8/21/71 setlist clarification

tape box courtesy Ned Lagin

There is a tape labeled 8/21/71 and some variation of "Mickey Hart's barn" that is a recording of an informal jam session that followed a radio (and possibly television) broadcast performance by the New Riders of the Purple Sage and Shanti, an Indian/rock "world music" band featuring Zakir Hussain.  An aud tape has been in circulation for a long time.  The first digital transfer has extensive notes and info, and a more recent transfer purports to be from John Cippolina's own sbd reels ("this comes straight from the John Cipollina's collection, i personally made a copy of his reel and his notes" [sic]), even though it's the same aud tape.  More recently (2018?), Ned Lagin shared a sbd reel of most of the performance on his website and added his recollections about the jam to the NedBase page.  There is considerable overlap, though not exactly, between Ned's tape and the aud tape, and I had patched together a composite for my own listening and shared it in a couple of places, so that may still be floating around out there somewhere.  In the interest of creating a definitive setlist, I am only now getting around to posting this fleshed out version of my notes.  I am not going to even attempt to parse out who is playing what, nor do I have any comments on the music itself.  It's a big ol' jam session -- and, um, Garcia doesn't play for most of it -- so don't go expecting transcendence exactly.  But, y'know, it's got a vibe.  To my ears, the long Wall Song jam is the best thing here, since Gar & Cros already had a really nice hookup happening on this tune (digression: see the Nash/Crosby album outtake version!  the Matrix Dec 1970 performance!  I'm stopping now).

Corry has laid out in depth what is known about the circumstances of the gig here:
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/03/august-21-1971-mickey-harts-ranch.html

And, a few months ago, Sam Cutler shared a 44 second video clip of the NRPS performance, which we can see was on a stage setup outdoors before a small audience of folks relaxing on lawn chairs.  Nice dye, Jerry!  But, according to the taper who recorded the jam,

"When the taping was finished, some musicians meandered into Mickey's barn where he had a modest recording studio set up. When I walked in Jerry Garcia and David Crosby were trying some things out (Fresh Green Grass). I turned on my cassette recorder, lashed my mic to an open mic stand, and sat down to enjoy a remarkable early evening of music."

THE PERSONNEL is all over the place.  To aggregate what is out there: the following folks were pretty definitely involved, based on the Lagin's tape box that was notated by Phil Lesh (which Lagin says is not complete).

Jerry Garcia (partially)
John Cipollina
David Crosby
Phil Lesh
Ned Lagin - piano, organ
Mickey Hart
Robbie Stokes - guitar
David Freiberg - bass, organ

Less certain:

Jorma Kaukonen (Lagin's memory)
Barry Melton (Lagin's memory, though the taper doesn't remember him)
Paul Kantner (Lagin's memory)
Jack Casady (Lagin's memory)
Merl Saunders ("maybe" per Lagin's memory)
Frank Lupica - drums (from Shanti, per the taper's memory)
Spencer Dryden (possibly, per aud tape notes)

It looks like the Airplane was on the road on Aug 21 (there was even a planned Dead/Airplane festival show in St. Paul, MN that day that was canceled); so if that is the case, scratch Kantner, Kaukonen, and Casady... unless the date on the tape is incorrect.  Someone else's ears can determine if they hear Jorma or Jack anywhere in here.  Nicky Hopkins' name has also been attached to this jam, but Lagin doesn't remember him and is doubtful he was there (same with the aud tape notes). 


THE MUSIC on the two recordings overlaps, but not completely.  Here is what was played:

Jam #1 = "Fire On the Mountain theme."  On the aud tape only.  Garcia is present here.

Other One Jam > The Wall Song = The O1 jam is not on the aud tape, but is on Ned's tape.  It sounds like Ned's tapes starts at the beginning of the jam (or very close to) and after 1:50 or so, the jam segues into the Wall Song.  The aud tape cuts in a few minutes after the Wall Song has started (sorry, I don't have an exact time).  The "Cipollina tape" labels this "Wall Song > Fresh Green Grass Jam > Wall Song" but I have no idea what "Fresh Green Grass Jam" is, besides the cryptic reference to it in the taper's recollections (above) -- I don't hear anything in here that would warrant a separate label, fwiw.  Ned's tape has a cut that loses about a minute of music, which can be patched in seamlessly from the aud tape.

[edit: "Fresh green grass" is a line in the Wall Song that Crosby sings at one point (he doesn't sing all the verses here, btw), so that's probably where that comes from.  This mega jam is mostly a long groove on the Wall Song's main vamp, but there is a section where they pick up the tempo and jam on just one chord for a bit, before returning to the Wall Song.  To label this Wall Song > Jam > Wall Song isn't inaccurate, but seems a little overly technical imho]

The music concludes and on Ned's tape, Garcia is heard saying, "I gotta go play."  The NRPS had a gig that night in Cotati, all of 20 miles away.

Jam #2 = this is on Ned's tape just labeled as 'Jam'.  The aud tape supplies the first 2:50, where Ned's tape cuts in.  The jam plays to completion on both the aud and Ned's tape.

"Noodle pt 1-2" = on the aud, but not Ned's tape.  "Pt 1" is 27 secs of guitar, piano, drums before the tape fades, and "Pt 2" continues after the cut for a few more seconds, then the musicians stop playing and other folks to tune up.

Jam #3 = on both aud tape and Ned's tape (apparently labeled "Blooz" on Ned's).  Both aud tape and Ned's tape have the same music here, with nothing missing.

Jam #4 = on both aud tape and Ned's tape (apparently labeled "R&R Jam" on Ned's).  Note that Ned's tape cuts after 5 minutes, while the aud tape contains 7 more minutes of music before fading.

Jam #5 = aud tape only; this cuts in and I think it's the conclusion of Jam #4 (albeit with a fair amount of music lost in the cut).  The music stops around 2:30, then the tape cuts.

Everything else that follows is only on the aud tape.  It's all pretty succinct in comparison with the expansive jams the preceded it.

"Carousel Song" = 44 seconds: this is the same melody as "Be Kind To Your Web Footed Friends" (or whatever it's called) that the Dead would sometimes play between songs, so I presume Bob Weir is to blame.

Ghost Riders in the Sky "Jam" = <3 min of the cowboy/surf standard "Ghost Riders in the Sky" played instrumentally, followed by some applause.

Winin' Boy Blues = the Jelly Roll Morton song (as done by Hot Tuna).  It sounds like Weir sings the vocal (it's not Jorma, another indication that he may not have been here at all).  It's about 3:40 total, and complete.

Bye Bye Blues = a <1 min fragment of a blues instrumental that sounds a lot like Les Paul's recording of "Bye Bye Blues."

Tore Down = a Freddie King tune.  Unknown vocalist, guitars, bass, piano, and drums.  About 6:45 total, and complete.

And then, according to the aud tape notes, that was the end of things.


So, I propose that the official record of this show look like this:

Jam (Fire On the Mountain theme)
Other One Jam >
The Wall Song (Crosby/Garcia vocal)
Jam
Jam ("Blooz")
Jam ("R&R Jam")
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Winin' Boy Blues (Weir vocal)
Bye Bye Blues
Tore Down (unknown vocal)

3/30/76: the first Don't Let Go meets Sugar Magnolia

4/1/76 by Jim Anderson

3/30/76 at the Calderone Concert Hall in Hempstead, NY is a show that probably doesn't get much airtime in our age of digital abundance: the aud tape of the early show is rough quality and the late show is even worse.  It's a little surprising that there is only one recording of a NYC-area Garcia show out there, but it's what we've got for now.  If the reward for braving a poor 76 JGB aud tape is something you need to be convinced of, then I direct you to this Don't Let Go, currently the earliest known performance.  Warning up front: there's a big ol' cut of death that truncates this one mid-jam (judging from later versions from this tour, they still had a while to go).  Blarg.

So why bother?  Because this version is the only time I've heard Garcia do this unusual thing: the jam, like all of them, begins with him grinding around the A blues scale, but at around 7 minutes, he shifts gears into A mixolydian.  For you non-modal types, that's a different scale that he used more frequently in more 'major' sounding jams.  There is plenty of stuff online about the modes and approaches that Garcia tended to favor in his improvisations, and I am not the person to go into depth about it.  But what struck me -- and what may strike you, even if you don't play or usually think about this stuff -- is how Garcia's decision changes the color and direction of the jam, giving it a flavor that sounds a lot like Sugar Magnolia, of all things.  Keith Godchaux picks up on it and, though I wouldn't quite label it a "Sugar Magnolia jam," it does sound like they are both thinking along those same lines.

Later Don't Let Go's made that modal shift a standard thing: versions from the 80's-90's start in the blues scale (or pentatonic, I guess) and then usually shift gears into a "jazzier" jam with Garcia centering on a different mode (paging any more experienced musicians here).  But he never did it like he does here, as far as I know.  All other 1976-78 versions that I know of either stick to that blues feel straight through, or jump ship at some point for freer spacey playing.  Which makes this debut version unique in my book.

The rest of the show is cool, too, if you're inclined to listen through the aud tape realities.  After Midnight has a hot jam, Who Was John is a good time as always, and there is some beautiful Keith/Jerry counterpoint (a 76 hallmark) happening in Sitting in Limbo.  If you're eying the text file suspiciously, fear not: Knockin' is not really 24 minutes, just a glitched file with some cuts and repeated sections (although the climax is excellent).  Plus, this is probably the best they ever pulled off the Stones' Moonlight Mile, with Tutt and Kahn thundering away before a nice vocal climax.  All in all: worth it for all you 76 JGB lovers.  All 11 of you.

improvisational music should not be recorded

Summertime.  Uncertain reassertion of degrees of normalcy in pandemic times.  While pondering my treatise on the merits of the JGB circa 1976, I was distracted by my record collection and, for no reason whatsoever, pulled out Miles Davis' Filles de Kilimanjaro to have a gander at it.  I looked at the liner notes on the back and did a doubletake when I saw that Ralph J. Gleason namechecks Dannie (sic) Rifkin, "longtime student of improvisational music" -- or, to you and I, manager and family member of the Grateful Dead.  Besides Danny Rifkin, Gleason quotes Gil Evans, André Gide, Edgard Varèse, and David LaFlamme in his assessment of Miles' latest directions in music.  I am not sure what to make of that.

Rifkin seems to have been slightly overshadowed by other personalities in the Grateful Dead story, but a cursory look at the literature reminded me that in addition to managing the band on and off through the decades, he was the guy who originally managed the house at 710 Haight-Ashbury, instituted the Dead's mail-order ticket service, and spearheaded the creation of the Rex Foundation.  But a manager of the Grateful Dead saying improvisational music should not be recorded but only heard once?  Say it ain't so.