Rockygrass 2016

http://www.afterfm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/rocky.grass

From the Picky Deadhead Department

Nice to see people reading around some old posts. My writing is so tortured, but I do still love some of the ground we have covered together. Thanks for your support.


From the Picky Deadhead Department

I happily bought 7/5/73 (Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, GarciaLive 6: July 5th 1973, Lion's Share [Round Records, JGFRR1009, 2016]), knowing more or less exactly what I was getting. I love the aesthetics, I will give the much-appreciated liner notes a good, close read, and the music is well-chosen and sounds nice.

Two complaints.

First, the CDs fit too snugly on the plastic center rings - 2 of 3 cracked when I lifted out the discs. Yes, I am hard on things, but they're too tight.

Second, more delicate, but said with love and admiration for the social compact that has always bound the Dead and its fans, and in the hope that the Garcias might honor it, too. Here's a little "open letter" for your consideration.

Thanks for the music, Round Records. Now, let's talk about your promise that "every effort was made to prepare this performance for release in a manner that honors the spirit of its creation."

GarciaLive 6 is lovely in many ways, but let's recognize that you have repackaged and sold to your customers what we already had - copies of Rob Eaton's 1996 DAT transcriptions of Betty's master reels. Yet, as the Dead have shown with the smash hit July 1978 box set, arrangements truer to the spirit of things were available, and we might have heard fresh transcriptions from those beautiful master reels.

Please consider, in the future, that your fans support you carrying forward Jerry's musical legacy - which, let's face it, is really the heart of the matter. I will buy the musical product that you put on sale, conditional only on not being ripped off.

I don't think Round has crossed the line -- this isn't Steal Your Face, after all, heh heh --  but it's actually pretty close. When Fantasy resold me the same July 10-11, 1973 Keystone material for the fourth time -- vinyl, cassette, CDs, CD boxset -- I confess to having felt a little burned, a case where the Saunders folks advertised wrinkles as creases [Barlow]. I have only myself to blame, I guess I knew, but it was still pretty unfortunate.

I know you aren't getting rich on any of this. I am happy to pay a fair price for a fair product. If that means I pay a little more because the miraculous market demands a little price for those original reels, from my perspective, so be it. I am no audiophile, but I appreciate the beautiful sound of beautiful music, well -recorded and optimally-preserved and -presented.


Thanks, overall, for good product. Again, I love the look, feel, sound, substantiveness of the Round Records releases. I remain a loyal customer. Let's take it to the next level of openness and respect. Use the jazz model for dating - I want every information on every fragment. Don't use a picture of 11/26/77 in a release of 3/22/78 without making a note of it. Tell us about the tape diameter (e.g., 10"), stock (e.g., Scotch ?207?), the speed at which it was recorded (e.g., 15 ips), the record deck (e.g., Betty's Nagra, serial number SL11183), etc. Include it all, make it correct, please & thank you.

Looking forward to 11/8/76, and to more to come.

Sincerely Yours,

JGMF

UCSB '78

Corry has a post on the GD / Warren Zevon / Elvin Bishop / Wahkoo gig at UCSB on July 4, 1978.

I have two followups, a tape beg and a tangential piece of metadata.

First, does anyone have a copy of the Elvin Bishop set, with Jerry sitting in? Apparently there is an aud tape of it.

Second, at http://www.dead.net/show/june-4-1978 commenter jacksondownunder writes

I caught the soundcheck the day before [i.e., 6/3/78]. As I wandered up to the side gate the band was jamming a long instrumental "Dancin'" riff. They eventually stopped and Bobby & Jerry started playing the melody of an old Harry Belafonte song called "Yellow Bird" on twin slide guitars. (I recognized the tune, having heard it on my parent's records hundreds of times.) Then the band started jamming a riff that at the time I presumed was an instrumental vamp of Feat's "Dixie Chicken" (plausible), which is listed above as Iko (possible), but as it followed another Harry Belafonte song it coulda been "Women Smarter" (probable). The half dozen of us kindred strangers made the mistake of applauding and were chased off.

The writer thinks "Women Smarter" more likely, but I am going to go with Iko Iko, which had entered the Dead's rotation in 1977. That's speculative, caveat emptor.


I don't recall that info being in Deadlists, or if that entered the Deadbase 50 updates, but it should be a bit more firmly on the record than I recall it being.

A list of known soundchecks would be fun to see.

Desolation Row

Man, at like 9:30 of this incredible, late-Mydland era Dead version of Dylan's "Desolation Row"(track 4) Garcia thrusts into a scuba-evoking scream of

Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow

harmonizing behind Weir, who delivers a BOAT-contending version. Outstanding!
Thanks to Joani Walker, Paul Scotton, Charlie Miller for the tunes.

! song: "Desolation Row" http://www.whitegum.com/~acsa/songfile/DESOLATI.HTM

GarciaLive 7: JGB from Sophie's, 11/8/76

Fresh tape.

Tracklist, via Nick: http://www.jambase.com/article/donna-jean-godchaux-find-leads-garcialive-volume-seven
Sneak preview of one track via David Browne: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-jerry-garcia-bands-jubliant-live-mighty-high-from-1976-w431440.

At dead.net. a commenter says

In today's Relix magazine they interview Donna Jean who found some more tapes in a box in one of the Godchaux houses. It's a Betty board. This is November 8th 1976 at Sophie's in Palo Alto. Band was Jerry, Keith & Donna, John Kahn and Ron Tutt. Comes out August 19th. Not seeing it on www.jerrygarcia.com or amazon as advertised. Songs include 'Ride Mighty High' and 'Mission In The Rain'

http://www.dead.net/store/1970s/daves-picks-volume-19#comment-851376

Very cool - looking forward to it.

Full concerts from the Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 1973-87

RIP, Harvey Lubar

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

Harvey Lubar was a true Mensch. Farewell.

San Francisco Sessions, 1971

I have been processing information from contracts filed at the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local No. 6 in San Francisco.

• San Francisco Sessions, 1967-1968
• San Francisco Sessions, 1969
• San Francisco Sessions, 1970
• San Francisco Sessions, 1971
• San Francisco Sessions, 1972

There is nothing representative about these – I have information on stuff that is a degree or two from Garcia, and a few other random tidbits of idiosyncratic interest to me.

A few points of note, for me.

• Danny Cox using the Saunders-Kahn-Vitt (and Garcia!) band in July
• 9/30/71 Garcia and Santana together on a contract
• More busy Jeffersons
• Rowan Brothers getting busy second half of ‘71
• Etc.

List after the jump.

Reaching for the Gold Ring

Uncle Bobo comes on about three minutes in, introduces the band, and they drop into a sublime "Crazy Fingers", one of my favorite songs.

The Final "After Midnight": JGB, March 7, 1983, The Stone

Garcia played J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" a bunch --by my count, 96 times starting 6/30/72-- with a number of different personnel configurations, for about ten years. But then, after Monday March 7, 1983, he just dropped it.

A new fileset of 3/7/83 shows me some killer guitar work in "After Midnight", "Catfish John", and "Tore Up Over You".

Listening notes follow:

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
March 7, 1983 (Monday)
MSC tuppeware CD shnid-135946

--set I (4 tracks, 36:34)--
s1t01. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:30] [0:49]
s1t02. Catfish John [11:48] %
s1t03. [0:10] After Midnight [10:19] [0:03] %
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:46] (1) [0:08] %

--set II (5 tracks, 59:24)--
s2t01. Mission In The Rain [10:50] [0:31]
s2t02. Tore Up Over You [10:09] [0:25] %
s2t03. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:10] ->
s2t04. Dear Prudence [14:10] ->
s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [8:06] (2) [0:04]

! ACT1: JERRY GARCIA BAND #15c
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Greg Errico - drums.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = 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/19830307-01

! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1983-03-07-the-stone-san-francisco-ca/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/102491 (unknown low-gen aud via Brad Tenner); http://etreedb.org/shn/135946 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. Note that Corry has not updated this band post in some years, and what he calls JGB #15b reflects an incorrect understanding of when Jacklyn and DeeDee arrived, which was at the start of 1983. So I have dubbed this aggregation JGB #15c.

! personnel: because of the mix, this tape provides a great opportunity to hear Gregg Errico with the JGB. He brings some serious thud to the proceedings. He also just about never misses a beat. The other weird thing I didn't quite pin down is the backing vocals - they were only in on a few numbers, that I could hear.

! historical: Big Saturday night at the Santa Cruz Civic was followed by Sunday and Monday night at the Stone - this is Monday. We'd expect him to sound a little ragged, but he actually sounds quite good ("for the period", he thinks). The guitar work in the first set is exceptionally good - now I want to hear more from this period. The vocals are mostly pretty good for the period, not too much mumbling around lost lyrics. The first set is short and hot - 36 minutes is about as short as a JGB set ever got. It sounds considerably amped up - I wonder if they were late driving over the Golden Gate and picked themselves up with a little too much gusto? The second set actually stretches out to a good length, but it compelled me less. CJ and After Midnight both burn very hotly with some outstanding guitar work. I'd even give them a @@. Tempos a little squirrely, as they can be on a horse scampering to barn, on "Midnight Moonlight". All told, a good night's music for your Monday night $xx.

! R: Source: SBD > ? > CDR > WAV, via the jjoops tupperware collection.

! R: Transfer: Wavelab > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged. June 2016.

! R: Seeder Note: "Mostly mono monitor mix (mmmm!) heavy on snare & bass drum. ID-102491 patches as follows; How Sweet 0:00 > 0:49, Run for the Roses entire track, Mission 0:00 > 0:07, Tore Up 2:45 > 3:44, and Simple Twist 0:00 > 3:05. Thanks to Gems and jjoops... enjoy!"

! P: s2t01 CJ is awesome 6 min range, Garcia's fluid lines give John a rubber wall to bounce off of. @ 10 good climax to the "born a slave" verse. Very good. The singing is very forward in the mix, and we can hear Jer sounding all right.

! song: "After Midnight" (s1t03): last known Garcia performance of the JJ Cale classic. JB shows 93 performances as of 3/14/2021.

! P: s1t03 AM I don't like this tempo on the song. I am not hugely fan of the singing here, which is pretty perfunctory. On the other hand, by 4:45 the guitar is *wailing* - this would have left some ears ringing in the club. Long expressive phrases continue through 5:15, he works that really molten sound and is just doing the whole guitar god thing. Whoa. I stopped pricking my ears up after 6 something, but even on the basis of the first six minutes I'd call this very hot.

! s1t04 (1) setbreak announcement mostly inaudible, sounds like "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back in a little bit".

! P: s1t04 RFTR the ladies don't back him on "chicken to die", as they later would. They aren't even woo-ing during the verses. An interesting arrangement. It's possible that they are just completely absent from the mix, because I am not sure I heard them, but thought I might have, chorus late 1.

! P: s2t01 MITR was good, no major flubs.

! R: s2t02 TUOY in the 4:30ff range Garcia's guitar work shines. The bass is totally inaudible on this recording, drums way forward, organ audible but not loud. There's an argument to be made that TUOY was about as hip-thrusting as guitar got - Hank Ballard -- never hit a note like the one right at 6 in his life -- anyway. Man, very incendiary tone 6:15, glass shredding 6:23. 6:40ff Melvin doing some lead, while guitar comp is still dominant in this monitor tape. Over 7 Melvin is swinging too, taking a good turn -- good piece 7:24ff, classic B3 sound. Man could play some R&B. @ 7:46 Garcia just stomps all over him to the front of the stage for another run - you had your minute, big guy, now step aside. A bit rude. Nice strong finish.

! R: s2t03 STOF when he does another verse, vocals are way loud in the mix. Bass feature 7:06. Having just listened to a 1979 Reconstruction show and then listening to this, four years later, the man's playing has fallen off the face of the earth, his power has dissipated. Garcia re-enters 9:55. That bass feature was lame.

! P: s2t04 DP harmony vocals are back. They have been inaudible most of the tape, need to double check where and not.

! P: s2t05 Mid Moon this is a long version of the song ("for the period", my brain is saying). They could have ended it late 6, but Jerry does the "if you ever feel sorrow" verse again - I feel like he is smiling over to one of the singers, who hit a lyric one extra time that last time 'round - redemption.

! s2t05 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later on."

in lieu of new content

Let me point you to the JGMF date index at http://db.etree.org/jgmf.

Any show that I have addressed explicitly at any length is indexed there, more or less.

Anyway, take a spin and leave a comment!

Half a mil

Somewhere along the line JGMF crossed over half a million pageviews. Thank you!

Green Green Grass Of Home

This show (GD 5/31/69) is a maxed-out masterpiece. Mamma mia. Play it loud!
Random tape archaeology: this is shnid-76, very early in the shn game.

https://goo.gl/maps/T4udv2YuEAR2
44.0417292,-123.0763108

! Corry: "when the Dead headlined McArthur Court on May 31, 1969, it was one of the biggest rooms that they had headlined up until that time. The show appears to have been scheduled for the track stadium (Hayward Field) and moved indoors, but in any case it was a sign of the Dead's status in Oregon."

! ad: Oregon Daily Emerald, May 28, 1969, p. unk, via URL http://home.earthlink.net/~deadtraders/images/from_oregon/HAYWARD.JPG;

! Corry: Arnold, Corry. 2011. Grateful Dead Pac-10 Home Court Analysis. Lost Live Dead, February 15, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/02/grateful-dead-pac-10-home-court.html, accessed 5/31/2016.


! song: Green Green Grass Of Home
Lyrics: Curly Putman
Music: Curly Putman
http://www.whitegum.com/~acsa/songfile/GREENGRS.HTM
http://www.deaddisc.com/songs/Green_Green_Grass_Of_Home.htm.  5/31/69 version struck me as a real Garcia masterpiece. He achieved that sound he was searching for quite nicely, thankyouverymuch (as Babbs might say). Weir sings it well - he had a great memory for these country tunes, and he "Bobby Ace" was stepping forward for the first time right in this period. He sounds great. Garcia's steel is getting "that sound" that you want from the steel, Ralph Mooney and Tom Brumley's sounds, for starters.

The real dates of the "September 1, 1974" material

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Band, Pure Jerry 4: Keystone, Berkeley, September 1, 1974 (Jerry Made JGCD0004, 2004).

We always knew that this was a hodgepodge of dates (there are several set/end-of-show announcements, in weird spots if we have a continuous show from 9/1/74). But what little evidence we have suggests that things are more hodge and podge than I suspected.

Disc 1;

• Neighbor, Neighbor (Valier) [8/28/74]
• Keepers (Saunders / Kahn) [9/1/74]
• Sitting In Limbo (Bright / Chambers) [9/1/74]
• Favela (Jobim) [9/1/74]
• Tough Mama (Dylan) [9/1/74]
• La-La (Fierro)[actually La-La -> People Make The World Go Round] [8/24/74, h/t nick]

Disc 2;

• Someday Baby (Hopkins) [9/1/74]
• Think (McCracklin / Robey) [9/1/74]
• Roadrunner (Dozier / Holland / Dozier) [9/1/74]
• The Harder They Come (Cliff) [9/1/74]
• I Second That Emotion (Robinson / Cleveland) [8/28/74]
• Going, Going, Gone (Dylan) [8/28/74]

Disc 3;

• Soul Roach (Saunders / Shanklin) [8/28/74]
• Mystery Train (Parker / Philips) [8/28/74]
• Wondering Why (Carrier / Saunders) [8/28/74]
• People Make the World Go Round (Bell / Epstein) [8/28/74]
• Keystone Jam (Garcia & Saunders Band) [8/28/74]
• It's Too Late (Willis) [8/11/74] ->
• The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Robertson) [8/11/74]

The David W. Niven Collection of Early Jazz Legends, 1921-1991

https://archive.org/details/davidwnivenjazz

Wow.

Garcia and Saunders at the Lion's Share

I see that 7/5/73 is slated for official release as (per B&N) Garcialive 6: July 5 1973 Lion's Share (Jerry Garcia / Merl Saunders).

• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/garcialive-6-july-5-1973-lions-share/29919624;jsessionid=D74E41C2738E4500EC4D90119172BE33.prodny_store01-atgap05?ean=0880882255220 
• http://www.amazon.com/Garcialive-July-1973-Lions-Share/dp/B01F73YZZ0

See my post now titled "Garcia and Saunders at the Lion's Share" if you want to learn more about the very interesting songs, the great performance, the mysterious trumpet player.

This is a nice pick. I hope The Powers That Be consider trying to license use of the original reels or buying them, as the Dead should have done for 3/26/72 and did for the July '78 boxset, rather than using Rob Eaton's best-possible-at-the-time 1996 DAT transcriptions.

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.

People Make The World Go Round

RIP Michael Hunt

http://www.marinij.com/arts-and-entertainment/20160415/michael-hunt-who-made-marin-rock-history-booking-rock-stars-at-the-lions-share-in-the-1970s-dies-at-73