Commemorating Jerry Garcia's 70th Birthday

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 17 years since Jerry Garcia passed. I still recall that day very clearly in my mind, what I was doing and where I was when I heard the news. I recall it feeling like a punch in the gut. His 70th birthday would have been on the 1st of this month.

The Grateful Dead hold a special place in my heart. I saw over a hundred shows if you combine the Jerry Garcia Band into the mix and met my wife at the July 7th, 1989 show that ended up being the last event at JFK Stadium in Philly.

In the preceding years, I had seen Garcia on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater (after which I weirdly met James Earl Jones but that's another story), Toured with the Dead throughout the South and East Coast and made the treks to Foxboro, Saratoga and Buffalo. Being young with no real responsibilities it was a great time.

After meeting my future wife, we saw unique tours like the JGB on tour with Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman acoustic, sold tape covers in Landover and planned our summers around shows.

But it was the JGB who really got us rocking. The best show either of us had ever seen was at the San Diego Sports Arena. My friend "G" and another old Navy buddy Leighton made and entire day out of it. My wife brought two work friends; one completely straight-laced and one a partier who had never seen the Dead or Garcia All-in-all, a weird but enjoyable mix of people. An epic show that, unfortunately my buddy Leighton didn't get to see as too much beer and other intoxicants in the parking lot left him a bit, shall we say, incoherent. The rest of us had a blast.

Anyway, in the ensuing years since Jerry passed, there's been a void. There were tours by the remaining members as The Dead (with the excellent Warren Haynes), Bob Weir's Ratdog, Phil Lesh and Friends and the current incarnation of Furthur but it just never seem to fill the void. I've been to Ratdog shows that came pretty close but still something was lacking.

Anyway, here's a few songs that show Jerry in his element:

First we have an entire JGB show from the Centrum in Worcester, MA in 1991, video quality isn't special but the audio is great:

Next we have Garcia at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ with the soulful classic Catfish John: Next we have the Dead billed as "Formerly the Warlocks" at the always fun Hampton Coliseum. These shows hold a special place in the hearts of Deadheads not only for the set lists but the energy. This was the last really special tour where Jerry was on his game. This is not to belittle later shows and tours, which had great moments (among them the epic So Many Roads from the last show Jerry played) but the post coma time period of 1987-1989 were a great era for the band. Here's the crowd favorite Jack-a-Roe: And finally, from the show where I met my beautiful wife, JFK in 1989 and Ramble on Rose: I highly recommend you type Jerry Garcia into You Tube and start clicking. The footage out there is unbelievable; from this ultra stripped-down version of High Time to a 1967 interview in which Garcia discusses the Monkees. Happy birthday Jerry.

Friday Night Videos--Saturday Afternoon Edition

It's a stormy Saturday in the Garden State and the Sox are putting it to the Yanks so I figured I crack a cold one and post some good music. As I write, the rain is pounding and the thunder is ragin' overhead. A great excuse to get out of doing the yard work that needs to be done.

Let's start with the Dead doing the classic Merle Haggard piece Sing Me Back Home. No video but incredible audio. Jerry always soared on songs like this including the epic Stella Blue, High Time and I Shall Be Released and is why I was drawn to the band in the first place...Jerry's voice.



Next we have the late, great Stevie Ray doing what has to be the most frequently played songs by great blues guitarist's: Little Wing. Hendrix, Clapton and myriad others did it but SRV's version is most excellent. It's been almost 19-years to the day that SRV died at the young age of 35 when a helicopter: he was flying in crashed after playing a gig with Clapton and Robert Cray:



Finally, Alice in Chains classic Rooster without video but nice quality audio. Layne Staley had a great voice and a flawed personality and that may be why he was so brilliant. Jerry Cantrell and the boys are out on the road in support of some new stuff and sounding good:

Friday Night Videos--All Cover Edition

Yeah, I know it's Saturday but what the hell. Nothing like a few beers with nice weather and good music.

Here's a great cover of Eric Clapton's classic Promises done live by Tom Hell and Marit Larsen. Based on her name I'm guessing this in Sweden. Marit's voice is phenomenal:



Next we have Cake doing Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. Not many songs improve on the original but this does:



Next we have the lovely Natalie Merchant doing David Bowie's Space Oddity in 1999. Her voice is perfect:



Finally we have the Allman Bros. and the Dead putting it together for the Band's classic The Weight.

Sweet:

Wednesday Morning News and Notes

The Phillies are rolling. After getting fat on the Marlins, they dominated the Nats last night to take the first two in the series. With a Mets series this weekend, it's a good time to be playing well.

Here's what's news:

-Fashion faux pas making a comeback. Welcome back Carter indeed! Well, I am seeing The Dead on Saturday so it does have a 70's feel to events.

-Please spare me. Whatever it's called, it is a potential epidemic. I'm sure those who've died really couldn't care less.

-The NY Post always has the best headlines.

-The lying San Fran Nan hits bottom, keeps digging. I'm sure that there are docs that show Pelosi was apprised of every detail.

-20 great moments from Obama's first 100 days. the next 1,200 are going to be a friggin nightmare. My previous thoughts here.

-The great Michael Caine is a hardcore Conservative. He'll be labeled racist within a day.

Pic at right of new Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez making Philly fans forget Pat Burrell.

Random Dead Show

Buffalo in late March 1973 with the single best Box of Rain I've heard:

Wednesday Evening News and Notes

What's up? Just relaxing and watching a little WBC baseball with Puerto Rico taking on the upstart Netherlands squad that beat the vaunted Dominicans twice in three games.

Here's what's new in the world:

-Dude, no way! Cops confiscate over a million bucks in cash and dope from Phish heads in Hampton, VA. They were way cooler when I saw the Dead there for this epic show in 1988. That's serious harshing of a man's mellow. I'm guessing the state of Virginia may just balance their budget if Phish comes through town in the summer.

-Joe Biden is a buffoon and a hypocrite. But then, you already knew that. So is Obama but you knew that as well.

-Tom Harkin is shameless but you knew that as well.

-95% of professors were shown to be liberals in a survey but denied they let that permeate into the classroom. Uh, okay, I believe that.

-Zo meets Michelle Malkin at CPAC and channels his inner Erkel:

GD: Merriweather Post 7/1/85

From the always fun Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD.



Link here if the above does not work.

Palate Cleanser: Scarlet-Fire From Winterland '78

Sweet and Donna didn't ruin it. New Years performance, excellent video and audio quality. Check out the flame war in the comments when some dude says Sublime would have been bigger than the Dead and another says more innovative:



Here's the Fire to round it out:



Update: Bonus JGB doing Bread Box from the Garden in '91.

Update: Double Secret Bonus: Visions of Johanna from the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum in Philly 1995. Any hard core Head should feel bad about the Spectrum's demise.

Update: To give you a taste of just how good shows at the Spectrum were, check out this gem of a show with the best sound quality I've heard:

Friday Night Music--Bob Weir Edition

I'm going to see Ratdog at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA tomorrow so I thought I'd feature some good Bobby riffs through the years. Most of the Ratdog stuff is poor quality so I'll focus on mostly Dead material. BTW, Ratdog just performed their 800th show on earlier this year. A nice run with no end in sight.

I'll start with the excellent Black Throated Wind from a show I was at at RFK Stadium in June 1991:



Here's Ratdog performing the epic Standing on the Moon from 2005 with a nice intro by Bobby talking about Jerry:



Next we have the Dead doing Dylan's extensive Desolation Row. Not sure of the year but I'm guessing 1989 or so. It always amazed me that Bobby could sing every word to this song without a problem and would always screw up on Truckin'.



Finally from Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ circa 1976, a great version of Johnny Cash's Big River:



Set list on Sunday manana.

Update: Set list from last night:

I: Jam > Feel Like a Stranger > Big River > Row Jimmy > Money for Gasoline, Lazy River Road, Odessa > Dark Star > Bertha

II: Catfish John@, Jack-A-Roe@4, Corrina@, Last Time > Ashes and Glass > Stuff > Dear Prudence > St. Stephen > William Tell Bridge > The Eleven

E: Touch of Grey

Friday Night Music--First Set Dead Edition

Yeah, more Dead but you can never get too much. All from the late 1980's/early 1990's.

I'll start with a song that in essence is the longest pick-up line in creation as noted by a commenter. From the excellent Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA, Jack a Roe from 1989, a show I was at. Jack a Roe was a standard that I believe was the only song they played two consecutive sets in a row:



Next we have the epic Althea from Hampton two years prior. I always loved this first set gem:



Next we have the beautiful Peggy-O from the Philly Spectrum, my stomping grounds and a building on the chopping block. The Dead played there at least fifty times and even Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder reportedly said on stage that any building the Dead played in fifty times should be saved.



Finally, a sweet Cold Rain and Snow from Tinsley Park. This was three days before Brent Mydland died. He sure was lucid during this tour but once again, heroin took him as it did so many others:



For me, I'm going to breathlessy await Barack Obama announcement of his veep by drinking beer in large quantities, watching the Phillies and checking in on pre-season Eagle's action.

Friday Night Music--Summer Music Edition

It's steamy outside today folks. Summer is here and it's time for some summer music so do what I'm doing, grab a cold Sol, throw a lime in it and listen to good summer tunes.

First we have Janis doing Summertime with Big Brother and the Holding Company from Stockholm, Sweden. A very good version with Janis in fine form. The woman sure as hell could perform:



Next we have the late Bradley Newell and Sublime with Doin' Time. Sublime always feels like summer and Bradley's voice always sounds like he's playing in a bar on the boardwalk somewhere (bonus ska version here):



One song that always made me think of summer and especially summer Dead tours is The Music Never Stopped. In my youth, I would take off sometime around late June and head south. Before I knew it, two weeks and nine shows had passed and Iwas in Buffalo or Maine. Good times as far as I can recall (which isn't much). This is the first set closer from the summer of 1994. I believe Traffic opened this show, an epic show that, alas, I missed:



The first concert I ever saw was Genesis, Blondie, Elvis Costello, A Flock of Seagulls and Robert Hazzard & the Heroes at JFK Stadium in Philly. Genesis was just approaching their phase where they let Phil Collins take over and just plain sucked after that. Here's some classic Genesis from the real genius of the band--Peter Gabriel doing The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Yes, he's wearing work gloves:



Finally, for my Pop, here's Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong with Summertime. Sweet. Janis or Ella? I'm not makin' that call:

The Dead are Killing Me

Three members of the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh got together for a show in support of Barack Obama at the Warfield Theater:

The remaining members of the Grateful Dead — probably the most prolific and enduring psychedelic rock band — have gotten together once again, but this time to endorse Barack Obama for president.

The usually apolitical group waded into the presidential campaign Monday in a press conference and a concert that melded the old with the new. The show began with a recorded video message by Obama in which he thanked the members of the band for their support. A fog of marijuana hung over the crowd, the Reuters news agency reported.

“Every few generations a guy like this comes along,” drummer Mickey Hart told reporters in San Francisco on Monday, a day before voters began heading to polls in hotly contested California. “It seems like desperate times, and we’re desperate people.”

I guess I would be more upset were it for Hillary. Barack has energized liberals in a way that hasn't been seen since possibly RFK and the vibe is growing. College kids are very supportive and a good day today will make it even more palpable.

For the record, here's the set list:

DEAD HEADS FOR OBAMA
The WarfieldSan Francisco, CA
February 4, 2008

I.Playing in the Band*>Brown-Eyed Women†, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo†>New Minglewood Blues*, Come Together*

II. (Acoustic)Deep Elem Blues, Friend of the Devil, Deal, Ripple

III.China Cat Sunflower*†>The Wheel*†>The Other One*>Sugaree* Eyes of the World*†>Throwin' Stones*>Iko Iko>*†>Playing reprise*†

E. U.S. Blues*†%

Bob Weir, guitar and vocals; Phil Lesh, bass and vocals; Mickey Hart, drums and vocals; John Molo, drums; Jackie Greene, guitar, keyboards and vocals; Steve Molitz, keyboards and vocals.
* with Mark Karan, guitar; †with Barry Sless, pedal steel guitar; %with Hippie Bill, flag

All in all a pretty nice three sets with an acoustic set sandwiched between two decent electric ones.

Friday Night Music--Not Exactly Love Songs Edition

The myriad hair bands of the eighties and nineties wrote love songs by the dozen that essentially all sounded alike. Tonight I want to salute those bands that wrote the unconventional love songs that didn't quite meet the "power ballad" standard.

First we have AC/DC who wrote straight-forward rock and roll that was bluesy and infectious. The showman of the original band was the late Bon Scott and he rocks on this song about a woman who had, let's say, not the typical love song measurements (42' 39" 56"): Whole Lotta Rosie live. The video is not the best but the audio is decent:


Next we have Ray Davies and the boys with the classic Lola about a chance encounter with a chick who was not. It was groundbreaking to be sure and one of the songs that actually got some play for the highly underrated Kinks:



Next, the Dead with a song that was always one of my faves. Althea is about a highly complicated relationship. Jerry is on in this undated clip and he always seemed to enjoy playing it. Bobby resurrected it and played it several times on the Ratdog tours last year:



Finally a Bob Dylan song of a most-complicated love affair spanning years and many states. The Jerry Band played this song in a way that gave it new life and made this one of the most popular songs in the repertoire. Tangled Up In Blue always kicked live and this is a great version with Jerry in fine form at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. Note the interplay with Melvin Seals, an excellent keyboardist and how Jerry always seemed to extract the best out of other musicians by bending and stretching a song to the point where you thought it couldn't go farther and always did. A truly smokin' version:



ve is a funny thing when looked at through the eyes of real people who write about as something more than a sex and good times fashion.

Friday...Er, Saturday Night Music--Bob Weir Edition

Tonight we feature the music of Grateful Dead lyricist and vocalist Bob Weir.

Bobby's had an interesting career from playing with the Dead and Kingfish to Bobby and the Midnights, an acoustic tour opening for the Jerry Band with Rob Wasserman all the way up to his current band Ratdog. The videos I've selected are a mix of different songs through his career.

First, from 1983, Bobby and the Midnights performing Easy to Slip from Switzerland:




Next we have what is probably the best song to come out of the Weir/John Barlow collaboration--Estimated Prophet. This song always struck me as it describes the phenomenon of California and the people it attracted. People thought if they make it to Califoria, life would be better only to realize that it was not the heaven they had hoped for. To me, it was one of Weir's strongest song writing efforts and was a nice compliment to Jerry's epic Terrapin Station found on the same album. I included this version because it's from the last show ever at JFK Stadium in Philly. I met my future wife several hours after this was played. JFK was torn down several years later.

Video quality is poor but the sound isn't bad:




Next is a nice little twosome of Bobby doing what he did best--playing cowboy tunes that still sounded great. Me & My Uncle--a John Phillips tune-- was always a great first set crowd pleaser and remains my wife's favorite Dead song. The "left his dead ass there by the side of the road" portion comes out of nowhere. It was the most-played Dead song live in the Dead's history according to some.

Big River always appealed to me for some reason I can't quite express. I liked the beat and the way the song flows and Bobby gave a different life and feel to the Johnny Cash classic:




Finally, from the present Weir band Ratdog doing Standing on the Moon with an intro interview with Bobby talking about Jerry. This is pretty sweet and I have to admire bobby for keeping the great Jerry songs alive:

Friday Night Jerry Band

Tonight we have some sweet Jerry performances.

I saw a lot of Dead related shows (over a hundred I believe) including Bob Weir opening for Jerry with an acoustic show, the Jerry Band on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater (released as Pure Jerry it included the Halloween shows, I went on Mischief Night), The Other Ones, The Dead and the Grateful Dead. By far my favorite were the Jerry Band shows of the late 80's and early 90's. The band was so incredibly tight and Jerry just seemed more laid back and relaxed (note him smiling on the Tangled up in Blue video) with the atmosphere. The fans at a JGB show were hardcore fans and you always got that vibe from the parking lot and inside the arena or ampitheater.

First from the Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View, CA is a version of Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue with my favorite Jerry incarnation including Melvin Seals on keyboards, John Kahn on Bass, Jaclyn Labranch and Gloria Jones on backup vocals and Donnie Baldwin on drums. The mix between Jerry and the ladies on vocals sounds good here but can never compare to hearing it live. This show is from September 1990.



Next is Catfish John from 1980 at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. The show was simulcast on WNEW in NYC and features the aforementioned Kahn and includes Ozzie Ahlers on keyboards and Johnny de Foncesca on drums. The video quality is horrible but sound is great.

Catfish John was always one of my favorite Jerry songs and I only heard it once or twice live.




Finally also from Shoreline in 1990 a truly majestic cover of Dylan's I Shall Be Released. A more spiritual song has never been written and this Jerry's version eclipsed the more vaunted Band version IMHO.




Jerry pic shamelessly borrowed from Cisco.

Update: This is a great version of a song I always dug, the Manhattan's Shining Star from a show I was at at the Philly Spectrum in 1991. The sound is off a bit but not too bad. The Dead and Jery always liked playing the Spectrum and until recently played more there than any band. They were surpassed by Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.

I always liked the way Jerry performed songs like this. My wife says I'm a sucker for the slow ones like Wharf Rat, Stella Blue, Comes a Time, Row Jimy and Black Muddy River.

Friday Night Dead

It's well past time to revive the Friday night music videos. Tonight I've got a sweet Loser from the Greek Theater in Berkley, CA. Jerry's voice is good but he hits some nice notes that would have reverberated through your soul had you been there live (although his guitar doesn't seem to be turned up enough in this particular mix).




The next one is interesting. Cold Rain & Snow from an undetermined date. My Dead sense says 1977 but who knows? Anyway, it's a clear sounding tape with pictures of snow and rain interspersed. The sound makes this a great video.




Finally a cool version of Quinn the Eskimo from Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View from 1987, a song I always thought was a good crowd booster. It wasn't played much but it seemed that Jerry played it when he was having a really good night and was on his game.




As an extra added bonus, here's Sublime doing Scarlet (no embed available). The Dead were all about expanding the music out and Bradley Newell did that with this Dead standard. I always thought this song was a good addition to Sublime's repertoire and inserting it on the 40 oz. To Freedom CD was a nice fit. Bradley's rap about what the after effects of meeting the girl with the flower in her hair is hilarious. BTW, if you've never heard 40 oz. in its entirety, I think it was one of the best CDs of the '90's.

Next week: Purely Jerry Band!

The Scarlet-Fire Coalition

You may notice that I have included a new, small group to the blogroll--the Scarlet-Fire Coalition. We are a group of Deadheads who have evolved in our thinking and have taken a different political path than our fellow heads.

Go ahead and out Knockin' on the Golden Door, Weir Freak and the Music Never Stopped for interesting daily reads.