Long Ago and Far Away: JGB at Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, ME, June 20, 1982

LN jg1982-06-20.jgb.all.aud-lamarre.139447.flac2496

Great pull by Doug Lamarre, very good JGB from the strong month of June 1982. Bobby Cochran and Bob Weir from Bobby and the Midnites sit in on the encore, which includes the JGB singleton “Johnny B. Goode”.
Jerry sounds quite strong.  Two new tunes stand out. “Valerie” holds some serious heavy-metal appeal, and “Run For The Roses” involves some uncommon wah-pedaling.
Kahn gets two mentions, first for some big pulling at the start of “Mission In The Rain” and, second, neater, for some noodling he is doing at the start of the show. Here is an mp3 of the snippet, which runs about 20 seconds starting from about 0:23 of the first track of this fileset.
The noodle sounded to me like “Blue Moon”, but I don’t know squat. Nick urges comparison with Ray Brown’s bassline on this Oscar Peterson version of Jerome Kern’s “Long Ago (And Far Away)”. Getting all musicological up in here, he says that “Kahn is playing what sounds like a C, Am, Dm, and G, which in the language of music theory is a I-vi-ii-V progression.  ‘Blue Moon’ is one famous example of this”. So I don’t feel totally foolish.
Anyway, I would welcome your analyses. It’s always fun when Jerome’s namesake comes up, and when a Garcia engagement crosses into uncommon deep Americana.
Listening notes below the fold.
Jerry Garcia Band
Cumberland County Civic Center
1 Civic Center Square
Portland, ME 04101
June 20, 1982 (Sunday) – 8 PM
Lamarre MAC flac24 shnid-139447
–main set + encore (12 tracks, 111:54)–
–main set (10 tracks, 101:37-:49)–
t01. [0:40] (1) The Way You Do The Things You Do [6:54] [0:04] %
t02. /Catfish John [#12:47] [0:04] %
t03. [0:02] Valerie [7:25] [0:02] %
t04. The Harder They Come [15:14] [0:01] % [0:05]
t05. [0:09] Mission In The Rain [11:19] [0:03] %
t06. /Mystery Train [#8:51] [0:04] %
t07. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:18] [0:02] % [0:11]
t08. Tore Up Over You/ [11:05#] %
t09. /Russian Lullaby [#11:56] ->
t10. Run For The Roses [5:30] (2) % pre-encore tuning [0:49]
–encore (2 tracks, :49+10:16)–
t11. Dea//l [5:#52] ->
t12. Johnny B. Goode [4:19] (3) [0:06]
! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #14c
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn – el-bass;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann – drums;
! lineup: Melvin Seals – keyboards (organ);
! lineup: Jimmy Warren – keyboards (electric piano);
! lineup: Liz Stires – backing vocals;
! lineup: Julie Stafford – backing vocals.
! guest: Bob Weir – el-g (t11-t12), vocals (t12);
! guest: Bobby Cochran – (t11-t12).
JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; … = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [m: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 [m:ss] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/20682 (Rolfe shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/110317 (Rolfe flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/121457 (Lamarre via DAT flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/139448 (this source, flac16); https://etreedb.org/shn/139447 (this fileset).
! personnel: Cochran listed for both encores, but I only hear him on JBG.
! preview: Barrett 1982: “Garcia, Weir and the Dead’s record company, Arista Records, Inc. of New York, says the personnel lineup of the Garcia Band will be kept under wraps until the show. In the past, his band has been made up of rock notables including Nicky Hopkins (session pianist for the Rolling Stones and the Jefferson Airplane), vocalist Maria Muldaur, jazz organist Merle [sic] Saunders, bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt.”  Embarrassing: Billy Cobham, one of the hottest drummers in the world, misidentified in picture caption as Billy Cochran (guitarist’s name is Bobby Cochran). 5k tickets already sold as of 6/18 paper.

! seealso: JGMF, “A JGB drum solo by Bill Kreutzmann – Cape Cod Coliseum, June 18, 1982,” URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-jgb-drum-solo-by-bill-kreutzmann-cape.html.

! seealso: JGMF, “Lizless Sextet: JGB at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, June 23, 1982,” URL http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2013/03/ln-jg1982-06-23jgbs1s2paud.html.

! R: field recordist: Doug Lamarre
! R: field recording gear: 2x Nakamichi 300 (borrowed from Dan Liff, RIP) > Sony D5
! R: field recording media: Maxell UD90s, Dolby B
! R: seeder note: this is a fresh transfer of shnid 121457, corrected mic info
! R: transfer: Nakamichi Dragon (Dolby B) > Benchmark adc1 @ 24/96, transferred & seeded by Rob Berger 2017
! R: what a great tape!
! P: Jerry sounds strong.
! t01 (1) before TWYDTTYD @ 0:23 ff John is noodling a standard which I thought was “Blue Moon”. Amazing musicologist commenter Nick analyzes it as follows: “Kahn is playing what sounds like a C, Am, Dm, and G, which in the language of music theory is a I-vi-ii-V progression.  ‘Blue Moon’ is one famous example of this.  After googling it, I found another, Jerome Kern’s ‘Long Ago (And Far Away)’ — and [there is a] version by the Oscar Peterson Trio, with the great Ray Brown playing a bassline that sounds awfully similar to what Kahn is playing.
! R: t02 CJ clips in
! P: t03 Valerie 4:30ff very heavy metal sound, excellent. 
! P: t05 MITR John pulls some huge notes right at the start – very cool.
! R: t06 MT clips in
! R: t08 TUOY clips out
! R: t09 RL clips in
! P: t10 RFTR @ 2:51 Garcia steps on the wah pedal and we get GD style effect – very uncommon for JGB, and never heard it in RFTR like this, I guess. Song had debuted 4/10/82. First electric version was 5/14/82.
! t10 (2) JG: “Thanks a lot. See ya later.”
! R: t11 Deal cuts @ 5:40
! P: t12 JBG only JGB version of this tune (i.e., singleton). Cochran can be heard late 1 over 2. Then again at 3:27 for a brief turn.
! t12 (3) BW [falsetto]: “Thank you.” JG: “See ya.”

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