Nice RAC, Señor: JGB at the Warfield, April 25, 1994, set II

Not much bandwidth these days, so some bullets.

1) I am way behind on posting listening notes. I have lots backed up, and many of them are pretty spare. I have sometimes threatened to post these kind of notes in batches, just to get them out of my mind, and not always followed up. This time might (or might not) be different.

2) I wonder what the story is behind the random 90s JGB board tapes that circulate? I suspect every one of them has an interesting story, because there was not systematic leakage of these – Cutler kept a pretty tight lid on things, and there was just less demand for these than for contemporary GD tapes.

3) Jerry sounds old, but much better here than five days earlier. Higher asymmetric –downside– variance in this period than any other. The Rock Bottom period had higher overall variance, comparing the killer high guitar peaks with the killer low vocal troughs. Ten years later, the highs don’t get so high, but, as on 4/20/94, the lows could get really low. 4/25/94 II is pretty good, nothing too problematic.

3) “Money Honey” got a re-arranged ending somewhere in the late period. I would kind of like to pin down when it showed up.

4) Nice “Reuben And Cherise” here. It’s my favorite Garcia Band song, and I think I hold it to a pretty high standard. It sometimes went ’round the bases too many times at the end, stuck in the same rut that its album-mate “Cats Under The Stars” often found. But Jerry is mindful here to throw in enough wrinkles to make things interesting.

5) Final JGB “Señor”. Sigh. I love love love love love this tune so much. He mumbles a fair share of the lyrics, but there’s some good stuff here, too, like the growly “magnetic field” and a repeated “I’m ready when you are” at the end.

6) Crazy dense period for Jerry at the Warfield: April 18-19-20 and 25-26-27 with JGB, then May 4-5 with Grisman. Maybe Deborah needed some new shoes, and goodness knows that golden eggs don’t lay themselves.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Warfield
982 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
April 25, 1994 (Monday)
s2 sbd shnid-77711

–set II (7 tracks, 59:56)–
s2t01. Harder They Come [12:12] [0:41]
s2t02. Mission In The Rain [9:55] [0:14]
s2t03. You Never Can Tell [7:00] [0:02] % [0:04]
s2t04. Money Honey [7:07] [0:10]
s2t05. Reuben And Cherise [9:05] [0:27]
s2t06. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [6:47] ->
s2t07. Midnight Moonlight [6:09] (1) [0:03]

! ACT1: JGB #23
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, v;
! lineup: John Kahn – el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals – keyboards;
! lineup: Donny Baldwin – drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn LaBranch – backing vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones – backing vocals.

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; … = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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 [x:xx] 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/19940425-01

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12257 (same root tape, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/77711 (this fileset); https://etreedb.org/shn/97864 (Vasseur MAD, complete).

! band: JGB #23 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html)

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2013/02/warfield-982-market-street-san.html

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZW52vfHTbjs

! R: SBD > 1C? > DAT? > CD > flac. Seeded 8/2006 by Teddy “GoodBear” Selby. A Teddy “GoodBear” Production ~ www.goodbear.com :wave: 

! P: s2t03 YNCT some mumbly here and there, e.g., around 6:25. Jer sounds old, but good not bad.

! P: s2t04 Money Honey w the newly arranged ending

! P: s2t05 RAC Donny is offbeat. It takes 45 seconds at the start to set the 1. That said, I think he nails every word of the lyrics! He has finished singing the lyrics 5:28, goes around several times, goes higher up 5:40 and Melvin synths a little alongside. A little bit of variation in the phrasings in the 6 minute mark. Now I fear this is going to get stuck going around for too long without enough happening to justify it. And I find myself there 6:45. Jerry needs to mix things up, or end it. A little more wrinkling right over 7, longer phrases than one might often hear in RAC (not sure), but good that he is making it more interesting. Descending bit 7:45 good. He’s hitting the deeper chords to signal the end 8:30 and so forth, then digs in to finish it 8:50. A very good late era RAC, I have to say!

! song: Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) (s2t06): final Garcia performance.

! P: s2t06 Señor a few lyrical stumbles. 1:48 is that mumble mumble still playing in that hay-cant lot. 2:27 mumble mumble, maybe should have been “I can’t stand the suspense”. Then mumble waiting there Senor. 4:40 mumble I remember. Returns to eyes glued to the door, instead of picking himself off the floor.  He does some nice low growly stuff, as on “magnetic field”, which is how Bob did it and I don’t recall Jerry doing it so much. He repeats “I’m ready when you are” in the last line, rather than “can you tell me what we’re waiting for”, but it WORKS.

! s2t07 (1) JG: “Thanks a lot. See y’all later.”


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