Killer Sugaree and final DDD: JGB at Country Club, Reseda, May 20, 1984

LN jg1984-05-20.jgb.all.aud-nak300s.79553.flac1644

This Sugaree is in the running for hottest ever, especially in the 6-10 minute range. It opened shows a lot in the 75-77 period, a little less frequently by this time, and it would leave the JGB fold in '86 to become GD only. But, for my money, the Jerry Band ones from this ca. '84 period were the very best. I am told that 8/13/84 is another smoker. I plan to revisit it soon.

I don't think Jim Rismiller still had the Country Club at this point, though I am not 100% sure. I am calling it The Country Club, though the tag still has Rissmiller's name to keep them together with other posts from earlier dates.

Last night out for DeeDee Dickerson. Thank you, DDD!

Jerry Garcia Band

Country Club

18415 Sherman Way

Reseda, CA 91335

May 20, 1984 (Sunday)

Nak 300s shnid-79553 retrack

--set I (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 53:59)--

s1t01. ambience [0:19] 

s1t02. Sugaree [15:32] [0:03] % [0:28]

s1t03. Love In The Afternoon [10:06] [0:02] % [0:02]

s1t04. Rhapsody In Red [11:42] % [0:03]

s1t05. Run For The Roses

s1t06. Deal [10:20] (1) [0:07]

--set II (5 tracks, 4 tunes, 40:31)--

s2t01. ambience [0:18] 

s2t02. Mission In The Rain [12:07] [0:03] % [0:02]

s2t03. [0:10] Harder They Come [14:21] % [0:03]

s2t04. /Gomorrah  [#5:48] ->

s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [7:30] (2) [0:07]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #21a

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass;

! lineup: David Kemper - drums;

! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;

! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

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/19840520-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-05-20

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/79553 (this fileset)

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. DDD's last gig, and so last night out for JGB #21a. The classic 21b lineup with Gloria would debut ca. 7/10/84.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/A6gX8hd4tfS2

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/rissmillers-country-club-reseda-theatre.html. 1,000 seat room which opened 3/28/80 with Merle Haggard (Jackson 1980).

! listing: Orange County Register, May 20, 1984, p. L7.

! seealso: JGMF, "The Auds Have It," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-auds-have-it-jgb-at-irvine-meadows.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "There is World Class Guitar Playing Here," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1984-05-19jgballaud-rossi.html.

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi CM-300 w/ CP-1 caps (no shotguns) > Sony D5

! R: lineage: MAC > ?? > DAT > HHB 830 CD Recorder (Stand Alone) > ?? > flac1644.

! R: Nice tape, brightness suggestive of improper Dolby decode.

! P: overall I like it less than the night before. Kemper sounds great on this tape. The Sugaree is pretty off the chain, otherwise not much that strikes me as special. The second set clocks in below the Minelli Line.

! historical: Garcia often undertook these compact SoCal tours in the early 80s. This one comprised four nights of earning: Beverly Theatre on Thursday 17th, Irvine Meadows (a very big space for the JGB of the time) on Friday the 18th, Arlington in Santa Barbara on Saturday the 19th, and this show to round things out. A logistics person might have wanted to run it north - south (SB, Reseda, Beverly Hills, Irvine) or the other way around, but I suspect Irvine had to be on the Friday or Saturday, so all bets were off. Robert Hunter opened the last three nights, as far as I am aware.

! P: s1t02 Sugaree in the 9 and 10 this thing is just going nuts. Returning some years or months later: yeah, yeah. Sugaree comes hot out of the gate, and never lets up. Some serious attack variation arises 6:19, goodness still a minute later. Each note has its own little existence, but he constructs half-phrases, half-paragraphs, up and down the fret board, fast-slow, loud and really loud, God damn, Jerry! Jeesus fucking christ, now Kemper 8:35 just CRUSHING to keep up with Jerry and Jerry is running circles like a fucking demon. Crowd is seems to be going crazy 9:10, but Jerry is playing so fucking loud and crazy that it's hard to know. Pure energy happening here. Mamma mia! Now starts some fanning 9:45, and it sounds like he has four hands, because he seems to be fanning chords and picking notes at the same time. Boy. Softens to set up a verse first half of ten, verse comes 10:30. After that verse 11:30 he comps for Melvin, and Kemper @ 12:20, I just love you, man. 

! P: s1t04 I hold my RIRs to very high standards, and this one is not above average.

! P: s1t06 Deal Kemper is a beast here.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks. We're gonna take a break for a few minutes. We'll be back in a little while."

! P: s2t03 HTC going a mile a minute. Right out of the gate, Kemper sounds awesome, John hits a huge note and a little slide!

! R: s2t04 Gommorah clips in

! P: s2t05 Mid Moon goes a mile a freaking minute, and tempo seems to pick up as the song plays. Kemper needs another leg and a couple of arms to keep up.

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

In Case of Emergency, Break Glass: JGB at Keystone, March 22, 1984

 

LN jg1984-03-22.jgb.all.aud-corley.22191.shn2flac

Over the years, I thought that maybe February '82 was my least favorite JGB month, supplying a "warmish-dampish-Motel-6-towel feeling, without the hygiene", the drugs starting to really take their toll, not so much terrible as just vaguely gross.

Well, it has come to my attention that March 1984 is pretty bad, too. I lead my 3/4/84 listening notes with the title "A 35 Minute Second Set". True, the tape was tightly edited, and if DATs had been a thing the recording might have topped 40, maybe even approached the Minelli Line of 45. Well, here I am, having listened to Wednesday, March 22, 1984, and its set I, similarly tightly edited, checks in at 31 minutes and 17 seconds. As of this typing, only 9/16/84 set I comes to mind as a shorter, no-excuses electric set, at 30:54. (3/2/85 I nosed 3/22/84 out, at 31:08, but it had the excuse that the ladies apparently showed up late.) It is possible that some acoustic sets were shorter, e.g., 5/23/85 set I, but the circulating tape might be incomplete. In all of these cases, Garcia seems like he's trying to win his age bracket in the 10k.

Anyway, it would be one thing if these sets were hot, as at least one tape shows 3/2/85 I to be. But, to my ears, on this listen to this tape (a great Corley aud, the only one circulating for this date), it's just dull. When a server seems to drop a tray of glasses at 5:12 of Mid Moon, to me it feels far more like a metaphor for Garcia's health than the "orjersmic buildup" that my ol buddy neo_levo, Chris Ladner, heard in it. Your 6.1 miles may vary.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
March 22, 1984 (Wednesday)
Corley shnid-22191 shn2flac

--set I (4 tracks, 31:17)--
s1t01. [0:16] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:51] % [0:02]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:47] % [0:18]
s1t03. Rhapsody In Red [8:42] [0:02] % [0:02]
s1t04. Deal [8:05] (1)

--set II (5 tracks, 40:19)--
s2t05. [0:27] I Second That Emotion/ [10:01#] % [0:04]
s2t06. Someday Baby [7:09] [0:02] %
s2t07. Run For The Roses [5:31] [0:10] % [0:21]
s2t08. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:07] ->
s2t09. Midnight Moonlight [7:22] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - backing vocals;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums.

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/19840322-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/22191 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html

! venue: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html; URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html

! band: JGB #21a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! seealso: JGMF, "A 35 Minute Second Set: JGB at The Stone, March 4, 1984"

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > unknown cassette deck

! R: lineage: MAC > D > CD > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode) > Soundforge 6.0 (+2.0 dB gain) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN(mkwact). D > shn via C. Ladner.

! R: seeder comments: Outstanding audience recording. Pauses between some tracks. Tape flip during space between t05-t06. t09 - the orjersmic build up @  the end of the main solo section beginning at 04:56 is punctuated by a seemingly? precisely timed either Jerry glass breaking somewhere close by @ 05:13 - guaranteed to make your pets stand up and take note. Thanks to J.Powell for the CDR source. misSHN in the rain, 2/04.

! P: s1t01 HSII flubs first lyric, opened my eyes at night and there you were

! s1t04 (1) JG: "[inaudible] take a break for lil while. We'll be back in a few minutes."

! R: s2t05 ISTE end clips

! song: "Someday Baby" (s2t06): one of those songs that came up in several different bands, only to disappear. In this iteration, it had returned in December '83, after almost three years off. Here it gets its final run for almost another three years (3/10/87).

! P: s2t06 Someday Baby horrible vocal clam @ 6:32

! s2t09 (2) JG, not perfectly clear, but I think "Thanks a lot, see ya later."

42

Regular reader Dr. Jeff once asked that I post listening notes for Jerry's 42nd birthday show at the Stone, 8/1/84.

I have dutifully done so, some years later, and have just about nothing to report. Jerrybase tells me that he hadn't opened a second set w How Sweet in over three years, so there is that. Too many turns at the end of Cats. Sorry not to have more to say, Doc, but please feel free to weigh in on comments and set me straight!

I did use the occasion to make a list of Garcia's musical bday engagements. I do have the sense that in later years the GD Family had a picnic on this date. I have wondered if the 8/1/87 JGAB thing, which does not bear a certain date, derives from one of those. But I dunno.

1965: Warlocks; 

1966: none; 

1967: GD; 

1968: none; 

1969: NRPS; 

1970: NRPS/GD; 

1971: none; 

1972: none; 

1973: GD; 

1974: none; 

1975: studio w/ GD, studio (non-playing?) w/ NRPS (2 PM and 6 PM); 

1976: none; 

1977: studio w/ JGB; 

1978: none; 

1979: none; 

1980: none; 

1981: none; 

1982: GD; 

1983: none; 

1984: JGB; 

1985: none; 

1986: none; 

1987: practice w JGAB; 

1988: none; 

1989: none; 

1990: none; 

1991: none; 

1992: JGB; 

1993: none; 

1994: GD; 

1995: none.

Jerry Garcia Band

The Stone

412 Broadway

San Francisco, CA 94133

August 1, 1984 (Wednesday)

Rogers MAC shnid-144293 rename

--set I (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 48:20)--

s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:18]

s1t02. Cats Under The Stars [9:22] % [0:17]

s1t03. Mission In The Rain [11:34] % [0:11]

s1t04. Love In The Afternoon [10:13] %

s1t05. //Run For The Roses [5:03] [0:04]

s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [11:11] (1) [0:08]

--set II (4 tracks, 40:31)--

s2t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#9:24] % [0:19]

s2t02. When I Paint My Masterpiece [9:31] % [0:08]

s2t03. Dear Prudence// [13:48] ->

s2t04. //Midnight Moonlight [7:16] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: JGB #21b

! 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; [x:xx] = 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/19840801-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-08-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9303 (same source shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/144293 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/149281 (Senn MK441s)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, July 15, 1984, p. 37.

! seealso: JGMF, "Gloria Advenit! JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, Saturday, July 28, 1984"

! seealso: JGMF, "'Garcia Sounds Pretty Wrecked' - JGB at the Stone, July 31, 1984"

! R: field recordist: Craig Rogers

! R: field recording gear: 2x AKG CE-1 mics > Uher Cr-240

! R: field recording location: lip of stage

! R: transfer: master cassette > Nakamichi Dragon > Sony R700 DAT > Sony PCM p-700 DAT @ 44.1k > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe > wav 16/44.1 - Transferred by Jim Wise; Lineage: wav 16/44.1 > Adobe Audition 3.0.1 > iZotope RX4 Advanced > iZotope Ozone 5 Advanced > CD Wave > TLH > Flac16.

! R: Notes: - Azimuth and phase adjustments made. - Pitch corrected. - There were tape pauses after each track, I have crossfaded them together. - I don't usually use eq but the vocals were very low because the mics were only picking up vocals from the stage monitors. I have, therfore, rebalanced them using the module in RX7 Advanced to increase their presence and other elements too.  It's difficult to know just how high in the mix they should be but I think they sound about right.  I also made some other level adjustments. - There is hardly anything missing from the incomplete tracks. Thanks to Kenny Mance [sic] and Craig Rogers for this extraordinary recording. [note: I don't think Mance was involved.] Thanks to Jim Wise for the transfer. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with pitch correction. edited and mastered SIRMick December 2018.

! R: Gloriously good tape for the guitar and overall feel. Low vocals may be a feature for this period. Melvin is a little buried.

! R: I renamed the files, which had the date as 1984-09-01, to 1984-08-01.

! historical: Jerry's 42nd birthday. 1965: Warlocks; 1966: none; 1967: GD; 1968: none; 1969: NRPS; 1970: NRPS/GD; 1971: none; 1972: none; 1973: GD; 1974: none; 1975: studio w/ GD, studio (non-playing?) w/ NRPS; 1976: none; 1977: studio w/ JGB; 1978: none; 1979: none; 1980: none; 1981: none; 1982: GD; 1983: none; 1984: JGB; 1985: none; 1986: none; 1987: none; 1988: none; 1989: none; 1990: none; 1991: none; 1992: JGB; 1993: none; 1994: GD; 1995: none. It's not otherwise a particularly noteworthy show, and set II fits well on a single cassette side.

! P: s1t02 CUTS way too many turns at the end

! R: s1t04 MITR man, I love the sound of the strings on this tape. So good.

! R: s1t05 RFTR cuts in

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a while, be back in a few minutes."

! R: s2t03-04 lists a cut (e.g., tape flip), and then comment from john on shnid-9303 says "my notes from aoxoa say the Midnight Moonlight is missing from this show. The version on the disc is from 7/29/84 - hence the cuts."

! s2t04 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Feel Your Oats, and Race Back to Eat Them: JGB opening for Frank Zappa, UIC Pavilion, University of Illinois Chicago, August 18, 1984

Last night of the August '84 tour, which was really strong, amazingly strong given the shape Garcia was in. Zappa headlined the ads, but Garcia played second. Not much to write home about, except, on the theme of "oats". 1) Garcia is feeling them in the big guitar tunes CUTS, GOOMLW and Deal. Man - hot-hot-hot stuff, early and often in these tunes. 2) Like a horse racing back to the barn, Garcia sprints the band through the Midnight Moonlight at a really embarrassingly fast tempo. Kemper must have been sore for days trying to keep up.

Jerry Garcia Band
UIC Pavilion, University of Illinois-Chicago
1140 W. Harrison Street
Chicago, IL
August 18, 1984 (Saturday) - 7 PM
Hessberg MAC flac2496 shnid-148835

--main set + encore (7 tracks, 63:23)--
--main set (6 tracks, 53:28-0:55)--
t01. - ... Cats Under The Stars [#7:06] -8:12
t02. Get Out Of My Life Woman [11:00] [0:15]
t03. I'll Take A Melody [13:47] ->
t04. Run For The Roses [5:20] [0:01] % [0:07]
t05. Gomorrah [6:10] [0:14]
t06. Midnight Moonlight [7:29] (1) [0:09] % pre-encore [0:55]
--encore (1 track, 0:55+9:54)--
t07. Deal [9:45] (1) [0:09]

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

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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: URL https://jerrybase.com/events/19840818-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8415 (O'Connell MAC shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/22084 (Senn 421s shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/148834 (this master, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/148835 (this fileset). I am also aware of Nak 300 tapes pulled by David Doppelt and another by "Doug and Nancy" (the latter from the 3rd row), but it seems that neither of these has made the jump to lossless.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/xFccM

! JGBP: URL http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/12/uic-pavilion-university-of-illinois-525.html. This is a relatively rare example of the JGB playing a venue before the Dead would play it (April 9-10-11, 1987). I am surprised the Dead could still play a 10k seat arena in April 1987, but I guess that was just before "Touch Of Grey" hit it big.

! ad: Chicago Reader, unknown date

! listing: Chicago Tribune, August 12, 1984, p. 26

! review: [positive] Van Matre 1984

! expost: URL https://web.archive.org/web/20150910005323/http://home.online.no/~corneliu/picturedisc2.htm

! expost: Billboard, 9/22/1984, p. 53. Sellout @ 9,728 sold, $15, gross $145,920.

! R: historical: Last night of the August '84 tour which must have made a bundle. FZ recalled "we were the opening act and I didn't see any of his set." Van Matre says the opening / closing slots were determined by a coin flip, with Zappa headlining, and he got the imagery in a Chicago Reader ad. Van Matre likes both of the "aggressively unfashionable" acts, finding Garcia "capable of conjuring up a kind of sweet, stoned, meandering magic with his music that has lasting appeal".

! misc: Zappa setlist: Zoot Allures, More Trouble Every Day, Penguin In Bondage, Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel, City Of Tiny Lights, You Are What You Is, Mudd Club, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Dumb All Over, He's So Gay, Bobby Brown, Keep It Greasey, Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?, Carol You Fool, Chana In De Bushwop, Let's Move To Cleveland, Cosmik Debris, Sharleena, Ride My Face To Chicago, The Illinois Enema Bandit. via http://etreedb.org/lookup_show.php?shows_key=54581.

! R: field recordist: Michael Hessberg

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser ME-80 > Sony D5 (MAC)

! R: lineage: Nakamichi DR-1 playback > Tascam DA-3000 (DSF 1-bit/5.6 MHz) > dBpoweramp (24/96) > Adobe Audition CC 2019 > TLH flac2496.

! R: seeder notes: - Thanks to Michael Hessberg for the Master Cassette source - Thanks to Charlie Miller for the transfer and coordinating this effort - Thanks to Brian O'Connell for the shnid8415 Nakamichi 100 source which supplies the first 1:15 of "Cats Under The Stars", some crowd and the first few notes of "Gomorrah" (0:09 total), as well as some crowd and first few notes of "Midnight Moonlight" (0:15 total) - Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his assistance with the pitch correction. Mastered by Scott Clugston, December 2019.

! P: nice punchy tape

! R: t01 CUTS enters in progress, maybe 30 seconds missing

! P: t01 CUTS Garcia's first guitar turn late 2 already has some great fuzz. He had flubbed lyrics and sounded listless vocally, but here the guitar goes straight to the good stuff, no dicking around.

! P: t02 GOOMLW sounds so awesome!! The crowd appreciative 5 as Garcia does some percussive grungy stuff. More great playing late 8 over 9. Man, Garcia is feeling his oats here.

! P: t06 Mid Moon: I can nearly taste the oats from Garcia's feedbag as he gallops to the barn. Embarrassingly sped up.

! t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. G'night."

! P: t07 Deal fucks up verse goes right to "hate to leave you sitting there composin' lonesome blues". It's a fine, if misplaced, sentiment. Notwithstanding this, Deal is very hot, as you would expect. Very hot.

! t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."

"Garcia Sounds Pretty Wrecked" - JGB at the Stone, July 31, 1984

A rare Tuesday night outing finds the newly-formed JGB #21b sounding pretty typical for the period. Apparently the second set started after midnight, which meant it happened on Garcia's 42nd birthday, which the crowd apparently commemorated with a song of its own.

Not much to note. I noted generically that Garcia sounds pretty wrecked, noted lots of lyrical flubs, and noted some hotness in Rhapsody In Red, which should always have delivered at least that.

LN jg1984-07-31.jgb.all.sbd-misSHN.14429.shn2flac

Jerry Garcia Band

The Stone

412 Broadway

San Francisco, CA 94133

July 31, 1984 (Tuesday)

MSC shnid-14429 shn2flac

--set I (5 tracks, 47:26)--

s1t01. //I'll Take A Melody [#14:21] % [0:10]

s1t02. Get Out Of My Life Woman [7:46] % [0:03]

s1t03. Like A Road Leading Home [9:02] [0:11]

s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:12] [0:06

s1t05. Deal [10:#26] (1) [0:10]

--set II (5 tracks, 53:04)--

s2t01. [0:03] /Rhapsody In Red [12:57] [0:04] % [0:03]

s2t02. Russian Lullaby [14:12] ->

s2t03. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [11:45] [0:13]

s2t04. Gomorrah [6:02] ->

s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [7:40] (2) [0:05]

! 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; [ ] = 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/19840731-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-07-31

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/14429 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/149282 (TB MAC).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! ad: SFSECDB-19840715p37

! seealso: JGMF, "Gloria Advenit! JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, Saturday, July 28, 1984".

! seealso: JGMF, "42" (re 8/1/84)

! historical: Jerry celebrated his birthday with a Tuesday (7/31) and Wednesday (8/1) run for Freddie Herrera and Bobby Corona at the Stone. wk recalls that "the second set to 7/31/84 didn't start until 12:30 a.m., so everyone sang Happy Birthday to Jerry when the curtain went up. Then again at the beginning of Set I on 8/1/84. Technically he played two shows on his 42nd birthday."

! R: Source:  SBD > CM > PCM > Cass > DAT > ZA2  > CDR > WAV > SHNv3 (as given to me).

! R: Comments: Master tape paused between tracks. Thanks to J.R. Wolk for the seeds. Another installment of the MissSHN in the Rain splinter faction of the music never stopped project ...

! P: Garcia sounds pretty wrecked.

! R: s1t01 ITAM cuts in

! P: s1t01 ITAM flubs very first vocals, then again halfway through first verse.

! P: s1t03 LARLH lyrics not well recalled

! R: s1t05 Deal dropout (tape flip?) at 09:44.

! s1t05 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little bit later."

! R: s2t01 RIR clips in

! P: s2t01 RIR excellent. Late 8 things get especially grungy, and stay that way for awhile.

! P: s2t02 RL when the vocals return, Jerry sounds fatigued.

! P: s2t04 Gomorrah lots of lyrical flubs

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

The Auds Have It - JGB at Irvine Meadows, May 18, 1984

LN jg1984-05-18.jgb.all.fm-ladner.32156.flac1644
LN jg1984-05-18.jgb.all.aud-french.84138.flac1644

There is a famous story of President Abraham Lincoln, taking a vote in a cabinet meeting on whether to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. All his cabinet secretaries vote nay, whereupon Lincoln raises his right hand and declares: "The ayes have it!" (source)

Just had an interesting experience highlighting the variable reactions that different tapes can generate.

In trying to be methodical in dating the birth of the longest-running GOTS aggregation, JGB #21b, to July 10 28, 1984 with the arrival of Gloria Jones, I wanted to compare some sbd tape from that night with sbd tape from the mini SoCal jaunt of May 17-20, 1984. I did so using some choruses from "Cats Under The Stars" from Irvine on May 18, for which there is an oddly-lineaged "FM-sbd" tape which the great Chris Ladner put into circulation back in the days of the tol.etree.org FTP server, when he and I did business as "misSHN in the rain" an offshoot of The Music Never Stopped Project. I think I came up with the misSHN appellation, and quite proud of it I was, too - a relatively successful triple entendre --we were on a mission, shn was the prevailing file format, and "Mission In The Rain" was primarily a song from Garcia's side projects, which was our focus-- is not that easy to come by.

Anyway, I decided to listen to the rest of the show, because I love me some '84 JGB, including the next night (5/19) and a hot hometown show a week prior (5/12), which my third grade teacher, Don Dearth, had taped. I was also  partly inspired by a new-to-digital Doug Lamarre pull of 8/13/84, which I'd like to spin soon.

It left me surprisingly cold. Not believing my ears, I decided to return to the FANTASTIC audience pull made by Mike French (shnid-84138), his first solo taping effort before he and crew gained experience as the "Tapers From Hell". As I had remembered, the tape positively screams, coming at you 6' up (Mike's chin level), from 9th row center in the orchestra pit, and Garcia is a grungy monster. Anything I note about a performance leads with a P, and I said this:

It's amazing what an aud can do. The first P note, for example, involves the effect Garcia kicks in around 5:30 (track time) of CUTS. I hadn't even noticed it earlier in this day listening to the board. Now, I go back to the board tape to find the same piece, and it's really pretty flat on the board tape, none of the zing that this aud delivers. Night and day.

The P note in question now includes "Great guitar playing. Then about 5:25 he puts some huge hairy fuzz on it, crowd lit up ... Pretty filthy." Similarly, my listening self found nothing noteworthy in the FM-sbd version of "Catfish John", but said this about the aud version: "this is one of those really long CJs that makes you marvel at how much Garcia had to say around this song. Big wah on, real round and soft, then a little more glassine ...", etc. Totally different observations emerge from the tape. Same goes for RIR. The board tape version left me unmoved, while listening to the aud I noted "raging guitar playing over 8, crowd is duly appreciative. Filthy grungy fanning, crazy power."

Und so weiter. No "team of rivals" here. The auds have it. Second set was pretty short, three tunes, which I imagine must reflect a hard curfew behind the orange curtain. Listening notes below the fold.

Gloria NON Advenit! JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, Saturday, July 10, 1984

update 1: Jeez ... I now think Gloria must have arrived 7/10/84-7/11/84, a Tuesday-Wednesday in Palo Alto. Working backward: she is mentioned in reviews of August 1984 east coast shows. It is an iron law that the band played local warmups before leaving on tour, which would be these birthday shows. And it is just about an iron law that new members broke in on off-nights, off-the-beaten path, or both. Tues-Weds in Palo Alto fits the pattern better than a Saturday (7/28) in Berkeley the weekend of Jerry's birthday.

Having spent some time with it, I am prepared to declare that I hold that the titular show, JGB at Keystone Palo Alto on Saturday, July 28, 1984 Tuesday, July 10, 1984 represents Gloria Jones's public debut with the outfit. It thus also marks the birth of JGB #21b, THE Jerry Garcia Band, which would play together through November 1993, making it Garcia's longest-running aggregation outside the Brent Mydland-era Grateful Dead.

I have been circling around this conclusion for almost a decade now. Let me reconstruct. Older reckonings had Gloria starting on 7/21/83, or 9/30/83. In late 2010, I found an ad for 11/27/83 naming DeeDee Dickerson and not Gloria alongside Jackie LaBranch, which got me to thinking those earlier understandings were wrong. Five years later, I went through band itineraries for the November-December 1983 tour, which included DeeDee's flight arrangements and so on. So far, this has DDD present through '83, consistent with Corry's current reckoning (as JGB #21a, b. 7/20/83, d. 12/13/83).

I did a bunch of stuff in 2014. First, I conjectured that 1/8/84 was Gloria's first gig, which probably led to Corry's current dating for JGB #21b. I am now pretty sure that was wrong because, second, I found a show review from Santa Barbara (5/19/84) which namechecks the band, including DDD. This is no guarantee, of course, since JGB member names were not always  correctly rendered by local journos, but it was suggestive. And, third, I found pictures from 8/11/84 which show Gloria onstage. So, the bookends have now moved forward quite a bit - DDD was in the house 5/19/84, and almost certainly the last night of the little mini SoCal jaunt it was a part of, 5/20/84 at Wolf & Rissmiller's in Reseda. The next show was 7/28/84, part of a four-night birthday run for Garcia, warming up for the East Coast tour.

So I did some listening around those bookends, the May shows now presumed to be with DeeDee, and the July-August shows now presumed to be with Gloria. Despite obviously strong priors (and probably other bias in favor of finding a difference), I hear differences in the backing vocals. I couldn't characterize them beyond saying they are different. Basic methodology was to find clean tapes (sbd preferred) that have clear backing vocals. I ended up focusing on the first chorus of "Cats Under The Stars" on 5/18/84 (an FM-SBD tape, shnid-32156) and on 7/28/84 (sbd, shnid-14428). Again, the backing vocalists sound different. There aren't a lot of board tapes in these frames, so then I compared the opening stanza of "Catfish John" on the same 5/18/84 and the next known version, 8/10/84. Again, I detect a difference.

update 2: the original version of this post had Gloria arriving July 28th. But I now think it must have been July 10th.

On this basis and on the basis of earlier sniffing around 10/82 and 7/83, I am prepared to "call" the following:

• DeeDee Dickerson's tenure with the Garcia Band ran from 10/24/82 1/13/83 (with JGB #15b) through 5/20/84 (with JGB #21a)
• Jacklyn LaBranch's tenure with the Garcia Band ran from 1/13/83 to the end (4/23/95).
• Gloria Jones's tenure with the Garcia Band ran from 7/10/84 (with JGB #21b) to the end.

My only concern is that I thought there was a new member on 1/8/84 based on audience chatter. That, combined with the fact that journos didn't always have the most up-to-date information about who was in the Garcia Band, gives me some pause. I hope the listening analysis I did holds up!

Now, how about 7/28/84, listening notes for which I post below?

The setlist novelty here is Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman", which came in strong and stuck around pretty much to the end of the Garcia Band. The JGB never varied its setlists that much (certainly not relative to the GD), and I don't really have the data I'd need to map song debuts, but this is just about the only new-to-the-repertoire tune I can think of between, say, 1981 and 1985. Are there any others, like, is there a single other cover tune that JGB added to the repertoire between, say, "Eleanor Rigby" in 1980 (sort of) and "It Stoned Me" in 1986? Anyway, great tune, done well, and at points "hot-hot-hot", per my notes.

The show, overall, offers plenty of sloppy pep. I hated when he couldn't figure out how to end "Cats Under The Stars", and this version suffers from that. There's plenty of mumblyverse, slop, and hot energy in tunes like "Tore Up Over You". Not bad, all told.

Listening notes below the fold.

Kabuki Acoustics

LN jg1982-08-23.jgjk.early-late.aud-menke-connor.12586.shn2flac
LN jg1984-06-03.jgjk.all.sbd-unknown.81273.shn2flac

Bill Graham ran the Kabuki Nightclub in Japantown for a few years in the early 1980s, and Garcia played twice, both times acoustic with ol' buddy John Kahn. I am not a huge fan of the Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet, and these shows do nothing to move me from that basic position. Jerry still sounds somewhat youthful in '82, not at all the case two years later. Not much to report either way, though I did like the "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" from the '82 late show.

BTW - did Garcia (JGJK? JGB?) really play the Warfield on Saturday 8/21/82?


Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Kabuki Nightclub
1881 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
August 23, 1982 (Monday) - early (7:30 PM) and late (11 PM) shows
Menke MAC early-1, late shnid-12586 shn2flac

--early show (8 tracks, 1 tune missing, 54:37)--
e-t01. [0:19] Deep Elem Blues :20-
e-t02. Friend Of The Devil [7:06] [0:24]
e-t03. Little Sadie [3:34] [0:08]
e-t04. I've Been All Around This World [4:12] [0:41]
e-t05. Valerie [8:19] (1) [0:49]
e-t06. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:42] % [0:01]
e-t07. Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie [6:22] [0:04]
e-t08. Run For The Roses [4:23] (2) [0:17]
[MISSING: Ripple]

--late show main set + encore (11 tracks,
--late show main set (10 tracks,
l-t01. //It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry [#5:24] [0:08]
l-t02. Dire Wolf [3:02] [0:20]
l-t03. To Lay Me Down [7:06] [0:18]
l-t04. Bird Song [8:25] [1:02]
l-t05. Going, Going, Gone [4:17] [0:03]
l-t06. Jack-A-Roe [4:40]
l-t07. Gomorrah [5:44]
l-t08. Run For The Roses [4:56] [0:12]
l-t09. Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie [5:44] ->
l-t10. Ripple [3:54] (3) [0:47]
--late show encore (1 track, 6:26)--
l-t11. Reuben And Cérise [6:11] (4) [0:15]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

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/19820823-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19820823-02 (late)

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-08-23 (early); https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1982-08-23-kabuki-theater-san-francisco-ca-2/ (late)

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12586 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/106691 (early Jaret MAC)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tmuZ7bWNniw

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/01/kabuki-theater-1881-post-street-at.html. He lists capacity 700, but I show 1,400. Ticket calls it Kabuki Night Club, ad calls it Kabuki Nightclub at Japan Center Theatre.

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, August 15, 1982, p. 28

! historic: comedienne Paula Poundstone opened the late show. These were the first Bay Area JGJK shows. First time for Garcia playing the Kabuki - only other time was two years later (6/3/84, also JGJK).

! R: field recordist: Bob Menke

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > Sony D5M

! R: field recording media: 2x (presumed) Maxell metal cassette, Dolby B

! R: field recording location: 25' from stage DFC

! R: Transfer: Cassette Master > Echo Event Gina A/D > Sound Forge 4.5 > CDR > EAC (secure mode) > CDWave (retracked on sb's) > SHN (MKWACT). Analog > Digital transfer by Bob Menke, EAC/Shn'ed by Charlie Connor.

! R: seeder notes: Seeded to fungus, and abgd 10/20/02. Correct sector boundaries verified with Shntool. Flaws: d1t06 - dropouts at 11:05 & 11:07; d2t03 - dropout at 1:32; d2t07 - dropout at 1:41; The dropouts were tightened up using Steinberg's Wavelab 3.0.

! e-t05 (1) JG, as if surprised to see the crowd in front of him: "Hi!"

! P: e-t06 STOF bass feature 6:27ff

! e-t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. [inaudible]"

! P: l-t09 OBIANL maybe I am just in the mood for it, but this sounds especially heartfelt to my ears

! l-t10 (3) JG: "Thank ya."

! P: l-t11 RAC late 2 he has to ta-da-da through a verse, having forgotten it.

! l-t11 (4) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Kabuki Nightclub
1881 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
June 3, 1984 (Sunday) - 9 PM
sbd shnid-81273 shnf2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 36:19)--
s1t01. //Deep Elem Blues [#6:30] (1) [0:12]
s1t02. Friend Of The Devil [7:29] (2) [0:10]
s1t03. Dire Wolf [3:25] (3) [0:03]
s1t04. Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie [6:06]
s1t05. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [7:26] (4) [0:02]
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:40] (5) [0:17]

--set II (6 tracks, 45:56)--
s2t07. Little Sadie [4:25] (6) [0:07]
s2t08. To Lay //Me Down [7:#51] (7) [0:02]
s2t09. Valerie [8:05]
s2t10. Bird Song [13:40]
s2t11. Goodnight Irene (8) [6:54]
s2t12. Ripple [4:40] (9) [0:12]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - ac-b.

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/19840603-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-06-03

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8912 (sbd, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/10134 (sbd, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/81273 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/93922 (Abrams Nak 300 MAC, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/108054 (Greeney55 MAC, flac1644).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tmuZ7bWNniw

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/01/kabuki-theater-1881-post-street-at.html. He lists capacity 700, but I show 1,400 (Selvin 1996), while Golden Road brief review of this show pegs it at 1,100.

! historic: Robert Hunter opened for this second of two Garcia dates at the Kabuki (the other being 8/23/82, with early and late shows).

! official: More of the Best [3 track bonus CD that was distributed with pre-ordered copies of The Very Best Of Jerry Garcia] (Rhino, 2006) (t03-Dire Wolf)

! review: "Deadline," Golden Road no. 03 (Summer 1984), p. 6. "Garcia had slight problems projecting his vocals, and Kahn seemed utterly lost on the Dead material" (GR03 p.6).



! R: SBD -> Cm -> Dat -> CD -> EAC -> SHN

! R: s1t01 DEB cuts in

! s1t01 (1) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t02 (2) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t03 (3) JG: "Thank you."

! P: s1t04 OBIANL John sounds lost at the start of this.

! s1t05 (4) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t06 (5) JG: "Thank you. We're gonna take a little short break, and we'll be in ... a little later."

! s2t07 (6) JG: "Thank you."

! R: s2t08 TLMD splice @ 6:22.

! P: s2t08 TLMD some interesting extended vocal work at the end. No biggie, but not nothing.

! s2t08 (7) JG: "Thank you."

! P: s2t09 Valerie interesting work late 4, different tone that I recall having heard on other acoustic versions of this tune.

! s2t11 (8) JG: "Thank you."

! s2t12 (9) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Shortest Two-Set Electric Show? JGB at the Stone, Sunday, September 16, 1984

LN jg1984-09-16.jgb.all.aud-jjoops.97573.flac1644

A little dive into the Rock Bottom period yields this pearl of an electric JGB show - two four-tune sets clocking in around a half-hour of music each. I don't really note anything much about the performance, other than its brevity and Garcia's unsurprising vocal limitations. I don't want to be mean. I am just calling 'em as I see 'em.

I have been doing some listening, but not making much in the way of notes. I guess "not much to say" is a datum, too, so I may post a bunch of stuff this weekend. Or not.

The Examiner has revealed that there was an opening act this night (Ron Price), and for more local early 80s gigs than has generally been appreciated. I suspect Jerry didn't come on until quite late, but I don't know that for sure. An opening act would have been useful to keep the beer-buying crowd buying beer while awaiting the big fella.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
September 16, 1984 (Sunday)
aud shnid-97573

--set I (4 tracks, 30:54)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#8:07] [0:20] %
s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#8:08] ->
s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:12] [0:23] % [0:11]
s1t04. Deal [8:29] (1) [0:05]

--set II (4 tracks, 32:12)--
s2t05. //Harder They Come [#10:04] [0:07]
s2t06. Like A Road Leading Home [8:08] ->
s2t07. Reuben And Cherise [6:57] ->
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:44] (2) [0:12]

! 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; [ ] = 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.

! JB: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840916-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-09-16

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/97573 (this fileset)

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! ad: SFSECDB-19840909p16. $8 show, Ron Price opened.

! R: Lineage: MA? > ? > CD (from the Jjoops Tupperware of Treasures) > Eac > Wav > Gems Edit Station > flac. Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell on the GEMS Edit Station; Trac'ed Cdwave, Flac'ed TLH Level 8 a **GEMS Production** www.shnflac.net.

! P: Garcia sounds absolutely terrible. Dreadful. This has to be one of the shortest electric Garcia shows on record, even with the tight editing of the tape considered. 5/23/85 acoustic was shorter (see http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/04/acoustic-at-denver-rainbow-jgjk-may-23.html), but as of 2/23/19 I cannot identify a shorter two-set electric show.

! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in

! R: s1t02 TLEO clips in

! s1t04 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, be back a little later."

! R: s2t05 HTC cuts in

! P: s2t05 HTC Garcia can barely sing at all. Notwithstanding that. it's surprising that it ends when it does - most versions would take a turn or several more.

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

I stand corrected: it is that bad

The pithy title I gave to a set of 8/24/84 listening notes (s1 only) was "It's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing."

I stand corrected. Yes, yes it is.

It is *that bad*.

Here are notes on the three consecutive tracks of s2:
! P: s2t01 HTC ... these vocals are about as bad as they would ever be.
! P: s2t02 Sugaree ... the voice is absolutely *gone*. Even I can barely listen to it.
! P: s2t03 DLG these are the worst vocals in the history of Jerry

As of today, I hold that this, 8/24/84 is the worst vocal show in GOTS history. FWIW.

LN jg1984-08-24.jgb.all-1.aud.138021.flac1644

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
August 24, 1984 (Friday)
all-1 DL AF flac1644 shnid-138021

--set I (5 tracks, 46:32)--
s1t01. Cats Under the Stars
s1t02. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
s1t03. Get Out of My Life Woman
s1t04. Let it Rock
s1t05. De/al

--set II (3 tracks, 1 missing, 41:58)--
s2t01. [0:11] The Harder They Come [13:03] [0:02] %
s2t02. Sugaree
s2t03. Don't Let Go
[MISSING: Midnight Moonlight]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - 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/19840824-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/124940 (s1 only); shnid-138021 (this fileset).

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/L0BBt

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html.  #21b: THE Jerry Garcia Band.

! JGMF: "It's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2013/08/ln-jg1984-08-24jgbs1aud.html.   

! JGMF: "I love you Jer, but these vocals are below the bar," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/12/ln-jg1984-08-26jgballaud.html.

! R: source: Unknown AUD (low-gen) kindly provided from the collection of DL.

! R: Transfer: Maxell XLII > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 >
R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transfer by Andrew F. 03/2017

! R: Note: First Set from same root source as shnid-124940. Tape-flip at 1:21 in Deal, about a minute missing. Tape ends on first note of Midnight Moonlight.

! P: s2t01 HTC this band can play. Can barely aspirate the word "shine". But the mounting guitar buildup in late 2 just sounds stunning, this tape capturing hot and sweaty Garcia guitar at the Stone. From way down deep inside him, since shallower layers were pretty well numbed. More of the same guitar break 4, still playing wonderfully 4:30, charming, fluid guitar work, another go 'round, I think #4, 4:45ff. Left off 9:25, Melvin had been playing for awhile, nothing special. 11 these vocals are about as bad as they would ever be.

! P: s2t02 Sugaree the guitar work is working, but the voice is absolutely *gone*. Even I can barely listen to it.

! P: s2t03 DLG these are the worst vocals in the history of Jerry. Very late 6 Kemper drives Garcia to a savage space, very dark and moody. Kemper is really leading the charge here, and Garcia drops chin to chest and wails a little bit. Kahn walks it into a jazzier space, everyone where he should be.

this grey bar appears courtesy of Blogger

A 35 Minute Second Set: JGB at The Stone, March 4, 1984

LN jg1984-03-04.jgb.all.sbd-gmb.85294.flac1644

Sunday night, 3/4/84, Jerry races out of the building with a 35 minute set II. Maybe he was late for mass. Nothing much else to report.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
March 4, 1984 (Sunday)
sbd GMB flac1644 shnid-85294

--set I (5 tracks, 48:57)--
s1t01. //Rhapsody In Red/ [#9:42#]
s1t02. Sugaree [11:21] [0:03] %
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [14:18] ->
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:10] ->
s1t05. Deal [8:18] (1) [0:05]

--set II (4 tracks, 35:27)--
s2t01. Cats Under The Stars [8:16] % [0:04]
s2t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:57] %
s2t03. Reuben And Cherise [6:47] ->
s2t04. Midnight Moonlight [7:21] (2) [0:03]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - backing vocals;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840304-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-03-04

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/16915 (MSC shnf, deprecated), http://etreedb.org/shn/85294 (this fileset).

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tqidL

! band: JGB #21a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! ad: BAM, February 24, 1984, p. unk.

! R: Source: Soundboard Cassette Master > DAT

! R: Transfer: Panasonic SV-3700 > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0

mastering with iZotope Ozone 3 > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8). Transferred, Remastered and Seeded by Green Mountain Bros. May 24, 2007.

! R: hard to know via whom this soundboard tape entered the light. It is of a piece with 3/2, 3/10 and 3/21, all board tapes circulating from this month. The rumor back in the day was always that band insiders might have been inclined to trade the occasional tape for the occasional bindle of Bolivian Marching Powder, but I can't speak to the accuracy of these dirty rumors.

! R: s1t01 RIR cuts in, clips out

! P: s1t01 vocals are brutal

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a little bit."

! s2t04 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Fluent Guitar and Dissonant Vocals: JGB at Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, OR - December 5, 1984

Drummer David Kemper's laminate from the "1984 Winter Northwest Tour" of the JGB, December 5-8, 1984.

LN jg1984-12-05.jgb.s2.aud.79642.flac1644

I have been engaging this little mini-tour undertaken by the JGB in early December 1984 as a way to reflect on Garcia's Rock Bottom. I come away consistently impressed with his guitar playing and mortified by his singing.

12/6/84 listening notes;
12/7/84 listening notes.

The first night of the "tour", Silva Concert Hall in Eugene, is, as of this writing, only represented by a good aud of set II - if you have set I on tape, please consider having it digitized and circulated. It's utterly characteristic of the others. I absolutely love this "Dear Prudence", containing everything that was really special about JGB #21b, THE Jerry Garcia Band - tight players building strong scaffolding and Garcia clambering around like a Bay Bridge welder. But it also exemplifies, in particular in two clammy spots that I mark for reference, Garcia's inexcusably bad vocals during the period. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Random note about the venue: it apparently opened in 1982, and it's one of the rare rooms that Grateful Dead and Garcia Band played more or less contemporaneously, with the following Jerry sightings per JGBP:

8/29/83 Grateful Dead
8/30/83 Grateful Dead
8/31/83 Grateful Dead
1/16/84 Jerry Garcia Band
5/6/84 Grateful Dead
5/7/84 Grateful Dead
5/8/84 Grateful Dead
12/5/84 Jerry Garcia Band

Here's a broader post on venues played by both GD and a Garcia side operation.

Note the little "filler" on the end of this fileset, Garcia's birth control PSA, using tape of him talking about parenting that I have heard, I believe from somewhere on GDAO. I do miss tape filler.

Jerry Garcia Band
Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts
7th and Willamette
Eugene, OR 97401
December 5, 1984 (Wednesday) - 7 PM
s2 aud shnid-79642

--fileset (7 tracks, 48:31)--

--set II (6 tracks, 47:35)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [0:31]
s2t02. I'll Take A Melody [12:39] [0:08]
s2t03. Get Out Of My Life Woman [8:57] [0:06] %
s2t04. Dear Prudence [12:39] ->
s2t05. Gomorrah [5:57] ->
s2t06. Midnight // Moonlight [6:#31] (1) [0:07]

--filler (1 track, 0:56)--
s1t07. Jerry's PSA for birth control [0:56]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - 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/19841205-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/79642 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/V3uHA

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/silva-concert-hall-hult-center-for.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html.  #21b: THE Jerry Garcia Band.

! seealso: listening notes from 12/6/84 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/03/ln-jg1984-12-06jgbs1s2paud.html) and 12/7/84 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/03/ln-jg1984-12-07jgballaud.html)

! historical: Michael Hedges opened. Note that as of 3/24/2015 there is no recording of set I known to me.

! P: Overall, a perfect microcosm of the period. Some amazingly fluent guitar playing alongside occasionally cringeworthily dissonant singing.

! R: Source: AUD > ? > C > Sony TC-D5M > Realtek AC97 > Soundforge > CD-Wave > TLH v.1.0.0.72 (for SBE-OK, FLAC compression & checksums) > FLAC, October 2006 by Andrew F.

! R: seeder notes: "There's a cut (tape flip) at the start of Midnight Moonlight.  Soundforge was used to adjust levels, correct the pitch, and to make fades. THANKS to Jeff Harrison and Jake Feinberg for the tape. ENJOY!"

! R: overall, this is a totally pleasant tape. Love how it picks up John.

! P: s2t02 ITAM Mule is pulling some big fat bass strings during ITAM. Vocal troubles, not all the way to a clam, on "I understand | how the old fisherman" around 4:15. I have heard worse.

! P: s2t03 GOOMLW Garcia is croaking

! P: s2t04 DP horrible vocals. One of the things I love about how they did this song in this period is exemplified from about 5. They have run through the first hunk of the song, and now Garcia wants to play a lot of scales, spend maybe 3-4-5 minutes chasing Dear Prudence around with a good, tight band. John sounds very engaged and good, keys are not overcrowded, Kemper is metronomic. JGB #21b on Dear Prudence at a nice upbeat tempo with clarion-Jerry is playing guitar ... it's good. Melvin is right there late 5 so Jerry can start double-timing from 8 - very nice scaffolding by Melvin, and Jerry is make good use of it, fast parcour over, under, around, and through. At 9, he starts stretching and pulling instead. It's amazing how fluently his playing, given priors about the timeframe. The ending catches a few players by surprise, but they are quick to fall in, and then we drop into a nice Gomorrah. The vocals are rough, of course.

! P: s2t05 Gomorrah: OK, if you want to hear what it means to hit a vocal clam, listen to the first vocals here, maybe late 20 second range. I put this here as a marker, but I strongly discourage you from actually checking out what I mean. There would be no winners. (BTW, there's another s2t06 @ 5:24.)

! R: s2t06 Mid Moon quick tape flip (good job, taper!) at start of song, not much missing.

! s2t06 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

! s2t07 I have heard this Garcia text before, I think it's one of the interviews at GDAO.

The vocals are as bad as Garcia ever inflicted on a paying audience: August 26, 1984

LN jg1984-08-26.jgb.all.aud-dearth.84568.flac1644

OK, turns out I was most of the way through a listen to this, so I finished it.

On the one hand, that wasn't so bad. I don't feel too unclean. On the other hand, as Jimmy Fallon's teenaged character Sara might say -- "Ew".

First, tip o' the cap to Mr. Don Dearth for heading down to Palo Alto, fresh tape and batteries, the mics and the deck, and walking out into the early summer morning with a fine aural commemorative. And thanks to John Moses for getting this tape into the world.

Second, my prior opinion of this show, that it may be the single worst Garcia performance in the canon, is based in a 2007 listen, only tersely noted. I now think that's an overstatement, but my main position now is just that it's hard to verbalize summary judgments of multidimensional phenomena. In brief, my assessment is that one aspect of the show is just so bad that it cannot help but color assessment of the whole show. I'll elaborate.

"Ew"

The vocals are as bad as Garcia ever inflicted on a paying audience. To my taste, late 1984 (this period through December) is Jerry's vocal nadir - he is just absolutely, fundamentally shredded up. Under the overall heading "Jerry sounds absolutely awful", I note the following specifics.

• ! P: s2t01 MITR starts off as one of Garcia's worst recorded performances. In 2007, more terse than I seem to be now, I wrote simply "MITR is a mess". Even though it's not quite as badly off-key as some other versions --he really had trouble arranging this song to suit his ever changing vocal abilities-- he botches the words and just sounds rather lost at the start. I think he was *this close* to asking for a mulligan. He finds his footing a little bit, "tonight I would be thankful for any dream at all". Indeed.
• ! P: s2t02 LITA Jerry again clams up the beginning, this time with some ill-plucked strings.
• ! P: s2t04 DLG Garcia has completely lost his voice.

On the Other Hand ...

There is some excellent guitarwork, including in sometimes-throwaway "They Love Each Other" and the new-to-the-repertoire hottie, Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman" (GOOMLW) -- "there is absolutely nothing wrong with this." Even 2007 me, even after the pooch-screwing that starts "Love In The Afternoon", conceded that "LITA has some pretty nice playing." Oh, and "Don't Let Go", as ever, is a treat that could bear repeat engagements. (That said, I think the next night's version outdoes this one.) If you had paid your however-much-it-is to get it, you would have seen some world class music being performed.

... and the servings are so small

What about quantity? Later, especially after getting busted in Golden Gate Park in January 1985, Jerry regularly crossed the entertainment industry's version of baseball's Mendoza line (a .200 batting average, honoring a light-hitting Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop) - the Minelli Line: 45 minutes of big show per paid admission, and that's it. Cabaret economics is like Manchester Capitalism, without the morals. You want more? Pony up for the next show, and pass me my drink and cigarettes. The most egregious example of Garcia doing this is probably an acoustic duet gig with John Kahn in Kahn's Beverly Hills hometown, May 31, 1985, when Garcia's often-fawning (and, at this point, regularly-suffering) fans brought a chant of "bullshit! bullshit!" down around him and forced him to cough out a few extra numbers before turning them out.

This first set dangerously skirts the Minelli Line, while set II is about an hour, a decent quantity that's more like batting .250. The show is not as long as the next night. But more importantly, this Saturday show just isn't as good as the next night. The weekend's pair of "Don't Let Go"s provides an easy contrast: 16 minutes versus 22, especially at the relatively brisk pace they were playing it with at this time (nearly optimal to my ears, BTW), is the difference between Jerry striking the fly or mostly just swaggering around it, seeing it, knowing he could reach for it if he tried, but the moment never quite culminates, for whatever reason. Interesting that I noted this on the Sunday version: "go-for-it' continuation early in 13 by Jerry. Very long and interesting DLG" - that's the difference between the two versions - on 8/26 he passes up the opportunity to stretch the song out, while on 8/27, at just the same point, he seizes it.

One way to think of this is the linear-and-additive-effects model - take the average. The guitar playing can be good, but there aren't enough of them. The vocals are horrible. DLG interesting. Below average show for the period (compare next night) but, as I said from the show two days earlier (8/24),

if this is rock bottom, it's not that bad.

But I just can't escape those bloody vocals. I want to suggest that there's something so qualitatively bad about these vocals that we must condemn this show as an affront to the professionalism that Garcia, for all of his travails, almost never failed to strive to achieve. (This is not weasel language. He failed to achieve a standard of professionalism many times, as anyone who's trying hard to do something hard to do must. The key is in being conscious of the standard, and in the trying to uphold it.) Those short sets in 1985 can define the show, to my satisfaction, as a ripoff, and thus a professional violation, a violation of the should-be-inviolable pact with your paying customers. And I might have to rule similarly about these late August '84 vocals, and say that keeping yourself in such a state that you can't, y'know, sing, and charging people to hear you try to do so anyway, to general icky embarrassment, doing all of that violates some standard of professionalism that Garcia professed to uphold, which he almost always did - except for during this period, 1984-1985.

And you know that on some level, for as extensively as he bandaged all those frayed endings in a poppy gauze, dulled the annoying sensibilities, he knew - he knew, and he was mortified. This is pure speculation on my part, of course. But Garcia's a smart guy. He knows the vocals are rough to such an extent, on some nights, that no amount of compensatory guitar wizardry can really make it OK. He's thought very consciously over a two-decade professional career about his relationship with fans, with customers, their respective rights and responsibilities to each other. He's violating that, in this window. He's violating that with 30-something minute sets (generally the next year), and he's violating that with cringeworthy vocals here. And I am sure that somewhere and somehow he regrets it. But, of course, sometimes it's as if one's hands were tied.

So, no, while I am not interested in blame, I am interested in evaluating Garcia as a professional musician, and, here, I don't want to give this guy a pass. I want to hold him to his own standards, to which he almost always held himself. But not in this period. For Garcia, a professional musician to the core of his being, that's Rock Bottom.

Listening notes below the fold for this Sunday night show during the busy and interesting month of August 1984 (see also 8/11/84, 8/12/84, 8/24/84, 8/27/74).

Lost Your Voice? Play a Monster "Don't Let Go" (8/27/84)

LN jg1984-08-27.jgb.all.aud-corley.15029.shn2flac

I have sometimes joked, half-seriously, that 8/26/84 may be Garcia's most wasted performance, but I just do that to embody a feeling about the period as a whole. At some point I'll bring myself to revisit it.

I like listening around such things, as much as listening directly to them. Hence the JGB #21b gig from Monday, August 27, 1984 down at the Keystone Palo Alto entered the listening queue. Why hear the show itself when you can hear the next night? This could also provide a check against a listen last year to 8/24/84, which I probably unfairly shorthand with "It's not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing"; take my own temperature on this period. Seeing taper John Corley's name, I know it will be a great upfront tape, with the deconstructed Nak 700s nestled inside the obscuring, silly hat.

This show has all of the hallmarks of this down-and-dirty period in Garcia's life, some stellar, grungy loud guitar playing, occasionally brilliant, contrasts with some slightly slippery arrangements and, it must be said, objectively horrifying vocal limitations dictated by a set of badly shredded chords.

I don't say much about the guitar work (about anything, really) - it struck me as sometimes very good. Deal might be hot enough to merit a note, but for whatever reason I wasn't moved quite enough to take up the cause. There are a few but not an inordinate number of vocal flubs, the arrangement slips out of sync a time or two, some of the tempos (e.g., RFTR) strike me as sluggish. Mostly, nothing to write home about, maybe a lit below average (maybe slightly below 8/12/84 at Club Casino, maybe around the same level as 8/11/84 at the Nunnery, better than 8/24/84).

But the real jewel here is "Don't Let Go", as it almost always was. DLG was a weathervane tune, one that Garcia had to play as if he meant it, and so would only play on a relatively "good" night. Don't Let Go made a Garcia Band show special.

I was not in much of a note-taking mood in this listening session, but I recall a number of very interesting passages during which Garcia picks up and elaborates distinctive themes with all due care, taking the time to work through each one. Many of them just echo around a hundred sounds that you've heard Garcia make, that sound like something you've heard before but that you can't quite put your finger in, as elusive as a dialect. I note a point about 13 minutes in where they had setup a little landing pad, had Jerry wanted to wind it down, he sets it up and then gamely runs away from it to explore some of these ideas. It's nice.

This version of "Don't Let Go" puts me in mind of what I call the compensation hypothesis - when one particular performative aspect was hamstrung, he compensated this weakness with extra effort in other areas. It doesn't always hold, of course, but it might account for a few observations. In spring 1978, when his voice was shot with laryngitis, Garcia employed much crisper articulations, often early-Dylanesque. As the voice gets regularly bad starting in 1980 --to such an extent that, at some point, it's not really the same voice at all-- Garcia starts playing louder guitar, using lots more feedback than he had previously. This is especially characteristic of his 1983-1984 style, before, based on the sound of very little tape because there were relatively few shows, just running out of gas for a few years leading up to his descent into a diabetic coma on July 10, 1986.

It feels for all the world here like Jerry steps from a long "Harder They Come" to an ambitious, expressive, and even longer "Don't Let Go" to make up for not being able to sing, which had become painfully apparent as the evening progressed. He could have mailed in a few relatively easy vocal numbers - mumbling is not that hard on the chords. He didn't have to go 65 minutes in the second set, as he'd demonstrate more and more consistently over the next few years - 50 wouldn't have been a total embarrassment. But on this night, he took the road less traveled and reached a little further for the gold ring, and I respect that.

Listening Notes below the fold. (update: see also listening notes for the previous night, 8/26/84)

gd1984-10-06.127557.set2.schoeps.oade.BCE.flac1648

https://archive.org/details/gd1984-10-06.127557.set2.schoeps.oade.BCE.flac1648

Spinning this now. Oade.

Garcia gave an interview to the Boston Globe guy around this time in which he sounds very happy and positive about the Dead. It's stunningly orthogonal to so much of the other stuff going on in his life around this time. But I love that the big fella could just plain have a great day and enthuse about his work life.

And why not? He's fronting one of the world's great live acts, a band that has Philip Chapman Lesh on the bass guitar, Bob Weir on rhythm, Bill Kreutzmann on drums, among others, playing stellar live rock and roll; playing songs written by Robert Hunter

It's good to count the blessings you have, when called to think and speak on what's happening.

The Scarlet -> Fire is a delight, and I have high hopes for the Playin' > China Doll that's coming down the pike.

Don Dearth Was My Third Grade Teacher, And He Was A Taper: JGB at the Stone, May 12, 1984

 LN jg1984-05-12.jgb.all.aud-dearth.85568.flac1644

Quite a nice performance, quite a nice tape, pulled by my 3rd grade teacher from Burton School (Lafayette, CA), the lovely Don Dearth. I like the Cats and the Knockin' here.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
May 12, 1984 (Saturday)
Dearth shnid-85568

--set I (5 tracks, 51:07)--
s1t01. //Sugaree [#11:48] [0:21] %, dead air [0:12], [0:27] %
s1t02. [0:05] Catfish John [10:15] [0:18]  %
s1t03. //Simple Twist of Fate [#12:35] [0:02] ->
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:13] ->
s1t05. Deal 5:19 // abut s1t06. //Deal +4:20 (1) [0:09] %

--set II (5 tracks, 50:49)--
s2t01. [0:07] Cats Under The Stars [8:39] [0:12] % [0:17]
s2t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [14:31] [0:06]
s2t03. Russian Lullaby [12:57] ->
s2t04. Gomorrah [5:48] [0:12] %
s2t05. [0:03] Midnight Moonlight [7:46] (2) [0:10] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - backing vocals;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840512-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-05-12-the-stone-san-francisco-ca/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/25240 (Flair-Corleypatch shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/85568 (Dearth flac1644, this fileset).

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tqidL

! band: JGB #21a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). Note that, historically, #21a, with Kemper, DDD and Jacklyn, was thought to have ended sometime in 1983 (alternately, 7/20/83, 9/30/83, or 12/13/83). But I now believe it ran through this May 1984 SoCal tour, with #21b kicking in July '84.

! seealso: JGMF, "The Auds Have It - JGB at Irvine Meadows, May 18, 1984" and 
 "There is World Class Guitar Playing Here" [re 5/19/84].

! R: field recordist: Don Dearth

! R: field recording location: "real up close"

! R: field recording gear: Sony D6C w/Sony Stereo Microphone

! R: field recording media: TDK SA90

! R: transfer: Nakamichi CR3A (no Dolby) playback > HP computer > Sound Forge (Vol@5.6db) > CD Wave > flac, by John Moses.

! R: retrack by jgmf

! R: what a great tape! Right up in your face, my goodness.

! R: s1t01 Sugaree cuts in

! P: s1t01 @ 1:40 Melvin steps up for some bright and beautiful leads. Jerry drops beautifully on the 1 to "though you was a cool fool", maybe in the wrong key so bring it down a touch. Nice Sugaree.

! R: s1t03 STOF cuts in; tape weirdness 6:50.

! P: s1t03 STOF bass lead 6:22-9:02.

! R: s1t05-s1t06 joined tracks to new s1t05. Tape flip? Just a drop. Lots of static at this point.

! P: s1t05-s1t06 Deal is really good. :13 into second piece he produces some piercing feedback. Takes it to another tempo level 1ff of the second piece, and Kemper is amazing, and Garcia is mixing the earlier feedback into very long scalar circles, swings into Deal 1:45, or quotes it, more feedback 1:55, high run down the frets 2:00, great playing.

! s1t05 (1) JG gives a set break announcement, but I can't make it out.

! R: s2t01 CUTS start vocals are inaudible to start.

! P: s2t01 CUTS Jerry sounds pretty focused, as does the whole band. Goes big pretty early on 4:15 into some very raunchy spaces. Second half of 4 Kahn is playing, does that same three-note run 5:04. Man, Kemper is such a rock for Garcia! He is killin'. @ 5:35 Jerry is full on rock star, still just shredding, now softens his tone back up 5:50 ish. So that was a very cool minute and-a-half of guitar work with the pedal to to the metal, so to speak. Back to the '1' perfectly 6:15, Kemper. Jerry remembers the words!

! P: s2t02 KOHD perfection @ 3:52, big note 4, crowd likes. Great, great early 80s JGB KOHD right there. Absolutely representative. Garcia gave several extra vocal flourishes, never really stumbled. He sounds sharp this night. Bass lead 5:25ish - John is giving it his all, good energy. Not sure the sequences of notes are crafted totally successfully ... still playing over 8, quite good. In fact I'd say this is some especially good John Kahn bass playing. Climbs again 8:25. That's at least 3 and and half minutes of Kahn leading, and it is not terrible.

! P: s2t03 about a minute in the waitress can be heard taking drink orders, maybe last rounds, and there's a little taper talk, lady friend and taper.

! P: s2t05 JG (2) inaudible, maybe "see ya later" or "have a nice night". The former is more likely.