“More and different” pithily summarizes what Garcia was pursuing in his Side Trips relative to what he got out of the Grateful Dead. Here are a few snapshots of some over-time trends I find illuminating.
“More”: this is a calendar view of Garcia’s out of state tours with the Dead (pink) and his side bands (green), which thus also indicates time he was mostly in the Bay Area (there are a few SoCal trips not captured in any of these three categories). He always endeavored to fill these spaces with hometown gigs.
Pretty self-explanatory. This is my gig count as of two weeks ago, always subject to change.
Here are a couple of time series that I find depressing. The first shows Garcia gigs promoted by Fred Herrera (Keystone Korner, New Monk/Keystone Berkeley, Keystone Palo Alto, The Stone) and by Bill Graham over the years. In mid-1987 Garcia’s 16+ year business relationship with Freddie comes to an end, wholly supplanted by Bill Graham. The second shows the decline of college gigs (Dead and Garcia), just a little color.
The next (last) one is another depressing one, showing the ebb and flow of Garcia’s engagements with other artists (non-Dead, non-Garcia) over time both live and in the studio. Note the giant hole that forms as the opiates take hold during the 1975-1985 decade.
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