JGB in Binghamton, November 20, 1977: first night DLG + LAALWFH = 1/2 (two weeks later DLG + LAALWFH)

LN jg1977-11-20.jgb.all.sbd.141495.flac1644

First night of the fall '77 Garcia Band tour (22 gigs in 22 nights), third live gig for young Buzzy Buchanan in the drummer's seat. The great Jerry Moore had some nasty thoughts about him, but I think he sounds fine here. Keeping time for this group could not have been a picnic.

I have covered the Fall '77 tour in a number of posts, and David Davis has done a couple, as well.

• JGMF,  "JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities"
• JGMF, "Maria 'Shaking Her Substantial Booty' at Waterbury's 'Decrepit Palace Theater': JGB 11/23/77, Commander aud"
• JGMF, "His voice is fading fast: JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77"
• JGMF, "Fall '77 Gig Economics: The Case of SUNY New Paltz (JGB, 11/29/77)"
• GratefulSeconds, "The Jerry Garcia Fans Strike Back: Buffalo, November 30, 1977"
• GratefulSeconds, "Another Great 1977 Show: Jerry Garcia Band, Boston December 2, 1977"
• JGMF, "A Monster Don't Let Go at Hartwick College, December 3, 1977"
• JGMF, "A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977"

Musically, the true segue between "I'll Take A Melody" and "Don't Let Go" is quite interesting. Garcia Band didn't do such things all that often, and it just sounds like Jerry asserts the change and everyone else falls into line.

Also noted is the vast expansion of "Don't Let Go" and "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home". Here, they run14+ and 9+ minutes respectively. By later in the tour (12/3 and 12/9, respectively), they'd each clock in at a much chunkier 27 or so minutes. So Buzzy gets a few iterations to play it pretty straight, but by the end of the tour he's swimming in the deep end.

The recording is fine, with some hiss, swish, wow and flutter, especially from tape 1. AF did yeoman's work, as he always does, marrying it to tape 2 and sharing it out.

Maria is absent, for reasons unknown.

Public debut of LITA.

JERRY GARCIA BAND
West Gym (aka Men's Gym), SUNY Binghamton
1092 Bunn Hill Rd.
Vestal, NY 13850
November 20, 1977 (Sunday) - 7:30 PM
mono sbd composite shnid-141495

--set I (8 tracks, 71:25)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:01] [0:41]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [7:23] [0:06] %
s1t03. Let It Rock [8:38] [0:17] %
s1t04. [0:14] Simple Twist Of Fate [11:18] %
s1t05. /Stir It /Up [#9:15] [0:31] %
s1t06. That's What Love Will/ Make You Do [9:#06] [0:16]
s1t07. Gomorrah [6:39] [0:02] %
s1t08. Mystery Train [7:52] (1) [0:06]

--set II (7 tracks, 72:57)--
s2t01. [0:07] The Way You Do The Things You Do [8:51] [0:12] %
s2t02. ... Love In The Afternoon [#6:38] [1:07]
s2t03. [0:07] Midnight Moonlight [8:15] [0:25] %
s2t04. [0:39] Russian Lullaby [11:18] [0:07] %
s2t05. [[0:15] I'll //Take A Melody [9:#55] ->
s2t06. Don't Let Go [14:10] [1:12]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [9:29] (2) [0:05]

! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - piano, vocals;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan - drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals;
[! absent: Maria Muldaur - vocals]

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/19771120-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/132097 (s2 sbd flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/132098 (s2 sbd flac2496); https://etreedb.org/shn/141495 (this fileset).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. Maria Muldaur is absent, so this is #4*, a variant Corry doesn't list.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/A3rerZrT2hR4xLkL9

! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/12/west-gym-harpur-college-suny-1092-bunn.html

! seealso: JGMF, "JGB: November-December 1977 East Coast Tour Rarities," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/10/jgb-november-december-east-coast-tour.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "Maria 'Shaking Her Substantial Booty' at Waterbury's 'Decrepit Palace Theater': JGB 11/23/77, Commander aud," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1977-11-23jgballaud-commander.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "His voice is fading fast: JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/02/ln-jg1977-11-29jgballaud.html

! seealso: JGMF, "Fall '77 Gig Economics: The Case of SUNY New Paltz (JGB, 11/29/77)," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/01/fall-77-gig-economics-case-of-suny-new.html.

! seealso GratefulSeconds, "The Jerry Garcia Fans Strike Back: Buffalo, November 30, 1977," URL http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2019/03/the-jerry-garcia-fans-strike-back.html.

! seealso: GratefulSeconds, "Another Great 1977 Show: Jerry Garcia Band, Boston December 2, 1977," URL http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2020/06/another-great-1977-show-jerry-garcia.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "A Monster Don't Let Go at Hartwick College, December 3, 1977," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2011/01/listening-notes-jgb-saturday-december-3.html.

! seealso: JGMF, "A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977," URL https://jgmf.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-long-way-from-spain-jgb-at-suny-stony.html.

! historical: first show of the fall 1977 Garcia Band tour, 22 shows in 22 days November 20 - December 11. Ronnie Tutt had left the live band that summer, and young Buzz Buchanan came on board, drumming through the end of the band's run in fall 1978. This is his third show, and he sounds just fine.

! P: overall, the show strikes me as solid but not remarkable. The true segue between ITAM and "Don't Let Go" is the most interesting part, musically, and is really kind of out of the blue. At 14 minutes, DLG is half as long as the monster they played at Hartwick College 13 days later (12/3/77). Size isn't everything, of course, but this version never achieves escape velocity. The following LAALWFH, on only its second spin after more than a year away (9/18/76, then 11/16/77 preceding this version) also has not found its legs - at 9 minutes, it was one-third the length of the 27+ minute iteration at Stony Brook on 12/9/77, which got waaaayyyy out. So this certainly sounds like a band breaking in a new guy on the first night of the tour.

! R: Source: Unknown SBD > ? > CDR, combined with ID-132097, see note below.

! R: Transfer: CDR > EAC > FLAC (2005) > TLH > WAV > Wavelab; and ID-132097 > WAV > Wavelab; both sources: CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. 03/2018

! R: Note: This show was previously listed in etree as having taken place at the Forum Theatre in Binghamton, now listed here with the correct venue. This file-set presents the entire concert together, with thanks to JGMF and Rob Berger for the sources!

! R: JGMF's CDR provides HSII thru TWYDTTYD ("tape 1"), with the balance of the show from ID-132097 ("tape 2"). These appear to derive from the same root (mono) SBD. Both sources were re-mixed a bit to better match each other. Tape-generational hiss remains, particularly in parts of "tape 1" where low-gain sections were raised. There's also some minor tape speed fluctuations & warble audible in the "tape 1" material (STOF & SIR).

! R: Pauses and cuts were left as-is, no cross-fades were added. SIU cuts in near the beginning. There's a fade-to-cut in SIU at 6:51 (from the source CDR) but it appears that no music is missing there. Another fade-to-cut in TWLWMYD at 7:15 with the end of Keith's solo missing. LITA cuts in with about a minute missing from the beginning. Cut in ITAM at 2:13 with about 45 seconds missing. (Small FLAC size is due to mono WAV data.)

! P: s1t01 HSII he flips the first two verses. I tend to appreciate this, becuase while there's an intial flub, he is tuned-in enough to make it better.

! R: s1t05 SIU clips in

! R: s1t06 TWLWMYD fades to splice @ 7:15

! s1t08 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll see y'all later."

! R: s2t02 LITA fades in, swishy sound of a fresh tape side

! song: "Love In The Afternoon" (s2t02): understood public debut.

! P: s2t04 RussLull @ 6:47 John kicks off a little feature.

! R: s2t05 ITAM splice @ 2:13

! P: s2t05-06 ITAM -> DLG a true segue - totally unique

! P: s2t06 DLG nicely paced.

! P: s2t07 LAALWFH not very long, but good power

! s2t07 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

Harpur College NRPS set

"Enough about the Dead, how was the New Riders' set?" - one guy, once

Any Deadhead worth her salt knows the Harpur College gig from May 2, 1970. It's a monster, one of the Dead's best, and long-circulating from FM tapes; it has blown a lot of minds.

I don't remember hearing much about the New Riders set from this night's Evening With the Grateful Dead, so I thought I'd check it out.

Performance: NRPS "meh", but Bobby Ace is real good

Sometimes, things aren't much noted because they aren't really noteworthy. I'd say that's the case here: this is easily the weakest of the sets played this night.

Arrangements need work. Nelson needs more volume and/or confidence. Marmaduke's grating singing gets in the way of enjoying his great songwriting. Garcia and the rest of the band sound fine, but this is only really their second night out and they can't quite unstick the cobwebs wisping over their ears and through their fingers.

I really like the Bobby Ace interregnum. Bobby was coming into his own as a guitarist, singer and stage presence at this time, and this is the perfect feature for the beautiful young man, in well-worn boots, jeans and collarless shirt, with the long pony tail and the handsome persona. The songs are simply wonderful. See my little sketch of the Bobby Ace repertoire here. "Sawmill" is a great little Garciaverse rarity. Country legend Mel Tillis wrote the tune and first released it in 1959 (deaddisc), and the Riders' idol Buck Owens covered it, but it was Tillis's 1973 version that hit #3 on the charts (wiki). This is a great tune! "The Race Is On" also hit #3 on the country charts, for George Jones in 1965. The Dead played it a bunch in 1973, and in the 1980s revived it whenever they'd play on Kentucky Derby Day (e.g., 5/3/86, 5/6/89, 5/5/90), always a vernal treat for Bay Area fans. Merle Haggard got all the way to #1 in August of '68 with "Mama Tried", soon also picked up by the Dead. I prefer the NRPS arrangement, as I do with MAMU. These songs just sound great with steel.

Context: On Campus, May 1970

Still, the context is super interesting. "Harpur College", known to Deadheads the world over for the monster show played on this night. But this was An Evening With the Grateful Dead, and I don't recall seeing much discussion of the evening's middle set by the Dead's white country cousinage, the New Riders of the Purple Sage. This particular zoo got rolling on Friday, May 1st at little Alfred College in upstate New York and steamed into Binghamton for a Saturday show which is an indispensable part of the GD Legend on the East Coast, its economic lifeblood for fifty years. A large generation of baby-boom (and post) northeast corridorians and other city dwellers bought tickets at the time and now buy beautiful, multimodal nostalgia, delivered to the couch, street, car and garden. The Dead were a San Francisco band cashing New York checks. "Harpur  College" - every Deadhead, at least, knows those two words. See the Wolinsky review for some flavor.

More broadly, say "college campus" and "Spring 1970", and I am all ears, because this was a really weird time in American history, worth recalling as we consider our current polarization. The Dead played colleges on both sides of the May 4th Kent State shootings. You remember those, "four dead in Ohio" as CSNY put it, and this:

John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller, May 4, 1970, Kent State University.

On May 4, 1970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics. In The Ends of Power, Haldeman (1978) states that the shootings at Kent State began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration. Beyond the direct effects of the May 4th, the shootings have certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era. (Lewis and Hensley, ND).

 Here's the Dead's itinerary, in the thick of things:

• 5/1: Alfred College
• 5/2: Harpur College
• 5/3: Wesleyan
• 5/4: NRPS free show in the Central Park bandshell!
• 5/5: no show
• 5/6: MIT (free in Kresge Plaza)
• 5/7: MIT (DuPont Gym)
• 5/8: SUNY Delhi
• 5/9: NRPS free show in Boston, then gig at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• 5/10: Atlanta

The Dead's set furiously rages and is truly of its time. The NRPS set is just some guys trying to get it together, which I guess we could say is timeless.

Listening notes below the fold.