A Long Way From Spain: JGB at SUNY Stony Brook, December 9, 1977

LN jg1977-12-09.jgb.all.aud-matera-fix.137736.flac2488

Not much time to post much detail, so some bulleted observations.

1)  Keith is playing some classical-Spanish sounding thing at the end of s1t01. Then, @ 7:21 of “Lonesome And A Long Way From Home”, I hear John hitting some Spanish stuff, too. Check it out because, while Jerry was Swedish-Irish on his mom’s side, his father was, of course, full-blown, born-in-Spain Spanish and, well, that’s just fun.

2) I love “Reuben And Cérise” (Hunter’s spelling, with French-accent-snob-appeal-to-me), and this one has some great power chords, but they repeat the ending figure a large number of times. I didn’t count, but it’s too many.

3) This LAALWFH is just amazing. It clocks in at 27 minutes, but, more importantly, it’s endlessly interesting. It really gets wide open, not just in a noodly-spacey sense, but always remains musical. I was impressed with what young Buzzy, the studio drummer who often, rather necessarily, played metronomically on this first tour, with new material, with a band lacking in temporal discipline, lays out in this open idiom. The whole band sounds great here.

4) Maria is absent. She was on and off this tour.

5) The previews I reference provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheadism, the purest and ur-ist form of the broader genus Deadheadus Eastcoasticus.

6) About 165 minutes of music on a tightly-edited tape. Second set clocks in at 95+ minutes. Good bang for the six bucks and fifty!

Oh, and I found a pic, uncredited. Happy to supply credit if the identity of the photog emerges.

Garcia at Stony Brook, 12/9/77. Photographer unknown to me at this time.

Jerry Garcia Band
Pritchard Gymnasium, State University of New York
1 Center Drive
Stony Brook, NY 11794
December 9, 1977 (Friday)
Matera MAC shnid-137736 fix shnid-137720

–set I (6 tracks, 68:47)–
s1t01. Harder They Come [12:03] [0:06] % [0:15]
s1t02. Catfish John [10:52] [0:10] % [0:08]
s1t03. That’s What Love Will Make You Do [11:13] [0:03] % [0:08]
s1t04. They Love Each Other [7:11] [0:13] %
s1t05. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [14:22] [0:02] % [0:05]
s1t06. The Way You Do The Things You Do [11:50] (1) [0:05]

–set II (7 tracks, 95:43)–
s2t01. Midnight Moonlight [14:53] [0:07] % [0:06]
s2t02. Gomorrah [8:21] [0:04] % [0:02]
s2t03. Tore Up Over You [9:22] [0:04] %
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [15:30] [0:07] %
s2t05. /Reuben And Cérise [8:58] [0:02] %% [1:08]
s2t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [9:17] [0:04] % [0:04]
s2t07. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [27:26] [0:09]

! ACT1: JGB #4*
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn – el-b;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux – piano;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan – drums;
! lineup: Donna Jean Godchaux – vocals.
[! absent: Maria Muldaur – vocals]

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; … = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [mm:ss] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the “real” time of the event. So, a timing of [mm:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19771209-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/4444 (s2 Nak 300s shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/16859 (reshn of shnid-4444); https://etreedb.org/shn/77713 (pitch-correct shnid-4444, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137720 (Matera flac2488); https://etreedb.org/shn/137721 (Matera flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/137736 (Matera flac2488, this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/137737 (Matera flac1644 fix).

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html. I denote this configuration as JGB #4*, since Maria Muldaur is not present.

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/efyWYZ1ew4qmbr4v9

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/10/pritchard-gym-suny-100-nicholls-road.html

! exante: “Ticketron Gets Garcia Tickets Before Campus,” (SUNY Stony Brook) Statesman, October 28, 1977, p. 3, accessed online;

! exante: Grossman 1977;

! exante: Razler 1977;

! review: [positive] Alkon 1977, who liked the show. Misidentifies drummer as Tutt. That said, he didn’t like the “irritating” 75 minute intermission.  “Outraged” by a five and a half hour concert (8-1:30) with three hours of music: “When Keith and Donna sat down on the piano bench for a smoke and fifteen minute chat I felt like I was invading their privacy! I realize that a group needs frequent breaks, but the Garcia Band abused the privilege, showed disrespect for their audience, and unprofessionalism.”

! seealso: JGMF, “The mystery of the Jerry Garcia Band 11/28/77 ticket stubs,” URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystery-of-jerry-garcia-band-112877.html. Wherein I go on at great length about a very small matter of tickets misprinted with the date of 11/28/77.

! pic: URL http://www.dead.net/fanphotos/jerry-stony-brook-1977

! historical: the previews provide great color around Stony Brook Deadheads wanting to camp out for tickets and such. Stony Brook is just about ground zero in the development of campus-based GD mania and the history of the East Coast Deadhead.

! R: field recordist: Phil Matera

! R: field recording gear: unknown mics > unknown cassette deck

! R: lineage: MAC > Reel (Maxell-UD135, 1/4trk @ 3-3/4) > Teac X2000R > Korg MR1000 DSD DFF@ 5.6MHz > AudioGate > 24/88.2 Wave > Wavelab6 > OzoneRx4a > Ozone6A; CD Wave > TLH > Flac24. Transfer by John Hance.

! R: This is a fix of shnid-137720. The last 2 tracks of the second set have changed.

! R: patches from shnid-77713: s2t01-Midnight Moonlight, s2t04-Simple Twist Of Fate and s2t07-Lonesome

! R: seeder note: “Thank you Phil & JJ! Salah Febuary 7, 2017”

! R: very nice recording

! P: overall: voice sounds a little fatigued.

! P: s1t01 KG is playing some Spanish-classical thing at the end of the track.

! P: s1t05 KOHD KD on electric piano

! s1t06 (1) JG: “We’re gonna take a break for a little while. We’ll be back a little later.”

! R: s2t05 RAC cuts in

! P: s2t05 RAC is very good. Some huge chords. But it does on too long. Quite a bit too long.

! P: s2t07 LAALWFH. This LAALWFH gets *way* out there. @ 7:21 John is hitting a Spanish theme. I think this is pretty incredible, though hard to characterize. Just great open playing by every player.