Day 73: Jerry Garcia...Mount Rushmore

Jerry Garcia is the 3rd face of my Mount Rushmore of Music.

I have previously written about two of the others.

Bob Dylan

Artwork, Movies, Real People in Song

Richie Havens

Things I didn't know about him.

All Along the Watchtower

It would not be impossible for me to have a blog just devoted to Jerry.  There are dozens out there and it is a worthy rabbit hole. Instead, I will focus on some of Jerry's non-Grateful Dead bands and projects.



1961: Hart Valley Drifters

Bluegrass Group included Jerry on banjo, guitar and vocals and among others long time collaborator and lyricist Robert Hunter on bass and New Riders of the Purple Sage co-founder, David Nelson.

Jerry and Robert Hunter

1962: Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers

1963: Wildwood Boys, AKA Jerry Garcia and Wildwood Boys

1964: Black Mountain Boys

1964: Mother McCree Uptown Jug Stompers

They recorded "Monkey and the Engineer" but it's not on Spotify. I included a Grateful Dead version of the tune on the playlist.

1964: The Warlocks

Pigpen ( Ron McKernan) suggests Mother McCree's plug in. Another band had the name, Warlocks (not The Warlocks who formed in 1989). Jerry and his Warlocks recorded 6 tunes in November 1965 as The Emergency Crew.

1969-1971: New Riders of the Purple Sage

Jerry plays pedal steel guitar. New Riders are on my list of bands I wished I'd played in. Very stoned hippie vibe.

1971-1990 Variously Legion of Mary, Merl Saunders and Friends, Reconstruction, Blues from the Rainforest

Peggy and I saw Merl Saunders playing at a bar near the Russian River in California in '74 or '75. Literally 'trippy.'

1973- 1974 Old and In the Way

1975-1995 Jerry Garcia Band

According to setlist.fm, the Jerry Garcia Band played "How Sweet It Is" 373 times in concert making it their most performed song.

1987-1988 Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

1991: Jerry Garcia / David Grisman

1993: Not for Kids Only

We've played this album for our grandkids when they used to visit. Peggy and I tried to play "Teddy Bears Picnic." We could never get the bridge right.

Here is a Spotify Playlist with a tune from each band (where available)





Peace.

Day 72: FACEBOOK Style...a good time to stay in the basement.

"Nobody told me there'd be days like these."

CLICK HERE FOR OFFICIAL VIDEO (not mine)

In reviewing the video, I conclude that John (of blessed memory) had no BB game. Weak two handed set-shot. Otherwise, the video is funny, sweet, and sad. The song is so apt that it hurts.

Whereas....

In other news....

Hip Hop Evolution...

This guy has a look!

Don's Book Club

Or should we have just kept hunting and gathering?

They Can't Hide Us Anymore by Richie Havens

1989!

And The Seven Dwarfs

Day 38: Richie Havens-things I didn't know or maybe I forgot

Richie Havens is one of my all time favorite musicians. He is on my musical Mt. Rushmore The passion and emotional depth he put into his music has been inspirational and at rare times aspirational for me.

I have already posted about him since this confinement begin. Bob Dylan is also on the granite face of my imagination. Next Monday, I will post about the third face

Here are some facts about Richie Havens that I didn't know or maybe forgot.

Woodstock

The most striking image most of us have of Richie Havens is opening at Woodstock. He improvised his epic version of Freedom which was the closing number of what became a 3 hours set.

What I didn't know was that his bass player, Eric Oxendine had abandoned his car and walked 20 miles. By the time he got to Woodstock, Richie Havens, percussionist Daniel Ben Zebulon and guitarist Paul ‘Deano’ Williams were riffing on Freedom.

Williams-Havens-Zebulon...no Oxendine

Handsome Johnny

This song also performed at Woodstock was written by Lou Gossett Jr. who performed at Cafe Wha? before launching his movie career.

Louis Gossett Jr. and Richie Havens: The Troubadours of Folk Festival in 1993.

Greased Lightning

Richie Havens had a long film career as an actor and a composer. In 1977, he played Woodrow in Richard Pryor's first lead role, Greased Lightning, a biopic about Wendell Scott, the first African American Nascar driver.



Left to right: Beau Bridges, Richie Havens, Cleavon Little, Pam Grier, Richard Pryor


Married with Children: Rock of Ages

In this 1992 episode of MWC, Al Buddy passes himself off as Axel Buddy for reasons that are not clear to me. Here is a clip of Al playing the sandwich with among others, Richie Havens.




I'm Not There

In the odd 2007 Bob Dylan biopic, Richie Havens shows up on a front porch at .54 mark of this clip jamming with "Woody," played by Marcus Carl Franklin.



I've got to be jamming myself.

Click here for the Richie Havens web site and an excellent Richie Havens bio.

Don't forget to nominate your favorite confinement images and videos for the Donnies™. Nominations accepted until May 1.

Day 7: Is it me or is everything kind of fucked up?

Hello again everyone:

 I especially want to thank my overseas reader and the leader of the Dave Band. Eventually, (hopefully) there will be a link to our recordings and the inspirational story of our recording session. 

As I listen to music these days, some songs have lyrics that really grab me. Although the most recent song is from about 1970, artists have always felt the angst that surrounds them. And also some hope. Here are 10 that have resonated with me in the last few weeks.


 

1. All Along the Watchtower: Richie Havens

"There must be some way out of here?"

Right.

This is my favorite version of this song. He starts with a
little patter about Washington, DC. And then begins his mighty strum. We saw him at the Old Town School  He said that he had been on the road...since 1961. He is on my Mount Rushmore of Music.

2.  Visions of Johanna: Bob Dylan

"We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it."

Not sure about the denial part. We're pretty much sheltered in place. Also for those who have been to the Shearn place, this line is relevant.

"In this room, the heat pipes just cough."

On Mount Rushmore. Of course.


3. Helpless: CSN and Y but mostly Y

"Helpless, Helpless, Helpless."

When I was younger, I may have done a better job singing this song.

4. I Can't Make it Anymore: Richie Havens

Here Richie is talking about love gone wrong.  But there are times of day when I feel this way.

5. New Speedway Boogie: The Grateful Dead

"One way or another, this darkness got to give."

They were singing about Altamont but c'mon. We've got to get to the other side.

6: Mission in the Rain: Jerry Garcia


"Some folks would be happy to just have one dream come true."

Such a beautiful song about longing and regret. JG is on Mount Rushmore








7: Compared to What?: Les McCann & Eddie Harris

"Try to make it real, compared to what?"

Les McCann on vocals and piano and Eddie Harris on tenor sax had a hit with this song 1969. Now, that's what I'm trying do...aren't we all?

8: High Flying Bird: Richie Havens

"Lord, look at me here
I'm rooted like a tree here
Got those sit down
Can't cry, oh Lord, gonna die blues."

Written in 1963 by Judy Henske, this tune was played at Monterey Pop and Woodstock.

9. The Wheel: Jerry Garcia

"The wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will."

Okay, it's kind of pagan. The whole wheel of life bit. I take some comfort that the 'wheel's still in spin. '


10. Follow: Richie Havens

"If all the things you feel ain't what they seem.
And don't mind me 'cos I ain't nothin' but a dream."

Somehow that's comforting on an existential level. It's a fucking, bad dream now. But I hope it will pass safely for as many people as possible.

BTW: The fourth member of my Mount Rushmore is a street singer in Berkeley in the early 70s. More on him and all kinds of other stuff later...some time.

Day 4: Shelter in Place...Really, only 4 days. Okay.

One app that I have enjoyed and relied upon during this 'thing' is Spotify. Several months ago, we chose to go with Spotify Premium. We had previously used Pandora which seemed heavily weighted toward Paul Simon...he seemed to pop up on my admittedly boomer artist lists.

I had used youtube but I did not pay for the premium services. The result were lots of ads, interestingly for Turkish Airlines.

Back then, I thought it was pretty hilarious because of the 'crisis' we were having with Iran. Remember that...January 3. The US drone attack killed Qasem Soleimani and I was afraid that we were going to have a broader war in the Middle East. WW3 was trending.

Here is one of the Turkish Airline ads.

"How Was Turkey?"  Spoiler: The answer is, "Turkey was Yes."

Well, no.

With the switch to Spotify came an increasingly Dylan focused nerdiness. This was fostered by my friends Larry I. and Chuck F. who are unabashed Beatle nerds. If they could sing, play, and read extensively about the Beatles (and their post Beatle careers), I could certainly dive into Dylan.

I did this by listening to Bob Dylan: Album by Album  a podcast by a charming English fellow (who, I followed on Twitter until I stopped following Twitter). Peggy and I attended the Bob Dylan songbag hosted by Jimmy Tomasello once a month at the Old Town School of Folk Music until, well you...

With Spotify came Dylan Playlists: Entry Level Dylan (by Ben Burrell, the English guy) and Dylan 2019 Tour, inspired by one of the Dylan songbags.

Yep...All going pretty swimmingly. Here was my Spotify Home Page on February 29

Three Dylan albums and the Daily Mixes. (Suggested playlist by the algorithm based on what you listen to.)

1. Bob himself
2. T Bone Burnett, reputed to be an influencer in Bob's Christian period (1979-1981 approx.)
3. Richie Havens (Here is Richie's charming story about All Along the Watchtower)
4. Doc Watson
5. Britney Haas, fiddler. Peggy and I share an account and she is taking fiddle lessons.
6. Ed Sheehan, don't know how he got there.

When the shit started getting serious around the country, I changed my listening patterns. Everything was either too on the nose..."Desolation Row" or "Not Dark Yet." Or too much a reminder of the music that our group, The Repeat Offenders, played at our only gig on November 2. And that the group has been social distanced. It all made me pretty sad.

Here is the Spotify Home Page of today, March 24.

The mixes tell a story...

1. Joni Mitchell, lots of heart ache

2. Tom Lehrer, heavily into comedy albums of the 60's and 70's. Newhart. Shelley Berman. Early George Carlin

3. T.Bone Burnett, not sure how he's hung in there

4. Errol Garner, piano jazz is comforting. Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal,

5. Oscar Peterson (see above)

Only 1 Dylan Album. I was listening  to "Visions of Johanna."

"We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it."

 I'm not really stranded. I have music. I have a partner, family and friends. 

But sometimes, goddamnit, I feel that way.