Great Moments in Taping History: Jim Durkin and Jim Wise @ Red Rocks, July 28, 1982

https://archive.org/details/gd1982-07-28.fob.senn421.wise.miller.102571.flac16/gd82-07-28d1t01.flac

https://jerrybase.com/events/19820728-01

Setting 

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO. Threatening midsummer Rocky Mountain rain clouds and all the rest; beautiful people everywhere.

Cast

Jim Wise (jimwise), a.k.a. aoxoa, a.k.a. tapersfriend, legendary East Coast taper, good friend of Dick Latvala's, all around good human

dude in the middle (DITM)

Jim Durkin (JD), who would go on to become sound engineer for Jose Feliciano and many other greats

nearby woman (NW)

the Grateful Dead (GD)

[crosstalk]

JD to DITM: I know. He can move over, too.

JD to jimwise: What are you doin' to my levels, man? [jimwise mumble] Don't put 'em up. Put it - dammit, Wise, I'm gonna fuckin' butcher -- [jim inaudible, crosstalk] Whaddya mean?!? You just put my fuckin' levels up! I'm gonna scream in the mics all night long if you fuckin' touch my levels, man. That fucking sucks!!"

DITM to jimwise: Calm down, Jim!

jimwise: OK. It's real good, now.

GD:

chk-PHWAWWWW----  chk-PHWAWWWW ==== 

phwen-u-wamp phwen uwam phenu wamp when whow

DAWWWWWWHHH

["Shakedown Street" continues]

[more crosstalk @ ca. 5:15]

I >>FF to LL -> Supplication

Bob forgets lyrics.

JGB Debuting Señor and Tears of Rage: The February 1990 Warfield Run

LN jg1990-02-02.jgb.all.aud-darroch-paul.86658.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-03.jgb.all-1.sbd-seaweed.114060.flac1644
LN jg1990-02-04.jgb.all.aud-buick.30811.flac1644

The Jerry Garcia organization embraced a "no taping" policy, for reasons that aren't entirely clear given the principal's own experience recording bluegrass in the Sixties, his oft-stated indifference to audience taping in the Grateful Dead (GD) context ("when we're done with it, they can have it"), the Dead's own allowances in the form, from 1984 forward, of an Official Taping Section (OTS) just behind Dan Healy's soundboard and, frankly, the low commerical appeal of the Garcia Band. What was gonna do, etch some bootleg vinyl of yet another show closing "Midnight Moonlight"? Yet, nevertheless, there the policy was.

Enforcement was another matter, and seems to have been highly variable. Some busts happened at various places and times, tapers such as John Corley seem to have felt that stealth was called for (dismantling his Nak 700s and wiring them up through the top of a very "silly hat"), but generally a lot of tapes walked out of a lot of Jerry shows. Anecdotally, the no taping policy was most assiduously enforced at the Warfield in 1990, which one imagines relates to the fact that Jerry and Co. were recording themselves for an official live release (Jerry Garcia Band, Arista 18690-2), which arrived August 25, 1991 with material culled from Warfield shows in April and August of the prior year, sweetened in some cases with some vocal overdubs, at least.

Campolindo High School alumnus and sound engineer extraordinaire Marcus Buick kept a little journal of his own and his taping buddies' battles against one particularly dedicated Warfield security guy, by the name of Oren David Green. Apparently, at least in '89 and into '90, he was not a BGP bluecoat, but worked for VIP security. Bu kept a running score, and it was good guys 4 (successful complete shows pulled) and Oren 2 (busts) after the last Garcia Band show of '89. Oren then went on a little run to start the new year. He seems to have successfully kept the tapers away from the best recording location in the house, "The Spot" on the first drink rail. Rob Darroch and Sara Paul managed to pull complete analog masters from there the first night, February 2, 1990, but the digital tapers got busted during the first song. On February 3, Buick, Rick Katzeff and Tom Hughes (Campolindo '87) were able to pass equipment, hop seats, and relocate to get the 1st set from row M of the upper balcony, but got busted set II. On Sunday the 4th, Bu finally managed to digitally pull a whole show, but only by jamming his Josephsons into the right floor speaker stack from about a foot away, far too close. Oren thus played the digikids to a tie for the weekend, impressive given how committed and enterprising they were. (To give an indication of this, note that some soundboard material circulates from this run, derived from recordings made by splitting wire running to the hallway speakers, a technique first accomplished at the Lunt Fontanne in 1987, as far as I know.)

So, the tapes are generally sub-optimal, and I know well that this can color my listening experience. Historically, I have found these shows to be just sort of "meh", perhaps partly because of recording limitations and perhaps also from reasoning motivated to support my "one year too late" thesis about the double-live album: as great as that album is --and I do think it's great--, I think it would have been even better if they had taped in '88 and '89, when things were fresher and peppier. By 1990, to my ears, Jerry is sounding a little more fatigued. I like the March 1-2 shows a good deal, remember finding the April shows to be "meh", definitely find the June shows to be relatively weak, have formed no opinion on August, and think things are hotter in November, after GD keyboardist Brent Mydland had died and Jerry seemed to transfer some amount of energy over to the JGB.

I want to revisit all of these and see how my older assessments hold up, and I began over the last week with the February 2-4 shows. The key setlist interest here is the arrival into the Garcia Band repertoire of Dylan's "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)" and Dylan and Richard Manuel's "Tears Of Rage", both of which were added, I imagine, with the album in mind. The Señor from 4/15/90 did make it onto the release, while Tears of Rage would wait to be released until the version from that same date appeared on the posthumous How Sweet It Is record (Grateful Dead Records GDCD 4051, April 1997). The former stuck around for over four years --note that Jerry had also played it once at the Warfield with Dylan, way back in 1980-- while the latter lasted less than a year in the repertoire, much to my chagrin. Both find Jerry reaching way down into deep darkness, full of mournful pathos that well-suited his old man period. On their maiden voyages of this February weekend (Señor appeared all three nights, Tears the last two), they show their newness. Things aren't entirely pinned down in terms of Jerry's own or the backing vocals, he hasn't settled into the tunes yet, and so they sound a little uneven. But that is not to say they don't sound great - they do. Whoever picked these tunes for the Garcia Band --one presumes either Jerry or his musical director, bassist John Kahn-- picked well. 

Generally, the shows exhibit I haven't-played-live-in-a-month-itis, which is perfectly reasonable. Jerry headed out to Kona and took no fewer than 26 plunges with Jack's Dive Locker between January 6 and 29, 1990. January '88 found him tan and healthy in a Hawaiian shirt playing the "Blues For Salvador" benefit with Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and lots of others. January '89, again in post-scubal bliss, found him warming up the first night out (1/27/89) and then dropping a true masterpiece of a show on 1/28/89, though the Dead shows the next week were, well, pretty weak. 

None of these February 1990 Warfield shows reaches those peaks, though there are plenty of strong moments. The first two nights, especially, he flubs all kinds of lyrics, like throughout practically every tune. The first night is pretty short for a 90s Warfield show, though I note some nice peppy tempi and an "I Second That Emotion" that is worth a listen. The second night, I don't note much. The set II opener, "Harder They Come", is not present on any circulating tapes, though we can pretty well imagine what it must have sounded like. 2/4/90 is the best show of the run, to my ears, though it's still pretty uneven. I took real notice that he went up an octave to sing the last stanza of Señor, "this place don't make sense to me anymore", which gives it a really worried tone fit to put weaker listeners into the nervous hospital. I think it was like that all three times here, and I doubt it would ever be that way again.

All in all, I enjoyed listening to this three shows as a whole run. I think I will do more of that. Because even though things can get repetitive, it does provide something like a consistent baseline, allowing little things (like the pretty fun "Let's Spend The Night Together" to open set II on 2/3) to stand in sharper relief. I wouldn't tell you to grab these as a first choice from the year -- go ahead and get the record for that. But they do strike me as pretty straightforwardly representative of what the Jerry Band was up to as the 1990s got going.

Listening notes below the fold.

Blissfully Clarenceless on Market Street: JGB at the Warfield, December 1, 1989

LN jg1989-12-01.jgb.all.aud-bk4011.141459.flac1648

God, '89 was such a great year for the Jerry Band. I really need to find some more of the out-of-town shows to spin, though everytime I do I tend not to note much, because it's all just really consistently good.

This show, 12/1/89, is absolutely outstanding. I am glad that, contrary to what I thought I had seen, Clarence Clemons is not present. I am not a big fan of the Big Man. 

Instead, it's "just" JGB #21b, in the zone. So many tunes give rise to nuance, complex, creative, interesting variations on the usual, this really is worth your ear time. "Cats Under The Stars" offers varied tones, progressions and attacks out of the chute. It also doesn't go round and round too much at the end. Ol' Jer bends some pitch in "Stop That Train", which I don't recall really hearing (or at least noting) before. "That's What Love Will Make You Do" combines notes and sustains in uncommon ways. One of my all-time faves, "Reuben And Cherise", appears for the first time in two and a half years (5/30/87), and I am happy to hear it even if Jerry does lose track of who's who and what's what a little bit. Look, even Reuben gets a little twisted up here - Pirouette in white, Pirouette in red, what's the difference? Layering and stacking in "Forever Young". And "Let's Spend The Night Together" busts some hard core grunge, before most of us had heard of Nirvana, to announce the first big guitar turn, and then ol' Jer mixes up the timing of let's and spend later on to just bring some originality to the proceedings. He sounds clear and focused and into it.

All of that was just set I. Every tune expect RAC is a great version, and RAC was fresh off a three year hiatus, so it can be forgiven.

Set II, I will just say that "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" may be the quintessential Melvin-era Jerry Band tune. It's Dylan, it's churchy, the organ works perfectly, it has a reggae bounce and it lilts along lighter than air between heavy lyrics. The Grateful Dead's versions never held a candle to it, not one time, and don't @ me, bro.

The tape embodies what was happening at the Warfield in this period. According to my info, Tom Hughes held the mics (Brüel & Kjær [B&K] 4011s @ 110°), while Rick Katzeff and Marcus Buick worked the deck and ran interference around The Spot, a.k.a. the drink rail (2nd tier, 2nd row). Bu's taping journal has him on the mics and supplies classic color:

Deck's on, I'm bracing the mics under my nose. I scrupulously monitor my entire peripheral vision. All of a sudden, a bust is going down behind us, Tom is tapping me furiously, and Rick blocks himself on my right shoulder. Five minutes later Bill Graham brushed against our mic veil. The show continues. We met Oren [Oren David Green, Warfield security, nemesis to tapers] at the end of the night. I hope he had fun listening to the dummy blank! Score: us=2, O=2.

Indeed, we can hear a little encounter near the start of set II, someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?" Glad this tape made it out into the San Francisco night!

Anyway, highly highly highly recommend this show, this tape.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
December 1, 1989 (Friday)
Hughes-Buick-Katzeff B&K4011 flac1648 shnid-141459

--set I (7 tracks, 66:50)--
s1t01. [0:05] Cats Under The Stars [9:21] [1:27]
s1t02. Stop That Train [7:52] [1:41]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:34] [2:05]
s1t04. Reuben And Cérise [6:54] [0:34]
s1t05. Forever Young [10:41] [0:33]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:39] ->
s1t07. Let's Spend The Night Together [11:18] (2) [0:08]

--set II (7 tracks, 67:59)--
s2t01. ... Harder They Come [#8:59] [1:20]
s2t02. Mission In The Rain [9:44] [0:45]
s2t03. Waiting For A Miracle [5:58] [0:29]
s2t04. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [9:23] [1:33]
s2t05. Think [7:43] [1:12]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun [10:07] [0:04]
s2t07. Tangled Up In Blue [10:42] (3) [0:02]

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

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm: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 [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/19891201-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6348 (I believe the same master, but have not verified, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/94353 (Miller AKG C1000 MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/141459 (this fileset).

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

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! venue: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-25-1980-fox-warfield-theater.html

! personnel: JGC and old info files put Clarence Clemons on sax for this show, but I did not hear him. I do have a very active lame-sax-canceling filter, so have never actually heard a note CC played. That might explain things.

! R: field recordists: Tom Hughes (mics), Marcus Buick and Rick Katzeff (deck and protection)

! R: field recording gear: 2x Brüel & Kjær (B&K) 4011 @ 110° > Aerco > Panasonic SV-250

! R: field recording location: The Spot (2nd tier, 2nd row)

! R: lineage: master DAT > DAT clone > PC > WAV > FLAC (16/48).

! R: seeder notes: "Thanks to Bill Shaw for the DAT"

! P: s1t01 CUTS I love the tones and varied attacks Garcia offers late 4 over 5, nice progression to peak 5:35ff. And he ends it without going on too long, too many times, generally a good indicator for his level of focus.

! P: s1t02 STT pitch-bending, interesting. Great expression in the east/west verse. Right on, Jer.

! P: s1t03 TWLWMYD I am just loving the combinations he puts together this night. @5:35 Garcia gives the frets a good scrubbing.

! setlist: This represents the first Reuben and Cérise since 11/10/86.

! P: s1t04 RAC love this song so much, but he lost the thread of the narrative somewhere in there. Not my favorite version.

! P: s1t05 FY some nice layering and stacking in the 7-min range.

! P: s1t07 LSTNT I love how he announces the first big guitar turn at 2:20 or so by working up a little grunge. On an earlier listen I had written "There is some very grungy tone working here, but the execution feels a little loose in the cage to me as of 4. Overall, not bad." On this listen (4/4/2020), I didn't notice any problematic looseness. Late 5, interesting vocal syncopation, pausing a beat after "let's", putting some more emphasis on "spend". Nice action all through 7-min range, creative, expressive, engaged. On this listen, a very strong LSTNT.

! s1t07 (2) JG: "See y'all in a little while [inaudible]."

! R: s2t01 HTC enters in progress. Then, levels go down at 4, and one can hear someone asking "Hey, what you doin' there?"  Sounds like Warfield security has arrived at the drink rail.

! P: s2t03 KOHD if you don't love this, you need to re-assess your priorities. GLORIOUS. So much better than the GD versions.

! R: there is some wonkiness in the tagging and/or the order of the tunes in set II. It really goes HTC, MITR, WFAM, KOHD, Think, TLOS, TUIB.

! P: s2t07 TUIB don't love the sluggish tempo out of the gate.

! s2t07 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."

YouTube Audience Tape Preservation Channel

Someone mentioned this at LL, new to me, thought I'd bring it here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAojTlp99hCvEmKSJ71t4A

Taper Extraordinaire Sean Webber-Small

Spinning Sean Webber-Small's spaced omni recordings of the GD at Cal Expo on this date in 1990. I am not sure if I was there - I don't think so, but I can't really remember and I can't find my stubs to verify one way or the other.

But SWS generously shares some insights into what went into this pull, via a comment at the Archive fileset, and they are so valuable for the historical record that I wanted to reproduce them here. Thank you, Sean Webber-Small and all the tapers, including Marcus Buick and Tom Hughes, good ol' Campolindo buddies and members in good standing of the elite Bay Area taper community of the day, who are namechecked here.

This was the first year since the 1980's that there was no Greek and Frost shows, which was a bummer. Fortunately Uncle Bill booked the band into Cal Expo. It was not the Greek, but it was good. 

For me, these shows were stressful, but that was somewhat normal. I always felt the pressure of making the best recording at the show. It was not as much of an ego thing as much as it was that I believed I was capturing "the record" for the show. This was especially true when I knew that none of my Schoeps / Digital posse was going to be there. And that was the case for Cal Expo in 1990. 

The stress and planning for these shows started the day mail order was announced. I had just had knee surgery and knew I was going to be on crutches in June. Worse, I needed to plan for who was going to help as the show was general admission and I wanted to run spaced omi-directional capsules which would require managing a large territory. I would need a plan and of course help. While I might have owned the gear, positioned the mics and hit play/record, good recordings were a 100% team effort. And I needed a team!

For me, the key to making a good recording always seems to come down down to a few key things:

1. Having the right gear for the application. 
2. Placing the microphones in the right spot to get the best balanced sound in the venue. 
3. Controlling the people around the microphones so that talking and extraneous noise is not heard or only minimally heard on the recording. 

From my knowledge of the venue, basically an open field, Schoeps MK2s spaced omni-directional capsules were my first choice. I would be using them with my Doug Oade built microphone power supply and a relatively new recording device: a DAT. Sometime in 1989 the PCM crew made the jump to using DATs. At these gig's I was using the Panasonic SV250. 

Location, location, location.... From my show experience and listening pleasure, I always wanted to be as close to the Front of House console as possible. If you think about it, the band's audio engineer, Dan Healy, is mixing first and foremost for himself. Is he making it sound good in the entire venue, sure. But the nature of mixing a room has it that the sound is naturally best where the engineer is standing. My goal: get in front of, but as close to Dan as possible without making it too easy for security to come in and get us. As a reminder, although taping in 1990 was allowed, it was only allowed BEHIND the front of house console. Recording in front of the console was a big No No and as such, put us at risk of being thrown out every time we recorded there. Risky business every show for me.

For spaced omni's I would need two areas (blankets), one for each mic between 8' and 12 ' apart - with each mic being equidistant from the stage. Today I would do this with a laser measure, but in 1990, not an option. So I had to triangulate using the front of house console and the side grandstands. More "feel" than exact science. 

To pull this off I would need 4 to 6 people around each microphone and stand and two to three blankets. That's roughly ten people and two mic stands to coordinate and manage.

The bad news was that I was on crutches - which, was also the good news as I was able to enter the venue early with the blankets, the gear and a helper. We laid out our spot and waited untill friends and people sympathetic to our recording arrived. 

As I was always trying to figure out how to make a better recording, I decided to try and move the microphones from closer to 8' on the 8th, 10' on the 9th and 12' on the 10th. I know the notes on this say the mics were spread at 8', but I just checked my notes and this night we were closer to 9.5'. 

While I hate to leave people out that helped at the show, and there were many - I need to special thanks a couple of peeps. First and foremost, my helper extraordinaire Cindy R. Calling her a helper is not quite right. These days I would call her a co-producer or associate producer. She helped in the planning, standing in line, getting friends over to help stand near the mics and telling them all to be quiet. I should probably mentioned she also put up with my crazy "taper" idiosyncrasies - and I had many. Thanks Cindy R! I also remember our friend Marc T. was also there. He was there with B&K 4011's in the middle of our spaced omni's. Also there an of huge help was Marcus B. and Tom - my old roomies! Thanks Dudes.

The recordings for all three nights turned out pretty fine. I would say some of our finest. So fine in fact, a friend of shared them with his pal who was tight with Dan Healy. The next thing I know he had digital soundboards of all three nights! Of course the SB's became the "goto" recordings for the shows for a while. But upon further review from the officials in the booth, these recordings get me closer to what it was like being there on those warm summer nights in 1990.

On the 9th, I can still remember Garcia rocking back and forth during lovelight looking offstage at someone, playing his heart out with an energy that filled us all up.

It was good.

RIP to the Legendary Marty

Martin Weinberg has passed away. LIA gives a rundown on the ur-Deadhead taper.

Grass Valley Grateful Dead

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-09-18.138828.FOB.NAK700.DSD.billydee.Sellers.Noel.t-flac24

Why? Don't ask why, just listen (if you care to).

Patched out of Yamaguchi/Poris and a set of modded Nak 700s. Someone speculates in notes whether a 3rd mic is operating, because Phil. And, yes, Straw ambling out, and - Phil. And, drums.

Here are the notes, some classic stuff in here:

- tapes pauses/flips touched up
- Phil - the low end on this capture makes me wonder if a 3rd mic was employed
- A sheep was in attendance. (with black leather chrome spiked suspenders??)
- Bob, Brent & the Rhythm Devils jam it out after Terrapin.
- How do you like your TOO?? Shaken or stirred??
- The Joint… round & round. After all we are in Grass Valley.

Happy random listening to whatever you might randomly listen to this day.

edit

Sweet Lord, this Jack Straw -- Mamma mia-- burning off both of my ears!

The Quick at San Quentin

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/LSD-king-Owsley-Stanley-s-Sonic-Journals-11209700.php

And Bear was there taping. I assumed immediately this was 2/15/68, partly, I am sure, in hope that this means that the Quick sets from the Pacific Northwest Tour were taped. Hamina hamina. That said, I don't see any reference to Quick guys in the various reports of this gig.


! deadlists: http://deadlists.com/deadlists/showresults.asp?KEY=2/15/68
! ref: URL hannan, Ross. 2009. The Grateful Dead San Quentin Performances: A Theory. Lost Live Dead, December 4, 2009, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/12/grateful-dead-san-quentin-performances.html, consulted 8/5/2012;
! expost: UPI 1968 ("Hippies Support Quentin Paper");
! expost: Torgerson 1968;
! ref: Abbot 2007;
! Corry: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/12/grateful-dead-san-quentin-performances.html?showComment=1259944365140#c6637997183837294175;
! ref: Dister 2007, 150-151.

update: looks like Ross has confirmed Quick guys 2/15/68. Do we imagine Bear would have labeled his tape as QMS?

What about this 4/11/67 listing (not in Deadlists)? Any chance that a) QMS guys were there and b) Bear was taping?

In the alternative, what about the "3/7/68" thing, also putatively a San Quentin date, per Deadlists. Any chance a) this happened (w/ QMS), and b) Bear taped?

Let me step out of my Garciacentrism for a second, actually: I am only looking for QMS at San Quentin that crosses Jerry or the GD. Is there any other known QMS there? I see nothing at Bruno's list.

Anyway, man, 1,300 reels of stuff. Wow.

Neumann KM 54

http://recordinghacks.com/microphones/Neumann/KM-54

A Rehearsed Post-Brent Garcia Band: Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, November 15, 1990

LN jg1990-11-15.jgb.all.sbd-patched-miller.135953.flac1644

An all-time version of "The Way You Do The Things You Do", a top-shelf latter-day "Reuben And Cherise", and a tape with a story to tell - what's not to love?

Jerry Garcia Band
Wiltern Theatre
3790 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010
November 15, 1990 (Thursday) - 8 PM
sbd-patched-miller shnid-135953

--set I (8 tracks, 60:13)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [5:54]
s1t02. Stop That Train
s1t03. Let It Rock
s1t04. The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down
s1t05. Someday Baby
s1t06. Run For The Roses
s1t07. Sisters And Brothers
s1t08. Deal

--set II (7 tracks, 62:55)--
s2t01. The Way You Do The Things You Do [11:02] [1:00]
s2t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [9:40] [0:24]
s2t03. And It Stoned Me
s2t04. Reuben And Cherise [7:46] [0:09] %
s2t05. Evangeline
s2t06. That Lucky Ol' Sun
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight

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

JGMF:

! R: 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/19901115-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/23228 (sbd shnf deprecated); shnid-23774 (DeTally MAC); shnid-135953 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/6c14vkBJBMT2

! venue: http://www.rockandrollroadmap.com/los-angeles-area-venues/the-wiltern/view-details.html;

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/wiltern-theatre-3790-wilshire-boulevard.html.

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

! historical: I have wrongly neglected post-Brent 1990 JGB, despite having big love for 12/22/90's burning "Let's Spend The Night Together". 11/15/90 is gig four of five at the Wiltern in a six-day span. This whole run would probably reward study, just to see how LA differed (and didn't), but there is no time. I find all-time interesting version of TWYDTTYD here, which is quite a claim. Note the 2x 60-minute set structure. Very nice pacing, content. Folks got their money's worth (contrast: "Bullshit! Bullshit! 5/31/85). Nice to see enterprising Deadheads patching out of speakers --generously run by Bill Graham out to hallways to allow people room to dance with nice fresh sound-- running tape in the bathroom. Some good sound on this!

! R: SBD -> ? -> Cassette; Sony TC-K677ES -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/48k) -> Samplitude Professional v11.2.1 -> FLAC/16 (2 Discs Audio / 1 DVD FLAC). All Transfers and mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, June 13, 2016.

! R: Patch Info: John Detally's TOA DM1200d -> FLAC (shnid-23774) supplies: How Sweet It Is (complete track), Stop That Train, Deal (5:05 - 7:24), That Lucky Ol' Sun (complete track), Midnight Moonlight (complete track).

! R: seeder note: Thanks to John Almirall for supplying that tape

! R: seeder note: This was made in the bathroom patched out of the speakers

! R: seeder note: This may not be perfect but I think it's still an upgrade

! P: overall, this show has a lot to recommend it. The second set contains, as it struck me in the moment, an all-time version of TWYDTTYD and a top latter-day version of Reuben And Cérise.

! P: s1t08 Deal: I FFd from after HSII to see how he does Deal. Interesting to hear from a sbd perspective.

! P: s2t01 TWYDTTYD this is really great, very far "out there" for this song throughout 7, over 8, very good. All through 8 Kemper is earning his keep, hammering out the floor like pounding out brass. Garcia picks up his pace 9:10 and Kemper is with him. This has to be one of the spaciest versions of this often-played song - check timings.

! song "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (s2t02): The rare tune Garcia could do simultaneously with GD and JGB. I don't think I being too partial in saying that the JGB versions stand far superior to the Dead ones, because the organ and the female harmonies and the reggae arrangement all make it beautiful. The Dead version is all angles and elbows, in comparison, IMO, YMMV. This is the last JGB version until 11/12/91. 7:38 Melvin is leaning his ample self down to blast the B3, when Garcia turns to another verse (managing to get to "the sun is setting in western skies", which wasn't always the case). Melvin is light on his feet for a big fella, and rears it back like a horse, letting the vocal go first. Nice. I also like how he pulls it to a close at 9:30, makes it compact.

! P: s2t04 RAC Garcia is right on it vocally - this sounds nicely rehearsed. I think the tempos feel a little squirrely, but he's got the words. He flubbede some lyrics as far as the general public might hear it, but it's pretty remarkable that he gets the whole long narrative in order. http://www.whitegum.com/~acsa/songfile/REUBEN.HTM. Powerful chording, tight ending. Bravo! This is one of my favorite latter-day versions of RAC.

! P: s2t05 Evangeline: I usually dislike this song, but this version is good. Garcia does a lot of great country jukebox descents, very telecasterish.

Da Weez

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-04-23.117598.Sennheiser421.daweez.d5scott.flac16

! db: shnid-117598
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 microphones > Sony TC-D5M
! R: field recordist: Da Weez
! R: transfer: Sony TC-D5M (original record deck) > Pre Sonus Inspire GT > Sound Forge > .wav files > Trader's Little Helper > flac files, by D5scott.

I have no idea who these gentlemen are, but taper Da Weez never made a bad tape, and the good taste in gear suggested by D5scott's name is exceeded only by the straightforward beauty of his transfers of Da Weez's masters. They all come tagged "R.I.P. Sandy - aka 'Bigfoot'", which adds a sad human note to these revelatory sonic documents.

People sometimes imply that there are no more histories to write of the Grateful Dead and affiliated phenomena, but I totally disagree (beyond my own interest in asserting the contrary). There are tapers' histories to write for example, from socio-, Cleo-, musico-, and psychoacousticotechnicoothero-metric lenses. Just think of Flashback Charlie, that even hard-edged Brooklynite Jerry Moore might have recommended for a little meditation outside the Bottom Line, or finding a backdoor broom--closet way into the Academy of Music, just down the street from the Hells Angels' clubhouse in rough mid-70s NYC, or besuited east coaster Barry Glassberg. In the Bay Area, technical genius Jaime Poris, was were joined by James Olness (later a Bill Graham archivist and printer) in the 80s, joined later by Bu and the DAT Brats (working The Rail at the Warfield), then Chuck and Janet Vasseur with the four-digit, vintage Neumanns, a pierrine digital setup and upfront acumen. There's a book right there.

I just wanted to take a minute to give a thought to all involved. Da Weez went to the show and taped, not a cheap or trivial proposition. Sounds like Sandy (RIP) was around. At the very least, D5scott has taken the time, lending gear and skill to transfer the tapes. Tom Anderson's db.etree and Brewster Kahle's archive.org, helped along by casts of countless volunteers, help us fingerprint the fileset and hear it at any time from wherever you are. Deadlists keeps a canonical reference from The List of ca. early 2000s. The ArcHIVE, consisting of thousands of decentralized copies held by fans and collectors everywhere, relentlessly propagates itself, inter alia through "eternal flame reseeds at the torrent site Lossless Legs (shnflac.net). And, literally, on and on It goes: the parameter I'd use to state Its temporal limit asymptotically approaches the limit of humanity itself.

In other news, "Alabama Getaway" sprints out all flared nostrils and deep, grungy guitar from the first break, coked-out and scatterbrained. There's an "Funniculi Finnicula" tease before "Candyman", and Jerry sounds frisky.

GD Fillmore West April 9, 1970

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-04-09.137104.aud.cousinit.flac16/gd1970-04-09-d2t03.flac

What a hottie this Good Lovin' jam is!

These shows are only represented in imperfect audience tapes, but they are crucial documents from a period relatively underrepresented on soundboard tape. 7/12/70 at the Fillmore East is another one of these shows that has gotten too little attention because of soundboard snobbery. For this period, which rages, audience tapes are mostly all we have.

! R: Seeder cousinit provides these notes: "I believe this is a different AUD version compared to [Harry] Ely's master. An example is how Katie Mae differs (to me) in the way the guitar is captured. In the Ely version the guitar can barely be heard. This version has the guitar much more prominent."

! P: seeder notes: The Other One is a absolute monster ..."

This whole show just sizzles, and in all kinds of different ways. Pigpen shines, fronting one of the world's great electric backing band on "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's, Man's, Man's World," and feeling his solo acoustic country blues with "Katie Mae", who walks around "like she got oil wells in her back yard."

"Cowboy Song" is a true oddity. No-one seems entirely sure that it's David Bromberg, and perhaps feel it's not him at all? I wonder if this could have been not the folkie but that gentleman of the same name who wrote Guitar Player's Garcia feature in 1971? Often these music journalists did some picking (see the GPI Guitar Jam in whatever year that was). It might just be spurious, someone's wild guess.

Looking forward to hearing this Other One.

nothing wrong with this 8/21/83 tape

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-08-21.fob.sonyECM220t.kirschner.miller.95687.flac24

Source (FOB) Sony ECM-220T -> Cassette Master (Sony TC-D5M/FujiMetal Tape/Dolby B)
Lineage Cassette Master (Nakamichi DR-1/Dolby B) -> Sound Devices 744T (24bit/96k) -> Samplitude Professional v10.1 -> FLAC/24
Taped by Michael Kirschner
Transferred by Charlie Miller

There is not a freaking thing wrong with this tape. If you ever saw a show at the Frost, you know the sound and feel of it. It's the sam mics Rango used in October '82, I see.

Band is hot as shit and sloppy as hell. Two thumbs up for an August day.

RIP, Harvey Lubar

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pressdemocrat/obituary.aspx?n=harvey-sheldon-lubar&pid=180700019

Harvey Lubar was a true Mensch. Farewell.

Rango at the Greek 5/14/83

What a great pull.

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-05-14.fob.sonyecm220t.keshavan.miller.94396.sbeok.flac16

LIA's Call

"Call for Missing Tapes", mostly the old stuff that LIA does so well:
http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-call-for-missing-tapes.html

Let me just add that if you have any Jerry tapes that aren't in circulating, our operators stand ready to aid in the archiving process. If you have any questions about what circulates and not, you can check out, among other things, http://db.etree.org/shnlist.php?artist=12.

Jerry and Sandy's Adventure, May 1964

http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2015/10/jerry-and-sandys-adventure-may-1964.html

I don't do pre-Dead stuff, but this of course interests me because, as a member of the JGAB, Sandy Rothman interests me.

Great archaeological work by JGBP, and thanks to Sandy for sharing his recollections for public consumption!

Englishtown: Get the Aud!

https://archive.org/details/gd1977-09-03.aud.102409.flemming.berger.flac24

You want to hear the energy of Englishtown? Get the aud.

A Motley Crew Down at the Nunnery (LN jg1984-08-11.jgb.all.aud-weez.111743.flac1644)

Ticket stub for JGB 8/11/84 show at Caldwell College, contributed by Ed.

Photo of JGB 8/11/84 at Caldwell College, courtesy of Jck007.

What a weird show. Reviewer Bill Breen (1984) sets the stage.

The August 11 Robert Hunter/ Jerry Garcia Band gig at Caldwell College, New Jersey had to be one of their stranger forays. ... Their venue was a Catholic girls' school, complete with neo-Gothic towers and Celtic crucifixes. ... The stage was built at the bottom of a grassy hillock ringed by two hundred foot balsams, which formed a natural ampitheater. The crucifix topped towers peering through the trees lent a medieval look.

He notes the incongruity of Garcia and his fans in these pious surroundings. A TJS informant writes that there were "nuns patrolling the parking lot", while TJS contributor Mike Vand also notes heavy security without specifying whether it was the good sisters.

I'd say this is an average show for the period. It has the grungy, filthy, feedbacky August 1984 Garcia guitar playing that I really like, right in your ears on this FOB tape.

I *love* that Garcia had brough Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman" (Allan | deaddisc | Jerrybase) into his repertoire. Now, not everyone loves Jerry Garcia, and fewer still love the Jerry Garcia Band. Since it's less exploratory than the Grateful Dead, it loses everyone who needs the collective improvisation at work in that band. That's fine. But let's recognize the American musical vein Garcia is tapping here, with legit Bay Area R&B, soul, church musicians. JGB introduced it on 7/28/84 at the Keystone Palo Alto, prepped it one more time locally, and then took it on the road, playing it every night but one on the August 7-18, 1984 tour. The song's introduction doesn't fit within a "Rock Bottom" narrative. I maintain pretty consistently that fresh material is a pretty unalloyed good, at least as a proxy. Variance in the repertoire means he's at least thinking about things, engaged. And when he picks a number as cool as this, with his Bay Area players flavoring the really tight mix, It Is Good, and true to his self conception as a local kid running around multihued San Francisco, a Mission Street R&B guy. Nice.

One further note on GOOMLW: The song's ebb and flow in the repertoire is generally interesting. Some tunes come in and never leave. Some tunes come in and leave right away. Some tunes he played mainly with one group of players, and others he kept picking up through the many iterations of the JGB or many different periods. This one was ebbed and flowed a bunch, with lots of six month or even year long gaps between performances. That's not that common in the JGB repertoire.

"Like A Road Leading Home" (Allan | Scofield | Jerrybase) is a song I have discussed in connection with its earliest appearance, on 1/24/73, where I conjecture that it's a song Jerry really liked, qua song. And who can blame him? It's a good one. And I'll make a post sometime connecting this performance with another one from early 1989, so I won't say much more here, except that this version is too short and not quite together.

Now, what about this 35 minute second set? Very suspect.

In the Rock Bottom series I have pondered some endogenously short sets, including 5/31/85 and 6/3/85, and some that were at least partly exogenously foreshortened (3/2/85, late band members). (I won't consider here shows that were fully exogenously truncated, as by the power outage at the Boston Orpheum on 11/13/81.) Though Jerry sounds better here than on 3/2/85, I think he didn't have to play so short on this night. Breen (1984) notes that with a crowd "10,000 strong, it was a pretty motley crew down at the nunnery". I am surprised the crowd was that big, but anyway. During the sixth ever JGB version of Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman" (Allan | deaddisc | Jerrybase), "a local aborigine, madly gyrating, crashed through the drumset." He was booed, security gave him the heave-ho, they were booed. Breen recalls that, "drumless, Garcia soloed right on through, never dropping a note. Afterward, the band huddled briefly, considering their next move." Things never quite go drumless, to my ears, but one can definitely hear the action @ 4:45 of s2t02. As he so often does, Garcia responds to this sort of thing with some burning, molten guitar playing - check it out.

Attendee Mike Vand remembers our gyrating freak:

Halfway through the second set some crazed individual got on the stage, leaping on it from behind the band, and knocked over part of the drum kit. The band finished the song and left the stage. That explains the short set and no encore. Don't know what happened to the guy. He jumped into the area between the stage and a security fence which I think was full of cops.

Vand seems to suggest that the stage crasher truncated the show, but clearly Jerry comes out and plays a couple more songs. He might have left the stage for awhile - this tape isn't clear because it splices. The David Dyche tape (shnid-120062) has a little more after GOOMLW, and it does sound like someone near him is urging the band to stick around or something. I can't quite tell.

Long story long, this was a disruptive event. I don't necessarily blame Garcia for not putting out more -- I wonder what the temp was on this day, and it's never fun having someone invade your space when you're trying to work-- but the fact is, after it happened he played a tender but short "Like A Road" and then galloped Peter Rowan's "Midnight Moonlight" back to the barn. Not sure the other 9,999 assembled nuns, goons and trippers deserved the short change, but there you have it.

So, I like the narrative tensions around this show. Incongruous context, and Garcia showing the era's spark and limitations. Oh yeah, one other thing: check out the east coast tapers representing: seven separate master tapes of this circulate in the lossless realm! Speaking of motley crews ... :)

Jerry Garcia Band
Caldwell College
120 Bloomfield Avenue
Caldwell, NJ 07006
August 11, 1984 (Saturday) - 7 PM
Da Weez flac1644 shnid-111743

--set I (6 tracks, 61:21)--
s1t01. [0:06] Cats Under The Stars [9:28] [0:54] %
s1t02. /They Love Each Other [8:06] [0:12]
s1t03. Simple Twist Of Fate ->
s1t04. Run For The Roses
s1t05. Dear // Prudence
s1t06. Rhapsody In Red [12:42] (1) [0:16]

--set II (4 tracks, 35:34)--
s2t01. [0:07]  Mission In The Rain [11:22] [0:06] %
s2t02. Get Out Of My Life, Woman [8:33] [0:07] % [0:03]
s2t03. Like A Road Leading Home [7:02] ->
s2t04. Midnight Moonlight [7:49] [0:12] % dead air [0:07]

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

JGMF:

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

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840811-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/4411 (Steve Ziemba shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/9504 (Jeff Silberman shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/21718 (Bill Reutelhuber shnf); http://etreedb.org/shn/78159 (Jim Vita flac1644); http://etreedb.org/shn/91396 (Joe D'Amico flac1644);  http://etreedb.org/shn/120062 (David Dyche flac); http://etreedb.org/shn/111743 (Da Weez flac, this fileset).

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/caldwell-college-120-bloomfield-ave.html

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

! review: Breen, Bill. 1984. Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter: Caldwell College, New Jersey. Relix 11, 5 (October): 28-29.

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

! historical: Reviewer Bill Breen (1984) paints a nice picture: "The August 11 Robert Hunter/ Jerry Garcia Band gig at Caldwell College, New Jersey had to be one of their stranger forays. ... Their venue was a Catholic girls' school, complete with neo-Gothic towers and Celtic crucifixes. ... The stage was built at the bottom of a grassy hillock ringed by two hundred foot balsams, which formed a natural ampitheater. The crucific topped towers peering through the trees lent a medieval look." He notes the incongruity. A TJS informant writes that there were "nuns patrolling the parking lot", while TJS contributor Mike Vand also notes heavy security without specifying that it was the good sisters. The other thing to note is the 35 minute second set. In the Rock Bottom series I have pondered short sets (3/2/85, 5/31/85, 6/1/85, 6/3/85). I have also occasionally bumped into exogenously truncated sets, as when a nearby fire cut short a show at the Boston Orpheum Theatre xxx on 11/15/81. I think this is a little bit of both. "At 10,000 strong, it was a pretty motley crew down at the nunnery" (Breen 1984), and during the sixth ever JGB version of Allen Toussaint's "a local aborigine, madly gyrating, crashed through the drumset." He was booed, security gave him the heave-ho, they were booed. Breen recalls that, "drumless, Garcia soloed right on through, never dropping a note. Afterward, the band huddled briefly, considering their next move." Attendee Mike Vand remembers our gyrating freak: "Halfway through the second set some crazed individual got on the stage, leaping on it from behind the band, and knocked over part of the drum kit. The band finished the song and left the stage. That explains the short set and no encore. Don't know what happened to the guy. He jumped into the area between the stage and a security fence which I think was full of cops." Vand seems to suggest that the stage crasher truncated the show, but cclearly Jerry comes out and plays a couple more songs. He might have left the stage for awhile - this tape isn't clear because it splices. The David Dyche tape (shnid-120062) has a little more after GOOMLW, and it does sound like someone hear him is urging the band to stick around or something. I can't quite tell. Long story long, this was a disruptive event. But Jerry could have chosen to come out and play more than two songs even after the incident. I don't blame him for not putting out more -- I wonder what the temp was on this day, and it's never fun having someone invade your space when you're trying to work-- but the fact is, after it happened he played a tender Like A Road (I have a post to make about freaky stage crashers and that particular song) and then galloped Peter Rowan's "Midnight Moonlight" back to the barn.

! R: field recordist: The Weasel ("Da Weez");

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sennheiser 421 microphones > Sony TC-D5M;

! R: field recording media: unknown cassette stock;

! R: field recording location: close to the stage;

! R: transfer: Sony TC-D5M (original record deck) > Pre Sonus Inspire GT > Sound Forge > .wav files > Trader's Little Helper > flac files, by D5scott. Seeded to Dime.

! R: seeder note: "R.I.P. Sandy. aka 'Bigfoot'"

! R: s1t01 guitar is right in your face, and vocals are way back. So we are hearing the stage. (Looks at notes, and sees recording location of "close to stage". Indeed!)

! R: s1t02 TLEO clips in. God, this recording captures Garcia's guitar so beautifully! He is playing really well, e.g., in the 5-6 range.

! P: s1t02 Melvin sounds great to start TLEO, really forward on the recording. Garcia's voice ragged, what did you expect? His inflection is good, his singing is very intentional, very present. @ 2:50, Melvin hits a real loud thing, the crowd reacts and Melvin has stepped in front of *Garcia* for a lead turn. Yeah, man! That announcement of his intention is very cool. Now, however, Jerry is comping behind him 3:20s and Melvin doesn't have anything to say. Does a little thing 3:45ff, but not loud enough! Now a little louder over 4, but I expect that Jerry's done enough comping. Indeed, he bends out 4:11, his first turn is interesting, sounds ilke an early GD tune, not a great solo, but a little weird. The band is on the '1' though, so he can get back to TLEO, set his feet and go again, as he is late 4 over 5.

! P: s1t03 man, now Jerry's vocals sound very clear, and again he is singing with care. He muffs the first part of the second of verse. He is singing so beautifully here. In the 2 min mark he takes a nice solo, gets fsome real echo and feedback on it 2:29, high up 2:39. John going to take a lead turn 6:40ff, since Garcia is so forward in the mix you hear him comping more than John's fluttery lead. By 8:30 Jerry is signaling his intentions, and 8:40 ish he steps forward. John's thing wasn't terrible, but it did nothing for me.  STOF giving it his all vocally. Next run through early 3 is very grungy. This tape captures the guitar, the feeling of his electric guitar playing on this night. The band is *on*. Screaming 4:15, after the "I sing the blues, where has it led?" line. Band is super tight.

! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thank you. We're gonna take a break for a few minutes. We'll be back a little later."

! P: s2t01 MITR hard to say if this is a P or an R artifact. Let me explain. At 6:40 it is Mevin's turn to play some lead. He signals it, Garcia steps back, comps, creating the space for Melvin. Melvin is playing the sorts of notes that would be indicative of "leading", but he's not very audible. So, is it that he's not really putting his belly into it because he's a little tentative? Or is it just that we are right in front of Jerry, listening to his stage monitors, and Melvin's not high in this particular mix? It'd be cool to check against some of the other tapes (most of which were seeded in shn and need a shn2flac treatment), because the implications are totally different. The first is that Melvin's not stepping up. The second is that he might be, and though we can't hear it very loudly, we are listening from a Jerry-centric vantage. Back to a P note: Around 7:50 JG playing beautifully, laying down some complete chords for Melvin to run around. Jerry teardrop run 8:20ff gets a yell from the audience, nearly one from me. They almost lose each other over 9, but Kemper lays out a nice tight net and they come back together. Jerry is singing with real heart this night.

! P: s2t02 Jerry started in the wrong key (I had been blaming John), but Jerry switches and then it's all good. He takes two instrumental turns to reall set the groove he wants with this song. Around 4:45 there's some PA funkiness, Jerry turned himself up, but there was some popping and electronic zing. I wonder if this is where the guy came on stage? Crowd is hootin' and hollerin', but the drums never stop. Garcia's pouring out molten electricity, shredding all through the 5 minute mark, turning up again 5:48, now it's really loud. Definitely some PA funkiness here as well, though. It's all good. The crowd feels it, and this is top shelf JGB listening. Hear the note 6:24. Drop it right back to the song 6:40ish. The arrangement is a little squirrely 7:35ish, they'll tigthen that up - this is only 6th time played.

! song: "Get out Of My Life, Woman" (s2t02): (Allan | deaddisc | Jerrybase): Listen, not everyone loves Jerry Garcia, and fewer love the Jerry Garcia Band. Since it's less exploratory than the Grateful Dead, it loses everyone who needs the collective improvisation at work in that band. That's fine. But let's recognize the American musical vein Garcia is tapping here, with legit Bay Area R&B, soul, black church musicians. JGB introduced it on 7/28/84 at the Keystone Palo Alto, prepped it one more time locally, and then took it on the road, playing all but one night on the August 7-18, 1984 tour. The introduction of this song provides a useful counterpoint to the "Rock Bottom" narrative. I maintain pretty consistently that fresh material is a pretty unalloyed good, at least as a proxy. Variance in the repertoire means he's at least thinking about things. And when he picks a number as cool as this, with his Bay Area players flavoring the really tight mix, It Is Good, and true to his self conception as a local kid running around multihued San Francisco, a Mission Street R&B guy. Nice. The song's ebb and flow in the repertoire is generally interesting. Some tunes come in and never leave. Some tunes come in and leave right away. Some tunes he played mainly with one group of players, and others he kept picking up through the many iterations of the JGB or many different periods. This one was ebbed and flowed a bunch, with lots of six month or even year long gaps between performances. That's not that common in the JGB repertoire.

! P: s2t03 LARLH giving it his all, "the pain is too much / for you to bear / turn around / turn around / turn around / and I'll be there / like a road leading home". Nice. Long vocal extensions 1:27, nice guitar counterpoint 1:29. I am a little worried that they're moving too fast with it, but we'll see where it goes! Man, this first big guitar work late 3 is quite nice. Jerry is playing this very nicely, yet I don't find this version entirely satisfiying. The arrangement is not totally together, and Jerry doesn't stretch it out enough. He wants to get out of Dodge, mountin' good ol' Midnight Moonlight for the home stretch.

! P: s2t04 MM over 4 Jerry's truncating his chords, which he didn't always do on this number. Melvin leads a turn 4 min mark while Jerry chords.

! s2t04 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot, we'll see you later."

"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).