Slowly Unraveled Over You: JGB 3c at Keystone Palo Alto, April 9, 1977

Obviously I am catching up on posting some listening notes. Quality will be even more variable than usual.

LN jg1977-04-09.jgb.all.aud-bunjes.13361.shn2flac

Some tapes travel unlikely paths to our ears. Here's an unattributed aud tape, the only one circulating, which went to Germany before coming out into the broader world. I really love the feel of it. It's not amazing, but it's got character.

The show features what I presently list as JGB 3c. JGB 3 is the basic Keith and Donna version with Tutt, starting in '76. Not least because the JGB was relatively uninstitutionalized at this point, many variations popped up around the invariant Jerry, John and Keith core. I have proposed cataloguing them as follows:

3b: #3 + Maria - e.g., 9/12/76

3c: #3 + second guitarist - e.g., 11/20/76

3d: #3 + John Rich - e.g., 12/21/76

3e: #3 + Maria + second guitarist - e.g., 2/5/77

3f: #3 - Tutt + Errico - e.g., 6/23/77

3g: #3 - Donna + Maria (e.g., 7/3/77)

3h: #3 - Donna (e.g., 7/8/77)

3i: #3 - Tutt + Kreutzmann - e.g., 8/12/77

I know that's a little bit ridiculous, but it has the nice taxonomic quality of the categories being mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

So, I say I say I say, 4/9/77 features variant 3c, the basic group plus the second guitarist. He is pretty far in the background most of the night, as he was on every night he played. He plays tastefully throughout, though, seems to eschew a feature opportunity in "Stir It Up" and steps forward a little more, seemingly because everyone else in the band was insisting that he take the space that they were giving him, during "Tore Up". This is his last known appearance with Jerry, though we can't really be sure. At the setbreak announcement, Jerry says something about getting things straightened out, which might be nothing, might be equipment related, or might indeed be about attempting to find alignment with the visitor.

The post title speaks to this version of "Tore Up Over You", which doesn't involve Hank Ballard's sudden rending so much as a soft disentegument. Clocking in at almost 20 minutes (!), this has to be the longest version of this tune ever played by anyone. It finds some nice quiet and open spaces, and Jerry even bends some strings for a bit, but to me it stands as a cautionary tale and monument to the excesses of JGB #3 - whatever the suffix.

Set II is short for the period, 3 songs and 47 minutes (heh heh). I wouldn't be surprised if a tune or two preceded Midnight Moonlight, or happened in between the songs presented here. We can't tell, since there are tape discontinuities after every song. We do know that Tangled Up bumped up against closing time in Palo Alto. (No, not 9 PM, you Weisenheimers.)

All told, very glad this tape made its way into the world, though it does nothing to dissuade me from the view that JGB #3 was most often kind of a snooze.

Jerry Garcia Band

Keystone Palo Alto

260 S. California Avenue

Palo Alto, CA 94306 

April 9, 1977 (Saturday)

aud shnid-13361 shn2flac

--set I (6 tracks, 72:43)--

s1t01. They Love Each Other [8:08] % [0:11]

s1t02. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:06] [0:05] %

s1t03. Stir It Up [15:40] [0:06] %

s1t04. [0:05] Simple Twist Of Fate [14:02][0:09] %

s1t05. [0:06] Mystery Train [10:22] [0:03] % [0:05]

s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [12:13] (1) [0:20]

--set II (3 tracks, possibly incomplete, 47:17)--

s2t01. [0:08] Midnight Moonlight [14:59] [0:02] %

s2t02. [0:16] Tore Up Over You [19:48] [0:08] %

s2t03. Tangled Up In Blue [11:30] (2) [0:13] % dead air [0:11]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3c

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

! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;

! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, vocals;

! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;

! guest: [redacted] - el-g.

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/19770409-01

! db: shnid-13361 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/6U9QR2V8UV4YwBDh9

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

! band: JGB #3c (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). This band features second guitarist XXX, who was also around on 1/29-30, 2/5-6, and 4/10, at least. This might even be considered a separate band, since that's most of the shows from the first part of '77, and possibly some in late '76 as well.

! setlist: Jerrybase lists starting time, presumably from the contract, as 9:30. If we allow for starting very late and for a very long setbreak, and in view of that fact that TUIB definitely lands on closing time, it's possible this set II is complete. But in the absence of other information, we can't really know. I would not be shocked if another song or two preceded Mid Moon.

! historical: Keystone $750 contract

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, April 3, 1977, p. 43

! R: MAC (unknown taper, equipment, location) > reel > playback on Uher reel-to-reel machine > Marantz standalone CD recorder master CD > Plextor CD extraction using EAC (high, secure, offset-corrected) > .shn encoding using mkwACT. Reel > CD by Thomas Donhauser, EAC > SHN and seeding by Hanno.

! R: s1t01-02 needs retracking

! P: s1t02 TWLWMYD I hear the second guitar now, hadn't heard it in TLEO

! P: s1t03 SIU Keith on electric keys. Second guitarist some very gentle stuff 12ish, as if it were his feature.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little bit -- later, see if we can get things straight."

! P: s2t01 Mid Moon should have ended it around 13, Jerry was sort of trying to, but it just kept choogling, so he took another spin with it.

! P: s2t02 TUOY guest takes a feature late 11 over 12. He sounds pretty good! The tune enters an extremely quiet section in 16. I can't believe they will end up playing this song for almost 20 minutes? Jerry bending some strings 17:20.

! s2t03 (2) Emcee: "Thank you, thank you very much. Folks, it's 2 o'clock. [inaudible, maybe 'we've got to go']"

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We'll take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little ... later ... soon as we can get things straight."

The December '85 Garcia Band Shows

LN jg1985-12-14.jgb.all.aud-CC.137723.flac1644

LN jg1985-12-15.jgb.all-1.aud-CC.137724.flac1644

LN jg1985-12-21.jgb.all.aud-gale.14980.shn2flac

LN jg1985-12-22.jgb.all.aud-gale.14981.shn2flac

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

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

The shows make for nice comparison pieces in this regard.

Recall these set lengths from August:

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

Here are the December equivalents:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12/14

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

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

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

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

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

12/15

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

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

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

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

12/21

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

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

12/22

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

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

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

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

In Sum

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

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

Listening notes below.

Valerie Needs a Bath, 'cause she is GRUNGY: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, February 26, 1983

I have a stack of listening notes that don't really say much, but I do like to post them just to keep track.

2/26/83: nice tape, good performance, nothing that absolutely slays me, except that "Valerie" absolutely KILLED in this period. I know the esteemed David Minches favors the 3/5/83 version, which I have revisited and do think is very strong. They all are. Otherwise, Jerry sounds pretty ragged vocally, but plays well and does his thing in the South Bay.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
February 26, 1983 (Saturday)
all-1 aud shnid-102505

--set I (5 tracks, 43:40)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#8:46] [0:04] %
s1t02. [0:19] (1) Catfish John [10:49] [0:04] %
s1t03. [0:21] Valerie [8:31] [0:05] %
s1t04. [0:20] Run For The Roses [5:23] ->
s1t05. Deal [7:44] (2) [0:10]

--set II (4 tracks, missing 1 track, 40:21)--
s2t01. /Sugaree [#13:29] [0:08] %
s2t02. /They Love Each Other [#7:51] [0:07] %
s2t03. /Let It Rock [#7:41] [0:08] %
[MISING: Dear Prudence]
s2t05. /Tangled Up In Blue [#10:50] (3) [0:08]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #15c (First show- January 13, 1983 Keystone, Berkeley, CA | Last show-June 5, 1983 Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA)
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Greg Errico - 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/19830226-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/32137 (s2 aud shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/102505 (this fileset)

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/6U9QR2V8UV4YwBDh9

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

! band: JGB #15c (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

ads: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, February 13, 1983, p. 19; San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, February 20, 1983, p. 24.

! source: low gen cassette; Nakamichi DR-1 playback > Tascam 5000 > CDR > wav > flac, uploaded by brad tenner

! R: seeder notes: I can't tell you why the dear prudence is missing i have no notes on how or why i really don't think i missed it on the transfer so who knows but since the 1st set was uncirculated here it is. tracks renamed per etree standard.

! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in, static @ 0:30

! P: s1t02 HSII JG bungles first verse, starting with "open my eyes at night". But then he picks it up by getting back to "needed the shelter" at the start. He sounds rough vocally, for sure.

! s1t02 (1) Taper recognizes CJ, so decides to emcee a little bit: "Friends of the devil bring you 'Catfish John'."

! P: s1t03 Valerie KILLER GRUNGY version.

! P: s1t04 RFTR JG forgets to start singing the tune.

! R: s1t05 Deal sizeable level jump about a minute in

! s1t05 (2) JG: "We'll be back a little while later. Thank you."

! R: s2t01 Sugaree clips in

! P: s2t01 Sugaree kind of a wonky start vocally, like he starts off the beat. Errico sounds so great on this tape. Coming back to this a week or two later, and hear how rough he sounds vocally. 7 he starts doing some fanning, more flirtatious and allusive at this point, suggestive. More to come, I imagine. A little 10:47ff, but it doesn't get huge.

! R: s2t02 TLEO clips in

! P: s2t02 TLEO John sounds nicely, thickly engaged here.

! P: s2t03 LIR great tone, nice and scrubby first part of 6.

! P: s2t05 TUIB never really achieves escape velocity to my ears.

! s2t05 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."

Positively Killer: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, December 21, 1979

I was recently surprised when I listened to JGB 12/17/79 and found the show totally lackluster. Jerry sounds listless, indifferent, tired, and he and Johnny D, the 21 year old Marin kid drumming live with Jerry for only the seventh time, seemed badly out of sync. So, I listened to the next show, 12/20, and found it to represent a considerable improvement. Deciding to carry on, I spun 12/21/79 here on its 41st anniversary. This was a relatively rare soundboard tape in early circulation back in the day, was widely traded (insofar as Garcia Band tapes were), and has long been a fan favorite for the arc'ing, soaring "Sugaree" and, especially, for the long version of a relative rarity, Dylan's "Positively 4th Street".

I am here to say that 40 years of crowds have been wise to revere this show. It kills. Let me just mark a few points, but urge you to check it out yourself, perhaps especially from shnid-138677, which sparkles.

First, I guess Johnny D and Jerry just needed a little work together --they hadn't played since 11/18, and I doubt they had practiced between time. Yes, I'm talkin' 'bout practice. So we see monotonic improvement in how these two are sync'd, and that makes everything else work. By 12/21, I do not notice any problems at all - not a one. And I hear Johnny D doing some killer stuff, e.g., in Sugaree, that validates why Garcia wanted him in the band. He's really, really good.

Second, Ozzie Ahlers plays masterfully here, going toe to toe with Garcia with tremendous confidence. This would be less and less the case over the years of Garcia's side bands - Melvin Seals was wonderful, a perfect complementary player who could take sparkling features when it was his turn, but was certainly very submissive vis a vis Garcia. Here, Ozzie occasionally steps forward over Jerry, Jerry keeps playing loudly, and, rather than backing down, Ozzie ups his attack and amplitude. They really feed off each other wonderfully this night. Nick pointed out to me that there is no synth here, just electric piano, so maybe that gives his playing a little more oomph or something, I dunno. Or, like Johnny D, having played a few gigs has him feeling warmed up. Or, it's just a great night. Whatever the case, a great night for Ozzie Ahlers, the best I can recall having heard.

Third, Garcia plays very mathematically throughout, and alternates between loud, grungy rock and roll lead guitar on the one hand and some much more gentle, patient plucking on the other. I can't explain why it feels mathematical except that it's both arithmetic (like an expanding cycle) and geometric (lots of loop and circles). He also comps as well this night for Ozzie as he ever did. See especially "After Midnight", which rocks hard.

Fourth this "Positively 4th Street" more than earns its reputation as the BOAT version. Checking in at 17 minutes, it starts with some beautiful instrumental work, as Jerry patiently sets everything up. I wasn't following along with the lyrics or anything, but I think he gets all of the verses almost entirely right, and sometimes he just barely remembers a line in time but offers it up off the beat and a little faster, providing some really nice syncopated texture. I think he even has the verse order mostly right. His guitar tone works throughout, and he comps aggressively for Ozzie, including some fanning that would normally just be him but here serves the whole unit. By the end I just wrote "I am actually pretty speechless at this point. WOW." Check it out.

Fifth, I seriously doubt that HTC was really an encore. In this period, a 35 minute second set would only have happened if they were running up on closing time. But then they would not have been able to play an encore. So I suspect it's just a four-song, 50-minute second set.

Sixth, I also seriously doubt that this comes from master reels. Maybe I shouldn't - the tape sounds absolutely fabulous, and it sounds even better, on a quick comparison, via shnid-138677, than the "Bertha" version I got with. It sounds light years better than the cassette master of the next night, which doesn't circulate but which I have heard. But all of that said, I am just not aware of anyone running reels at this point. The last Garcia Band reels I know about date from summer 1978. Betty ran reels for Reconstruction at least into July 1979, but the Garcia Band tapes from after that were limited to cassette. I dunno. It seems pretty certain there is a cassette gen here, based on cuts in After Midnight and Harder They Come. Older circulating versions have also tended to be a little bit hissy. But, I dunno. Happy to be proven wrong!

So let me just close this fun little exploration that I do think 12/17/79 was quite weak, but the band gets better each night of the three I have engaged over the last few days. The 12/21/79 show is absolutely outstanding, holding its own next to anything JGB did plus or minus a few years. I have seen folks say that they use it to introduce novices to the Garcia Band, and I can see why - the tape sounds great and the performance is outstanding. True, I can hear the limitations creeping in to Jerry's voice, which is still sweetly high but which is starting to bump into tighter range and volume constraints. It ain't perfect, but it is excellent.

Listening notes below the fold.

Checking Myself: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, December 20, 1979

I just listened to JGB 12/17/79 and found it to be ... off. Out of sync. Low energy.

Since I don't trust how my own frame of mind can color my listening experience, I decided to turn directly to a contemporary show, in this case 12/20/79. The big degree to which these are apples and oranges have to do with recording sources, 17th being a good aud and 20th being a hissy and maybe fast sbd.

It's a night and day difference. The most recently circulated version of 12/20/79 comes out like a bat outta hell, and I mean HARD - That's Alright, Mama screams, How Sweet cooks, Catfish John and After Midnight both bring the juice. Hypothesis 1 is that tape quality is driving this. 12/20 has more high end for sure and, even more problematically, may run fast. It'd be great if someone with good pitch could check it out, though the seeder, AF, has great ears and I suspect things are OK. Hypothesis 2 is that, indeed, 12/17 was just not as good - Jerry more recently off the road, a case of the Mondays, I dunno.

I am considering spinning 12/21 as well to complete this little study, another board which I remember being flat as a pancake, so it might give a third distinct vantage.

When I saw this clipping, I remembered that I remembered this strip comic strip Momma from this period. (I was ten.) We were a Chronicle and Contra Costa Times family, my parents being morning paper readers and us being in the east bay. It was a good combo, back in the times when two such papers would cover a good gamut from global to local news.

LN jg1979-12-20.jgb.all.sbd-AF.91965.flac1644

JERRY GARCIA BAND 

Keystone Palo Alto

260 S. California Avenue

Palo Alto, CA 94306

December 20, 1979 (Thursday)

sbd shnid-91965

--complete show (8 tracks, 79:56)--

t01. That's Alright Mama [6:51] [0:19]

t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:56] [0:08] %

t03. Catfish John [9:04] [0:08] %

t04. After Midnight [12:24] [0:04] %

t05. Love In The Afternoon [9:25] [0:10] %

t06. Let It Rock [9:46] [0:10]

t07. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:15] [0:03] %

t08. Tore Up Over You [9:06] [0:08] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #11a

! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Ozzie Ahlers - keyboards, synthesizers;

! lineup: John d'Fonseca - drums;

! lineup: John Kahn - bass.

JGMF:

! R: 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/19791220-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/22889 (same ultimate source tape, deprecated); https://etreedb.org/shn/91965 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/7AzlG

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

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

! seealso: JGMF, "Sunday, Monday, What's the Difference? JGB #11a at Keystone, December 17, 1979 (Monday)"

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 9, 1979, p. 24

! listing: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 16, 1979, p. 18

! ad: San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle Datebook, December 16, 1979, p. 30

! mention: San Francisco Examiner, December 20, 1979, p. 27

! setlist: It is claimed that this was a complete, single set show, which would be very anomalous.

! historical: Bill Belcher opened.

! R: Source: SBD > ? > Cassette. 

! R: Transfer: Maxell XL-II > Nakamichi DR-8 (Dolby off) > Audiophile 2496 > Soundforge > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC, by Andrew F. (May 2008) 

! R: Notes: This source is an improvement in sound quality over the currently circulating source (shnID-22889), with brighter sound and more consistent levels, although there is still some hiss. Both this and 22889 have the same eight songs, but in a different order. This version presents the songs as they appeared on the cassette that was transferred (four per side). The fades heard between the songs (tracks 2 thru 8) were there on the cassette. It is not clear if the cassette has the songs in the correct order as they were performed, or if this is the entire show, or possibly a compilation ... With my THANKS to Ted Gidley for providing the tape to transfer!

! P: t01 TAM is blazing a mile a minute. My goodness. Johnny D doesn't know when it's ending, but Jerry just forces the issue.

! P: t02 HSII Ozzie is soloing 4 and Garcia is comping grungily, really good. Then 4:40 or so Jerry steps up and starts wailing, Ozzie recedes, Jerry breaking off big ol shards of glass. Very good.

! P: t03 CJ late 6 over 7 just some great fanny guitar work.

! P: t04 AM as with 12/17/79 I don't think Johnny D is supplying the beat that it needs. Jerry goes around a few times rather than jumping right into the lyrics. Good high energy later in the tune.

! P: t07 STOF I don't think John had a feature here.

Makes Up In Enthusiasm What It Lacks In Precision: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, November 12, 1983

 LN jg1983-11-12.jgb.all.mtx.141451.flac1644

update: d'oh! Already posted this one.

Crispy clean but flat and unbalanced sbd meets in-your-face but unbalanced Menke aud to make for a sweet matrix. Thank you Andrew F. for your work!

The show? It's late '83. The sets are getting shorter. The DLG is fucking killer, and the Deal makes up in enthusiasm what it lacks in precision, which summarizes the show as anything else I might say.

The ad is a great illustration that Garcia, alone among the GD guys, systematically refused to leverage his GD ties to sell tickets to his side projects. Here, we see Mickey showing no such reluctance. Of course, by this time Garcia didn't need leverage to sell tickets. He just needed a pulse and a guitar.

JERRY GARCIA BAND
Keystone Palo Alto
260 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
November 12, 1983 (Saturday)
*Matrix* shnid-141451

--set I (5 tracks, 42:18)--
s1t01. [0:21] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:06] [0:25]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:07] [0:07] %
s1t03. [0:08] Simple Twist Of Fate [11:11] [0:15] %
s1t04. [0:05] Cats Under The Stars [7:24] ->
s1t05. Run For The Roses [4:59] (1) [0:08]

--set II (4 tracks, 47:36)--
s2t01. Rhapsody In Red [9:08] [0:13] %
s2t02. [0:13] Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:20] [0:11] %
s2t03. Don't Let Go [16:03] ->
s2t04. Deal [8:12] [0:16]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = 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/19831112-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20746 (Corley MAC, shnf, not in circulation); http://etreedb.org/shn/22512 (4th gen sbd, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/25629 (MSC flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141450 (unattributed* MAC flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141668 (Corley 4th gen flac); etreedb.org/shn/142118 (MSC flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/141450 (Menke MAC); http://etreedb.org/shn/141451 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/7AzlG

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

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

! P: overall: two relatively short sets. I have been engaging the 90s a bunch lately, and sets were typically running 60-80 minutes. We aren't into Jerry's Rock Bottom period just yet, IMO, but short sets were a leading indicator. That said, while I didn't note anything particular from set I, the Don't Let Go in set II is outstanding, with all kinds of modal jazzy spacey goodness, and overall, as I say of Deal, the show makes up in enthusiasm what it sometimes lacks in precision.

! R: Sources: Matrix of SBD ID-25629 & AUD ID-141450.

! R: Transfer: WAV > Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged, Andrew F 03/2018

! R: Note: Gaps in the SBD source back-filled with Corley AUD portions taken from ID-22512; How Sweet It Is 0:00 > 4:22, and Rhapsody in Red 8:34 > 8:49.

! R: What a great matrix. The sbd is flat as a pancake, all vocals no guitar, the aud is all guitar and drums, no vocals.

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a few minutes, we'll be right back."

! P: s2t01 RIR is energetic.

! P: s2t03 DLG this is really good. I can't pinpoint many specifics, but it's very jazzy and nicely spaced out. Late 15 again, but all throughout, this DLG spilled over with great ideas, then a true segue into Deal. Nice

! P: s2t04 Deal the Elmer Fudd vocals out of the gate are not great. He seems to skip a turn at a verse in the 3 minute mark, gets right to the guitar playing, which is strong. It's a little sloppy here and there, with Jerry just charging ahead and forcing various and sundry drummers and vocalists to adjust on the fly, but what it lacks in precision it makes up in enthusiasm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listening notes below the fold.

Insert Pithy Title Here: JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, November 12, 1983

Killer "Don't Let Go", and two short sets that foreshadow darker days ahead. Great job on the matrix by AF!

update: d'oh! posted a second time about this one. DLG so nice, I had to post it twice.

JERRY GARCIA BAND
Keystone Palo Alto
260 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
November 12, 1983 (Saturday)
*Matrix* shnid-141451

--set I (5 tracks, 42:18)--
s1t01. [0:21] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:06] [0:25]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:07] [0:07] %
s1t03. [0:08] Simple Twist Of Fate [11:11] [0:15] %
s1t04. [0:05] Cats Under The Stars [7:24] ->
s1t05. Run For The Roses [4:59] (1) [0:08]

--set II (4 tracks, 47:36)--
s2t01. Rhapsody In Red [9:08] [0:13] %
s2t02. [0:13] Knockin' On Heaven's Door [13:20] [0:11] %
s2t03. Don't Let Go [16:03] ->
s2t04. Deal [8:12] [0:16]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #21a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = 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/19831112-01

! db:http://etreedb.org/shn/20746 (Corley MAC, shnf, not in circulation); http://etreedb.org/shn/22512 (4th gen sbd, shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/25629 (MSC flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141450 (unattributed* MAC flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141668 (Corley 4th gen flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/141451 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/7AzlG

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

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

! P: overall: two relatively short sets. I have been engaging the 90s a bunch lately, and sets were typically running 60-80 minutes. We aren't into Jerry's Rock Bottom period just yet, IMO, but short sets were a leading indicator. That said, while I didn't note anything particular from set I, the Don't Let Go in set II is outstanding, with all kinds of modal jazzy spacey goodness, and overall, as I say of Deal, the show makes up in enthusiasm what it sometimes lacks in precision.

! R: Sources: Matrix of SBD ID-25629 & AUD ID-141450.

! R: Transfer: WAV > Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged, Andrew F 03/2018

! R: Note: Gaps in the SBD source back-filled with Corley AUD portions taken from ID-22512; How Sweet It Is 0:00 > 4:22, and Rhapsody in Red 8:34 > 8:49.

! R: What a great matrix. The sbd is flat as a pancake, all vocals no guitar, the aud is all guitar and drums, no vocals.

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a fe minutes, we'll be right back."

! P: s2t01 RIR is energetic.

! P: s2t03 DLG this is really good. I can't pinpoint many specifics, but it's very jazzy and nicely spaced out. Late 15 again, but all throughout, this DLG spilled over with great ideas, then a true segue into Deal. Nice

! P: s2t04 Deal the Elmer Fudd vocals out of the gate are not great. He seems to skip a turn at a verse in the 3 minute mark, gets right to the guitar playing, which is strong. It's a little sloppy here and there, with Jerry just charging ahead and forcing various and sundry drummers and vocalists to adjust on the fly, but what it lacks in precision it makes up in enthusiasm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Ew"

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

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

On the Other Hand ...

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

... and the servings are so small

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"awww, no, last song?!?" (LN jg1985-06-03.jgb.all.aud-russjcan.92786.flac1644)

Keystone Palo Alto on a Monday night, as Garcia is trying to kick his junk habit.

The show is mostly notable because Garcia plays a Modulus guitar. Playing anything other than the Irwin "Tiger" at this time was an exceptionally rare event. Blair Jackson's amazing Golden Road (no. 7, Summer 1985, p. 9) mentions that the alternative guitar appeared at a pair of early June Garcia Band shows. Since Garcia canceled a scheduled June 2 show to attend Wagner's Ring with Phil, the pair can only be 6/1 and 6/3. I confess that I hear nothing different.

I don't intend to wallow around Rock Bottom any longer than necessary, but it has to be done. Tonight's episode features a roughly 35 minute second set. Tapers and tapersfriends are so damn cool, because, just like 3/2 ("Jerry's gotta clean up his act, man"), they themselves provide insight and color beyond pulling tape of Jerry. As Jerry gallops into "Midnight Moonlight" 30 minutes into the second set, regulars know what that means: Jerry's done. It's gonna be a gill-coked MM and a race backstage to comfort. This probably after a very long setbreak, so up late taboot.

Groaning with disappointment at the first notes of Midnight Moonlight ... "awww, no, last song?!?" You are right to pose the question, Herr Kanzlerfreund: what the fuck? Not even one side of tape? Fuck you, Garcia. That would piss me off. The "kids they dance, they shake their bones" (Barlow-Weir), but the grownups know they're getting ripped off. If I had been seeing Garcia Band shows at this time (I was just a bit young), I might not have continued to do so after what JGB delivered to the home crowd in the first half of '85.

Musically, I noted some OK moments in Deal, else not much to say.

Again, I don't intend to wallow down around here more than necessary. Things will get really ugly with late August 1984, the November '84 Garcia-Kahn tour, and a few other turds. For my purposes, it's worth getting this stuff down, and documenting it. At some point, I'll probably sum up the set times from this period. There are lots in the sub-40 minute range. That'll be one reasonably good indicator, I think, of Jerry's health during this period and more generally.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
June 3, 1985 (Monday)
Cansler flac1644 shnid-92786

--set I (5 tracks, 49:19)--
s1t01. [0:35] How Sweet It Is :36-9:13 [0:32] % [0:07]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [8:08] [0:12] % [0:09]
s1t03. When I Paint My Masterpiece [11:15] [0:08] % [0:02]
s1t04. [0:11] Mississippi Moon :12-9:53 [0:18] %
s1t05. /Deal [#9:14] (1) [0:06]

--set II (3 tracks, 35:03)--
s2t01. [0:49] I'll Take a Melody [13:48] [0:04] % [0:12]
s2t02. Simple Twist of Fate [12:2] [0:08]
s2t03. Midnight Moonlight [7:15] (2, 3) [0:16]

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

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:

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-06-03-keystone-palo-alto-palo-alto-ca/

! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/20920 (Corley shnf); http://db.etree.org/shn/95560 (Taz Yamaguchi flac1644); http://db.etree.org/shn/92786 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/7AzlG

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html

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

! historical: Garcia plays a Modulus guitar at this show -  I list Ron Price as opening, no idea who that is. A Monday night at the KPA feels out of pattern, not there are sufficient degrees of freedom to detect patterns in JGB billings first half of 1985.

! R: field recordist: Russ Cansler;

! R: field recording location: 10 feet away, left of center 5 feet;

! R: field recording gear: 2x Hat-Mounted realistic PZMs > Sony WMD6C;

! R: field recording media: 1x Maxell UDS-II 90 No nr;

! R: transfer: HD > Audacity > CDWave > TLH.

! R: seeder notes: "Not much presence on vocals; slight mic handling noise; light tics on tape -- age artifact?"

! R: mix and sound real funky to start, very fluttery. Vocals very far back. Numerous skips.

! P: s1t05 Deal JG can't even sing to start. Later, sounds much spacier and more GD ish than usual. There's almost a little Close Encounters wah feel ca. 7. Pretty good Deal.

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while."

! historical: (2) s2t03 @ 0:09 Taper or guy near taper groans with disappointment at Midnight Moonlight ... "awww, no, last song?". You are right to pose the question, Herr Kanzlerfreund: what the fuck? Not even one side of tape? Fuck you, Garcia. That would piss me off. The "kids they dance, they shake their bones" (Barlow-Weir), but the grownups know they're getting ripped off. If I had been seeing Garcia Band shows at this time (I was just a bit young), I might not have continued to do so after what JGB delivered at The Stone in the first half of '85. At end (3) JG says something I can't hear. Also of note: *very* exceptionally, Garcia is not playing his Doug Irwin guitar (which one? I had written Rosebud, but maybe Tiger? I don't know the guitars) he's playing one made by Modulus Graphite (see Golden Road, Summer 1985, p. 9).

'Drink 'em up, it's the last one': JGB at Keystone Palo Alto, July 23, 1977

 LN jg1977-07-23.jgb.all.sbd-miller.30662.flac1644

Meh. This doesn't light me up. Equipment gremlins running amok, things never achieve escape velocity to my ears.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
July 23, 1977 (Saturday) - 9:30 PM
MSC Miller flac1644 shnid-30662

--set I (6 tracks, 64:25)--
s1t01. tuning [1:02]
s1t02. Sugaree [15:01] [3:29]
s1t03. Stop That Train/ [15:13#]
s1t04. /Mystery Train
s1t05. Simple Twist Of Fate [10:53] [0:18] % [0:07]
s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [8:52] (1) [0:10] %
 
--set II (7 tracks, 67:08)--
s2t01. tuning (2) [1:16]
s2t02. They Love Each Other [7:20] [0:11]
s2t03. Sitting In Limbo [11:04] (3) [2:46]
s2t04. Tore Up Over You [10:08] [1:34]
s2t05. My Sisters And Brothers [7:00] (4) [2:48]
s2t06. Stir It Up [10:53] (5) [0:58]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [10:44] (6) [0:25]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards (piano, electric piano, organ), vocals;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, vocals;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - 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/19770723-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/30662 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/31319 (Bertha remaster of this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/7AzlG

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! venue: JGBP http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/keystone-sophies-260-s-california-ave.html. The venue is in some doubt. The tapes seem to say Keystone (Berkeley). But there is hard contemporary historical evidence [redacted] that says both 7/23 and 7/24 were at KPA. The equipment gremlins and the emcee talk, including outroduction of the band, screams KPA more than KB. There's not much question to me what the actual venue is, whatever tape labels might say.

! historical: the contract rate between Freddie and Jerry had moved from $500 to $750, but if you  believe that's how much the band was getting, we should check some math. Sounds like a packed house this Saturday night. I have capacity 420 around this time (Staska and Mangrum 1977). I don't know what the door price would be in mid-1977, need to check. By some of the end-of-show exhortations to "drink up!", sounds like liquor revenue would have been robust this night, as well.

! R: Recording Info: SBD -> Cassette Master -> Dat

! R: transfer Info: Dat (Sony R500) -> SEK'D Prodif Plus -> Samplitude Professional v7.02 -> FLAC (2 Discs Audio / 2 Disc FLAC). Transferred and Edited By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, August 26, 2005.

! personnel: Donna Jean is present, Maria Muldaur is not.

! P: meh.

! R: s1t01-s1t02 some static, level flux, etc.

! P: s1t02 Sugaree. Real slow and swampy. Keith on electric piano. Donna harmony vocals. Jerry's doing nice work, e.g., 7 min, but I am not jumping up and down. Keith's work 9 is lame. Major fanning in 12-min mark, then bending toward the jubilee. A few bad feedback spots early 13.
! s1t03 STT Keith on organ, ?Tutt? singing harmony vocals, so, JG, Donna Jean and Tutt three-part vocals, I believe.

! R: s1t03 STT clips out

! R: s1t04 MT clips in

! R: s1t06 TWYDTTYD some overloading, on bass and on piano.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break and try to fix some of this stuff [inaudible]." So, obviously, the overloading and such is a problem of live, not tape.

! s2t01 (2) sounds like Kahn is playing "She's Not There". Keith hits it @ 0:30. JK still noodling it -0:43, Keith joins up again over 1. Somewhere I have note that TTB said he thought it was the Wailers' "Lively Up Yourself", would need to check more carefully. Jerry's having none of it, either way; TLEO it is.

! P: s2t02 TLEO still some equipment issues on the bass, especially. Gremlins afoot in the gear this night.

! s2t03 (3) someone asks if they want to play that new rock and roll song. I wonder if he means Rhapsody In Red? Check session info.

! R: s2t04 bad static, now bringing bass down? Some bad shit this night.

! P: s2t05 Sis and Bros has four-part harmonies, KG doing baritone here.

! s2t05 (4) unknown speaker: "It's getting close to 2 o'clock. So will you finish your drinks, folks? Please?" Crowd guy yells "Or what?" Start of SIU announcer says "C'mon, just drink 'em up."

! s2t06 (5) guy in charge, maybe Freddie?: "C'mon, let's drink 'em up! Drink 'em up, it's the last one. Drink 'em up, you guys!"

! P: s2t07 TUIB sounds really fresh and nice. Bad bass distortion. Gremlins.

! s2t07 emcee: "Yeah. We want to thank the Jerry Garcia Band, [inaudible] tonight [inaudible]."