How About Some Good Old Jerry Garcia To Ease Your Soul?

This morning, I had in a fantastic (and somewhat rare) soundboard recording of the Jerry Garcia Band at Keystone in Palo Alto, California on 11-12-1983.

Jerry's sound dudes, unlike those for the Dead, must have been a little bit less generous with the plugs into the board. While soundboard recordings of his band are still plentiful, there's nowhere near the proportion that exist for his shows with the boys...most are audience tapes.

Anyway, this one, Rhapsody in Red, had me bopping along on the way into the salt mines this morning. Hopefully it will have a similar effect on you!

Whack Fol the Daddy O

It's been a little while since I've posted some good tunes, so now is as good a time as any.

This is from the Grateful Dead's commercially-released box set, So Many Roads.

It's a compilation of live and other cool cuts from their full history, 1965-1995. It's got one of the prettiest Scarlet Begonias I've ever heard. The guitar solo in the middle, one of my favorite solos of their catalog, makes the hair on my neck stand up.

This cut is of the boys in the studio where Jerry starts picking at Whiskey in the Jar. Jerry's probably fibbing about just remembering it at that moment for the first time in 30 years, but who knows. Either way, we get to witness the wonderful powers of induction possessed by Robert Weir when he pounces all over its Irish origins.

Way to go, brainiac.

Either way, this is some really cool stuff and I love hearing them horse around in the studio. Would be great to get more of this goodness from the vault!

Jerry Garcia...Sit Down Comedian

Fare You Well

Has it really been 13 years since Jerry checked out? Time really flies, but I'll never forget where I was working when the word came down...

I don't have much to say here that I haven't said before or intend to say in the future, so just enjoy a little splice I put together.

In keeping with some of their occasionally-predictable choice of songs, I have two songs often used to end a concert, run or tour to put a bookend on our annual celebration of the music of Jerry Garcia.

First up is Brokedown Palace, which wrapped up a four-show run at the Capital Center in Columbia, MD on 9-6-88, followed by And We Bid You Goodnight, the last song played at the Fillmore East on 4-29-71.

This mention of a detail clearly crosses the line into obsessiveness, but I chose this particular Brokedown because at the end, it's Jerry who bids the crowd adieu, rather than Bobby. I kind of liked that touch.

Thank you for a real good time...

"Brokedown Palace"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone

Goin to leave this Broke-down Palace
On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll

In a bed, in a bed
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul

River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back back home
It's a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come
since I first left home

Goin home, goin home
by the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul

Goin to plant a weeping willow
On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow
Sing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll

Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul

Jerry Garcia...Country Boy

As I'm sitting here getting blown away by the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, I wanted to post another tribute to Senor Garcia.

I listened to this show on the way home this evening and it made the trip all that much more enjoyable.

This is from April 17, 1971 at Princeton University's Dillon Gym.

Here's the Grateful Dead doing Merle Haggard's Sing Me Back Home.

How Does This Song Go?

For some unknown reason, I'm not as big a fan of the acoustic/electric shows the Grateful Dead did in the fall of 1980 at the Warfield and then on the other coast at Radio City Music Hall.

The shows were not bad by any means (frankly, there's no such thing as a bad Gdead show), but I rarely find myself jonesing for them the way I might other runs.

That said, there were some gems and this Uncle John's Band encore from the Halloween show at Radio City in 1980 is one of them. The crescendo in the last minute of this song always brings a tingle up my spine and this cut is no exception. It's just so damned pretty.

Sit back, dance, do whatever you do while you enjoy Jerry and the boys belt out one of their most famous and beautiful songs...

Today's Jerry Fest Selection Comes from Southern California

While obviously associated with the San Francisco Bay Area, Jerry and the Dead put on quite a few good shows, over the years, in Southern California venues like the LA Forum, Irvine Meadows and, of course, the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Today, I threw together Jerryband doing "Wonderful World" on his 50th birthday in 1992, down at Irvine.

There's nothing all that technically-amazing, but it's a nice cut on a song you know.

About a year ago, I posted up the Ramones doing the same song.

A Little Europe Seventy-Two-Fer

I'll continue Holy Week here with two cuts from the epic Europe '72 tour and subsequent live triple album.

This was Pigpen's last active tour with the band.

While I'm not as big a fan of his as others are, his contribution to the early years of the band cannot be denied by the serious or casual fan.

Enjoy two cool tunes, Ramble On Rose and Big Railroad Blues from Copenhagen on April 17, 1972, the latter of which is prefaced by some horsing around with masks, which is explained in the above-linked wiki entry.

As I've posted here before, Europe '72 was probably the recording that turned me on to these guys and if you want a really good primer, I highly recommend picking this up. It's from a very creative period, the songs are well-played and it's just a hell of a good time.

Ramble On Rose

Big Railroad Blues

Grateful Dead Music...Whatever That Is!

Here's a nice interview of Bobby and Jerry by the late Tom Snyder from May of 1981.

The drummers join up later...


Now, here they are from the same performance, doing On The Road Again

10ACJED

Tennessee Jed might, lyrically, be the quintessential Hunter/Garcia collaboration.

It's the story of the eternal misfit...just a little bit off from the rest of the folks around him. He bounces around from place to place, getting kicked around, knowing he just needs to get back to that place of comfort.

This song appears on Europe '72 and is probably one of the first songs I really got into and it certainly turned me on to the Dead. Since then, as I posted the other day, it's all been downhill from there...

This is from the spring run out in Eugene, Oregon in 1984...have fun!

"Tennessee Jed"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Cold iron shackles and a ball and chain
Listen to the whistle of the evening train
You know you bound to wind up dead
if you don't head back to Tennessee, Jed

Rich man step on my poor head
When you get up you better butter my bread
Well you know it's like I said
You better head back to Tennessee, Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee
There ain't no place I'd rather be
Baby won't you carry me
Back to Tennessee

Drink all day and rock all night
Law come to get you if you don't walk right
Got a letter this morning and all it read:
You better head back to Tennessee, Jed

I dropped four flights and cracked my spine
Honey come quick with the iodine
Catch a few winks down under the bed
Then head back to Tennessee, Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee
There ain't no place I'd rather be
Baby won't you carry me
Back to Tennessee

I ran into Charley Phogg
He blacked my eye and he kicked my dog
My dog he turned to me and he said
Let's head back to Tennessee, Jed

I woke up a feeling mean
Went down to play the slot machine
The wheels turned round and the letters read
Better head back to Tennessee, Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee
Ain't no place I'd rather be
Baby won't you carry me
Back to Tennessee

Built to Last

Here's Built to Last from Alpine Valley in 1989. This was a downright awesome three-show run they did in the Dairy State that summer.

If you dig this, I highly recommend you check out the shows on the Archive and purchase or rent Downhill from Here, an apt title for the source of this video.


"Built to Last"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

There are times that you can beckon
There are times when you must call
You can shake a ton of reckoning
But you can't shake it all
There are times when I can help you out
And times that you must fall
There are times when you must live in doubt
And I can't help at all

Three blue stars / Rise on the hill
Say no more, now / Just be still
All these trials / Soon be past
Look for something / Built to last

Wind held by the collar
Got a cloud held by the breeze
You can walk on coals of fire
But sometimes you must freeze
There are times when you offend me
And I do the same to you
If we can't or won't forget it,
then I guess we could be through

One blue star / Sets on the hill
Call it back / You never will
One more star / Sinks in the past
Show me something / Built to last.

Built to last till time itself
Falls tumbling from the wall
Built to last till sunshine fails
And darkness moves on all
Built to last while years roll past
Like cloudscapes in the sky
Show me something built to last
Or something built to try

There are times when you get hit upon
Try hard but you cannot give
Other times you'd gladly part
With what you need to live
Don't waste the breath to save your face
When you have done your best
And even more is asked of you
Let fate decide the rest.

All the stars / Are gone but one
Morning breaks / Here comes the sun
Cross the sky now / Sinking fast
Show me something / Built to last

Happy Birthday, Jerry!

Jerry Garcia would have turned 66 today!

Like last year (have we been around that long?) I'll start to put together some Jerry goodies for the week between now and the anniversary of his death...so some neato stuff coming....

One Last Garcia Music Post

Well, regular life got in the way of a planned Garcia post yesterday to kind of tie it all together for me. I may have time for that after work or tomorrow...but things are busy.

I'll post here, though, my final Garcia music posting for this auspicious week.

"So Many Roads" is another late-era Hunter/Garcia work and, appropriately enough, is about someone towards the end of a journey...one where the trip was the destination.

From the land of the midnight sun
where ice blue roses grow
'long those roads of gold and silver snow
Howlin' wide or moanin low
So many roads I know
So many roads to ease my soul

While the Grateful Dead played this at their last concert performance (Chicago, 1995), that tape is just not fun for me to watch. While Jerry's no Bruce Jenner in this tape from the UNLV kickoff of the 1994 Summer Tour, he's certainly more on his game and allows us to enjoy the music rather than fixating on what a nasty opiate habit can do to your body.

I hope you enjoy this bittersweet tune at least half as much as I do.

Fun Garcia Stuff

I'll put up and extended Garcia post tomorrow, but I dug up two fun things for your pleasure this evening.

The first is Garcia and bassist John Kahn, on 5-5-82, playing one of the most beautiful Hunter/Garcia compositions, Ruben and Cherise.  This show took place at the Oregon State Prison 
and is an amazing recording.

The other is from the parking lot, on July 2, 1989 in Foxboro, Mass.  Garcia and Bobby got together with the boys 
from Los Lobos to play Woodie Guthrie's, This Land is Your Land.

Enjoy!

Ruben and Cherise, 5-5-82, Oregon State Prison


This Land is Your Land, 7-2-89, Foxboro, Mass

This is Why the Deaheads Love the Old Tapes

As we get closer to the end of holy week here, I thought I'd throw down some dueling US Blues for you...cause that's just how we roll here.

I've got two cuts of this song, separated by 11 years.  The first, from the campus of Duke University during a scorching spring tour in 1978, the latter from the 4th of July show, 1989 in Buffalo (I posted the Bertha show opener the other day).

While I'd still give certain appendages or organs to see a 1989-era Dead show live again, I swear to Jerry, God needed to wash up after the Duke show.

We're all confused, what's to lose?

US Blues, 4-12-78, Chapel Hill, North Carolina


US Blues, 7-4-89, Orchard Park, New York

Grateful Dead Pick of the Day

Today's continuation of Garcia-fest is a clip from the never-really-released-but-should-be-concert-film, Sunshine Daydream.

It was filmed with a whole bunch of cameras at a benefit the boys played in Oregon on August 27, 1972...before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to see a show quite like this.

This wasn't Ron and Carol's scene, you see.

Enjoy a little Chinacat Sunflower, now, whydontchya!

Test Me, Test Me, Why Don't You Arrest Me?

Here's a really nice show-opening "Bertha" from the commercially-released "Truckin' Up to Buffalo," which is the July 4, 1989 show at...you guessed it...Rich Stadium!

The one thing that must grab at least anyone who's been to a show is the jumpy/happy/nervous anticipation right before a show starts.  It's a very distinct feeling that something really cool is just about to happen.   Some things you just know.  ;-)

You can feel it in the crowd and watching the band horse around a bit also leads at least to the illusion that they were having at least a fraction of the fun we were.

Enjoy!

If I Was an Eagle, I'd Dress Like a Duck

The weeklong Garcia-fest continues here...I should start picking up posting again Friday or Saturday as I seem to be close to out of the woods...at least this time.

For this evening's selection, I've chosen the boys' last really fun ditty they put out, Liberty.

It's a Jerry song, of course, and really digs at his "live and 
let live" way of life.

Liberty had some really funny lines in it, as well as the imagery.

Went to the well but the water was dry
Dipped my bucket in the clear blue sky
Looked in the bottom and what did I see?
The whole damned world looking back at me

This is from the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, Spring Tour 93.  We saw the first three shows of this tour over at the old Rosemont Horizon in Chicago.  Grantboy had a particularly good lunch before the show if memory serves.

Jerry Garcia Band

For happy and sad reasons, early August gives me two reasons to blog on Jerry Garcia...his birth on the first and his death on the 9th of the month.

After this morning's Grateful Dead clip from 81, I decided that we can't let this joyous day pass without some Jerry Band.

Jerry had a number of somewhat-varying lineups he played with on the side, when the Dead were not touring, over the years.  This video, from 1993, included consistent members John Kahn and Melvin Seals on keyboards.

Seals really smokes it up on this "That's What Love Will Make You Do."  It's a fun song that Garcia had in heavy rotation in the 70s, so it's really nice to see him pulling this out in what turned out to be the last few years of his life.

From the best I can tell, this show was played with his last primary guitar, as well, Lightning Bolt.  It was made by a guy down in Florida, Steven Cripe.  It was modeled after another famous guitar, Rosebud.

I mention this only because there's a sad and interesting backstory here...Cripe's other hobby was making fireworks and died in 1996 when his fireworks shed blew up.

Ouch.

Anyway, enjoy this clip.  Jerry seems to be having fun, as I did, watching him pick at the guitar in way that really drives home his banjo heritage.  I plan to continue posting more Garcia-related content in the next week, both to celebrate a musician who has brought so much joy to my life over the years as well as to compensate for my general mental exhaustion as work is really getting me tired.

Happy Birthday, Jerry!

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia, 8/1/1942 - 8/9/1995

Sorry for the slow posting lately.  I'm having one hell of a fun time at work...ugh.

Anyway, the fat man would have started collecting Social Security today were it not for some non-traditional lifestyle choices he made along the way.

Jerry Garcia's music is missed by many, yours truly included.

I'd fallen off the wagon for a few months and had been digging into some other music, but as is usually the case, I wander back home eventually.  Today, I'll be listening to a crispy soundboard from the San Francisco New Year's run in 1983-84...one of my favorite show eras.

Below the setlist, I'll post up a nice "He's Gone" from the Europe 81 tour.  

Grateful Dead - December 28, 1983
Civic Auditorium - San Francisco, CA

Recording Info:
SBD -> Cassette Master (Nakamichi 550/Maxell XLIIS-90)

Set 1:
d1t01 - Tuning
d1t02 - Feel Like A Stranger
d1t03 - Dire Wolf
d1t04 - Mama Tried ->
d1t05 - Mexicali Blues
d1t06 - Loser
d1t07 - New Minglewood Blues
d1t08 - Bird Song

Set 2:
d1t09 - China Cat Sunflower ->
d1t10 - I Know You Rider
d2t01 - Tuning
d2t02 - Playing In The Band ->
d2t03 - Drums ->
d2t04 - Space ->
d2t05 - The Wheel ->
d2t06 - The Other One ->
d2t07 - Stella Blue ->
d2t08 - Around And Around
d2t09 - Johnny B. Goode

Encore:
d2t10 - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue