The December '85 Garcia Band Shows

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seealso: LN jg1985-10-14.jgb.all.aud.138028.flac1644

Earlier this year I posted listening notes on four JGB shows from August 1985, and here I do the same for December of the same year. It's relatively feasible to do this for Rock Bottom shows because they are fun sized, with sets regularly clocking in below 45 minutes.

The shows make for nice comparison pieces in this regard.

Recall these set lengths from August:

DATE      s1      s2           TT      
8/4/85    46:03   31:04      77:07
8/5/85    49:31   48:37      88:08
8/9/85    42:26   38:32      80:58
8/10/85  37:08   34:14      81:22

Here are the December equivalents:

DATE         s1        s2            TT      
12/14/85    47:22   39:24       86:46
12/15/85    42:31   29:02*     71:33 *missing Cats, probably about 8-9 minutes
12/21/85    50:11   34:09       84:20
12/22/85    40:03   44:03       84:06

So, things are not very much different four months on. More than half the sets fit on a tape side (5 of 8 and 6 of 8, respectively). In the case of the December tapes, this is not due to tape discontinuities: Jerry runs from one song to the next with very little time between, and the taper kept things rolling. That sub-35 minute 12/21 II, looks mighty short, but it probably doesn't enter the bottom five for shortest electric sets.

The big difference, then, is in personnel: the August shows involve THE Jerry Garcia Band, #21b, which ran with only a single interruption from ca. July 10, 1984 to November 19, 1993, Jerry's longest-running aggregation. The interruption happened October 1985 - February 1986 when, for reasons unknown, David Kemper was not drumming, replaced by the legendary Oakland funk master Gaylord Birch. Clean inference would really require blind listening, of course. Here I know Gaylord is in the the house, I am listening for distinctive style, and boy do I hear it. Lots more snare and hi-hat, generally busier, not as much in either respect as Kool-Aid Chemist Paul Humphrey, who played with Jerry and Merl in '74, but closer in style to him than, say, the 50-caliber Greg Errico.

This is Birch's third Garciaverse appearance. He played a few gigs in early '75 (January 21-22) with the Saunders-Garcia aggregation, certainly the funkiest and some of the most challenging gigs Garcia ever did. He next manned the chair from January-September 1979 with Reconstruction, again, an outfit that pushed Garcia out of his comfort zone, the last "challenge band" outside the Dead he ever regulalrly played with. (Not coincidentally, also the last band he'd regularly play with that didn't bear his name.) Finally, we find this little interregnum, nine gigs in six months subbing for David Kemper in the Garcia Band.

Table xxx. Gaylord Birch in the Garcia Band, 1985-1986

(Hopefully that gets a little bigger if you click on it! Otherwise, just click the link above the table.)

(Note that Mid Moon ended every show except the first one. The great Walter Keenan has pointed this regularity out to me before, and here we see it plain as day. The Jerry Band setlists never varied as much as GD setlists did, but this is ... striking even for JGB.)

Anyway, Birch simply amazes me at ever turn here. He had played four gigs in October (7th-8th not in circulation, 13th and 14th), then nothing for two months, then returns for these four in December. I doubt there was an awful lot of practicting going on in the interim, though I don't know anything about that for certain. And, yeah, some of these tunes, like "How Sweet It Is", are going to be straightforward enough, even as the Garcia Band's loose-to-unraveling arrangements, gas-brake tempo fluctuations, and general approach to things would have defied a lesser drummer. But then there are the Garcia originals and tunes played in so many different genres that it's hard to imagine Gaylord had thought much about over the years, less still played. Maybe they threw some charts at him or something, but whatever the preparation they provided him, the '85 Garcia Band would certainly have been pretty darn hard to drum for, I'd imagine. Yet Birch seems to have no trouble at all, with anything. He plays most every tune like he's been playing it for years. It's not perfect, but man is it great, and man oh man is it impressive.

I will paste listening notes below the fold. Nothing will really surprise you here, so let me just sketch some moments I dug. Thanks to the legendary Erik VanO for the ticket stub scans!

12/14

s1t01-GOOMLW great way to kick things off. Melvin sounds great, Jerry finds some liquidy goodness midway through.

s1t02-Garcia steps in the Mutron with a big click and a wahh and the crowd hoots appreciatively, knowing that Catfish John is about to happen.

s1t04-Love In The Afternoon, a song he would never have played outside the GD, Gaylord just shines. He does some stuff 6:50-7 that knocks me out.

s1t06-Deal: there will be no surprises here. "The voice during Deal is horrifying. Big scrubba dubba doo later on 6:49, though. Yow! Go to 7 and hear the Great Barcia wail."

Overall, I had more to say about set I than about set II.

12/15

It's getting toward the holidays, and the crowd sounds drunk and ready to party. Elmer Fudd is definitely in the house vocally. But one of the things to note is that Garcia is figuring out, on the fly, how to sing with his now powerfully limited vocal range. He can't just numb up and try to power through. He has to dial back the force and dial in a little bit of singing nuance. This is really the beginning of the rounding, softening of his style over all. In '83-'84, he'd just BLAST. Here, we see the start of a little more circumspection, more befitting a man of his age.

s1t03 my love of pre-coma 80s JGB Knockin's is well known (to myself). This one is just wonderful. From the notes: "Right at 4:01 or so he hits a terrific guitar combo, and a crowd member yelps at it. 4:45 I love the feel of this - it's like the sound of recovery. Oh my, at 8:35 you hear a thing only Gaylord Birch could ever have done with JGB. Trust me, and check it out. What a drummer."

s1t04 a characteristically shreddy balls-to-the-wall wailing guitar Deal

s2t04 I find him doing some interesting picking in Midnight Moonlight, which is really uncommon at this stage.

12/21

Looks like the weakest show of the run on this set of listens - almost no notes.

Interesting to note the following recollection at Jerrybase: "I stood five feet from him the whole night. He didn't open his eyes once. He also stood at the mike, or one step back or at his amp. Not much movement. The show was great." Those observations and that assessment are, of course, not mutually exlcusive when it comes to Rock Bottom Jerry.

12/22

s1t01 CUTS man, yeah, listen to Gaylord! Yowwww!!! And they don't circle aroud too much at the end. Nice.

s1t04 after a nice salty Think (s1t03), Deal is big, as it was wont to be in this period. Gaylord double-timing some 6:15, crazy high-neck Jerry tone 6:30, even higher 6:49, doesn't sound possible. Big raging Deal here for sure. I can't imagine how loud this must have been in situ.

s2t01 Kahn does some neat stuff in HTC. Attaboy, John. Chin up.

s2t05 somehow my silly mind coins another silly acronym: MAMMM: a mile-a-minute Midnight Moonlight. Gaylord's going to need a cortisone shot after this one.

In Sum

All in all, I don't really have many complaints about these. There's lots of good stuff happening. If you need a haircut, go to Deal on any given night. But, generally, I do think there's something to be said for the effect of fresh blood on ol Jer. Looking back at my August notes, I summarized "Overall, I guess I'd say totally characteristic. Some really good guitar work, some lyrical fumbles, vocals getting rougher by the minute." I think these shows are stronger. I would certainly not play these for the unitiated - the vocals are still pretty terrible. (The tapes have the featurebug that the vocals are buried.) But I hear many interesting moments, and a higher average level, here than I did in August. Some of the credit, I think, has to go to Gaylord. This is no knock on Kemper, whom I love. But it's the same way that people sometimes let themselves go after marriage - no need to impress. But if you are looking to get with someone new, or with someone new, you want to sharpen up a little bit. So you're maybe a little more together ex ante. And, then, the new person brings new stuff - surprises. So you need to listen a little more carefully, and you  have some new stuff to respond to. That's all to the good.

This could all, of course, reflect the narrative fallacy. I know Gaylord is here, and I dream up some story that could plausibly flow from that kind of situation. You should certainly go back and check my work, if you are so inclined. But this idea that the fresh blood brought forth better from our guy is my story here, and for now I am sticking to it.

Listening notes below.

Wabbit Hunting with Garcia and Kahn in Oakland and Guerneville, August 17-18, 1985

I shouldn't be mean. But posterity might not recall that many characterized Jerry's vocal sound in 1985 as resembling Elmer Fudd, so I am doing it for future generations. You can thank me later.

Not much to report. While the Dunsmuir House and Gardens maybe have been a cool place to see Jerry on an August afternoon ... 

Jerry and John in dappled sunlight on the grounds of the Dunsmuir House, Oakland, August 18, 1985. Photo credit: Tim Schonholtz

... he sounds quite bad on this August 18th while delivering two sub-40 minute sets.

The night before, at the sweet little River Theater in groovy Russian River town of Guerneville, is a little bit stronger, to my ears.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
River Theater
16135 Main Street
Guerneville, CA 95446-8301
August 17, 1985 (Saturday) - 9 PM
Corley MAC shnid-20898 shn2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 42:48)--
s1t01. Deep Elem Blues [7:29] [0:08]
s1t02. Little Sadie [4:57]
s1t03. Valerie [6:14] [0:37]
s1t04. Friend Of The Devil [7:31] [0:08]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [10:33] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:50] (1) [0:22]

--set II (6 tracks, 40:12)--
s2t01. [0:46] When I Paint My Masterpiece [7:19] [0:10]
s2t02. I've Been All Around This World [6:15] [0:06]
s2t03. Jack-A-Roe [4:27]
s2t04. Bird Song [11:23] [0:07]
s2t05. Gomorrah [5:08]
s2t06. Ripple [4:23] (2) [0:07]

! 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/19850817-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-08-17

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20898 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/dYyvu55qka62

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/river-theatre-16135-main-street.html

! R: field recordist: John Corley

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

! R: lineage: MAC > ? CD > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode QPS QUE2410) > editing (SF6) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN (shorten3.4) via C.Ladner. Thanks to J.Powell for the source CDR. misSHN in the rain, 12/03.

! R: seeder comments: Very clean recording without any significant flaws other than intermittent loud close up audience noise. s1t01 - master recording levels during the first 25 seconds were extremely low, i applied a +10 dB gain to this small segment using SF6 to bring it line with the remainder of the recording.

! P: s1t01 DEB voice already sounding rough

! P: s1t02 Sadie second verse he sings "standing on a corner" twice, then gets to "oh yes, sir", so a flub but a recovery.

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

! P: s2 Elmer Fudd most definitely in the house. Almost can't sing Bird Song at all. Ouch.

! P: the set II vocals are ... not good. But, then again, you knew that.

! s2t06 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Dunsmuir House and Gardens
2960 Peralta Oaks Ct.
Oakland, CA 94605
August 18, 1985 (Sunday) - 3 PM
Menke MAC MOTB #0210 flac2496

--Set I (6 tracks, 35:00)--
s1t01: [0:05] Deep Elem Blues [6:56] [0:02]
s1t02: Friend Of The Devil [6:25] [0:08]
s1t03: [0:17] Little Sadie [6:51]
s1t04: Valerie [6:15] [0:03]
s1t05: I've Been All Around This World [4:59] ->
s1t06: Run For The Roses [4:49] [0:11]

--Set II (6 tracks, 38:25)--
s2t01: [0:30] When I Paint My Masterpiece [6:02] [0:04]
s2t02: Jack-A-Roe [4:31] [0:09]
s2t03: Bird Song [9:52] [0:04]
s2t04: Gomorrah [5:37] ->
s2t05: Ripple [4:19] (2) ->
s2t06: Goodnight Irene [6:52] (3) [0:25]

! 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; [ ] = 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/19850818-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-08-18

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/13520 (this master, shnf, deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/88019 (Holtz Nak 100s MAC flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/88020 (Holtz Nak 100s MAC flac2496); https://etreedb.org/shn/98629 (Taz Yamaguchi and Jamie Poris MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/141508 (supposed CSBD); https://etreedb.org/shn/141509 (supposedly Sandy Troy MAR); https://etreedb.org/shn/149863 (Jonathan Mow MAC flac1644), https://etreedb.org/shn/149864 (Jonathan Mow MAC flac2496).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/93RVX3dF7812

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/dunsmuir-house-2960-peralta-oaks-court.html

! R: field recordist: Bob Menke

! R: field recording location: 15' from stage slightly off-center

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

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX 90

! R: Analog Sound Preservation: MAC > Nak DR-1 > Korg at 5.6 mhz. Transfer By: Bob Menke. Mastering By: Derek McCabe.

! R: MOTB Release: #0210 24/96, release date 2012-08-19. Note: "flacs are tagged, enjoy!"

! P: s1t06 RFTR is deeply painful to listen to. Garcia absolutely crashes as this song begins, and he barely brings it to the finish line.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a few minutes, come back. Tune up, and stuff."

! P: s2t03 Bird Song in the 4-minute mark, Kahn is doing some really interesting and unusual modal-sounding stuff. As they round the 5-minute mark, he's still playing very creatively. I am not sure he's pulling it off, mind you, but he's trying. In the first half of the five-minute mark, Jerry hits several clammy notes, to my ears. Not that they don't work with what John's doing, but that they don't work with what Jerry's doing. 

! R: s2t03 are those speed warbles in the 6-minute mark, or is Jerry really playing that shit? E.g., 6:58-6:59?

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot."

! song: Goodnight Irene (s2t06): I have always wondered if, in singing the "jump overboard in the river and drown" line, Jerry became 4 year old Jerry, little Jerry, and replayed his father's drowning in the Russian River. One would think not, because that would seem a little morbid, to say nothing of painful, for our boy. But maybe he didn't go there. Or maybe he went there and he was OK. But it's hard to imagine that a person imprinted with that memory, that vision, wouldn't go there. Who knows.

! P: s2t06 GI The acoustic setting lets Jerry not oversing too badly, as of course he'd have to do with the Grateful Dead, and to a lesser extent, with his electric band. In that sense, and because the tape is so clean, we get another view on Garcia's voice in August 1985. He sounds better than he did in the GD, that's for sure. But it ain't entirely pretty. He is very limited, and his talking and singing voice both have the nasally, I-just-shredded-my-already-bleeding-sinuses timbre characteristic of Crosby's voice during this same time period, as well as a certain wascawwy wabbit huntew. Just Say No to Cocaine, Kids.

! s2t06 (3) "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

! P: Total show time 73:26. Brutal, Jer.

The August '85 Electric Shows

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Waaayyyy back when, in the early lossless era, when shn ruled the roost and files could best be had by FTP (though some grabbed binaries from usenet groups), Charlie Connor's August 1985 Jerry Band tapes were pretty special. They still are, in the sense that they sound nice (patched out of Corley's "Silly Hat" setup, after all), that there just weren't that many '85 JGB shows, that they give more insight into the Rock Bottom period for Our Hero and, nowadays especially, they make for some good coherent listening across the Days Between, including a relatively rare August 9th show. I wish the last night of this cluster of shows, 8/11/85, would show up - one suspects it was taped, but one finds no evidence of it.

Here's some 'base for your face, to see what I am referring to:

https://jerrybase.com/events/19850804-01
https://jerrybase.com/events/19850805-01
https://jerrybase.com/events/19850809-01
https://jerrybase.com/events/19850810-01

I have already written up the August 9, 1985 show, noting the characteristic brevity of these sets, both clocking in below the 45-minute Minelli Line. (I should call it the Judy Garland line, as Jerry did in discussing "Cabaret Economics", but this formulation alliterates it to the Mendoza Line in baseball, the "rock bottom," barely acceptable, .200 batting average named for very light hitting, ca. 1970s-1980s Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Mario. Grant me a little license, please and thank you.)

I have just revisited all four shows and, yeah, they're all short. Now, true, these tapes are tightly edited, and tuning breaks could take up a good bit of time wherever Garcia was found. On the first night of this set of shows, 8/4/85, set II clocks in at 31:04. This is currently the second-shortest electric set I have found, after 9/16/84 I  and just ahead of (i.e., below) 3/2/85 I  and 3/22/84 I. (Note, though, that there's probably a minute or more missing from Cats, the addition of which would land this squarely in the normal range for a show from this era.) Of course, I doubt any electric set will ever underperform the acoustic 5/23/85 set I in Denver - at 25 minutes, one can only hope --really, really, hope-- that the tape is incomplete.

Here are the timings for the August '85 electric shows:

DATE      s1      s2           TT      
8/4/85    46:03   31:04      77:07
8/5/85    49:31   48:37      88:08
8/9/85    42:26   38:32      80:58
8/10/85  37:08   34:14      81:22

So much for quantity, how about quality? Overall, I guess I'd say totally characteristic. Some really good guitar work, some lyrical fumbles, vocals getting rougher by the minute.

Night one: Jerry sounds pretty punchy right out of the gate, overcomes some lyrical fumbles in show opening ITAM to rage pretty hard on Sugaree. Killer guitar tone, fantastic playing, much to the appreciation of the hometown Stone crowd, which mostly seemed to prefer boogeying to judging. Kemper is SIMPLY WONDERFUL on Cats, and then Jerry struggles lyrically a little bit in Gomorrah and a lot in Reuben And Cherise, the latter of which is nothing short of tragic, becaues it's my favorite Garcia Band tune, bar none. I do think I hear some Melvin synth in there, which is cool. Midnight Moonlight gallops hard into the barn.

Night two almost fills up a whole XLII90, the longest show of the set by almost 10%. Again, frisky out of the chute, though I don't note anything from the first set until the long Tangled Up: "Not a single thing wrong with the range of ideas he expresses, the fluency and power with which he expresses them, etc. Even some interesting extended stuff 12. Very good. Kemper marching 12:30 for Jerry to wail around." This feels spacious and killer. I suspect that ol' Jer wasn't drinking tea with honey and lemon during the setbreak, because he comes back scratchier in the throat than before. Audience member astutely calls for Don't Let Go, but he'd have to wait two and a half more years for it to reappear, after landing on the shelf at the end of '84. Not a lot to report, but Kemper is absolutely flying to keep up with Midnight Moonlight, and boy must his arms be tired. *rimshot*

August 9th. I have already written it up. I don't remember what I said three years ago. If you want to check how reliable my notes are, please feel free to compare them. Good energy upfront, rough vocals, brief.

Night four, 8/10/85 - thirty-six years ago to the day as I type this. Elmer Fudd has arrived to sing, more than over the previous week's shows, to my ears. Very last "Rhapsody In Red", which gives me a sad, because it was a rocker. It wouldn't have worked post-coma until maybe late 1990 and into 1991, IMO - before then he's just too clean to grunge it up, and after he's just not powerful enough. But it coulda been good in that window. This Reuben he remembers the words, more or less all of them I think, and I do love those words. But the voice is pretty weak at this point and maybe it's best that he just raced through Midnight Moonlight -- four consecutive shows as a show-ender and sought refuge back at Hepburn Heights.

Listening notes below the jump.

GD Frost '85 matrix

Man, this recording from TDIH sounds nice to these ol' ears.

Santa Cruz Blues

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One of the most widely bootlegged Garcia performances, alongside the '82 Oregon State Penitentiary gig, is another Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet performance from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on October 16, 1985. As with other beautiful recordings from this venue, an enterprising insider made a 4-channel tape combining stereo sbd feed and stereo ambient mics hung over the stage, and partly insofar as sound quality colors our perceptions of performance quality --and it does to a considerable extent, by what I think of as the Cornell Effect-- lots of people think highly of the performance, too.

The performance feels pretty standard to me, which is to say, since it's Garcia-Kahn in the Rock Bottom era, it's mostly OK, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

I am more interested in drawing your attention to a review in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Spotlight by Dave Gingold. In this telling, the "fat man" made his fawning followers, who had been sprawling around town all day long keeping the bugs down with their characteristic homebrew of smoke and patchouli, waiting for more than two hours to start the early show.  Opener Paul Mehling claimed car problems, but "some cynics attributed the delay to nostril, rather than engine, trouble." Gingold liked the music, but then,

Poof! It was over. The audience was stunned at the barely 40-minute set, and took to 20 minutes of irate shouting and stomping to bring their deity back ... 'A dollar a song!', some muttered ...

Then, adding insult to injury, the operators turned the house, which Gingold calls nothing less than a "betrayal".

Maybe ol Jer just didn't want our intrepid recorder to have to flip his tape? Sheesh, take it easy on the guy.

Regular readers will, of course, recognize this dynamic from a Beverly Hills gig four and a half months earlier., when Jerry and John mailed in a sub-40 minute first show, eliciting angry chants of "Bullshit! Bullshit!" from the SoCal Deadheads, savvy enough about the biz to understand they'd been ripped off. Short sets were a key feature of Jerry's Rock Bottom period, of course. Hometown fans might raise legitimate questions --"awww, no last song?"-- or offer some heady wisdom --"Jerry's gotta clean up his act, man"-- , but often they'd just dance their asses off and sing along, knowing Jerry'd be back at the Stone soon enough, likely as not. Even as far away as Santa Cruz, though, visits were rare enough that even dready gon' raise a ruckus when things aren't right. When even the Santa Cruzers are irate and stomping, you know you've crossed the Minelli Line.

Sadly, Jer and John either didn't get the message, didn't care, or were too far gone to care, and the late show attendees got a mere 38 minutes. Deadheads are a very understanding and compassionate lot, but I conjecture that at least a few left shaking their manes, glad for the music but maybe worried about ol' Jer. He may even have lost a few fans this night, despite getting a "Ripple".

A few other random bits.

• I wonder if the idea for "The Fat Man Is Back" poster from Jerry's next Santa Cruz stop (2/24/87) was a "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" reply to Mr. Gingold's earlier characterization? I know the phrase, which became a t-shirt and parking lot meme for the time, also appeared on posters for the Reno gig, but I do have to wonder of the Santa Cruz review didn't provide some inspiration.
• John Kahn picks a little bit of Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" at the start of the late show, which almost redeems his otherwise-forgettable night for me.

Listening notes below the fold.

Acoustic Sing-Along at the Stone: Garcia and Kahn, September 27, 1985

I don't have a ton to say about this - it's about what you'd expect. Two sets below the 45-minute Minnelli Line, voice bad to start and shot by the end. But, besides the fact that this was taped by the lovely Don Dearth, who was my third grade teacher, the best part about this is the fact that the audience is just singing along enthusiastically with like every song. It has a real homey feel. They don't care too much about the vocals or whatever. It's a Friday night in late September in The City, probably a warm one that time of year, and Jerry's playing and the drinks are flowing and folks are singing and probably dancing and having a good old time.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
September 27, 1985 (Friday)
Don Dearth MAC shnid-84821

--set I (5 tracks, 38:51)--
s1t01. [0:29] Jack-A-Roe [4:56] [0:03] % [0:14]
s1t02. Deep Elem Blues [7:36] [0:12]
s1t03. Friend Of The Devil 7:25] [0:11]
s1t04. When I Paint My Masterpiece [7:06] ->
s1t05. Little Sadie [5:10] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [5:20 [0:09] %

--set II (5 tracks, 44:20)--
s2t01. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [7:45] ->
s2t02. Reuben And Cérise [6:40] [0:07]
s2t03. Gomorrah [5:57] [0:05]
s2t04. Bird Song [10:02] ->
s2t05. Ripple [4:11] ->
s2t05. Goodnight Irene [9:27] [0:05]

! 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; [ ] = 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/19850927-02

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-09-27

! db: this fileset

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

! R: field recordist: Don Dearth. He was my 3rd grade teacher at Burton Elementary School in Lafayette. I saw him at one of the 12/87 Dead shows and hung out with him, so I knew then he was a Deadhead, but it still tickled me years later to learn that he was also a casual taper.

! R: field recording gear: Sony D6C with Sony stereo mic

! R: field recording media: MaxellXL2S90 (one tape would have done it).

! R: transfer Nakamichi CR3A playback (no Dolby) > HP computer > Sound Forge Vol@ 5.5DB and normalized, CD Wave to make tracks->Flac7->You! Transferred by John Moses.

! R: not high fidelity. I would track a little earlier than seeder has, in many cases.

! P: this is a full-on singalong all night long. I have never quite heard anything like this - neat. Garcia's voice is characteristically raggedy.

! P: s1t06 RFTR a few missteps in his guitar playing here.

! P: s2t05 GI at this point his voice is a totally shot.

Above Ground, But Below the Minelli Line: JGB, The Stone, August 9, 1985

A decade before the final fall, Garcia played another Friday night at the Stone. I still think of this as the Rock Bottom period, even though he is clearly recovering.

Two sets below the Minelli Line (45 minutes), the whole gig fits snugly on a single Maxell, with room for filler on the B-side. Nothing terrible, not even the voice. Just nothing worth noting. I'd happily plunk down eight 1985 dollars --$18 and change in 2016-- to see this show today.

jg1985-08-09.jgb.all.aud-connor.11131.shn2flac

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
August 9, 1985 (Friday)
Connor MAC shnid-11131 shn2flac

--set I (5 tracks, 42:26)--
s1t01. /Cats Under The Stars [#9:02] [0:19]
s1t02. Catfish John [8:33] [0:08]
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [10:46] ->
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:13] ->
s1t05. Deal [8:18] [0:07] (1) %

--set II (5 tracks, 38:32)
s2t01. /I'll Take A Melody [#11:29] [0:03] %
s2t02. /When I Paint My Masterpiece [#6:28] ->
s2t03. Gomorrah [6:24] ->
s2t04. Reuben And Cérise [7:01] [0:05] % [0:02]
s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [6:54] (2)

! ACT1: JGB #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-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/19850809-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-08-09

! db: this fileset

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

! R: field recordist: Charlie Connor

! R: field recording gear: John Corley's disassembled Nak 700s clipped to brim of
hat for stealth > Sony TCD5M (3rd deck in a patch chain)

! R: field recording location: FOB. 20' from stage, first row of tables, dead center

! R: transfer: Nak DR-10 (playback) > Midiman Flying Cow 24bit/48kHz A/D > RME Digi96/8 >
Steinberg's Wavelab 3.0 (bit resolution & resampling to CDR redbook 16/44.1 > CDWav beta1.6 (tracking only) > SHNv3 (MKW ACT). Analog and Digital Mastering by Charlie Connor. Shn'ed, vined and seeded to fungus and abgd August 6, 2002. shn2flac by jgmf 1/1/2018.

! R: nice punchy tape.

! R: s1t01 CUTS clips in

! P: s1t01 CUTS band comes out with energy. Garcia's voice sounds pretty rough, but it's mercifully low in the mix.

! s1t03-s1t04 these guzintas are sortaguzintas, of the kind that were common in this period of short sets.

! s1t05 (1) no set break announcement

! R: s2t01 ITAM clips in

! R: s2t02 Masterpiece clips in

! P: s2t05 Mid Moon: nothing says "horse racing back to the barn" better than a Rock Bottom era Midnight Moonlight..

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thank you. See ya later."

! P: It's not bad. It's just really short. Both sets under the Minelli Line.

Acoustic at the Denver Rainbow - JGJK, May 23, 1985 (late show)

LN jg1985-05-23.jgjk.late.aud.137966.flac1644

These shows have been very elusive, and the early show still has not made a digital appearance.

Standard "Rock Bottom Era" take: croaking vocals and very good (acoustic) guitar picking. The one plus of the acoustic setting is that he can sing quietly, which works well on a relative rarity like "She Belongs To Me". The first set might be incomplete, but either way this show is pretty well below the Minelli Line.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Rainbow Music Hall
6358 East Evans Avenue
Denver, CO 80222
May 23, 1985 (Thursday) - late show (10 PM)
AF shnid-137966

--set I (4 tracks, 25:16)--
s1t01. /When I Paint My Masterpiece [#5:34] [0:08] (1)
s1t02. I've Been All Around this World
s1t03. Bird Song
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:26] (2) [0:12] %

--set II (5 tracks, 32:01)--
s2t01. Simple Twist Of Fate
s2t02. Dire Wolf
s2t03. She Belongs To Me
s2t04. Goodnight Irene
s2t05. Ripple

! 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/19850523-02

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/137966 (this fileset). Nothing in circulation before 2017, and still nothing circulating for the early show.

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

! JGBP: Rainbow Music Hall, East Evans Avenue and South Monaco Parkway, Denver, Colorado. Jerry's Brokendown Palaces, October 29, 2012, URL http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/rainbow-music-hall-east-evans-avenue.html, consulted 11/17/2014.

! P: overall: Jerry's voice is in pretty bad shape here. First set material clocks in at 25 minutes - we may be missing at least a song or two, otherwise (and perhaps in any case) this set falls *way* below the Minelli Line. See also set II, at just over a half hour one of the shortest sets on record.

! R: source: Unknown AUD 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: seeder Note: The tape was not marked "early" or "late", appears to be the 1030PM late show since there's an annouced set break after Run for the Roses. [JGMF: I agree with AF's judgment, though we can't be 100% sure.]

! R: s1t01 WIPMM enters in progress. Nice tape.

! P: s1t01 WIPMM Garcia's voice is nasal and scratchy right out of the gate.

! s1t01 (1) "Thank you."

! P: s1t04 RFTR Garcia's guitar work is crisp, and the recording is loving the sound of the acoustic instruments.

! P: s1t03 Bird Song - my goodness, he is *croaking*. This is a pretty grim listen. Around 3 minutes in Jerry takes a nice guitar departure, and Kahn makes himself heard (or, I hear him) for more or less the first time on a somewhat background  listen. Ain't nothing wrong with Garcia's guitar playing here.

! s1t04 (2) [excuse-me cough] "Thanks a lot. We're gonna take a little, short break, and we'll be back [inaudible].

! P: s2t01 STOF very nice, low-down feel to this

! P: s2t03 She Belongs To Me is a relative rarity, and this is a fragile, interesting take.

During Gaylord's Second Stint: JGB at the Stone, October 14, 1985 (Monday)

These may be the shortest two JGB sets ever played. Gaylord Birch drumming.

See also "The December '85 Garcia Band Shows"

LN jg1985-10-14.jgb.all.aud.138028.flac1644

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
October 14, 1985 (Monday)
CC shnid-138028

--set I (4 tracks, 34:48)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [7:12] %
s1t02. When I Paint My Masterpiece [8:45] %
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:31] [0:04] %
s1t04. Tangled Up In Blue [10:15] %

--set II ( 4 tracks, 31:22)--
s2t01. Run For The Roses [4:54] %
s2t02. [0:20] Love In The Afternoon [9:22] %
s2t03. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:25] ->
s2t04. Midnight Moonlight [7:19] [0:02] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #22 (First show - October 7, 1985 Keystone Palo Alto; Last show - February 21, 1986)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Gaylord Birch - drums.

JGMF:

! R: 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/19851014-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/138028 (this fileset).

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

! 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. This is ultrarare JGB #22, with Gaylord Birch drumming. This configuration debuted on a Monday-Tuesday, October 7th and 8th, 1985 in Palo Alto, then Sunday-Monday the next week in San Fran. Of those four shows, the last one, 10/14, is the only one to circulate as of March 2017. Four gigs in October, four in December (14-15 in SF, 21-22 in PA, weekend gigs, all in circulation), then one gig in February (2/21/86). These were the only JGB shows without stalwart drummer David Kemper between 7/20/83 and 11/19/93. We know so little about this period. Where was Kemper? Corry bands post: "I presume that Kemper had another commitment, and since Birch was an established quantity from his time in Reconstruction, he was a comfortable choice as a sub." Stylistically, I don't hear the kick bass as much with him, a lot more snare and high stuff. He remains probably the second snazziest drummer with whom Garcia ever played, after Paul Humphrey (1974).

! seealso: Arnold, Corry. 2012. Gaylord Birch – Drums. Hooterollin' Around, February 3, URL http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2012/02/gaylord-birch-drums.html, consulted 11/15/2014.

! R: source: AUD (marked 2nd Gen) kindly provided by wk & http://jgmf.blogspot.com/

! 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: "Very tight edits thru-out, most songs cut in and out abruptly with bits missing." The vocals are deeply buried, the bass isn't particularly audible, guitar is at least pretty upfront. As I am in s1t03, I'd say the guitar sounds great, drums are OK, everything else (e.g., bass and keys) is buried.

! historical: These tapes are tightly edited, but 35 minutes and 31 minutes for the two sets, respectively, is far below the Minelli Line, below which a good square effort for the fans becomes a Cabaret Economics ripoff.

! P: s1t01 CUTS is actually surprisingly together. The December 14-15 shows are the only other late '85 Jerry Band tapes in circulation as of this writing (3/24/17), and I had thought that at least one of them opened with some real timing misfires between drums and band. They manage to wrap CUTS up pretty tightly, not doing that thing of not knowing how to end it.

! R: s1t01 CUTS 34-seconds blank tape, cross-faded out at 4:52.

! P: s1t02 WIPMM Gaylord doesn't catch the ending, it sort of fizzles and fazzles to a close.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD Birch is great on this, right from the get-go. He has an extra beat going that really works well, and he nicely accents behind Jerry's chorus vocal. This is cookin'!

! P: s1t04 TUIB it's too bad the vocals are so buried, because they sound reasonably strong. compare with GD 9/3/85, or the September Red Rocks shows, and he sounds much better here.

! s2t02 LITA I may have to retract my statement about the voice - maybe sounding a little more ragged here later in the evening.

! P: s2t03 TNTDODD I have been wavering on the vocals, and here they are not terrible at first ... then they get pretty bad by 3 minutes into the song.

Red Rocks

Saw something in some ca. '84 GD band meeting minutes where Weir says they should move heaven and earth to play Red Rocks. Spent some time with one of the '83 gigs, and now running 9/7/85, and boy oh boy are they good. I hadn't recalled 9/7/85 being this good. Jerry sounds very together, his voice much better than I recall from just a few days before on the last Cryptical attempt (9/3/85).

And this, my friends, is a stellar recording: https://archive.org/details/gd1985-09-07.mtx.seamons.fix.92521.sbeok.flac16

January 18, 1985: Strung Out and Busted

January 18, 1985 has got to be Rock Bottom for Jerry Garcia: strung out and busted.

But let me step back. Six days earlier, Garcia gave an interview to Jas Obrecht and Jon Sievert (Obrecht 1985, 2010). Obrecht reports that the interview took place at the home of Nora Sage, said to be a fan in whose basement Garcia was crashing. Jackson (1999, 337-338) says instead that this is the Hepburn Heights house (12 Hepburn Heights, San Rafael, CA, 94901), that Rock Scully had moved/been kicked out in 1983, and that Nora is keeping house and tending to Garcia between her law classes. After the events to be narrated, Ms. Sage helps Garcia kick by rationing his drugs in progressively smaller doses, gets him painting for the first time in twenty-five years, has him making model cars and guns, toys for Jerry denying the Devil of his. Brother Tiff appreciates it: "If it wasn't for Nora Sage, Jerry probably would have been dead a lot earlier" (Jackson 1999, 338).

It cannot have been easy. Obrecht (2010) sets the stage, January 12, 1985:

Garcia, unwashed and disheveled, shuffled slowly into the living room, his black T-shirt sprinkled with white powder. His fingertips were blackened in a manner consistent with “chasing the dragon,” as smoking heroin was commonly referred to in the Bay Area. Ten minutes into our interview, Garcia nonchalantly chopped a large rock of cocaine into about twenty lines and consumed all of it during the next hour.

Hyperbole? Check out our googly hero in the fish-eye lens. Look at all the blow and dandruff on that t-shirt, the tarred fingers! For want of Smell-O-Vision we can't truly appreciate the "prodigious body odor which preceded him by the room’s length" (http://malfalfa1.tripod.com/garciainterview.htm).

Jerry Garcia, 1/12/85 - Frets, July 1985, photograph by Jon Sievert.

Less than a week later, in response to an intervention staged at band and family's request by new Dead manager (and old friend) John McIntire, Garcia drops Nora off at class and sets off for rehab. But he detours a little bit, a consequential little twist, planned or unplanned. Since I know neither wither he was coming nor whence he was going, I don't know if it's an actual detour. Corry suggests below that it could rather have formed a destination. Regardless, he "stopped in Golden Gate Park, where he sat in his car meditating on his life, and, not coincidentally, finishing off his drug supply. Unfortunately, his BMW, a gift from a disreputable source, was not registered" (McNally 2002, 552).

On Friday, January 18, 1985, around 12:30 in the afternoon, SFPD Officer Mark Gamble steers his Honda police motorcycle toward a black BMW with expired September 1984 tags parked on the north side of Middle Drive in Golden Gate Park (north of Metson Lake). Approaching the driver's side window, he finds the vehicle's sole occupant "looking down at his hands in which he held a piece of tin foil paper which had a brown, sticky appearing substance on it. He looked up at me and quickly shoved the tin foil out of view to the right side of the driver's seat. He started reaching all over the base of his seat acting very nervous."

Officer Gamble:

I told him to open his window more and he started the engine and opened the power window. I asked him for his driver's license and the vehicle registration. He said he did not have his driver's license and he gave the registration to me. He verbally identified himself as "Jerry Garcia, born 8/1/42". ... I looked into the car and saw an open briefcase open on the front passenter seat. Inside the briefcase I saw several other pieces of tin foil with brown residue and burn marks. Also, I saw the baggie of paper bindles, the glass cooker and [?pro?] and the cigarette lighters. I also smelled a slight smell of something burned coming from inside the car.

Officer Gamble arrested "Jerry Garcia, born 8/1/42" on charges of possession of narcotics for sale, based on multiple, separately labeled bindles of drugs and a sizeable wad of cash. The man, 42, 6'0 and 250 (ish), long greying hair, a plaid red shirt and a black t-shirt -- perhaps the same getup from six days earlier, "knocked-out-loaded" (James Booker), flat-out busted (something Booker also understood).

His stash duly inscribes itself into his official (hence "permanent") record, as in modernity it must. The numberings are mine, so I can refer to them (another thoroughly modern move, in terms of the quantification and the agency I feel in imposing it).

1. 1 brown briefcase containing misc papers
2. 1 SFPD issue property envelope [ed: containing at least next three items]
3. $990 (16x $50, 9x $20, 1x $10)
4. 3 paper bindles containing brown powder (found in rose tin)
5. 1 baggie of 6 cotton swabs
6. 1 plastic container liquid
7. 1 glass container liquid
8. 8 pieces of foil with burnt residue
9. 11 paper bindles with brown residue in a bag found in briefcase
10. 1 paper bindle of white powder found in briefcase
11. 1 Zip-Loc baggie containing 1 yellow legal paper bindle containing white powder, labeled "1/2 gram"
12. 1 paper bindle with brown rock like substance
13. 1 cooking glass with prong holders
14. 7 cigarette lighters
15. 1 razor
16. 1 4" metal tool
17. 1 zipper brown pouch 6" x 4"
18. 1 seven of hearts playing card
19. 1 rose metal box 4" x 2"

Let's consider this.

Least commonly, we find the opiate "Persian", item #4, the brown powder found in the rose tin. I don't exactly understand the preparation and use of this. Was it mixed with one of the liquids (#6, #7) to create a paste or rock, this on or perhaps then placed on tin foil (item #7). This is placed on a cooking glass (#12) held via tongs (#12) in one hand, heated with lighter (#14) and inhaled from above? Perhaps he could place the fin foil with the drugs over the tongs and the tin foil heated directly, while the glass cooker is for freebasing the cocaine (see below). I just don't know (thank goodness). The cotton swabs (#5) and I guess the other fluid are for cleaning the paraphernalia, I figure, as possibly is metal tool #16.

I need to educate myself about this substance and its use, specifically by Garcia. I suspect the Greenfield oral history Dark Star might have some information?

Cocaine was commonly encountered among Bay Area affluenti (drivers of late-model black BMWs, for example) of the mid-1980s, as it probably is today. But Garcia was a man of copious tastes and appetites (and lots of money), and he impresses with his all-around hoovering versatility. If I understand things correctly, the bindle from the brief case (#10) and the ½ gram in the yellow paper bindle (#11) are powder cocaine, easily consumable on the bottom of the rose tin (#19) using the razor blade (#15) or the playing card (#18) for refinement and alignment and either the tool (#14) or probably the bills (#3) to snort it. The brown rock-like substance (#12) is apparently heroin, according to a commenter.

Was he freebasing cocaine by washing it in ether (#6 and/or #7; volatile stuff!), and smoking it in a pipe (#13?) as a pure whack to the brain and blood? That'd complete the trifecta (powder, rock and base) I guess. Croz (Crosby and Gottlieb 1988, 294-295) gives a taste for the paraphernalia involved in that:

You collect junk for it. You have a million little pieces of glass. You have little tubes and bottles and stoppers and screens and pipes and pieces of rubber. You have all kinds of little metal tools to scrape the pipes. You have a zillion little containers to keep liquids and powders. We carried around bags full of stuff. I carried little pH papers to check the acidity and alkalinity. I carried bottles of water, little containers of ammonia. I carried bags of baking soda. … [295] I'd have a pipe and a spare pipe and then parts to fix the pipe and all kinds of strange shit. The torch became a part of the things I carried with me, the way people carry car keys or a wallet.

I don't think Garcia was freebasing cocaine, but I am not sure about that. But Croz's narrative gives a sense of the thing, and the Croz-Garcia comparison is one I'll try to say at least a little bit about at some point.

I notice they list no cigarettes- I wonder if they let him keep his unfiltered Camels with him in stir? Because as a characterization of Garcia's material environment and possessions –as a proper inventory-- it can hardly be complete without smokes. Either they were so trivial the clerk never wrote it, or the perp was allowed this little comfort (in which case, look out lungs!), or Jerry was actually out. If he was not holding smokes when he was arrested, then he really was finishing up and about to leave again -- man's gotta breathe. This is need #1 in Garcia's life at this point, always ready-to-hand -- take my drugs, but please leave me my Camels!

Whatever his nicotine circumstances, he was almost out of Persian. There were eleven used brown-paper bindles (#9) and eight pieces of used tin foil (#8)! Dude had been chuffing like a madman in his driver's seat. My expectation is that he was going to do up a bunch of blow, too, though perhaps not all of it. Gotta get your concentration on for driving. It's possible that he was going to stop off somewhere to a friend, lover, coworker, associate, middleperson, codependent, dealer, or someone else's and drop off at least some of the coke (could he really have done that half-gram sitting there in his car?), maybe some money if he's going away for a few days so they can have some stuff ready for when he gets out – a Scout being always prepared.

The total drugs left comprise the three bindles of brown powder (#4), the white powder briefcase bindle (#10), the ½ gram of blow (#11), and the rock (#12). The cop was being a hardass in busting him on intent-to-sell based on the multiple packaging, but that's really just Jerry's stuff.

The Sources do a great job with the fallout of The Bust, including the relative slap on the wrist for the criminal matter and Garcia's long, slow recovery out of opiate addiction over a sixteen month period (Jackson 1999, 337). McNally says that what drove him to clean up his act was not the Bust, but that.

Early in the summer the consequences of almost total physical passivity caught up with him, and he began to experience massive edema, a swelling in his ankles and lower legs that was so bad his trousers needed to be cut. The appearance of his legs was so shocking that Garcia finally had undeniable proof of the damage. Bit by bit, as the year 1985 passed, he began to clean up and exercise at least a little (McNally 2002, 552). 

I have delved at least a little into some Garcia shows from the following period: March 2, 1985, May 31, 1985, June 1, 1985, and June 3, 1985. I don't want to say much more right now. Instead, I want to use Corry's beautiful knowledge and words to put a little bow on the Bust. Discussing why Garcia might have been in Golden Gate Park, he notes that

It's a giant tourist attraction in a city where there are far too many cars. GGP has been made intentionally unfriendly to through-traffic--the roads have never been widened, the intersections are full of stop signs and roundabouts. Even on a weekday in January (Jan 18, 1985 was a Friday), there are tourists trying to back into parking spaces, roads blocked because there is an international Frisbee championship, and so on. So if you have any experience driving in San Francisco, you go out of your way to avoid any trip through Golden Gate Park, with the exception of 19th Avenue (Highway 1), which is a through street and isn't a convenient entrance to the park by design. Two fast one-way Avenues bracket the park (Lincoln to the ocean, Fulton towards downtown) to provide further inducement not to enter the park unless you are planning to stop there.

Middle Drive north of Metson Lake is a dead-end street, rather difficult to get to. However, if Jerry was looking for a quiet place ... From a symbolic point of view, Middle Drive north of Metson Lake was probably within sight of the Polo Fields. So if Garcia was taking stock of his life, he was doing it right next to where the Human Be-In was held nearly 17 years earlier (within 4 days). Although Park geography has not changed since the 1950s, it is symbolic as well that when Garcia wanted to find a lonely place to get high in the car, he knew how to find a dead-end street close to the Polo Fields.

Very cinematic.

~~~

"I don't ... like ... confrontation!" says Toy Story Rex, the tremulous Tyrannosaur, and neither did Garcia. Who does? Yet he had been directly confronted by everyone closest to him, and exceptionally, had overcome his own probable embarrassment and allowed himself to accede to their request that he clean up his act ("mannnn"). He wouldn't be the first or last addict to try to finish his stash before cleaning up, with potentially dangerous and certainly problematic consequences. But, re-reading Corry's context, maybe he was also taking time to re-evaluate; remember how it was, imagine how it might be.

I'll assert that Garcia's was a life well-lived - too short by any standard, with some down deep and dirty low points, but way out in the far-right tail of the distribution in terms of average quality, with maxima probably hitting few-in-trillionths level rarity. So I don't think that August 8, 1995, Garcia's last day on Earth, was Rock Bottom. Far from it. By that time, at only 53 and only ten years after the events narrated here, he had, I hate to be crude about it, shot his wad. He had burned through more experience in 53 than most do in 80, the cliché would have it, and I think that's probably right.

On the afternoon of January 18, 1985, by contrast, dude was probably thinking he still had a lot to live for, some unfinished business. That's certainly how he narrated his own thinking after the coma a year and a half later. While he and his Dead associates had already begun ascending a long arc of success, within two and a half years they'd have a hit record and would become one of the heaviest and most reliable earners in rock and roll (see my snapshot of 1991). Garcia's unfinished business was, quite literally, to make himself an American success story, to reach the top of the mountain. Maybe he spied it, just a glimpse of it, jonesing for a smoke in a San Francisco lockup, up over the horizon of recovery, through patching up some personal stuff, working his ass off - a few more years, maybe some good times, a few laughs, more music, and a little greatness along the way.

(Acknowledgement: Thanks to Walter Keenan for the report and Corry Arnold for context and analysis.)

LN jg1985-06-01.jgb.all.aud-corley.20921.shn2flac

There are some points I'd like to flesh out, about The Mission, Jerry's San Francisco DNA, and the rest of it. But there's just not time to do everything.

Another show with the Modulus Graphite guitar. I hear no difference.

Sets are still short in historical perspective. For the book I'll be able to make some graphs and stuff for that. As I have suggested, the night before, in L.A., was pretty much a disaster, but this night feels pretty good. I am sure I am hearing too much, but to me Garcia sounds glad to be home and playing. The voice is shredded, but the performance is quite good all around. Check out "Mission In The Rain" for that SF feel. Great stuff. As I note, in some interview (anyone remember which one? LIA?), Garcia projected a vision of himself as a "Mission Street R&B guy". This is a richly evocative characterization, truly the little corner of Americana carved out by the Garcia Band.

Note my spelling of "Reuben And Cérise". This is Hunter's title in Box of Rain (Hunter 1993, 181-183), followed by Dodd (2005, 360-362) and Allan. On Cats Garcia spelled our lady's name "Cherise" (as jerrygarcia.com continues to do). Deaddisc is inconsistent, labeling it "Rubin And Cherise" on the album page, but "Reuben And Cerise" (no accent aigu) on the song page; I believe the alternative spelling of our charming mandolinist is strictly incorrect, and hers only pedantically so. FWIW, anyway, all that. UPDATE 2021: I think I will just go with "Reuben And Cherise" like a normal person.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
492 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
June 1, 1985 (Saturday)
Corley shnid-20921 shn2flac

--set I (5 tracks, 41:20)--
s1t01. //Cats Under The Stars [#7:29] [0:04] % [0:04]
s1t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [10:54] [0:09]
s1t03. Tore Up Over You [9:24] [0:06] % [0:03]
s1t04. [0:05] Run For The Roses [5:07] ->
s1t05. /Deal [7:43] [0:10] %

--set II (5 tracks, 46:36)--
s2t01. [1:00] Mission In The Rain [11:08] [0:35]
s2t02. Love In The Afternoon [7:49] [0:25]
s2t03. Gomorrah [5:48] [0:07]
s2t04. Reuben And Cherise [7:10] [0:05] % [0:21]
s2t05. Tangled Up In Blue [11:38] [0:28]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn Branch - 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/19850601-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-06-01-the-stone-san-francisco-ca/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20921 (this fileset).

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

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

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

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording equipment: 2x Nakamichi 700 > Sony TC-D5M

! R: transfer: MAC > DATx > CDx (Jim Powell); CD > EAC0.9b4 (offset corrected, secure mode, QPS QUE 2410) > minor level adjustments at the beginning of each set (SF6) > tracking (cdwav) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN (shorten 3.4) via C.Ladner, misSHN in the rain, 12/03. shn2flac JGMF.

! historical: More explorations in the darkest period of Garcia's life. That's highly contestable, of course. One might think the last 18 months were worse, and they probably are, objectively. But I think he had lost hope by that time, and he didn't feel it as acutely. This period a decade earlier, by contrast, juxtaposes how down in the deep he was with where he still had a chance to be, at 43 years old, and how much he had left to do. One other thing about this show: *very* exceptionally, Garcia is not playing his Doug Irwin guitar (which one? I had written Rosebud, but maybe Tiger? I don't know the guitars) he's playing one made by Modulus Graphite (see Golden Road, Summer 1985, p. 9).

! R: s1t01 CUTS cuts in

! P: s1t01 @ 4:40 love Jerry's guitar tone and work here. Sounds great.

! P: s1t02 KOHD Garcia bending some huge notes late 6. This is great. Long vocal extension of "door" over 9 minute mark. Garcia is feeling this song.

! P: s1t03 TUOY JG is taking a great solo, it's not very loud on the tape, but it's a great solo, and the crowd is showing him some love, in the 2- minute mark. Nice guitar work continuing over 3. Very good guitar playing.

! R: s1t05 Deal clipped, certainly a tape flip there. So that was side A.

! P: s1t05 Deal solo from 3:29 blisters, mid-83 level grunge, but with some of his longer sustain from later. Still nice soloing, nice extension 4:19, with mid-length phrases, still raging 4:30-4:40, a little extra turn, long scale, over 5 cutting them in halves or quarters, more wail 5:09. They get nice some space over 6. I would have liked to see a few more minutes of wailing here. They are pretty clean back to "don't you let that Deal go down", Jerry good energy to end even if his voice sounds shot.

! P: s2t01 MITR Jerry is giving it his all by tackling this song. He knows he sounds rough, but it's "Mission In The Rain" - he's "ready to give anything for anything" he takes. Gallops into the song's upbeat part, the ladies backing him up strongly 2:30. This tape really captures the feeling of this hometown show. Beautifully. "Ten years ago, I walked these streets, my dreams were riding tall. Tonight, I would be thankful, Lord, for any dream at all ... come again ... walkin' along in the The Mission, in the rain, come again ..." Do you know San Francisco? Jerry does. If you know someplace truly amazing, but you're not from there, and that drives you crazy - you wish you were from there, maybe only secretly you wish it, but you aren't, and the ones who are are, and they know it, and they know that you know it, and there's no denying it. It doesn't have to be actively, obnoxiously spotlighted. I am a little jealous of Jerry for having San Francisco in his bones, the salt, the portal grit, the depth of it. It seems that Mission In The Rain (#song-M), words by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry, is directly biographical, Hunter writing about Garcia's attachment to the city, their shared attachment, but Garcia's native DNA lock on it. I bet his body chemistry was off when he wasn't soaked in fog. xxx The Mission xxx. The way he sustains his N at 3:20 ish, on come agaiN, he is accenting very nicely. Now it's the same spirit with his guitar 3:40ff, not in a rush. In some interview xxx, when asked about his musical image of himself, it was as a "Mission Street R & B guy". What an amazing local pointil that is. Jose (Joe), Jerry's father, was a jazzman in the 1930s, before running into union troubles, switching over to running a bar, and then drowning before young Jerry's eyes on August 25, 1947. The song loses the thread a few times, loses a little steam, but there is something delightfully intimate about this performance, Jerry and his local fans in his local haunt in his city.

! P: s2t03 Gomorrah vocals sound fatigued.

! P: s2t04 RC Garcia's voice is shredded, but this has tons of energy. Melvin has some nice horny synth working.

! P: s2t05 TUIB no words leaving stage. Crowd seems enthused, happy.