Ike Stubblefield with the Jerry Garcia Band (aside on Bernard Purdie)

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9 responses to “Ike Stubblefield with the Jerry Garcia Band (aside on Bernard Purdie)”

1. 

   David Kramer-Smyth

   June 29, 2021

   Found these quotes in an interview.

   Stubblefield lived in Stinson Beach during the post Haight Ashbury years he was on the Bay Area scene.
   “Commander Cody was my neighbor,” he remembered, then said, chuckling, “Huey Lewis opened for me back then. When Merl Saunders couldn’t do a Jerry Garcia Band gig, Jerry would call me. I sat-in with Electric Flag (Michael Bloomfield’s band), a whole bunch of folks.”

   source
   https://www.marinij.com/2014/01/17/lib-at-large-grammy-winner-stubblefield-returns-to-sweetwater/amp/?fbclid=IwAR0ULu9tRJ8EiX7b1cieGwJY11vJ8yW1c9M0phLZo8tSflzHyno2sc_N9hk

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2. 

   Fate Music

   June 30, 2021

   Helpful! So, not JGB at all, but in the Merl era. So ingtriguing. Thanks!

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3. 

   David Kramer-Smyth

   July 1, 2021

   Also saw in an interview that his manager at the time was "manager for ELO" So I assume Don Arden (Jet records). Do we know who managed Merl?

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4. 

   raile

   July 3, 2021

   A random aside about Bernard Purdie and why you might want to take things he says with huge buckets of salt: In early 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, record labels around the world were furiously re-issuing tapes that the Beatles had recorded in Germany in 1961 to cash in on their new popularity. Purdie overdubbed some drums on top of Pete Best’s lackluster drumming to “punch up” the sound for the American market. It was something like two tracks, and probably took an hour of his time.

   Fast forward a few decades later, and suddenly Purdie was claiming that Ringo didn’t drum on any Beatles records, and in fact Purdie had overdubbed drums on pretty much every single Beatles record that had ever been released. Ay caramba. Talk about enhancing your resume!

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5. 

   Fate Music

   July 3, 2021

   Wow. Thanks. In this case, though, Big Steve mentioned it on his radio show. But I do think you spotlight a general issue, and that's exactly why I always seek other evidence beyond someone's claim!

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6. 

   Nick

   July 4, 2021

   @ralle, I've heard that Beatles line too, which seems needlessly shameless coming from a guy who certainly didn't need to pad his resume. Another oft-told story about Purdie is that he would show up to sessions and set up a sign next to his kit that said something like GOOD FOR YOU, YOU HIRED THE HIT-MAKER. He seems like quite a character (there are some instructional video clips on youtube that are priceless). Oh well! He's still one of the all-time great drummers. But given that he was such a session A-lister, it seems a little odd that he would sit in with Garcia & Saunders in Nov 74 (at one of the untaped late shows, since he's definitely not on the recordings we have). @JGMF, do you know the source of the Purdie claim?

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7. 

   Nick

   July 4, 2021

   oh whoops, just saw you said it was Parish's radio show. sorry!

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8. 

   Fate Music

   July 5, 2021

   Big Steve's show from 5/3/2018 about 25 minutes in. He says it was a show with Kreutzmann, which implies July '74, but since Purdie and Paul Humphrey were tight I strongly suspect it was November. I think the one thing we can have confidence in is that Purdie sat in.

   In fact, reading it now, he seems to imply it was the same night that Lennon was in the house. So that's 11/5/74. And since there's no tape of the late show, I think we should assume 11/5/74b.

   rough transcription:

   there's a famous show that we did with Jerry's band at the bottom line in New York City. And it was a historic show for many, many different reasons. And the band at this time had Bill kreutzmann, playing drums and john Kahn, and Merle and Jerry. And Martine, I think, was in the band too. And the strangeness of it was that john lennon showed up at the show and had a great time with Jerry and myself. We were there, Jerry, like I said, would always come early. And he was there with me, we've set up and this guy we knew named Ronnie sunshine, who was a strange character and a sort of a limo driver at times. He brought john lennon to meet Jerry. So Jerry and john had some time to sit and talk. And it was really good timing there, too. A lot of other friends showed up. And it got so boisterous and loud in there. And there was all kinds of folks and it just got where they couldn't communicate. And john lennon went and sat out in the audience. And he started having a great time enjoying the music so much. Even word got to him to sit in. But he wasn't in the mood that night or wasn't feeling up to it. And he never did. But it would have been nice to see that now. It this particular night, this nightclub is in Greenwich Village. And at the end of the night of this long, incredible night where Bernard Purdie showed up and was just leaving on Kreutzann to sit in and Billy threw him the sticks. And he's one of the greatest drummers ever. And he played with the band and he just lit it up where he was polyrhythmic he could he just went and played every direction. So all this stuff was happening this night.

   …

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9. 

   Nick

   July 6, 2021

   Wow. Thanks for sharing that!

   Reply