Showing posts with label Richard Loren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Loren. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Stinson History

Stinson Beach Music Scene Time Line: 1960s to the Present

The site above was just brought to my attention. I can't find an email for anyone in the organization based on a cursory search, so I thought I post some reactions here.

The prompt for all of this is the newly digitized source for the OAITW gig at the Stinson Community Center on September 30, 1973, same source tape as an older source I have sketchily blogged. I haven't had time to look back at this in detail, but I also want to pin Corry's post on an early OAITW gig at a Stinson Beach bar.

The point of this post is to post some corrections and ask some questions about entries in the Stinson Historical Society page that heads the post. If anyone knows any of the principals and wishes to draw their attention to the corrections, they might be interested.
“Blows Against the Empire” and “Mexico” (1969) - Jefferson Airplane
Recordings for BATE started in July 1970, just to be clear. Not sure what the Stinson connection is supposed to be here.
1970 – Peter Rowan moves to Stinson Beach from Mill Valley, where he had been playing in bands such as Seatrain and Earth Opera. Also recently been spending time playing with bluegrass legend Bill Monroe. He moves into a house on Calle del Ribera and pays $100/month in rent. He ends up writing one song inspired by Stinson Beach: “Riding the Rainbow in the Sky,” which was never released on a record.
The liner notes to Breakdown say PR arrived in Stinson Beach in October 1972.
8/27/71 - Jerry Garcia and others play at the club known as “The Red Whale,” which is located where the current Stinson Beach Water County District is located on Highway One just past the turn off for Calle del Arroyo. It would later be renovated and renamed “The Brigg.” Still later, it would be renovated again and renamed the “Over the Hill Bar and Grill.”
Mmmmm, a specific date which I don't have. I would love to know the source of this information! In the meantime, I will add it to my spreadsheet. I am presuming this would be the NRPS warming up earlier in the day before gigging at the Longbranch this night, but of course I can't be sure.
One rumor has it that the only time Jerry Garcia met John Lennon was during this time period in Stinson Beach.
Sounds familiar, but I will pin this possible crossing here.
Autumn 1972 – Jerry Garcia & David Grisman play bluegrass music several times, with Jerry practicing his banjo whenever he can after they bumped into each other at Ed’s Superette as Garcia was buying cigarettes.
I thought the story of their hooking back up in Stinson was that Pete Rowan walked Dawg (or vice versa) up the hill to Garcia's. This doesn't rule out that they bumped into each other at Ed's Superette, of course.
January 1973 – ... After playing at “Avila's Barn,” Jerry Garcia names David Grisman "Dawg" after he saw dog following Grisman on the beach at Stinson.
Avila's Barn doesn't ring a bell to me, though I bet that if I check Corry's "unknown bar" post it's mentioned there. update: I think the name is not "Avila" but Avella - so, Avella's Barn. I have changed it in my tag.
1973 [sic] - Goldie Rush starts Round Records above Ed’s Superette in 1973
First, the name "Goldie Rush" was new to me, and it shouldn't be, because apparently she was heavily involved in Round Records. Second, though, 1973 is too early, at least for "starts" in any formally institutionalized sense. Round Records was incorporated in the state of California on January 22, 1974.
1977 [sic] – David Jenkins (guitar) and Cory Lerois (keyboards) move to Stinson Beach, both members of the band Pablo Cruise. Lerois buys Mountain Girl/Jerry Garcia’s old house, and does a major remodel.
No. This was early 1978.
1979/1980 – The band “The Edge” is formed by Lorin Rowan, Mark Stein, Jim Dillon, Keith Glanz and Ozzie Ahleve [sic]
Correction: last fellow's name is Ozzie Ahlers.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

"The Little Cash Cow" - JGB, Early 1980

Last weekend's post "On the Bus with the Garcia Band" looked at the November-December 1983 JGB tour's extensive ground travel - everything was by bus, 3,000 miles on the road in a few weeks in the eastern time zone. Commenter Nick asked a great question comparing that tour with earlier ones, pointing out Ozzie Ahlers's recollections of limos and such on the early 1980 tour. In comments, I noted that that one had been a multimodal affair:
2/13 fly commercial DC-Albany
2/14 drive 165 mi. to Boston
2/16 drive 140 mi. to New Haven
2/17 charter plane to Syracuse
2/20 fly commercial to Hartford
2/21 fly commercial to Newark
2/23 drive 90 mi. to Philly
2/24 drive 110 mi. to Long Island
2/26 drive 180 mi. to Provy
2/27 drive 180 mi. back to NYC
Nick raises the question of whether the later tour maybe just wasn't generating the same amount of cash, so that the bus was a budget-conscious choice. (Corry offers an alternative hypothesis.)

I'd love to be able to compare the money on the two tours, but I lack the '83 piece. I can lay out the '80 piece, and it is quite impressive. Somewhere I have Dennis McNally calling the Garcia Band a "little cash cow", and the numbers affirm.
Table xxx. Jerry Garcia Band Touring Revenues, February-March 1980
In 2015 dollars, that's just over $571k for three weeks' work, not bad.

The last column may also be of interest. $19k (1980$) cash out on the road would have bought Our Hero a lot of cigarettes and chili dogs.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Reading Notes - Loren 2014



Loren, Richard, with Stephen Abney. 2014. High Notes: A Rock Memoir. Demariscotta, ME: East Pond Publishing.

When I read a book that I will need to be able to cite chapter and verse, this is how I arrange the chapters and verses. I just pull out quotes and other observations, I effectively tag them, and I sort them into the relevant files. So these aren't really reading notes, just cullings.

That said, I think Richard Loren's book High Notes is nice, well-written, informative, warm but also suitably dispassionate and detached. I learned a lot. Some of the many things of interest to me are David Grisman, Rowan Brothers, Stinson Beach, OAITW, drugs, banjo, Hells Angels, official releases, John Scher, John Lennon, Europe, The Movie, Nicky Hopkins, James Booker, Sirens of Titan.

Notes below the fold.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Richard Loren: High Notes

Richard Loren is publishing a memoir in November. This I am very much looking forward to!

http://www.jambands.com/news/2014/07/29/former-grateful-dead-manager-to-release-memoir

Former Grateful Dead manager Richard Loren will release his memoir, High Notes: A Rock Memoir: Working with Rock Legends Jefferson Airplane Through The Doors to the Grateful Dead, in November. The book, which features a forward by David Grisman, recalls Loren’s journey through the turbulent era of rock’s ascendancy.
...
High Notes, which was written in conjunction with Stephen Abney, is broken up into four sections:
Part One: New York City – My life with Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and the Chambers Brothers
Part Two: Stinson Beach, California – David Grisman, the Rowan Brothers, Garcia-Saunders, Old and in the Way
Part Three: The Grateful Dead – Politics, Grateful Dead Movie, Garcia Bands, Egypt, Saturday Night Live, Alaska, Radio City Music Hall
Part Four: The Grateful Dead Merry-Go-Round – Germany, Mississippi River Boat, Watch the River Flow, Sirens of Titan, Garcia-Grisman.
Oh my goodness. Stinson and all the rest of it, Sirens of Titan, Gar-Gris ... so many Garciacentric little nuggets. I cannot wait to read this!