Man, this recording from TDIH sounds nice to these ol' ears.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Friday, April 26, 2019
Poynette
Let me just remind you on the show's 49th birthday that
three years after the fact, a program called "Studio None" on cable channel 4 in Madison apparently broadcast footage of the Dead and Baby Huey from the [4/26/70] gig. The listing refers to "the 1969 Poynette Rock Festival", but I think this must be 4/26/70. Mmmm ... wonder where that tape might be? (! listing: Wisconsin State Journal, November 26, 1973, sec. 3, p. 3.)
Anyone know anyone in Madison who might be able to make inquiries? Nothing but photographs and memories circulates from this gig.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes": JGB at the Warfield, March 4, 1995
LN jg1995-03-04.jgb.all.aud-sonics.141470.flac1648
I don't feel like I have time or energy to do a full write-up, so let me try to sketch a few thoughts around a recent listen to taper Wilson66's very enjoyable Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail tape of the Jerry Band on home turf, March 4, 1995.
Tone and Technique > Lyrical Precision and Power
This formulation provides my key to appreciating very late vintage Jerry Band. On the down side, the man can mumble through entire songs such as Daniel Lanois's beautiful "The Maker", or repeat himself, well, repeatedly, as with Dylan's it-has-to-be-meaningful-for-old-Jerry line from "Positively 4th Street" about what shuffling a mile in famous moccasins feels like. He sometimes loses himself, as in the mountain stream waters of Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me". Both his singing and his guitar playing lack power.
But he generally makes up for all of this by upping the intentionality of his vocal and guitar phrasings. He changes things up, syncopates, rolling with the sometimes gurgling, sometimes more turbulent flow of his own uncertainty. He makes up in more deliberate and careful choice what he lacks in oomph and volume, taking his time to work with the subtler possibilities that an earlier him would have just blasted right through. "Stoned Me" offers some extremely fragile and sweet passages that the younger slinger just couldn't credibly generate, his considerable pain, while real, just not overflowing the cup the way it does here. Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" exemplifies the varied technical approaches (I won't say attacks) engaged by late Jerry He doesn't melt your face off the way he regularly did with this tune between 1990 and 1993, by turns, anyway. But he bobs, weaves, ascends, doubles up, descends, plucks and innovates in ways that wouldn't win over an eager newbie so much as they can reward the patient fan.
Interesting Song Selection
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (Round RX102, 1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, then came out with declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the elongated late rhythms of its appearances. When they first started playing it, John opened with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.
! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout - a one-time revival after 15 years, never to be played again in the short time remaining.
! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10): After landing on the shelf in early 1980 (the day after "Train To Cry"), JGB brought the Dylan classic back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95 (see and see), 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95. I have a little theory, which I haven't thought about how to test, that interesting song selections arose more early in the year, and I have a causal mechanism in mind, namely, that the Dead took time off in January and Jerry and the band maybe thought about, and sometimes also worked up, some different material. I have no evidence for that. This version moves pretty briskly, and Jerry mostly has the lyrics together. It doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...
The End Is Nigh
Random/blinded selection and listening would be the best practice to reduce bias, but I just can't do it. We know in listening to this that it's late in the game. January and February had both provided evidence of decline. First, on January 18, 1995 (ten years to the day after The Bust in GGP), Jerry spun out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW --"a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000-- while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control" (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.) According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." Second, the February 10-11-12 shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.
Bob Barsotti, who ran the Warfield for BGP, puts this stuff in context:
Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
March 4, 1995 (Saturday)
Wilson66 Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail shnid-141470
--set I (6 tracks, 62:56)--
s1t01. [1:30] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:43] [0:39]
s1t02. Let It Rock [11:39] [1:19]
s1t03. And It Stoned Me [12:08] [0:38]
s1t04. (1) Lay Down Sally [11:12] [0:23]
s1t05. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [6:51] [0:07]
s1t06. Deal [8:23] [0:22]
--set II (7 tracks, 69:33)--
s2t07. [2:14] The Harder They Come [8:25] [2:09]
s2t08. [0:19] Simple Twist of Fate [11:44] [0:30]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [9:35] [0:14]
s2t10. The Maker [9:48] (2) [0:21]
s2t11. Positively 4th Street [7:25] ->
s2t12. Lucky Old Sun [10:01] [0:05]
s2t13. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (3) [0:27]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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; [ ] = 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.
I don't feel like I have time or energy to do a full write-up, so let me try to sketch a few thoughts around a recent listen to taper Wilson66's very enjoyable Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail tape of the Jerry Band on home turf, March 4, 1995.
Tone and Technique > Lyrical Precision and Power
This formulation provides my key to appreciating very late vintage Jerry Band. On the down side, the man can mumble through entire songs such as Daniel Lanois's beautiful "The Maker", or repeat himself, well, repeatedly, as with Dylan's it-has-to-be-meaningful-for-old-Jerry line from "Positively 4th Street" about what shuffling a mile in famous moccasins feels like. He sometimes loses himself, as in the mountain stream waters of Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me". Both his singing and his guitar playing lack power.
But he generally makes up for all of this by upping the intentionality of his vocal and guitar phrasings. He changes things up, syncopates, rolling with the sometimes gurgling, sometimes more turbulent flow of his own uncertainty. He makes up in more deliberate and careful choice what he lacks in oomph and volume, taking his time to work with the subtler possibilities that an earlier him would have just blasted right through. "Stoned Me" offers some extremely fragile and sweet passages that the younger slinger just couldn't credibly generate, his considerable pain, while real, just not overflowing the cup the way it does here. Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" exemplifies the varied technical approaches (I won't say attacks) engaged by late Jerry He doesn't melt your face off the way he regularly did with this tune between 1990 and 1993, by turns, anyway. But he bobs, weaves, ascends, doubles up, descends, plucks and innovates in ways that wouldn't win over an eager newbie so much as they can reward the patient fan.
Interesting Song Selection
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (Round RX102, 1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, then came out with declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the elongated late rhythms of its appearances. When they first started playing it, John opened with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.
! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout - a one-time revival after 15 years, never to be played again in the short time remaining.
! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10): After landing on the shelf in early 1980 (the day after "Train To Cry"), JGB brought the Dylan classic back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95 (see and see), 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95. I have a little theory, which I haven't thought about how to test, that interesting song selections arose more early in the year, and I have a causal mechanism in mind, namely, that the Dead took time off in January and Jerry and the band maybe thought about, and sometimes also worked up, some different material. I have no evidence for that. This version moves pretty briskly, and Jerry mostly has the lyrics together. It doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...
The End Is Nigh
Random/blinded selection and listening would be the best practice to reduce bias, but I just can't do it. We know in listening to this that it's late in the game. January and February had both provided evidence of decline. First, on January 18, 1995 (ten years to the day after The Bust in GGP), Jerry spun out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW --"a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000-- while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control" (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.) According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." Second, the February 10-11-12 shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.
Bob Barsotti, who ran the Warfield for BGP, puts this stuff in context:
We had to cut back on Jerry Garcia Band shows because he wasn't capable of doing it anymore. We had to keep canceling shows and stopping tours because physically he wasn't able to do it. That was why he used to play twenty times a year at the Warfield. The only place he could get it together physically to play with the Jerry Garcia Band was by getting in his car and driving for a half an hour to the Warfield. If he could do that, then he could play (Greenfield1996, 300).On this night, the next, and five more in April, he managed, and I am glad he did.
Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
March 4, 1995 (Saturday)
Wilson66 Sonic Studios DSM-6 drink rail shnid-141470
--set I (6 tracks, 62:56)--
s1t01. [1:30] How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [7:43] [0:39]
s1t02. Let It Rock [11:39] [1:19]
s1t03. And It Stoned Me [12:08] [0:38]
s1t04. (1) Lay Down Sally [11:12] [0:23]
s1t05. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [6:51] [0:07]
s1t06. Deal [8:23] [0:22]
--set II (7 tracks, 69:33)--
s2t07. [2:14] The Harder They Come [8:25] [2:09]
s2t08. [0:19] Simple Twist of Fate [11:44] [0:30]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [9:35] [0:14]
s2t10. The Maker [9:48] (2) [0:21]
s2t11. Positively 4th Street [7:25] ->
s2t12. Lucky Old Sun [10:01] [0:05]
s2t13. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (3) [0:27]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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; [ ] = 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/19950304-01
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-03-04
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/16443 (Vasseur shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/78007 (set 2, unlineaged); https://etreedb.org/shn/79635 (Russ B. MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/141470 (this fileset).
! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! seealso: JGMF, "Old Garcia Running to the Rock for Rescue" [LN jg1995-03-05.jgb.all.aud-michaelB-goodbear.79634.flac1644], URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/05/old-garcia-running-to-rock-for-rescue.html.
! historical: Garcia was scheduled to play the Warfield in January (13-14-15), February (10-11-12), March (4-5), and two weekends in April (14-15 and 21-22-23). This was the first show after two events that might have concerned the fans. First, on 1/18/95, Jerry spins out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." The car was "a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000. Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control." According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.) Second, the February shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.
! R: field recordist: Wilson66
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sonic-Studios DSM-6 > Sony TCD-D7 (48k)
! R: field recording location: first tier drink rail
! R: lineage: DAT Master > Tascam us144-mkII > PC > Audition > CD Wave > TLH FLAC 16/48. Brought to you by Shark420, fresh transfer from DAT master, Dec 2017.
! P: One has to ask how this would hit me if I didn't know the date and the dénouement of the whole story. The vocals are certainly low, probably some correlated combination of weakness and being turned down in the mix.
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, and declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the late rhythms. When they first started playing it, John opened it with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.
! P: s1t03 AISM JG takes an interesting vocal approach, a little off-the-1, seemingly intentionally. He forgets the third verse, so he takes a sweet little guitar turn instead. Three minutes later, we still haven't had another verse. It's pretty compelling to hear how he manages around not remembering the lyrics. @ 5:24 we get the "rain let up" verse. @ 6:38 after that verse JG is lost again, and he takes another turn - when in doubt, play. And, again, after the last verse they used to just end the tune, but here we get another turn, and then @ 10:51 JG returns to "oh the water", which he gets himself from a mountain stream. Pretty damn sweet. Flawed, and sweet. Finally at 12 he drops a big chord to signal the end. Fragile, flawed, lovely.
! s1t04 (1) woman near taper calls LDS just before it starts. Good call, woman near taper!
! P: s1t04 LDS Jer is really playing around with the timing of his little runs out of the gate, seemingly intentionally, and Donny does a good job holding down the 1. Interesting little piece right over 1 min, a neat intro to the tune (which might be because he can't remember the words, but I dunno). Lyrics kick off 1:40ish. 8:20 ish interesting set of doublets. I really like how Donny plays this tune. Garcia plays so patiently. Now some interesting ascending pieces very late 8. Very inventive stuff. 9:16 more innovation - I don't listen to late era very much, but this is very interesting. Jerry and everyone but John hit the ending just right. That was really, really good.
! P: s1t05 ITALTL, ITATTC he blows the first lyric. John doesn't appear to remember the song, but the ladies are doing some nice backing vocals. Nice to hear, even if imperfect.
! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout!
! P: s1t06 Deal you can really hear the impotence of his guitar playing on this number, which wants to burn barns, but here just casts a warmish glow.
! P: s2t07 HTC goes nowhere. Shortest version I recall ever hearing.
! P: s2t10 Maker he doesn't remember any of the words, at least as far as anything audible - his vocals are very low. @ 3:41 he misses his chance to take a guitar lead, which he gets into ten seconds later. He has sounded really lost so far on this tune.
! s2t10 (2) @ 10:01 guy in crowd yells out "Positively!" Might he have heard the soundcheck? I didn't hear the lick, maybe he did.
! P: s2t10 P4S is done at a pretty quick tempo. Jerry seems to have the lyrics together. This version doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...
! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10): After landing on the shelf in early 1980, it came back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95, 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95.
! s2t13 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1995-03-04
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/16443 (Vasseur shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/78007 (set 2, unlineaged); https://etreedb.org/shn/79635 (Russ B. MAD); https://etreedb.org/shn/141470 (this fileset).
! band: URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! seealso: JGMF, "Old Garcia Running to the Rock for Rescue" [LN jg1995-03-05.jgb.all.aud-michaelB-goodbear.79634.flac1644], URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/05/old-garcia-running-to-rock-for-rescue.html.
! historical: Garcia was scheduled to play the Warfield in January (13-14-15), February (10-11-12), March (4-5), and two weekends in April (14-15 and 21-22-23). This was the first show after two events that might have concerned the fans. First, on 1/18/95, Jerry spins out in a brand new gold BMW 525i on loan from Sonnen BMW while his own was in the shop. He was northbound between Mill Valley and Corte Madera, and the car "bounced off the guardrail on the right side of the roadway several times, spun around, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic." The car was "a cherry", according to CHP officer Jerry Monge, valued at over $30,000. Conditions were dry, and "Garcia was unable to explain how he lost control." According to unknown source, "The section of road this happened on (Corte Madera, literally 100 yards from a major CHP office) has guardrails well off the road. Jerry didn't take his eye of the wheel for no 1/10 of a second. 1/10 of a minute, maybe." (! ref: "Jerry Garcia OK after crash," San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1995, p. A-2.) Second, the February shows were canceled (including an envisaged 2/13 makeup for the first night) after Garcia was stung on the hand by a jellyfish while diving in Hawaii and couldn't play.
! R: field recordist: Wilson66
! R: field recording gear: 2x Sonic-Studios DSM-6 > Sony TCD-D7 (48k)
! R: field recording location: first tier drink rail
! R: lineage: DAT Master > Tascam us144-mkII > PC > Audition > CD Wave > TLH FLAC 16/48. Brought to you by Shark420, fresh transfer from DAT master, Dec 2017.
! P: One has to ask how this would hit me if I didn't know the date and the dénouement of the whole story. The vocals are certainly low, probably some correlated combination of weakness and being turned down in the mix.
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): John Kahn had selected this Chuck Berry rock and roller for Garcia's second solo album, Compliments (1974), and it formed a staple of Jerry's non-Dead diet, with fallow periods in 1978, 1985, 1988, and declining frequency in the 1990s. Prior to this final version, it had last been played 5/15/94 in Irvine, which gives you a sense of the late rhythms. When they first started playing it, John opened it with big fat bass lines, and Jerry could make it WAIL. Here, at the end, John is even less audible than he is creative (not very), and while Jerry's ideas and attack remain interesting --he still knows *how* to play rock guitar-- he just lacks power. I do love the tone he gets very late 8 over 9, with some great high-sustain followed by plucks, then scratches. The man was still full of sound, no doubt about that.
! P: s1t03 AISM JG takes an interesting vocal approach, a little off-the-1, seemingly intentionally. He forgets the third verse, so he takes a sweet little guitar turn instead. Three minutes later, we still haven't had another verse. It's pretty compelling to hear how he manages around not remembering the lyrics. @ 5:24 we get the "rain let up" verse. @ 6:38 after that verse JG is lost again, and he takes another turn - when in doubt, play. And, again, after the last verse they used to just end the tune, but here we get another turn, and then @ 10:51 JG returns to "oh the water", which he gets himself from a mountain stream. Pretty damn sweet. Flawed, and sweet. Finally at 12 he drops a big chord to signal the end. Fragile, flawed, lovely.
! s1t04 (1) woman near taper calls LDS just before it starts. Good call, woman near taper!
! P: s1t04 LDS Jer is really playing around with the timing of his little runs out of the gate, seemingly intentionally, and Donny does a good job holding down the 1. Interesting little piece right over 1 min, a neat intro to the tune (which might be because he can't remember the words, but I dunno). Lyrics kick off 1:40ish. 8:20 ish interesting set of doublets. I really like how Donny plays this tune. Garcia plays so patiently. Now some interesting ascending pieces very late 8. Very inventive stuff. 9:16 more innovation - I don't listen to late era very much, but this is very interesting. Jerry and everyone but John hit the ending just right. That was really, really good.
! P: s1t05 ITALTL, ITATTC he blows the first lyric. John doesn't appear to remember the song, but the ladies are doing some nice backing vocals. Nice to hear, even if imperfect.
! song: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (s1t05): The band soundchecked ITALTL, ITATTC, and then played it here for the last time, and the first time electric since 2/22/80. (The GD did it six times in 1991-1992.) What a bustout!
! P: s1t06 Deal you can really hear the impotence of his guitar playing on this number, which wants to burn barns, but here just casts a warmish glow.
! P: s2t07 HTC goes nowhere. Shortest version I recall ever hearing.
! P: s2t10 Maker he doesn't remember any of the words, at least as far as anything audible - his vocals are very low. @ 3:41 he misses his chance to take a guitar lead, which he gets into ten seconds later. He has sounded really lost so far on this tune.
! s2t10 (2) @ 10:01 guy in crowd yells out "Positively!" Might he have heard the soundcheck? I didn't hear the lick, maybe he did.
! P: s2t10 P4S is done at a pretty quick tempo. Jerry seems to have the lyrics together. This version doesn't sneer the way it needs to, but it's interesting to contrast how focused he sounds for it after muddling his way through "The Maker". He says "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes" no fewer than four times - so he does the "I could be you" and "what a drag it is to see you" responses twice. Not lyrically correct, I don't think, but could be (over-) interpreted as really feeling true ...
! song: "Positively 4th Street" (s2t10): After landing on the shelf in early 1980, it came back for six appearances in the 1990s: 3/1/91, 4/18/93, 4/24/93, 1/13/95, 3/4/95 (this version), 4/15/95.
! s2t13 (3) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Last Time in Irvine: JGB at Irvine Meadows, May 15, 1994
I forewarned a few posts back that I had some backlogged listening notes, and have been posting them this weekend. They were backlogged, in many cases, because I just didn't have that much to say. I often check the date index for the blog in picking something to listen to, looking for gaps or inflection points that I might not have covered. I won't be able to cover it all, ever, but I want to get a nice sampling.
So, here we are in May of 1994. Garcia had been doing brief SoCal jaunts for many years, and especially from the early 80s on these were Bill Graham joints. From the early 80s these were generally small club and theater gigs, but by 1994 our hero was in big spaces that the Dead had pioneered, such as Irvine Meadows, behind the Orange Curtain. The venue, had the honor of hosting Jerry on his 50th birthday, years after the Grateful Dead had been banned by the city because of unruly fanhairdos behavior. The May 15, 1994 gig came just three days after Jerry had signed the last, eventually highly-contested version of his will, and was the third of six shows in seven nights. This little southwest mini-tour, his last, ended with a thud when our hero, for the only time in his career that I can think of, started a show but couldn't finish it, a flu in Phoenix ending the May 19th show after a single set.
If Robbi Cohn's photos from Irvine are any indication, Jerry may well have caught the flu from John, who looks decidedly green.
Anyway, the show has a few good moments, as in "Let It Rock", on its penultimate appearance (3/4/95). Other tunes mix some good guitar work with lots of forgotten vocals (though he never entirely falls and can't get up, nor leads me to exclaim "confused, trainwreck, yeesh, yikes", as would happen with other shows plus or minus a few months). Only "Midnight Moonlight" is worryingly bad, with Jerry changing key a few times and the whole thing not coming apart at the seams only because it was never together in the first place.
This is a great tape, as so many of these 90s DAT masters are, and generally this landed about where I expected it to, our protagonist declining but still smiling enough for Robbi to capture.
Jerry Garcia Band
Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
8808 Irvine Center Dr.
Irvine, CA 92618
May 15, 1994 (Sunday) - 5 PM
Neumann KM140 shnid-145697
--set I (7 tracks, 47:54)--
s1t01. How sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:01] [0:28]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:17] [0:31]
s1t03. Let It Rock [6:58] [0:59]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:27] [0:14]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [10:27] [0:11]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:58] ->
s1t07. Deal [7:13] (1) [0:10]
--set II (7 tracks, 67:27)--
s2t08. Shining Star [17:25] [0:20]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [7:08] [0:19]
s2t10. Wonderful World [4:32] [0:54]
s2t11. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:21] [0:16]
s2t12. The Maker [9:05] [0:28]
s2t13. Lucky Old Sun [9:17] ->
s2t14. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (2) [0:08]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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; [ ] = 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.
So, here we are in May of 1994. Garcia had been doing brief SoCal jaunts for many years, and especially from the early 80s on these were Bill Graham joints. From the early 80s these were generally small club and theater gigs, but by 1994 our hero was in big spaces that the Dead had pioneered, such as Irvine Meadows, behind the Orange Curtain. The venue, had the honor of hosting Jerry on his 50th birthday, years after the Grateful Dead had been banned by the city because of unruly fan
If Robbi Cohn's photos from Irvine are any indication, Jerry may well have caught the flu from John, who looks decidedly green.
 |
| Jerry and John, 5/15/94. Photo by Robbi Cohn, reproduced with permission. Visit www.deadimages.com and www.robbicohn.com to see more! |
This is a great tape, as so many of these 90s DAT masters are, and generally this landed about where I expected it to, our protagonist declining but still smiling enough for Robbi to capture.
 |
| Smiling Jerry calling a song to a close, 5/15/94. Photo by Robbi Cohn, reproduced with permission. Visit www.deadimages.com and www.robbicohn.com to see more! |
Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
8808 Irvine Center Dr.
Irvine, CA 92618
May 15, 1994 (Sunday) - 5 PM
Neumann KM140 shnid-145697
--set I (7 tracks, 47:54)--
s1t01. How sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [6:01] [0:28]
s1t02. They Love Each Other [6:17] [0:31]
s1t03. Let It Rock [6:58] [0:59]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [4:27] [0:14]
s1t05. Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox [10:27] [0:11]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [3:58] ->
s1t07. Deal [7:13] (1) [0:10]
--set II (7 tracks, 67:27)--
s2t08. Shining Star [17:25] [0:20]
s2t09. Tore Up Over You [7:08] [0:19]
s2t10. Wonderful World [4:32] [0:54]
s2t11. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:21] [0:16]
s2t12. The Maker [9:05] [0:28]
s2t13. Lucky Old Sun [9:17] ->
s2t14. Midnight Moonlight [6:14] (2) [0:08]
! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin - 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; [ ] = 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/19940515-01
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-05-15
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6632 (unknown MAD, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/145697 (this fileset)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/CddGMG2NU4x
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/irvine-meadows-8808-irvine-center-drive.html
! historical: $29 tickets. Robbi Cohn's pix show Jerry looking white-haired and haggard, but John looking absolutely terrible - pale greenish-greyish.
! R: field recordist: unknown
! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM 140 > DAT
! R: field recording location: FOB
! R: Transfer Info: Dat Tape (Panasonic SV-3700)-> Marantz CDR-615-> CD (Late 90's); Extract Wav-> Flac Level 8-> Tagged (16/44.1). Transfers by Pete Ebel, Late 90's and March 15, 2019.
! R: Really nice tape. The guitar tuning after HSII, e.g. at 6:29, sounds right in your face.
! P: s1t01 HSII his voice sounds wheezy, but he brings some energy.
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): this is the penultimate version of the Chuck Berry rocker, last one coming 3/4/95.
! P: s1t02 LIR his guitar tone is awesome. He blows the second verse. But, again the guitar work is pretty killer, great buzzsaw tone, chopping rhythms.
! P: s1t07 Deal late 2 Jerry forgets his place and reprises the "since it costs a lot to win" thing for the third time. Ladies are doing their backing thing for awhile, and finally at 3:40, JG figures out how to fling into his big guitar. Pretty big fanning 5:21, but this hasn't burned me up yet. Some good technique, but not quite the power I need. Maybe it's the recording, which has the guitar back, but it's not melting my face. Relatively short version.
! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes."
! P: s2t14 Mid Moon oh no - Garcia is totally off-key in the first verse, doesn't remember how to sing this. The tempo isn't settled across members of the band. I can't hear John at all.
! s2t14 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1994-05-15
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6632 (unknown MAD, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/145697 (this fileset)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/CddGMG2NU4x
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/irvine-meadows-8808-irvine-center-drive.html
! historical: $29 tickets. Robbi Cohn's pix show Jerry looking white-haired and haggard, but John looking absolutely terrible - pale greenish-greyish.
! R: field recordist: unknown
! R: field recording gear: 2x Neumann KM 140 > DAT
! R: field recording location: FOB
! R: Transfer Info: Dat Tape (Panasonic SV-3700)-> Marantz CDR-615-> CD (Late 90's); Extract Wav-> Flac Level 8-> Tagged (16/44.1). Transfers by Pete Ebel, Late 90's and March 15, 2019.
! R: Really nice tape. The guitar tuning after HSII, e.g. at 6:29, sounds right in your face.
! P: s1t01 HSII his voice sounds wheezy, but he brings some energy.
! song: "Let It Rock" (s1t02): this is the penultimate version of the Chuck Berry rocker, last one coming 3/4/95.
! P: s1t02 LIR his guitar tone is awesome. He blows the second verse. But, again the guitar work is pretty killer, great buzzsaw tone, chopping rhythms.
! P: s1t07 Deal late 2 Jerry forgets his place and reprises the "since it costs a lot to win" thing for the third time. Ladies are doing their backing thing for awhile, and finally at 3:40, JG figures out how to fling into his big guitar. Pretty big fanning 5:21, but this hasn't burned me up yet. Some good technique, but not quite the power I need. Maybe it's the recording, which has the guitar back, but it's not melting my face. Relatively short version.
! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes."
! P: s2t14 Mid Moon oh no - Garcia is totally off-key in the first verse, doesn't remember how to sing this. The tempo isn't settled across members of the band. I can't hear John at all.
! s2t14 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later."
Last Freddie-ish Gig on Tape: JGB at the Stone, May 28, 1987
update: I can't believe I didn't know that Freddie didn't actually run the Stone and KPA. I knew the Coronas were involved, but Corry informs me in comments that they actually ran the KPA and the Stone, and Freddie really only had the Berkeley club. Learn something new everyday. I will still refer to this as Freddie-affiliated, since the "Keystone Family" as a real concept, whatever its substance. /update
As I just noted, the last Freddie Herrera-affiliated room, The Stone on Broadway, couldn't hold the post-Touch of Grey Garcia Band. Two and a half weeks after filming the TOG video at Laguna Seca in Monterey, Jerry put a bow on his professional relationship with Freddie -- their friendship continued unaffected, as far as I know -- withfour gigs in five nights starting May 27, 1987 and ending on May 31 a pair of midweek gigs on May 27-28, 1987. No tapes circulate for the last two nights, though one imagines they might have been recorded. Consider this a "bleg" for those tapes, because I dream that there was some special energy as the intimate, decade and a half relationship comes to a close.
No special energy is apparent in this May 28th gig. There are some good moments, and it's fine, but there's not much that especially lights me up. I enjoyed the relative rarity "Crazy Love", another Moondance track Jerry added to his post-coma repertoire (along with the much longer-lived "And It Stoned Me"). For my taste, 1987 Jerry Band falls at least a notch below the 1988 and 1989 versions, which I am having a hard time ranking. I need to think more about the decade as a whole, but I guess I do think that the post-coma shows ending 1986 and well into 1987 still find our boy re-establishing his footing.
Listening notes below. John Corley was an amazing taper. If you know how to reach him, please put him in touch with me!
Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
May 28, 1987 (Wednesday) - 9 PM
Corley shnid-20587 tagged flacs
--set I (6 tracks, 55:26)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [8:46] [1:19]
s1t02. Mission In The Rain [9:58] [0:26]
s1t03. Think [6:52] [0:57]
s1t04. Let It Rock [06:52] [0:23]
s1t05. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:14] % [0:39]
s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [9:53] [0:08] %
--set II (7 tracks, 59:17)--
s2t01. //I'll Take A Melody [#11:54] [0:56]
s2t02. Stop That Train [8:05] [0:17]
s2t03. I Shall Be Released [6:40] [0:03] % [0:13]
s2t04. Love In The Afternoon [8:01] [0:29]
s2t05. Crazy Love [5:05] [0:19]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun [10:20] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:49] [0:07]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [ ] = 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.
As I just noted, the last Freddie Herrera-affiliated room, The Stone on Broadway, couldn't hold the post-Touch of Grey Garcia Band. Two and a half weeks after filming the TOG video at Laguna Seca in Monterey, Jerry put a bow on his professional relationship with Freddie -- their friendship continued unaffected, as far as I know -- with
No special energy is apparent in this May 28th gig. There are some good moments, and it's fine, but there's not much that especially lights me up. I enjoyed the relative rarity "Crazy Love", another Moondance track Jerry added to his post-coma repertoire (along with the much longer-lived "And It Stoned Me"). For my taste, 1987 Jerry Band falls at least a notch below the 1988 and 1989 versions, which I am having a hard time ranking. I need to think more about the decade as a whole, but I guess I do think that the post-coma shows ending 1986 and well into 1987 still find our boy re-establishing his footing.
Listening notes below. John Corley was an amazing taper. If you know how to reach him, please put him in touch with me!
Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
May 28, 1987 (Wednesday) - 9 PM
Corley shnid-20587 tagged flacs
--set I (6 tracks, 55:26)--
s1t01. Cats Under The Stars [8:46] [1:19]
s1t02. Mission In The Rain [9:58] [0:26]
s1t03. Think [6:52] [0:57]
s1t04. Let It Rock [06:52] [0:23]
s1t05. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:14] % [0:39]
s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [9:53] [0:08] %
--set II (7 tracks, 59:17)--
s2t01. //I'll Take A Melody [#11:54] [0:56]
s2t02. Stop That Train [8:05] [0:17]
s2t03. I Shall Be Released [6:40] [0:03] % [0:13]
s2t04. Love In The Afternoon [8:01] [0:29]
s2t05. Crazy Love [5:05] [0:19]
s2t06. That Lucky Old Sun [10:20] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:49] [0:07]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [ ] = 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/19870528-01
! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/1987-05-28
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20587 (this source)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html
! historical: After 16 years of collaboration, from a New Riders gig the night before Thanksgiving 1970 to this four show JGB run May 27-28 and 30-31, 1987, Jerry had to walk away from Freddie Herrera as host of his local side gigs in favor of Bill Graham, who could offer rooms, and especially, eventually, the 3,000 seat Warfield, more commensurate with Garcia's post-In The Dark needs.
! R: field recordist: John Corley
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > unknown cassette deck
! R: lineage: MAC > ? > DAT > CDR > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode) > removal of some silent gaps (SF6) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN(shorten 3.4) via C.Ladner - "another installment of the misSHN in the rain TMNSP offshoot, 11/03".
! R: seeder Comments: Couple of tape pauses/flips in between some tracks. Thanks to J.Powell for the CDR source."
! R: Flac encoding notes: All processing with Trader's Little Helper; Shn - st5 generated; Shn > Flac (level 8); Flac - st5 generated and matched to Shn st5.
! R: Tagging notes: Show information is embedded within the header of each flac file. It will display on any player capable of directly playing flac files. If converted to wav during processing, all tags will be stripped, however audio data will remain unaffected. If you must transcode to a lossy format, do so directly Flac > Lossy. Use st5 to validate audio integrity. Md5 values will change if tagging is altered. A Mills 12/5/14"
! R: muffled out of the gate.
! P: s1t01 CUTS Garcia some nice grungy guitar tone 5, unusual pulls. JG tries to draw it back to the tune out of the jam late 6, rest of the band needs another measure to get with it, he deftly works it back around. This is a nice version of CUTS.
! P: s1t03 Think very late 2 JG hits some killer blues notes. Very strong.
! P: s1t04 LIR more nice blues sustains late 2.
! R: s2t01 ITAM cuts in
! song: "Crazy Love" (s2t05): Post-coma, Jerry picked up two tunes from Van Morrison's 1970 classic Moondance. "And It Stoned Me" me stuck around until the end, but "Crazy Love" only lasted a year, making 15 appearances between 10/19/86 and 10/31/87. It strained his vocals a little bit, which might have contributed to its demise. It's a nice tune.
! JGC: jerrygarcia.com/1987-05-28
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20587 (this source)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html
! historical: After 16 years of collaboration, from a New Riders gig the night before Thanksgiving 1970 to this four show JGB run May 27-28 and 30-31, 1987, Jerry had to walk away from Freddie Herrera as host of his local side gigs in favor of Bill Graham, who could offer rooms, and especially, eventually, the 3,000 seat Warfield, more commensurate with Garcia's post-In The Dark needs.
! R: field recordist: John Corley
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700 > unknown cassette deck
! R: lineage: MAC > ? > DAT > CDR > DAE (EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode) > removal of some silent gaps (SF6) > tracking (cdwav editor) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN(shorten 3.4) via C.Ladner - "another installment of the misSHN in the rain TMNSP offshoot, 11/03".
! R: seeder Comments: Couple of tape pauses/flips in between some tracks. Thanks to J.Powell for the CDR source."
! R: Flac encoding notes: All processing with Trader's Little Helper; Shn - st5 generated; Shn > Flac (level 8); Flac - st5 generated and matched to Shn st5.
! R: Tagging notes: Show information is embedded within the header of each flac file. It will display on any player capable of directly playing flac files. If converted to wav during processing, all tags will be stripped, however audio data will remain unaffected. If you must transcode to a lossy format, do so directly Flac > Lossy. Use st5 to validate audio integrity. Md5 values will change if tagging is altered. A Mills 12/5/14"
! R: muffled out of the gate.
! P: s1t01 CUTS Garcia some nice grungy guitar tone 5, unusual pulls. JG tries to draw it back to the tune out of the jam late 6, rest of the band needs another measure to get with it, he deftly works it back around. This is a nice version of CUTS.
! P: s1t03 Think very late 2 JG hits some killer blues notes. Very strong.
! P: s1t04 LIR more nice blues sustains late 2.
! R: s2t01 ITAM cuts in
! song: "Crazy Love" (s2t05): Post-coma, Jerry picked up two tunes from Van Morrison's 1970 classic Moondance. "And It Stoned Me" me stuck around until the end, but "Crazy Love" only lasted a year, making 15 appearances between 10/19/86 and 10/31/87. It strained his vocals a little bit, which might have contributed to its demise. It's a nice tune.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
At Wolfgang's Orpheum: JGB with Clarence Clemons, March 3, 1989
The success of the Dead's Touch of Grey didn't only limit that band's venue (and even city) options. It also impacted ol' Midas's bar band. Freddie Herrera's last remaining club, the 700-seat Stone on Broadway, didn't stand a chance, and a four-night Garcia Band run on May 27-28 and 30-31, 1987 brought the curtain down on Jerry and Freddie's professional relationship. It's hard to know how Jerry felt about moving up in the world and bringing his solo band's gigs into Bill Graham's orbit - maybe it was a mixture of pride at his success and chagrin at having to cut Freddie loose, or maybe it was one, the other, or neither.
Regardless, from 1987 to the end, Bill was Jerry's local promoter, starting with the direct-from-Broadway acoustic-electric shows at the Warfield just after Thanksgiving of that year. And, again, from 1990 to the end Garcia Band services were held there, at 982 Market, 3,000 congregants at a time getting some rel'g'n in between Dead shows at the Coliseum and Shoreline. In between times, though, Bill undertook major renovations at homefield, and Jerry's relatively infrequent local gigs in 1988 and 1989 happened in other spaces, most commonly the Orpheum Theatre a little ways down the street at 1192 Market. It was a great room, and the Orpheum gigs all have that nice, clean feel present throughout the period, with a healthy, happy Jerry doing his low-key R&B, Beatles, Dylan, and Garcia-Hunter material in tasty spaces with the super-consonant supporting cast of JGB #21b - THE Jerry Garcia Band. With all involved at least "tryin' to have a reasonably good time", as ol' Jer put it, and mostly succeeding, it's never a bad instinct to call up one of these Orpheum gigs and hit play.
The Friday, March 3, 1989 Garcia Band gig fits the bill just fine. There's nothing bad here, and there's plenty of good stuff, for me especially in Deal and Harder They Come. Clarence Clemons mostly bores me (when not annoying), and for the life of me I can't figure out why Jerry liked having him along for most of the year. I just don't love the Illinois Jacquet-established R&B sax style, I guess (blasphemy alert). Blair wrote up a short review in the Golden Road that raved, and you should certainly trust his judgment over mine, but on this listen (following partial listens at least in 2011 and 2014, according to my notes), the show didn't absolutely slay me. It was good and solid and fun, and Taz Yamaguchi (like Bill Reutelhuber) pulled a great tape, but the show never achieved escape velocity, for me. YMMV.
Jerry Garcia Band
Orpheum Theatre
1192 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
March 3, 1989 (Friday) - 8 PM
Taz MAC shnid-94638
--set I (8 tracks, 56:36)--
s1t01. ... Let's Spend The Night Together [#6:19] (1) [0:32]
s1t02. Stop That Train [6:45] [0:18]
s1t03. Forever Young [8:35] [0:04]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:34] [0:16]
s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [7:45] [0:05] % [0:08]
s1t06. (2) That's What Love Will Make You Do [8:27] [0:08] % [0:05]
s1t07. I Hope It Won't Be This Way Always [4:38] ->
s1t08. Deal [6:52] [0:06]
--set II (8 tracks, 75:39)--
s2t01. The Harder They Come [11:39] (3) [0:48]
s2t02. Waiting For A Miracle [5:44] [1:06]
s2t03. Someday Baby [[6:39] [1:12]
s2t04. And It Stoned Me [7:16] % [0:17]
s2t05. Evangeline [4:25] [0:04] %
s2t06. Don't Let Go [15:01] [0:23]
s2t07. That Lucky Old Sun [9:52] ->
s2t08. Tangled Up In Blue [10:52] (4) [0:22]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch - vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - vocals;
! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19890303-01
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/17554 (Schoeps CMC 34shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/21091 (Bill Reutelhuber shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/86325 (Schoeps CMC34 flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/94638 (this fileset).
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/orpheum-theatre-1192-market-street.html
! review: [positive] Golden Road no. 19 (Spring 1989), p. 10. Blair loved the show, and said "Jerry looked like he was in heaven all night." I don't love it as much as Blair did.
! historical: $18.50. Garcia played the Orpheum for Wolfgang in '88 and '89, while the Warfield was in renovations. Specific dates: 5/7/88, 12/2-3/88, 1/27-28/89, and 3/3-4/89. He'd enter the Warfield in December '89 and stay there until the end.
! seealso: JGMF, "Mahalo, Jer," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/05/ln-jg1989-01-27jgballsbd.html; JGMF: "'We're Having a Reasonably Good Time Here' (LN jg1989-01-28.jgb.all.sbd-goetz-retracked.28352.shn2flac)," URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/06/ln-jg1989-01-28jgballsbd-goetz.html
! R: field recordist: Tazuo Yamaguchi
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 700/CP701 (in hat) > Reutelhuber P/S -> dbx type II Encoder -> Sony TCD5M
! R: field recording location: FOB, Row L
! R: Transfer and FLAC encoding by David Minches: Master played back on Nak Dragon > Grace Lunatec V3 (24/96) > Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe> Adobe Audition 2.0 > (dither/downsample) > FLAC encoding
! R: sounds pretty good to me.
! P: old notes: Set I is lackluster.
! R: s1t01 LSTNT first 2 minutes patched from SHNID-21091 (same recording equipment, processed by Bill Reutelhuber and Charlie Miller)
! P: s1t01 LSTNT guitar comes in @ 1:17, nicely. I can already tell that I am not a fan of CC's work. JG steps back for some nice big guitar work late 3 over 4. They end it in lieu of something else.
! s1t01 (1) JG: "Thank you very much."
! P: s1t05 LARLH CC's entrance is not graceful. Lyric flub 3- mark. Very nice soaring guitar solo ca. over 4, soaring again 4:33, but I wish it were a little louder in the mix.
! P: s1t06 TWLWMYD (2) false start, sort of, first 0:12. CC lead turn 4:30ish ff, still going over 5 - this is good. Some big drum part 5:33ish. Melvin takes a lead 5:44ff. Outstanding guitar grab right after 7-min mark, singing enthusiastically. In 2011 I had said this didn't light me up. Right now (6/6/2014), I am loving it.
! P: s1t08 Deal big guitar starts at 3:30. Old notes say "it is smokin' hot - wow. 5:38 is just one reference." And, again, 10 years later (!), I went to start typing when Jerry was shredding, and it was at 5:38. Not sure this whole version smokes, per se, but that peak is a good one. Pretty short version.
! P: s2t01 HTC outstanding. Garcia is growling 10 minute mark, really giving it a lot of oomph. Nice!
! s2t01 (3) JG: "I'd like to thank Clarence Clemons for sittin' in with us tonight."
! P: s2t06 DLG CC is very repetitive for awhile in 7. 8:13 JG breaks out of the rhythm. Clean return to song at 13:10.
! s2t08 (4) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
The Shortest Two-Set Electric Show? JGB at the Stone, Sunday, September 16, 1984
LN jg1984-09-16.jgb.all.aud-jjoops.97573.flac1644
A little dive into the Rock Bottom period yields this pearl of an electric JGB show - two four-tune sets clocking in around a half-hour of music each. I don't really note anything much about the performance, other than its brevity and Garcia's unsurprising vocal limitations. I don't want to be mean. I am just calling 'em as I see 'em.
I have been doing some listening, but not making much in the way of notes. I guess "not much to say" is a datum, too, so I may post a bunch of stuff this weekend. Or not.
The Examiner has revealed that there was an opening act this night (Ron Price), and for more local early 80s gigs than has generally been appreciated. I suspect Jerry didn't come on until quite late, but I don't know that for sure. An opening act would have been useful to keep the beer-buying crowd buying beer while awaiting the big fella.
Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
September 16, 1984 (Sunday)
aud shnid-97573
--set I (4 tracks, 30:54)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#8:07] [0:20] %
s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#8:08] ->
s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:12] [0:23] % [0:11]
s1t04. Deal [8:29] (1) [0:05]
--set II (4 tracks, 32:12)--
s2t05. //Harder They Come [#10:04] [0:07]
s2t06. Like A Road Leading Home [8:08] ->
s2t07. Reuben And Cherise [6:57] ->
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:44] (2) [0:12]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [ ] = 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.
A little dive into the Rock Bottom period yields this pearl of an electric JGB show - two four-tune sets clocking in around a half-hour of music each. I don't really note anything much about the performance, other than its brevity and Garcia's unsurprising vocal limitations. I don't want to be mean. I am just calling 'em as I see 'em.
I have been doing some listening, but not making much in the way of notes. I guess "not much to say" is a datum, too, so I may post a bunch of stuff this weekend. Or not.
The Examiner has revealed that there was an opening act this night (Ron Price), and for more local early 80s gigs than has generally been appreciated. I suspect Jerry didn't come on until quite late, but I don't know that for sure. An opening act would have been useful to keep the beer-buying crowd buying beer while awaiting the big fella.
Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
412 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
September 16, 1984 (Sunday)
aud shnid-97573
--set I (4 tracks, 30:54)--
s1t01. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#8:07] [0:20] %
s1t02. /They Love Each Other [#8:08] ->
s1t03. Run For The Roses [5:12] [0:23] % [0:11]
s1t04. Deal [8:29] (1) [0:05]
--set II (4 tracks, 32:12)--
s2t05. //Harder They Come [#10:04] [0:07]
s2t06. Like A Road Leading Home [8:08] ->
s2t07. Reuben And Cherise [6:57] ->
s2t08. Midnight Moonlight [6:44] (2) [0:12]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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; [ ] = 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.
! JB: https://jerrybase.com/events/19840916-01
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-09-16
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/97573 (this fileset)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html
! ad: SFSECDB-19840909p16. $8 show, Ron Price opened.
! R: Lineage: MA? > ? > CD (from the Jjoops Tupperware of Treasures) > Eac > Wav > Gems Edit Station > flac. Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell on the GEMS Edit Station; Trac'ed Cdwave, Flac'ed TLH Level 8 a **GEMS Production** www.shnflac.net.
! P: Garcia sounds absolutely terrible. Dreadful. This has to be one of the shortest electric Garcia shows on record, even with the tight editing of the tape considered. 5/23/85 acoustic was shorter (see http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/04/acoustic-at-denver-rainbow-jgjk-may-23.html), but as of 2/23/19 I cannot identify a shorter two-set electric show.
! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in
! R: s1t02 TLEO clips in
! s1t04 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, be back a little later."
! R: s2t05 HTC cuts in
! P: s2t05 HTC Garcia can barely sing at all. Notwithstanding that. it's surprising that it ends when it does - most versions would take a turn or several more.
! s2t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1984-09-16
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/97573 (this fileset)
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/Vr6EBXU6KvA2
! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html
! ad: SFSECDB-19840909p16. $8 show, Ron Price opened.
! R: Lineage: MA? > ? > CD (from the Jjoops Tupperware of Treasures) > Eac > Wav > Gems Edit Station > flac. Edited and Mastered by Jamie Waddell on the GEMS Edit Station; Trac'ed Cdwave, Flac'ed TLH Level 8 a **GEMS Production** www.shnflac.net.
! P: Garcia sounds absolutely terrible. Dreadful. This has to be one of the shortest electric Garcia shows on record, even with the tight editing of the tape considered. 5/23/85 acoustic was shorter (see http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/04/acoustic-at-denver-rainbow-jgjk-may-23.html), but as of 2/23/19 I cannot identify a shorter two-set electric show.
! R: s1t01 HSII cuts in
! R: s1t02 TLEO clips in
! s1t04 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, be back a little later."
! R: s2t05 HTC cuts in
! P: s2t05 HTC Garcia can barely sing at all. Notwithstanding that. it's surprising that it ends when it does - most versions would take a turn or several more.
! s2t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See ya later."
Friday, March 29, 2019
RIP, Freddie
Just back onto the grid and I see that Freddie Herrera has passed on.
Rest in peace, Freddie. I am sure he and Sandi are thrilled to be back together again.
Has anyone seen an obituary?
Here is link to my Freddie Herrera tag: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/search/label/Freddie%20Herrera
I had the chance to sit with Sandi and Freddie some years back. I don't think I have listened to the recording of our chat, but need to (and annotate it). They were totally delightful.
Rest in peace, Freddie. I am sure he and Sandi are thrilled to be back together again.
Has anyone seen an obituary?
Here is link to my Freddie Herrera tag: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/search/label/Freddie%20Herrera
I had the chance to sit with Sandi and Freddie some years back. I don't think I have listened to the recording of our chat, but need to (and annotate it). They were totally delightful.
Saturday, March 09, 2019
Jerry Garcia playing bass behind Lightnin' Hopkins: Fillmore Aud, 10/23/66
In the Fillmore Poster Appreciation Society group page on Facebook, eyewitness comments under the poster for the Bill Graham shows on the weekend of 10/21-23-/66 indicate that Jerry Garcia played bass behind Lightnin' Hopkins. I don't think I knew that. Did you?
This would be Jerry's third non-GD performance within a week:
10/16/66 sit-in with Big Brother
10/16/66 New Peanut Butter Sandwich
10/23/66 backing Lightnin' Hopkins (on bass)
Strange things happening the month LSD became illegal in California.
This would be Jerry's third non-GD performance within a week:
10/16/66 sit-in with Big Brother
10/16/66 New Peanut Butter Sandwich
10/23/66 backing Lightnin' Hopkins (on bass)
Strange things happening the month LSD became illegal in California.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
BS Pass - JGB - Fall 1993 - Slack Tour
A while back I posted the crew tour book for the fall 1993 JGB tour, the band's last. Since I love the look of these, I thought I'd add them to the mix. No idea who coined this the "Slack Tour", but the Paul Mavrides image is great and these are just good clean fun.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Last Show at Alpine Valley: JGB, September 15, 1989
 |
| Jerry smiling at Clarence Clemons, Alpine Valley, 9/15/89. Photo credit: Todd Darrow. |
Clarence accompanies the proceedings well enough, and it sounds like a good ol' time.
Jerry Garcia Band
Alpine Valley Music Theatre
2699 Highway D
East Troy, WI 53120
September 15, 1989 (DOW)
SJ MAC all-1 shnid-118330
--set I (7 tracks, 6 tunes, missing one song, 48:42)--
[MISSING: How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)]
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:50]
s1t02. Stop That Train [8:00] [1:15]
s1t03. Forever Young [8:34] [1:02]
s1t04. Run For The Roses [5:36] [0:34]
s1t05. Like A Road Leading Home [8:35] [0:06]
s1t06. My Sisters And Brothers [4:11] ->
s1t07. Deal [9:#46] (1) [0:14]
--set II (9 tracks, 7 tunes, 79:53)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:01]
s2t02. Harder They Come [11:16] [1:33]
s2t03. Mission In The Rain [1:17] [0:33]
s2t04. That's What Love Will Make You Do [9:56] %
s2t05. crowd and tuning [1:04]
s2t06. I Second That Emotion
s2t07. Waiting For A Miracle [6:36] [0:20]
s2t08. Don't Let Go/ [20:44#] %
s2t09. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [5:54] (2) [0:02]
! ACT1: JGB #21b (THE Jerry Garcia Band)
! 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;
! guest: Clarence Clemons - saxophone.
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/19890915-01
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1989-09-15
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8295 (MAC shnf); MAC (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/84359 (Holtz Mac); https://etreedb.org/shn/99084 (Holtz MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/118330 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/141680 (Markson s2 flac24); https://etreedb.org/shn/141874 (Markson s2 flac16); https://etreedb.org/shn/142021 (Ted C. and Nat F.).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/DDSYmjCX2F22
! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/alpine-valley-theater-2699-highway-d.html. The Dead played this space a ton throughout the 1980s. This was Jerry's only show there, and his last time overall.
! listing: Milwaukee Sentinel, September 15, 1989, p. unk;
! ref: Billboard, October 7, 1989, p. 45. Show grossed $237,517 on 13,946 tickets sold. Venue held 25,000. The band got a $60k guarantee earlier on tour in Hartford, so it was probably in that range.
! historical: Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman acoustic duo opened.
! R: field recordist: SJ
! R: field recording gear: 2x Audio Technica 2-ATR-35 > Sony PC-39 > Sony WM-D6C
! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX-90
! R: Transfer: Harmon Kardon TD-302 playback (heads aligned to tape) >
Zoom H2 wav recorder @16/44.1 > SDHD > tracking and editing w/ wavepad > flac and checksums w/ traderslittlehelper, analog > digital transfer by arfarf on July 8, 2011.
! R: this isn't the greatest tape in the world, but it's totally fine and captures the vibe really well - the taper and his/her friends seem to be having a great time.
! P: s1t02 Jerry sounds very lively.
! P: s1t03 FY very good
! P: s1t05 LARLH so nice!
! P: s1t07 Deal gets pretty hot
! R: s1t07 Deal tape flip @ 8:41
! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes. Thank you." Then the taper notes about his tape flip, correctly: "I never would have made it."
! P: s2t04 TWLWMYD features great guitar work, totally characteristic of the period. Check out the tones he works with in the 4-5 range, on top of totally fluid picking. Really nice.
! P: s2t08 DLG man JG just sounds so great here. By 9, things start getting weird.
! song: "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home" (s2t09). Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell wrote this great road tripper. Garcia's version followed Delaney and Bonnie's more country arrangement than Clapton's earlier-recorded R&B take, but Jerry took it out into some weird places, with some 70s versions clocking in at well over 20 minutes. After getting tons of play with the Keith and Donna era Jerry Bands (with both Tutt and Buzz Buchanan drumming), it reappeared twice in '81 (7/26/81, 8/20/81), then made five appearances on this tour (9/3/89, 9/5/89, 9/9/89, 9/11/89, 9/15/89) before being shelved for good.
! s2t09 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on. Bye bye."
! JGC: http://jerrygarcia.com/show/1989-09-15
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/8295 (MAC shnf); MAC (shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/84359 (Holtz Mac); https://etreedb.org/shn/99084 (Holtz MAC); https://etreedb.org/shn/118330 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/141680 (Markson s2 flac24); https://etreedb.org/shn/141874 (Markson s2 flac16); https://etreedb.org/shn/142021 (Ted C. and Nat F.).
! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html
! map: https://goo.gl/maps/DDSYmjCX2F22
! JGBP: https://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2011/09/alpine-valley-theater-2699-highway-d.html. The Dead played this space a ton throughout the 1980s. This was Jerry's only show there, and his last time overall.
! listing: Milwaukee Sentinel, September 15, 1989, p. unk;
! ref: Billboard, October 7, 1989, p. 45. Show grossed $237,517 on 13,946 tickets sold. Venue held 25,000. The band got a $60k guarantee earlier on tour in Hartford, so it was probably in that range.
! historical: Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman acoustic duo opened.
! R: field recordist: SJ
! R: field recording gear: 2x Audio Technica 2-ATR-35 > Sony PC-39 > Sony WM-D6C
! R: field recording media: 2x Maxell MX-90
! R: Transfer: Harmon Kardon TD-302 playback (heads aligned to tape) >
Zoom H2 wav recorder @16/44.1 > SDHD > tracking and editing w/ wavepad > flac and checksums w/ traderslittlehelper, analog > digital transfer by arfarf on July 8, 2011.
! R: this isn't the greatest tape in the world, but it's totally fine and captures the vibe really well - the taper and his/her friends seem to be having a great time.
! P: s1t02 Jerry sounds very lively.
! P: s1t03 FY very good
! P: s1t05 LARLH so nice!
! P: s1t07 Deal gets pretty hot
! R: s1t07 Deal tape flip @ 8:41
! s1t07 (1) JG: "Thanks a lot. We'll be back in a few minutes. Thank you." Then the taper notes about his tape flip, correctly: "I never would have made it."
! P: s2t04 TWLWMYD features great guitar work, totally characteristic of the period. Check out the tones he works with in the 4-5 range, on top of totally fluid picking. Really nice.
! P: s2t08 DLG man JG just sounds so great here. By 9, things start getting weird.
! song: "Lonesome And A Long Way From Home" (s2t09). Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell wrote this great road tripper. Garcia's version followed Delaney and Bonnie's more country arrangement than Clapton's earlier-recorded R&B take, but Jerry took it out into some weird places, with some 70s versions clocking in at well over 20 minutes. After getting tons of play with the Keith and Donna era Jerry Bands (with both Tutt and Buzz Buchanan drumming), it reappeared twice in '81 (7/26/81, 8/20/81), then made five appearances on this tour (9/3/89, 9/5/89, 9/9/89, 9/11/89, 9/15/89) before being shelved for good.
! s2t09 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. See y'all later on. Bye bye."
Thursday, February 07, 2019
Random Posts Widget added
I got to meet the amazing David Davis of Grateful Seconds yesterday. So much fun!
A random outcome is that I have replaced the top posts widget along the right side of the blog with a "random posts" widget. It pained me that I was creating a feedback loop for more and more people to read about the Golden Gate Park bust, rather than, say the Golden State Country Bluegrass Festival.
I just copied and pasted code from somewhere so it has a different aesthetic, but whatever.
Happy reading!
Saturday, February 02, 2019
RIP, Gloria Jones
Bob Minkin just posted on Facebook that Gloria Jones has passed away. May she rest in peace.
Friday, February 01, 2019
Eels
I am sure you all know this, but all three of Jerry's gigs at on the Eel River are slated for release.
I have written a little about the 6/10/89 and 8/10/91 iterations.
I have written a little about the 6/10/89 and 8/10/91 iterations.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Fall '77 Gig Economics: The Case of SUNY New Paltz (JGB, 11/29/77)
 |
| Handbill for JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77. Scan via Mark Cohen. Note that Ron Tutt is erroneously listed among the personnel. |
I should note that I have discussed a setlist rarity from this show (the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" inside the Wailers' "Stir It Up"), set forth some listening notes under the title "his voice is fading fast", and have also presented these kinds of data for a gig two years earlier ("Accounting the JGB: October 8, 1975").
The SUNY New Paltz Concert Committee brought in name talent a couple times a year for the students, drawing from student activity fees and generally running these events at a loss. But the earnest-seeming crew in place in Fall 1977, which seems to have been operating under the probably-copyright-infringing-but-totally-1977 name of "Jedi Productions", didn't plan to lose as much as they did on the Garcia Band's Tuesday night gig. For Google interest, here are the names and positions of the folks involved in putting on the show.
Kirt Madsen ... Production Manager
Eric Early ... Production Manager
Bill Dacey ... Stage Manager
Rick Markle ... Electrician
Joni White ... Talent Coordinator
Shari Berkowitz ... Tickets
Esther Friedman ... Publicity
Karen Reilly ... Hospitality
Rob Insolia ... Treasurer
Stan Wisla ... Security
Brian Higgenson ... Staging Consultant
Erica Pauling ... Secretary
Richard Someck ... Concessions
Randi Sackheim ...Programs
Debbie Golub ... Programs
Steve Martin ...General Manager
Jack Babb ... Assistant to General Manager
Eric Early ... Production Manager
Bill Dacey ... Stage Manager
Rick Markle ... Electrician
Joni White ... Talent Coordinator
Shari Berkowitz ... Tickets
Esther Friedman ... Publicity
Karen Reilly ... Hospitality
Rob Insolia ... Treasurer
Stan Wisla ... Security
Brian Higgenson ... Staging Consultant
Erica Pauling ... Secretary
Richard Someck ... Concessions
Randi Sackheim ...Programs
Debbie Golub ... Programs
Steve Martin ...General Manager
Jack Babb ... Assistant to General Manager
I would love to hear from any of them, especially Karen Reilly, who is mentioned in the narrative below.
According to the report in the school paper (Ratner 1977), the gig lost about $8,000, which is more than planned, mostly due to ticket sales of only 1,300 against a projected 2,000. But other aspects of putting the concert on probably also taught our young impresarios some valuable lessons in show biz economics. Here are the expenses.
 |
| Table xxx. Expenses for JGB at SUNY New Paltz, 11/29/77. Source: Ratner 1977. |
When the Jerry Garcia Band plays a school, it usually submits a list of refreshment requirements: Freshly ground coffee (either of Sumatra, Celebes, Jamaica High Mountain, Mocha-Java, or Columbian beans); Coffee must be made via the drip method, not electric percolator; Three (3) bottles of good French red wine and one and one-half (1 ½) cases of Heineken Light beer; Four (4) quarts of orange juice – no sugar; Four (4) of bottled spring water; Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and good cheeseburgers; a dinner meal for fifteen …
When they came to New Paltz, they were willing to forego the refreshment requirements. Instead; they brought their own chef, affectionately named Cy Kocis, and asked the concert committee for $600.
"I knew things were going to be wrong when they wanted $600 in cash Tuesday morning," explained Karen Reilly, the Concert Committee's Hospitality Chief. Karen managed to knock them down to $450.
Cy Kocis arrived at 1:30 on Tuesday; installed a four-burner stove charcoal grill and large cooler in Elting Gymnasium 101, and went to work. Filet Mignon and halibut steaks were on the dinner menu. The cooler contained a sumptuous feast for the band and its crew. Karen was there to meet the entourage. In fact, she was there since 9:00, earlier than anyone, making sure everyone experienced New Paltz's hospitality. "But when Cy Kocis gave me 4 large butternut squashes and told me to start peeling and cutting, I told him I had to get towels, or something, for the stage crew." Everyone has their limits.
Why do I imagine this merits quoting at length? I love the standard contract rider information. I knew Jerry was a coffee junkie, but I didn't know he was a coffee snob (which I count as a point in a person's favor). Good French wine pleases me, too, though not sure who of the band would most enjoy it. I guess I have Keith as good for at least a dozen of those Heinekens, but what do I know? Burgers? Definitely Jerry.
Then comes "Cy Kocis". Interesting. $600 cash is also interesting, and suspicious minds sometimes wonder whether that kind of wad might not have bought more than filet, halibut and butternut squash. I also admire the cut of Karen Reilly's jib, haggling them down to $450 and taking a pass on the vegetable peeler. She sounds awesome.
Anyway, good color.
Sunday, January 06, 2019
Garcia's College Gigs
I am fixing to submit research assistance requests to the archives of the various colleges Garcia played. Colleges and universities, bound up as they are with modernity and imbued as they are with a sense of their own importance, document themselves thoroughly. Having sniffed around a few archives already, I am hoping there are some interesting tidbits to be unearthed as, for example, with the Dead's Folsom Field gig (CU-Boulder) on 9/3/72, at which an attendee appeared to answer nature's call in the President's box, which seems to have been a factor in restricting concerts at the venue the following year.
Nothing GD here, and no GD-NRPS. When I exclude the sit-ins that go along with GD shows (e.g., with Elvin Bishop on 6/4/78 at UCSB), I come up with 106 distinct Garcia gigs at colleges and universities.
The chart below provides the over-time view. At some point, I'd like to present this as percentage of all gigs, but I don't have time right now.
Below follows a basic list, roughly alpha by school's colloquial name.
Nothing GD here, and no GD-NRPS. When I exclude the sit-ins that go along with GD shows (e.g., with Elvin Bishop on 6/4/78 at UCSB), I come up with 106 distinct Garcia gigs at colleges and universities.
The chart below provides the over-time view. At some point, I'd like to present this as percentage of all gigs, but I don't have time right now.
 |
| Figure xx. Garcia college and university gigs, annual count |
Amherst
12/07/83 The
Cage, Amherst College JGB
Brandeis
11/14/82 Shapiro
Gym, Brandeis University JGB
Brooklyn College
04/04/75 Whitman
Auditorium, Brooklyn College LOM
Caldwell College
08/11/84 Caldwell
College JGB
Chico State
03/17/82 Acker
Gymnasium, Chico State University JGB
Cornell
10/27/75 Bailey
Hall, Cornell University JGB
CU
03/16/75 Macky
Auditorium, University of Colorado LOM
11/23/75 Macky
Auditorium, University of Colorado JGB
07/02/82 Macky
Auditorium, University of Colorado JGJK
CW Post
11/08/74 The
Dome, C.W. Post College JGMS
09/16/76 The
Dome, C.W. Post College JGB
12/06/77 The
Dome, C.W. Post College JGB
De Anza College
10/10/75 Calvin
C. Flint Center for the Performing Arts, De Anza College JGB
Dominican College
06/06/75 Angelico
Hall, Dominican College Lesh, Lagin,
Garcia, Crosby, Hart
11/15/75 Angelico
Hall, Dominican College Ned Lagin,
Phil, Jerry, David Crosby, and Mickey
Duke
04/04/76 Page
Auditorium, Duke University JGB
Eastern Washington
10/27/78 Performing
Arts Pavilion, Washington State College JGB
George Washington University
04/03/76 Lisner
Auditorium, George Washington University JGB
02/12/80 Lisner
Auditorium, George Washington University JGB
11/07/81 McDonough
Arena, Georgetown University JGB
Glassboro State College
02/15/81 Esby
Gymnasium, Glassboro State College JGB
Hartwick College
12/03/77 Binder
Physical Education Center, Hartwick College JGB
Hofstra
11/21/77 The
Playhouse, Hofstra University JGB
Humboldt State
11/13/76 East
Gym, Humboldt State University JGB
Ithaca College
09/18/76 Ben
Light Gymnasium, Ithaca College JGB
Kean College
02/28/80 Wilkins
Theatre, Kean College JGB
11/15/82 Wilkins
Theatre, Kean College JGB
12/13/83 Wilkins
Theatre, Kean College JGB
Lehigh
02/05/81 Stabler
Arena, Lehigh University JGB
Loyola Chicago
11/17/78 Rambler
Room, Loyola University Bob Weir
& Friends
Northwestern
03/12/76 Cahn
Auditorium, Northwestern University JGB
Oberlin College
03/13/76 Finney
Chapel, Oberlin College JGB
Orange County CC
08/15/84 Orange
County Community College JGB
Penn State
12/11/77 Recreation
Hall, Pennsylvania State University JGB
11/16/84 Eisenhower
Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University JGJK
Rider College
11/08/81 Alumni
Gymnasium, Rider College JGB
Rutgers
12/04/77 The
Barn, Rutgers University JGB
02/22/80 The
Barn, Rutgers University JGB
11/10/82 Livingston
Gymnasium, Rutgers University JGB
San Diego State
05/20/89 Open
Air Theater, San Diego State University JGB
SFSU
03/03/82 Barbary
Coast Room, San Francisco State University JGB
SJSU
10/17/69 Loma
Prieta Room, Student Union, San Jose State University NRPS
04/25/92 Event
Center Arena JGB
Seton Hall
09/17/76 Walsh
Auditorium, Seton Hall University JGB
Sonoma State
11/04/73 Gymnasium,
California State College Sonoma OAITW orig 10/7/73
Southwestern College
08/02/92 Devore
Field, Southwestern College JGB
Stanford
10/03/71 Frost
Amphitheatre, Stanford University JGMS
07/09/88 Frost
Amphitheatre, Stanford University JGAB
SUNY Brockport
11/01/81 Tuttle
North Gymnasium, State University of New York JGB
SUNY Buffalo
01/29/72 State
University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo HWJG
11/30/77 Center
Theater, SUNY JGB
SUNY New Paltz
11/29/77 Elting
Gym, State University of New York JGB
SUNY Oswego
02/17/80 Laker
Hall, Sate University of New York (SUNY) Oswego JGB
12/11/83 Laker
Hall, Sate University of New York (SUNY) Oswego JGB
SUNY Stony Brook
12/09/77 Gym,
S.U.N.Y. JGB
02/24/80 Pritchard
Gym, S.U.N.Y. JGB
12/04/83 Gym,
S.U.N.Y. JGB
Syracuse
01/22/72 Crouse
Auditorium, Syracuse University HWJG
02/19/80 Landmark
Theatre JGB not on campus, but put on by Syracuse University Union Concert
Board
Temple U Ambler
06/11/73 Temple
Festival Theater, Temple University-Ambler OAITW
UC Berkeley
07/23/69 Bear's
Lair, UC Berkeley NRPS
08/01/69 Bear's
Lair, UC Berkeley NRPS
08/01/69 Bear's
Lair, UC Berkeley NRPS
01/19/70 Pauley
Ballroom, UC Berkeley NRPS
06/21/70 Pauley
Ballroom, UC Berkeley NRPS
01/19/74 Pauley
Ballroom, UC Berkeley JGMS
08/30/87 Greek
Theatre, UC Berkeley JGB
07/10/88 Greek
Theatre, UC Berkeley JGB
08/26/89 Greek
Theatre, UC Berkeley JGB
08/05/90 Greek
Theatre, UC Berkeley JGB
UC Davis
08/30/74 Freeborn
Hall, UC Davis JGMS
11/12/76 Freeborn
Hall, UC Davis JGB
08/07/81 Freeborn
Hall, UC Davis JGB
UCLA
04/16/93 Pauley
Pavilion, UCLA JGB
04/17/93 Pauley
Pavilion, UCLA JGB
UCSB
02/05/77 Campbell
Hall, UC Santa Barbara JGB
U Illinois Chicago
08/18/84 UIC
Pavilion, University of Illinois, Chicago JGB
U of Iowa
10/20/73 Fieldhouse,
University of Iowa JGMS CXL
U Maryland
11/06/82 Ritchie
Coliseum, University of Maryland JGB
UMass Amherst
02/20/80 Fine
Arts Center Concert Hall, University of Massachusetts JGB
U Nevada
02/21/87 Lawlor
Events Center, Univ. of Nevada JGB
U of New Haven
02/16/80 Charger
Gymnasium, University of New Haven JGB
U of Oregon
12/15/74 EMU
Ballroom, University of Oregon LOM
University of San Francisco
10/31/74 University of San Francisco, War Memorial Gymnasium JGMS
University of San Francisco
10/31/74 University of San Francisco, War Memorial Gymnasium JGMS
U Vermont
11/14/81 Patrick
Gymnasium, University of Vermont JGB
Villanova
01/23/72 Villanova
Field House, Villanova University HWJG
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
11/15/74 Alden
Memorial Auditorium, Worcester Polytechnic Institute JGMS
Yale
10/22/75 Woolsey
Hall, Yale University JGB
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