Yup, set 2 of 12/18/73 is just as terrific as set 1. The UJB encore is fantastic - just finishing that one now. Starting over the Eyes > Wharf > Sugar Magnolia pre-encore. Is it Phil who sings the harmony behind Jerry on that number? I am guessing so because Bob's a better singer. (It's part of Phil's charm, though.) LOL
I saw a couple of Charlotte shows, Summer tour 91, this video made me bust out the discs, listening to 6/11 now...what a great time this tour was. Phils bass is growling thru Bird Song as I type.... Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC (6/11/91) Iko Iko Walkin' Blues Jack-A-Roe Mama Tried Mexicali Blues West L.A. Fadeaway Queen Jane Approximately Bird Song Promised Land Victim or the Crime Eyes of the World Looks Like Rain Terrapin Station drums space Playin' Reprise The Wheel Throwin' Stones Not Fade Away U.S. Blues Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC (6/12/91) Feel Like a Stranger Peggy-O C.C. Rider Althea Desolation Row Loose Lucy Hell in a Bucket Don't Ease Me In Touch of Grey Saint of Circumstance Ship of Fools Man Smart/Woman Smarter drums space Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad All Along the Watchtower Morning Dew Brokedown Palace
Prior to the proto Slipknot! jam I mentioned, the jam alternates between E Major and Eb minor and for the Slipknot! bit, it's over a Cdim7 and crashes back to E Major7 @ 10:58. Take a look at the notes that comprise a Cdim7 chord: C Eb Gb Bbb (or A). Now look at what comprises a B7 chord, which is the dominant chord of E Major: B D# F# A. D# and Eb are enharmonically equivalent (at least on a fretted instrument and/or when using equal temperament, but let's not go there), as are F# and Gb. So the Cdim7 is a chord substitution for the simple B7 dominant of the key that is resolved to: E Major. In fact, the Cdim7 is really a B7(b9) with the root (B) replaced by the b9 (C). B7(b9) more often resolves to E minor, but it works here in part because of the previous oscillation between E Major and Eb minor, which tricks the ear into hearing somewhat non-conventional resolutions as more logical that they might otherwise sound. Jazz technique for sure, but it's really rock and roll when you listen to it.
now playing: Devore Field (Southwestern U), Chula Vista, CA (9/15/85) Alabama Getaway Promised Land West L.A. Fadeaway Mama Tried Big River Dupree's Diamond Blues Smokestack Lightnin' Deal Scarlet Begonias Fire on the Mountain Samson and Delilah She Belongs to Me Truckin' Comes a Time Around and Around drums U.S. Blues Satisfaction Brokedown Palace
That is a sweet jam for sure. I'm not as conversant with the musical theory being a conga player, but I could hear the different changes swirling around and then coming back to the E major. Beautiful stuff. It is more into jazz than most bands will go, yet it is only rock & roll- but I like it!
Just started my Dick's Picks play through in order of release. DP1 never jumped out at me before. That was a poor assessment. Here Comes Sunshine!!
I was at that one...odd second set. When Around and Around started it almost seemed like it was going to be a second set without Drums > Space, but it finally happened only to go into > US Blues? And then > Satisfaction? It was a WTF moment (even if people didn't say WTF back then).
For context, they try the very same thing on 10/19/73 from 9:21 - 9:53 and at best, it's a train wreck. Thus is the very nature of improvisational music. Personally, I'd rather take the chance and fail 7 times and produce something unheard of 3 times, but most bands don't even entertain that concept. Not only did the Dead entertain it, they embraced it. At least from '68-'74. It was far more rare after that.
Also in 1973, although in the fall... "Weather Report Suite" from 11-10-73. Looking forward to the PITB > UJB > Dew > UJB > PITB that follows.
Watching/listening to The Grateful Deads 1981 Rockpalast performance. And of course The Who is on this as well. Always crack a smile when Pete Townshend joins the Dead on stage. Interesting watch/listen.
Jerry Garcia Band - Live (1991) Criminally out of print, this 2 CD set is a personal desert island pick. Cover art by long time JGB bassist John Kahn. Sentimentally, I remember buying it at the music store (where I also worked) at the Schine Student Center at Syracuse University my sophomore year. This is the period when I became a stone cold Deadhead, seeing my first JGB show at MSG on 11/15/91 (and my first Dead show at MSG on 9/8/91) and becoming an insatiable tape trader/collector/listener. In those days, high quality, low gen JGB soundboards were rare, but I remember being hooked up with low gen audience tapes from that stellar Fall Tour of '91. This release was a revelation. Recorded during the Spring Tour and August of 1990 at the Warfield in San Francisco, and with some studio fixes, this is pinnacle late career Jerry Band for me. Stellar, highly emotive versions of Simple Twist of Fate, I Shall Be Released, Dear Prudence, and Deal are disc 1 highlights. Disc 2 is just as tight with killer versions of Senor (Tales of Yankee Power), The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Tangled Up in Blue. The highlight for me is the spacy 17+ minute Don't Let Go. IMO, there is not a bum note on this entire collection. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend seeking it out, and if you have it, I recommend spinning it again and rejoicing in the Church of Jerry. The Way You Do The Things You Do (William Robinson Jr / Robert Rogers) Waiting For A Miracle (Bruce Cockburn) Simple Twist Of Fate (Bob Dylan) Get Out Of My Life (Allen Toussaint) My Sisters And Brothers (Charles Johnson) I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan) Dear Prudence (John Lennon / Paul McCartney) Deal (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter) Stop That Train (Peter Tosh) Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) (Bob Dylan) Evangeline (David Hidalgo / Louis Perez) The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (J.W. Robertson) Don't Let Go (Jesse Stone) That Lucky Old Sun (Haven Gillespie / Beasley Smith) Tangled Up In Blue (Bob Dylan)
Yeah - I remember getting the cassette form Christmas or B-day when it was released - found it on cd about 5 years ago, pretty cheap $5-$8 range. It's definitely a great set - sadly I never did see JGB live - it just seemed every time the rolled through Chicago, i wasn't in town (I was at school at the time).
This album was in constant rotation for years. I was just getting into the Dead before it was released and decided against seeing JGB. This album made me sorely regret that decision. I blame my friends for not insisting. The cascading/echoing guitar runs during Simple Twist is some of my favorite music. I hear those in my head frequently.
Just listened to this to see what it sounded like. I'm no musician, but yeah - that's not good. Ah, well, nobody's perfect.
This afternoon, I've transitioned to the Grateful Dead from Hollywood Palladium on 8/6/71. Incendiary performance by the "core five". I was blown away by seeing the Grateful Dead and JGB for the first time starting in the Fall of 1991. For the people lucky enough to be of the age to have seen the band perform in their prime, this stuff is life changing. I'm listening to Rob Bertrando's crisp, superb audience recording here:
The +2 version of this disc has two added live tracks from January 28, 1972 in Providence. One of the bonus cuts is the 13-minute "Sweet Cocaine," the strongest track on the album IMO. The Jerry Garcia Band might have looked very different had it not been for the relationships formed around the Wales gigs: "He [John Kahn] and I have been playing together since - we started working together for Howard Wales at a little club in San Francisco called the Matrix on Monday nights, right around '68, '69, somewhere around there. When the Grateful Dead isn't working, I like to keep playing. So they used to have this Monday night jam session, but Howard gradually sort of took it over. Howard's this amazing organ player - difficult person, but wonderful musician. And for some reason he liked our playing, John and mine. We didn't know each other, John and I. In fact we played with Howard for almost a year before we even actually started talking to each other. Really. We would just show up, plug in, and play. About half the set I'd be whispering to John, I'd be saying, 'Hey, man, what key are we in?' Howard didn't have tunings or anything, he just played. Sometimes he would do these things that were so outside that you just couldn't - unless you knew where it was going, you had no idea where to start. Sometimes they'd turn out to be just these things like four-bar blues turnarounds, relatively simple musical things, but they were so extended the way he'd play them - 'God, what is this? Anyway, I learned a lot - both of us learned a lot about staying awake and listening to what's going on, playing with Howard. It was a real experience. We played with him for a couple of years, and then Howard went off and kinda - periodically he gets this thing of where he just can't deal with the music world any more, and he just disappears. So we were there, stuck there, and we were supposed to play Monday night, and we didn't have a player. John said, 'Well, I just did some sessions with this guy Merl Saunders.'" [JG]
