50 Years Ago Today: Jerry Garcia and Merle Saunders Jam at Winterland
OCT 02, 2023
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"Tedeschi Trucks Band: Rocking the Garden Party with Warren Haynes and Trey Anastasio"

Larry Mishkin discusses various topics related to marijuana law, culture, and music. He mentions updates on Tedeschi Trucks Band shows, including performances with Warren Haynes and Trey Anastasio. Larry also delves into the history of the song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," originally written by Bob Dylan, and how it marked a pivotal moment in the transition to electric music. He discusses the Dead's cover of the song and its significance, along with other Dylan covers. Additionally, Larry touches on the Jerry Garcia and Merle Saunders performance from 50 years ago, featuring songs like "Finders Keepers" and "The Harder They Come." He highlights the guest musicians and the significance of these performances within the context of rock and roll history. Finally, he shares insights on Jerry Garcia's cover of "That's All Right, Mama" and its historical significance in the development of rock and roll music.

.Produced by PodConx  

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast

 

Going with a Garcia/Saunders show:

October 2, 1973 (50 years ago)

Winterland, S.F.

Garcia & Saunders 1973 Winterland SF KSAN : KSAN : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Band members:

Jerry – guitar and vocals

Merle – Keyboard

John Kahn – bass

Bill Vitt – drums

Guests:

Sara Fulcher – vocals

Matt Kelly – harmonica

Roger “Jellyroll” Troy – bass, vocals

Martin Fierro – sax

Bill Atwood - trumpet

 

 

 

 

 

INTRO:                  It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry

                                (this one is really from 10.12.1973 at Keystone because the Archive.org show is missing this song as the opener and this is the one closes in date I could find)

                                Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders • It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 10/12/73 Fixed SBD - YouTube

                                7:35 – 9:09

 

                                "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan, that was originally released on his album Highway 61 Revisited released Aug. 30, 1965. It was recorded barely a month earlier on July 29, 1965. The song was also included on an early, European Dylan compilation album entitled Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2.

An earlier, alternate version of the song has been released, in different takes, beginning with the appearance of one take on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991.

Covered by Steven Stills, Leon Russell, Marianne Faithful, Taj Mahal, Paul Westerberg, Robyn Hitchcock and Lucinda Williams

 

Dylan’s live debut of the song came as part of Dylan's controversial electric set, backed by members of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper, at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965, after "Maggie's Farm".[2][4][5][7] After being heckled during the electric set, and especially during "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", by fans who wanted Dylan to play acoustic folk music, Dylan returned to play acoustic versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".[4][7] The Newport performance of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" features jamming by guitarist Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper.[4]

 

Dylan played it live as part of his set in the August 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. This version was included in the concert film and Grammy Award-winning album of the same title.[2]


A.         Dead played it 7 times:

first time on June 10, 1973 at RFK Stadium (D.C.) with Allman Brothers

five times in 1991 and once on March 16, 1992 at the Spectrum, Philly

 

Released on Dead album:  Postcards of the Hanging (March, 2002)

 

B.         Jerry’s various bands played it about 60 times,

first time on January 15, 1972 at Keystone Korner in S.F. w/Merle Saunders

Last time by JGB: March 4, 1995 at the Warfield in S.F.

                               

 

SHOW #1:           Finders Keepers

                                Track No. 1

                                3:00 – 4:13

 

                Finders Keepers was performed over 20 times by Jerry Garcia with the Garcia/Saunders band, Legion of Mary and Reconstruction between 1973 and 1979.

On the 1973 Garcia/Saunders Keystone double album the song is called Finders Keepers and is correctly credited to Johnston and Bowen. The song was written by General Johnson, a member of the group Chairmen Of The Board, and Jeffrey Bowen, the producer of the Chairmen Of The Board recording. The song was originally released by the Chairmen Of The Board as a single with a vocal version of the song on the A side and an instrumental version on the B-side.  Chairmen of the Board is an American-Canadian, DetroitMichigan-based soul musicgroup, who saw their greatest commercial success in the 1970s.

 

 

SHOW #2:           The Harder They Come

                                Track No. 2

                                1:05 – 2:18

 

"The Harder They Come" is a reggae song by the Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff. It was first recorded for the soundtrack of the 1972 movie of the same name, in which it is supposed to have been written by the film's main character, Ivanhoe Martin.

 

In 1969, singer Jimmy Cliff met film director Perry Henzell, who was intending to make a film about a musician who turned to crime. Cliff agreed to take the lead role, and the film was shot over the next two years. During filming, Cliff came up with the line "the harder they come". Henzell thought it would make a good title for the film, and asked Cliff to write and record a theme song for it.[2]

The actual recording of the track, at Dynamic Sounds (Muscle Shoals, 1971), was filmed for inclusion in the movie. Cliff wrote the melody, and improvised the lyrics. The musicians were Gladstone Anderson (piano), Winston Wright (organ), Winston Grennan (drums), Linford "Hux" Brown (lead guitar), Ranford "Ranny Bop" Williams (rhythm guitar), and Clifton "Jackie" Jackson (bass).[2]

Reggae track recorded in Jamaica in 1972

 

Covered by:  JGB (Kean College 2.2.80), Cher, Keith Richards (b-side to his single, Run Rudolph Run 1978), Rancid, Joe Strummer, Wayne Kramer, moe., Willie Nelson, Guster, Widespread Panic and many others

 

The Harder They Come was performed over 350 times by Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders groups and by the Jerry Garcia Band between 1973 and 1995. The lyrics and music for the song are included in the Jerry Garcia Songbook. Also played by Phil Lesh & Friends, Billy & The Kids, Voodoo Dead and Bob Weir with Soul Ska.

 

                              

 

SHOW #3:           That’s All Right Mama

                                Track No. 3

                                2:20 – 3:59

                                Featuring:  Bill Atwood on Trumpet and Sara Fulcher on vocals

                              

                                The song was written by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and originally recorded by him in Chicago on September 6, 1946, as "That's All Right". Some of the lyrics are traditional blues verses first recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926.[5][6] Crudup's recording was released as a single in 1947 on RCA Victor 20–2205, but was less successful than some of his previous recordings. One of the experts who consider the Crudup recording to be the "first rock and roll song" is Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns, who adds that "this song could contain the first ever guitar solo break".

 

Elvis Presley's version was recorded in July 1954.[10] While recording an album as part of a trio called The Blue Moon Boys, the band played "That's All Right" in between takes, and the uptempo style characteristic of rockabilly caught the attention of studio executive Sam Phillips, who asked for a refinement of the interpretation that was later recorded.[11] Its catalogue number was Sun 209.[12] The song was released under its original title, "That's All Right", and names the performers as Elvis Presley, Scotty, and Bill.[13] The Presley version was not identical to Crudup's since it was "at least twice as fast as the original".[2] His version is considered by some music critics as one of the records that was the first in the rock n'roll genre. 

 

A 2004 article in The Guardian argues that rather than Presley's version being one of the first records of rock and roll, it was simply one of "the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before [...] a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues".

 

Covered by the Grateful Dead once with allman Brothers on June 10, 1973 (RFK great version with Jerry and Dickey Betts trading off lead licks) and once om April 18, 1986 at Berkeley Community Theater

Played regularly by JGB and other versions from the ‘70’s until the end in 1995.

                              

 

SHOW #4:           Second That Emotion

                                Track No. 5

                                7:00 – 8:29

 

"I Second That Emotion" is a 1967 song written by Smokey Robinson and Al Cleveland. First charting as a hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the Tamla/Motown label in 1967, "I Second That Emotion" was later a hit single for the group duet Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, also on the Motown label. One morning in 1967, Robinson and Cleveland were shopping at Hudson's, a Detroit department store. Robinson found a set of pearls for his wife, Claudette. "They're beautiful." he said to the salesperson. "I sure hope she likes them." Cleveland then added "I second that emotion." Both songwriters laughed at Cleveland's malapropism; he had meant to say "I second that motion." The two were immediately inspired to write a song using the incorrect phrase.

 

Was performed a handful of times (7) by the Grateful Dead in April, 1971

First:  April 8, 1971 at The Music Hall, Boston

Last:  April 29, 1971 at Fillmore East NYC

 

Part of Jerry’s bands repertoire between 1973 and 1994 (played almost 200 times)

 

 

OUTRO:                Sweet Little Angel

                                Track #7

                                2:20 – 3:59

 

                Written by BB King and Jules Taub in September, 1956

                Some say it is an adaption of Black Angel Blues written by Lucille Bogan in December, 1930

 

In 1956, B.B. King recorded "Sweet Little Angel" (RPM Records 468). According to King, "I got the idea for 'Sweet Little Angel' from Robert Nighthawk's 'Sweet Black Angel', though I later discovered that the song had been recorded by someone before Nighthawk. At the time 'black' was not a popular word, as it is now. Instead of using the old title, I changed it to 'Sweet Little Angel'—and that was a pretty big record for me".[6] King's version, which included a horn section, was a stylistic shift for the song and it became a hit, reaching number eight on the Billboard R&B chart.[7] In 1957, he re-recorded "Sweet Little Angel" for his first album Singin' the Blues. Both versions prominently feature B.B. King's guitar work, with his note-bends "sounding almost like a lap steel in places.”

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