Old old old notes: JGB at the Leroy Theatre, Pawtucket, RI, March 11, 1978

LN jg1978-03-11.jgb.all.aud-friend.97682.flac1644

I listened to this years ago, was just doing some housecleaning and thought I'd post.

Bullets:

Really nice tape. Piano sounds especially great .Thank you, Tim Friend! I note that it runs faster than the set II soundboard tape. I also noted that AF's ITAM patch from shnid-14931 (Tom Dalti aud) sounds pitched differently. Not sure which, if any, of these might be on A=440.

Third gig in three nights (whole tour was 11 11 eastern time zone shows in 11 days, March 9-19), poor ol' Jer's voice is already shot. It's not that surprising - the Dead's "laryngitis shows," with all Weir lead vocals, were only two months past, and he wasn't smoking fewer cigarettes nor, by all accounts, doing less blow or inhaling less burnt aluminum foil. He sometimes uses his rough edges to good effect, as when he growls in "Harder They Come" (HTC) about getting his share of what's his. But, this massively percussive band --Keith very loud, Kahn still a monster-- really calls for lots of vocal power, and Jerry just can't deliver the goods.

We do find the big, bad, cokey-Wolfy guitar chords throughout, plenty of power and burning tone. We find plenty of evidence in support of the "compensation hypothesis" --partly induced from the aforementioned laryngitis GD shows-- whereby vocals (and other) challenges drive good and aggressive guitar playing. In "I'll Take A Melody" here, for example, the whole band finds itself tripping over vocal timing, and I hear Garcia rip off an angry, aggressive-embarassed flurry, like he had to peel off that nervous extra skin he grew while the band was out of sync. Similarly, Jerry scrambles back from the brink of a near-unraveling in "Mystery Train" (MT) by picking some special  notes.

I love the ladies' harmonizing --I don't always-- on "Catfish John" here, and Jerry sings along with them, and it really reminds you of the beauty, that Donna has especially noted, that could happen when these people who love each other blend their voices. I need to find the quote of Donna talking about that -- feel free to point me to it! Buzzy sounds great on "That's What Love Will Make You Do", and I hear Kahn "dropping big artillery" in HTC and "rumbling like a motherfucker" in MT. I regularly criticize The Mule's playing after 1980, but in the 1970s the man played world-class electric bass.

"Rhapsody In Red" is one of my favorite Garciaverse tunes, and when it's great it absolutely slays me with some of the loudest and shreddiest rock'n'roll guitar Garcia would ever play. This version does deliver some screaming crazed fanning and other shreddy goodness, and Jerry puts feeling into the question of where playing the blues has led him, but overall I find this version a little ponderous, more in well than in top-shelf territory. So it goes. Crazy that I don't even mention "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home". So it goes.

Oh yeah, for real good fun, check out Dave Davis's writeup of this show and the prior night's Bob Weir Band gig in Provy at Grateful Seconds, Italian exchange student Gianni Rosati's endearing review in Relix, and the best-in-class Garcia Band interview by Andy Gefen from earlier on March 11th, which brings some interesting conversation but, especially, some great laughs. And who can't use more of those?

Jerry Garcia Band
Leroy Theatre
66 Broad Street
Pawtucket, RI 02860
March 11, 1978 (Saturday) - 7 PM
Tim Friend 145 minute audience recording

--set I (8 tracks, 79:02)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:35]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:17] [1:05]
s1t03. Catfish John [9:55] [1:22]
s1t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [10:11] [1:38]
s1t05. I'll Take A Melody [15:15] [1:00]
s1t06. Harder They Come [12:45] [1:11]
s1t07. Gomorrah [6:10] [0:34]
s1t08. % Mystery Train [9:45] (1) [0:21]

--set II (7 tracks, 66:26)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:02]
s2t02. Love In The Afternoon [11:30] [0:28] % [0:11]
s2t03. Rhapsody In Red [8:16] [1:58]
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [12:39] [0:22]
s2t05. Tore Up Over You [8:11] [1:05]
s2t06. I'll Be With Thee [4:46] ->
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [14:42] (2) [1:17]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4a
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! Lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano;
! Lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
! Lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19780311-05

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/14931 (Tom Dalti aud); http://etreedb.org/shn/97682 (goodbear various auds); http://etreedb.org/shn/97682 (Tim Friend aud, this source); http://etreedb.org/shn/135199 (s2 sbd AJL). NB the board tap runs a fair bit slower than this aud. I don't know which might be correct.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/BspT8D8hQXT2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/leroy-theater-66-broad-street-pawtucket.html

! venue: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5639. "Pawtucket’s “Million Dollar Theater” opened May 1, 1923 to a packed house, with numerous celebrities in attendence. Designed by local architect John F. O'Malley, the theater featured a mirrored lobby, an electric chandelier with 4,700 bulbs, and the largest Wurlitzer organ in New England. ... After 55 continuous years as a movie and concert showplace, the Leroy was forced to close in 1978 due to fire code violations". So, the place closed within the year of Jerry playing there.

! band: JGB #4a (JGB #4 + Maria) (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! historical / Sue: Promoter: John Scher. Co-promoter: Gemini Concerts (Provy). Sound check 4:30 p.m. $4,000 flat guarantee on gross potential of $17,424. Sell out. Garcia and crew were interviewed by Andy Gefen earlier in the day at WBRU-FM in Provy. It is a classic - check it out!

! review: [positive] Rosati 1978. Rosati was an Italian exchange student at Providence College in Spring 1978. He notes "no opening act for the Mystery Cats, who played twice as much music as the Weir Band [the night before, in Provy] over a span of more than four hours, which included a one-hour break in the middle of the set."

! see also: GratefulSeconds, "A Weekend in Rhode Island with Bobby's Band and Jerry's Band, March 10-11, 1978"

! R: field recordist: Tim Friend

! R: field recording location: Fifth row orchestra, left center section

! R: field recording equipment: 1x AKG D200E (mono) > Sony TC-153SD (Maxell UD-XLII 90's, no Dolby).

! R: Transfer: MAC > Nakamichi DR-8 (with no Dolby) > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 by Andrew F. 02/2009.

! R: JGMF rename to sets (replace 'd' with 's' in filename), plus tagging in foobar2000.

! R: This tape is nice. The piano is especially well-mic'd, but the bass, drums and vocals are all very nice. I bet the acoustics in this place were very good. Thank you, Tim Friend! The taper did a tremendous job of capturing the between-song tunings. I have tried to note the flips where I heard them, but this is a great job of taping. Listening in ITAM, and I'll reiterate: thje piano is beautifully recorded. Wow! That said, from Mystery Train forward I find Garcia's vocals to be a little buried, and for reasons unclear to me things muddy up a little in my ears.

! P: At the start, I was loving this performance. I find a lot to like, but I guess I don't stand up and say WOW! anywhere. The vocals detract.

! P: s1t02 HSII Jerry's voice sounds really, really rough. Ouch.

! P: s1t03 CJ if you want to hear the Donna/Maria vocals working, listen to the opening chorus of Catfish John. Jerry's vocals are nice and careful here. JG is even trying to harmonize more with the ladies in the 2:15ish chorus. Nice! Like a freaking church hymn, I tell ya. JG just running around the fretboard beautifully in the late 6-minute mark, Keith steps up for some really pretty piano playing, light and airy, while Jerry traipses about the melody.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD you can really here what a hot drummer Buzz Buchanan is. He's really good. Keith hits a little rough patch in the late 6-minute mark, but he stays with it and drops some nice bob and weave. Late 7-minute mark and forward for awhile, Jerry Garcia is playing his rock and roll guitar, bending notes around 8:20, pretty big and powerful chords for him to be pulling at this stage of the proceedings, until 8:45, when they hit the '1' very convincingly, and Jerry is doing his coke yelling.

! R: s1t05 seeder note: The end of Melody was cut by a tape-flip. ShnID-14931 provided a patch from 14:51 > 15:01. The patch material was EQ'ed and mixed down to mono to more closely resemble Tim's recording. JGMF note: The patch has a noticeable pitch difference, but I appreciate Andrew F.'s work in putting it together.

! P: s1t05 ITAM Garcia's voice is so scratchy, mournful, weary. The song is a little bit of a mess. For example, around the 13 minute mark they spend a minute or two just trying to get back on the same page, and it had been a struggle getting there in the first place. Jerry and Donna's vocals are just not sync'd up. Then @ 14:30 Keith does a sharp key slide at the same time that Jerry was going to --and indeed does-- rip off an angry, aggressive-embarassed flurry. Like he had to peel off that nervous extra skin he grew around the syncing issues.

! P: s1t06 HTC ouchy ouchy ouchy that voice sounds like it hurts. But Jerry is giving it some blowback, growling about getting his share of what's his. Keith does some nice little piano soloing in the 6-minute mark, Garcia enters 6:43 with some round-and-round chords, Kahn drops some big artillery right around 7-min mark and forward. Mmm-mm-m. Again at 8:16 forward, John Kahn thumping the woofers, higher up around 9-minute mark, but pulling very nicely. They finish with enthusiasm, some extra vocalization from the ladies.

! P: s1t08 MT Kahn is rumbling like a motherfucker as they start. Something pops, they almost false start, but they pick up the pieces. As so often happens, we get some special notes on the scramble back from the brink. Unfortunately, Jerry's vocal mic seems to be having some problems, and worse still his voice is just not up to the challenge. It just sounds a little weak relative to all that percussion, including very upfront piano.

! s1t08 (1) JG: "Thank you. We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a little bit."

! s2t03 RIR is played too ponderously. Garcia is peeling off some wicked pissah guitar licks late in the 2-minute mark, lots of edge, but the tempo just holds things back a little bit. Now, toward the 4-minute mark, the ladies assert themselves, and Jerry makes it clear that he sings the blues, and he wants to know where it has led. Some serious rock star fanning licks in the 5-minute mark, but then it kind of thuds into Keith, who seems to want to shut it down. Garcia does some screaming crazed fanning mid-6 mark forward. Listen @ 6:58. Overall, though, I don't find this version of RIR to be the equal of, say, the mid-1983 barn-burners.

! s2t04 KOHD has a nice bouncy tempo that would really serve it well in the Garcia Band.

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. Bye bye."

Expressway Day: Garcia-Saunders at the Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, December 29, 1974

I woke up this morning with "Expressway (To Your Heart)" playing in my head.

Not just any Expressway, mind you. But the one played by Jerry and Merl and crew (possibly calling themselves Legion of Mary backstage and such) at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach on December 29, 1974, to end (or just about) the late show. And not just any generic representation of it, but the one  captured by "Flashback" Charlie DiSalvo using 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > into his Uher 4400, little 5" reels @ 3.75ips.

You see, way back when my digital home was DeadNetCentral (DNC), and especially the Garcia folder there (shocker). And someone with whom I have just been reconnected, but whose name is eluding my brain right now, either encouraged or brought over legendary East Coast taper Jerry Moore, who brought over his ol show-going pal Flashback Charlie. Or something like that. We also had the great Jimmy Warburton over there at times as I recall, Harvey Lubar maybe on occasion, and other folks. Again, I am foggy on the details, but somehow I got connected with all of those guys. Jerry and I got quite close, and I was lucky to work up the info files for the systematic state-of-the-art digital transfers a group was doing under the "Moore's Masters" moniker.

Charlie had made a tape that made a huge impact on me, and that was this 12/29/74b. Someone, maybe Jerry but not sure, had transferred the tape to DAT, from there it went to CD, from there it came to me, maybe via Sean Cribbs. (At some point Charlie sent me a sweet print of Bob Minkin's pic of the Jerry Band at the Cap, 11/26/77, and a print of his picture of Jerry Garcia and Friends from the Music Hall, 3/25/72, which IIRC Charlie got into by climbing up a fire escape), and I extracted the audio (using EAC with offsets corrected, etc., natch), tracked it using WavMerge and CDWav (guaranteed to cut on sector boundaries, important to us back then), and losslessly compressed it to .shn format using mkwACT. Looks like I forget to make the shn files seekable, which is a major blunder, and someone came along and re-encoded them to make them more usable. I submitted the fileset to the etree database on May 7, 2002 (I presume semester had just ended), where it still lives today as shnid-8643. I assume I circulated it in various ways, and certainly at some point uploaded it to the tol.etree.org FTP server, from where it became forever part of the arcHIVE, the brilliant, massively redundant decentralized repository of bit-perfect clones comprised by all of our collections.

Charlie became unwell, and as far as I know he is still alive, but is not reachable for me. I hope he is OK, because he was a sweet wonderful guy in my experience with him. Jimmy has told me that Charlie's tapes ended up with an ex in a divorce, may still exist, but it's not known how to get a hold of them. If anyone here has any notion of that, please drop me a line!

Charlie said this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002):

That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right.

Anyway, that tape BLEW MY MIND. It is burned into my DNA. Especially the 16+ minute version of "Expressway (To Your Heart)", which is a great Philly soul number in its own right, but which Garcia and Saunders made into a soul-jazz-funk extravagaganza (typo, but I'll keep the extra syllable in there for fun) that burns, drives, hops and grooves, and makes me want to boogie. I had listened to it a few more times over the years, then in January 2021 the GEMS crew polished it up a little bit, put it together with the early show, and circulated it anew as shnid-151373. This invited --no, practically obligated-- me to revisit the ol' favorite and I did so over a few different sessions earlier this year. 

And man does it stand up.

I lack the understanding and vocabulary to do it justice, beyond "jeepers, mister, this is really strong" and whatnot. Here are my real-time listening notes:

I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrast with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

Anyway, here on the show's 47th anniversary, I invite you to get a killer audio setup to enjoy the big stereo separation from the spread mics, settle in with your cuppa coffee or whatever, listen to Jerry and Merl and KAHN and TUTT and Martin absolutely tear it up. Kahn is especially unbelievable here, but I also find Tutt just slaying over and over again. I am not saying this would be the first 16 minutes of Jerry and Merl I would bring to the proverbial desert island, but if I got 5 such chunks it'd be in the running. Two big snaps up.

Let's all give a big shoutout to Flashback Charlie for pulling a masterpiece out of the fog. As self-appointed mayor of my imaginary Garciaville, I hereby decree December 29th to be Expressway Day in his honor. Turn it up!

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Golden Bear
306 Ocean Avenue
Huntingon Beach, CA 90740
December 29, 1974 (Sunday) Early and Late Shows
shnid-151373 GEMS Remaster and Packaging of SHNIDs 8643 and 93978

 --early show (7 tracks, 5 tunes, 83:41)--
e-t01. [0:03] That's A Touch I Like [10:54] [0:07] % [0:16]
e-t02. Favela [16:22] [0:22]
e-t03. ambience [1:35]
e-t04. You Can Leave Your Hat On [16:58] [0:35]
e-t05. Sitting In Limbo [16:26] [0:14] %
e-t06. ambience [1:07]
e-t07. I Second That Emotion [18:32] (1)

--late show (9 tracks, 6 tunes, 93:54)--
l-t08. Mystery Train [14:20] %
l-t09. ambience [1:14]
l-t10. La-La [16:47] ->
l-t11. People Make The World Go Round [428] [0:10] %
l-t12. (I'm A) Roadrunner [15:14] [0:11] %
l-t13. ambience [1:17]
l-t14. Going, Going, Gone [22:07] [0:20] %
l-t15. ambience (2) [1:15]
l-t16. Expressway (To Your Heart)// [16:32#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - electric guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - electric bass;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute, percussion;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums;
! guest: Maria Muldaur - vocals (e-t05).

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/19741229-01 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19741229-02 (late)

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8643 (late show, same source tape, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/17019 (same as shnid-8643, seekable shn); http://etreedb.org/shn/93978 (early show, same source tape, but via taperpat's 1st gen reel); http://etreedb.org/shn/151373 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/1bJXKA6b1Kv

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/golden-bear-306-ocean-avenue-huntington.html

! listing: Los Angeles Free Press, December 20, 1974, p. 19;

! personnel: the female singer was long identified (e.g., in "Odds and Ends," Dead Relix 2, 1 [January-February 1975], p. 21) as Donna Jean Godchaux, but in seeding this years back I thought it sounded more like Maria. Listening to this again, definitely Maria.

! R: field recordist: [early show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [early show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! R: source tape: [early show] taperpat's 3.75ips 1st gen reel

! R: transfer: [early show] A > D by Matt Smith: Akai GX 625 playback > Apogee Mini ME (@24/96) > Apogee Mini DAC (monitoring) > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 20/44) > CD

! R: lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [early show] Track & FLAC (jj): EAC > CD Wave > Sony Sound Forge Studio 7.0 (d1t01 fade-in, d2t01-d2t02 fade-out/in, d2t03 fade-out) > Trader's Little Helper (FLAC8 encoding).

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [early show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: recollex: Taper "Flashback" Charlie Disalvo says this about taping these shows (DNC Garcia folder post by Sean Cribbs, April 3, 2002): "That machine was a bitch to run! ... I placed one mic in front of Jerry and the other one was passed down to total strangers in front of Martin Fierro. The stereo effect was amazing, almost like setting up in a studio. You can hear the drums go from the left to the right."

! P: e-t02 Favela Martin takes the first feature, good. Jerry steps in around 6:15 and it's his turn, Martin now shaking some percussion. JG only goes three minutes, now Merl 9:15ff. Merl didn't really do much with his turn. 11:46 some muddle as to who's doing what.

! P: e-t05 SIL Garcia plucks ethereally 10.

! P: e-t07 ISTE I am not a big fan of this tune, and this version captures why, at least up to the 11 minute mark. Garcia just doesn't have much place to go with it. Martin quotes "The Entertainer" at 11:10, a second time. Silly.

! e-t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on."

! metadata: Late show was previously believed to be set II of a two set show, but the taper confirms that this is the late show.

! R: field recordist: [late show] Charlie Disalvo

! R: field recording gear: [late show] 2x Shure Unidyne IVs (spaced ca. 15') > Uher 4400, 3.75ips master reels

! lineage 1 (ca. 2003): [late show] MAR > ? > D > CD. Extraction using EAC, slight re-tracking using WavMerge and CD Wave, and .shn compression using mkwACT.  Proper sector boundaries verified using shntool. Seeded by jjoops@attbi.com.

! R: lineage 2 (2020): [late show] speed corrections by Jason Chastain per request of JGMF. Mastering by Jamie Waddell. Track FLAC and Pack by Steve Gravel. Note - Multiple moments of digistatic repaired, most are undetectable but a few major spots were damaged beyond invisible repair, but are much more listenable now. seeded to www.shnflac.net January 4, 2021 16 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC8

! R: The late show tape sounds much smoother than the early show.

! P: l-t10 La-La JG steps up 6:40 or so.

! l-t15 (2) Member of the crowd is asking "Who's on the bass?" And at least a few people recognize Expressway as it starts.

! P: l-t16 ETYH of course, having been primed by the question in note #2, I really hear the bassist SHREDDING, e.g., in the 4-minute range and I ask myself if this is really John. Not that he couldn't shred in this period - he could. But man is he on fire here. Martin has been laying pretty low this version so far. There he is, stepping up at 6:25. Tutt is hammering, BTW. Man, this is so good. Revisiting some months later: 4:39 it's just hot hot hot, and this is John all right. Man is this hot. 4:57 inpsired little slide. Hangs a big pull 5:18. John is *feelin' it* to 5:29!!! Listen to Tutt in the 9 min mark! MAN. Martin doing "Red Clay" 10:56, Kahn giant response 11:10, Tutt KILLING, all behind Garcia absolutely tearing it up. Down low and quiet 12:37, such a nice contrary with the preceding insanity. More "Red Clay" over 15.

! R: l-t16 ETYH cuts out, probably not too much missing, though knowing Jerry I might imagine it dropping into a sweet little How Sweet to wrap up the evening's proceedings.

Long Ago and Far Away: JGB at Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, June 20, 1982

LN jg1982-06-20.jgb.all.aud-lamarre.139447.flac2496

Great pull by Doug Lamarre, very good JGB from the strong month of June 1982. Bobby Cochran and Bob Weir from Bobby and the Midnites sit in on the encore, which includes the JGB singleton "Johnny B. Goode".

Jerry sounds quite strong.  Two new tunes stand out. "Valerie" holds some serious heavy-metal appeal, and "Run For The Roses" involves some uncommon wah-pedaling.

Kahn gets two mentions, first for some big pulling at the start of "Mission In The Rain" and, second, neater, for some noodling he is doing at the start of the show. Here is an mp3 of the snippet, which runs about 20 seconds starting from about 0:23 of the first track of this fileset.

The noodle sounded to me like "Blue Moon", but I don't know squat. Nick urges comparison with Ray Brown's bassline on this Oscar Peterson version of Jerome Kern's "Long Ago (And Far Away)". Getting all musicological up in here, he says that "Kahn is playing what sounds like a C, Am, Dm, and G, which in the language of music theory is a I-vi-ii-V progression.  'Blue Moon' is one famous example of this". So I don't feel totally foolish.

Anyway, I would welcome your analyses. It's always fun when Jerome's namesake comes up, and when a Garcia engagement crosses into uncommon deep Americana.

Listening notes below the fold.

Second Night Out for Liz and Essra: JGB, Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, June 25, 1981

update: the original title of this was "First Night Out", but I have discovered a warmup gig on 6/24/81 at the Keystone Palo Alto (not in Salinas, as I had elaborately laid out).

Liz Stires and Essra Mohawk appear to debut as backing vocalists on the night before this show. There are no singers on the late May shows, then there are here and the next night. One presumes that the 6/24/81 Palo Alto gig was a warmup: off-night, if not quite off the beaten path.

Phil Lesh sits in while John Kahn travels Europe with his mom. Merle [sic] Saunders sits in for the first two tunes - his last sit-in with Garcia On The Side, I do believe.

The only other non-musical thing I'd note was the GD-centric billing in the preview entitled "Night of the Dead". This was uncommon, and for years the standard Garcia Band contract rider prohibited any trading on the name Grateful Dead or on Garcia's association with that band. With Mickey Hart a key principal in the opening band, High Noon, and Phil joining Jerry, this night seems to have permitted of an exception. It's almost like the "Grateful Dead Three Ways" framing around the December 1975 Kingfish, JGB and Keith and Donna Band gigs.

Musically, I like it. Phil sounds good, I really liked "I'll Take A Melody" and "Simple Twist Of Fate".

Jerry Garcia Band
Civic Auditorium
307 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
June 25, 1981 (Thursday)
Senicola-Poris MAC shnid-89567

--set I (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 59:29)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [1:46]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:36] [0:24]
s1t03. Catfish John [8:15] (1) [0:36]
s1t04. Sitting In Limbo [10:10] [0:28]
s1t05. That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:33] [0:40]
s1t06. Mississippi Moon [11:12] ->
s1t07. Tangled Up In Blue [9:41] (2) [0:09] %

--set II (6 tracks, 5 tunes, 56:27)--
s2t01. crowd (3) and tuning [1:28]
s2t02. I'll Take A Melody [12:20] % [0:03]
s2t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:14] [0:08] %
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:22] [0:05] % [0:09]
s2t05. Dear Prudence [9:14] ->
s2t06. Midnight Moonlight [7:00] [0:21]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #13a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Jimmy Warren - keyboards;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - drums;
! lineup: Essra Mohawk - backing vocals;
! lineup: Liz Stires - backing vocals.
! guest: Merl Saunders - keyboards (s1t01-s1t03).
! guest: Phil Lesh - el-bass (whole show).

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/19810625-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1981-06-25

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/9302 (aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/89567 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/kkDtK

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/civic-auditorium-307-church-st-santa.html
 

! venue: http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/departments/parks-recreation/civic-auditorium

! band: JGB #13a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! historical: High Noon opened. Lesh replaces Kahn on bass; Saunders sits in on first two numbers, almost sounds like Melvin was late. Very interesting use of Grateful Dead marketing. This is almost like a "GD Three Ways" kind of feel. See preview title. The listing has a picture of Jerry with caption about "Jerry Garcia and friends", and listing identifies Hart. Clearly planned and sold around Garcia, Lesh, etc.

! seealso: Arnold, Corry. 20160804. June 26, 1981 Fox-Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh/High Noon/Mike Henderson (The Truth Is Out There). Lost Live Dead, August 4, URL https://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2016/08/june-26-1981-fox-warfield-theatre-san.html, consulted 7/28/2019. That's where Corry reports that John Kahn was touring Europe with his mom during this timeframe.

! preview: "Night of The Dead," Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 5

! ad: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 12

! listing: Good Times, June 25, 1981, p. 20

! R: field recordists: Richard Senicola and Jaime Poris

! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 300 + 1x Nakamichi 700 > (Nak 550) > Sony TC-D5M (Mark Severson's equipment)

! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX cassette

! R: field recording location: 35 feet back from right center of stage

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nak Dragon > Grace Lunatec V3 (24/96) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe > Adobe Audition 2.0 > (dither/downsample) > FLAC encoding.

! R: this is a great pull! Drums are super-punchy. What a tape!

! personnel: Definitely two keys plus two backup singers. I presume that Merl was playing Melvin's Hammond on the tunes that list him, and that Melvin was sitting out. I probably wouldn't be able to hear three keyboards at once, anyway.

! s1t03 (1) JG: "We'd like to thank Merl Saunders for sittin' in with us for a couple of tunes."

! P: Phil is pretty hot and heavy for Miss Moon and TUIB. BTW, earlier in the set an audience member mentions him by name, lest there be any doubt that Lesh is in the house.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a lil short break, we'll be back in a [inaudible] minutes."

! s2t01 (3) @ 0:18 crowd member starts singing "Elvira" ... now there's a time capsule for you.

! P: s2t02 ITAM @ 2:01-2:04, you hear Philip Lesh playing the freaking bass. Wow. Great backing vocals @ 5:48. Rare to hear them this clearly ... great stuff! @ 11:19 JG is doing some ridiculous running around the chords.

! P: s2t03 STOF is incredible, careful, deliberate, beautiful! This tape captures it really, really nicely. STOF without the bass solo is interesting

! P: s2t04 KOHD @ 6-min mark, Jimmy Warren's little solo is not great.

! R: s2t06 Midnight Moonlight [00:01 - 00:07] patched with SHNID-9302

Last Time in Irvine: JGB at Irvine Meadows, May 15, 1994

I forewarned a few posts back that I had some backlogged listening notes, and have been posting them this weekend. They were backlogged, in many cases, because I just didn't have that much to say. I often check the date index for the blog in picking something to listen to, looking for gaps or inflection points that I might not have covered. I won't be able to cover it all, ever, but I want to get a nice sampling.

So, here we are in May of 1994. Garcia had been doing brief SoCal jaunts for many years, and especially from the early 80s on these were Bill Graham joints. From the early 80s these were generally small club and theater gigs, but by 1994 our hero was in big spaces that the Dead had pioneered, such as Irvine Meadows, behind the Orange Curtain. The venue, had the honor of hosting Jerry on his 50th birthday, years after the Grateful Dead had been banned by the city because of unruly fan hairdos behavior. The May 15, 1994 gig came just three days after Jerry had signed the last, eventually highly-contested version of his will, and was the third of six shows in seven nights. This little southwest mini-tour, his last, ended with a thud when our hero, for the only time in his career that I can think of, started a show but couldn't finish it, a flu in Phoenix ending the May 19th show after a single set.

If Robbi Cohn's photos from Irvine are any indication, Jerry may well have caught the flu from John, who looks decidedly green.

Jerry and John, 5/15/94. Photo by Robbi Cohn, reproduced with permission. Visit www.deadimages.com and www.robbicohn.com to see more!

Anyway, the show has a few good moments, as in "Let It Rock", on its penultimate appearance (3/4/95). Other tunes mix some good guitar work with lots of forgotten vocals (though he never entirely falls and can't get up, nor leads me to exclaim "confused, trainwreck, yeesh, yikes", as would happen with other shows plus or minus a few months). Only "Midnight Moonlight" is worryingly bad, with Jerry changing key a few times and the whole thing not coming apart at the seams only because it was never together in the first place.

This is a great tape, as so many of these 90s DAT masters are, and generally this landed about where I expected it to, our protagonist declining but still smiling enough for Robbi to capture.

Smiling Jerry calling a song to a close, 5/15/94. Photo by Robbi Cohn, reproduced with permission. Visit www.deadimages.com and www.robbicohn.com to see more!

Jerry Garcia Band
Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
8808 Irvine Center Dr.
Irvine, CA 92618
May 15, 1994 (Sunday) - 5 PM
Neumann KM140 shnid-145697

--set I (7 tracks, 47:54)--
s1t01. How sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:01] [0:28]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:17] [0:31]
s1t03. Let It Rock [6:58] [0:59]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:27] [0:14]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [10:27] [0:11]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:58] ->
s1t07. Deal [7:13] (1) [0:10]

--set II (7 tracks, 67:27)--
s2t08. Shining Star [17:25] [0:20]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [7:08] [0:19]
s2t10. Wonderful World [4:32] [0:54]
s2t11. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:21] [0:16]
s2t12. The Maker [9:05] [0:28]
s2t13. Lucky Old Sun [9:17] ->
s2t14. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (2) [0:08]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - backing vocals.

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19940515-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-05-15

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6632 (unknown MAD, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/145697 (this fileset)

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

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/CddGMG2NU4x

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/irvine-meadows-8808-irvine-center-drive.html

! historical: $29 tickets. Robbi Cohn's pix show Jerry looking white-haired and haggard, but John looking absolutely terrible - pale greenish-greyish.

! R: field recordist: unknown

! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM 140 > DAT

! R: field recording location: FOB

! R: Transfer Info: Dat Tape (Panasonic SV-3700)-> Marantz CDR-615-> CD (Late 90's); Extract Wav-> Flac Level 8-> Tagged (16/44.1). Transfers by Pete Ebel, Late 90's and March 15, 2019.

! R: Really nice tape. The guitar tuning after HSII, e.g. at 6:29, sounds right in your face.

! P: s1t01 HSII his voice sounds wheezy, but he brings some energy.

! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): this is the penultimate version of the Chuck Berry rocker, last one coming 3/4/95.

! P: s1t02 LIR his guitar tone is awesome. He blows the second verse. But, again the guitar work is pretty killer, great buzzsaw tone, chopping rhythms.

! P: s1t07 Deal late 2 Jerry forgets his place and reprises the "since it costs a lot to win" thing for the third time. Ladies are doing their backing thing for awhile, and finally at 3:40, JG figures out how to fling into his big guitar. Pretty big fanning 5:21, but this hasn't burned me up yet. Some good technique, but not quite the power I need. Maybe it's the recording, which has the guitar back, but it's not melting my face. Relatively short version.

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

! P: s2t14 Mid Moon oh no - Garcia is totally off-key in the first verse, doesn't remember how to sing this. The tempo isn't settled across members of the band. I can't hear John at all.

! s2t14 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Come back for Garcia Band. Come back, come back.

LN jg1978-03-10.interview.all.fm-zimmerman.82210.flac1644

I love these March '78 interviews. 3/11/78 is my absolute favorite, all kinds of great stuff. This one has less going on, but still interesting to the likes of me.

Jerry Garcia Band Interview
WCMF-FM Studios
129 Leighton Avenue
Rochester, NY 14614
March 10, 1978 (Friday) afternoon
46 minute Alan Zimmerman FM cassette

(7 tracks, 46:25)
jg19780310d3t001. Reuben and Cherise (album version) [3:45]
jg19780310d3t002. talk (1,2,3) [3:39]
jg19780310d3t003. Rain [5:46]
jg19780310d3t004. talk (4,5,6,7) [15:55] %
jg19780310d3t005. Love in the Afternoon [3:58]
jg19780310d3t006. talk (8,9,10,11,12,13) [10:46]
jg19780310d3t007. Gomorrah [2:40]

! Band: Interview
! personnel: Jerry Garcia
! personnel: John Kahn
! personnel: Donna Jean Godchaux
! personnel: ?? (primary interviewer)

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.

! TJS: none.

! db: shnid 82210 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/4fyWc14xjgm

! seealso: JGMF, "One of the Great Interviews of the Garciaverse," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/11/jg1978-03-11interview45minsfm-gefen.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "The Little Engine That Could," https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-little-engine-that-could.html, for show listening notes. Spoiler: it didn't slay me.

! R: Recordist: Alan Zimmerman; over-air FM broadcast (WCMF, 96.5 FM) >  cassette, unknown gear;

! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nakamichi Dragon > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe soundcard > Adobe Audition > flac encoding > FLAC.

! historical: John Kahn sounds zonked.

! t02 (1) talk about having just been in Rochester with the GD a few months prior. JG: "Rochester keeps calling us back. 'Come back for Garcia Band. Come back, come back.'"

! t02 (2) @ 1:14 Q How did Maria get involved with the tour?" JG: "Well, uhhhh ... luck, I suppose. [Donna chuckles sweetly] Actually, what happened was that back when I did an album about 3 or 4 years ago and John produced it and he had Maria come in to do some vocal work on the record. Since then we've worked kind of informally. And John and Maria live together. [He swallows his words a little bit. Asks John, aside, "if that's OK, if you don't mind my mentioning that?" JK: "Oh, it's quite all right."] And so on this album she participated a lot, too, on the vocals and stuff and she's also accompanied us on a few other tours. And it's neat to have her singing with us. Donna and Maria sing really well together and they like working together. So, just, chemically it works out really nicely." DJG: "We don't fly together [?], you know." JG: "And I like having all those pretty girls onstage." [Kahn laughs.]

! t02 (3) DJ: we have a super advanced pressing of your latest album. We heard a test pressing just before we left CA 3 or 4 days ago. Record radio stations will be getting promo copies, in record stores soon.  @0250 "What kinds of musical directions are you trying to take on this record? There's a touch of reggae in it--" JG: "Every direction. We don't really have a style, except that it's all us." JK: "It sounds like us, is the direction. It's trying to sound the most like us of anything we've done so far." Song introduction "Rain", written by Donna, orchestration and arrangement by John Kahn.

! t04: DJ (4) Young kids still into the Dead. What do you attribute that to? JG: we've been lucky in having a spotty record career. No real big hits. contra formulaic thing, slam-bang show. Exciting the first time. The theatrics. You realize you're seeing the same thing, that gets to be dull. Audience doesn't want to ... DJ: so when you take the stage, do you have any songs in mind? JG we don't know what we're gonna do. We have a low boredom index. It would be horribly boring for us to do the same shows all the time. Constitutionally incapable of doing it. some times a dud, other times magical, miraculous. Exceptionally high concentration of coincidence. Musical coincidences are occurring way higher than the law of probability would allow them to be. Like magic. People come to that because there's something genuine about it. A mysterious thing. Something that people require. Being encouraged by the audience. Audience is participating. This talk is vague between GD vs. JG. Jerry can't identify great moments per se. completely out of our hands high energy environment ... in this testing situation. people follow all around the country. Maybe they asked him not to mention GD?

! personnel: t04 @ 4:55 JK sounds totally wrecked

! t04 (5) @0846 working with Robert Hunter. JK sometimes Garcia will have pages of words and write music to that. Or sometimes we'll write music that doesn't have words and give that to him. So it goes different directions. JG: All kinds of fine tuning possibilities. I'll have ideas that have vocal phrasing and sing the phrasings to him. We work very freely together."

! t04 (6) domestic scenes. @0956 Do you live and work together. Too many of us to live together. @1030 JG Basically we all have our own scenes and families and so forth ... or whatever. We're all, live near each other, and we hang out an awful lot together, we spend more hours together than we do living anywhere else. @1055 DJG we'll be playing at place called Keystone "Long time, no see." We've chosen to work that way.

! t05 (7) Club Front @11:33 studio setup. @1139 JG This record is the first record from that studio. ... This record is the first thing from that studio, which ... was partly funded ... partly built from the budget that I was allowed to make this record. It's quite well equipped. It has a really nice Neve console, from England, and a really nice Studer machine, Swiss, and it's an excellent sounding room. It's a very large room and it really sounds very pretty. Has very pretty vocal sound, pretty instrumental sound. We're really delighted with the results. We're real happy." #Club Front

! t04 (7) DJ ask John for song intro JK "Influenced by reggae music, which I love a whole lot. Reggae was the most significant thing that happened, for bass players, in ten years maybe." More reggae talk JK: "We might have heard the best reggae records." JG: "I don't think there's going to be some kind of explosion. It's a local thing. It has a limited appeal. But from a musician's standpoint it has some very interesting things that American music could use right now." DJ: "Like what?" JG: "A rhythmic approach, a whole approach to rhythm that has to do with standing on the rhythm in a certain way. The easiest way I can relate to it is to figure about 93 degrees, with about a hundred percent humidity, in the middle of somewhere, just goin' real slow, y'know? [he has a grin]. And it has a steadiness to it that comes from a kind of island life, like the surf, y'know ... and the thing about the bass playing, that John was saying, the sense of the rhythmic ... the holes, the spaces, having rhythmic value, in the same sense of that positive-negative image sense. So, the holes have the same kind of rhythmic values that the notes do, and that gives it a tremendous power, and a lovely kind of rhythmic thing." JK: "as a bass player, a long time ago, especially r and b records, old motown records, the bassline was one of the most important elements, counterpoint to the vocal, and the drums. Music has gotten away from that now. ... music directly related to the bassline has died out in America, and it's an element of reggae music that appeals a lot to me." #reggae

! t04 DJ started spinning Palm Sunday instead, accidentally.

! t06 (8) current music: Elvis Costello JG: "I like it." likes some New Wave. Really like Cheap Trick. What I like about it is the spirit. They're puttin' out. They're trying hard. The heavy duty production trick ... the glib slickness so mechanical and predictable and safe. It's a formula trip. Raw and real nasty, and the players are not very good, but the spirit ... young people can always dig that. JK: I dig it. I'm not young anymore. 5-min mark talking about The Who

! t06 (9) @0645 solo project outside the GD. JG "It's an illusion. The illusion is that these are solo projects, when they're really not solo projects. Like what we do in this band, it's no solo project. It's really a group contribution, and believe me, it's not a matter of my own personal activity. I am involved with people who care about music the same way that I do, we have an affinity for each other, we enjoy working together, and, for me, a group dynamic is way more interesting than the concept of a solo project. I've done one solo project, my first solo record, in which I was foolish enough to try to play everything on it myself and I was really bored with it, fundamentally, because you already know everything that happened, there's no surprises. The thing of working with other people, that somebody's gonna shed a new kind of light on an idea of yours ... it gives you something to work with ... there's electricity, or chemistry, or something like that." #solo vs GD

! t06 (10) @0746 DJ is it true that the banjo was your first instrument? @0747 JG: "Yeah, it was my first serious instrument. DJ: "And then you went to the guitar, and then the electric guitar, because it was more of an extension of--" JG: "Uhh, I've, well, for me, the banjo got to be so, uhhh ... [long pause] [JK: "Swiss watch-like." JG: "Right.] Like a Swiss watch. It was like a cuckoo clock or a Swiss watch. It got to be tremendously mechanical and I, finally just had a tremendous reaction to it, it's like, 'I really can't make music with this instrument. I want something that moves the way a voice moves. I want to be able to play more expressively. ... I just burned myself out on the banjo, really, is what it boils down to." DJG: "It's kind of a one-toned ..." JG: "Yeah, it's got one thing going for it." DJ @0835: Do you ever think about going back doing something like the OAITW record? @0837 JG "For me, it was the music ... [cross talk that John was also involved] And for me, the neat thing, my whole interest in the banjo even was really not so much the banjo itself, but bluegrass music as a style of music. And it's the music that I cared about, rather than the banjo by itself. So it's very hard for me to, say, sit at home and practice the banjo. If the music were there --in other words, if I were out playing with friends, a couple of nights a week-- I could get into it. But really the music matters to me more than the banjo does." JK: "Yeah, really, it's a beautiful kind of music." JG: "It is, it's really neat music." JK: "But, y'know, I couldn't see practicing ... either ... uhhh ... [JG, laughing: "No." Some chuckling, as if the thought of practicing is hilarious.] DJG: "Jerry doesn't think he plays the banjo or the steel guitar" JK: "We're all crazy like that, that's normal" (??). #banjo

! t06 (11) @0927 DJG: "He's talking about his first record, my four year old listens to it three or four times a day." JK: "I like that, too. ... I remember going in there and watching him play bass on that." JG: "Oh Jeez, that was embarassing." JK: "No it wasn't."

! t06 DJ we should wrap things up, get them to soundcheck.

! t06 (12) DJG: "Singing with Maria's great." Stress the point that Maria is part of the band. JG: "Yeah."

! t06 (13) JG introduces Gomorrah. JG: "This is an Old Testament song. Everybody knows about Sodom, but this song is about Gomorrah."

The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game

My first working title for Fate Music was The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game. The THGCBTG framing, as I lovingly acronymized it, reflected a slightly darker view of Garcia's side trips than I presently hold, one in which his damned Midas Touch tainted even his silly bar band, which eventually had to play boomy Madison Square Garden in front of 15,000 whippeted, "Jerrrrrryyyyy!!!!!!"-screaming fans.

As of now, I hold a less tragic view of the whole arc. Yes, even the JGB came to carry Jerry's Burden, but to such a lesser extent that, relative to the GD, it formed a relative oasis where our hero could drink of some cool American (and other) musical water without too much hassle. He probably even took some pride in bringing Melvin, David and the ladies to the Garden, staying at the Ritz and playing the rest of the east coast gigs via day trips on private jets out of Teterboro, nothing but the best under the expert management of John Scher, all under his own name.

It's still a good theme, though. And what a song!

Everyday things change
And the world puts on a new face
Certain things re-arrange
And this old world seems like a new place

Secretly I've been trailing you
Like the fox that preys on the rabbit
I had to get you and so I knew
I had to learn your ways and habits

Ooh, you were the catch that I was after
But I looked up and I was in your arms
And I, I had been captured

What's this old world coming to
Things just ain't the same
Any time the hunter gets captured by the game

I had laid such a tender trap
Hoping that you might fall into it
Your love hit me like a sudden snap
One kiss and then I knew it

Ooh, my plan didn't work out
Like I thought
'Cause I had laid my trap for you
But it seems that I got caught

What's this old world coming to
Things just ain't the same
Any time the hunter gets captured by the game

If you aren't in love with Wanda Young after hearing this, you aren't paying attention. So, for me, the song speaks both to Garcia's love life and his musical life. Let's take a closer look.

THGCBTG first entered the observable Garciaverse in 1974, appearing on Jerry's second eponymous album, which we know as Compliments (Round Records RX 102). I don't know when/where the track was laid down, though, regarding the when, March 4, 1974 seems possible. The following are credited:

• Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
• Larry Carlton - guitar
• Michael Omartian - piano
• Merl Saunders - organ
• John Kahn - bass
• Ron Tutt - drums
• Bobbye Hall - congas 

John Kahn selected the material for Compliments, and his love of Motown, and not least the Funk Brothers' instrumentation, knew few bounds, so choosing this Smokey Robinson tune (one of many) made perfect sense. Compliments first brought Ronnie Tutt into Jerry's orbit, as he has recently noted, and they'd gig steadily together from December 6, 1974 through August 12, 1977. Among these hundreds of gigs, two from the winter of 1975 are known to have included THGCBTG:

Table xxx. Known live Jerry Garcia performances of "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game"

The song is one of those handful of songs that Jerry seems to have picked up at occasionally long intervals. I have always interpreted songs with this pattern, such as Tough Mama, Like A Road, Let's Spend The Night Together, some others, as songs that he really liked. I don't have any basis for that, in particular, except that, especially from the turn of 1976 and the predominance of comfort over challenge in his side bands (Reconstruction being a notable exception), there just weren't that many setlist variations, not least because there wasn't always a lot of rehearsing. For a song to keep coming back, especially with different bands and their different players (and their different repertoires) suggests to me that they exercised a certain pull on our hero (and his musical director, John Kahn).

One of Jerry's sweeties told me she called this out at Keystone one time in the mid-70s to let him know she was in the room, and of course it's a song not about the pursuit of music without bullshit, but of a lover. The 2/27/75 version doesn't circulate and, AFAIK, is unheard outside the Garcia Vault. The 3/7 version does, and I am listening to it now. It's very, very nice, with a lot more development than the later versions.

Of these, I have also just revisited 4/23/93 (officially released on Shining Star), and raggedy old Jerry gives it a shopworn world weariness which suits it well. The 4/23/93 date, and the inclusion of this version on Shining Star, are both redolent of Deborah Koons, who would "officially" have become Jerry's main squeeze around this time, for the second time, apparently after some years of chasing. Shining Star, with its execrable cover art done by a friend of hers, was a DK joint all the way, so maybe she found special resonance with this tune, the flipside of her rumored aversion to "Reuben And Cherise".

So if the early and late versions may speak to romantic pursuits, for me the Reconstruction versions speak more to the theme of Jerry's Burden. He wanted to hide in Reconstruction, way back in the shadows just playing whatever weird stuff that band was putting out. It seems that he really didn't want to front that band, as evidenced by insisting on being listed as a "special guest" in the publicity. While I doubt it's true, and certainly doubt that it represented a conscious choice, for him to sing THGCBTG with Reconstruction expresses the impossibility of truly hiding; he's after a good time, playing music with good players and for an audience, with a minimum of hassle, but he finds himself straining for those high notes. "It seems like I got caught", indeed.

update: turns out this is my second post under this title.

Find Someone Who Looks at You the Way John Looks at Jerry

VN jg1977-07-09.jgb.late.voodoonola

Jerry Garcia Band

Convention Hall

1300 Ocean Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
July 9, 1977 (Saturday) –Late Show 10 PM

complete (128:25) B&W proshot video via Music Vault, URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glq7yzbfy-o

re-do the time markers

0:00:00 – [0:47 The Harder They Come 0:48-15:04 -15:06

0:15:07 - Stage Noise

0:17:42 - They Love Each Other -25:42

0:25:46 - Stage Noise

0:30:05 - Midnight Moonlight

0:40:13 - Stage Noise

0:43:38 - Russian Lullaby (incomplete)

! R: RL splice @ 58:05, not much missing

0:58:57 – noodling

1:00:51 - Tore Up Over You

1:14:06 - crowd noise

1:14:54 - Knockin' On Heaven's Door

1:31:32 - Stage Noise

1:33:51 - Tangled Up in Blue

1:45:46 - crowd noise

1:51:00 - Not Fade Away (Incomplete)

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band

! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn – el-b;

! lineup: Keith Godchaux – el-piano (Polymoog keyboard), ac-piano;

! lineup: Ron Tutt – 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/19770709-04

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8659 (Mattson early and late shows shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/76441 (Mattson early and late shows flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/124426 (Steve Strange late show flac1644).

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

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/convention-hall-1300-ocean-ave-asbury.html

! band: JGB #xxx. Notice that neither Donna Jean Godchaux nor Maria Muldaur is present.

! JGMF: see also "Rockabilly JGB Doing Not Fade Away: July 9, 1977," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2013/12/ln-jg1977-07-09jgblate-2aud-strange.html.

! ad: Asbury Park Press, June 26, 1977, p. 14.

! expost: "Arrests Follow 2 Rock Concerts," Asbury Park Press, July 11, 1977, p. unk.

! historical: "More than 30 persons, most of them from North Jersey and New York, were arrested Saturday night and early yesterday morning" after the Garcia Band shows ("Arrests Follow 2 Rock Concerts"). 22 police. Crowd of 250-300 (per police) gather at Bradley Park, across Ocean Avenue from Convention Hall, about 6:30 pm. Drinking. Cops announce they're gonna bust the drinking, etc. over the bullhorn. Crowd mostly dispersed 7:30, when JGB scheduled to start. Arrests begin at 10:30 pm, after the early show. "Police arrested people as they came off the Boardwalk and were visibly intoxicated. The arrests continued until about 1:25 am [text not clear]". Most was possession of alcohol, maybe 28? That'd be a summons or $100 bail. Nine for possession of marijuana or LSD, $500 bail. One Prince Charming got three charges and $5,000 bail: possession of a large knife, assault and battery of a police officer, and resisting arrest. (Your mother will love him!) Wage: $20,557. Only 120 tickets shy of a sellout (3,776 of 3,896).

! R: seeder notes: Thanks to BGA LLC.

! R: Original audio from video mastered using Adobe Audition

! R: audio patch in NFA from shnid 76441 taped by Mark Mattson

! R: audio and video editing by Voodoonola

! R: the video and audio quality are breathtaking.

! P: HTC catch Tutt do a great run around 3:15. Keith's electric keyboard is clearly shown 7:15ish. Watching JG play 8:30 is wonderful. At 10:10 he looks at John with such love. The admiration is so great. Swaying and smiling 10:25 as the crowd cheers. So, so, so nice.

! P: TLEO Tutt doing some harmonies visibly @ 20:10. Keith now on acoustic piano.

! P: MM KG has baritone and Tutt has high parts. KG's voice is unfortunate. Nice solo over 30, Kahn hitting some nice fat stuff and there's a crowd shot of a dude right upfront reacting to it, probably same look I had on my face. Wow. Late 30 Jerry takes another turn, he wasn't satisfied with the first one (it's true he hit a bad note in there), now he has his eyes closed and that helps, sometimes.

! P: RL wow. We know that Jerry, John and Keith, sometimes just Jerry and Keith (!), played some Hot Club stuff at Club Front in mid-1978. The love that Jerry and John share for each other is palpable. Over 43 John is practically cooing at Jerry, playing with him like a kitten, and Jerry is using that to get off. It's potent. At 45, John steps in front of Jerry and is ready to jump on a feature, but Keith steps up and plays a beautiful little thing. Jerry sways with pleasure and smiles at Keith, comping with his eyes on Keith. If Garcia's comping and looking at you and urging you to play, you play, by God. 46 Keith picks up his tempo a little bit. He's playing very well-controlled piano here, not so heavily percussive on the left hand. Now John feature 47:15 ff. At 48:45 you are getting a perfect view of John's fingers. It is very nice to see this, but I don't think this bass solo holds a candle to what some of John's contemporaries could do. Garcia is having a smoke and watching John, so it's a little trio configuration of John leading, Keith and Ronnie just holding the beat. Jerry comes back 50:35, crowd gives John a nice hand. But it also knows, or many of its members do, that Garcia's about to play his guitar.

! P: TUOY John was playing something very interesting around 70 min mark, but the seeder had already tracked KOHD. I think he was noodling something else, and then the transition to KOHD sounded abrupt. But maybe I just wasn't playing close enough attention.

San Francisco Sessions, 1972

I have been processing information from contracts filed at the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local No. 6 in San Francisco.

• San Francisco Sessions, 1967-1968
• San Francisco Sessions, 1969
• San Francisco Sessions, 1970
• San Francisco Sessions, 1971
• San Francisco Sessions, 1972

There is nothing representative about these – I have information on stuff that is a degree or two from Garcia, and a few other random tidbits of idiosyncratic interest to me. I post them mostly for future researchers who might be interested. (The six-digit numbers just reference my scans, so I can retrieve these as needed.) List after the jump.

Linda Kahn

Linda is doing an AMA ("ask me anything", for those not hip with the lingo) on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/jgb/comments/6r5ay0/i_am_linda_kahn_wife_of_late_john_kahn_ama/

Friday Night at the Boarding House

edit: well, this is a first - turns out I had already posted a version of this. Heh heh. Presumably, this one is better.

April 13-16, 1973 saw Garcia "Four Nights at the Boarding House", two with Merl Saunders and The Group (JGMS), two with Old And In The Way (OAITW). So much about these shows tantalizes me – the legendary San Francisco venue, the only-in-the-Garciaverse blend of black and white, old and new, my love for the repertoires and performances of both bands, and the fact that of the four nights, and presumably at least nine sets/shows,[1] only one set circulates, the first set of the OAITW late show on Monday the 16^th (see shnid-100404 for the best copy, and my listening notes). We know a little about the other three nights from Rob Eaton: Friday the 13^th and Saturday the 14^th were represented among the Third Batch Betty Boards that he transcribed in 1996, and somewhere along the way (possibly also the Third Batch) he transcribed one of the Sunday night (4/15) bluegrass sets.

In this post I want to say just a bit more about Friday the 13^th, mostly triggered by a show review I found in the Stanford Daily.[2] I'll start with what we already knew, and then turn to what the review adds.

Metadata

The Soto-McNally-Arnold JG List, Garciaverse successor to the Soto List, had a listing for this show, which may have come from union contracts and/or the newspaper and other research of any of the named authors. I show a Barb "Scenedrome" listing (April 13-19, 1973, p. 18) and one in the Hayward Daily Review (April 6, 1973, p. 53) with scheduled 8 pm start.

Setlist

Rob Eaton contributed setlist details for the end of the show, updated by TJS staff:

--end set II--

Money Honey

Positively 4th Street

untitled-19730307

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Tape Archaeology

These details came from a sound recording, and I'd like to dig into a bit of tape archaeology.

When Betty Cantor-Jackson and Rex Jackson got together in 1972, they mixed and mingled their lives and their tape collections. The legendary Betty Boards could be more accurately, if less fetchingly, understood as the Cantor-Jackson Collection, the tapes they merged and then made (together and apart) during Rex's foreshortened life (d. September 5, 1976) and beyond it, Betty flying where it's wing-meltingly-hot to make some of the finest sound recordings in the long history of live music.

This gorgeous personal collection of professionaly-curated tape got washed away along with everything else in her life over a number of years, by the early '82 floods and by a spate of equally natural human disasters, muck that doesn't come off with a Q-Tip. The tape went from a box in Betty's San Anselmo basement to the world of storage units (somewhere in the world exist documents that could help us pin down details, I just haven't managed to uncover them yet), lost from memory until it wound up auctioned-off with a thousand or more of its companion Betty Boards around May 1986.[3]

For over nine years, this tape hid in a goat barn until, in late 1995, its possessor called Rob Eaton to investigate and, eventually, preserve it. Armed with wood-stemmed cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol, an oven to bake flaky oxide to a vinyl backing, sweating over an Otari 50/50 reel to reel->Apogee 500 A/D converter-> Panasonic SV3700 DAT setup, Eaton spent 700 of his 1996 hours annotating, cleaning, repairing, spinning, and presumably soaking in and enjoying some of the sweetest sounds ever captured live – a Third Batch of Betty Boards, including the last 40 minutes of the Garcia-Saunders group at the Boarding House on Friday, April 13, 1973.[4]

Now I will get even more arcane about this particular artifact.

Eaton's "Kingbee" List gave the following:

04/13/73 The Boarding House, San Francisco Ca - xcerpt
4.8, 039min, Sbd, A0D1, Reel Master->Dat 1, 44k,
10inch Master Reel@7.5ips 1/2trk->3700 x 0->3800 x 1

Though he's almost never mistaken, I thought Kingbee had tripped up on this one. I thought this must be reel #3 of a show recorded on 7" tape. I was wrong, KB was right as usual. Not that anyone cares, but let me run through my reasoning.

It has generally been my sense that Betty usually taped Garcia on 7" reels running at 7.5 ips or 10" reels running at 15 ips (about 48 minutes). Sometimes tape diameter and recording speed would cross to the other diagonal, but not that much. What we have here is a 10" reel running at 7.5 ips (96 minutes), just such an off-diagonal tape. And, I have finally come around to the idea that this could indeed be the last 40 minutes of a contemporary JGMS gig, on these parameters – this looks a lot like the 49 minute end-of-show tape that lived with 4/13/73, March 7, 1973. I also note that Lion's Share 7/5/73 gives 10-7.5 parameters, though that one is a 180 minute monster. So maybe this is how she was doing it at this time.

Show Review

Happily, recent gatherings give me a bit more to report. The Stanford Daily has been beautifully preserved and presented at http://stanforddailyarchive.com/. Thanks to all involved in making that happen. Among many other delights, it yielded a review by Jay Harlow of this Friday the 13th at the Boarding House. 

Garcia and Saunders "returned for a two-night stay" (following a three night run in January[5]), "joined by guitarist George Pichner [sic: George Tickner], ... an important enough part of the group to deserve equal billing." They were late in starting: "At 9:30 we got word that the band was still waiting for the bass player. Five minutes later he was outside looking for a parking space, and eventually came walking in through the audience, being occasionally booed and heckled." The show eventually kicked off just before ten with "That's A Touch I Like". Garcia's guitar plays like a good, dry white wine (it was already Palo Alto, after all).

A friend named Sarah helped with the vocals on some numbers, and particularly shone on "Honey Chile". Her voice ... blends very nicely with Garcia's guitar. .. In the middle of the set there was a long, beautiful instrumental number in which everyone had some solo space. ... Pichner [sic], who had been playing mostly rhythm guitar so far, did some good leads, à la Eric Clapton at times. His somewhat harsher tone sets off Garcia and Saunders very well.

Harlow namechecks Bill Vitt for us, and has high praise for the Mule: "bassist John Kahn was certainly worth waiting for. Both in backup and solo playing, he is a real stylist. At times the flair in his left-hand fingerings reminded me of a classical guitarist." He gives us a few more setlist details ("That's All Right", "Lonely Avenue" and "I Second That Emotion"), and it sounds like a good time, "first rate musicians really working together".

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, Harlow doesn't say anything about the electric violin player reported present at JGC (via TJS). I wonder if George Tickner did any fiddling?

In Sum

Armed with this new information, let me sum up in the form of a draft TJS-successor entry.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

Boarding House

960 Bush Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

April 13, 1973 (Friday) - 10 PM

--unknown set and order status--

That's A Touch I Like

That's All Right

Lonely Avenue

I Second That Emotion

Honey Chile

--end set II--

Money Honey

Positively 4th Street

untitled-19730307

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;

! lineup: George Tickner - el-g;

! lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;

! lineup: Sarah Fulcher - vocals.

! ?guest?: ?? – electric violin.

JGMF:

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19730413-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1973-04-13-boarding-house-san-francisco-ca/, noting "An unknown electric violinist sit in on this performance".

! db: none in circulation as of 8/11/2015.

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/boarding-house-960-bush-st-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/4JEC3

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730401p12

! listing: Hayward Daily Review, April 6, 1973, p. 53

! listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730408p04

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook 19730408p11

! listing: "Scenedrome," Berkeley Barb, April 13-19, 1973, p. 18

! listing: Hayward Daily Review, April 13, 1973, p. 53

! listing: San Francisco Examiner, April 13, 1973, p. 35

! listing: San Francisco Examiner, April 13, 1973, p. 44

! review: [positive] Harlow, Jay. 1973. Garcia, Saunders 'Together' At Boarding House Theater In SF. Stanford Daily, April 17, p. 7. Accessed via http://stanforddailyarchive.com/, 7/2/2015

! personnel: Harlow (1973) namechecks the whole band (though, as a few weeks earlier at the Inn of the Beginning, Sarah is just Sarah). The author identifies "George Pichner", but it's George Tickner on second guitar.

! setlist: The show was scheduled for 8, but started closer to 10 (John Kahn was late arriving). The set structure is uncertain beyond that That's A Touch opens the proceedings Dixie closes them down. I hypothesize that one of the sets was truncated due to the late start. For example, the songs from RE's reel transcription, Money Honey through Dixie Down, could be the entirety of set II. The rest of the songs derive from a review in the Stanford Daily (Harlow 1973), and I place them in set I, though that's not certain.

! song: " untitled 19730307" is the beautiful unnamed thing Jerry and Sarah did together on the March 7, 1973 tape.

---

[1] Normally, I'd say eight sets/shows, two sets per night for JGMS and two shows per night for OAITW. But the circulating tape of 4/16/73b suggests that that show contained two sets, bringing our presumed set total to at least nine, and possibly as many as sixteen sets (2 for each JGMS date and 4 for each OAITW date).

[2] Harlow 1973.

[3] Budnick 2014.

[4] See Eaton 2015 for more detail.

[5] See my write-ups for 1/24/73 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/07/ln-jg1973-01-24jgmsearly-latesbd.html) and 1/25/73 (http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/07/ln-jg1973-01-25jgmsearly.html). Betty taped and Eaton transcribed 1/23, but it has never seen the wider light of day.