WATTAGE - It's Mike Watt's Birthday

THUD STAFF R US

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART – R.I.P.

“…you see, I don't think I do music, think I do spells." - 1980

FURTHER THAN WE’VE GONE

Associated Press obit

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/17/don-van-vliet-aka-captain-beefheart-dead-at-69/

DON VAN VLIET aka CAPTAIN BEEFHEART

Died December 17^th 2010 at the age of 69

Avant-garde rock musician and abstract expressionist painter and sculptor

Back in 1972, every night before I went to sleep I put on my big black head phones and listened to Captain Beefheart’s latest album, TROUT MASK REPLICA…in my dark bedroom, lying on a faux zebra patterned pillow, a double album of bluesy avant-garde, surrealistic gibberish and scrambled noise. I had literally no words to describe what I heard. The singer sounded a bit like Howlin’ Wolf who I had just recently dug into by way of his London Sessions LP. But the angular rhythms and strange aural hijinx and indecipherable lyrics...what the hell was this?...I remember noticing for the first time that my dreams were in color when I woke one morning after closing the previous day with TROUT MASKlll I’m not sure if I’d heard his semi-hit ‘Diddy Wah Diddy” in 1966 which was a distorted and loud recording of a pop/blues tune. Sort of Stonesy but filthier. The album SAFE AS MILK was Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band’s first album. I didn't catch that one til years later either.

I missed this early blues band type stuff, I jumped on the Beef wagon with the Zappa produced TROUT MASK and I’m sure it was because Zappa’s name was attached to this that had some credibility with me. Other than the Beatles “Revolution No. 9” and some of the Yoko stuff on her solo albums with John, I hadn’t heard ANY avant-garde music at all. I was hooked. From that point on anything slightly dissonant, complex or just plain weird would catch my attention over and over again.

When he went "softer" in the mid-70s, a lot of his fan base bailed but I dug them change. Soon, though with punk (and many of the punks claimed influenced by Beefheart) and the singer/songwriter boom as well as my new, real discovery of jazz I was ready. I snatched up Hot Rats in my "anything Zappa" phase and by the time Ice Cream For Crow came out I was versed in Beef legend. It's like a pallette cleanser for me. When all the music in life starts buncing up it's bloomers and sounding predictable and the same, I go back to Beefheart and though he hasn't made a record since 1982, his spirit will surely be missed.

Here’s a quick collection of major BEEF…hold on…

I'd highly recommend this great 6 part documentary. There are some spectacular shots of his later art work as well....

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 1 OF 6)

“THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS CAPTAIN BEEFHEART”

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 2 OF 6)

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 3 OF 6)

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 4 OF 6)

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 5 OF 6)

JOHN PEEL’S CAPT. BEEFHEART DOCUMENTARY (PT. 6 OF 6)

The Legendary 1980 Profile by Lester Bangs

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/captain_beefheart_lester_bangs.php

LA Weekly obit

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/breaking_captain_beefheard_die.php

Great LA Weekly blog: Top 14 Reasons Why Captain Beefheart Was A True American Genius (features three very different songs (videos)

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/captain_beefheart_facts.php

SAFE AS MILK

WHEN I SEE MOMMY I FEEL LIKE A MUMMY

1982 - DON ON LETTERMAN –

THERE ARE ABOUT 40 BEEFHEART VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE…CHECK ‘EM OUT

CONCERT REVIEW: RICHARD THOMPSON at the GRAND OPERA HOUSE, WILMINGTON, DE

FAVORITE CONCERTS OF 2010
(part 1)

RICHARD THOMPSON
Wilmington, DE

British troubadour Richard Thompson brought his electric band to Wilmington's Grand Opera House on October 21st as part of his DREAM ATTIC tour. The album of the same name was recorded live by this band on a West Coast jaunt last winter. Seen locally most recently at the Grand on a double bill with Loudon Wainwright III on October 12, 2009, Thompson hasn't played in the area with his full band in a many years and while any Thompson appearance is cause for celebration, hearing him in full sonic regalia is a treat indeed.

DREAM ATTIC's original compositions were recorded live on the first leg of this tour last winter on the West Coast. For this Wilmington show, he brought along the stellar band from that recording, Pete Zorn (guitars, flute, sax, mandolin), Michael Jerome (drums), Taras Prodaniuk (bass), and Joel Zifkin (violin, mandolin) and RT himself on electric and acoustic guitars. While to some his voice may be an acquired taste, Thompson's guitar playing has long been the most direct path into his stunningly rich and diverse songcraft which is at the heart of what makes him one of the most important and prolific artists of the past four decades.


For years, Richard Thompson has been a darling of the music press. His name appears over and over again alongside such headlines as, "Is He Too Good?", "Why You Need To Hear Richard Thompson", "This Man Should Be A Star", "The World's Greatest Unknown Guitar Player". The fact that he continues to put out records that wind up on yearly BEST OF lists and tours to a rabid fanbase, somehow indescribably finds him just under the general public's radar. His records both solo, with his ex-wife singer Linda Thompson, and as a member of 60s Brit Folk/Rock innovators Fairport Convention, wind up in the GREATEST ALBUMS EVER lists of major music magazines across the globe.

I had heard some of the early Fairport records when they came out (circa '67-'70) and my interest then was primarily in the fact that they covered some fairly obscure Bob Dylan tunes as sounded a bit like a Brit Folk version of Jefferson Airplane to my relatively uneducated ears. In the early 80s, I heard a couple of records that piqued my interest. Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights floored me with it's variety, the immediacy of the emotion throughout the strong tunes and the unique sound of their voices as well as the incendiary guitar playing on the title track. On the strength of that record, I wound up buying RT's Hand of Kindness, which to this day is one of my desert island discs.

But it wasn't until my first Thompson concert at the old Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia that I was hooked. I'd recently moved to the East Coast and was unable to convince any of my new friends to see this artist that they'd never heard of, so I drove cautiously by myself to this new and foreign town. I was the first guy in the building and saw a show that changed my concept of what virtuosic guitar playing was all about. I bought a Heineken, took one sip, set it on the stage and stood with my mouth wide open for the next hour and a half.

Since then I try to never miss a tour and have seen him in many wonderful situations...small bars, huge outdoor festivals, seated theaters, intimate lakeside settings, an unforgettable solo show in 2006 at the Arden Gild Hall and I have never been remotely disappointed. His songwriting, guitar playing and performing style are always vastly entertaining. Witty, wry, sarcastic, poignant and emotionally riveting, he takes you places other artists don't dare.

At the Grand, with no opening act, Thompson divided the evening into two sets of approximately 75 minutes each. Set One featured the DREAM ATTIC record in it's entirety. For many this was a first chance to hear the new music and while a lengthy introduction for folks yearning for their fave RT songs, the new songs stood well on their own.

Thompson's stock in trade, in the great folk tradition, are character driven songs balanced equally between tales of eccentric folks scratching their way around the underbelly of humanity--conniving hustlers, murderers, scufflers, circus folk, and the dreaded drunken scoundrel-- and stories of love gone edgy. Dreamers, cheaters, lonely souls on the downside of love's hopefulness. Those who have lost at love for reasons unexplainable or more precisely inadmittable.

"The Money Shuffle" is a mid-tempo rock rant against Wall Street but lifted above a pissy rock star moaning by Thompson's always dazzling wit. The first of a profusion of scorching Thompson guitar solos graces the opener. "Among The Gorse, Among the Grey" is a very sparse and slow, almost tempo-less tune followed by "Haul Me Up" cast with an almost Cajun two-step vibe, another favorite setting. "Burning Man" is a burnished and almost expressionist piece compared to his usual precise lyrical and tonal detail based around what Thompson calls "pre-Christian melodies".

"Here Comes Geordie" featuring pennywhistle, violin tapes into the folkiest elements of the evening with probably the least interesting lyric. In the next number he sings, "She's a kind of tease and you can't refuse / her bedroom eyes and Demons In Her Dancing Shoes". This tune ahs some wonderful moments of fiddle filigree and a teasing and dancing guitar solo with a wild polka vibe.

A frightening vignette of a murder scene unfolds with dark, impressionistic shadows in "Crimescene." Things are lightened up a bit in the brisk "Big Sun Falling in the River" probably the most commercially oriented, i.e. catchy number of the set.

"Stumble On" is perhaps one of RT's most stunningly beautiful ballads yet and is followed by the edgiest and at once most jaunty tune of the set is "Sidney Wells". The story of a taxi driving serial killer done up in the popular English dance rhythm which features a fairly frenetic and wild soprano sax solo from Zorn and a zippery, fearsome slash of guitar psychosis.

A very still and respectful moment is drawn with the sad eulogy for a friend's passing in "A Brother Slips Away".

Richard Thompson - Exclusive Q & A from MOGMusicNetwork.com on Vimeo.

They follow with the hardest rockin' delinquent lovers lament of the evening, "Bad Again" in which the pointedly flummoxed lover sings, "I'm bad again...I must've done somethin' but I don't know when / I'm bad again...maybe you'll love me in the morning." Thompson's sense of humor is something that runs through so much of his material and this is a wonderful example. The video below (and the one above for "A Brother Slips Away" are from RT's official website) and are not from the Wilmington show but give you a glimpse at versions of these two songs from earlier in the tour in San Francisco.



Thompson's solo on this one was dirty, full of salacious bends and slightly dissonant edge. One reason so many guitarists cherish Thompson is that what he does is so very unique that few seem overtly influenced by him. The only one who comes to mind immediately is Mark Knopfler. Closing the set with an undercarriage of Zifkin's melancholy violin, "If Love Whispers Your Name" is another is the long line of slowly unfolding and emotionally haunting cautionary tales of lost love, that escalates into a scathing, incendiary swamp of guitar release. I always thought LESSONS UNLEARNED would seem to be a great title for a compilation of RT's sad, love-gone-wrong songs.

The second set was what most of the crowd had come for, a wonderful cross-section of numbers from Thompson's 43+ year career. Appropriately, he opened with the first tune of Fairport Convention's debut album, a cover of songwriter Emmit Rhodes, "Time Will Show The Wiser." I can't recall the last time I'd heard him do this wonderful song.

"Can't Win" thrilled with one the evening's most accomplished, daring and jaw-dropping guitar solos. Vintage RT. We've come to expect the bigger numbers in his setlists and fans were not disappointed with rousing versions of the set ending duos, "Wall of Death" the poppy paean to a carnival ride, and the frenetic Louisianan hoedown of "Tear-Stained Letter".

Before the set ended we were also graced with two very different acoustic oriented numbers (meaning RT switched to the acoustic guitar). First up was a decidedly Eastern-flavored rhythm of "One Door Opens" featuring Thompson's droning guitar lines over Micheal Jerome's djembe/drums figure. This was followed by the popular swinging 30s vibe of "Al Bowlley's In Heaven" about the passing of a renowned Brit entertainer. This was followed with "The Way That It Shows" a song from one of RT's more sonically experimental records, Mirror Blue.

RT fans all have their favorite numbers and the exclusion of tunes like "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", "Shoot Out The Lights" and "When The Spell Is Broken" always leaves me wanting more. But when an artists presents so much quality new material and in a cohesive and stunningly played program, where the music is presented in it's entirety in the order released with the same stellar band, this makes a concert memory that is hard to top. Other artists have performed full new albums in concert (the major conceptualists like Pink Floyd and Pete Townshend come to mind immediately) but only rarely have artists recorded entire albums of new material in front of an audience and toured it in this manner.

One of the few performers who can truly create cinematic atmospherics with just an acoustic guitar and a voice, Thompson has long been on of folk/rock's hidden treasures. While it is difficult to see a RT Band show and call it folk music, it isn't just rock n roll either. The diversity and breadth of emotional, technical prowess and built-in dynamics are so well integrated into these incredibly well-constructed tunes and lyrics that one walks away thinking that you were hearing being stories told as much as hearing music played. It's a fabulous trick and what good songwriting is all about. The vision of Richard Thompson is a treasure indeed.

SET LIST:

SET ONE: The Money Shuffle / Among The Gorse, Among the Grey / Haul Me Up / Burning Man / Here Comes Geordie / Demons In Her Dancing Shoes / Crimescene / Big Sun Falling in the River / Stumble On / Sidney Wells / A Brother Slips Away / Bad Again / If Love Whispers Your Name

SET TWO:
Time Will Show the Wiser (Emmitt Rhodes) / Can't Win / One Door Opens* / Al Bowlly's In Heaven* / The Way That It Shows / Wall Of Death / Tear-Stained Letter

ENCORE: Take Care The Road You Choose / A Man In Need

DREAM ATTIC was released on SHOUT FACTORY! in August 2010


photos courtesy of NovemberGirlFoto
thx Alessandra. glad you could make it.

DOWNLOAD LIVE SHOW OF THE DAY - MOGWAI
Granada Theater, Dallas TX 9/13/08

I had never actually heard a note of Mogwai before today. Their new live CD was voted on of the Top Ten Live Cds of 2010 by PopMatters.com and the snippet there was intriguing so I headed to archive and found a high rated show and started streaming it while writing the Thompson review above. I dig it. Atmospheric, drony post-rock. I always really like instrumental guitar rock be it the Ventures, Dick Dale, some of the Crimson/Fripp/Eno projects and side ventures, Spacemen 3...noisy atmospheric stuff...much more up my alley than the danceable drum n bass rave stuff though, nowadays I do like working up a lather as much as the next guy. Mogwai reminds me some of Eno's Apollo sdtk but with a bit more VOLUME generally. The recording quality of this show is pretty decent with only minor distractions from the crowd. I will be seeking out more Mogwai. To think they've been around 15 years and I've just never run into them is one of those frequent realizations about just how much interesting music there is out in the big world.

Here's a song from the set...check out and download the full show



Find this show at ARCHIVE.ORG

LOVE MINUS ZERO live video

LOVE MINUS ZERO is a band I play in based in the Delaware Valley outside of Wilmington DE/Kennett Square, PA or as Rob likes to say, "bass'd in Centreville, DE in my bass-ment"...

Formed in the spring of 2009 after a Facebook conversation between the popular singer/songwriter, Nik Everett and I, he'd suggested a Dylan cover band was in order. Bassist Rob Grant from the Cameltones saw the post and chimed in. Over the next few months the band formed long distance with planning and song lists and arrangement ideas flowing over 3000 miles of digital space.

The core band consists of Rob Grant (bass/vocals), Vinson Hendrix (drums/lighting director), Marilee Calabrese (keys/vocals/eye candy), Mr. Stevie Hobson (guitar extraordinaire/vocals), and moi (obnoxious frontman/vocals/guitars/harmonica). As often as we can corral her Marilee's daughter the spectabulous Guenevere Finley, joins us on vocals. On the videos from the Tin Angel below you will have the please of hearing the sublime sounds of drummer John DiGiovanni filling in with no rehearsal for Vinnie and nailing the gig.

There are a ton of vids floating out there online so we picked some of our favorites to collect here. Kind of an cornucopia of memories of our first year as a band. Hope you like 'em.

Big thanks to David Saddler for showing up and filming us. You da man, Dave

And real big thanks to His Zimminence, Bob Dylan for being Bob Dylan.

FYI - THERE ARE A BUNCH OF VIDEOS BELOW. Use the > < arrows to scroll thru them. Included is our entire TIN ANGEL set from the 2010 BOB DYLAN BIRTHDAY (EVE) BASH (geaturing special guest Nancy Micciulla) and assorted other goodies.



also check us out and keep in touch for gig info on our Facebook and MySpace pages

THE ETIQUETTE OF SITTIN' IN

You like our band? You want to sit in?

A few questions…

1. Do you know anyone in the band?

2. Have you ever been a professional musician? (i.e. played music and got paid for it and I don’t mean at your cousin’s 8th grade graduation party)

3. Do you have experience playing in a band? Or are you a solo type of performer?
(It’s sort of like the difference between an Bacchanalian orgy and some quiet time to yourself in the bathtub)

4. Do you have a particular song you want to do?

5. Do you know what key it’s in and what the chords are?

6. Do you have your own instrument?

7. Are you prepared to play one song and be satisfied with that?

8. Are you prepared to be booed and humiliated by our audience? We may ask them to play GONG SHOW so be ready for rejection…we’re just saying…



If you can answer positively to those 6 of 8 of those questions, welcome and don’t suck.

If you can’t answer positively to 6 of 8 of those questions, please read on and don’t take offense to what follows. We might even still let you play, depends on your attitude. Understand that we are at work and people didn’t come to hear you. There are a bunch of places to sing karaoke around here so perhaps that would suit you better…I truly don’t mean to be harsh but on the bandstand, especially playing in cover bands, in resorts, in small bars…basically anywhere where original songs are not the m.o. musicians constantly run into issues with people wanting to sit in. Even more so now that karaoke and open mics, American Idol and amateur music contests are more en vogue. So a few of us got together to compare notes and came up with some observations and guidelines. We understand that playing music is a joy and a blast and that people come to a club to enjoy themselves but we think sometimes they lose sight, just as they do in movie theaters and concerts when they yammer loudly as if they were in their living rooms, that they should respect that maybe, just maybe there are people there who came to actually see/hear/enjoy the band that is booked and that the band is actually working a job, albeit a fun one but a job with expectations and a certain level of skill involved.

Rarely have I had to feel obligated to mention any of the following to professional musicians. Rarely. But, read on if you feel oddly compelled to feel the need to jump onstage whenever you are around another band/musician/comedian/juggler/ventriloquist or dog act. Read on if you are not someone who currently (or in the past) gets paid to play music on a regular basis by someone other than your relatives and who actually has gotten off your ass and secured a handful of paying gigs somewhere. Read on…

Playing music for people is a blessing and a fairly difficult thing to do. Especially if this is how you make your living. Not only do you have to have enough confidence to go up there and expose your hard practiced and natural talents but you have to seek out the clubs, develop a fan base, argue about money with the venues, get along with and attract and hire the right, complimentary musicians to get/secure/keep those gigs you scramble for in a world where places with live music are not only few and far between but where they generally pay ½ of what they did just 10 years ago while though equipment, studio, transportation costs have skyrocketed making almost every gig for local musicians a losing proposition monetarily. But it is hard work. Fun, usually, but grueling on the body and soul at times.

Remember that a 4 hour gig entails an addition minimum of 2 hours of load-in/load-out at venues and at home as well as, for example, time spent stringing guitars (at $12 a set of strings average), checking cables, cleaning gear, readying set-lists/music books, rehearsing with the band, practicing alone, learning new material, posting gig info on websites, sending emails, making phone calls, developing mailing lists, etc. i.e. it is a time consuming job.…so the national average, non-union, local gig where members of say a 5 piece band get between 40-70 bucks a piece at the end of the night (and many times pay for their own drinks, food, etc at places they play) works out to about a low average 8 hours per gig at $50 or about $6.25 an hour…before expenses. And if most local musicians play 4-6 gigs a month (actually average is 2-3) then why would they do all of that work just to give up some of their limited time, doing what they love, to hear you mess up some song they may or may not know. Why, because we want to make you feel like a star in front of your 3 friends who will probably NOT tip us and probably make fun of you later to try and deflate your ballooning ego. But, sometimes we cave in because we really enjoy being made to look bad/unprofessional/delusional/ridiculous for even letting you come up there with us. Maybe we want to look better when you et off stage and we get back to ding what we are paid to do. How fun. Then again, once and awhile an incredible musician sits in and blows us all away and adds so much to the music without any agenda of being in the spotlight. They just KNOW they can unobtrusively add something good and positive and special to a song. It happens about once every five years or so. Are you that person? Do you want that kind of pressure. Here’s what we expect of you…

Here are just a few of the rules a group of musicians has come up with that we like to call:

THE ETIQUETTE OF SITTING IN…

If you get the urge to jump onstage and show your musical talents with a band in a local bar or musical venue first consider if you have covered these points of common sense and propriety…

1. The band may react poorly, rudely or at the very least just look uncomfortable at your 1st, 2nd or 3rd request to sit in with them. If it is your first try at asking this particular band and you are told “let’s see” or just get a vibe that they aren’t really enthusiastic about you or really anyone sitting in, do not go to another member and ask their permission if you are shot down by one of their band mates. This only proves you are an asshole/egomaniacal/no talent/loser. If they seem marginally interested, just keep in the most pleasant band member’s vision and smile a lot and maybe buy them drinks or throw money in the tip jars. This guarantees nothing of course but may let them see that you are not just some narcissistic scab but someone who gets the drill. If you are smart you will spend a set watching the guys on stage before you even consider asking. You can generally tell who is the leader or at least who is the friendliest guy. Remember never to ask the drummer because they almost always have no say in the band and are usually either extremely unbalanced or drunk/drugged/predatory and you may draw his attention to your date or even worse you and he will be hitting you up for smokes and drinks and complaints about life in general for the rest of the evening. He may even expect that now that you are his friend that you will help him carry his enormous rig to the truck with him when the evening is over or perhaps be his designated driver. You will make enemies of the rest of the band and be badmouthed all over town. If none of this has ever popped into your head and you have had some luck sitting in with people then maybe it is now time for you to…get yer own fuckin’ band. Yeah, playing music is fun. But this is also a job. If all goes well, we get paid. If you suck, it reflects on us and we lose the owner’s trust. Or at the very least you get humiliated and everyone in the club will remember your face and snicker at you in the aisles of the supermarket for the rest of your born days. Seriously. Do we come to McDonald’s and ask you to let us cook for awhile? If you let us, you’d get fired. Get it? This is a job. We like and need our job even if it may not be our only job. Just because you hate your job doesn’t mean we should be forced to dislike ours.

2. Don’t ask to sit in. Bring your instrument, sit somewhere prominently, calmly and don’t bother the people around you. We’ll, be more likely to notice a smiling friendly, well-behaved person with an instrument…well, maybe not more likely to notice you but more likely to not have you thrown out if you are acting like a perceptive, patient and realistic human being…wait to be asked to play…or on the off chance that a mutual musician friend of the bands has heard you and knows you are good, then have them introduce you to us. Listen to what the band is playing and strongly consider if the one or dozen songs you know “like the back of your hand” really fits their style so that you will blend in and they will make you sound good and you them. Most really good players go up and play whatever the band wants to play. It’s up to you to fit in, not to them. They already have a gig.

3. If you are not known by the band as a peer, i.e. someone who can hang with what they play. Introduce yourself and compliment them on their music. Maybe they’ll ask you up or to come back some other time. Give them a CD or a link to your webpage/YouTube/MySpace where they can hear you play some. Oh, wait, I forgot…you only play in your living room and at karaoke bars and your girlfriend/mom/co-workers thinks you are great. Mayb, just maybe, they are just being nice because they care for you and don’t want to hurt your feelings. Or maybe they just have no taste. And the following is not a compliment but something that we hear versions of more often you would believe, “Hey, man can I sit in and play your guy’s (really expensive guitar/bass/drums). I have a really expensive instrument at home too…wanna talk about my guitar for ten minutes in between songs while everyone’s waiting to see if you let me up onstage?...I can play a lot better than him and you should give me a chance. I’ll get this crowd rockin’!!!”

4. If you play harmonica, don’t sit in the audience and play all set, annoying the people all around you and then ask to sit in once there is one song that you can play the one riff you know on…that goes for any instrument for that matter. You are not the hired entertainment even though people may be enjoying a laugh at your expense already. They will eventually tire of you sitting next to them huffing and puffing. People didn’t come here to hear you. You are annoying others. Remember there is more to harmonica playing than just blues riffs. There is, most importantly MIC TECHNIQUE. If you don’t understand that there are times when you are playing background harmonica and times when you may get to solo and that one is supposed to be louder than the other, GO HOME. Dynamics make a good player not volume. If the mic or monitor is not loud enough ask for some more level or if it’s too loud back off the mic. Don’t just swallow that thing like your momma’s home cooking. You are not John Popper, Little Walter or Sonny Terry or you would know this already. 9 of 10 harmonica players who sit in PLAY TOO MUCH, TOO LOUD, don’t listen to the arrangements, or pick their spots judiciously. I’m a harp player so you can’t fool me. Stop it (and it doesn’t matter if you are in the right key…stop it anyway).

5. If you show up with a tambourine uninvited, turn around and go home. Now. I mean it. “SECURITY!!!!”

6. If you are a female vocalist and the song you always get compliments for is “Me & Bobby McGee”, a) know how it goes and what the arrangement is b) realize that you are not Janis Joplin or Melissa Etheridge or even Joss Stone. Even Janis knew more than one tune and c) realize that the band immediately thinks you suck because every other shitty female vocalist in the world has come up onstage and tried to sing that song. Truly, 1 out of 100 don’t suck at Me & Bobby McGee. If you are that one, I’m sure you have lots of other songs to sing. In fact, WE suck at “Me & Bobby McGee” so perhaps another band might be more inclined to enjoy that particular misery. Any idea who wrote the song? No. Well. Let me give you a clue, it was Kris Kristofferson and if you give us 50 bucks we’ll back you up doing his version…uh, and nowhere does it go into that big killer Janis rave-up at the end. And neither will you. Bye.

7. Same goes for “Stormy Monday”. Know the tune. Know the words. We’ve heard it butchered too much to want to butcher it again. Ever heard of T-Bone Walker? Didn’t think so.

8. Very important – know your genre…if you are a heavy metal guy, a punker, a rapper, a funk player…don’t ask to sit in with a country band…unless you can also play country…get it? If the guys onstage are 60-70 years old and playing songs your grandma likes don’t ask to sit in and do a Maroon 5 song.

9. If you are there with a ton of drunken, annoying friends who think the version of “Margaritaville” you sang at the Mexican food/karaoke place last week was the best version they ever heard…our advice is to beg them not to ask you to sit in and sing “Margaritaville” with us. Sing it from your chair when the band inevitably gets a request for it….just figure you can never top that restaurant version…we all know it was truly better than Jimmy Buffett’s and you would so hate to disappoint your fans and tarnish the memory of the original inspiration.

10. And by the way, if one of your friends has a request for the band, show them how professional and smart you are by yanking them back into their seat if they start to head towards the bandstand when the band is in the middle of a song. The fastest way to not get your song played is to interrupt someone mid-song to converse with them. Playing music with passion while being entertaining and not making mistakes is way more difficult when some drunk floozy is yelling titles to Journey tunes at the bass player while he’s trying to play a riff he worked years to master. Every song ends. Bands take breaks. These are two wonderful times to make requests. Or prove you are an educated drunk and write a couple of song titles on a piece of paper and set it on the floor in front of the singer or better yet, throw a buck or two in the tip jar and then set the note in front of the singer. Bet your song gets played before the drunken harlot’s who is disturbing the bassist.

11. If the only songs you know are “American Pie”, “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”, “Close to the Edge” or something else over 5 minutes long. Please stay seated. Those sitting in should presume you are allowed one song, one short solo if you are an instrumental soloist, and if we want you for more WE WILL ASK YOU. Also remember to give the soloists in the band an opportunity to take a solo on your song. Don’t know how to go about that? Why are you reading this? Make points. Be professional. Maybe they’ll ask you to play another one right away or next set, or next week. Don’t overstay your welcome. If after your number someone on the bandstand does not look at you and say, “What else you got?” or “Stay up here for another one” but instead announces quickly into the mic, “Let’s hear it for that brave guy” or “Thanks. Good job, man” or “Okay, now back to the real music” consider that a) you did just fine but that’s all the time they are allowing you and shake their hands and look forward to your drunken friends patting you on the back and maybe buying you a drink or b) you sucked and you should probably never come back into this bar/town/state again until you have gone home and practiced for 10 yrs like these guys did and got your own band together and paid your dues. There are official places set up for you to embarrass yourself while you learn to sing/play…they are called open mic and karaoke nights. This very bar may have one. Ask the bartender.

12. Also just because you sat in once, were well-received, got some applause and the band was nice to you doesn’t mean you should show up and set up your gear the next night before they get there. Wait, to be asked up onstage again. Just because they said, “Come back sometime” doesn’t mean that tomorrow you’re gonna get a cut of their extravagant $25 a guy or even be asked up again right away. Be patient, be smart, listen. That’s what musician’s do. If you were great they will ask you up again. If you added so much they want you in the band full time they will ask you. Trust me. In the past two weeks where people have sat in with us we have had a minimum of three guest musicians take every single musician off the the side and say, “Hey you want to be in my band?” One even said, “I’m not a musician but I book ventriloquists…and I’d love to play with you again.” Was he calling me a dummy? He was actually not a bad singer and could really put a tune across to the crowd but a) he didn’t know the words of the tunes he sang b) didn’t know the chords/key of the tunes he asked us to play and c) sang on top of people’s solos because he didn’t know the tune’s arrangements and wasn;t experienced in listening to a band interact around him. Interact is a very important word when it comes to sitting in. Have I said before, “It’s not your show,” play with us, not over/above/in front of us. And don’t tell us that you “really know how to get this crowd up” it implies that you think you are better than the guys you are infringing upon. Not a good move. Good musicians can make YOU look bad easily. Heard of cutting sessions? Young jazz cats always used to try and horn in (pun intended) on sets of more seasoned pros. Often the pro will put a full-of-himself upstart in his place by calling an extremely difficult/fast/unknown tune just to watch the young turk die in his footsteps. If he can hang, sometimes he will do a great service to his reputation, impress the crowd and the legends alike and be talked about for days. Most often, they wind up looking like weak, inexperienced versions of someone over their head. Just sayin’…I’ve had the great luxury to play live and in the studio with some musicians WAY beyond my limited and narrow abilities and they always made ME sound better not because I necessarily rose to the occasion but more often because they were playing just exactly what needed to be played TO MAKE THE SONG BETTER. Not about showing off, showing somebody up or rattling off every little trick up their sleeves…it was about making the music resonate. Go figure.

13. We know the drill from both sides having suffered and/or enjoyed people sitting in over the years. Even the best ones sometimes overstay their welcome. It’s not for them to decide. I remember when I was working for Willie Nelson, hearing a story about a famous banjo player sitting in with Willie on a gig and he stayed and he stayed and he stayed. On the bus afterwards when they listened back to the show, after the 2nd or third song, Willie quietly mentioned with his great sense of timing, “A little banjo goes a LONNNNG way.” Most of us on the bandstand also have been a sitter-inner for many years with many bands. In some, we become regular guests because WE LEAVE THE EGOS AT HOME AND DON’T GET IN PEOPLE’S FACES WHILE THEY ARE WORKING. Quite often we may get asked up to play, often even called in advance…”Are you coming tomorrow night? How ‘bout we play these two songs?” or sometimes we may get a call to fill in for someone who can’t make a gig because a sit-in previously went particularly well. In fact, I’ve had 4-5 new band members come into my band as a result of having sat in numerous times and when the opening was right they were our first call. Not necessarily because they were the best available musician but because THEY WERE LESS TROUBLE. Remember the more you hear a band without you onstage the better you will sound when you eventually get a chance to sit-in.

14. American Idol and America’s Got Talent prove that most people are not really very realistic at judging how good they actually sound. It also shows you that there is a place in the world for karaoke. More often than not when you talk to a singer from a professional band and you ask if they do karaoke the response is either a snooty “No fucking way, they are amateurs” or most likely a revealing litany of excuses, “I can’t do it. I have no control over the performance, the tempo, the arrangement, even what key I want to sing it in, I’m used to my drummer, the monitors and mics suck, I need a little reverb on my voice but not so much that it sounds like I’m in the Holland Tunnel…” It’s not that these pros are scared, it’s that they are professionals and realize that a lot more goes into a good performance than just reading the words off of a TV. Things like…pitch, memorization, sense of rhythm, listening hard to the other musicians around you, attention to detail, nerves, stage fright, getting an audience’s attention and holding on to it, dynamics, drama, emotion, hearing arrangements before they happen to name just a few…That’s why they get paid to perform and people at karaoke bars don’t. I have been playing professionally for almost 30 years and still get stage fright before every gig. It usually takes most of the first set to get the ears tuned, the equipment dialed in and everyone vibing together. Do you really want to get into the middle of all of that and run the risk of having a bunch of irate musicians with useable weapons in their hands pissed at you? I just played a gig where our band was obviously stressed playing in new surroundings, having sound problems and I turned around and there was a woman holding a mic, singing so close to me that I could smell what she had for lunch on her breath and I couldn’t strum my guitar because she was leaning on my right arm. Oddly, she sang pretty damn well…in semi-harmony even and mostly in pitch…she even knew all the words. We got through the song though we all made numerous mistakes being distracted and thrown off by our surprise guest and luckily the drummer yelled at her afterwards, “Nobody sings with us today until we tell them, GOT IT!” He could tell I was not happy. It took the rest of the set for us to get our bearings. The day before, a whole five-piece band convinced our band leader that they would like to play during our break. They looked like musicians. Stylish as a unit, hitting on girls in the crowd, watching our every move. So we relented though I am not a fan of handing my $3000 guitar over to some stranger but they looked like they knew what they were doing. They even had a name for their band. So for 20 minutes, they tuned up, changed all of the settings on our instruments (which we’d finally dialed in to our satisfaction by the middle of the second set we’d just completed), they readjusted the drum seat, changed the lengths of our guitar straps so they’d fit their young, skinny rock star frames and basically just took unconsciously disrespected our whole gig. They eventually stumbled through half of one song and then tried for ten minutes to start another one. We were duly chastised by our fans and luckily, the bar owner was entertained because now he knew not to make the mistake and hire these amateurs. Just tellin’ ya. Don’t just think you are ready. Be ready.

15. If you don’t know what key the song you want to sing or play on is in, or can’t rattle off the chords or quick arrangement to the band who has asked you to sit in…don’t get out of your chair. And don’t be too drunk, too high, too smelly or touch a fuckin’ knob on our equipment without asking. There are bouncers in bars for a reason.

16. Conversely, if you know 1000 songs or better still can play proficiently in rock, folk, country, blues, reggae, pop, ska, jazz, or any given genre WITHOUT sheet music or chord charts in front of you, we might be willing to talk NOT because we want you to play 1000 songs in a dozen genres but because there will be a much greater chance that in your one song of the evening you will be able to adapt to our level of musicianship, our arrangement of whatever tune we are playing and be ready for anything we through at you whether that means hanging out at our request and playing some more. Know more than one tune. Know the basics of how songs are structured, of what chords work with what keys, have a reasonable memory so that after the first verse and chorus you can get close to not messing up much the second time through, or have damn fine ears and be able to improvise proficiently in the moment and stay out of the way without falling on your ass and screwing everyone else up. These things are basically givens to musicians, pro or amateur who have success playing with other people in varied situations. No? These things don’t apply to you, you are a natural and just to good for us to miss? And you are still reading this? Do you not get that the only reason for us to spend inordinate amounts of time typing us the little primer is because there is some kind of consistent problem here with people sitting in? Can you truly say that none of this applies to you? Then perhaps we should meet you, allow you to sit in, call the songs, remain onstage for the rest of the night…we don’t meet prodigy or genius level people very often…then again, if you think this letter is SO true and hilarious and have your own nightmare stories to tell, then we’d probably be happy to play with you too.

17. Also if there have already been one or two people sitting in with us that day…don’t bother to ask. That’s about our quota. We do have certain songs we want to get to and since gigs are hard to come by we don’t want to spend the majority of any particular one not playing what we came to play. It’s sort of like answering the incessantly ringing phone while you are having sex. You may answer once in case it’s an emergency but after you realize it was a phone solicitor you just unplug the phone.

18. Remember: your job as a guest is to act like a guest and to make US sound better because we in turn are giving you an opportunity to get up there with a band backing you up to make YOU sound better than if you were just singing buy yourself on the way home in the car.

19. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY BE INSURED BECAUSE THESE INSTRUMENTS, CABLES, AMPS, MICS ETC. ARE NOT CHEAP AND WITHOUT THEM WE CANNOT EARN OUR LIVELIHOOD AND IF YOU BREAK OR DAMAGE SOMETHING YOU’D BETTER EITHER HAVE YOUR CHECKBOOK, YOUR LAWYERS NUMBER OR A GOOD MEDICAL PLAN..OR PERHAPS BRING YOUR OWN INSTRUMENT LIKE A GOOD PROFESSIONAL WOULD ANYWAY…

Now some of you may say, hey, you sit in with everybody. Yep, and 9 of 10 times I am asked to sit in or have a standing invite and I still try to respect the boundaries of each situation. Experience with these bands or these folks I play with, knowing their music, their temperaments, their expectations is essential. Sometimes you mess up, get caught up in the moment and lose track of things but if you recover and keep your smile on and apologize profusely then you’ve done the best you can. Hahaha. Just remember the whos, whats, and wheres of your discomfort and more importantly their’s and try to not do it again. Have fun and try to make sure you hosts do.


To close, if you are an amazing musician who sees our band live and just can’t resist adding your complimentary talents to what we do, indeed step on up and say hi after you’ve heard a couple of sets or seen us a couple of times. We’ll feel your vibe, we’ll recognize from your approach and from your air of devil-may-care, non-neediness that you are the real deal. We’ll see that your talent and ego and professionalism won’t be crushed if we graciously bow out and say, “Well, maybe later tonight or some other time. We’ve kind of got something going on today we want to focus on.” And know we expect that in the case of our acceptance of your suggestion, we trust that you will respectfully do your one song to the best of your abilities and thank us and move along. We’ll all know if we clicked or not. We might even let you up for a try even if you just seem like a nice person who respects our needs, our job and our heartfelt efforts to provide a good bunch of music for you and the rest of the folks who have graced us with their presence. If you are there just to be noticed, just to perpetuate your own agenda, to show the world that ignoring your immense talents would be a huge detriment to the next few minutes of this very evening, then we would kindly advise you to TAKE YOUR HUGE FUCKING OBLIVIOUS EGO AND GO GET YOUR OWN FUCKING BAND, WAIT YOUR TURN AT KARAOKE OR GET BACK IN THE SHOWER WHERE YOU BELONG.

The key is be prepared and listen. Like Miles Davis said, “It’s not about the notes you play, it’s about the notes you don’t play.”

All of this said, we do like to play with new people and look forward to hearing you IF you GET IT!

Musicians:
Post your own horrid experiences having people sit in, attempting to sit in, experience with hecklers, horrid off-center requests, etc.

And a personal note to all of you incredible musicians who have allowed/invited/coerced me into sharing the stage with you...big thanks. The honor was mine.

GEORGE & RINGO JOIN ELTON, CLAPTON, JEFF LYNNE, PHIL COLLINS, MARK KING, RAY COOPER, JOOLS HOLLAND

I just LOVE how Clapton (who played the original solo) duets with George for a bit and then defers to George on the outro solo and just beams…nice…

TAJ MAHAL SITTIN’ IN WITH THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

Now here’s a band who displays the art of sittin’ in on a regular basis. In fact, if you’ve gone to their marathon stands at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan then you know there are surprises around every corner…here’s one. Warren Haynes has taken the art of sittin’ in to new levels with his annual holiday shows in Ashville…rumor is Warren will fly across the country to sit in for a song with someone he admires…

LOVE MINUS ZERO with NANCY MICCIULLA sittin' in at the TIN ANGEL

One of my favorite singers and people, Nancy Micciulla doing ALL the right things...making us sound GOOD and us doing our best to make the song shine for her...thanks girl.

Related goofs...

JERRY GARCIA BAND

Just a bit of Jer for y’all…Sittin’ In Limbo…

ZAZEN – SITTING MEDITATION

A different kind of sittin’ in…

TOWNSHEND & CLAPTON ACOUSTIC BLUES DUO

Not really a "sittin' in" moment but rare and cool nonetheless. How often does one get to see Pete play a straight blues and especially with EC? Enjoy

JERRY GARCIA 1942-1995 - 9 DAYS OF GAR

So some of you have been celebrating 9 days of Gar from August 1st, what would have been his 68th birthday to August 9, the 15th anniversary of his transcending the here and now. I spent some of the time listening to the latest releases from Grateful Dead Productions. Here are some observations...lots of 'em...not the usual "capsule" reviews...who is that laughing out there. This is especially for those of you who were at these shows. Order them now. You'll love the memories...and thank you, Jerry.


First I'll dig in to the latest in the ROAD TRIPS series and I'll review the incredible DVD/2 CD set from Philly in '89 in the next few posts. Big props to GDP for continuing to release all of these timeless shows in the best quality possible.




GRATEFUL DEAD –
ROAD TRIPS, VOL.3 NO. 3: FILLMORE EAST 5/15/70
Grateful Dead Productions GRA2-6016



It is usually a somewhat redundant exercise to review new Grateful Dead releases these days. First of all, one is generally preaching to the converted. I suppose there might be a young whippersnapper who hasn’t heard tapes/dubs/downloads of this particular legendary show which for decades has long been something of a rite of passage for fledgling newbies having a Dead-ucation laid upon them by “those who claimed before.” After the earliest documentation of Dead shows began to slowly leak out in the late 60s, thanks in part to benefactor/sound ar5chitect/acid guru Owsley Stanley’s prescient decisions to document that which wasn’t so readily recalled and a handful of enterprising smugglers lugging reel to reel decks and mic festooned crutches into primarily NY city venues on the Dead’s early East Coast visits, the lamp was lit.

The Dead taping scene really blossomed with the taper-founded Relix magazine in the 70s (more a newsletter in its early incarnations). Soon thereafter, Golden Road and Dupree’s Diamond News gained a foothold in the early 80s documenting the scene and pre-dating DeadBase, The Well and Archive.org, They served as meeting places for those in-the-know DeadHeads, rabid collectors and diligent tapers across the country turning each other onto the gems in their collections…the rarities, favorites and must-haves. This Fillmore stand seemed to be near the top of most lists, not only for the uniqueness of its transitional acoustic sets, and the easy, cheery looseness of the music as a whole but for the general sound quality of the tapes circulating.

In this official document, we have it as good as it gets. I always loved these shows in that they captured the breadth of the Dead’s musical tastes, with Pigpen still sharp and roaring, Weir beginning to step into his own as a front man, Hart in the fold and playing fairly lightly against Billy’s more abstract leanings, Phil and Jerry still digging in deep in the open-ended stuff. As you will see, in addition to Robert Hunter and newly, John Barlow’s skill as lyric collaborators with Garcia and Weir, at this point and subsequently in their storied career, the Dead may very well be one of the most interesting and prolific cover bands in rock history. A snapshot of what the Grateful Dead is all about if I were giving some new DeadHead a one-shot taste.

That’s the end-flap version and all you really need to know to go out and buy this essential little package but like the seven hours of music played this one particular evening this review will no doubt slay me and put me to bed for a couple of days after digging in deeply so what follows is for those of strong mettle and perverse Deadication. Here’s the play-by-play…

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DISC ONE of the three disc set (plus a 4th bonus disc) begins with Fillmore impresario Bill Graham introducing the band while they plug in and fiddle around tuning and such, “During the calisthenics we’d like the introduce the gentlemen on the stage, this is Pigpen on organ…”
Weir: “Don’t mention me in the same breath with…”
Graham: “From Atherton California, this is Mr. Robert Weir.”
Weir: “Thank you. Thank you, friends.”
Graham: “From Marin City College, Mr. Philip Lesh.”
Weir: “That’s a lie!” (Lesh went to Mils College and studied with classical modernist Luciano Berio).
Garcia: “That’s not Philip Lesh!”
Graham: “From 710 Ashbury, Mr. Jerry Garcia.”
Garcia: “They’ll never take me alive!”
Graham: “On drums, the son of Lenny Hart…Mickey Hart.” Laughter from every one onstage.
Weir: “Let me have my cigarette back.”
Hart (?): “That’s one I owe you.”
Garcia: “Can we play now?”
Graham: ”Yes.”
Garcia: ”Outtasight.”

Such relaxed and homey camaraderie in a room that felt a bit like home on the East Coast for the boys from the Bay Area. New York was and has always been DeadHead central on the Eastern seaboard, a “power spot” as Lesh would call it. With Bill Graham at the helm and his incorrigible pirate crew on-board, this ship of fools sets sail.

The Dead launch into the opening number of one of the many celebrated shows on their 1970 tour which featured full acoustic AND electric sets as well as sets from their protégés the New Riders Of The Purple Sage which in this early stage was comprised of John “Marmaduke” Dawson and David Nelson as well as Lesh, Hart and Garcia (on his latest diversion, pedal steel guitar). But, I digress.

In spite of what sounds like a fluffed/improvised verse from Jerry in the middle of this and a bit of scratchy harmonies from Weir, this is a nice fleshy, up-tempo start to a stellar, rootsy set. “Don’t Ease Me In” is one of the few covers the Dead released two studio recordings of at very different points in their career. It was the B-side of their first single “Stealin’” in 1966 and had been in the repertoire since their jug band days. It also was recorded and released on their 1980 studio record Go To Heaven.

The Dead, fresh from recording their latest studio, and first heavily acoustic and heavily harmony laden album, Workingman’s Dead took this woody show on the road. The swing to acoustic seems in retrospect perhaps a reaction, in part, to the hugeness of Woodstock and the horror of Altamont. Fans on the East Coast who were just getting used to the band’s late 60s extended, bluesy psychedelic marathons were getting a first glimpse of the roots of the band (at least of Weir, Jerry, lyricist Robert Hunter, and Pigpen) who had sprung from the coffeehouse/bookstore folk/jug/blues/bluegrass scene around the Peninsula south of San Francisco. The electricity had come a bit later with the Beatles and the Stones influence and the lengthy, exploratory jazziness, experimentalism and odd rhythmic sensibilities by way of Lesh’s deep classical, avant-garde and jazz ears. Kreutzmann’s rock and R&B rhythmic thrust and Hart’s open-eared flexibility turned them into one of the most unpredictable bands out there by this time.

Two examples of the risk taking this band was exuberantly attempting here remember that the Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty albums, where many of these compositions would appear, would not be released until June and November of 1970 respectively. Consider that of the large number of different compositions played during these 4 sets (with only about a half dozen tunes repeated twice) only 8 had previously appeared on earlier Grateful Dead albums. What bands today can offer their audiences such a plethora of new sonic experience in one evening? And considering that so many of these tunes would remain quintessential elements in the Dead’s repertoire for years to come, these shows, and this special tour were truly historic.

Wait. What was I saying? It‘s starting to feel a bit like a Dead show in here. Before I was so rudely interrupted by a fistful of long-winded diversion, laced with exploratory moments of lucidity and frivolous fun, I was going to tell you that the folk standard “I Know You Rider” is taken at a rare, slow jag. The freedom to do just whatever the hell it is they want to onstage was not just a hallmark of the times and reflective of the audiences they were playing to in the psyche-rock ballrooms, but a calling card of Dead shows to come throughout their 30 years. That said, this special looseness and interaction between promoter, band and audience would never again be quite as laissez faire at it was in 1970 before stadiums became the norm.

Many young folks know “Rider” only as a Grateful Dead tune but the tune has much older folk origins. Its first documented occurrence was in John & Alan Lomax’s book American Ballads & Folk Songs published in 1934. The lyric appeared under the title “Woman Blue” and has also appeared on recordings under a variety of titles with slight variance on the more familiar title the Dead use. The first recording was in 1960 by Tossi Aaron.

Pigpen is called out to liven things up with “Ain’t It Crazy (The Rub)” a short slippery Lightnin’ Hopkins blues followed in short order by Weir’s singing the way slow and mournful country weeper, “Long Black Limousine.” This tune was quite possibly snagged from Gram Parson and The Flying Burrito Brothers who played on a number of bills with the Dead in the previous few years, though the band may have been familiar with it from earlier versions by Rose Maddox, Merle Haggard or any of a handful of popular country or bluegrass renditions.

Next up is “New Speedway Boogie,” Hunter and Garcia’s bleak yet hopeful plea in light of the tragic Altamont fiasco of just 5 months prior. Jerry’s electric and Pig’s organ goose the sound up a bit. See the bonus disc review below for the rest of the tunes from both sets of this earliest of two long shows played this evening.

Disc one continues with the opening tune of the electric 2nd set. The new, soon-to-be anthemic “Casey Jones” starts off the set. Pigpen then hints at the “Good Lovin’” organ riff and when he gets no response says, “Ah, come on, Bobby…” but Jerry starts in on what would be a 40-minute run-through of classic psychedelic ’67 Dead material. The fragmented cadences of “St. Stephen” slip eventually into the segmented baroque-drum-circle-Dante-esque kaleidoscopic bus trip of “That’s It For The Other One” before the lilting mystery of “Cosmic Charlie” ends the long journey. Being a Lesh man, there is nothing I like quite as much as these first gen “Other One’s”. In an age of powerhouse rock bassists (Jack Bruce, Jack Cassady), there was absolutely no one as interesting as Lesh in the rock world. You’d have to dive into Miles’ electric band with Dave Holland to find anyone courting the improvisatory edges of the instrument as uniquely at the time. The rhythmic choices Phil makes here drive the melodic and harmonic elements of the jam. As Jerry used to say, “When Phil’s on, we’re on.”

The band encores with the brisk “New Minglewood Blues” from their debut album is another jug band tune from the late 1920s (credited to Noah Lewis) and one of the most performed songs in the GD lexicon. They rave it up here before heading backstage while they “turn the crowd” and play another whole show documented on the following two discs.

DISC TWO
“Deep Elem Blues” which is not listed in the set list bible DeadBase for this show makes a surprise appearance to start off the second disc and the acoustic portion of the evening’s late show. After one known rendition in 1966, this tune would disappear after the 1970 acoustic shows until the Dead revisited acoustic sets again in 1980 and about ten times electric in the 80s. This tune was first recorded under this name in 1935 by the Lone Star Cowboys.

Jerry teases an acoustic ”Lovelight” after a girl screams it out from the audience before going right into their first ever version (only two were ever attempted by the band) of Mississippi John Hurt’s “The Ballad of Casey Jones” which somewhat confounds the clapping crowd. Jerry, your roots are showing big time. Wonderful.

The girl yells for “Lovelight” again and some guy yells ”SHUT UP!” which cracks Jerry up. “Now, now kids. Don’t fight.” Sly instigator that he is, Jerry again teases the “Lovelight” riff and giggles as Weir calls “Silver Threads & Golden Needles.” Listen to Phil’s super high harmonies. This rare one was only in the sets for about a year other than some possible undocumented very early acoustic versions, not more than 20 times by the Dead. This tune, first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956 was a big hit for The Springfields in the early 60s and subsequently covered by many popular artists.

Jerry starts the opening chords to “Black Peter” to a round of applause, which is a bit odd since it hadn’t yet been released. “Friend of the Devil” was a request, which Jerry mentions they’d ”already played in the first set but we’ll do it again.” Weir responds that they are going to “break with tradition…and you know how much we like to break with tradition.” The third brand new song, the intricate and landmark “Uncle John’s Band” is next exhibited the excitement and well-rehearsed sharpness of a newly set arrangement.

Pigpen gets a wonderful solo segment thrilling the attentive and appreciative crowd with his finger-style blues guitar and vocal versions of two incredible Lightnin’ Hopkins songs, the rare and previously unreleased “She’s Mine” followed by “Katie Mae”. A version of the latter from earlier in the year was released on the Bear’s Choice LP in 1973.

This is followed by the debut of the gospel harmony tune “A Voice From On High” featuring David Nelson on mandolin and Marmaduke from the Riders on harmony vocals. This is a fantastic version of a tune written by bluegrass originator Bill Monroe. For years this has appeared on bootleg Dead tapes as “I Hear A Voice A Callin’” and was only played by the Dead in concert three times, all on this tour.

Graham’s voice is heard next announcing the electric set, “Set Two. Group Three. Take One. The Grateful Dead.” As I’m trying to figure his math, I get swept up in one of my favorite GD dance numbers, “China Cat Sunflower.” What? How’s a person supposed to dance to this? In a sentiment DeadHead’s Phil Jackson and Bill Walton perhaps share with fellow roundballer Michael Jordan…just DO it! The Dead segue seamlessly as they would for years from this into “I Know You Rider”. Check out how very different this is from the slow acoustic version on Disc One.

“Cumberland Blues” was played in the early show’s acoustic set but here was played without the New Riders’ participation. Pigpen tears into the Etta James showstopper “Hard to Handle” on which Bobby breaks a string (take note Black Crowes fans). A monumental version of Tim Rose’s apocalyptic ”Morning Dew” follows. Weir’s newly replaced string rears its out-of-tune head to smite another wise nice version of the then new Hunter/Garcia cautionary tale, “Dire Wolf’ to end disc two.

DISC THREE begins with The Young Rascals hit, “Good Lovin’” which was teased earlier in the evening. The Dead’s jammy version starts out with about a minute long drum intro into verse one followed by a 3 minute drum duo section after which the band slips in, playing what Lesh often calls “Electric Dixieland” which everyone playing contrasting lines (solos) serpentining in and out of each other's path. It stays this way for about a minute then gets back to the song rhythmically for about 40 seconds before veering off again into the multiple lines (a bit similar to the other 2-drum/2-guitar/lead bass/organ psychedelic family band of the day, the Allman Brothers Band). They race back and forth between the two approaches for 5 minutes before hitting on the transition riff for the final 2 minutes of Pig selling the last 2 verses with the group's call-and-response backing vocals. This is a relatively short version by Pig’s standards.

Next up is a lengthy excursion into “Dark Star” to begin the final 60-minute medley of four songs strung together in GD fashion. This one clocks in at over 19 and 1/2 minutes. Nice, fairly relaxed opening pace. Jerry plays with the clean yet forceful 1970 guitar tone. It sounds like his Les Paul. The first verse kicks in at around the 3-minute mark. At 4:54 they practically stop and get very out there. Lots of weird cymbal shreaking, harmonic feedback tappings, quiet almost ambient ever-so slippery shimmers of sound, hardly anything going on. Very much like avant-garde experimental classical found music of the time…like some of the soundtrack work they’d done…lots of buzzing bees and slashes of sonic light beam open air…volume knob stuff…playing behind the bridge…weirdness…a very unique passage in the Dead’s archives in that it got SO sparse…Jerry brings some melodic element back around in a semi-reel type pattern that floats around waiting for some other sounds to join him…Weir’s quiet guitar comes in and the pattern of the two sounds almost like music boxes for a moment (at 9:40) and then Jerry gets back to flirting with the "Dark Star" melody again…again it is interesting how long they play so quietly. Phil especially is very much in the background until he starts to peak through more after about 13 minutes in and as the rhythm gets more pronounced and syncopated between the guitars, Billy, Phil and Mickey fall back in more rhythmically present fashion (and is that Pig on clave? or is he totally offstage at this point?) until there’s a rhythmic progression that Weir falls into that is sort of half-“Uncle John’s” reprise and a foreboding tinge of “Eyes of The World” which was still a good three years in the future…then at 17:45 or so they wander down to the final vocal verse. Interesting in that there were no really gigantic, LOUD segments as there sometimes were in these days during this tune…a more delicate star then the baroque little chordal segue down to the opening familiarity of the “St. Stephen” riff and off we go to the psych dance party. “…Stephen” is also taken at a more languorous vibe this set and clocks in at a mere 6:04 (similar as it would be played when rekindled finally in the late 80s) with the short loud, semi-“Lovelight” riff preceding the final “Stephen” riff which they basically flub before the final verse (do they seem tired or just a bit bored with this tune tonight?) > the short 20 minute (and again, placid) drum intro > a fairly short “Not Fade Away” (yes, another cover kids…Buddy Holly, of course but a Dead staple). Sounds like one of the guitars is out of tune…Jerry’s? Basically, no real solo of note between the first two verses. Nice rhythm playing from Weir after the second verse, very aggressive. He always said he was a Townshend fan and at times here he gets a bit Pete-y. Patterns sort of go in circles a bit with Jerry seeming to almost quote “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” and then “Stephen” slight return. Weir then echoes the GDTRFB riff somewhat and the jam almost seems to want to go there (Jerry’s tuning is making me crazy to the point where now Weir sounds a tad out of tune…ah the glory days before tuners were part of every guitar players rig).

Things start getting chordier and chordier and bigger and bigger in the last 45 seconds and then everything just crumbles to a stumble/stop until someone, perhaps Phil, hits Bobby Blue Bland’s signature “Turn On Your Lovelight” riff. But as I notice this is a 27+ minute version coming up and the guitars are still in iffy tuning I’m a bit trepidatious. It will be up to Pig to rise to the occasion and take this over the top. Verse two is just Pig and drums…then the band kicks and I don’t have the blatant tuning teeth gritting thing grinding on me…you can hear all of the echo on the stage, perhaps in the mic leakage since this seems to be a soudboard. I’ve never seen a full transcription of a vintage Pigpen rap so I will give it my best here and get as much as I can manage trying to maintain the classic Pigpen patois.

Pig starts singing the 1st verse again at about 4:44 followed by what sounds like a false ending…before the 2nd verse of call-and-response backed mostly by bass and drums which winds into Pigpen beginning a classic rap… (a descending) “my, my, my, my, my, my…” (almost a whisper that rises and falls) “well, I don’t want it all…I just want a little bit…I don’t want it ALL, no, no, I jes’ wanna little bit…” (quieter) “a little your lovin’…little your kissin’…” (as Jerry solos behind with Billy) “..A little o’ yer ROLLin’, summa yer ridin’ slowuuuuuuuu…shucks, uh…awright…” (Phil joins in, bass rising, band pickin’ up ever so slightly) “I need a somethin’ early in the mo’nin’…’tent before the day is dawnin’…I just might get a lonesome for some lil thang…lonesome for dat thing you got down there…
I know’t I got to do…sayyit…dat everything…is solright…” (he’s quieter) “got to…” (and you hear the organ riffing in the distance, like he moved over to leave some room…and the band gets rhythmic and he lightly falsettos as he stops playing organ…) “ooh oohoo…ooooh...huh…ow…I’m gonna tell ya all somethin’” (band immediately breaks it down to clave and drums and select notes) “…about nuthin’…I’m gonna tell ya all…then I’m gonna tell ya little bit…’bout one them thangs…made me feel so good…them things…made me feel so nice…my, my, my s’all right…one them things…one them thayiiiings…wanna tellll youuu all about it…” (Weir starts a five note descending riff once and Pig answers) “…awright…” (Weir does it again with echo from Jerry and repeats it again) “so sweeyeeeet…so nice…jes’ can’t hep myself…NO WAY…ya can’t over it…ya can’t get around it…ya can’t get under it, ya can’t get through it…ya gotta get in it…makes ya feel purty good…ah, my…” (descending riff continues) “yes it do…ain’t no beatin’ ‘round da booosh…ain’t no paddlin’ up stream and no way down…huh…but I’m gonna tell ya one thang…one thang that my baby got…make it feel so nice…” (just high hat now) “something make me feel so good…ya know in the mornin’…just be fo’…de day is dawnin’…I jes’ might get…a little bit lonesome…I jesta might git…a lil bit hongry…but I know…a-all I got ta do…clap my hands and…turn on over my left should…ax my baby…ta roll on over…it feels so nice…ahowqqq…I jes’ cain’t really splain to ya…the way it fee-eeeeeeelsssss…get readay now” (to the band, and then speaks) “…and one of them things that makes me feel so good ‘bout them kinda situation…jes’ one them little thangs…that make me feel so good…get ready folk…” (and he starts in on the big riff heavy section where the band kicks in huge:) “…coz she got, BOX BACK NETTY, great big n overbite, workin’ undercover wit a ball all night…need a rider, believe it so, need a rider, yeah, I believe it so…feel so good…yes it do…” (I really have no idea what he says there…) the band starts in jamming double time at 12:20 and Pig is laying some organ riffs in with them…then at 13:20 they break it down again…and he says, “WAIT a minute!...I know some..I know summa ya fellas out in the audience this evening’…may feel jus’ like…ya like a little company this evenin’ nah…huh…but I tell ya, ya ain’t gonna get no place…standin’ around…not doin’ a hell of a lotta nuthin’…Now the first thing ya gotta do…is get ya hangds out of ya pockets and quit playin’ dta pocket pool and do somethin’ that’s worthwhile…” (just drums again) “I mean ya can clap yo’ hands..if ya wonna…and if ya don‘t wanna clap ya hangds you can fake it an feel da girl up…but it’s awright too…because if ya got ya hangds in ya pockets ain’t no otha thang ta do…an’ my momma told me one time…all dat otha bidness makes ya kinda crazy…huh…” (audience still clappin’ along but quieter) “I cain’t hoddly hear ya…” (crowd starts to roar) “C’mon I can’t hear nuthin’ yeat…lil’ louda…ev’rabody…take it down…hey…you clap loud enough ya know you gonna blow dis whole place up…might even tear down da whole damn city…PIGS with it…so all I need is ta hear ya clap wid me…jes a fo’ little while…huh…I kinda lost the beat so jes’ keep it up…” (band starts to ease back in, as he starts to speed up the rap again here at 15:20) “…awright…and then when them thing…begin to get good…and them thing begin to get better…there’s one thing…that I ask my baby…I said, please…do your favor fo’ me…she gotta special lil thang…special little light…she keep on the side…just for me…I have ta feel…let it shine..let it siiine…let it shine…owwww…whatcha do…feel so nice…make me feel…everything…and my rider…” (organ riff starts up again as Jerry and band gets more frenetic on a riff repeated for about 8 times…then it swirls around a bit for another minute or so getting louder and then double time and then backs of again slightly then rises up ascending and descending…back down to mostly bass and rhythm…) “Ahhwt…awright…” and Phil tears it up bringing the pace and energy up accelerating until Pig says, “Yeah..” and you can hear Jer start the main riff quietly in the background for four bars then Weir then Phil for four then eight bars, then cowbell from Mickey and Bill on hi-hat as Pig starts riffing quietly towards the big rave…(we’re now at 19:12) “and that’s everything…it gets so good…I ask my baby…that last thing…and I jes know she got it stashed away…that sweet lil thang she got waiting for me…I asked her please, shine on your light…sol I need, soll I gotta have, cause I know ya got it…somewhere stashed away…I tasted it before and I gotta thang for it now…jest gotta get it…that special lil thing..oh my…I asked my baby…I said please, I said pleeeease…let it shine…soll I need jest gotta get it just got to have it…jest gotta get some…make me feel so nice…make me feeel so good…I justa got ta get some…ain’t no way… ain’t no waaay…gonna get around tonight…I know ya got it…I got ta have it…im gonna get it…yes I will…ya know I will…baby please…make me feel…so real…my my…feel so nice…babay…feel so good…let’s all say…let it shine…” It’s 21:00 in and Weir and Pig vocally call-and-response, quietly for the next minutes with quiet riffs call-and-response between Jerry and Phil, and tambourine and drum call-and-response between 'em and it keeps building and building and at 22:10 it starts to build to full voice and full band and as it rises and rises Weir gets into trying to out “little bit higher” Pig and it gets gritty and pumped and raving….with Weir leading the call and Pig responding…Phil and Billy churning, Jerry power-chording…until the brief, held note a la a James Brown start/stop ending…then to the speedy opening riff under the two screamers for the last 3+ minutes…then the final riff three times then big cymbal/gong type pounds as the band smashes the ending for another minute or so…insane with the giant power glissando at the end and the crowd ROARS. Shine on.

Then there’s always got to be that one more. So they bring the Riders out for a feedback smattered acoustic “Cold Jordan”. Quiet a bit sloppier, though quicker…here, a good three hours after the first version of the evening though the crowd is actually clapping along better…haha…they are energized.

The stunning realization is that there were about 7+ hours of music played this night between the Dead and the Riders. Well worth the ticket price and well worth the price of these historic CDs. A real treat for all DeadHeads old and new. Funny thing is, after not having heard this show in a good ten years, I am amazed at how much comes back in memory as I listen. Definitely one of the more listened to tapes in my collection and something I’ve upgraded quality on every chance I could.

P.S.
“Just when you think you’re out…they pull you back in…”

The BONUS DISC:
Early and advance purchasers of Grateful Dead archival releases are often given an incentive of a bonus disc or T-shirt with early orders. Go to the GD’s online store and get on the e-mail list to be kept in the loop.

The BONUS tracks for ROAD TRIPS 3.3 feature 8 tracks from 5/15/70 to complete the music played by the Dead on that date, all but one were new tunes to their rapidly expanding repertoire, as well as 4 additional tracks from the previous night’s gig in Missouri. Blair Jackson’s liner notes for the regular set above are informative and personal as his incisive writing on the Dead has been for the past 30+ years but, unfortunately, bonus discs receive short shrift in the notes department for all GD releases. The single CD is packaged in a cardboard slipcase echoing the graphics of its digipak’d big brother.

First up are 4 tunes from the “acoustic” portion of the early show. You can find the original running order of the show here. http://www.deadbase.com/ The disc begins with “Friend of the Devil” taken at the original, bluegrassier pace as opposed the later sloth-like, mournful live electric versions. Jerry flubs a line here and there and his acoustic guitar is a bit buried but the vocals throughout are pristine.

A sweet “Candyman” follows with a nice little aside from Jerry during the ”oohs” section after the guitar solo, “Here he comes!” Fun. Bringing up Marmaduke and David Nelson to flesh out “Cumberland Blues”, the tune sounds as close to the Workingman’s Dead version as you’d ever hear with Jerry slipping over to the electric.

“Cold Jordan” never before officially released on a GD album harkens back to Jerry and Nelson’s days as bluegrass folkies before the rise of the Dead. Wonderful gospel harmonies on this old hymn. As I’ve mentioned before, the Dead, wearing their myriad influences so deliciously on their sleeves, really opened up my ears and record collection to whole new worlds.

Next up is what was then a brand new electric Pigpen gem, here crushed a bit by some nasty feedback during the beginning of his gritty harp solo. Churning, edgy stuff. Jerry’s solo bouncing of Lesh’s massive, fluid chug is just a snapshot of where this band had been and where they’d be going. Pig’s non-intrusive organ fills during the solos; tasty harp and blistering vocals show younger fans what all the fuss was about.

“Attics Of My Life” was a new vocal showcase in only its 2nd appearance. It would be rarely played after 1970, coming back in to the band’s set lists twice in 1972 and not again until 1989 where it would stay as a rare treat through Jerry’s death in 1995. “Beat It On Down The Line” which always starts with a different beat count for the intro, begins here with Phil’s off mic query, “How many times, you guys?”

“Fourteen,” is Jerry’s call. Odd, since it was the 15th of June, but hey, who’s counting. So 14 beats later, this speedy tune covered on the Dead’s debut album launches a three-minute blast of rock n roll. This is the Dead’s incendiary take on the old tune by street musician and one-man-band Jesse Fuller, who also wrote “San Francisco Bay Blues”, “Monkey & The Engineer” and “You’re No Good”, the latter a big hit for Linda Ronstadt.

“Next Time You See Me” is loose and fun with Pig and Jerry singing Jimmy Reed. These last two tunes were from the electric portion of the second show on the 15th.

The disc ends with a long medley of electric primal Dead from the previous night at Merramec Community College, Kirkwood, MO (identified as “St. Louis” on the CD). Nine and a half bluesy minutes of the newly penned “New Speedway Boogie” followed by 30+ minute medley of “St. Stephen” > “Not Fade Away” > “Turn On Your Lovelight”. Compare these versions to those played the next night (on Disc 3 of this set) to hear how the Dead molded and stretched as the muse beckoned. In Missouri, there are two extra minutes of “NFA” and “Lovelight” is 10 minutes shorter than the epic one from 24 hours later. High energy, blues drenched, lysergic rave-ups. With a touching “FUCK THE PIGS” from Pigpen at the climax.

For those who missed this version of the Dead, this is essential listening. Go buy it right now and thank me later.

Buy ROAD TRIPS Vol 3 No. 3 now
...unfortunately, you've missed out on the bonus disc so get on their mailing list for first crack at the next batch...