tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post9054334527710680452..comments2024-03-15T18:58:45.318-06:00Comments on Jerry Garcia's Middle Finger: Reading Notes: Tolces, Todd. 1973. Jerry’s Bluegrass Boys. Melody Maker 48 (April 28): 35.Fate Musichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-1706313998502646612023-10-09T15:39:32.159-06:002023-10-09T15:39:32.159-06:00Wow - cool!Wow - cool!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-67110521581249280892023-10-08T15:33:52.119-06:002023-10-08T15:33:52.119-06:00Sam Grisman today 10.8.23 said on Sirius XM that t...Sam Grisman today 10.8.23 said on Sirius XM that the studio record may indeed be coming out. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-75074659624444714312022-06-19T08:31:21.814-06:002022-06-19T08:31:21.814-06:00Just to put a bow on that last exchange, in this v...Just to put a bow on that last exchange, in this very Tolces piece, published in April '73, they say they've already got a record in the can. I have never heard of a second attempt at a studio record.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-67263743221692796352022-05-16T08:26:28.653-06:002022-05-16T08:26:28.653-06:00Yeah, the more I talk to people who were there, th...Yeah, the more I talk to people who were there, the more it seems like he just had too many balls in the air. And there were tensions between Grisman and Rowan, and each had his own ambitions, and Jerry didn't want to deal with any of that. Like so many things, it feels overdetermined.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-36130798026271493602022-05-14T22:25:12.777-06:002022-05-14T22:25:12.777-06:00Yes, August '73 was pretty much reserved entir...Yes, August '73 was pretty much reserved entirely for studio activity, with few live shows. <br />But that still leaves much of June & July, in which there were many open dates (and many OAITW shows). You've written in the past about a few bluegrass festival dates where OAITW was scheduled (and available) but apparently didn't play, so that doesn't seem to be down to GD priorities. Garcia even managed to sneak in a whole OAITW mini-east-coast tour the week before the RFK shows in June! <br />Perhaps I looked at the bluegrass festival question the wrong way round, and Garcia would have been happy to play a bunch of them, but....something got in the way. Maybe the one festival gig they did play in June didn't go well? <br />All the same, scheduling weekly shows for three different bands year-round can't have been easy, even for the tireless Garcia in 1973. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-85323152356483946652022-05-14T19:04:26.322-06:002022-05-14T19:04:26.322-06:00I think the 11/73 studio stuff was probably sweete...I think the 11/73 studio stuff was probably sweetening from the Boarding House shows, though I don't know that. And I think Jerry's schedule was really big limiting factor in terms of the summer bluegrass festivals. The GD had just started a record company and needed most of August in the studio, for example. Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-71883111876418442032022-05-13T00:09:48.277-06:002022-05-13T00:09:48.277-06:00Yeah, Grisman's not really thinking of the tim...Yeah, Grisman's not really thinking of the timeline there. (Although Jerrybase currently shows OAITW studio dates in November '73...maybe they made a second attempt? At any rate those studio sessions were OAITW's last gasp.) For all we know he hasn't listened to the studio tapes since 1973. <br /><br />It was striking to me that Muleskinner and OAITW started more or less concurrently, and there may have been a bit of - competition? uncertainty? - which band would turn out to be the main Rowan/Grisman effort. <br />Probably neither band was meant to last, though. Muleskinner might not have done anything after that one album anyway. OAITW intermittently puttered on for a year, but I suspect Grisman's ambitions doomed it even more than Garcia's intermittent schedule. <br />It's maybe a telling irony that the one OAITW member who would never have been invited to join Muleskinner was ol' Garcia....he might have been laughed off the stage at a Bill Monroe tribute show. <br />You ask in this post why they didn't play more bluegrass festivals like they planned at first. Maybe you've found an answer since, but, just guessing, I wonder if Garcia's insecurity on the banjo had something to do with it? Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-63916905238949733862022-05-12T12:55:16.432-06:002022-05-12T12:55:16.432-06:00I am still pretty sure the studio effort was earli...I am still pretty sure the studio effort was earlier in the year, and he is compressing the timeline.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-77733037180518011902022-05-11T20:41:27.334-06:002022-05-11T20:41:27.334-06:00David Grisman's recent remarks on the Old &...David Grisman's recent remarks on the Old & in the Way studio effort: <br />"We did actually attempt to make a studio album. Mickey Hart had a studio...in a big barn, and we spent a few days in there recording. We decided it was just not up to what we wanted. I think at the time, I was ready to do what became Dawg music and my own thing. I looked at bluegrass as being a bit regressive. Even though I loved bluegrass, I could feel myself going in another direction..." <br />https://acousticdisc.com/podcast/ (episode 14) <br /><br />The interview implies this was at the end of OAITW's career rather than the beginning. Maybe if they HAD done it in late '73 instead of March, they would have liked it enough to release it. Now, Grisman seems less than enthusiastic about OAITW's music (too loose, not very serious), so I doubt he'd agree to put out their failed warm-up studio effort anytime soon. <br /><br />Briefly mentioning Muleskinner, he says, "Muleskinner played the Ash Grove, that was in LA. We played two weeks there before we made that [Muleskinner] album." That was in March/April '73. It's still somewhat startling to think that OAITW had made & rejected a studio effort before Muleskinner, even that same month, so Grisman & Rowan were juggling two bands at the same time. <br />I believe they called in John Kahn to play bass for Muleskinner because they'd just been playing with him in OAITW; but membership went the other way too, with Richard Greene being enlisted on fiddle for OAITW after playing with Muleskinner. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-65269515023864567702019-02-07T15:04:58.602-07:002019-02-07T15:04:58.602-07:00Shows from March 3 thru March 19 although having a...Shows from March 3 thru March 19 although having a show never stopped Jerry from recording earlier in the day...<br />OAITW on 3/2, 3, 4<br />No show on 3/5/73<br />Merl Saunders on 3/6, 7<br />Pigpen died on 3/8<br />No show on 3/9<br />Merl Saunders 3/10, 11<br />OAITW-3/12, 13, 14<br />GD-3/15, 16, (17+18 canceled), 19Jerry's Brokendown Palaceshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06451361448230329754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-84378425969319072992016-02-19T01:57:19.093-07:002016-02-19T01:57:19.093-07:00gdao works again!
http://www.gdao.org/items/show/8...gdao works again!<br />http://www.gdao.org/items/show/826648ruppi43https://www.blogger.com/profile/02687238969252856314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-22387538386548520342016-02-04T14:53:21.877-07:002016-02-04T14:53:21.877-07:00I know this problem, seems gdao has server problem...I know this problem, seems gdao has server problems, maybe less capacity. Just try it again and again. If you search 'Roberto Rabanne' it is the 6th contact sheet of his.ruppi43https://www.blogger.com/profile/02687238969252856314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-31144696741984809822016-02-04T08:29:57.508-07:002016-02-04T08:29:57.508-07:00For some reason the pix are not loading for me.For some reason the pix are not loading for me.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-92213011640687349322016-02-04T08:26:14.240-07:002016-02-04T08:26:14.240-07:00Wow, outstanding, thanks!Wow, outstanding, thanks!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-27046407100452357972016-02-02T17:30:27.011-07:002016-02-02T17:30:27.011-07:00There is a contact sheet of OAITW pics by Roberto ...There is a contact sheet of OAITW pics by Roberto Rabanne on gdao:<br />http://www.gdao.org/items/show/826648<br />Hanwaker and I dated these pics as Keystone Berkeley 73-03-12or13 and they show no fiddle player, but very very likely Will Scarlett on harp.ruppi43https://www.blogger.com/profile/02687238969252856314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-85490637247899585372015-11-29T01:03:02.951-07:002015-11-29T01:03:02.951-07:00It would be useful to know what the author's s...It would be useful to know what the author's source was! Round Records wasn't known to the public until mid-'74 (for instance, it's not mentioned in Rolling Stone's exhaustive Nov '73 piece on the Dead's affairs) - at this point it was still just a concept. <br /><br />The Rolling Stone article mentioned that "Old and In the Way have messed around in Hart's studio as well," so it was known that they had recorded. I suspect the release rumor was just a rumor, not info from someone in the Dead camp. People would have anticipated a studio album - I think as of Nov '73, the idea of using Bear's Oct '73 live tapes to make an album hadn't occurred yet...but maybe it had? I'm curious just when they made that decision, but I suppose we'll never know that. <br /><br />OAITW turned out to be the third Round release in Feb '75. I don't think the delay was for any complicated reasons - Round only got off the ground in June '74 with the Garcia & Hunter releases, and I presume work on the next albums didn't commence until after the Dead stopped touring in October.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-74530263870952978552015-11-21T13:33:14.373-07:002015-11-21T13:33:14.373-07:00Just found this interesting tidbit, which I don...Just found this interesting tidbit, which I don't recall having seen. From an article in the Barb in November 1973, commenting on the Dead forming their own record company and release Wake of the Flood: "The next LP on Grateful Dead Records is rumored to be the first release by Old and in the Way". Of course, it wasn't released until 1975, and then on Round, so this is interesting both because it speaks to OAITW's place in the planned "album economics" firmament and to the idea that a side project could be released on GD Records, rather than Round. That may have just been a finer point missed by the author, but it intrigues me.<br /><br />Blades, Robert "Razor". 1973. Dead Make Disc History. Berkeley Barb, November 16-22, p. 9.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-30882616671396968572015-08-01T04:15:04.901-06:002015-08-01T04:15:04.901-06:00Damnit, just had a comment cannibalized. Fucking b...Damnit, just had a comment cannibalized. Fucking blogger.<br /><br />I replied as follows.<br /><br />1) he was the weak link in OAITW, no doubt about it. His banjo playing was not great in 1973, and of course the other guys were all world class.<br /><br />2) I thought I had noted some points at which the band asks the crowd to quiet down, but couldn't find them.<br /><br />3) I suspect Bear taped some shows that don't circulate. I am dubious that there are some amazing hidden gems in there, though - the Boarding House shows strike me as the band at its peak, but what do I know.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-34343810546142264352015-08-01T01:17:20.776-06:002015-08-01T01:17:20.776-06:00From Garcia's interview with Swing 51 (issue #...From Garcia's interview with Swing 51 (issue #6, 1982) - he talks a lot about OAITW, and mentions that "I wasn't nearly as good a banjo player in Old & In The Way as when I was 21, 22, and deeply into bluegrass... By the time Old & In The Way started, I had to practice for months just to get as good as I was when that band was happening, and even then it wasn't satisfying to me because I knew what I'd been capable of. I was barely 20% the banjo player I had been when I was 21 or 22. The banjo is really one of those instruments that requires 12 hours a day of really serious pickin' to really play great." <br /><br />So it seems Garcia saw himself as kind of the weak link in the band (you can see why he was practicing on the Dead tour)...nonetheless, he talks about how much fun it was, and how even Vassar loved it. <br /><br />But the key part, for me: <br />"Our finest moments which unfortunately aren't on record anywhere are on tape in private collections. None of them have been circulated. Our finest performances didn't get out into the world. The stuff that's on the live album is not really us when we were at our warmest or even our hottest in that band. <br />Q: Do you think any of the studio stuff that you recorded will ever come out? <br />JG: I don't think so. It was never as good as our shows, and our shows were only good in the smaller places where the audience didn't drown us out. We did some shows on the East Coast...we did a tour of theatres...and it was hopeless! They wanted to clap along rhythmically like audiences do...and that was so much louder than the band was...we just couldn't hear ourselves... When we went to the East Coast we played bigger places, but that finished us. It was paradoxical; it was like our own success, the fact that we were successful and went over well with audiences, killed the band. It made it impossible for us to hear." <br /><br />He mentioned some of these points in another interview as well. It seems an odd perspective of his that the band might've stopped because they got too popular! (Do any audience tapes reflect the audience drowning out the band, as he remembers?) <br />He agrees with Grisman that the studio OAITW didn't match the live shows. I am curious which shows he talks about (also mentioned elsewhere, where he calls them "heartstopping") that were so much better than the released shows - and if they ever did get circulated.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-1077513208750255962012-07-12T06:26:29.695-06:002012-07-12T06:26:29.695-06:00And thank you for your second comment as well, Ano...And thank you for your second comment as well, Anonymous. Also useful to remember! Inspires me to want to make sure I have done due diligence in the property records and such. Do you happen to recall when the GD started renting that space?Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-35908962202559974602012-07-12T06:22:01.769-06:002012-07-12T06:22:01.769-06:00Thanks for sharing that, Anonymous. I would be int...Thanks for sharing that, Anonymous. I would be interested in learning more about the intermingling (and not) of Jerry Garcia as a business entity and the Grateful Dead. In the meantime, your comments do a good job of putting Betty's recollections into context. I can't remember where I have her saying this (I generally try to cite sources, but can't do so now), but somewhere she discusses how they were goofing around Front Street, putting up baffles and all that and basically constructing a little sound studio, when Tutt mentioned just how incredibly Betty was able to capture his drum sound in that room. And so it was decided, the story goes, just to do the record (Cats Under the Stars) there. As best I can pin down, it looks like work on Cats started at Front Street around July 1977. I don't know where in the chronology the Neve board fits in, but I have seen lots of references to that particular and very nice piece of equipment.<br /><br />I recall that Garcia and the GD both signed with Arista ca. start of 1977. The GD went down to LA to record Terrapin Station. When that was done, Jerry discovers that they can make records at Club Front, buys some gear to do so. Over time, it seems like that piece of gear kind of got appropriated into the GD orbit ... or is that mistaken? Where is that Neve board now, I wonder?Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-71607308597525166472012-07-11T21:25:59.621-06:002012-07-11T21:25:59.621-06:00As far as any reference to earlier engagements at ...As far as any reference to earlier engagements at Club Front, the Grateful Dead had begun leasing the warehouse at 20 Front St. in San Rafael for some time prior to Garcia installing the recording studio in it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-59980881188159498012012-07-11T19:53:53.134-06:002012-07-11T19:53:53.134-06:00Club Front was funded by Garcia's solo record ...Club Front was funded by Garcia's solo record contract with<br />Arista Records. The Neve console he installed was used for<br />subsequent Grateful Dead albums - and transported to Radio<br />City Music Hall for Reckoning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-35028930472963493442011-09-05T16:10:44.656-06:002011-09-05T16:10:44.656-06:00Your point about the motives of Hart, Weir and Gar...Your point about the motives of Hart, Weir and Garcia in building their home studios is well taken. I think my point would better be stated as "if the Grateful Dead had found one of those home studios adequate, they would have stuck to it."<br /><br />Your point about Rowan and Grisman clashing is on point as well. Rowan and Grisman remain friends to this day, but their collaborations are always brief. I note also that the "successor" band to OAITW had Grisman, Garcia and Richard Greene, but not Rowan. Greene was much closer to Rowan than Garcia or Grisman (Rowan and Greene had spent two years together with Bill Monroe), so that may be an additional, unspoken clue as to why Greene dropped out of the band so quickly.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18366371.post-1787190655645999032011-09-05T15:15:53.638-06:002011-09-05T15:15:53.638-06:00Corry, thank you for your comments. I may need a p...Corry, thank you for your comments. I may need a post to reply, but let me try a few quickies.<br /><br />1) agree 100% on the sound of the recordings made at Mickey's Barn.<br /><br />2) Club Front has a murky history. I believe it was ca. August 1977 that they started there and, yes, in connection with Cats Under the Stars. But the tickle at the back of my neck tells me that I have recently run across reference to earlier engagements there. I think I doubted the veracity of these, but I need to pin it all down.<br /><br />3) A quote from you, and a response from me. <a href="http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/09/reading-notes-tolces-todd-1973-jerrys_04.html?showComment=1315242534782#c6862265048236786289" rel="nofollow">You</a>: "If Mickey's Barn had been adequate, would Weir have built a studio? I don't think so. However, if Ace's had really been adequate, would Le Club Front have been built?" My reply: sure, why not? If the fate of the Grateful Dead was in question, and I think it was seriously "in play" for a period, why not hedge bets with a home studio? Each guy with recording ambitions outside the GD gets his own place: Mickey gets his Barn, Bobby gets Ace's, and Garcia starts Club Front. But Garcia's is the only place that can really afford everything top-shelf, so eventually it becomes community property, so to speak.<br /><br />4) That last little timeline in your <a href="http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/09/reading-notes-tolces-todd-1973-jerrys_04.html?showComment=1315243390656#c8557185367641674627" rel="nofollow">last comment</a> is pretty persuasive to me.<br /><br />5) I have been <a href="http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/06/ln-jg1973-07-21oaitwb-live-allsbd.html" rel="nofollow">saying</a> that the fundamental architectural flaw of OAITW was that it wasn't big enough to house the three kinds of musics it had to hold: Rowan's songs, Grisman's compositions, and everyone's bluegrass. What reading around here clarifies for me is that we can drop the third element. That is, the design flaw is that the musical (and professional) visions, maybe the working habits, etc., of Rowan and Grisman were just incompatible. McNally and Jackson's narratives both seem to say (and can further be read as saying) more or less this. Have to develop further.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.com