The Wall Song: a short history

 

12/21/70, by Michael Parrish

David Crosby's wonderful, eerie tune "The Wall Song" is on my mind because of the forthcoming GarciaLive release of Garcia & Saunders at the Keystone Korner, 5/21/71, which you probably already know does not feature John Kahn or anyone else on bass.  [sorry, but: contrary to Rolling Stone's assessment, this has nothing to do with the freakin' Doors and everything to do with the fact that Saunders was adept at playing jazz basslines with his left hand, an innovation of Jimmy Smith's that was taken up by hundreds of organ players].  The Garcia folks have already shared the Wall Song from this show on Youtube, a surprising and unique performance by Garcia without Crosby.  So here is a stroll through the other known recordings of this song, from the small window of time that Garcia and Crosby were actively collaborating.

In 1989, Crosby recalled to David Gans that, during the 1970 sessions for his solo project If I Could Only Remember My Name (IICORMN), "the only time when we ever really got organized was on 'The Wall Song.' That was pretty organized, 'cause it goes through a lot of changes. And so we learned that and actually played it like an arrangement."  In addition to the changes, the song is structured two parts, the second of which (the "B" section or bridge, I guess) has a more syncopated "stop time" feel where the drums don't keep a steady groove, which probably required a little bit of work to lock into place (see the Matrix rehearsal below).

Like many of the songs on IICORMN, the Wall Song had been in the works for a couple of years already.  Steve Silberman tells of an unreleased solo Crosby session from 1968 that features the Wall Song as well as Tamalpais High, Laughing, and other future Cros classics.  But the IICORMN timeline is a little vague: according to pictures of the master reel boxes shared by Stephen Barncard, much of the material was originally tracked in Aug or Sept 1970, although the official project didn't begin until Nov 1970 (while Barncard was also mixing American Beauty).  It seems to have been wrapped up by December, but Crosby then booked Heider's again in January 1971 for sessions that apparently weren't intended for any album -- I need a citation, but I had the sense this was kind of an extended excuse to stay in the studio and avoid the outside world, since Crosby was still intensely grieving over his girlfriend's death.  These tapes were compiled and circulated in the early 90's, and have have since gone down in history as the PERRO (Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra) tapes, named after a loose aggregation of musicians including the Jefferson Airplane and the Dead (here's one page with history; edit: here's a better one, with Barncard's annotations).  The earliest available Wall Song comes from that circulating PERRO collection.   According to Barncard's annotations, the full-band version on the PERRO tapes is from 12/13/70 -- after, it seems, the IICORMN material was in the can.

Dec 1970 (?) demo, PERRO tapes
The first of two takes on the PERRO set: Crosby alone with a 12-string acoustic and double-tracking his vocal.  Just what it says on the box.

[edit: This demo was released on the IICORMN 50th Anniversary edition; it's the same recording, but the official release fades about 15 seconds earlier than the version from the PERRO set.]
 

12/13/70, PERRO session
The rest of the PERRO material is from Jan 1971, but the date on the tape box for this performance is 12/13/70.  Although that dating doesn't quite jive with the IICORMN material, this track is clearly more than just a studio jam: it sounds like Crosby playing rhythm (right channel), Garcia, Lesh, Kreutzmann, plus what is either another rhythm guitar (or maybe a piano?) in the left channel and a tambourine, and I'll bet some of that is overdubbed.  Garcia doesn't sing harmony vocals, and I don't know if the harmony part here is Nash or Crosby overdubbed [edit: it's Crosby overdubbed].  The song itself ends at 4 minutes and Cros says "okay," and the jam begins.  Garcia gets in some nice licks, but the jam never catches flight and eventually trickles off.  Someone says, "can we do one more?" and another person (Nash?) responds something I can't make out.


12/15/70, The Matrix
If the studio version above is dated correctly, then only a few days later Crosby played the Wall Song live at a gig at the Matrix with Garcia, Lesh, and either Hart or Kreutzmann (I think it's Hart; more on that in a minute).  The tape has been in circulation for ages, but its origins are still murky.  The lineup is often referred to as "David and the Dorks," though it was billed as Jerry Garcia & Friends.  The date has been given variously as 12/15, 12/16, 12/17 (i.e. any of the three nights they were booked at the Matrix) or 12/20 (unlikely).  Lost Live Dead runs down the circumstances that are known.  The first half of the circulating tape is a rehearsal and the second half is live, although it's not clear if the rehearsal is from the same day.   The Wall Song is played twice at the rehearsal and then once at the Matrix performance. 

 
The rehearsal takes are pretty skeletal and it doesn't sound like everyone knows the song yet.  Crosby is heard occasionally giving directions and someone else is counting the time out loud during the stop-time B section.  Garcia now adds some harmony vocals, which he does on every subsequent live version.  He sounds more comfortable in the jam, however, so that indicates that this is later than the PERRO studio version (above) -- but maybe Hart was learning it?  The first version cuts off during the jam at 7:37.  The second rehearsal take has more confident drumming, but someone is still counting the B-section out loud, and Cros is still giving verbal direction.  This jam also peters out when it seems like Garcia isn't sure whether or not to go back to the B-section, then Crosby starts singing wordlessly, and they go over the timing of the B-section again.  Lesh and Hart run through it on their own while Cros & Garcia discuss something else.

The kinks sound like they have been mostly ironed out for the live Matrix performance, and they all attack the jam with a little more feeling at first, and Garcia digs in with a little more bite.  But it seems like they pull back after a bit, sounding unsure about really opening up or not, and the jam only lasts 2 1/2 minutes.  Jerry's last note trails off in a smear of feedback, which is great.  The tempo is still way slow (I don't want to say plodding, but it's laaaid back) -- for what it's worth, I think the circulating tape is actually running too slow here. 

A word about the drummer: I do think it's Mickey Hart, although I think Kreutzmann played on the 12/13/70 recording.  There is photo evidence that Kreutzmann played with Crosby, Garcia, and Lesh on 12/21 at Pepperland (see Michael Parrish's amazing eyewitness account and also JGMF) and this fine Lost Live Dead post has a comment thread surmising that Kreutzmann is the most likely candidate for this Matrix gig.  But occam's razor aside, I still think it's Hart: the drumming is more basic than Kreutzmann's fluid cymbal work and fills, and also more like the drumming on the 8/21/71 jam, which is pretty much certainly also Hart.  Plus, if Kreutzmann had just laid down a serviceable take in the studio, why would they be relearning the song a few days later?  I would speculate that Hart was a last minute fill-in for Kreutzmann for whatever reason (Hart did play on Cowboy Movie on IICORMN, after all)

1/9/71 (?) - Graham Nash & David Crosby album version (uncut)
Crosby, Garcia, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Graham Nash on piano.  Again, there is some confusion about the dating of this.  This is the full version of the track released on Nash & Crosby's 1972 album; the album cut fades before the jam.  David Gans broadcast this unedited version on the GDH twice (in 1989 and 2001, the latter a fantastic show on the Crosby/Garcia connection co-hosted with Steve Silberman) but gave two different dates, 11/11/71 and 11/9/71.  Other material for Nash/Crosby album (with different musicians) was recorded at a few sessions in Nov 1971, but JGMF thinks the date of this Wall Song is really 1/9/71, which locates it in the middle of the PERRO material.  Which makes sense to me.

From a Garciacentric perspective, I think this is the best performance.  The tempo is noticeably more brisk than the laid back live versions.  I also appreciate that Garcia plays with more interaction with the piano (Nash seems to know one lick, but it works well), whereas on every other version Garcia is pretty much out in the woods by himself.  He's playing his Strat here, so the sound is brighter and twangier.  Crosby's guitar is lower in the mix now.  They find a slightly higher cruising altitude for the jam, with a couple of changes in direction and a Crosby/Garcia driven peak that climaxes the jam before it quickly subsides: really this whole performance feels more like a group "jam" than Garcia soloing over a laid back groove.


5/21/71, Garcia/Saunders at the Keystone Korner 

Back to the slower tempo.  With no Crosby in sight, Garcia sings lead this time!  He's pretty shaky compared with Cros, but soulful nevertheless ("such a great wiiide open door").  Saunders and Vitt sound excellent, as you'd expect, and though I can't imagine they must have rehearsed this much beyond running it down before the gig, both of them nail this.  In his earliest documented appearance with Garcia, Martin Fierro adds almost nothing to the song itself but comes in strong right at the jam and occupies centerstage for much of what follows.  He does get some skronk on, so be warned -- I know there are folks who don't like this side of his playing, and he does go a bit over the top here, but I can dig it.  Free jazz, man.  Garcia takes a short turn, with a nice raw, feedbacky sound.  Vitt and Saunders really give him a nice pocket to work with.  Then Fierro solos again, quoting "A Day in the Life" around 9:18 [thanks, Light Into Ashes]  The groove starts pulling apart and getting freeform around 10 min, then they pull back together and groove on, slowly.  At 11:45 Fierro quotes "A Day in the Life" again.  The jam ends dramatically after around 12 1/2 minutes.


8/21/71, jam at Mickey's barn 

I've already covered some specifics about this tape here.  On The Wall Song, I hear Garcia, Crosby, Lesh, one drummer (Hart, I presume), Ned Lagin on piano, someone else on organ (David Freiberg, I guess, since it seems too basic to be Saunders), and John Cipollina joins halfway through, playing mostly slide (and also wahwah later) but barely takes the spotlight.   This one is over a half hour long and is primarily a jam on the main vamp with occasional drops into the verses, which are mostly instrumental.  Crosby and Garcia sing parts wordlessly (da da da), but do sing bits of the third verse, then eventually circle back around to the first verse much later.  It's all a lazy afternoon jam, man, but unfortunately Garcia never finds much of a thread.  He regularly comes to the forefront with some tasty stuff, but never sustains any ideas into a longer solo.  There's a lot of vamping.  The organ takes a brief solo (about 13:40 on the sbd copy) and Lagin's piano adds some simple but colorful fills throughout.  At the 20 minute mark, the tempo kicks up a bit and they abandon the vamp for a one-chord groove (although nothing too different happens) for about 8 minutes, then return to the tune for the final 5 minutes of the jam.  Crosby cues up the B-section and signals the ending.  As the kids say, this has a vibe.  It seems appropriate that we go out on this lazy, jammy note, with our heroes going down that golden road on a late summer afternoon in the woods up in Marin.  Jerry announces "I gotta go play" (he had a gig that night with the NRPS) and that's that.

I don't know if Crosby played the Wall Song again in this period.  It doesn't seem like Crosby & Nash ever played it in their shows in the mid 70's (it's hard to tell, though, since the network of Crosby setlists is tough to search; I was not super thorough with this, so I hope someone proves me wrong!)

Crosby remained connected to the Dead behind the scenes through 1975.  He participated in Ned Lagin's Seastones project, and joined the Dead at Weir's studio to rehearse Blues for Allah and some of his own tunes for the 3/23/75 SNACK benefit show.  But Crosby missed the show itself for the birth of his daughter (thanks Grateful Seconds).  The last of his informal public collaborations with Garcia was at a Seastones performance on 9/19/75 (per Nedbase).  Then, as far as I know, they didn't cross paths again until Crosby (solo) opened for the Dead on New Years Eve 1986.