Tasty Fucking Tape: JGB at Paramount Northwest Theatre, Seattle, October 28, 1978 (Severson MAC)

LN jg1978-10-28.jgb.early-late.aud-severson.148540.flac2496

These last few shows of the Keith and Donna JGB are generally strong. And the recordings often sound really nice, not least because the bass, and I’d say generally the whole band, was dialed-in in the rooms. I don’t know who was doing room sound, but they did a great job.

Mark Severson pulled the “tasty fucking tape(s)” of the title. That guy never missed, it seems.

Not a lot of notes, but that’s kind of been characteristic of what I have been posting lately.

I really like the Reuben and Cherise here. It’s not quite flawless, but it’s strong. LAALWFH clocks in under 14 minutes, last time played until 7/26/81

For those who say that Keith Godchaux was worthless and nodding off in 1978. SHOW ME. I have never seen or heard evidence of this. Of course, maybe he was more engaged in the JGB than in the toxic cesspool of that other band. But, again, don’t just repeat the narrative. Show, don’t tell. (LIA supplies a bunch of the relevant canonical quotes in comment at LLD.)

Oh yeah, BTW, I also just upped some additional notes to my already-existing 10/27/78 post.

Jerry Garcia Band
Paramount Northwest Theatre
901 Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98101
October 28, 1978 (Saturday)
Severson MAC flac2496 shnid-148540

–early show, main set + encore (8 tracks, 7 tunes, 71:57)–
–early show main set (7 tracks, 6 tunes, 65:41)–
e-t01. ambience [1:14]
e-t02. Harder They Come [11:09] (1) [0:21] % [0:34]
e-t03. Mission In The Rain [9:16] [0:20] % [0:06]
e-t04. They Love Each Other [7:22] [1:11]
e-t05. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [13:01] [0:08] % (2) [1:54]
e-t06. It Ain’t No Use [7:56] [1:36]
e-t07. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [8:58] (3) [0:16] % [0:10] %
–early show encore (1 track, 6:16)–
e-t08. Reuben And Cherise [6:06] (4) [0:10] %

–late show (9 tracks, 8 tunes, 74:40)–
l-t01. ambience [1:03]
l-t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:14] [2:39]
l-t03. Catfish John [9:40] [0:15] % [0:33]
l-t04. I Second That Emotion [9:19] [0:25] % [0:15]
l-t05. Love In The Afternoon [8:14]
l-t06. Mystery Train
l-t07. Gomorrah [6:18] [0:15]
l-t08. I’ll Be With Thee [5:15] ->
l-t09. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home [13:32] [0:28]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #4
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux – vocals;
! lineup: Maria Muldaur – vocals;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux – piano;
! lineup: John Kahn – bass;
! lineup: Buzz Buchanan – drums.

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/19781028-03 (early); https://jerrybase.com/events/19781028-04 (late)

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/12679 (McCaw MAC, shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/89135 (Severson master, via minches); https://etreedb.org/shn/148539 (this fileset, flac1644); https://etreedb.org/shn/148540 (this fileset).

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/11/paramount-northwest-paramount-theatre.html

! band: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html

! Sue: For the two shows, $5k guarantee plus percentages on high gross and cost savings, on gross potential of $47,616-$53,568. Monarch got $3,000 for production, looks like co-pro was the John Bauer Concert Company.

! review: [negative] MacDonald 1978: “typically, the shows went on interminably. The first, which began at 7 pm, didn’t end until almost 11 p.m. The second show, which was supposed to have started at 10:30 p.m., didn’t get under way until past midnight. It was still going strong when I left about 3 a.m.” Further, “I felt the second show audience, which was made to wait outside in the cold for hours and got a tired show, were ripped off.”

! R: field recordist: Mark Severson

! R: field recording gear: 2x Sony ECM 270 mics > Sony TC-158

! R: Transfer Info: Master Cassette (Nakamichi CR-7A) > Tascam DA-3000 (DSF 1-bit/5.6 MHz)> dBpoweramp (24/96) > Adobe Audition CC 2019 > TLH flac2496

! R: seeder Notes: Thanks to Mark Severson for the master cassette recording. Thanks to Charlie Miller for the transfer and coordinating this effort. Thanks to Joe B. Jones for verifying the pitch. Mastered by Scott Clugston, December 2019.

! R: tasty fucking tape

! P: t02 HTC Garcia’s first guitar turn is just so damn lyrical and melodic! Keith’s first turn also nice.

! e-t02 (1) JG: “Thank you.”

! P: e-t05 KOHD is beautiful! The notes Garcia plays in late 5 just slay me. Keith steps up for a feature 6:20ff.

! e-t05 (2) a guy in the crowd yells out something about “one show tonight, instead of two”, and gets a good cheer from the crowd.

! e-t07 (3) JG: “Thanks a lot. We’ll see ya later.”

! P: e-t08 RAC Buzzy just kills some splashes around 3:25 – sounds great! I love how compact this version is. Great energy!

! e-t08 (4) JG: “So long.”

! P: l-t09 LAALWFH it is pretty out there, but it never really did anything that interesting.


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Comments

3 responses to “Tasty Fucking Tape: JGB at Paramount Northwest Theatre, Seattle, October 28, 1978 (Severson MAC)”

  1. Nick Avatar

    I think the narrative about Keith's playing at the end of his time with the GD is valid. One egregiously bad example is 11/16/78 – listen to the Dancin>Deal. Keith is pretty lame throughout most of Dancin, but then he goes off the rails completely at the end of Jerry's Deal solo (yes I realize he's loud in the sbd mix, but that's no excuse). Elsewhere, his playing is somewhat tolerable or else he's barely playing at all.
    https://archive.org/details/gd1978-11-16.136718.sbd.partial.flac1644

    A more well-known wart is 12/28/78 when Jerry audibly tells Keith to quiet down during Wharf Rat (@5:05 below). Whether you think Keith's overplaying or not (I do), it clearly bugged Jerry enough to tell Keith about it in the middle of the song.
    https://archive.org/details/gd1978-12-28.142807.sbd.eaton.miller.clugston.flac1644-1648/Gd78-12-28S2t08WharfRat.flac

    Otherwise, I think the norm for Keith by mid-78 was a pretty mundane/disengaged playing style: plonking along without much notice of anyone else and kind of weighing things down. Looking over my own listening notes, I notice all kinds of niceness from Keith in 1976, but almost nothing after that.

    The emotional toxicity in the GD scene notwithstanding, I think another difference is the role that Keith played in the JGB's music: there was no rhythm guitarist (particularly not one as unorthodox as Weir) and a more traditional bass player, so Keith had a more clearly defined space to play and there was more required of him, and he was generally able to keep it together better than he did with the GD. I do think he sounds pretty good in most 1978 JGB shows, and really good on 10/28.

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I wouldn't go so far as to say that Keith Godchaux was worthless and nodding off in 1978, however lets politely say at times he was not 100%. An example is 3-17-78 Late Show. Check out the Mission in the Rain and how low energy/nonexistent his solo is. https://youtu.be/o0QKIMfJEpU

  3. Fate Music Avatar

    Thank you for the specific pointer. I will check it out.

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