New "Hot Tuna" archival release: "Before We Were Them: June 28, 1969"

I'm trying to compare this to the circulating tape.
That had
1 Rock me Baby
2. tuning up
3. 3/5ths of mile jam
4. I can tell
5. Star track
6. Instrumental

3. sounds like what is turnaround on the new release.
6 maybe through the golden gate? but its hard to say.

4. is not on the new release. It has joey singing and is it just me
but most of the songs he sings sound terrible. So its no surprise they left this off.

So if you have the tape, you still need the new release for the additional tracks.

Though the titles seem arbitrary.
Though the grove is a known song (in jam version).
New Song for the morning?

 

Just listened to this for the first time

It is absolutely fabulous. Great performances and fabulous powerful sound. Very clean. Really well recorded.

 

I saw them 4 months after this was recorded and they were called Hot Tuna then. I guess Covington was on drums. I always assumed later it was Sammy Piazza.

 

Check out tunabase.com - looks like Covington drummed with them from around November ‘68 to November ‘70. The name “Hot Tuna” appears on a late ‘68 poster, but they were not using it consistently until 1969. Tuna also gets a shoutout in the liner notes for JA’s Volunteers.

 

I haven’t heard the tape, but Turnaround definitely has a 3/5ths section. Through The Grove has a part that ended up in Feel So Good. It also has a riff that reminded me of Let It Out by the Hombres. Jorma live plays some free floating riffs that sound like other songs, at least to me. Tunabase just added this release in the last week or so.

1969-06-28
Veterans Memorial Building, Santa Rosa, CA

Rock Me Baby
Turnaround (3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds Instrumental Jam)
I Can Tell
Star Track
Through The Golden Gate (Instrumental)

Owsley Stanley "Sonic Journal" recording:
Rock Me Baby
Turnaround
Star Track
Through the Golden Gate
Come Back Baby
Through the Grove
Inspiration in the Hall of Arrivals


Lineup:
Jorma Kaukonen - guitar, vox
Jack Casady - bass
Joey Covington - drums

Support act(s):
The Grateful Dead, Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band

Note:
Owsley Stanley "Sonic Journal" recording release date December 2018

Artifacts:

 

Thanks for the comments. I was on the fence about getting this but now I'm convinced I need it! Will pick it up.

 

At the end of Through The Grove, the emcee says the band Weird Herald will perform with them the following night. In his new autobiography, Jorma writes about how much he enjoyed playing with his friends guitarists Billy Dean Andrus and Paul Ziegler in that band and how he wanted to start his own band with Jack that would be as much fun. He later wrote Ode For Billy Dean, and Ziegler was in Hot Tuna for awhile, including during the Jamaica session with Marty Balin. Weird Herald sounds very compatible with Jorma on their only single.

Saratoga James

 

...and the B side. More info about Weird Herald at

Rock Archaeology 101: The Matrix, San Francisco, CA February 19, 1969 Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady/Weird Herald

The Matrix, San Francisco, CA February 19, 1969 Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady/Weird Herald

Just Yesterday

 

So how's the mix on this? Drums centered and guitar / bass left and right?

 

Everything’s centered - little to no separation.

 

Bear must’ve had his reasons...

 

I like it, though I'd really like to see the 20+ minute jam of Sparye Change get a 24 bit release.

 

That Big Brother release is really good, & oddly already oop.

 

I'd enjoy this far more without the drumming. Busy, clattering, shapeless. Serves no musical purpose.

 

No musical purpose? Well, it gave those guys a platform for jamming. That was the purpose, fwiw.

 

I saw live Jorma and Jack sets around this time at the Bear's Lair at Cal. They had their totally together. Covington's not providing any kind of groove or foundation; he's just trying to keep up.

 

I understand, jomo - didn’t say it was “good”, but again, the musical purpose was the in-the-moment opportunity to jam. Clearly Covington didn’t contribute enough to make the longer-term cut, and Tuna did quite nicely without.

 

Covington is "ok" imo, but he's no Spencer Dryden. Firing Dryden after Volunteers was a HUGE mistake, imo.

Dryden was also a really nice guy. When I was 18, I interviewed him as a college dj when he was with the New Riders. He graciously put up with all my Airplane questions. We also made plans to hang out after the show. That didn't happen because the Riders bass player hit on my 16 yo date, & she really wanted to go home.

 

I never thought Joey had much style. Spencer came from a jazz background so his ideas were much more interesting.

 

As much as I like Bark & Winterland, they really missed Dryden imo. I found Covington to be a straight ahead rock drummer, & there was NOTHING "straight" about the Airplane! In fact (to paraphrase), David Crosby had a quote where he said he liked playing with the Dead, but the Airplane's "time" (musically) was a bit too strange for him.

 

Drumming aside, they fortunately cut Covington's vocal song.
Why they let him sing live is beyond me.

 

As great of a drummer as Spencer was, he had been enough of a malcontent that Joey was contacted as a potential replacement over a year before Spencer was ousted. Jorma and Jack were glad to have a drummer willing to gig with them, and they finally wanted Joey in the Airplane as well. Jorma: “I think Spencer is the most articulate drummer that the band had, and we might have grown in other musical directions had we stayed with Spencer. But that’s in retrospect. At the time I just wanted to be louder, and I got louder.” Within the year, Joey was out of Tuna. During the sessions for Long John Silver, Jack and Jorma booted him from the Airplane. At the time, Jack said Joey’s drumming was difficult to play along with.

 

Hot Tuna has worked through a bunch of drummers over the years...

Joey Covington
Sammy Piazza
Bob Steeler
Shigemi Komiyama
Joey Stefko
Harvey Sorgen
Erik Diaz
Skoota Warner
Justin Guip

 

Sammy is still my favorite from this list. He was the first drummer I saw with tuna in 72-73. For me, the releases during his period are best.

 

Only time I saw Tuna was as an acoustic duo & I believe JC was really stoned; it's the only time I've ever heard him play sloppy.