state of New York every night (often Dead and New Riders, sometimes two shows a night) from the 5th through the 16th (less a canceled show on 11/15/70). And on and on and on through the end of November. What a nut.

Pearl's Wake

Around November 3, 1970 the Associate Press (AP) had an item in lots of papers noting that Janis Joplin had left $2,500 in her will for a big ol' celebration of her life after her passing. Invitations went out reading "The drinks are on Pearl", and it happened at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo. The AP story (e.g., in the Red Bluff Daily News, November 3, 1970, p. 8) says that the GD and other rock groups entertained.

Mastropolo 2015 puts the date of this event as 10/26/70. I don't know how he knows that, but there it is. (update: as usual, Corry was on it before I was --in this case, a decade!!-- and the date comes from his post.) He references the memoir of Janis's road manager John Byrne Cooke in saying that members of the Quick, Big Brother, and the GD formed various playing combinations, which is a little different than a GD gig per se.

As of now, I am listing this as a GD gig. I am also coding the Wales-Garcia Matrix gig advertised for this date --the latest with Howard's name on it, as far as I can recall-- as canceled. Any thoughts on that?

I also note that LIA hipped me to a canceled GD gig in Columbus, OH, between 10/24 and 10/29. Janis's wake may well account for the cancellation.

MTV Interview, June 2, 1983

I don't know where this would have taken place, but the date of June 2, 1983 seems right, in between shows at the venerable Roseland Ballroom on 52nd Street and promoter John Scher's main room, the Capitol Theatre in Passaic outside of Philly.

I have gotten direct quotes on the Garcia-on-the-side (GOTS) material, and sketchily paraphrased the GD history and other stuff. The man was just so brimming with energy. Check him out around 7 minutes in to part one, talking about the amazing creativity and peculiar genius of so many Deadheads. Good stuff.

update: if you want verbatim, you can copy it from ... the published transcript. D'oh!

! ref: Blackwood, Nina. 1983. Jerry Garcia: Interviewed for MTV. Relix 10, 4 (August): 16-20.

Where Was Garcia on May 29, 1987?

As I have noted, Garcia's final Keystone Family gigs before jumping ship to Wolfgang as his permanent and exclusive hometown promoter took place at the end of May 1987, as In the Dark was getting huge. The big fella would play very few club gigs after the Wednesday (27th)-Thursday (28th) and Saturday (30th)-Sunday (31st) Stone shows.

The Friday gap night always just struck me as a day of rest. But, well, was it?

The Hermes Project, based in Malibu, was promoting a world premiere showing of "The Hero's Journey", a film about mythologist Joseph Campbell, featuring the man himself, plus special guests on a panel, plus a reception. Music composed by Mickey Hart and Rand Wetherwax --presumably "The African Queen Meets The Holy Ghost"-- "with special performance by Jerry Garcia" [itals original], all scheduled for Friday, May 29, 1987, 8 PM, at the Director's Guild, 7950 Sunset in LA (map).

The event got other line announcements in the LA Weekly and the LA Times, but I found no ex post accounts, nor have I ever heard of this thing before. Of course, the November 1, 1986 "Ritual and Rapture" event at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco is well known, and it included a performance of the Hart-Wetherwax composition, with Garcia playing a headless Steinberger. Blair Jackson wrote it up in Golden Road (no. 13, Winter 1987, p. 6).

But did this encore event happen on May 29, 1987? I sure would like to know.

Emerge and See: Hunter Hosting Garcia at the Cellar Door - May 15, 1978 (DISCONFIRMED)

update 20210526: this seems not to have happened. David Kramer-Smythe reached out to David Morgenstern, who was with Comfort at this time. He remembered this gig for other reasons, but said Garcia definitely did not join, and that, in fact, Garcia never sat in with Comfort. So this is one of those cases of .... hmmm ... how does such a specific (if uncertain) memory form? What do we do with such a memory? In the absence of other advice. I will just keep this here for posterity.

Courtesy of slip at JGBP, this:

May 15, 1978 Robert Hunter and Comfort 

This was a three night run, the 14, 15, 16th at the Cellar Door in Washington DC.  

(The 14th  we saw the Dead play in Providence, RI. We were just finishing a post  spring semester  Vermont > Springfield > Providence run, so my memory of this event is extremely fuzzy, but it happened.) 

Anyway – towards the end of the Hunter show, Steve Parrish..what was he doing there?... helped roll a doorway sort-of-thing out on stage. It was like a big stage prop with a man-size keyhole shape cut-out. What…A giant keyhole? 

Then, I remember smoke machine and a siren howling like an ambulance. Lights flashed. The Cellar Door was a pretty small and dark venue as I recall, so this was kind of jarring. 

And then the PA screamed “Emergency…Emergency…Emergency” and gradually slowed to say “Emergggge an Seeeeee,” “Emergggge and See,” “Emerge and See,” Emerge and See!!!” 

And a fellow in a bozo mask walked through the keyhole. The fellow was Garcia. 

This is where it gets fuzzy....I forget what he played, maybe Boys in the Ballroom [sic]? Promontory Rider? Goodnight Irene? It wasn’t a standard Dead tune. 

Who’s got the tape?

Who, indeed? Can anyone confirm or deny?

Help Us Out

Head over to Nick's place and render judgment on the appropriateness of the title "Merl's Tune" for the Garciaverse tune by that name, versus the titular line of this post.

JG-HOST: Garcia hosting other musicians

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17wXtgegY_SfHpa609QibCj-RPdoRoRN6p-cdU2D8w5o/edit?usp=sharing

Have at it. You will see some ambiguities around guest vs. membership. I am happy to receive any thoughts or comments you might have.

9/9/72 Other One

Holy guacamole, the 9/9/72 Other One is a MONSTER.

https://archive.org/details/gd1972-09-09.sbd.miller.105458.flac16/gd72-09-09d3t01.flac

Two flamboyant snaps up.

Major New Piece of Instrument Research

Michael Clem has published a major piece of research into Garcia's instruments over at LIA's old stomping grounds. I don't know gear, and will surely make use of it whenever I have a question about it.

Alice Kahn Fall 1984 interview annotations

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

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.

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!

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 ...

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.

! 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."

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.

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.

! 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

! 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."

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!

A book by John Glatt entitled The Chieftains: The Authorized Biography (St. Martin's Press, 2015) describes Chesley Milliken arranging a meeting between Garcia and The Chieftains, who were touring the US in autumn 1974. After their local gigs, Garcia invited the Chieftains "to open for his own bluegrass group Old And In The Way, who were playing a show at the Boarding House to be recorded for a live album. Garcia also arranged a radio show with the legendary Tom Donaghue [sic]." Paddy Moloney recalls that "Jerry sent a limo for us and we did the show, which was San Francisco's top-rated radio programme. Jerry interviewed us and we talked and played tunes and discussed the music. Later in the week we opened for Jerry's bluegrass band and it was a wonderful evening of music."

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)

So far, so good.

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)

Even though "later in the week" would normally be understood to mean more than one night later, there was still space for the Chieftains to open for OAITW the next night at the Boarding House. So I queried Peter Rowan, and he affirmed that The Chieftains opened for OAITW on 10/8/73. 

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 on 10/8/73 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:

• 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)

"Work eight days a week | baby I give it all to you"

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

• 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.

Saturday 9/11

• 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.

Sunday 9/12

• 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.

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?

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.

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."

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:

• 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:

12/1/65-12/10/65	DONE
12/11/65-7/31/66	NEED
8/1/66-8/15/66	DONE
8/16/66-9/30/66	NEED
10/1/66-8/31/67	DONE
9/1/67-12/31/67	NEED
1/1/68-1/7/68	DONE
1/8/68-2/28/68	NEED
3/1/68-4/30/69	DONE
5/1/69-5/15/69	NEED
5/16/69-10/20/71	DONE
10/21/71-12/31/71	NEED
1/1/72-2/28/72	DONE
3/1/72-5/31/72	NEED
6/1/72-10/30/72	DONE
10/31/72-12/20/72	NEED
12/21/72-8/10/73	HAVE
8/11/73-9/30/73	NEED
10/1/73-10/10/73	HAVE
10/11/73-4/26/74	NEED
4/27/74-4/30/74	HAVE
5/1/74-6/9/74	NEED
6/10/74-6/14/74	HAVE
6/15/74-7/31/74	NEED
8/1/74-2/28/75	HAVE
3/1/75-6/30/75	NEED
7/1/75-8/31/75	HAVE

Second Night Out for Liz and Essra: JGB, Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, June 25, 1981

update: the original title of this was "First Night Out", but I have discovered a warmup gig on 6/24/81 at the Keystone Palo Alto (not in Salinas, as I had elaborately laid out).

Liz Stires and Essra Mohawk appear to debut as backing vocalists on the night before this show. There are no singers on the late May shows, then there are here and the next night. One presumes that the 6/24/81 Palo Alto gig was a warmup: off-night, if not quite off the beaten path.

Phil Lesh sits in while John Kahn travels Europe with his mom. Merle [sic] Saunders sits in for the first two tunes - his last sit-in with Garcia On The Side, I do believe.

The only other non-musical thing I'd note was the GD-centric billing in the preview entitled "Night of the Dead". This was uncommon, and for years the standard Garcia Band contract rider prohibited any trading on the name Grateful Dead or on Garcia's association with that band. With Mickey Hart a key principal in the opening band, High Noon, and Phil joining Jerry, this night seems to have permitted of an exception. It's almost like the "Grateful Dead Three Ways" framing around the December 1975 Kingfish, JGB and Keith and Donna Band gigs.

Musically, I like it. Phil sounds good, I really liked "I'll Take A Melody" and "Simple Twist Of Fate".

Jerry Garcia Band
Civic Auditorium
307 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
June 25, 1981 (Thursday)
Senicola-Poris MAC shnid-89567

--set I (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 59:29)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [1:46]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:36] [0:24]
s1t03. Catfish John [8:15] (1) [0:36]
s1t04. Sitting In Limbo [10:10] [0:28]
s1t05. That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:33] [0:40]
s1t06. Mississippi Moon [11:12] ->
s1t07. Tangled Up In Blue [9:41] (2) [0:09] %

--set II (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 56:27)--
s2t01. crowd (3) and tuning [1:28]
s2t02. I'll Take A Melody [12:20] % [0:03]
s2t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:14] [0:08] %
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:22] [0:05] % [0:09]
s2t05. Dear Prudence [9:14] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight [7:00] [0:21]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - keyboards;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals.
! guest: Merl Saunders - keyboards (s1t01-s1t03).
! guest: Phil Lesh - el-bass (whole show).

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/19810625-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1981-06-25

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9302 (aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/89567 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/kkDtK

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/civic-auditorium-307-church-st-santa.html
 

! venue: http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/departments/parks-recreation/civic-auditorium

! band: JGB #13a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! historical: High Noon opened. Lesh replaces Kahn on bass; Saunders sits in on first two numbers, almost sounds like Melvin was late. Very interesting use of Grateful Dead marketing. This is almost like a "GD Three Ways" kind of feel. See preview title. The listing has a picture of Jerry with caption about "Jerry Garcia and friends", and listing identifies Hart. Clearly planned and sold around Garcia, Lesh, etc.

! seealso: Arnold, Corry. 20160804. June 26, 1981 Fox-Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh/High Noon/Mike Henderson (The Truth Is Out There). Lost Live Dead, August 4, URL https://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2016/08/june-26-1981-fox-warfield-theatre-san.html, consulted 7/28/2019. That's where Corry reports that John Kahn was touring Europe with his mom during this timeframe.

! preview: "Night of The Dead," Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 5

! ad: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 12

! listing: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 20

! R: field recordists: Richard Senicola and Jaime Poris

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 300 + 1x Nakamichi 700 > (Nak 550) > Sony TC-D5M (Mark Severson's equipment)

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX cassette

! R: field recording location: 35 feet back from right center of 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.

! R: this is a great pull! Drums are super-punchy. What a tape!

! personnel: Definitely two keys plus two backup singers. I presume that Merl was playing Melvin's Hammond on the tunes that list him, and that Melvin was sitting out. I probably wouldn't be able to hear three keyboards at once, anyway.

! s1t03 (1) JG: "We'd like to thank Merl Saunders for sittin' in with us for a couple of tunes."

! P: Phil is pretty hot and heavy for Miss Moon and TUIB. BTW, earlier in the set an audience member mentions him by name, lest there be any doubt that Lesh is in the house.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a lil short break, we'll be back in a [inaudible] minutes."

! s2t01 (3) @ 0:18 crowd member starts singing "Elvira" ... now there's a time capsule for you.

! P: s2t02 ITAM @ 2:01-2:04, you hear Philip Lesh playing the freaking bass. Wow. Great backing vocals @ 5:48. Rare to hear them this clearly ... great stuff! @ 11:19 JG is doing some ridiculous running around the chords.

! P: s2t03 STOF is incredible, careful, deliberate, beautiful! This tape captures it really, really nicely. STOF without the bass solo is interesting

! P: s2t04 KOHD @ 6-min mark, Jimmy Warren's little solo is not great.

! R: s2t06 Midnight Moonlight [00:01 - 00:07] patched with SHNID-9302