Tag: jerry garcia

Show Review: Jerry Garcia Band – San Francisco, CA (01/11/82)

Jerry Garcia Band
01-11-1982
Old Waldorf
San Francisco, CA

Set 1

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
That’s What Love Will Make You Do
Simple Twist Of Fate
I Second That Emotion >
Deal

Set 2
The Way You Do The Things You Do
I’ll Take A Melody
Valerie
Harder They Come
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down >
Dear Prudence >
Tangled Up In Blue

Jerry Garcia – electric guitar, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Jimmy Warren – keyboards
John Kahn – electric bass
Julie Stafford – vocals
Liz Stires – vocals
Melvin Seals – keyboards

The Midnight Cafe’s Review

A few weeks back, a friend of mine asked me if I had a copy of a Jerry Garcia Band show from 1982. I can’t remember the exact date, but I didn’t have it. I looked it up on bt.etree and found a copy. As that site often does for Jerry and Grateful Dead shows, they had bundled this particular show with several others. Being of the opinion that you can never have too much Jerry, I went ahead and downloaded all of them. Then I figured, in for a penny in for a pound, and I downloaded all of the sets of shows from 1982. I randomly listened to a few shows (or more like snippets from a few shows) and found that I really liked them. So, I thought it would be fun to listen to and review them all.

Starting in late 1981 and running through the Spring of 1982, Jerry was in and out of the studio recording what would become his last studio record as a solo artist, Run for the Roses. Some of those sessions exist on tape, but I’ll be skipping them for now, as well as all the shows he played with the Grateful Dead during this time.

He’d play quite a few of the songs that make it onto the record throughout the year. The album contains about half original songs and half covers.

Jerry gigged a lot in 1982. By my count, he played some 86 gigs as a solo artist, mostly with the Jerry Garcia Band, but some 23 times with only John Kahn on bass (and once with Bob Weir for the David Letterman show). In contrast, the Grateful Dead only played 63 times this year.

It is interesting to look at the Grateful Dead dates right next to Jerry’s solo gigs. He began the year in the studio, then played this gig at the Old Waldorf and again at the same venue two days later. Then he’s back in the studio for a bit and then spends the first half of February gigging around California. Then the Dead play some California shows then the Jerry Band does. There is a lot of that throughout the year where the Dead will do some gigs, and Jerry will fill in the holes.

The Dead do a proper tour in April and then a big one in July-August. And then they close out the year, as they usually did, with a New Year’s run in Oakland. The Jerry Garcia Band does a short East Coast tour in June, and then just him and John Kahn do several gigs in the Northwest to finish the month out. The Jerry Band is back at it for a big tour in October and November.

This is the kind of thing I normally don’t pay attention to. I didn’t follow Jerry while he was alive and have just listened to shows throughout my adulthood without much thought to where he was playing. This year might not be abnormal; I don’t know. But I do find it fascinating.

This show is a good one, but nothing spectacular. Etree lists two sources for this show – 84012 and 20687, both presumably coming from the same soundboard tape. 20687 was cleaned up a little bit by the misSHN in the rain people.

The opener, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” has the front half cut off; only 1:32 of it survives. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door is very mellow. Jerry plays and sings with sincerity, but softly. The keys lightly tinkle.

“That’s What Love Will Make You Do” from this period has become one of my favorite songs. The rhythm section creates this wonderful, danceable beat; Jerry usually sings with passion, and his guitar typically soars. This version is good, but not quite amazing. The keys do this thing where they switch from a typical piano sound to something more synth-like, then to a more organ sound.

“Simple Twist of Fate” at first puts us back into mellow ballad territory. Then Kahn takes a long, noodling bass solo then Jerry goes at it with his guitar, wailing with a very high-pitched, screeching tone. Then it settles back down, and there are some really nice keyboard moments.

I can’t remember when I first heard Smokey Robinson’s “I Second That Emotion.” Since my mother was a big Motown fan, I assume I heard the original long before I even knew who Jerry Garcia was. What I do remember is that in the mid-1990s I discovered the newsgroup rec.music.gdead; with it I found my people. At the time, it was common for deadheads within that newsgroup to respond to a post that they agreed with by saying, “I Second That Emotion.” I loved that, and the saying entered my vocabulary for many years.

Somewhere around this time, I heard a live version of the song by the Jerry Band, and it quickly became a favorite. They do a great job with it here. Jerry’s voice sounds a little weak, maybe even a little hoarse, but he absolutely nails the first solo. The band follows right behind. At some point, Jerry seems to just say “screw it” to the vocals, and they just jam on the thing for a while. Eventually, he’ll return to the song and sing it with gusto.

When I first started listening to the Jerry Garcia Band, I loved it when they would play Grateful Dead songs. I think that was because I didn’t really know his solo stuff or the cover songs he tended to play. There was always some Motown song that I knew or a Dylan cover, but a lot of those songs were unfamiliar to me. I was also still new to the Dead, and these were the days when you couldn’t stream every show they ever played, so I liked hearing their songs in any version I could get.

But these days I find it a little annoying when the Jerry Band plays a Dead tune. If I wanted to hear those songs, I can listen to a Dead show. When Jerry is with his other band, I want to hear different songs. Which is to say, they play “Deal” in this set, and it is perfectly fine.

“I’ll Take a Melody” is not one of my favorite covers, but this is a very fine version. Garcia and keyboardist Melvin Seals do some wonderful interplay on it. Seals had just joined the band about a year before (and would wind up staying right up until Jerry died), but he was already perfectly integrated into the band.

“Valerie” is another song from Run for the Roses, and it is also a song I’ve never particularly liked.

“The Harder They Come” is a lot of fun. Somewhere in the middle, Seals starts playing really fast, and then Jerry just follows along. It is like speed rock for a moment. Then it slows down to a more standard tempo. I don’t know what keyboards Seals was playing, but it switches from a standard piano sound to something electric and out of a science fiction movie, to more of an organ sound. I dig it.

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is perfectly fine. As is “Dear Prudence” and “Tangled Up In Blue.” Prudence has a lovely gentle jam in the middle.

And that’s the gig. As I said, it is a good show. Not mind-blowing, but good. I know we’ll hear some even better shows in the days to come. I can’t wait.

—

Long ago, I created a playlist called “Great Bootleg Songs.” That’s a pretty boring name for a playlist, but it is also pretty self-explanatory. When I listen to a show and discover an incredible performance on a song, I throw it into this playlist. Whenever I don’t know what to play, I can put that playlist on and dig some great live music. I thought I’d start doing a thing at the end of these things, telling you which songs, if any, from this review deserve to go into that playlist.

Show Highlights:

I Second that Emotion
I’ll Take a Melody

Source info:

Source 1: SHNID 84012

MSC > DAT > Panasonic SV-3700 playback > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0 mastering with iZotope Ozone 3 > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8).

Comments: Very clean SBD with several pauses between tunes crossfades were applied to cover.
Flaws:
d1t01 – most of beginning of track is missing
d1t04 – beginning clipped.
d1t06 – Deal is cut.
d2t04 – First two verses are missing.
d2t06 – Tangled Up In Blue is painfully cut.

Source 2: SHNID 20867

MSC>DAT >CDR>WAV>SHNv3. Multiple track cuts – see info file for details.

Comments: Very clean SBD with several minor cuts.
Flaws:
d1t01 – most of beginning of track is missing
d1t04 – beginning clipped.
d1t05 – pop @ 01:32, 01:34 removed using pencil tool, SF6,
d1t06 – Deal is cut.
d2t05 – First two verses are missing.
d2t07 – Tangled Up In Blue is painfully cut.

Thanks to J.Powell for CDR source. DAE(EAC0.9b4, offset corrected, secure mode, QPS QUE 2410)>removal of pop/silent gaps(SF6)>tracking(cdwav)>sector boundaries confirmed(shntool)>SHN(shorten3.4) via C.Ladner.

Another installment of the misSHN in the rain division of TMNSP, 11/03.

Links, Etc.

Jerry Base entry for this show.

Jerry Garcia’s Middle Finger has some nice info about it as well.

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Random Shuffle (09/18/06) – Van Morrison, Jerry Garcia, Ryan Adams, Seu Jorge, & Led Zeppelin

“Magic Time” – Van Morrison
From Magic Time

I can’t really remember when I first discovered Van Morrison him. I do remember having his first greatest hits album for ages and playing it like mad in college. The songs just shimmered and glowed like fresh magic. Eventually, I bought the second greatest hits album and was sunk because it stunk. Most of the songs are from a religious period if he had a religious period like Dylan. I don’t know, I’m not that steeped in Morrison mythology, but a lot of the songs seemed deeply religious, and boring.

In time I’ve come to love more and more of his songs. Is there a greater few minutes of music than “Tupelo Honey?”

I first heard his newest release, Magic Time on a bust tour of Southern Ireland. The bus driver was playing everything Irish including The Man, U2, and lots of traditional Celtic stuff. He played this album and at the time it sounded OK. It was a little slow and not filled with the type of songs you want to hear on a multi-day bus trip.

A friend bought the disk and I borrowed it and have since found it to be a late-era Morrison treasure. The songs are mostly soft, but they have that impassioned Van Morrison delivery, and the lyrics are sweet and kind and perfect for a romantic evening.

This song seems to hearken back to a time when Van was young and full of that magic vigor. It is deeply nostalgic and unapologetic about it. It has a nice little sweeping shuffle and feels like a sunny day picnic out in the countryside – neath a shade tree to keep the heat of the sun at bay.

In other words, just about perfect.

“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” – Jerry Garcia
From Run for the Roses

Jerry Garcia’s studio albums are about like the Grateful Dead in the studio – mostly awful. That’s not actually all that fair since the Dead released several really great albums, and Jerry did a few good ones solo.

The problem, it seems to me, is that the Dead don’t know how to produce their own records. Live, in the moment, they can perform magic, but given time in the studio to record, listen, and record some more they underestimate their abilities and screw it up.

Garcia puts a little reggae influence into his version of this Dylan classic, but it doesn’t really help. Clocking in at over seven minutes, it just goes on and on without ever hitting a level that justifies the length. Oh, there is some very decent melodic Jerry guitar work in the middle, but it never manages to put me in the kind of zone I often reach during a live performance.

“Firecracker” – Ryan Adams
From 02/09/02

I believe this is Mr. Adams’ third time starring in a Random Shuffle, which may be a record, and certainly proves I have quite a bit of his music on my little computer. A very large portion of my RA collection (at least on my computer) is live. A while back I downloaded a big stinking chunk of a compilation and have yet to actually burn them to disk.

What I have heard of it, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Previously I’ve mentioned how I don’t like Adams’ tendency to write super slow, unmelodic tunes and that goes doubly so for his live material. But even the faster songs performed live, at least in this case, aren’t so great. I very much enjoy his more recent live outings with the Cardinals, but from what I’ve heard of his stuff a few years back, it is not so great. The band just isn’t as on as I like.

Take this instance, for example. “Firecracker” is a great little song. It is a nearly perfectly crafted pop-rock ditty. Live, the organ decides to go all speed metal on me and destroys the melody, Adams tries to keep up and does his best at being the big rock god lead man, but it doesn’t fit. What’s left is the remnants of a good song with a lot of energy, but without the tune that made the song great in the first place. (The video I’ve embedded above is not the version I wrote about, but I couldn’t find it anywhere).

“Rebel Rebel” – Seu Jorge
From The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

Personally, I felt The Life Aquatic was Wes Anderson’s least interesting film. The action and the characters never quite gelled into a cohesive whole. What helped make it a good film, though, was Seu Jorges’ Spanish takes on David Bowie songs. I don’t think this particular song from the Aquatic Sessions is a David Bowie song, but what do I know I can only name a handful of Bowie songs. So this may or may not be a Bowie cover, but it most definitely is a nice, lulling little acoustic ballad. (Editor’s Note:  I have no idea why I didn’t think this song was originally written by David Bowie, obviously it was.)

While visiting my folks in Oklahoma this summer a commercial came on the TV and in the background was Seu Jorge’s version of “What a Wonderful World” which prompted my brother-in-law to scoff that Jorge was in way too many commercials. At the time I wondered what he meant, as I had only seen the one commercial.

In the weeks that followed I became more familiar with Jorge’s work and have noticed that an awful lot of commercials have used his songs. It is easy to see why. Many of his songs are interesting, unique, and different yet almost instantly accessible. They are on the opposite side of the spectrum from the vapid jingles that most commercials (and pop radio) play every day. Here’s to more commercials playing Seu Jorge and his ilk.

“Battle of Evermore” – Led Zeppelin
From Led Zeppelin IV

It may prove what an odd musical upbringing I had, but I first knew and loved this song through Heart and the version they recorded as The Love Mongers on the soundtrack to the movie Singles.

I still love that version.

I’m sure I was familiar with Led Zeppelin at that time. They were the titan of hard rock, and I certainly enjoyed heavy doses of hard rock. I was more in love with current bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana, all of which, of course, have heavy influences from Led Zeppelin. But I didn’t own a Zeppelin album then.

Sometime later I rectified this and bought up most of the records. Led Zeppelin is a classic, of course, though I always preferred Led Zeppelin II.

Zeppelin always reminds me of an article I once read about Kurt Cobain, who later in life, was embarrassed that he had Led Zepplin posters on his wall when he was a young boy. They were too corporate, or not punk enough,  and that pointed to being a sell-out.

An easy enough opinion for a young man to have. I certainly went through periods of being embarrassed by the music I once loved. But these days, who has the time? I admit when I was a young boy I had posters of New Kids on the Block, and dug the boy band ditties. Although, I must secretly admit it had more to do with trying to be liked by my cousin and fitting in, than any true admiration of NKOBT.

Not long later, I ripped those same posters down and wondered how I could ever have liked those boys. But now it is a fun little piece of nostalgia, and I can actually go back and admire the hooks and harmonies. It is impossible to not smile when “Hanging Tough” hits the radio on the retro hour. I still do the hand motions too.

I’m no longer a Zeppelin fan. I think I outgrew the crunching guitars and the vulgar, science-fiction lyrics. But I have no shame in spending many hours watching The Song Remains the Same and being mesmerized by Jimmy Page playing the guitar like a violin.

Jerry Garcia Band – Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839

pure jerry Jerry Garcia was a guitar-playing mofo-son-of-a-ho. For thirty years he played 100+ shows with the Grateful Dead annually. When he wasn’t playing for his day job, he was gigging in clubs with an ever-changing assortment of characters in the Jerry Garcia Band. Or he’d hit up Merle Saunders for a jam session and stop by David Grisman’s home to fiddle around. They tell tales of Garcia jamming on a few tunes for the Dead’s opening band, then sitting in with the New Riders of the Purple Sage on steel guitar; and then playing some five hours with the Grateful Dead. The man loved to play music.

In a move akin to the Grateful Dead’s release every note played policy, the Jerry Garcia estate has quickly been releasing a series of Jerry Garcia Band shows. The first in the series titled Pure Jerry is three disks from July 29 and 30 1977. Like a lot of the Dead sets from this year, these shows smoke!

The Garcia Band usually contained very little music that the Dead played. This was Garcia’s chance to play music that didn’t necessarily fit within the scope of the Grateful Dead. These disks are no different. There are numbers from Motown, Jamaica, God, and several tracks from Bob Dylan.

Garcia loved a soulful ballad. And though no one is gonna put Garcia’s voice on any all-time list, he has a way of projecting emotion that reaches down, far into his very guts.

For my money, it’s the upbeat numbers that make this set worth the price of the ticket, er CD. The opening track, “Mystery Train” is a barn burner showcasing both Garcia’s talent for ruminating on a theme, and Keith Godchaux’s ability as a piano man. The two take some nice leads and dance around each other in a glorious ballroom mania.

As with the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band could jam a song out into beautiful, mysterious places. Yet this improvisational, take-it-as-it-comes approach to music could also lead to dead-ends, barren desserts, and meandering trails leading to nowhere. More often than not, Garcia was able to lead his comrades into rock-n-roll nirvana, but sometimes, like here during “Russian Lullabye”, the song loses control of itself. After a lovely, melody-shaking groove the song breaks down into a pointless, boring bass solo.

Nearly every song includes something of a jam, and mostly the band is able to pull it off. Whether it is the soft, rock-a-bye lilt of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, or the get off your keister and dance bebop twist to Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue”, Garcia and Co. are ready to take you out there, to find new spaces for music.

Though there are a few misses, and some all too long rambles (the 27 minutes of “Don’t Let Go” is about 15 minutes too much) these three disks are filled with so many moments of brilliance, it is a definite must-have for any Rock lover. It is also a brilliant place to find one of the all-time guitarists genius outside of the Grateful Dead.