Fate Music

San Francisco Sessions, 1970

**updated 8/10/2015, especially under heading D**
**update2 8/11, more, especially, in section D**
**updated 8/12, re-ordered sections (now goes from more micro and Jerrycentric to more macro (and less so)), also reworked some of section D, though not really many new words.**

I have been processing information from contracts filed at the
American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local No. 6 in San Francisco.
Let me speak to (A) Garcia sessions; (B) Dead-related stuff,(C) other
Garciaverse echoes, and (D) an analysis of what these contracts tell us about San Francisco Rock on film in 1970.
A. Info on some of Jerry’s prolific 1970
studio work:
  1. Materials
    around the iconic Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship Blows
    Against the Empire     (RCA LSP
    4448 [SF 8163], November 1970    ) tip the possibility of Garcia working
    on “Mau Mau” (July 17 and 22), not currently given at Deaddisc. This material may have ended up on the cutting room floor. They also us to date his credited contributions to “Starship” (July 15, August 10-11) (LIA corrected me on earlier error, saying this was previously uncredited.)
  2. The
    song “Old Man” pops up July 15 and August 10. I am assuming this
    is Covington’s execrable “Whatever The Old Man Does (Is Always
    Right)”    , unreleased from the Jeffersons’ Bark (Grunt FTR 1001,
    September 1971    ) sessions.
  3. Brewer
    & Shipley, Tarkio     (Kama Sutra 2024, February 1971):
    Deaddisc shows Garcia only on “Oh Mommy”. The session paperwork
    also lists “50 States Of Freedom”, hard to know if Garcia played
    on that one and/or if any material was used. There is one contract for two
    sessions, so my hunch is that there was one session for each song, and
    Jerry probably only attended one of the two. Who knows. The sessions were Friday,
    August 21, 1970     at 5pm and 9pm. Work on the record picks up again in
    October, but Garcia, still/again at Heider’s, makes no further appearances.
  4. Lamb,
    Cross Between     (Warner Brothers WS 1920,
    1971    ): Deaddisc says “Jerry Garcia plays on Flying (banjo),
    Flotation (pedal steel) and Reach High (pedal steel)” and notes
    “Garcia’s contribution to this LP is not documented on the LP cover.
    There is simply a note on the back cover that says ‘special thanks to
    Jerry Garcia’, which has been interpreted as meaning Garcia played on the
    album. It has subsequently been confirmed by Walter Rapaport, the
    co-producer of the album, that Garcia played on Flying, Flotation and
    Reach High. The contribution to Flotation is only 4 notes.” For what
    it’s worth, the contract gives us time: Monday, October 5, 1970, in
    the afternoon.
  5. Thanks
    to commenter
    runonguinness    , I see that     RCA buys some “Soul Fever” on Tuesday,
    October 6, 1970    , eventually to appear on Papa John Creach‘s self-named Grunt record (FTR 1003,
    December 1971    ). ROG notes “it is credited to Papa John,
    Garcia, Rolie, Brown and Covington and it does sound like just one
    guitar”. Deaddisc
    does show a Garcia credit, listing Papa John Creach – electric violin,
    Dave Brown – bass, Joey Covington – drums, Jerry Garcia – guitar, Gregg
    Rolie – organ). So I guess the really tantalizing question is whether Carlos
    Santana     showed up, and he and Jerry played together. It’s interesting
    to me that there are just about no instance of that particular shared
    studio, and the Shared Stage only came about post-Garcia’s 1986 coma. A
    few months later, in a near-miss (as far as we know), Carlos
    was billed playing with Merl Saunders at the Matrix    ). In the alternative, some Carlos licks hit the cutting room floor.
B. The Grateful Dead Node
  1. I found no 1970 GD contracts in the union records, which is a tragic shame. Might such materials exist in the Grateful Dead Archive?
  2. The
    Planet Eart Rock and Roll Orchestra (PERRO) sessions at Wally Heider’s included some Dead
    guys, though Phil Lesh is curiously absent from any of the paperwork I
    have seen. Bill Kreutzmann has an appealing looking session on July
    29th with Paul Kantner and David Crosby), Mickey
    Hart     makes a less-appealing-to-me Joey Covington-led one on September
    2, 1970. That session, BTW, also seems more reliably to put Spencer
    Dryden     in the New Riders’ drum chair at the Matrix this night, but for
    some weird reason I have listed Hart. I assume this is my error?
  3. Bob
    Weir     makes the James and the Good Brothers sessions in
    December, also with Mickey.
  4. Note
    the new studio “Alembic, Inc.”, address 320 Judah Street
    in SF, late in the year. These are the earliest references I have found to
    that particular dba configuration.
  5. There’s
    a Grateful Dead film contract dated 10/2, with no performance date
    listed. The location is given as “remote locations at Family Dog,
    PHR”. It was contracted by KQED (Bay Area Educational Television
    Association), under the moniker “San Francisco Rock”. Under heading D below you’ll find that end up concluding that this session transmogrified into the live broadcast from Winterland on October 4, 1970.     I have more to say about this in section D, below.

C. A few quickies more on the margins of the Garciaverse:

  1. PERRO at Heider’s. QED.
  2. Paul
    Kantner     spent a lot of time in the studio, and
    the amount of studio time at Heider’s paid out of RCA monies speaks to
    just how lucrative the Jeffersons’ contracts really were. Doug Sahm
    (Mercury) and Joe McDonald (Vanguard) get a lot of time in, as
    well.
  3. An
    awful lot of the PERRO contracts are AWOL, based on the comparison
    of the union files with, e.g., the metadata attached to circulating
    recordings.
  4. John
    Kahn     at Heider’s: January 15 with Steve Miller; April 16 (approx)
    with Butterfield; August 17-18-19 with Brewer and Shipley (also Bill
    Vitt    ), as well as October 5-6-7 and 14, 1970 with Brewer &
    Shipley but w/o Vitt.
  5. Other
    Garciazens making appearances in the contracts include Ron Stallings
    and David Crosby, though not with Jerry in these materials.
  6. Martin
    Fierro     kept pretty busy, mostly with Sir Douglas and QMS.
D. “San Francisco Rock”, 1970 film contracts

In this section, I use the 1970 Bay Area Educational Television Association (i.e., KQED)
“San Francisco Rock” film sessions to shed some light on San Francisco Rock, 1970 – what was played, when, etc.
1. The Concept

Ralph J. Gleason (b. – d.) was brilliant enough to see the leading edge of a wave of musical, cultural, social effervescence gathering around San Francisco from 1965 forward, turbo-boosting his own transition from newspaper jazz man to hip capitalist (Kramer 2013’s formulation). He had a hand in the creation of untold countless precious artifacts including newspaper columns, radio broadcasts, interviews, records and tapes, and of course films. In 1970 KQED apparently paid him to do a five-year introspective, arranging to have the three biggest Haight-Ashbury bands
filmed in “San Francisco Rock”, the Airplane the first week of
August, Quicksilver the first week of September, and the Dead the first week of
October.

  1. ca. August 3, 1970 (contract date) Family Dog on the Great Highway (film S.F. Rock): Jefferson Airplane (Balin, Dryden, Casady, Kantner, Kaukonen, Slick)
  2. ca. August 31, 1970 (contract date) Sonoma State College (film – S.F. Rock, Part I): QMS (John Cipollina, Gary Duncan, David Freiberg, Greg Elmore)
  3. ca. October 2, 1970 (contract date) “remote locations at Family Dog, PHR”, (film – S.F. Rock): GD (Lesh [leader], Garcia, Hart, McKernan, Weir, Kreutzmann)
“San Francisco Rock” was a Ralph Gleason joint at T+5, nearly to the day. What a great idea! But, as it happens, maybe it all didn’t quite work out as planned. Whatever does? So Gleason looks typically prescient in seeing the promise of marketing something at the 5 year totem, but the end results skew a little, as artifacts must.

2. The State of the Bands in/and the Broader Time Period

a. The Bands

The Jeffersons are still huge, but the peak has been passed in terms of the Airplane’s live act, which I date rather precisely to 4/15/70. May brings the low swamp of Grace’s “shrimp rap”, the tape that turned me against live recordings of the Airplane from later in that year – I just can’t get the taste of that local low off my aural palate – and by 10/4/70, or maybe it was 10/5, Marty expresses his need for a new band not just to the assembled mourners, but over howevermany watts on KPFA.


The Quick has a lot of energy in this period, but more of the kind that the the fractious Jeffersons always wallowed in, and less of the relatively –relatively!!– interpersonally harmonious Grateful Dead scene. (I just came across a quote of Garcia saying in 1970 how well the Dead guys got along on the road – that must have been chez LIA somewhere?) There’s a reason David Freiberg could jump from the Quick to the Jeffersons, besides his bad-ass bass playing, his vocal strength, song chops, and all the rest of it – he seems not to have suffered much from the burn of working with difficult, brilliant people.


The band peaked hard November 7-11, 1968 at the Fillmore West, spun the electric circle Happy Trails, and then crashed to Dino Valente’s unambiguous re-entry into the band, his subsequent departure with Duncan in tow, the east coast motorcycle trip, aresulting relatively fallow first half of 1969, toodling around a little bit with Nick the Greek and then welcoming Nicky Hopkins into the fold. There is much more hot music to be played throughout the spring, but by summer 1970 Quicksilver, as it happens, is in the process of breaking apart. Nicky leaves the live act in August, Cip sort of quits after –again? 10/4/70?– the horns come in 10/4/70 and 10/5/70 and the radio broadcast is painful to listen to. Nothing can survive the onslaught of Dino Valente –his “Long Haired Lady”, which includes the line “uni-corns pran-cing, in my mind” should have earned him a lifetime ban from the commissioner– and by 1971 they have Whodat playing the bass and would never make meaningful music again.

That said, Gleason didn’t entirely miss with Quicksilver – the performance that ended up happening, being filmed, and the film eventually released is a fine one, indeed, in many respects. I say more below.


The Dead’s cards showed loss, recovery and some mighty fine music, and unlike the other two bands the arrow is pointing up after 1970 – a strong buy, and go ahead and go long. The spring and fall records Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty were, respectively, strong on the charts and just-released, the first a weary tune and the latter a wreath of the titular bloom. Darkness swirled around them, who took refuge in each other, sharing lives with all of their music. The last quarter of 1970 is its weakest one, by far, anchored not least by the shambolic performance that I think we have contracted here, Winterland 10/4/70.

 b. San Francisco Rock, ca. 10/4/70


Indeed, Winterland 10/4/70, the night that Janis died, the manic, brain-blasting qualities of the various broadcasts (which really were never gotten together, technically — all of the tapes pretty much suck), the Airplane and Quicksilver falling apart at the seams, and the less well-known to me show the next night in many ways stand as an epitaph to the whole idea of getting up close and personal with “San Francisco Rock” five years along. All three “S.F. Rock” bands performed, revealing that five years will take a toll on people and the groups they comprise, living under the spotlight and fueled by all kinds of drives will bring out some really good and some, well, less so. I think it’s no coincidence that the three bands contracted for “San Francisco Rock” would be playing together.
(see also LIA | cryptdev | Corry on the broadcast angle )


c. Art and Commerce


In short, I think Gleason succeeded in capturing some clear truths about “San Francisco Rock” in 1970, and I find the footage that we have to be artistically successful on a lot of levels. I don’t think they worked out all that well commercially, but then again this is public television we’re talking about here. The fact that Gleason gets to release this material under his own name (see just below) is interesting …

3. The “Ralph J. Gleason Presents” DVD releases in Light of the Contracts


When I first saw the contracts, I assumed that they gave rise to film already released under the banner of “Ralph J. Gleason Presents” DVDs:

A Night at the Family
Dog (EV 30122-9, 2007, IMDB)
Go Ride the Music & West Pole (Eagle Vision EV30181-9, February
2008).

I have been able to parse things a little more closely, to fine tune against the baseline of my starting assumptions. After you read this section, I want you to believe that a) the metadata around these releases contain errors, b) I can correct some of these errors using these contracts, b) none of these contracts refers to material appearing on Night at the Family Dog or West Pole; c) the Airplane and QMS contracts refer to material found on Go Ride the Music, and thus recorded in August and September 1970, respectively; and d) the 10/4/70 gig at Winterland probably constituted the Dead’s  “S.F. Rock” contribution, but none of this material has never appeared in the Gleason films.

The release metadata are a little all over the place. The contracts bring clarity. Let me move from simplest to most complicated by going in the order West Pole, A Night at the Family Dog, and Go Ride the Music.

a West Pole


West Pole is the easiest to deal with. Toby Gleason says the film was made in 1968, the back cover says it aired in 1969, and the front cover says it was previously unreleased. The overall WP&GRTM release has copyrights of 1969 and 2008.

It is wonderful to see. The Airplane and Dead material on West Pole
is
not from discrete sessions, but colles some
pastiches some rather amazing sound and image from various times and
places, different kinds of sources (live and studio), and different
people into primal music videos. There’s great tape of legendary venues
and groups such as the Ace of Cups, some street scenes from a dingy Haight, and lots of other cool stuff.

The whole thing’s a hoot to watch, but it has
nothing to do with  the 1970 “San Francisco Rock” sessions.

b. A Night at the Family Dog 

Filmed on 2/4/70 (update: maybe also 2/3/70) and first released in 1970, Corry has a great writeup. The metadata are very solid, two small flies in the ointment.

First, I have always supposed a “4/2/70” Airplane session  (Abbott 2007) to be spurious, probably stems from a European orthography somewhere in the script. Tape attributed this way has crossed six or seven media, and every copy I ever heard was, IIRC, the same material known to be from 2/4/70. But I note below that it is not impossible…

Second, ihor’s irreplaceable The Complete Grateful Dead Discography (TCGDD) entry lists a June 28, 2005 release of the Night DVD, with otherwise identical catalog information (Eagle Rock 2030122-9), but calling it San Francisco Rock: A Night At The Family Dog.
That’s the sort of coincidence some of us are paid not to believe in. On my 2007 imprint of that release, that formulation (“San Francisco Rock, A Night at the Family Dog”) appears as the title of Toby Gleason’s brief missive. But I’d give a full title of Ralph J. Gleason Rock Classic: A Night at the
Family Dog, if forced to.

I am confident out a number of decimal places that none of the material contracted during 1970 under the heading “San Francisco Rock” has anything to do with the Night at the Dog. We should be keeping these two things separate, IMO, except insofar as Toby Gleason titled an essay that way.

Overall, here, I conclude with memory rule: 2/4/70 is the Night at the Family Dog, and A Night at the Family Dog derives from only 2/4/70. (Update: except for maybe some or all of it being from 2/3/70? Heh heh.) None of this material appears to have been contracted through the papers described below.

c. Go Ride The Music

The back cover of the release says “Go Ride the Music was recorded in 1969” gives 1969 and 2008 copyrights. But 1969 is flat out incorrect. The JA and QMS tracks derive from 1970, from material contracted by KQED under the film title “San Francisco Rock”.


i. Airplane

The cover reads that “the seven Airplane clips [on Ride the Music] were shot at Pacific High Recording and
feature their new drummer, Joey Covington”. 
The venue is a contraindication, since the contract said Family Dog. But note the wording on the Dead contract: “remote locations at Family Dog, PHR”. So PHR was certainly on the script for “San Francisco Rock”, and what’s more –and tremendously ironically, given the story that I plan to narrate in “Jerry and the Jeffersons”, parts I and II– the Dog was busy giving birth to The Common in early August 1969, though it sure could have used the paycheck. For whatever reason, it seems very plausible to me that they contracted the Dog and ended up at PHR.

In terms of personnel, erstwhile drummer Spencer Dryden flew out of the Jeffersons’ orbit by April 1970. Depending on how literally we take the word “new”, this could give oxygen to the notion that there was an Airplane ssession at Family Dog on 4/2/70, despite the strikes agsinst that idea (noted above). That said, August 1970 still consists in Joey being “new” to the Airplane, I’d say, with five years (or thereabouts) already under their belts (8/13/65 is as good a starting point as any), the guy who had been in that particular seat for only three months –though around for longer– was still “new” to a first approximation. Either way, Covington’s presence as the Airplane’s drummer, rather than a guy hanging out with Jack and Jorma, speaks unequivocally in favor of 1970. 

Sealing the case for 1970 for me is Jeff Swenson’s liner notes. which put Garcia in the Jeffersons’ studio striking Blows Against The Empire. The contracts are all over that stuff, of course, and things could not be clearer: this is summer 1970.

All in all, I am about 95% sure that work contracted for “San Francisco Rock” begat the Airplane material featured on Go Ride the Music, which therefore dates to sometime in the first third of August 1970. 
ii. Quicksilver
This QMS material completely knocks me out, Dino doing his Full Narcissist, the band tearing the shit out of things, the material very uneven. Remember this rule of thumb: “Subway” good, “Long-Haired Lady” bad. Further, any song that includes the phrase “uni-corns pran-cing in my mind” must not be. It must not be. Nicky’s fingers appear a time or two, and he is clearly audible Freiburg looks like he’s rocking, but he’s buried in the mix, I guess that’s Greg Elmore hitting the skins. It went downhill fast from here, but in September 1970 (which I’ll conclude this is) these guys were at a local peak not seen since late 1968 and Happy Trails. The scenery is incredible, what looks to me like a fall day in Sonoma County, not too many people dancing out in ticklish sunshine, on a little bit of a breeze.

The “San Francisco Rock” contract fits the bill most precisely with the location  (Sonoma State College) and the season (fall). 
Personnelwise, Nicky is not on the contract, but one senses that his contractual status might have been a little bit fluid (hence the disembodied fingers on the film?). Alsoa  strike against is that, as I recalled, he had stopped gigging with the Quick in August. This certainly doesn’t rule out a September 1970 QMS gig for film, which remains extremely likely given the balance of all of the evidence, but it does raise small question..

The fact that Dino Valente and Gary Duncan are in town strikes me as strongly confirmatory of 1970, since as I recall they spent all of 1969 out east riding and running around, not returning until about New Year’s Eve. I’d like to consult Shelley Duncan’s book again to feel more confident about that, but that’s my strong sense.
All told, the balance of the evidence favors the QMS material from Go Ride the Music having been contracted as “San Francisco Rock” and performed in early September 1970.

iii. implication

Go Ride the Music comprises an early August 1970 Jefferson Airplane set from Pacific High Recorders and an early September 1970 Quicksilver Messenger set from Sonoma State College, both contracted under the planned Bay Area Educational Televation Association’s planned KQED film “San Francisco Rock”.

d. The Dead: All Contract, No Release

Based on all of the above, here’s what I think happened with the GD session. If the Jeffersons played a different room than contracted, the Dead could have, too. And having taken that step, why not get some really live material for the film, with the people who do it best, and knock out a simulcast on KQED? In short, I now believe that the 10/2/70 contract was fulfilled by the Dead through the 10/4/70 television and radio broadcast from Winterland. Why didn’t the Gleason folks use some of this footage in Go Ride the Music? My best guess is that it would have been a rights and money thing. Earlier I had entertained a few other possibilities. Maybe there really was a separate Dead session filmed during this timeframe, per the terms of the contract, which has remained hidden. This seems unlikely, to say the least. Or maybe it was never consummated (i.e., the 10/4/70 had nothing to do with the “Rock in S.F.” project. Maybe the Dead bailed out after 10/4/70, Janis dead and darkness, darkness all around. But I think all of that is less likely than my preferred alternative.

Note: as far as I can tell, no video of the Dead’s 10/4/70 set has been seen. Is that correct?

4. “San Francisco Rock”, 1970 and San Francisco Rock, 1970

[with more time, here I would close the loop on the idea that what we get on the film is pretty much what we get in the real world. I sketched this out preliminarily above.]

Barebones session listing follows. Note that, in a pure breach of common
sense, I have added a fifth line to some of the most interesting entries, to
identify the songs. If I ever try to parse these into real data I’ll have to
remember that.

E. Session Listing

January 6, 1970 ??Columbia Records, 245 Hyde Street, SF?? (this is
the address for Heider’s, I think)
Bob Jones (leader), Ron Stallings, Fred Olson, Robert
Huberman, John Wilmeth, Stephen Funk
Columbia Records
130322
January 15, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Steve Miller (SM [leader], Tim Davis, John Kahn [1374 Sir Francis
Drake, San Anselmo], James Cooke, Jimmy Lee Tillman)
Capitol Records
130152
February 2, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick [leader], Paul Kantner, Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130915
February 3, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick [leader], Paul Kantner, Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130924
February 6, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick [leader], Paul Kantner, Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130932
February 10, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Paul Kantner [leader], Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130940
February 11, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Paul Kantner [leader], Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130957
February 12, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Paul Kantner [leader], Martyn
Buchwald, Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington)
RCA Records
130949
March 25, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF
Sir Douglas Quintet (John Perez, Doug Sahm, Frank Morin [leader],
August Meyer, Harvey Kagan, Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
131204
March 26, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 12 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (John Perez, Doug Sahm, Frank Morin, August
Meyer, Harvey Kagan [leader], Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
131219
March 26, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 4 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (John Perez, Doug Sahm, Frank Morin, August
Meyer [leader], Harvey Kagan, Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
131233
March 27, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF
Sir Douglas Quintet (John Perez [leader], Doug Sahm, Frank Morin,
August Meyer, Harvey Kagan, Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
131156
March 27, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 7 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (John Perez, Doug Sahm, Frank Morin [leader],
August Meyer, Harvey Kagan, Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
131213
April 3, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
132954
April 6, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], David Crosby
RCA
132958
April 10, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], David Crosby
RCA
133004
April 13, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
133011
April 14, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
133017
April 14, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 5 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (Frank Morin [leader], Martin Fierro, Gordon
Messick, Bill Atwood, George Rains, Melvyn Martin, Whitney Freeman, Wayne
Talbert, Jake Lee, Charles Gray, Steve Maereklein, Edward Adams)
Mercury Records
131542
April 14, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 9 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (Frank Morin [leader], Eddie Lee Charlton,
Martin Fierro, Gordon Messick, Bill Atwood, George Rains, Melvyn Martin,
Whitney Freeman, Wayne Talbert)
Mercury Records
131552
April 15, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 12 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (Frank Morin, Harvey Kagan, Martin Fierro
[leader], Gordon Messick, Bill Atwood, George Rains, Melvyn Martin, Whitney
Freeman, Wayne Talbert)
Mercury Records
131601
April 15, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 4 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (Frank Morin, Martin Fierro [leader], Gordon
Messick, Bill Atwood, George Rains, Melvyn Martin, Whitney Freeman, Wayne
Talbert)
Mercury Records
131608
April 16, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission, SF 12 pm
Sir Douglas Quintet (Frank Morin, Martin Fierro, Bill Atwood,
George Rains [leader], Melvyn Martin, Whitney Freeman, Wayne Talbert)
Mercury Records
131617
ca. April 16, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Butterfield [leader], Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Bob
Jones, John Kahn, Fred Olsen, Mark Naftalin
Elektra Records
131755
May 4, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington
RCA
133023
May 13, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
133030
May 14, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
133036
May 19, 1970 PHR Studios
Paul Kantner [leader], Grace Slick, Joey Covington, Jorma
Kaukonen, John Casady
RCA Records
134004
May 20, 1970 PHR Studios
Paul Kantner [leader], Grace Slick, Joey Covington
RCA Records
133954
May 20, 1970 Pacific High Recording, 60 Brady Street, SF
Barry Melton [leader], Mark Kapner, Greg Dewey, Doug Metzler,
Mayne Smith
North Star Productions
131107
May 20, 1970 Pacific High Recording, 60 Brady Street, SF 3-6 pm
Barry Melton [leader], Richard Olsen, Mark Kapner, Greg Dewey,
Doug Metzler,
North Star Productions
131114
May 21, 1970 Pacific High Recording, 60 Brady Street, SF 12 pm
Barry Melton [leader], Mark Kapner, Greg Dewey, Doug Metzler,
North Star Productions
131119
May 21, 1970 Pacific High Recording, 60 Brady Street, SF 3 pm
Barry Melton [leader], Mark Kapner, Greg Dewey, Doug Metzler,
North Star Productions
131119
May 21, 1970 PHR Studios
Paul Kantner [leader], Grace Slick, Joey Covington
RCA Records
134011
May 26, 1970 PHR Studios
Joey Covington [leader], Paul Kantner
RCA
132625
May 27, 1970 PHR Studios
Joey Covington [leader], Paul Kantner
RCA
132634
June 16, 1970 Sierra Sound, 1741 Alcatraz, Berkeley, CA
Joe McDonald
Vanguard Recording
133607
June 17, 1970 Sierra Sound, 1741 Alcatraz, Berkeley, CA
Joe McDonald
Vanguard Recording
133616
July 9, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission St., SF
Sir Douglas Quintet (Martin Fierro)
Mercury Records
134029, 134036
July 10, 1970 Coast Recorders, 829 Folsom, SF (radio spot – Jr.
Hot Shoppes)
Nicky Hopkins (leader), Lonnie Turner, Spencer Dryden
Imagination, Inc.
133757
July 13, 1970 Mercury Sound Studios West, 1340 Mission St., SF
“Blue Cheer” (Martin Fierro [leader], Frank Morin, Melvyn Martin,
Patrick O’Hara, Bill Atwood, Ralph Hotz, Bruce Stephens)
Mercury Records
133844
July 14, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington [leader], Paul Kantner, John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen
RCA
132637
July 15, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Paul Kantner (leader), Joey Covington, Gerome [sic] Garcia
RCA Records
n/a
songs: “Starship”, “Old Man”
July 16, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11 pm
Joey Covington, Paul Kantner [leader]
RCA
133050
July 17, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Paul Kantner (leader), Gerome [sic] Garcia
RCA Records
n/a
songs: “Mau Mau”
July 20, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington, David Crosby
RCA
133101
July 22, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Gerome [sic] Garcia [leader], Paul Kantner
RCA
132733
songs: “Mau Mau”, “Together”
July 23, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington
RCA
133107
July 24, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA
133112
July 28, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Benson Kaukonen
RCA
133124
July 29, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], David Crosby, William Kreutzmann
RCA
133131
July 30, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11 PM
Paul Kantner [leader], David Crosby, William Kreutzmann, Joey
Covington
RCA
133139
August 3, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington, John Casady [leader], Jorma Kaukonen, William Kreutzmann
RCA
132656
songs: “Child Is Coming”
ca. August 3, 1970 (contract date) Family Dog on the Great Highway
(film S.F. Rock)
Jefferson Airplane (Balin, Dryden, Casady, Kantner, Kaukonen,
Slick)
Bay Area Educational TV Association
133504
August 3, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Emilio Castillo [leader], Michael Gillette, Steven Kupka, Steven
Mesquite, Ken Balzell
Columbia Records
133431
August 4, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington, John Casady [leader], Jorma Kaukonen, Paul
Kantner, Benson Kaukonen
RCA
132702

August 4, 1970 Wally Heider’s Studio A, SF
David Crosby [leader], Jerry Garcia, Jorma Kaukonen, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann
Atlantic
xxxxxx
songs: “Tamalpais High (At About 3)”; “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)” [cite]
August 5, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
John Casady [leader], Paul Kantner, David Crosby
RCA
132713
August 7, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington, John Casady [leader], Jorma Kaukonen
RCA
132718

August 10, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington [leader], John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Gerome [sic]
Garcia, Michael Hart
RCA
132645
songs: “Starship”, “Old Man”

August 11, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
John Casady [leader], Gerome [sic] Garcia
RCA
132725
songs: “Starship”
August 12, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen [leader], Benson Kaukonen
RCA
132741
August 13, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
Joey Covington [leader], John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Benson
Kaukonen
RCA
132650
August 14, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington
RCA
133146
August 17, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington
RCA
133152
August 17, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Michael Brewer [leader], Thomas Shipley,
Mark Naftalin, Fred Burton, Bill Vitt, John Kahn)
Kama-Sutra Records
132751
August 18, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Joey Covington
RCA
133157
August 18, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Michael Brewer, Thomas Shipley [leader],
Mark Naftalin, Fred Burton, Bill Vitt, John Kahn)
Kama-Sutra Records
132824
August 19, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Michael Brewer [leader], Thomas Shipley,
Mark Naftalin, Fred Burton, Bill Vitt, John Kahn)
Kama-Sutra Records
132800
August 20, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Michael Brewer, Thomas Shipley [leader])
Kama-Sutra Records
132855
August 20, 1970 Pacific High Recorders, 60 Brady Street, SF
Joe McDonald [leader], Jere O’Boyle, Ed Bogas, Gary Hirsh, Richard
Sussman, Victor Smith
Vanguard
132142
August 21, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 5-8pm and 9pm-12am
Brewer & Shipley (Michael Brewer [leader], Thomas Shipley,
Jerome Garcia)
Kama-Sutra Records (employer and payer), Buddah Records (label
name)
132855
songs: “50 States Of Freedom”, “Oh Mommy”
August 22, 1970 Pacific High Recorders, 60 Brady Street, SF
Joe McDonald [leader], Gary Hirsh, Richard Sussman, Victor Smith,
Jeff Costello
Vanguard
132151
August 23, 1970 Pacific High Recorders, 60 Brady Street, SF 12 pm
Joe McDonald [leader], Gary Hirsh, Richard Sussman, Victor Smith,
Greg Dewey
Vanguard
132208
August 23, 1970 Pacific High Recorders, 60 Brady Street, SF 9 pm
Joe McDonald [leader], Gary Hirsh, Richard Sussman, Victor Smith
Vanguard
132159
August 31, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF
Paul Kantner [leader], John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen
RCA Records
134931
ca. August 31, 1970 (contract date) Sonoma State College (film –
S.F. Rock, Part I)
QMS (Cip, Duncan, Freiberg, Elmore)
Bay Area TV Association
132244
September 1, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF
Paul Kantner [leader], John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Joey Covington
RCA Records
134937
September 2, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF 8-11 pm
Paul Kantner [leader], John Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Joey
Covington, Mickey Hart
RCA Records
135008
September 3, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF 8-11 pm
John Casady, Joey Covington [leader]
RCA Records
135015
September 4, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF 8-11 pm
Joey Covington
RCA Records
135020
September 9, 1970 Golden State Recorders, 665 Harrison St., SF (TV
commercial – Dial Anti-Perspirant)
Nicky Hopkins [leader], John Mosher, Spencer Dryden
Imagination, Inc.
132554
September 24, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
John Casady
RCA Records
135035
September 25, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA Records
134941
September 28, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington
RCA Records
134947
September 29, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner [leader], Jorma Kaukonen, John Casady, Joey Covington
RCA Records
134953
September 30, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Jorma Kaukonen [leader], John Casady, Joey Covington
RCA Records
135041
October 2, 1970 (contract date), “remote locations at Family
Dog, PHR”, SF (film – S.F. Rock)
Grateful Dead (Lesh [leader], Garcia, Hart, McKernan, Weir,
Kreutzmann)
Bay Area Educational TV Association
132310
October 5, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 12-3 pm and 4-7 pm (two
sessions)
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley [leader], Mike Brewer, John
Kahn, Mark Naftalin, Bob Jones, Fred Burton)
Buddha Records
135451
October 5, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 1:30-4:30pm
Lamb (Robert
Swanson [leader], Barbara Mauritz, David Hayes, Jerry Garcia, Edgar Noel Bogas)
Fillmore Corp.
135733
songs: “Flying”, “Flotation”, “Reach
High”

October 6, 1970 Wally Heider’s SF 8-11 pm
Joey Covington [leader], John Creach, Jerry Garcia, Carlos
Santana, David Brown, Greg Rolie
RCA Records
135027
songs: “Soul Fever”
October 6, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 1-4pm, 5-8pm (two sessions)
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley, Mike Brewer [leader], John
Kahn, Mark Naftalin, Bob Jones, Fred Burton)
Buddha Records
135525
October 7, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 8-11pm
John Creach
RCA
135047
October 7, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 5-8 pm, 9pm-12am (two sessions)
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley [leader], Mike Brewer, John
Kahn, Mark Naftalin, Bob Jones, Fred Burton)
Kama Sutra Records (payer), Buddah Records (employer and label)
135457
October 8, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley, Mike Brewer [leader])
Buddha Records
135531
October 8, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 1-4pm
Lamb (Robert Swanson, Barbara Mauritz, Edgar Noel Bogas [leader])
Fillmore Corp.
135840
October 8, 1970 PHR
QMS (Martin Fierro [leader], Frank Morin, Patrick O’Hara, Ken
Bozell, Ron Taormina)
Capitol Records
135223, 135231
October 9, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 5-8pm, 9pm-12am (two sessions)
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley [leader], Mike Brewer)
Buddha Records
135505
October 12, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 11am-2pm
Lamb (Edgar Noel Bogas [leader], Vince Germain)
Fillmore Corp.
135854
October 12, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley, Mike Brewer [leader], Noel
Jewkes)
Buddha Records
135537
October 13, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley, Mike Brewer [leader])
Buddha Records
135544
October 14, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF 5-8pm, 9pm-12am (two sessions)
Brewer & Shipley (Tom Shipley [leader], Mike Brewer, John
Kahn, Billy Farlow)
Buddha Records
135510
October 19, 1970 Wally Heider’s, SF
Paul Kantner
RCA Records
134959

November 4, Wally Heider’s Studio C, SF
David Crosby [leader], Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Joni Mitchell
Atlantic
xxxxxx
songs: “Laughing” [cite]

November 20, 1970 PHR
QMS (David Freiberg [leader], Gary Duncan, John Cipollina, Greg
Elmore)
Capitol Records
134233
November 25, 1970 PHR
QMS (David Freiberg, Gary Duncan, John Cipollina [leader], Greg
Elmore)
Capitol Records
134248
November 27, 1970 PHR
QMS (David Freiberg, Gary Duncan, John Cipollina, Greg Elmore
[leader])
Capitol Records
134258
December 7, 1970 Alembic, Inc, 320 Judah Street, SF
James and the Good Brothers (Bruce Good [leader], James Ackroyd,
Brian Good, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir)
Columbia Records
134826
December 16, 1970 Alembic, Inc, 320 Judah Street, SF
James and the Good Brothers (Bruce Good [leader], James Ackroyd,
Brian Good, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir)
Columbia Records
134836
December 18, 1970 Alembic, Inc, 320 Judah Street, SF
James and the Good Brothers (Bruce Good [leader], James Ackroyd,
Brian Good, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir)
Columbia Records
134846
[1] One caveat: most of the GRTM Airplane
material is from a setting described as above, with Jack in an orange tunic and
Marty in a black and white checked shirt. At points appears in the video some
different tape, e.g., with Marty in a purple shirt. There is a certain pastiche
quality to some of this that certainly doesn’t make the present task any
easier.

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23 responses to “San Francisco Sessions, 1970”

  1. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    I presume the 8/3/70 & 8/31/70 Airplane & QMS bits are for the "Go Ride the Music" film. The discographical info I have for the film suggests their clips were filmed much earlier, though.
    Odd that the 10/4/70 Dead show is also listed as part of the "SF Rock" film – maybe that was a generic title, or it was thought that the show would also be included in "Go Ride the Music" (which was broadcast in December).

    10/6/70 – that looks like a cool session, almost like a Santana version of PERRO. Not circulating, I take it?

    The Kantner sessions – I think Garcia is credited on 'Starship' actually…. It's quite possible he worked on other (uncredited) songs too, only to have his parts replaced or not used.

    320 Judah Street – the "official" Alembic history says they moved to that address in February 1970, and then moved to 60 Brady Street (the former Pacific High location) in late 1971.
    http://www.alembic.com/family/history.html
    I notice that the Dead didn't record at that location in 1970, though….Wally Heider's seems to have become the location of choice. But in 1971-72, when the Dead needed albums mixed (like Ace, the Aoxomoxoa remix, or the live albums) they used the Alembic facilities.
    http://www.deaddisc.com/GDFD_Alembic_Studios.htm

    Missing PERRO contracts – if Crosby was the leader, wouldn't his contracts be archived in LA? I presume that's one reason his "solo" album is absent here. (Though I wonder how session contracts were handled with musicians from different unions.)

    Reply
  2. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    If the PERRO sessions took place in SF, with local 6 musicians, copies of the contracts should have gone to local 6.

    Nothing from 10/6/70 in the world. Have you ever parsed the 8/4/70 "Sunshine Superman" session, members of QMS among others? I think it's a Matrix tape, not the same people as listed here.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    That 1970-10-06 Soul Fever ended up on Papa John's first Grunt album. There it is credited to Papa John, Garcia, Rolie, Brown and Covington and it does sound like just one guitar. Maybe there is an out-take with both Jerry and Carlos.

    I haven't checked but I think the 1970-10-04 and 5 Winterland shows were John's first appearances with the Airplane, at the suggestion of Covington who was an old friend. My guess is it was intended as an Airplane session but only Covington turned up. Covington and his friend jammed to not waste the studio time, Santana were around for some reason and got involved. It's no surprise that Jerry was there. Then a year later the track got included on John's album which is a mishmash of lineups and sessions.

    Reply
  4. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Thanks! My initial state of mind had it as 10/21/70, hence the "putative" on the song title. I thought it was a jam and that was a generic name. I came away from the view that it was 10/21/70, but then never investigated the song itself.

    Was 10/4/70 also the live debut of the Quicksilver horn section? There's lots of good Quicksilver stuff in here. That band released two records in 1970 alone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_Messenger_Service#Discography).

    I am spinning "What About Me?", and it is quite atmospheric, essential Dino Valente narcissism with very good Mission Street Soul rhythm. The guitars are conspicuously buried in the mix I am hearing – c'mon, man.

    Your notion that the rest of the Airplane just didn't show up is an interesting one. One could analyze the patterns of who's where and find lots of interesting stuff. Balin certainly seemed like the most frequently odd one out, but that group permutes pretty relentlessly.

    Reply
  5. Corry342 Avatar
    Corry342

    Amazing stuff. My belief is that Alembic's offices were at 320 Judah Street, and they rented PHR. At some point, I think in '71, they simply took over PHR and renamed it Alembic Studios. They may have moved their Judah Street offices there, I'm not sure. So I think when you see 320 Judah, it's just a mailing address.

    One of the confusing aspects of Alembic was that they did not publicize the name "Alembic Studios," so they did not object to the use (by KSAN and others) of "Pacific High Recorders" when that was no longer the case. In any case, I think all the musicians still called it that.

    Reply
  6. Corry342 Avatar
    Corry342

    Another revelation of these listing was the unexpected fact that band members were getting paid for sessions by their own group. Of course, this just meant that the record company was paying them out of future royalties. One reason there may be no records for the Dead (there are probably many) is that Dead members were probably not paid this way. It was very interesting to see the NRPS sessions in that context.

    The Airplane's crazy deal with RCA makes far more sense to me now. The Airplane had this deal where they had unlimited studio time at Wally Heider's. Of course, all that time was charged against future royalties. THey probably didn't pay it off until Red Octopus, if not Spitfire.

    However, the Airplane's members were perpetually broke, or at least cash-poor. The band had been in litigation since it's founding, and the groups' money management skills weren't exactly exemplary. THey also didn't tour much.

    However, if they got $90 (or $110 or $180 for being a leader or whatever) for a three-hour session, that was money to buy cigarettes with, or to put gas in the Porsche. So the more sessions they played, the more walking around money they had.

    Reply
  7. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Your first comment inspired me to straighten out the Go Ride the Music stuff. See section D.

    Reply
  8. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    Looking again, I'm struck by how few of the Kantner sessions Grace Slick is involved in. Not sure if that reflects her limited studio time (unlikely?), or missing contracts.

    I assume Santana's presence in the 10/6/70 session is certain. Wouldn't these contracts only list the musicians actually present?

    Glad the Go Ride The Music material has been sorted out! It's a tantalizing thought that there could be a lost Grateful Dead TV show filmed in October '70….but as you say, it's pretty unlikely. (I also briefly thought maybe it could refer to the "Calebration" show, but since that had been back in August, and not on KQED, that's even more unlikely.)
    I suspect the Dead's role in "SF Rock" may have been altered to the 10/4/70 broadcast, but given the lack of other evidence (or other contracts for 10/4), maybe it was another planned filming that just fell through. The Dead went on a long tour starting 10/10, so maybe everything didn't come together when they were available.
    One thing, though – don't all the other contracts represent work already done, rather than just planned?

    Reply
  9. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    I haven't quite been able to tell if someone's name being there means they were there.

    In terms of the done vs. planned distinction, I can't systematically tell. Some (such as the Brewer & Shipley contracts) are all stamped 'paid' by the record company, Kama Sutra, which I presume means the company was satisfied enough (at whatever level of scrutiny it applied) to have ponied up. Most are not so stamped, and the BAETV documents are not.

    Reply
  10. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    You are exactly right. The Jeffersons just went in to work, took home a check, split it up to a pretty considerable degree, rotated it. Doug Sahm did it that way, as did Brewer & Shipley. Others, it was less systematically rotated, like Cip almost always led the Quicksilver sessions.

    The money is reckoned for. I think it was $85 per person per session, with leaders getting 2x. I don't usually see other people getting multiples as much as I seemed to have seen in 1969, but that's totally impressionistic.

    The data are not full of random errors – the errors are systematic. The session list you create from union paperwork might bear little resemblance what a participant-observer would have recorded spending that year in the city. I can't figure out all of the biases – the fact that money's involved provides all kinds of rich potential leads, for one thing.

    The other thing I want to be careful to remember is that this is the stuff I was able to pick up in two days, being selective, but on utterly nonsystematic section criteria known only to my deep inner brain. I can't estimate what percentage of the contracts I was able to engage. There's jazz and all kinds of other stuff that I didn't even look at.

    Reply
  11. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Just the Jeffersons Sessions would make for beautiful social network graphs. Paul Kantner seems to have been the central node of the band. Then there is Jack and Jorma cluster. I don't have a clear sense of the drummers. But Grace and Marty were easily the most scarce.

    One could animate the population of Heider's over time with just that subset. The possibilities are pretty open.

    Reply
  12. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    You ask about 10/4/70: "Why didn't the Gleason folks use some of this footage in Go Ride the Music? My best guess is that it would have been a rights and money thing."

    I wonder how that would work specifically…how rights would be an issue for two shows running on the same TV station using the same bands. Nor do I know what the bands were paid for their appearance, and what factor that would be in the show budget. Also, were they paid by the station for the 10/4/70 airing, and would they have to be paid more if the footage was also used in Go Ride the Music?

    I offer a couple other speculations:
    a) No footage of 10/4/70 was used in Go Ride the Music because it had just aired, and the producers wanted to use only "new" footage for the Gleason documentary.
    b) No footage of 10/4/70 was used because it had already disappeared from the KQED archive, if it was kept at all.
    c) Possibly there were problems with the 10/4/70 quality or the audio – it was a live broadcast after all. Since it's a lost film we have no idea how it looked or sounded.

    In any case, the end result was that the Dead got bumped from Go Ride the Music, which seems to have been planned as a 3-band show just like Night at the Family Dog.

    Reply
  13. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    I find c>b>a in terms of probabilities. There were so many technical problems that night, the tapes are frightful. I wouldn't be surprised if all the gremlins in the air crossed up any planned video recording. If it was taped, b says, it is probably no longer of this world. A gives some hope, but I really doubt it.

    Would have been nice to see the boys playing "Till the Morning Comes"!

    Reply
  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    i think we figured out what SFR: ANATFD is.

    two 'oddities' fascinate me. one is the presence of john kahn at so many sessions, both in 1970 and in 1969. second, nicky hopkins playing on commercials – (radio spot – Jr. Hot Shoppes) and (TV commercial – Dial Anti-Perspirant) – where are these classics?

    thanks for the great info, JGMF!

    p.s. i looked, in vain, for any mention of the pigpen sessions. as you say, many of the contracts are 'lost', and i assume that those are as well.

    I-) ihor

    Reply
  15. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Thanks for your help! I will make sure to include a reference for the additional information you have at TCGDD about ANATFD.

    Thanks for all the info you have preserved and gathered – I have got a TCDGG list on my blogroll "Shoulders to Stand On" at the top-right of the blog.

    Kahn: yes, busy, but all in the Bloomfield-Gravenites network. That's a big "but", because Nick ran a lot of projects. It would be interesting, indeed, to do a dynamic network graph of Kahn's associations. It would shift decisively to Garcia after summer 1972. Corry has great stuff on all of that.

    Is anyone in touch with Bob Mathews? I'd bet he has all of the session information that we seek.

    Reply
  16. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    … insofar as it ever existed at all, that is.

    Reply
  17. philynne Avatar
    philynne

    Missing from this list is the live KQED studio broadcast of the Grateful Dead: Calibration 8-30-1970. Perhaps there is some tie in to the Ralph Gleason San Francisco Rock contract which involved KQED and the Dead? The documents cited quoting 10-2-1970 do not seem to correlate with any known footage.

    Reply
  18. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Calebration was taped before 8/30: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/03/gd-august-30-1970-calebration-misdated.html. Either way, yes, not on the list.

    I speculate that 10/2/70 contract is about the 10/4/70 Winterland gig, so it does tie to known material.

    Reply
  19. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    LIA has written up some of the dates of some of the filmed material, and I think I might have some things wrong. But I don't have time to cross-check it all. I will just pin link to him here: https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2018/09/february-4-1970-family-dog.html.

    Reply
  20. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    So, the 2/6/72 Garcia-Saunders FM session was at 60 Brady Street, which was officially Alembic by that time, but still being called Pacific High Recorders (or is it Pacific High Recording Studio? Or …? I can never keep that stuff straight).

    Reply
  21. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    The "San Francisco Rock" contracts from Aug/Oct '70 appear to have been retroactive, in that they covered performances filmed months before – the Dead & the Airplane at the Family Dog on Feb. 4, Quicksilver at Sonoma State on April 28. The contracts specify the recording locations (although, oddly, the Dead are given the "remote location at PHR" rather than the Airplane, who'd actually filmed a session there, so this seems to be an error rather than an unknown or planned Dead session).

    I have no doubt the contracts are for the upcoming TV broadcasts of the two "San Francisco Rock" specials, A Night at the Family Dog & Go Ride the Music. Newspaper articles at the time specify that the programs were called "San Francisco Rock" and that they were sponsored by the National Educational Television network. With the names, locations, and TV sponsor matching, these contracts can't be for anything else.
    (There should also be a Santana contract too, not found here. Also a small error: as transcribed here, Nicky Hopkins isn't named in the QMS contract!)
    I don't believe these contracts are related to the 10/4/70 Winterland broadcast of the three bands, given that the program name and the locations are specified for each band.
    If there were union contracts for the Winterland broadcast, they have not turned up. I disagree with the premise here that the "San Francisco Rock" contracts morphed into the 10/4/70 broadcast, or that they had anything to do with summer/fall '70 shows.

    The one puzzling aspect for me is the late date: why draw up the contracts months after filming? – and not only were the bands' contracts done weeks apart, but the actual broadcasts weren't until December '70.
    But I don't know what the usual timing was for TV-broadcast contracts – these programs were months in the editing, so I don't place too much weight on the dates the bands submitted paperwork. Maybe they waited until they could see rough cuts to approve, or filing union contracts was just a low priority.

    Ralph Gleason's article in the Deadsources post ("The S.F. Rock Scene Revisited," from the 12/6/70 SF Examiner) gives a helpful timeline for the "San Francisco Rock" filmings:
    – the Family Dog show was filmed first (2/4/70)
    – then the Airplane's studio set (4/2/70, maybe?)
    – then backstage at the 4/15/70 Winterland show
    – then Quicksilver's show at Sonoma State College (4/28/70, though Gleason misremembers it as March).
    It's unknown why the programs weren't broadcast until December.

    Reply
  22. ruppi43 Avatar
    ruppi43

    on the Airplane's studio set in GoRideTheMusic: there is one very interesting clue at about 30:30 (on my DVD), during PlasticFantasticLover Garcia and Mickey Hart are seen in the back in the sound booth! Garcia is beardless, this puts him between 70-04-10 and 70-05-24, Mickey has still long hair and uncut beard, this puts him before 70-05-15 –– so the filming of the Airplane's set took place between 04-10 and 05-15 ! also there is footage, including the marquee, of 70-04-15 Winterland at around 21:50 and Matthews at the soundboard –– so this points out to efforts around the 70-04-15 Winterland gig, whatever these were …

    Reply
  23. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    I had lost sight of this comment – thank you, ruppi! Is Santana in Go Ride The Music, also? That would converge with the Santana percussionists joining the GD during that RAGING Other One jam on 4/15/70.

    Reply

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