Jerry Garcia playing bass behind Lightnin’ Hopkins: Fillmore Aud, 10/23/66

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7 responses to “Jerry Garcia playing bass behind Lightnin’ Hopkins: Fillmore Aud, 10/23/66”

1. 

   Jerry’s Brokendown Palaces

   March 11, 2019

   On 10/23/66, the GD also played a matinee at the Las Lomas High School gym that was originally scheduled for the Walnut Creek Library.

   The poster for the 10/23/66 Fillmore show has the Yardbirds and Country Joe on the 23rd but it's a matinee also so maybe…
   http://www.deadlists.com/posters/1960s/19661021c.html
   and here also:
   https://www.classicposters.com/Yardbirds/poster/Bill_Graham/33

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2. 

   Fate Music

   March 11, 2019

   Apparently, Country Joe didn't play at the Fillmore that day.

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3. 

   Light Into Ashes

   March 13, 2019

   It looks like there are a couple witnesses for this event:
   "I went to the Sunday show. Lightnin' had Jerry play bass. The Yardbirds had Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck together… I had always liked Lightnin', so seeing Jerry having so much fun playing with him was great. He was bouncing and smiling."
   "I was at that show. I loved the Yardbirds and was really into the blues. I may have showed up late but I don’t remember Jerry playing with Lightning."
   https://www.facebook.com/groups/62353732320/permalink/10155904603147321/

   What struck me most was not Jerry playing with Lightnin' (interesting as that is), but the whole possibility of a Lightnin' Hopkins/Yardbirds/Grateful Dead show. Could this have happened?
   It's quite unlikely. As mentioned, on Sunday Oct. 23 the Dead were playing an afternoon show in Las Lomas at 3 pm. Meanwhile, the Yardbirds Fillmore show was scheduled from 2-7 in the afternoon, and there's no indication a second evening show was added later.
   The Dead may have zipped back to San Francisco in time for Jerry to show up at the Fillmore. But did Lightnin' Hopkins open for the Yardbirds? It's hard to say; Country Joe was on the poster but reportedly didn't show.
   The 10/28/66 Berkeley Barb reviewed the Yardbirds show and had much to say about their amplifiers but little about the unnamed opening bands, only saying: "the other groups do their thing, singing Butterfield blues, singing Byrds arrangements of Leadbelly songs, playing their own music."
   https://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=d&d=BFBJFGD19661028.1.6
   So if Lightnin' played, this reviewer didn't notice him. (The Daily Flash were reportedly one of the opening bands.)

   My guess is that Jerry actually played with Lightnin' on one of the earlier Dead dates, Oct. 21-22, and our witness conflated two different shows from that weekend.

   But the Dead did see the Yardbirds at the Fillmore at some point; Bob Weir later remembered, "They were one of the bands that Bill Graham brought over that we went down and caught and were profoundly influenced by." (The Yardbirds later played the Fillmore in a July '67 run, when the Dead had no shows scheduled.)
   The Yardbirds had played in San Francisco before, as mentioned in the Barb review…8/25/66 at the Carousel Ballroom (with Jeff Beck absent).

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4. 

   Fate Music

   March 14, 2019

   The Carousel in '66?

   Thanks for this!

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5. 

   Light Into Ashes

   March 14, 2019

   Yep, the good ol' Carousel in its former incarnation. The Yardbirds must have been one of the few rock bands to appear at the Carousel that year. The Carousel at the time almost exclusively featured either big-band orchestras or Irish singers brought over by the Irish ballroom owner:
   http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/08/march-9-1968-carousel-ballroom-san.html?showComment=1536388624842#c5952461902398250463

   I'm curious how the Yardbirds booked the Carousel as the place to play in San Francisco. Bill Graham wasn't yet bringing in many English bands at the Fillmore (hardly any, actually), but snagged the Yardbirds for their October return.
   http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2009/12/english-rock-bands-at-fillmore-1966-67.html

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6. 

   Corry342

   April 18, 2019

   Yeah, I don't find this memory convincing. Lots of people claim stuff on Facebook that can be hard to expressly debunk (like that they saw Cream play for free in Palo Alto…um, no). The confusing misdate of Oct 23 doesn't lend credence to it.

   Now it's true that Hopkins would just work with a pickup bassist or drummer. I talked to someone who played a gig with Lightnin' in some Berkeley club way back when (Tom Glass aka Ned Lamont), he said it was very difficult, no prep and no direction from Lightnin', just guessing. Gary Duncan of QMS has also talked about playing bass behind Lightnin', although whether at the Fillmore or the Matrix wasn't entirely clear.

   But Jerry playing bass live for the only time in his career after 1963? Opening for the Yardbirds (or the Dead, or something) and no one noticing or commenting, ever? JG was a bona fide rock star by '66, with his picture regularly in the Chronicle, and the band was widely covered by Ralph Gleason, Jann Wenner and others. No one noticed? The show with the Yardbirds was reviewed in the Berkeley Barb two days later (a rave), and ED Denson forgot to mention Lightnin' and Jerry?

   For now, I am filing it as "old guy has talked himself into a warm, fuzzy memory." Delighted if I was proved wrong, not holding my breath.

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7. 

   Corry342

   April 18, 2019

   The promoter was Bill Quarry, the principal promoter in the East Bay at the time. His production company was called "Teens And Twenties" (TNT). He was a Graham rival, but Bill squeezed him out. Quarry promoted shows at a roller rink in San Leandro thur 66, and then he tried to start a venue in Concord in 1967, an interesting effort but it didn't pan out.

   https://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2009/10/1825-salvio-street-concord-ca-concord.html

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