Rockabilly JGB Doing Not Fade Away: July 9, 1977

 LN jg1977-07-09.jgb.late-2.aud-strange-miller.124426.flac1644

Not a whole ton to say, not a ton of time, so I'll just bullet.

1. Donna is absent. I wonder why? I need to document her 1977 absences, because there was a good number.
2. "Not Fade Away" is a JGB singleton, and is very interesting. Jerry is super-fired up for it and does a really good Buddy Holly. On this listen, the band's performance doesn't light me up.
3. Trouble on the Boardwalk in between shows, lots of arrests and such. See note below.
4. Weird little mini-tour. Pretty good paydays all around, certainly over $30k for JGB, perhaps considerably more. John Scher probably did very, very well, too. Two nights work, four shows: July 8 at the Calderone Concert Hall, two shows, and this night, two shows, all for John Scher. A Don Law show at Cape Cod Coliseum, scheduled for 7/10/77, was canceled. So, again, a nice little payday for leaving Thursday noon-ish and returning Sunday noon-ish

Jerry Garcia Band
Convention Hall
1300 Ocean Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
July 9, 1977 (Saturday) Late Show 10 PM
85 min Steve Strange late-2 shnid-124426

--late show (7 tracks, 85:27, missing first two songs)--
[MISSING: The Harder They Come]
[MISSING: They Love Each Other]
--late show main set (6 tracks, 63:53)--
t01. tuning [1:20]
t02. Midnight Moonlight [9:37] %
t03. //Russian Lullaby [#13:21] [0:33] %
t04. //Tore Up Over You [#10:09] ]0:03] % [0:36]
t05. Knockin' On //Heaven's Door [16:#00] [0:18] %
t06. Tangled Up In Blue [11:36] [0:20] %
--encore (1 track, 21:33)--
t07. Not Fade Away// [21:33#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - drums, 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/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 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/tfwJJ
 
! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/convention-hall-1300-ocean-ave-asbury.html

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

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

! band: This is a very rare Garcia-Kahn-Godchaux-Tutt quartet show, which only took place when Donna and Maria were both absent (naturally). Donna Jean never missed a show in 1976, as far as I can tell. I have to double-check for 1977, but it seems to me that it was more frequent.

! JGMF: see also video notes at "Find Someone Who Looks at You the Way John Looks at Jerry," http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/11/find-someone-who-looks-at-you-way-john.html.

! R: field recordist: Steve Strange

! R: field gear: hand-held recorder with built-in mics > cassette master

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Sony TC-K677ES) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) -> Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (2 Discs Audio / 1 Disc FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, April 15, 2013.

! R: "Thanks to Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction"

! R: t03 RL cuts in on "somewhere there may be", then another splice near the beginning.

! P: t03 RL has a long bass solo

! R: t04 TUOY clips in

! P: t06 KOHD Keith has an electric piano, glockenspiel feel

! personnel: no backing vocalists?

! R: t05 KOHD splice @ 11:20

! R: doesn't sound like same source for TUIB?

! P: t07 NFA fascinating hearing Jerry sing this. Much more rockabilly, Buddy Holly than you'd ever hear Jerry, in just about any context.

! P: t07 NFA unbelievable how enthusiastic Jerry sounds here. He is singing in a pretty high register with good power and energy. Some real nice guitar fanning in the 2-minute mark, then a hot solo @2:08, long sustained runs, WOW! @@ sustaining all the way to the 3 minute mark, then he takes another job, boundless energy and fluidity. I have to say, though, that the rest of the players (let's say, John and Keith in this context) just don't offer very much. So, much as Jerry tries, it just doesn't hit a memorable peak.

! R: t07 NFA end cuts

! 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).

JGMS: January 15, 1972, Keystone Korner, San Francisco, CA

I have been needing to revisit recordings of the very early Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders stuff, and with a bit of time I thought I'd give this show, from a Saturday in mid-January 1972 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, some attention on its birthday. I am not sure who's drumming ... could have been Bill Vitt or could have been Kreutzmann .. anyone know? Anyway, it's a quartet, with Jerry, Merl, John and the percussionist.

The existing recording is actually mostly quite nice despite the lineage of MAR > 2 cassettes > digitalia, except for early in set II ("I Was Made to Love Her", "That's The Touch I Like", and "Who's Loving You Tonight?") when there is some awful warbling and such. Also, listener SP at DNC says that there are speed problems, which doesn't surprise me at all. I'd sure love to see this particular master (and any of its contemporaries!) come into the light. It's historically very important, as is every bit, piece and fragment of this early Jerry-on-the-side stuff.

"How Sweet It Is" starts things off and is a pretty complete trainwreck. This is the earliest version (of 449 as of this writing) listed at Jerrybase, and even if there are earlier ones I doubt there are many ... it certainly sounds like this is a rough draft of what would become a Garcia-on-the-Side (maybe I'll just coin GOTS right now) staple.

After that rough start things do about a 180, both in terms of the possibilities being explored and their success -- "Save Mother Earth," a Saunders composition, is a freaking monster. It starts off within the structure of the song and pretty thoroughly maps that terrain for awhile before dropping off into *deep* space for a couple of minutes from 7:45. This is not unlike contemporary Grateful Dead deep space, and even has some proto-Tigering going on. I have to check the timings on this, but at one point Garcia starts strumming a sad, slow thing that I think might be "Imagine" ... you can hear him say something to the rest of the band (couldn't quite make it out), and then he changes tack and returns to the SME theme to end. Here's a great little piece of context (the revelation of which is one of the reasons I love audience recordings): after the song, a little kid, maybe 4 or 5 by the sound of it, exclaims "I don't know about that!" A woman (presumably mom) repeats the exclamation as a query and chuckles. It's awesome. The kid's mind has been blown, he's not sure what to make of it (and in any case he occupies that deeply psychedelic realm known as the child's mind), and he can't contain himself. The fact that he's there at all, one of the relatively few (less than about 300, which IIRC was about the capacity of the KK), is pretty neat all by itself.

"One Kind Favor" follows this up with the slinkiest, swampiest, spookiest country blues you have ever heard. I absolutely love this song, and I love the GOTS versions much more than the few (ca. 1966) GD versions in circ ... much slower and darker. "Expressway" is a wonderfully compact little barn-burner (not the lonnnggg trip it would become in a few years), and "Mystery Train" ends set I with some terrific rockabilly, done much more Elvis style (and complete with the repeated "sixteen sixteen coaches long" bit) than it sound later on.

"Train to Cry" bores me (blasphemy alert) and I can't really judge the next three songs because of the tape problems. Thank God whomever is taping changed batteries or whatever for what comes next, because it is a truly monumental "Man-Child," the Merl Saunders composition. If you don't know this number, go check it out. This song puts me in mind of a Sioux warrior in South Dakota, maybe only his ghost blowing through a high plains butte, but with a heroin-tinged urban twist. . Anyway, this is some very deep, dark and contemplative stuff. Jerry again flirts with the Tiger around the 15-minute mark. (I have it on good authority, from Peter Lavezzoli over on DNC, that the Tiger nearly appears in late '71 GD and makes a certain appearance on 3/23/72, so this is right in that window ...) There's a couple of minutes of deep space, the theme returns and is worked out, and then from 22 minutes in or so there's a beautiful engagement with "Summertime". That theme is crystal clear right before the 25 minute mark, and remains the basic thematic driving force for the rest of the tune, which clocks in around 32 minutes. Whew! Definitely two snaps up -- check it out.

The Jerry Lee Lewis number "She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye" follows, with its somewhat more melancholy feel than I might expect from that author, for what little I know. It reminds me a lot of "Long Black Limousine." "Hi-Heel Sneakers" is a lot of fun and definitely works well in the context of a small club gig. Not sure anyone needed to bring their boxing gloves, but you never know.

A very rare (on tape) reading of "Tupelo Honey" follows ... it gets a wow from me for rarity, but not being a big Van fan I can say it doesn't knock me out. It reminds me a lot of "Crazy Love", which is fine, but I am just as glad that "And It Stoned Me" became the latter-day GOTS stape, rather than either of the other two. This song, though, is a reminder to me of how substantially overlapping the Van and Jerry circles were at this time. I know that Ozzie Ahlers and Daoud Shaw, both of whom would materialize in JGBs of the early 80s, both played with Van around this time. The Lion's Share was everyone's favorite haunt. I wonder why the never played together (if, indeed, they didn't)?

"That's Alright Mama" closes without much of a bang for this listener, though Jerry does go on a few pretty good tears.

All in all, very enjoyable. Check it out for the rarities, but keep it and return to it for the playing in the Saunders compositions "Save Mother Earth" and "Man-Child." Very deep, exploratory stuff going on there that would stand up well to some of the deepest explorations of the 1972 vintage GD (though not for as long, to be sure).

Listening to this also reminds me not to take the tapes we have for granted. As much as I try to hunt down new-to-me stuff, it's useful to remember that we are already blessed with a non-trivial amount of stuff to hear, even from this early in the game. Thanks to AJL for supplying this recording. And, recordist ... please ... come out, come out, wherever you are! Oh yeah, and don't forget to thank a taper while you're at it.