the Wildebeest connection

Joe and Corry tossed this around for a second back in 2016, so this is no great discovery, but the discographical nerd in me needs to mark this very marginal release with a post.  I had stumbled upon this record a a few months ago while looking around Discogs for recordings that John Kahn played on.  What really caught my attention was the presence of Jimmy Warren, who played electric piano alongside organist Melvin Seals in the JGB for 15 months in 1981-1982.  $2.11 later (plus shipping), and I present: Reckless Dreams by Wildebeest.

I am curious about John Kahn spent his downtime when the Dead were on the road, since it doesn't seem like he played regularly with anyone else (did he?), so it makes sense that he would get involved with producing a local Bay Area band.  The eyebrow-raiser is that the Dead organization was involved.  Kahn brought Palo Alto's own Wildebeest into Club Front from April 1-5, 1981 to record a 5-song EP using the studio's 24-track Studer @30ips and Neve 24-track console.  I know this because it says so prominently on the back cover, even before the names of the bandmembers are given.  Kahn was credited with co-writing one song, and also played synthesizer on every track (Kahn owned an Oberheim synthesizer, not a common household item, and encouraged keyboardist Ozzie Ahlers to play the same model in the 1980 edition of the JGB).  Jimmy Warren was involved enough in the project to get a co-producer credit, and also adds a few synth parts of his own.  Betty Cantor-Jackson and John Cutler were working the boards -- and, notably, Betty is also credited along with Kahn on the record label itself.  That's a really unusual thing for any engineer, so I am inferring from this that her name had significant cachet with Deadheads even back then (remember, this was still years before anyone had heard of a Bettyboard).  Even Sue Stevens of GDP is credited on the sleeve with "logistics and planning."  So I am assuming that Kahn was calling in a favor here.  He had certainly logged plenty of hours at Club Front with Garcia, but given that this project had no direct connection to the JGB or Dead, one might assume that this happened only because Garcia must have given it the okay.

engineered by Betty Cantor-Jackson, in case you were wondering.

pardon the unintentional selfie

This may be unrelated, but I can't help noticing that Kahn also performed onstage with the Dead twice in this same time period, the only time such a thing happened: two acoustic sets at benefit shows (4/25/81 and 5/22/81), although neither was actually billed as the Grateful Dead.  The story goes that Lesh claims nobody told him about it.  That may have absolutely nothing to do with Kahn bringing a small local band into Club Front for a week, but I wonder.

This also prompts some speculation (on my part, anyway) about Club Front's function as a recording studio outside of the Dead's immediate orbit.  I don't have any sense that it was used that way.  But it certainly could have been -- and it certainly could have brought in some additional income, but the Dead's/Garcia's cashflow problems is not my area of expertise.  Placeholder for that one for now.

Oh, right: and how's the music?  It's okay for what it is.  The cover could suggest either metal or loopy psychedelia, but it's more middle-of-the-road than either: some tunes have a Heart/Pat Benetar kind of vibe, others have a more rootsy blues-rock boogie with slide guitar.  The beat goes on.  But to be fair, I am sure they sounded much better in a bar like the Keystone than at home on the record player (this less-than-rave review in the Sanford Daily appears to agree).

Ah well.  One more piece of the puzzle.  For two bucks, it was a worthy purchase.

postscript: a few words about Jimmy Warren

pic from Jake Feinberg's page, presumably a screenshot from the JGB 6/24/82 video

Until Jake Feinberg aired an interview with Jimmy Warren in 2018, practically nothing was known about him in the deadhead world besides the strong implication that he was a drug buddy of Kahn's and Garcia's.  In his fine interview, Feinberg understandably goes easy on the question of drugs.  Warren explains, in short, that he moved to Mill Valley in the late 70's with his then-girlfriend Liz Stires, met and became friends with Kahn, and would hang out at his home 8-track studio and help record demos (Warren recalls playing on the demo of the Kahn/Hunter tune "Leave the Little Girl Alone," later recorded for Run for the Roses; Liz Stires also apparently recorded several demos with Kahn and Warren).  Eventually, he was finally invited to audition for the JGB -- and Stires, as you probably know, also became one of the backup singers.  Others have implied that he was there more for the procurement of the drugs that most interested Kahn, Garcia, and Rock Scully.  No one seems to have spoken explicitly about it on the record one way or the other, and I am sure that the situation involves several stories that are both contradictory and true.  But regardless, Kahn and Warren seem to have been close for a time.  Warren also tells a nice story about how, after leaving the JGB and moving to Annapolis, John Kahn sat in at Warren's gig after a JGB show (which must have been in the wee hours of 11/6/82).  I have a hunch that Warren's role in this Wildebeest record was a mitzvah from Kahn.  But, as always, this is conjecture, and I would love to know more.