Thursday, May 25, 2023

JGB Spring '93 SoCal

Preface: JGB in SoCal

Little springtime SoCal jaunts became a regular thing for JGB starting in 1983. (OK, that was very late winter, but March is generally pretty springy down there.) Some were one- or two-offs, others were a little more elaborate. Here's a sketch.

1983: 3/11a and 3/11b in Santa Barbara; 3/12a and 3/12b, 3/13 in Beverly Hills
1984: 5/17 Beverly Hills, 5/18 Irvine, 5/19 Santa Barbara, 5/20 Reseda
1985: Garcia-Kahn 5/31a and 5/31b in Beverly Hills
1986: 5/23 in San Diego, 5/24 in LA
1987: 3/13 and 3/14 in LA
1988: no SoCal
1989: 5/19 Irvine, 5/20 San Diego, 5/22 LA
1990: LA in November
1991: no SoCal
1992: summer dates
1993: 4/16 and 4/17 at UCLA, 4/18 in San Diego
1994: 5/13 San Bernardino, 5/14 Ventura, 5/15 Irvine, 5/17 and 5/18 San Diego + 5/19 Phoenix

So much to say, but so little time. Let me just foreshadow some of what might get some write up in Fate Music.

'83: Hell's Angel George Christie, Jr., a rather remarkable dude, promoting in Santa Barbara (again in '84). I have some super-sweet material here about how much better it was for Jerry working for an outlaw than it was for some of the "straight" promoters in the area.

'84: not sure yet, but definitely mention the killer music and DeeDee Dickerson's swan song.

'85: "Bullshit! Bullshit!" and all that

'86: Wolfgang trying to product-differentiate the "Band Electric" 10 months before the birth of the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. And one of the great sardonic review headlines of all time: "Band Electric Plays at Pace Languid".

'93: maybe some stuff based on this post

'94: "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!!"

Among the themes that will pop up are NorCal vs. SoCal, maybe some nods toward playing on John Kahn's home turf, and definitely the evolution of the SoCal jaunt as a commercial proposition: 1) from local promoters (with John Scher's help) to conceding Bill Graham the west coast monopoly he so badly wanted. (He wanted it all, but John Scher was simply too great to work with to give him up.) And 2) obvs., the switch from clubs and theaters to amphitheaters and basketball arenas. Of course, too, some great music.

JGB SoCal Spring 1993

So much for the long windup. I really just wanted to plop down some notes around a listen a month or two ago to the April 16-17, 1993 gigs in Pauley Pavilion and the 18th in the San Diego Sports Arena. I have listening-noted the Warfield 4/23/93 show on these pages, and found it somewhat low energy, though I abso-fucking-lutely love its version of "Señor" (released on Garcia Plays Dylan) and "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game" (released on Shining Star). It seems like I haven't listened to the 4/24 or 4/25 Warfield shows, which I guess I will need to do at some point.

These three SoCal shows from the week before strike me as overall better than 4/23, generally strong, rarely really bad and occasionally fantastic. If forced to rank these three, I'd say 4/18 > 4/17 > 4/16. I note that The Powers That Were released 1 tune each from the 18th and 17th, but none from the 16th. That seems about right to me, and I have to say that they made fantastic choices. Despite its execrable cover art and (not unrelated) the fact that it was released under the reign of She Who Shall Not Be Named (whom I nevertheless name below), the Shining Star release contains some outstanding music, and the selections from this run of shows are top-shelf.

From the 17th, they selected "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love", which the Stones had covered soon after Solomon Burke's original 1964 version on Atlantic, and which was most successfully covered by Wilson Pickett. This Garcia Band version is absolutely killer, a truly fine late era performance ranging across some stanky pedal effects to some very spare sections, sung together and tenderly by Jerry and the ladies, but also across some growly exclamatory "I need it! I need it!" from ol 'Jer. More detailed notes, probably not all that illuminating, below.

From the 18th, they selected Dylan's "Positively 4th Street". (Happy belated 82nd birthday to Mr. Dylan, BTW!) What can I say about Garcia and 4th Street? Of all the Dylans he did, I think this one was the most special. It was almost never not amazing. It is one of those tunes that I still haven't found quite the right word for, which appeared across the decades, but typically in short spurts, which I think have a particular quality of Jerry loving them but finding them either challenging to do or too special to wear out. This is speculation, of course, but it's what my gut says. And none of these tunes --also including "Tough Mama", "Like A Road", a few others-- better captures that profile for me than "4th Street".

The great David Gans and Blair Jackson asked Garcia about the tune in a 1981 interview.
Q: Do you have any trouble singing a song as bitter as "Positively 4th Street"?

Garcia: Not at all. It's easy for me to cop that asshole space. I was that guy, too. For me, it occupies the same space as 'Ballad of a Thin Man'. It tells that person who's lame that they're lame, and why they're lame, which is a very satisfying thing to do. 'Positively 4th Street' has this way of doing it where it's beautiful, too. And 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' is basically a put-down, too. It's one of those things like, 'You're losing bad - dig yourself.' It was the beautiful sound of 'Positively 4th Street' that got to me, more than the bitterness of the lyric. The combination of the beauty and the bitterness, to me, is wonderful. ... That's something that only Dylan has been able to pull off in terms of modern songwriting, I think (Jackson and Gans 19810911, 29).
Jerry played it somewhat regularly with the Garcia-Saunders aggregation in 1973 (as represented, e.g., on the original Saunders-Garcia-Kahn-Vitt Live at Keystone, and re-released by Fantasy endlessly since then). He picked it back up for a month in 1975 in the first JGB with Nicky, then dropped it again until Ozzie Ahlers came on board in 1979 (check out the 12/21/79 version, one of the greatest single-song performances of Garcia's playing career). He dropped it again in the middle of the February 1980 tour for more than ten years, bringing it out staccato in the 90s. Here are the all of the post-1980 versions. Because I think the song held special meaning for Jerry, I offer up some conjecture as to what I think might have motivated the revival.

3/1/91, which I have called "Certainly One of the Best and Most Interesting Shows of the 90s" (which may be damning it with faint praise): I note that 4th Street is "just about perfect - I think he gets all of the lyrics, and he does it with the right degree of bitterness." What might have led Garcia to dust this gem off after 11 years, obviously rehearse it with the band, play it for this "just for this one moment", and drop it for two years again? Well, first we know that he was using again, and not just chipping but to the point that the GD would stage another intervention four months later, whereupon Jerry went onto a methadone program. (It didn't stick.) Second, we know from his September '91 interviews that he was wildly burned out on the Dead, and he explicitly said that it was during the spring that he was asking the band about chilling out for six months, only to be told that the show had to go on. *cough* Phillesh *cough* So, in this case, I blame the Grateful Dead. Does any of this have anything to do with why he played 4th Street? Neither you nor I has any idea. But, while it may  not have been carefully planned out, I think something definitely caused its appearance. What do you think?

4/18/93 (this version) and 4/23/93 (on Shining Star): Here, I primarily blame woman troubles (Jerry's, not necessarily the women's). Humiliatingly, San Francisco institution Herb Caen led a January 1993 column asking "would the beloved Jerry Garcia dump his longtime ladyfriend, Manasha (the mother of his 3-yr-old daughter), and take off for Hawaii with a new inamorata?" (Caen 19930112). I can't recall where this occured, but when People wrote about his personal life in 1976 Garcia lost his shit, and I can't imagine the isolated and private 1993 version of himself would have been happy about having his love-life laundry aired in public. The new inamorata in January was the sweet and lovely Brigid Meier, but he had already left her in March after a) running back into Deborah Koons (also involved the 1976 complications) in Mill Valley and b) Brigid finding out he was using and asking him to get clean (McNally 2002, 603). Her recollections of that encounter supply some of the darkest images we have of the man in the grip of his addiction. Maybe he had her in mind when singing about "what a drag it is to see you" and all that. After a little fling with one Shannon Jeske (ibid), it seems like by April he would have been back with Deborah. Indeed, having heard some of the inside skinny about how She worked, the fact that She and Jerry were back together right around this time may have motivated the selection of material from these very shows.

There were other things going on in this window, of course. The last time he had played the Warfield, in late February, there was a "mini riot" outside the venue, involving 20 cops, rock-and-bottle throwing, and a dozen arrests ("12 arrests at Garcia concert," Argus-Courier [Petaluma, CA], March 2, 1993, p. "Deadheads blame riot on S.F. Police," San Francisco Examiner, March 1, 1993, p. A-13). So, to whom, or about whom or what, would he be venting his spleen in April 1993, by again dusting off, rehearsing, performing, and again dropping 4th Street? I have no idea. But I will say that, as on 3/1/91, on 4/18/93 he dusted the tune off and played it nearly perfectly, as close to perfectly as he ever did any song. I think he nailed every single lyric. And, heart? What heart! My only note about the song is this: "this is stunningly good".

There is lots of other really nice stuff in these shows, as my notes below narrate. The "Don't Let Go"s are too brief for my taste. But even tunes I don't generally love --I am looking at you, "Dixie Down"-- have a little extra something, again more on the 18th than the 17th and more on either of those than the first night. The Garcia Band at this point was running like a pretty well-oiled machine, putting plenty of bread in the breadbox --around $225,000 for these three nights!-- punching in solid 60-minute sets, and delivering good stuff to the faithful. They hold up well after 30 years, and I can recommend them to you --especially the 18th-- if you are searching for something to spin.

Oh yeah, what about the 1995 versions of 4th Street? On 1/13/95, he botches the words ("Jerry can't sing 4th Street if he can't remember the lyrics", I snipped). But I also note that he manages to remember more of them than I would, and as far as I know I am not on death's door. On 3/4/95 he says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think (?), but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true to the man in that moment. By 4/15/95 he is running on fumes, though the version certainly makes up in feeling what it lacks in power. If my whole reasoning about the song's appearance reflecting a particularly embittered mindset is right, it certainly makes sense that it was around for these three months. He had crashed his car in January, canceled shows in February, and, not least, he was dying. So 4th Street certainly fit the Zeitgeist.

Listening Notes for April 16-18, 1993 below the fold.

Jerry Garcia Band
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA
301 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095
April 16, 1993 (Friday)
Copeland MAD shnid-143776

--set I (8 tracks, 60:18)--
s1t01. ambience [1:36]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:12] [1:42]
s1t03. Stop That Train [7:20] [0:59]
s1t04. Let It Rock [7:31] [0:45]
s1t05. Dear Prudence [12:43] [0:23]
s1t06. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [8:25]
s1t07. My Sisters And Brothers [4:13]
s1t08. Deal [8:20] (1) [0:10]

--set II (8 tracks, 67:02)--
s2t01. Shining Star [12:22] [0:22]
s2t02. Waiting For A Miracle [5:58] [0:57]
s2t03. Struggling Man [5:30] [0:15]
s2t04. Wonderful World [4:52] [0:18]
s2t05. Money Honey [6:53] [0:14]
s2t06. Don't Let Go [12:30] [0:03]
s2t07. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) [10:20] ->
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:16] (2) [0:17]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! R: 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.


! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/19280 (aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/32751 (Copeland MAD, presumably deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/143776 (Copeland MAD)




! historical, via Sue: JGB's 85% amounted to $163,001.13 for the pair of UCLA shows. I think this is the first JGB show after Jerry pushed Brigid Meier away, though not sure if he was already back with Deborah at this point.

! R: field recordists: Taper Troy and Jack 'Chip' Copeland

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann AK40 in a Kangol (110 deg ORTF in hat) > Neumann cables > Active Supply > Panasonic SV-250

! R: field recording location: 4th row DFC

! R: lineage: DAT master > Panasonic SV-3700 playback > Apogee Duet/Mac > Adobe Audition > Flac

! R: seeder notes: "Special Thanx to Jack 'Crusher' Copeland for all your Help!"

! P: s1t02 HSII Jerry sounds great, enthused. Short version, in the good (tight) sense.

! P: s1t03 STT nice and bouncy. Jerry almost gets a steel drum sound right around 3. Beautiful fluid run 3:20. He sounds great.

! P: s1t04 LIR I love the note Jerry hits and holds around 2:40. Train horn with some stank. Fanny goodness late 5 over 6 et seq.

! P: s1t05 DP a lot of goodness in this Prudence. Very well constructed guitar progressions. Big circles over 10. Melvin hammers some piano 10:08ish.

! P: s1t08 Deal very high up the neck early 6. Not crazy power, but strong tone and attack.

! s1t08 (1) JG: I couldn't quite make out the setbreak announcement.

! P: s2t02 WFAM some lyrical flubbing.

! P: s2t05 Money Honey I should probably figure out when they added the new ending. It is present here.

! P: s2t06 DLG the doubling part before the instrumental departure feels  shorter than usual, running from 4:14-4:46. Little call and response. Beautiful little runs early 6. Slow and open 8:30ff. Them returns right on 10, so only 90 seconds of outitude.

! s2t08 (2) JG: "See ya later."

~~~~~

Jerry Garcia Band
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA
301 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095
April 17, 1993 (Saturday)
Vasseur MAD shnid-145499

--set I (8 tracks, 70:16)--
s1t01. ... Cats Under The Stars [#8:51] [1:02]
s1t02. And It Stoned Me [6:37] [0:29]
s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:27] [0:19]
s1t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:12] [0:20]
s1t05. Tore Up Over You [7:03] [0:56]
s1t06. Lay Down Sally [9:47] [0:10]
s1t07. My Sisters And Brothers [4:31]
s1t08. Everybody Needs Somebody [13:22] (1) [0:10]

--set II (6 tracks, 52:18)--
s2t09. The Way You Do The Things You Do [9:34] [0:09]
s2t10. The Maker [8:11] [0:16]
s2t11. [0:17] Mission In The Rain [8:21] [0:45]
s2t12. Think [6:25] [0:51]
s2t13. Waiting For A Miracle [5:34] [0:19]
s2t14. Tangled Up In Blue [11:29] (2) [0:08]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! R: 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.




! Sue: JGB's 85% amounted to $163,001.13 for the pair of UCLA shows.

! official: ENSTL released on Shining Star. See JGMF, "The Dates of All of the Tracks on the Late-Era Arista JGB Releases," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-dates-of-all-of-tracks-on.html.

! R: field recordist: Chuck and Janet Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter) 

! R: Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! seeder 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 tansfers. So, hre they are!"

! R: s1t01 CUTS fades in

! P: s1t01 CUTS nice tone first big guitar turn 4:30ff.

! P: s1t02 AISM Melvin's piano is lovely. Jerry sounds a little weary and voice a little thin, but not bad. Really pretty version of AISM. Around 5 some vocal flubby verse after the break. Melvin's piano *still* lovely!

! P: s1t03 RFTR Jerry throws an extraneous "run run" where it didn't belong.

! P: s1t04 STOF @ 4 it sounds like Jerry vocalizes as if to start a verse, but just bails on the idea for a leisurely little instrumental turn. Oh, goody - John is taking a "feature" 4:50ff. Very high up the neck around 6:30, which sounds pleasant. But these things are so arhythmic it's wild. It ends around 7:20. Not the worst I have heard.

! P: s1t05 TUOY pretty good energy. Melvin with the synth @ 4ff.

! P: s1t06 LDS Jerry starts with the chorus instead of the first verse. Unusual guitar approach even already in 2. My sense is that in earlier years he played it straight earlier in the tune, and made it weirder as the song progressed. Typically inventive and interesting phrasings later in the song. He really opened this number up so well throughout its performance history (1990ff). Cool little progression around 8:10 that sounded momentarily Spanish to me for some reason.

! P: s1t08 ENSTL he steps on a pedal at 2:50 and the tone takes on some stank, little fast run 3:16. Around 6 it sounds like the song could end, but I see it has 7 more minutes to run. Melvin steps up with some nice color in this range. Now ca. 7:40ff Jerry lead, which I now expect to continue for like 4 minutes! Actually, about 10ish Jerry is doing more in the way of vocal invention, very interesting, I don't remember hearing this sort of thing. Yeah! "I need it! I need it!", growly and with lots of feeling. Attaboy Jerry - I can see why they released this version. Then it hits a place that's instrumentally spare, Jerry and the ladies mostly singing together, Kemper sounds great. It fades down a lot around 11:45, very light guitar, organ, drum (John has apparently been sleeping for awhile already). Oh, there he is at 12:29ff.

! s1t08 (1) JG: "Be back in a little while."

! P: s2t13 WFAM sounds nicely together. Peppy version. Good on the lyrics.

! P: s2t14 (2) JG: "Thank you. See ya later."

~~~~~


Jerry Garcia Band
Sports Arena
3500 Sports Arena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
April 18, 1993 (Sunday)
Vasseur MAD shnid-145500

--set I (8 tracks, 61:22)--
s1t01. [0:12] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:18] [0:19]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:01] [0:59]
s1t03. You Never Can Tell [7:25] [0:30]
s1t04. Positively 4th Street [7:07] [0:58]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [7:55] [1:06]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:42]
s1t07. My Sisters And Brothers [4:14] ->
s1t08. Deal [7:31] (1) [0:05]

--set II (8 tracks, 73:24)--
s2t09. [0:58] Shining Star [11:45] [0:35]
s2t10. Struggling Man [6:50] [0:50]
s2t11. Money Honey [6:38] [0:42]
s2t12. I Shall Be Released [8:35] [0:05]
s2t13. Reuben And Cherise [8:27] [0:05]
s2t14. Don't Let Go [13:55] [0:05]
s2t15. What A Wonderful World [7:37] ->
s2t16. Midnight Moonlight [6:06] (2) [0:09]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! R: 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.


! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/16375 (DAUD shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/21135 (Vasseur shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/33600 (Neumann KM140s); https://etreedb.org/shn/145500 (Vasseur); https://etreedb.org/shn/150226 (3rd Eye Productions).




! Sue: sold 5,953 @ $22.50 and 1,325 @ $25. JGB took $64,803.31 once percentages and stuff were calculated.

! official: s1t04 "Positively 4th Street" released on Shining Star. See JGMF, "The Dates of All of the Tracks on the Late-Era Arista JGB Releases," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-dates-of-all-of-tracks-on.html.

! R: field recordist: Chuck Vasseur

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM54 > DAT

! R: Transfer: DAT Master > CDR (Kyle Porter) 

! R: Extract: CDR clone > EAC > WAV > FLAC16 (Bill Shaw aka Shark)

! seeder 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 tansfers. So, here they are!"

! R: s1t01 HSII a repeated section @ 0:34, then a skip to start the verse.

! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s1t04): Look at this performance rhythm: 2/23/80, 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95. Wow.

! P: s1t04 P4S wow, this is stunningly good.

! P: s1t05 Breadbox I had started the track on 4/18/23, came back to it 4/19 around 4 minutes in, and it is *cooking* fantastically! He lets a note hang 5:34 that makes me happy. Bending right over 6.

! P: s1t06 TNTDODD nice flurry of notes 3:50, and another nice run to 4:14. Jerry sounds totally focused. Man oh man. Melvin is in a big giant build and Jerry jumps in with a chorus at 6:05. The ladies jump on it tout de suite. It's really really good. Giant chords to build to chorus 7:50. Huge emotion 8:48 in his singing, belting. Sheesh.

! P: s1t07 Deal had some really nice long progressions, hits major peak right over 6. Excellent version.

! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thank you. We'll be back in a few minutes."

! P: s2t09 Shining Star crowd ends it with a chorus or two. Later in the year they'd sing along for a good while.

! P: s2t13 RAC coming back to this the next day, and I note how weary Jerry sounds.

! P: s2t14 DLG I always enjoy the vocal/guitar doubling in 4, as with this one. Good controlled work, good feeling. Steps out 5:20. He *really* slows things down, like unusually, in 5 ... Melvin calls out a sequence, 6:10, initiates a little bit of explicit call and response. Jerry hangs one really long 6:51ff. This is extremely spare, slow and bent notes. Almost too slow, too spare. Very unusual. More long bent hangers 7:10. Fast run 7:22 from Jerry. Now 8:30ff louder and faster, Kemper banging 8:43, strong. Jerry slows it down again 8:54. Moving to return 10:11ff.

! s2t14 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later on. Bye bye."
at

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