Two Pauls in Boston

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early-1.aud-warburton.16461.shn2flac
LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early.aud-alt.135968.flac1644

Garcia-Saunders, with Paul Humphrey drumming, Paul's Mall in Boston, late 1974. What's not to like?

Jimmy Warburton's tape (shnid-16461) blew my mind when it came out - a revelation. We were still erroneously calling "Valdez In The Country" "Bossa Martin", and wearing onions on our belts, which was the style at the time. "Just Kissed My Baby" caused me to spend some time with the Meters' Rejuvenation, for which I am eternally grateful. The tape captures the scene beautifully.

Recently an alternative master emerged, unattributed but nice-sounding and presumed complete, with an 18+ minute Harder They Come kicking the show off. Maybe part of the magic of the old tape was that it kicked right in with Favela, but obviously I am not complaining!

Nick has a great post on this show, LIA has posted the Howard and Gelzinis accounts after the first of the three-night, six-show run, and I have discussed the run in "'Secret' at Paul's Mall: see p. 27" and "Sole Star at Paul's Mall".

11/14/74 early show is still one of my favorites. Nick doesn't like it as much as I do, but DGNED. I probably need to soak with 11/27/74 and 11/28/74 more than I have.

Listening notes on both filesets follow.

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early-1.aud-warburton.16461.shn2flac

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 14, 1974 (Thursday) - Early Show
Warburton MAC early-1 shnid-16461 shn2flac

--(9 tracks, 88:26, missing 1 tune)--
[MISSING: The Harder They Come]
t01. tuning [0:06]
t02. Favela [10:45] [0:07] % [0:22]
t03. [0:08] Let It Rock [6:27] [0:06] % [0:44]
t04. My Problems Got Problems [14:35] [0:27]
t05. Mystery Train (1) [13:51] [0:10]
t06. //My Funny Valentine [#14:33] ->
t07. People Make the World Go Round// [2:24#]
t08. Just Kissed My Baby [11:16] [0:32]
t09. Valdez In The Country [12:48] [0:07]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - 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/19741114-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1974-11-14-pauls-mall-boston-ma/.

! db: shnid-135968 (alt AUD, complete); shnid-16461 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/o8sMZHfMAou.

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html.

! ad: Boston Phoenix, November 5, 1974, sec. 2, p. 27.

! JGMF: "'Secret' at Paul's Mall: see p. 27," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/12/ln-jg1974-11-13jgmslateaud.html.

! JGMF: "Sole Star at Paul's Mall," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2015/05/sole-star-at-pauls-mall.html.

! seealso: Nick, "Garcia & Saunders, 11/14/74 Boston," URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2016/05/garcia-saunders-111474-boston.html.

! historical: Ad in Boston Phoenix bills "Jerry Garcia" and doesn't mention early/late shows, but there were early and late. For the six shows, JGMS get $5,000 guarantee plus 70% gross receipts over $8,100. Tix $4.50, not sure of show times.

! personnel: Paul Humphrey on drums is totally distinctive. Really fast, lots of snare, great splashes, incredible.

! R: field recordist: Jimmy Warburton

! R: field recording gear: 1x Sony ECM-99 > Sony TC-152SD MAC (Dolby B)

! R: field recording location: left of center, 8' from stage, left-of-center, mics on a table

! R: transfer: Sony TC-152SD playback > Teac A2300SD 1st gen reel [Dolby B off] > Pioneer RT-701 playback > Teac AN-180 Dolby decoder > Fostex D5 DAT (A>D only) > Turtle Beach Montego II Digital I/O > shn (mkwACT) > wav (mkwACT) > tracking (CD Wave) > .shn (mkwACT). A > SHN by Noah Weiner, tracking by JJ.

! R: shn2flac jgmf 3/14/2015.

! R: seeder notes: "This is a nice recording of what is perhaps my (JJ's) favorite show of the 11/74 east coast Garcia/Saunders tour. Disc two [t06-t09], especially, is just wall-to-wall great stuff.

! P: t02 Favela is smokin' hot. Garcia solo late 3. Merl takes a turn late 5. Humphrey is splashing all over the place 6:15, so great.

! P: t05 Mystery Train a female audience member joins on vocals toward the end of the song

! R: t06 My Funny Valentine cuts in, probably not much missing

! R: t07 People Make the World Go 'Round cuts out, unknown missing.

LN jg1974-11-14.jgms.early.aud-alt.135968.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 14, 1974 (Thursday) - Early Show
shnid-135968

--(9 tracks, 108:24)--
t01. The Harder They Come [18:18] [0:02] %
t02. Favela [11:03] %
t03. [0:14] Let It Rock [6:32] %
t04. [0:07] My Problems Got Problems [14:41] %
t05. Mystery Train [13:14] [0:02] %
t06. My Funny Valentine [14:55] ->
t07. People Make The World Go Round [4:21] [0:03] %
t08. Just Kissed My Baby [11:23] [0:06] %
t09. [0:23] Valdez In The Country [12:53] [0:07] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - 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.

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1974-11-14-pauls-mall-boston-ma/

! db: shnid-16461 (Jimmy Warburton MAC, shn, missing HTC)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/o8sMZHfMAou

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html

! ad: Boston Phoenix, November 5, 1974, sec. 2, p. 27;

! seealso: JGMF, "Sole Star at Paul's Mall," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2015/05/sole-star-at-pauls-mall.html.

! seealso: Nick, "Garcia & Saunders, 11/14/74 Boston," URL https://deadthinking.blogspot.com/2016/05/garcia-saunders-111474-boston.html.

! historical: Ad in Boston Phoenix bills "Jerry Garcia" and doesn't mention early/late shows, but there were early and late. For the six shows, JGMS get $5,000 guarantee plus 70% gross receipts over $8,100. Tix $4.50, not sure of show times.

! R: Source: AUD marked "1st Gen" rescued from ebay for coupla bucks.

! R: Transfer: XLII > Nakamichi CR-5A > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain SRC > Wavelab (adding 16-bit patches) > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transferred by Andrew F. 06/2016.

! R: Note: Recording does not match shnid-16461, Lucky us, now we have two! This one appears to be closer to the P.A. with lots of crowd chatter, has a real "you-are-there" sound. Also contains THTC and the complete PMTWGR. The tape was tightly edited with most songs clipped at start, THTC & MFV have a bit missing. Several patches from ID-16461 added to make the show as complete as possible; first 08 seconds Favela, first 21 seconds Let it Rock, first 07 seconds Problems, also in Problems 06 seconds starting at 10:29, first 16 seconds Mystery Train, first 08 seconds Just Kissed, and from 10:02 Just Kissed thru to end of show.

! R: this sounds very nice

! R: t03 LIR chatty nearby crowd guy might want to STFU and listen. @03:55 Jerry scrubs a thing that the audience really likes, then some glassy picking which, again, seems appreciated.

! P: t04 MPGP late 3 over 4 Garcia lays down some tasty licks. 8:45 ff Humphrey does a nice splashy little feature, still working it 9:14 behind Merl, but totally putting himself forward.

! P: t05 MT female audience member singing at end. She is not on the 1 with the band, Jerry is wrapping it up pretty fast.

! R: MFV thought I heard a splice @ 1:15

! P: MFV 1:30 he gives it a "Red Clay" CTI thing. Humphrey splashes and hi-hats wonderfully here. 1:52ff guitar exploration. The talkative crowd reminds us it's not just the kids today who talk throught the show. Shhh! Some big Martin squawking melting in the 6:30ff range. 14:30 some big fluttery fanned chords by Garcia.

! P: t07 PMTWGR Garcia still doing some decayed stuff at start, eases into the tune, Merl still swirling so @ 0:40 Garcia gets out with a beautiful set of fanned chords. Flute jacks up his entry - c'mon Martin. Paul tries to follow Martin, but the band is not together.

! P: t08 JKMB there is some great stuff here. Everyone plays.

! P: t09 VITC Listen to Paul Humphrey bring the tune in, straight outta Brazil. Man. Merl misses the obvious starting point, comes back a four later, but it's all good. 4 min mark Paul H is amazing, crazed splash 4:38, another 4:43 to make sure everyone took note. What a drummer! This is really great. At 12:45 just scrubs to bring things to a close. Very, very good stuff.

The Roving Gambler: JGJK, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, February 2, 1986

Nine days after kicking off a lucrative little acoustic tour with the D.A.R. in D.C., Garcia and Kahn closed things off at the Orpheum in Boston. The main point of interest is "The Roving Gambler", which makes its only known public appearance in the GOTS era (what some might call the Grateful Dead era) of Garcia's career. It's well-rehearsed and peppy. I don't know what inspired it - maybe Bill Walton, who attended, requested it. No idea why they dropped it, either.

update 2025: my guess was surprisingly close - bsky user "Exorbitant Rosin Violation" noted that the lyrics of the song refer to "Uncle Bill in Portland", which is definitely a Walton reference. I hadn't put those together because the versaion of "Roving Gambler" that I know best, from a Ramblin' Jack Elliott live release, does not hit that verse that way (I think). That's a fun little thing. Good, clean fun.

LN jg1986-02-02.jgjk.all.aud-koucky.79935.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
February 2, 1986 (Sunday)
Koucky MAC flac1644 shnid-79935

--set I (6 tracks, 33:42)--
s1t01. [0:38] It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [6:47] ->
s1t02. Friend Of The Devil [6:27] (1) [0:07]
s1t03. I've Been All Around This World [5:13] (2) [0:06]
s1t04. The Roving Gambler [2:57] ->
s1t05. Valerie [6:37] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:29] (3) [0:21]

--set II + encore (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 50:25)--
--set II (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 42:36)--
s2t01. tuning [0:28]
s2t02. Deep Elem Blues
s2t03. Spike Driver Blues
s2t04. Jack-A-Roe
s2t05. Gomorrah
s2t06. Bird Song
s2t07. Ripple
--encore (1 track, 7:49)--
s2t08. Goodnight Irene

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - ac-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - ac-bass.

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/19860202-01

! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/show/1986-02-02

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/15881 (unk aud, shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/79935 (this fileset).

! metadata: the text file called these early and late shows, but the review in the Boston Globe clearly identifies two "40-minute sets that ranged from fairly good to fairly terrible" (Morse 1986).

! review: Morse 1986. "Garcia was all over the place, hitting a few highs... but some pronounced Jerry-atric lows that not even the presence of that ultimate Dead Head, the Celtics' Bill Walton, could prevent. And as a flatpicker, Garcia was no threat to Doc Watson, though his soul and improvisational ability occasionally saved the program. Still, one expected more from the Captain Trips of the '60s than this." Steve Morse had been covering the Dead steadily for a long time, and this is pretty significant criticism. "Jerry-atric lows" is a well-turned phrase.

! R: field recordist: Bill Koucky

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 441 > D5 (Steve Adelman's gear)

! R: field recording location: orchestra

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX-S

! R: transfer: playback on Nakamichi DR2 > Presonus Firebox > firewire/PC XP Pro > Wavelab 5.0, recorded as 24 bit/96 KHz PCM WAV > Waves L3 Multimaxmizer (threshold -3.5, ceiling -0.1, type I dither, ultra shaping) > 16 bit/44.1 KHz PCM WAV > CDWAV 1.9 > FLAC (level ). Transfer / mastering by C. Ladner.

! R: solid tape.

! R: s1t02 FOTD burp of some kind around 1:20.

! s1t02 (1) JG: "Thank you."

! s1t03 (2) JG: "Thank you."

! song: "The Roving Gambler" (s1t04): played in early '60s. I like Ramblin' Jack version essential RJE. This is a #singleton inside the GOTS empirical frame. Clearly rehearsed it, but played it this one night only.

! P: s1t04 Roving Gambler is a little cursory, but it's punchy.

! P: s1t06 RFTR sounds very lucid, with nice energy.

! s1t06 (3) JG: "We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be back pretty soon." Sounds like a set break announcement, not a show-closer. update: indeed, Morse confirms single two-set show.

Deadlists, Deadbase, GD19691003

I understand that the Deadbase guys are making a 50th anniversary print edition. I doubt I'll get it, because I already have Deadbase I, II, III and IX, and though they promise updates based on the wave of information that has emerged in the digital era (starting with Deadlists, and moving through LLD, LIA's work, some of my tidbits, etc. etc.). I hope they give credit where it is due in respect of all those and countless other sites from which, if they have done a good job, they will have gleaned their updated info.

In the spirit of updating The List, I note that Lenny Kaye (1969) drops a few little setlist nuggets about the Dead's Boston Tea Party gig on Friday, October 3, 1969, with respect to which It (i.e., Deadlists) currently shows nothing, mentioning a long jam around/into some Anthem of the Sun material and a resurrection of that Old Chestnut, "In The Midnight Hour", apparently with Garcia on pedal steel (!).

That info should go to Deadlists, if it were ever to be updated. And the fact that Deadbase 50 is already printed and can't take this info onboard speaks to the limits of the print medium for this kind of thing (without denying its considerable other charms). Anyway, there you have it.

--> Kaye, Lenny. 1969. The Grateful Dead: The Year of the Dead. Fusion, November 14, pp. unk, via rocksbackpages.

Sole Star at Paul's Mall

For the JGMS gigs November 12-13-14, 1974, Paul's Mall in Boston, two shows a night booked by one Fred Taylor.

MERL SAUNDERS AND JERRY GARCIA CONTRACT RIDER

3. MERL SAUNDERS & JERRY GARCIA shall receive 100% sole star billing in any and all advertising and publicity, including marquee ...

Does this mean that things should be advertised "Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia"? Because earlier I dragged this out:

Not sure what to make of it.

4. The name GRATEFUL DEAD or the association of JERRY GARCIA as a member of the GRATEFUL DEAD shall not be exploited or used in any manner in any and all advertising and publicity, including marquee and radio advertising.

This kind of provision would be standard fare for Garcia contracts for as long as there were such things, as far as I can tell. I wonder if Hal Kant drafted some stuff up that required this, or otherwise if there was any explicit understanding between Jerry and the members of the Dead that demanded this, or if Jerry alone insisted on it? I doubt Merl Saunders would have insisted, and the money was going straight to him (this was before Kahn became the business end of Garcia, Inc.) It does seem pretty clear that Phil Lesh and a few of the others insisted that Garcia shoulder the risk of his own endeavors with Pegleg Ron Rakow - and wisely so, though they ended up collectively losing hundreds of thousands anyway. Eliminating this provision would probably have generated more dollars, all told, so someone is paying the opportunity cost of not being able to say "Grateful Dead", but there's a there here that I can't quite pin down.

I also love the 14th paragraph of the band rider, back when Garcia couldn't get enough: " Band Rider, p. 2, para. 14: "Employer agrees that MERL SAUNDERS & JERRY GARCIA will be able to perform up to 120 minutes if they so desire". You go, guys.

see also: LN jg1974-11-13.jgms.late.aud-seaweed.121034.flac1644

Vassar's Debut With Old And In The Way

Listing for "Old And In The Way" featuring Jerry Garcia, Richard Greene, David Grisman, John Kahn and Peter Rowan, Tuesday, June 5 at the Aquarius Theatre", Boston Phoenix, May 29, 1973, p. 27.

Mention for "Jerry Garcia, Richard Green [sic], 'Old And In The Way', June 5th, 8 PM at the Orpheum", Boston Phoenix, June 5, 1973, section 2, p. 16.

Old And In The Way (OAITW) was at one point, by some of those involved with it, foreseen as touring out-of-state during the summer of 1973. For various reasons which mostly remain obscure, the band hit the road for only a small handful of gigs. They hired bluegrass legend Vassar Clements to fiddle for the occasion. He hooked up with them on June 4 in Boston, they rehearsed in the hotel, and Vassar Clements debuted with Old And In The Way at the Orpheum Theatre on June 5th, 1973.

Follow the tag for Vassar Clements to see what I've had to say about him. No time. Time only for trivia.

The ads above raise two points. First, note that the earlier listing bills the band at the Aquarius Theatre on June 5th. I have no idea who or what that is, it may be a typo, but in any case we know that they played the Orpheum. Second, both pieces advertise Richard Greene on fiddle. It's interesting to imagine the timelines and/or information flows whereby that information got into the papers as late as the very day of the show. Hippies and their goofy marketing.

Anyway, there are two audience tapes known from the evening, and Andrew F. has recently compiled them into an optimal complete fileset, shnid-131167.

I listened to this recently, and, as has been the case lately, I don't have a lot of takeaways. Garcia's banjo really does not impress me, while Vassar's fiddle really does. There are a few little tidbits of color in the listening notes --local yelling for "Dahk Stah" to general amusement, and generally it sounds like a good time is being had by all.

Oh yeah, I believe t08 has been unidentified, but I believe it is the Grisman original "Cedar Hill".

Old And In The Way
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
June 5, 1973 (Tuesday)
composite auds shnid-131167

--main set + encore  (29 tracks, 110:48)--
--main set (25 tracks, 98:08)--
t01. Jon Scher intro [1:12]
t02. Old And In The Way Breakdown [3:30] [0:27]
t03. Tragic Romance [3:55] [0:12]
t04. The Willow Garden [5:12] [0:12]
t05. Going To The Races [2:50] [0:27]
t06. Muleskinner Blues [3:03] [0:19]
t07. 'Til The End Of The World Rolls 'Round [2:22] [0:16]
t08. Cedar Hill [3:40] [0:16]
t09. Land Of The Navajo [8:45] [0:23]
t10. band introductions [2:08] (1)
t11. Pig In A Pen [3:04] [0:12]
t12. Lonesome L.A. Cowboy [4:37] [0:03]
t13. (2) [0:09] Hard Hearted [2:59] [0:10]
t14. Panama Red [2:47] [0:12]
t15. (3) [0:08] Wild Horses [4:44] [0:17]
t16. Fanny Hill [3:35] [0:20]
t17. The Hobo Song [5:10] [0:18]
t18. High Lonesome Sound [3:38] (4) [0:39]
t19. Down Where The River Bends [4:16] [0:12]
t20. Love Please Come Home [2:42] [0:16]
t21. Lost [3:40] [0:10]
t22. Knockin' On Your Door [3:05] [0:11]
t23. crowd (5) [0:57]
t24. White Dove [4:38] (6) [0:50]
t25. Blue Mule [4:43] [0:17]
--encore (4 tracks, 12:39)--
t26. pre-encore tuning [2:02]
t27. How Mountain Girls Can Love [2:15] [0:22]
t28. Mississippi Moon [4:21] [0:22]
t29. Orange Blossom Special [3:10] [0:07]

 ! ACT1: Old And In The Way
! lineup: Peter Rowan - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: David Grisman - mandolin, vocals;
! lineup: Vassar Clements - fiddle;
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass.

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: 

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1973-06-05-orpheum-theater-boston-ma/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/11889 (aud, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/83303 (allsoundz MAC), http://etreedb.org/shn/131167 (composite, this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/wve0H

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! listing: Boston Phoenix, May 29, 1973, p. 27;

! mention: Boston Phoenix, June 5, 1973, sec. 2, p. 16.

! R: Source: This is a composite edit of audience tapes shnid-11889 and shnid-83303. Thanks to the tapers! Transfer: SHN & FLAC > TLH > WavMerge > Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged.

! Show notes: This is Vassar's first gig with OAITW, and Jerry's first performance at the Boston Orpheum (of 20). Allsoundz - the taper of the 83303 source - states that there was only one show (not early and late as previously listed) and that Doug Sahm was the opening act. Allsoundz also recalled there was possibly a set-break somewhere but this is not evident from the tapes; it appears the show might have been one long set with a three-song encore.

! R: seeder notes 1: "Composite notes: For this show, both sources had pros & cons, and it appeared that the show could benefit from a composite that joined the two together. Allsoundz tape 83303 has the benefit of being complete and with known lineage, but was recorded farther back resulting in a more distant recording, with a lot of thumping near the mic. And, while shnid-11889 is incomplete and with unknown number of tape generations, it was recorded closer, delivering a nice aural picture of the concert. The shnid-11889 taper appears to have been a lot closer to the stage, perhaps with the mic right on the stage, as the between-song banter from Spud and the boys can be heard clearly. shnid-11889 was chosen for the bulk of the show, with shnid-83303 providing patches and the final part that was missing from shnid-11889.

! R: seeder notes 2: "Allsoundz states that his tape is mono. It also appears that the shnid-11889 original recording was mono, as the Wav's are identical, albeit having been shifted out of phase, probably from the few generations of re-recording. For both sources, DC-offsets were removed, left and right channels were manually aligned, then each source was merged to mono for editing. Both sources were apparently running slow; shnid-83303 between 40 & 50 cents, and shnid-11889 between 75 & 85 cents. Each source was speed-adjusted as best as possible given the difficulties of dealing with these old tapes. It's probably not exact, but it's pretty close..."

! R: seeder notes 3: "Lots of small edits were done to soften mic-bumps, attenuate clapping, repair drop-outs, etc. Small FLAC size due to mono WAV data. Patches from shnid-83303 added as follows: Willow Garden 3:18 > 3:19, Lonesome L.A. Cowboy 4:29 > Hard Hearted 0:49, crowd end of Love Please Come Home 2:39 > Lost 0:06, crowd end of Lost 3:38 > Knockin' on Your Door 0:18, and crowd end of Knockin' on Your Door 3:04 > thru to end of the show. Enjoy! (Aug 2014)

! P: t02 interesting to have Jerry lead things off on banjo with this breakdown. Vassar steps up 0:34, oh my God!

! t10 (1) Note how PR introduces David: "David D. Dawg Diadem Grisman"

! t13 (2) PR: "We'd like to do a tune that Vassar recorded some years ago with Jim & Jesse McReynolds. The tune is called "Hard Hearted'."

! t15 (3) someone asks for Wild Horses, band member says 'you got it'. How could anyone in Boston have known to request this song? Maybe they set up one of the Brothers to ask for it, or these were some friends of the Rowans.

! P: t15 Wild Horses 3:06 JG's banjo just doesn't impress me. He sounds rusty, here and throughout.

! t18 (4) some talk over a dedication to Mr. Mcord? Mr. Gate?

! t23 (5) crowd yelling requests, some guy says play anything, some guy wrily says "Dahk Stah!" and everyone, including taper, laughs.

! t24 (6) Dawg: "We've enjoyed pickin' for you folks." Applause. Boston dude: "We enjoyed listening to you folks." Applause. Dawg: "We'll be coming back again sometime." "Dahk Stah" joker yells out again.

Garcia and Kahn Sell Out: Orpheum Theatre, Boston, November 17, 1984

LN jg1984-11-17.jgjk.all.aud-drew-seaweed.110537.flac1644

Regular readers will know I have been exploring Garcia's putative Rock Bottom period by listenings to tapes and more or less noting what I hear. Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

I harbor considerable ex ante animus toward this tour - I have heard some first hand reports of its deep, dark, junky feeling, recoil at the pictures of the greasy, sweaty, strung out Garcia from this tour, and have never been lit up by what I heard when I listened to the shows. This is the classic "Garcia's side projects were all about Jerry and John making drug money" tour, which is a line which my devotion to the side stuff already indicates I don't altogether buy, and which makes me feel icky inside. But here it is.

These listening notes are mostly from some unknown number of months ago. As I was finishing them up with links and stuff, I decided to listen to "Goodnight Irene" [Allan | deaddisc], which is a favorite of mine and which I have always thought must have resonated emotionally with Jerry - "I want to jump overboard in a river and drown" could not have failed to bring his father to mind, could it?

And I guess I hear that it's not as bad as I feared it might be, and is not bad at all if this is Rock Bottom. He cannot sing very well, to be sure. But he is giving it his all. It's flawed, but he's trying. Yeah, the first set is about 38 continuous minutes, not a ton. But, I dunno, it's not horrible. I am looking forward to hearing more from this tour, all of a sudden (though I feel like detouring to some other material, cleansing my palate of Rock Bottom for awhile).

Billboard (December 1, 1984, p. 37) reports this as a sellout, just a hair under $37k gross on 2,800 tickets, and the fans sound happy enough being treated to Jerry Garcia playing "Ripple". Not a bad night's work, all in all.

Jerry Garcia and John Kahn
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
November 17, 1984 (Saturday)
Seaweed 1st gen cassette shnid-110537

--set I (6 tracks, 37:53)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:47]
s1t02. Deep Elem Blues [8:52] [0:07]
s1t03. When I Paint My Masterpiece [7:50] [0:06]
s1t04. Little Sadie [4:02] [0:06]
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:11] ->
s1t06. Run For The Roses [4:37] [0:15]

--set II + encore (8 tracks, 53:10)--
--set II (7 tracks, 48:38)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [0:58]
s2t02. Friend Of The Devil [7:56] [0:10]
s2t03. I've Been All Around This World [6:50] ->
s2t04. Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie [6:50] ->
s2t05. Gomorrah [6:16] [0:05]
s2t06. Birdsong [11:39] [0:02]
s2t07. Goodnight //Irene [8:#00] (2) [0:26]
--encore (1 track, 4:32)--
s2t08. Ripple [4:13] [0:19]

! 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/19841117-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/30874 (Mark flac, deprecated); http://etreedb.org/shn/31343 (speed correction of shnid-30874); http://etreedb.org/shn/110537 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/113549 (aud flac)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/6MLna

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! ref: Billboard, December 1, 1984, p. 37;

! review: [positive] Daykin 1984: Reviewer Daykin notes JG started off shaky, head on chest and no engagement with audience. He says things improved, and really liked Bird Song (except for one bad note). Overall positive review.

! review: [negative] Gewertz 1984: This review in the Boston Herald ran under the headline "Garcia gives a dreadful concert". "Garcia delivered perhaps the worst single performance this writer has ever witnessed in a major concert". Yet the crowd went wild. His voice "ravaged and ruined". Deadheads were "dancing to some stereo in their own heads, not the plodding guitar and bass duets that wheezed from the stage." Garcia was "a listless troll lost in some inner world".

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: unknown mics > Sony TC-D5

! R: source tape: 1st gen cassette provided by Drew and Seaweed1010 (Maxell XLII)

! R: transfer: Nakamichi CR-5A playback > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. Transfer by Andrew F.

! R: seeder notes: Decent audience recording, an upgrade to shnid-31343, and also includes the two songs that were missing from that source. The levels in 2nd Set are a bit over-driven, not too bad.
! R: I think this is a perfectly good tape.

! R: s1t02 Deep Elem the sound is muffled 0:05 > 0:32, and mic-bumps at 7:11 and 7:14.

! P: s1t05 STOF Not a terrible performance. The line about the sailors coming in and all that is given with some sensitivity. Then the end of the song has a pretty nice guitar buildup. JG even says "Thank you" as he takes it from STOF into RFTR.

! The timing of set I is basically continuous. So, in real time, that really was about a 38-minute set. And I doubt they were back "in a few minutes" after the "short break" announced by JG after RFTR.

! s2t05 JG says "Thank you" again between OBIANL and Gomorrah.

! R: s2t07 Goodnight Irene @ 6:29 tape flip, mended by Drew

! P: s2t07 GI is played totally respectably. He can't sing at this point, but we knew that. This is not bad. John is even playing late 5. Jerry bringing some energy right at the splice 6:29, too bad. Long version. Might check one of the other tapes of this night. I love this song (songs-G). Weird finish about "see you in my dreams". A for effort.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later." There must be a tape splice in here somewhere.

Ronnie's and Rowan's Returns

LN jg1981-11-13.jgb.early-late.aud-streeter.123554.flac1644

I cannot believe that things were nearly forgotten that should not have been around this late '81 JGB tour, namely that Ronnie Tutt was back on the skins. Somehow that information didn't make it to Garciabase, and thence to TJS, but thankfully Corry Knows and we have the old McNally-Arnold JG List still available. The tour was billed on the Grateful Dead Hotline as "The Return of Ron Tutt".

I haven't seen any of the papers around this tour in particular, but I know that within four months or so Garcia was busy cleaning up what I believe to be the last of the wreckage of Round Records and the original Jerry Garcia Band partnership (initially Garcia-Kahn-Tutt and Hopkins, then just the first three). So, to me, Tutt's late '81 return feels like them generating revenue together to clear away the old financial entanglements binding them. It could have been a payout for Mr. Tutt, which I don't mean in a negative sense, but just in the sense of making sure everything was buttoned up tight. Garcia and Tutt would never play together after this tour.

I like this night's performances much better than the ones in the same space nine months earlier (2/7/81). Nice punchy show. Tutt is an amazing player. Just about every song in the early show makes me stand up and take note. Only Simple Twist and ISTE didn't move me to note something.

Peter Rowan opened. I have a little bit of the same feeling about this as I do about Tutt. Well, not quite the same. With Tutt, I think they were literally taking care of unfinished business. With Rowan, it feels to me more like Garcia is throwing the occasional gig the Rowans' ways to assuage some old guilt. I have no evidence for this, but it's more than just a flier. The end of OAITW, like the end of so many Garcia relationships, seems not to cast the best light on Our Hero. David Grisman was embittered and would have nothing to do with Garcia for many years, not even wanting to talk about him (Forte 1979a, 1979b). But he was also succeeding on his own. While Peter Rowan is now, and rightfully so, a Living Legend, a guy who probably gets to pick and choose where and when and what he wants to play, ca. 1981 I suspect things were a little less comfortable.

Below I paste a table of what I can confirm in terms of a Rowan opening for (or, at least, being co-billed with), Garcia in the post-OAITW era. I don't know if he played the rest of the shows on this tour. I suspect so, but I'd like confirmation before I list them, because assumptions can be fraught.

Table xxx. Rowan and Garcia co-billings post-OAITW

Boston being the Rowans' hometown, I hope this was a nice time for Peter. I'd love to hear the tape if anyone has one.

Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
November 13, 1981 (Friday)
Frank Streeter MAC flac1644 shnid-123554

--early show (8 tracks, 77:13)--
a-t01. tuning [0:53]
a-t02. Sugaree [11:08] % [0:41]
a-t03. Catfish John [9:21] % [0:22]
a-t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:42] % [0:44]
a-t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [14:08] % [0:15]
a-t06. I Second That Emotion [10:58] % [0:23]
a-t07. Mississippi Moon [10:23] [0:08]
a-t08. Deal [8:54] (1) [0:04] %

--late show (5 tracks, 36:43)--
b-t01. tuning [0:54]
b-t02. The Way You Do The Things You Do [7:20] [0:04] % [0:02]
b-t03. They Love Each Other [7:05] [0:02] % [0:01]
b-t04. [0:09] Valerie [6:55] % [1:02]
b-t05. The Harder They Come [13:01] (2) [0:09]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric keyboards;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! lineup: Julie Stafford - vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires - 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/19811113-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19811113-02 (late)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/12989 (early and late, Greater Boston Deadheads Who Give A Shit Foundation, Nak 700s, shnf; I presume this is Steve Rolfe's tape, but I am not sure); http://etreedb.org/shn/89005 (late show, John Levene, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/102009 (Bob Morris early show + Steve Rolfe late show, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/123554 (early and late Streeter flac1644, this fileset).

! map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orpheum+Theatre/@42.3563142,-71.0610765,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3709cb51cffcf:0x6575ac76b6bcc90f

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! band: JGB #14b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! context: Peter Rowan opened. Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire.

! R: field recordist: Frank Streeter

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 -> Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording media: xx Maxell MX90

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Sony TC-K677ES) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) ->
Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (2 Discs Audio / 1 DVD FLAC), all Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, January 21, 2013.

! setlist: seeder note: "Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire"

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Frank Streeter for lending me his masters. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction."

! R: very nice tape.

! P: a-t02 Sugaree some very nice guitar work in the 8-minute mark, crowd expresses appropriate enthusiasm.

! P: a-t03 CJ very nice guitar work late 7-minute mark. Jerry sounds good.

! P: a-t04 TWLWMYD Jerry is scorching over 8-minute mark. Wow. These versions from November 1981 are smokin' hot. Tutt is such a rock.

! P: a-t07 MM Melvin plays a nice feature around 8-min mark.

! P: a-t08 Deal Garcia's soloing in the late 6 and over 7-min mark is outtasite.

! a-t08 (1) JG: "See ya later on. Thank you."

! P: b-t05 HTC Tutt is a monster. Late 5 over 6-minute mark, a little Jimmy Warren feature, but Tutt is pounding behind him. Around 6:10 there's a buzz, like the fire alarm. Wow Tutt is doing some of the most amazing drumming behind HTC in the 6-minute range. Now Jerry is stepping up and he has some amazing multistring fingering happening, pulls a pull about 7:45, gorgeous.

! b-t05 (2) JG: "Thanks, we're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a few minutes." The note above ("Late show ended early due to power outage caused by nearby fire"), from etree, probably explains why there's no second set in the late show - compare 2/7/81.

Two Keyboards on Tour: JGB, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, February 7, 1981

LN jg1981-02-07.jgb.early-late.aud-streeter.123543.flac1644

I have some pretty bland listening notes to catch up with posting. Might try to plant a few this weekend.

Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
February 7, 1981 (Saturday)
Streeter early and late complete MAC Miller flac1644 shnid-123543 JGMF retrack

--early show (8 tracks,73:36)--
a-t01. tuning [1:54]
a-t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:45] [0:05] % [0:02]
a-t03. Catfish John [11:11] [0:06] % [0:10]
a-t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:12] [0:07] % [0:14]
a-t05. Like A Road [11:44] [0:33]
a-t06. Love In The Afternoon [10:44] [0:05] % [0:03]
a-t07. Sugaree [9:55] [0:07]
a-t08. [0:07] Tangled Up In Blue [8:12] (1) [0:18]

--late show (10 tracks, 94:42)--
--late show, set I (5 tracks, 42:18-0:04)--
b-s1t01. tuning [1:17]
b-s1t02. The Harder They Come [11:54] [0:02] % [0:02]
b-s1t03. They Love Each Other [8:37] [0:04] %  [0:08]
b-s1t04. Tore Up Over You [9:43] [0:05] %
b-s1t05. Mission In The Rain [10:13] (2) [0:09] % pre-set II [0:04]

--late show, set II (5 tracks, 52:24+0:04)--
b-s2t01. I'll Take A Melody [13:29] [0:03] %
b-s2t02. Mississippi Moon [11:14] ->
b-s2t03. Dear Prudence [11:26] [0:05] % [0:06]
b-s2t04. Deal [7:29] ->
b-s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:16] (3) [0:16]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - el-piano;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - 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/19810207-01 (A); https://jerrybase.com/events/19810207-02 (B)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8648 (early and late Steve Rolfe, shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/88820 (late show, Jim Vita, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/88927 (early and late John Levene, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/102007 (early and late Bob Morris flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/107333 (early and late shows, pitch/speed correction of Levene source shnid-88927, flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/123543 (early and late Streeter, this fileset).

! map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orpheum+Theatre/@42.3563142,-71.0610765,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3709cb51cffcf:0x6575ac76b6bcc90f

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/orpheum-theatre-1-hamilton-place-boston.html

! band: JGB #12b (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! R: field recordist: Frank Streeter

! R: field recording location: unknown

! R: field recording gear: ?2x? AKG D330BT mic(s) > Sony TC-D5M

! R: field recording media: Maxell MX90

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Sony TC-K677ES) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) ->
Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (3 Discs Audio / 1 DVD FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, January 20, 2013.

! R: seeder notes: "Late show is seamless. There were a ton of snaps and 'thud' sounds I cleaned up (some remain). Thanks to Frank Streeter for lending me his masters. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction."

! R: JGMF rename for sets 2/23/2014.

! context: A quartet version of this band debuted January 22-23. That was JGB #12a. The second keyboardist (Jimmy Warren on electric piano), arrived for five more local shows in two weeks, and then the band took off on tour. Garcia was nothing if not insistent that his players jump in with both feet, deep end. Three consecutive nights (Warner in DC on the 4th, Lehigh University on the 5th, the Tower in Philly on the 6th, now two shows in Boston. It's not surprising that I don't feel boatloads of energy (which could also reflect my own state of mind, as much as the players'). Note that at least five tapers walked home with recordings this night. I have not A-B'd them, and don't expect to have time to do so, but one never knows.

! P: On this listen (2/23/2014), the shows don't do much for me.

! P: a-t03 CJ some very interesting guitar work. Fanning over 9-min mark. Nice.

! P: a-t05 LAR at end a woman gives a great big "Thank you, Jerry!" This song always had a nice feel of connection Jerry and the audience, as in that early '89 show (1/28/89).

! a-t08 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

! P: a-t08 TUIB PA screech late 4-min mark.

! b1-t05 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a coupla minutes."

! b2-t05 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya."

The Grateful Dead: Top-Grossing Act of 1991

I just picked up a copy of Pollstar's 1991 Year-End Special Edition, entitled Year of the Dead, dated December 31, 1991.

Though I don't do much GD stuff, blogger's stats tell me that GD posts are the most popular. People are funny. But I digress. One of the reasons I don't do it is that others are just so much better at it, and there's so much to do. I like my quieter, Garcia-on-the-side view of things.

But I couldn't pass this up. I just loved some of the data that I found in this magazine, and so want to present a few pictures, each with a few associated thoughts (though, thankfully, not a thousand words).

The GD was the top-grossing American live music act in 1991, bringing in almost $35 million for the year. At this point, Garcia is founder and de facto leader of a company grossing well over this amount, once we factor in GD merchandising, record sales, licensing, royalties (I'd love to know the details), in addition to all of that stuff from his "other" bands. He was an entrepreneur (I need to read Barry Barnes's book, I know). A lot of the messed up shit (such as the 1978 tax liens) that I report on needs to be put into this context. The Dirty Fucking Hippie was a massively successful businessman. He wasn't just some junkie rock star. He was an American success story: Jerry Garcia, Inc.

Here's the key table, with data from Pollstar. I have independently calculated the gross per ticket stuff and the column totals. Pollstar's narrative has some weird numbers, for example "76 shows in 27 cities", while I count 58 paid shows (plus free Bill Graham Memorial show on 11/3/91, no tickets of revenue, of course) across 23 cities.

Table xxx. Grateful Dead 1991 concert grosses.

I'll leave it to GD people to comment and parse as they might like. Let me just elaborate with one more picture from these data, focusing on promoters.

Figure xxx. Grateful Dead 1991 concert grosses, by promoter. Man that is some ugly-ass graph, isn't it?

Here are a few observations, bullet style.

• There is so much continuity in promoters! I was looking at tour information from the October 22 - November 2, 1975 JGB tour, and you see not only John Scher all over it, but Cellar Door in DC and Don Law in Boston, as with here. Seems like there were lots of first-mover advantages in this particular market.
• Barry Fey was the only holdout to the total market domination of Bill Graham and John Scher.
• This distribution is such a great artifact of high modernism. It's perfect how Scher and Graham divide the country, each with his domaine réservé or his chasse gardée, exclusive territoriality on a par with the sharply distinct domains of Westphalian states. No overlapping authority, à la the pre-Westphalian Holy Roman Empire, with its thousands of princes, dukes, suzerains and assorted monarchs and their associated principalities, duchies, suzerainties, and kingdoms.  Sharp lines. Modernity. From the article:

Grateful Dead Productions had the band's yearly excursions down to a science in '91 with Bill Graham Presents and Metropolitan Entertainment splitting the country in their roles as tour producers. All the Dead dates were co-promoted by one or the other except for a stop in Denver, where the two companies couldn't agree on who had the territory. It's safe to say the plan won't change much in the future. If there's one thing to learn from this success story in a year that had so few, it's 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

• Why would Bill Graham have co-promoted the May 1991 Shoreline shows, but not the August ones?
• Garcia, like all of us, wanted to simplify out the shit that didn't appeal to him (e.g., the business side of things) to make maximal room for the stuff that did. We should, and probably do, all strive for that sort of thing. Specialization and exchange. Pay the promoter to handle that stuff. Delegate.
• Look at how lucrative the eastern half of the country is. Man oh man! We have talked on the blogs, and the books talk a lot, about the importance of the core northeast fanbase over the years. It began very early on. The Dead perceived the importance of these folks (or are they markets?) early on and drew the appropriate conclusions in terms of engagement, marketing, outreach, etc. Constituency service, the pols would call it.
• The annual MSG and Boston Garden runs are just unbelievable. Again, high modernism. Capitalism at its finest.
• Scher seems to have been smart about working with local partners, and I am sure the GD folks were more than glad to have him sub-contract as he needed to. The Dead and Scher worked well together, they obviously trusted him, and you can't particularly argue with the results.
• The fact that the Dead staged an intervention after the Denver show 6/28/91, that Garcia entered a methadone-based recovery program that summer, and seemed burned out beyond all recognition in the fall (the Hornsby recollections, the Boston statement about taking a break from touring), gives us a little peek, as if we needed any reminder that life is full of tradeoffs, at the human toll, on Garcia in particular, of the "Year Of The Dead". A Year of Dying, too. Ain't creative destruction great?

One last point, on data and methodology: the entertainment industry has always documented itself very thoroughly, and especially in quantitative (and, specifically, monetary) terms. I guess that's true of all industries, but, like any ad-based industry, music, television, film, and the rest of the entertainment-industrial complex had a great incentive to make at least some data public. From very early on there are charts and lots of information about grosses and such.

So how is it possible that we don't have better quantitative data in the field of Grateful Dead Studies? We need  more graduate students writing more dissertations to start compiling more data; we oldsters can't handle the strain. Billboard, Pollstar ... etc. etc. I want graphs of the chart position of every Dead/Garcia record ever ... stat! (so to speak)

'Secret' at Paul's Mall: see p. 27

 LN jg1974-11-13.jgms.late.aud-seaweed.121034.flac1644

LIA just posted some really nice sources ("November 12, 1974: Garcia Plays Boston" and "November 1974: Garcia & Dead Projects") relating to the November 1974 east coast tour by the Jerry Garcia-Merl Saunders (JGMS) aggregation of Garcia, Saunders, John Kahn, Martin Fierro, and Paul Humphrey. In discussing 11/6/74 I noted that this was "Garcia’s first professional tour as a named headliner outside the Grateful Dead". From the perspective of what I do here, this is a critical step in the musical and professional (i.e., financial) balance that Garcia would eventually establish in his life, organized around the twin pillars of GD and GOTS (Garcia On The Side, a horrible acronym for a fine phrase).

Anyway, as the authors emphasize at the links above, and as I discussed a little bit around the April 1975 Legion of Mary east coast tour, these shows mostly sold out through word of mouth. Many of them were totally unadvertised. Garcia's Paul's Mall engagement "was to have been a well-kept secret ... There was no advertising, no promotion, no names on the marquee" (Howard 1974). Howard notes that word "leaked out" about a week before the shows, and LIA speculates that this was probably intentional. Not sure whose intentions were involved, but, indeed, the "leak" was hardly spread, sotto voce, among a small band of co-conspirators. No, the shows were advertised --albeit minimally!-- in the counterculture weekly Boston Phoenix:

The show under examination here, the late show from Wednesday, November 13th, is good. I have a weakness for the Thursday (11/14) late show, but there's nothing wrong with this one. The real setlist rarity is "Just Kissed My Baby", the Meters song done instrumentally by JGMS on four documented occasions, all of them during the month of November 1974 [Allan | deaddisc | TJS].  I always love "Favela" [Allan | deaddisc | TJS], credited by deaddisc to Vincius DeMoraes / Antonio Carlos Jobim / Ray Gilbert, which the band played a lot between August and December 1974. "Wondering Why" [Allan | deaddisc | TJS] is another fave, perhaps the best fit for Merl's voice of all the lead vocals he did with Jerry. It perhaps best evokes the vibe of this night and this era, described for this night by attendee George Krick:

We sat right next to the band, Fierro's head was as big as a basketball, veins exploding as he spit on us and blew his sax. His flute was adorned with multiple feathers. Jerry was sweating profusely and Merle was mumbling and groaning. Very intense.

Anyway, and as always, it's great to see new-to-circulation old material still emerging into daylight, and a pleasure to listen to this well-recorded tape from November 1974.

REFERENCE:

Howard, William. 1974. Garcia Plays Mall – Fans Crack ‘Secret’. Boston Globe, November 14, 1974, p. 41. Reposted to http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/12/november-12-1974-garcia-plays-boston.html.

LISTENING NOTES:

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 13, 1974 (Wednesday) - Late Show
86+ min aud via seaweed, shnid 121034

--late show (8 tracks, 86:31)--
t01. Harder They Come [15:06] [0:10]
t02. [0:34] Favela// [14:49#]
t03. Just Kissed My Baby [9:19] %
t04. Someday Baby [10:47] %
t05. Wondering Why [17:34] ->
t06. People Make The World Go Round [3:25] [0:13] %
t07. /Neighbor, Neighbor [8:25] %
t08. /The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down// [6:09#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - drums.

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/19741113-02

! db: shnid-121034 (this source)

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

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html

! R: Source: Unknown AUD cassette, kindly supplied by Seaweed1010.

! R: Transfer: XLIIS-100 > Nakamichi DR-2 > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged, Andrew F. July 2012.

! R: Seeder note: As noted on the Jerry Site, this is probably the entire late show of Nov 13th. The tape was labeled 4th-gen, but sounds very listenable nonetheless. Favela and Dixie both cut out on the final notes, not much missing in either case. Thanks again to Seaweed for this tape!

! metadata: seeder notes: About the Paul's Mall dates ... Currently we have as follows: Nov 12th Early & Late Shows: nothing; Nov 13th Early Show: Jerrysite and ID-10128 match; Nov 13th Late Show: This tape; Nov 14th Early Show: Jerrysite and ID-16461 match; Nov 14th Late Show: Same songs listed, but out of order on ID-6383.

! R: this is quite a nice audience tape.

! personnel: We know this is Paul Humphrey drumming, and I can confirm that it's the same "fast and busy" drumming that I heard on 11/2/74. I don't mean that as a bad thing. Lots of tight snare drumming, especially.

! P: t02 Favela could be played at different tempos. This is toward the slower end of the tempo range, it seems to me.

! P: t02 Favela is flawed --they lose the thread a little a time or two, especially Mr. Humphrey-- but it's also got some really good moments. At 13 minutes or so in, Martin returns them to the theme and Garcia runs around a few times as if to say that he wanted to go another time around the bases. Oh well. Then they don't quite know how to end things and they go another time around the theme, which is less fertile terrain. Feels like a missed opportunity there.

! P: t03 JG some nice pulling in the 5-minute mark.

! P: t07 NN they lose track of each other in the 7-minute mark.

! R: t08 TNTDODD cuts out, maybe a minute or so, whatever big buildup finish they would do, is missing.

! historical: Garcia's "appearance at the Back Bay bistro was to have been a well-kept secret. ... There was no advertising, no promotion, no names on the marquee. ... The three-night engagement, which ends [11/14/74], was sold out instantly when word leaked out" (Howard 1974). Note that word "leaked out" through an ad in the Boston Phoenix (11/5/74, sec. 2, p. 27).

! expost: George Krick: "These shows are etched in my mind forever. Paul's Mall is a small night club in Boston...dark, low ceiling...probably less than 100 people there. We sat right next to the band, Fierro's head was as big as a basketball, veins exploding as he spit on us and blew his sax. His flute was adorned with multiple feathers. Jerry was sweating profusely and Merle was mumbling and groaning. Very intense."

HWJG19710801 question

A little while back we had a whole series of things related to Howard Wales / Jerry Garcia Hooteroll?

1. Hooteroll?--When Was It Recorded?  -- LLD, Jan. 6, 2011
2. Response to LLD's Hooteroll--When Was It Recorded? -- JGMF, Jan. 7, 2011
3. Hooteroll? Next Part -- JGMF, 1/13/2011

In that last one, I mentioned Blair Jackson's information that the JG vault holds "four live multitrack reels from Boston, dated 8/1," which I infer to be August 1, 1971. I had this to say:

Whoa. Is it possible that Wales & Garcia played in Boston on Jerry's 29th birthday, August 1, 1971? Well, the GD did play Yale University (New Haven, CT) on 7/31 ... anyone ever wonder what was up with that? JG's first solo album, Garcia, was said to have been recorded in three weeks in July 1971, and then the GD go out east for a one-off. So JG almost certainly began 8/1 within easy reach of Boston ... is it possible that a Boston gig happened this late in the game, with no contemporary record or memory of it?

Well, I still don't know the answer. But I can report that I scoured several Boston microfilm sources (Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, maybe Boston After Dark, etc.) from the 8/1/71 timeframe turned up nothing. My thinking has been maybe that there was some studio aspect to this, not sure why. I smell a record company or that type of person around this, though I doubt that hunch is worth much. If it were a record company thing, maybe there wouldn't have been any advertising. If anyone from the standard underground press (Phoenix, B.A.D.) had gone, I'd have to think it would have showed up as a  mention, at least. But nothing.

Anyway, as of now, consider me mystified as to what "live multitrack reels from Boston, dated 8/1" might hold ...

Ladies Taping at the Boston Music Hall, March 14, 1978

 LN19780314: jg1978-03-14.jgb.all.aud-rolfe-minches.111596.flac1644

Great first set, OK second set. That's based on this listen to this tape.

Jerry Garcia Band
Boston Music Hall
Boston, MA
March 14, 1978 (Tuesday)
Dauby Rolfe MAC

--set I (8 tracks, 83:53)--
s1t01. Crowd and Tuning {3:53}
s1t02. How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You [10:44] [1:31] {12:25}
s1t03. They Love Each Other [7:23] [2:31] {9:54}
s1t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [14:14] % [0:31] {14:45}
s1t05. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:46] [3:10] {13:56}
s1t06. Mission In The Rain [11:01] [0:09] % [0:21] {11:31}
s1t07. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [10:19] {10:19}
s1t08. /Mystery Train [7:#01] [0:06] {7:07}

--set II (6 tracks, 47:22)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning {0:35}
s2t02. Love In The Afternoon [9:13] [0:08] % [1:25] {10:46}
s2t03. Gomorrah [6:42] [1:49] {8:31}
s2t04. The Harder They Come [11:00] [0:14] {11:14}
s2t05. I'll Be With Thee [5:22] [0:03] % {5:25}
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight [10:27] [0:23] {10:50}

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals.
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, harmony vocals;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - backing vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur - backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; # = truncated timing; { } = time as tracked on this recording; [ ] = recorded even 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/19780314-01

! db: shnid-14969 (Tom Dalti MAC); shnid-92367 (Claudette Gardel MAC); shnid-111596 (Dauby Rolfe MAC, this fileset).

! R: Field Recordist: Dauby Rolfe and female friend;

! R: Field Recording Equipment: 2x Sony ECM 99 microphones > Teac PC-10 cassette deck (possibly Sony TC-152);

! R: Field Recording Location: Right Center Row "G", seat 20;

! R: Analog-Digital-Lossless (12/20/2004): Nakamichi Dragaon playback > ART DIO A/D converter > Egosys Waveterminal 2496 soundcard > Cool Edit 2000 (wav) > mkwACT (shn encoding), by David Minches;

! R: Subsequent (2011): shn > flac8 encoding (Trader's Little Helper v2.4.1, build 160) > tagging (foobar2000 v0.9.6.8). Size: 729 MB.

! Recording: This is another strong recording, to go with great pulls by Tom Dalti (shnid-14969) and Claudette Gardel (shnid-92367). (Question for you taper sociologists: is there another show this early, GD or Garcia or anything else for that matter, taped independently by two female tapers? Thank you so much, ladies. Go!) Anyway, Dauby is in the sweet spot, and while we can hear the limits of the cassette medium (some hiss, for example), everything is here.

! Recording: Steve Rolfe: "According to my wife Dauby, two security guys showed up to confront the evil tapers. She smiled and waved to the security guys, who, in turn, smiled and waved back, then went away. Evidently, they were shocked to find two ladies taping. She had a little trouble with rightleft levels, but did a good job considering it was her first solo effort. It is very listenable" (DNC Garcia folder #52714, 12/26/2004).

! Whoever was doing the sound this tour, and again when the JGB went to the Pacific Northwest in November of 1978, had Kahn's bass sound as beautiful in the room as it would ever be. Yes, Kahn is playing very, very well in this period. But the PA sound on it is just fantastic.

! Show: Based on set I, I was proclaiming this a masterpiece. Set II strikes me as considerably weaker. Notice that the first runs to 84 minutes and the second to 47. That set II timing is exceptionally short for a night when there was only one show (i.e., not early and late shows).

! For CD burning, disc break between TNTDODD and Mystery Train.

! s1t03 TLEO taper's neighbor, as if a celebrity, into microphone: "Well, I'd just to like to say that being here ..." [trails off as song starts]. Funny little moment.

! s1t04 KOHD @ 10:55, Kahn actually bangs the frets of his bass, in the midst of a gloriously lilting version of the song. Awesome. If you want to hear John Kahn when he could play the fucking bass, check this (and 3/12/78, and 3/18/78) out.

! s1t06 MITR @ 4:30 Kahn does a really interesting string bend. Neat.

! s1t08 Mystery Train clips in

GD19671201-02: December 1-2, 1967, Psychedelic Supermarket, Boston, MA - CXL

update note 20150517: I find it hard to update posts once I make them, too little time and all that. In any case, I think I have learned the following things.

First, the Dead shows advertised for the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston on December 1-2, 1967 ended up canceled. Is that right?

Second, per commenter Bob E, who ran the show, the GD played Clark University at 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, December 9th. This, BTW, is a well-scoring dart for Corry Arnold, who more or less called it at Lost Live Dead, what was lost is found and all that. I hope Bob E. can answer more questions about that gig - was it Atwood Hall? What was the room capacity? How many attended? All that! I assume there is coverage in the campus newspaper, maybe stuff in the University archives.


Grateful Dead
Psychedelic Supermarket
590 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA
Friday, December 1, 1967
Saturday, December 2, 1967
CANCELED

Found a Dead show as above listed in the great Boston After Dark, November 29, 1967, p. 5.

Corry has posted on GD shows at the Psychedelic Supermarket on December 8-9, 1967. Makes sense they'd try to do consecutive weekends if they were out east, and developing a new base in Boston might have been more attractive than building what was probably already a solid base in NYC, the ongoing "Rise of the East Coast Deadhead".

In my original post here, I noted Corry's speculation on a December '67 Dead show at Clark U. possibly on 12/2, which turns out to have happened on 12/9. I have no idea if that still relates to canceled Boston shows on 12/1-2 other than as color following, but that's cool, too.

Let me close with an appeal. The San Francisco Public Library has the amazing combination of true grit American metropolis reality with the finest state-of-the-art digital scanners in the world which make research there a breeze. San Diego Public Library is looking up.

The Boston Public Library is an American gem, as much as the great public libraries across the country, but when I was there in 2011 and made this post, it hosted only one digital microfilm scanner. Some Boston Deadhead ought to patronize the place and buy 'em a bank of digital scanners to get after the Boston After Dark and all the rest of them.

In 2011,  in my original post, I said "Humanity is on the brink of losing untold information that still lives on paper and microfilm" and "I hope someone has it in their plans to digitize the Underground Newspaper microfilm collection." I gather now that a project to digitize and make public that important collection, improved and upgraded (i.e., perhaps freshly scanned?), OCRd, is underway. Hooray!

Hippies who made bundles have a special responsibility not to play to the type of what some colleagues of mine are writing as "The Greediest Generation". Help the BPL out, if you can spare it in these parlous times.

OAITW: June 6, 1973, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ

update 20230704: I can't go back and revise this post 13 years later. It'll show up in Fate Music, believe me. With a LOT more specifics on Tex Logan, Peter Rowan, Boston, John Scher, and so much more!

Old and in the Way did a small east coast tour in June of 1973, the band's only shows outside of California except for the May 8 show in Eugene and the May 9th show in Portland about which I know nothing. update 20230704: I know more now.

The tour looked like this:

June 5: Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA
June 6: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ
June 7: Palace Theatre, Waterbury, CT
June 8: Lake Whippoorwill, Warrenton, VA (festival)
June 11: Temple Festival Theater, Ambler, PA

updated 20230704: Here's the current Jerrybase OAITW June 1973 tour view

There are some interesting things to say about the other shows, too, but here let me just add two songs to the known setlist from the June 6th show: Lonesome L.A. Cowboy in the 2nd set (probably late); Blue Mule to end the show. These come from a review by John Swenson in the "Riffs" colum of the Village Voice, June 14, 1973, p. 60 (available from Google News). I am happy about this because I had noted on my latest copy of the recording of the show as follows: "Unless someone knows otherwise, it would seem that the show continued after Wild Horses.  This tape contains a full two minutes of tuning at the end, before cutting out on Grisman saying something ("I'd like to call on the Old and in the W//")." These two songs should be added to the end of the setlist at the Jerry Site.

As noted on the setlists and such, Tex Logan sits in on fiddle at the end of set I. Bonus Question: does anyone know this man's birthdate? I am quite desperate to know it (including year) for reasons that I'll make clear if I ever discover it.