Grateful Dead Hour

Grateful Dead Hour no. 1000

ccasal — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:32:47 -0700

Week of November 19, 2007

Featured: an interview with Mickey Hart, and a sampling of some of his CDs, recently reissued by Shout! Factory.

Mickey talks about the early days of the Grateful Dead and recounts a particularly amusing conversation he had with Bill Graham back in the day.

Mickey Hart's Mystery Box
DOWN THE ROAD

Diga Rhythm Band, Diga
HAPPINESS IS DRUMMING
SWEET SIXTEENS

Grateful Dead, Fillmore West 1969
DRUMS (Excerpt)

Grateful Dead 1968
THE ELEVEN (Rehearsal)

Grateful Dead 1/27/68 Eagle's Auditorium, Seattle WA
SPANISH JAM

Take a look at the GD Hour program logs and let us know what you'd like to hear. Feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour@dead.net

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 820

ccasal — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:11:45 -0700

Week of June 7, 2004

Grateful Dead 3/1/69 Fillmore West
DUPREE'S DIAMOND BLUES
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
DARK STAR

Joel Harrison, from Guitar Harvest, Vol. 1
BLACK MUDDY RIVER

Graham Parker, Your Country
SUGAREE

Grateful Dead 10/20/89 Spectrum, Philadelphia
CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE

The Very Best of Jackson Browne
FOR EVERYMAN

Requested by Carrick Linthicum."What a smoking show."

"Dupree's Diamond Blues" and "Mountains of the Moon" are on the three-disc Fillmore West 1969 compilation, and of course all of 3/1/69 appears on Filmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, both of which were released in 2005 and appear to be out of print at the moment.

The Grateful Dead were on the road on October 17, 1989, the day the Loma Prieta earthquake knocked down a bunch of structures back home in northern California. Acknowledging the tragedy, The Dead played Rodney Crowell's song "California Earthquake (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On)" twice, on October 20 and 23, 1989, and released the earlier performance on tape to local radio stations. The original appears on Crowell's 1978 debut album, Ain't Livin' Long Like This

Jackson Browne's "For Everyman" isn't Dead-related at all, but it's one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite California singer-songwriters, so when it came out on this beautifully-remastered compilation, I tossed it into the show in hopes of turning some new listeners on to one of the greats.

Your requests are requested! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the GD Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour@dead.net

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 343

ccasal — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:52:53 -0700

Week of April 17, 1995

Grateful Dead 1/22/68 Eagle's Auditorium, Seattle
ALLIGATOR

Grateful Dead 1/20/68 Municipal Auditorium, Eureka CA
CLEMENTINE->
NEW POTATO CABOOSE->
BORN CROSS-EYED->
SPANISH JAM->
CAUTION JAM->
DARK STAR

Request by Dennis Gore. Kick-ass jamming from the period that gave us Anthem of the Sun!

"Clementine" didn't stay in the GD repertoire very long. We used the 2/2/68 performance for the boxed set So Many Roads (1965-1995); this one is cool, too.

You can browse or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the GD Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour@dead.net.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour - KFOG

ccasal — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:45:42 -0700

Week of March 23, 1987

Money Changes Everything part 1

Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel
MONEY MONEY

Money Changes Everything part 2

Grateful Dead 3/3/87 Henry J Kaiser, Oakland CA
SAINT OF CIRCUMSTANCE

Money Changes Everything part 3

Grateful Dead 12/17/86 Oakland Coliseum Arena
SHIP OF FOOLS

Interview with John Barlow part 1

Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen
LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Interview with John Barlow part 2

Don Henley, I Can't Stand Still
DIRTY LAUNDRY

Interview with John Barlow part 3

The Call, Modern Romans
THE WALLS CAME DOWN

Interview with John Barlow part 4

Laurie Anderson, Home of the Brave
LANGUAGE IS A VIRUS

I had a request to play something from the original KFOG Deadhead Hour, which started in November 1984 and where I did my first radio show on February 18, 1985.

This episode is typical of the sort of thing I was doing in those days: the first half is "Money Changes Everything," an audio collage of music snippets of political and cultural stuff from TV and radio. The second half is an interview with John Barlow, Bob Weir's songwriting partner, in which he plays some of his favorite songs and we talk about writing, philosophy and of course the Grateful Dead.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 268

ccasal — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:43:59 -0700

Week of November 8, 1993

9/13/93 Spectrum, Philadelphia

HELL IN A BUCKET
JACKAROE
THE SAME THING

TUBULAR BELLS SPACE->
EASY ANSWERS->
DAYS BETWEEN->
GOOD LOVIN'

By request of Mike Perko (again), more of 9/13/93 - some highlights from set 1, and from set 2, the one-of-a-kind "space" jam built around a theme from Mike Oldfield's seminal 1973 instrumental Tubular Bells.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 266

ccasal — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:31:50 -0700

Grateful Dead Hour #266

Week of October 25, 1993

9/13/93 Spectrum, Philadelphia
SCARLET BEGONIAS->
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
PLAYING IN THE BAND->
DARK STAR->
TERRAPIN

Another all-music show, by request of Mike Perko (again). And look at that list! Come back next week for more of 9/13/93.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 611

ccasal — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:36:29 -0700

Week of June 5,2000

Grateful Dead 5/12/80 Boston Garden
LAZY LIGHTNING->
SUPPLICATION
FAR FROM ME
MINGLEWOOD
ESTIMATED PROPHET->
HE'S GONE->
JAM

An all-music show, requested by Mike Perko. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 573

ccasal — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:20:52 -0700

Week of September 13, 1999

Conclusion of a three-part GD Hour broadcast in memory of Dick Latvala, the Grateful Dead's tape archivist, who passed away in the summer of 1999.

This program began as a live broadcast on KPFA on August 11, 1999.

DICK'S PICKS VOL. 7 feature

Dick's Intro 4/19/95
Grateful Dead 10/28/72 Public Hall, Cleveland OH
DARK STAR->
PHILO STOMP->
JAM->
SUGAR MAGNOLIA

Dick and I thought up the name "Philo Stomp" for a bass solo that Phil Lesh performed several times in 1972. I was pleasantly stunned recently to hear it on a tape of 2/26/77 in San Bernardino, California; I'll be playing that one on the GD Hour in the very near future.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 572

ccasal — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:44:40 -0700

Week of September 6, 1999

Part 2 of a three-part GD Hour broadcast in memory of Dick Latvala, the Grateful Dead's tape archivist, who passed away in the summer of 1999.

This program began as a live broadcast on KPFA on August 11, 1999.

Phone calls from listeners and friends of Dick Latvala.

Interview with Dick Latvala 2/96 regarding Dick's Picks vol.4 . Excerpts from "Alligator," "The Other One," "China Cat Sunflower."

Interview with Dick Latvala 4/95 with Dick's Picks vol. 2 montage and excerpts.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 571

ccasal — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:57:31 -0700

Week of August 30, 1999

This is the first of a three-part GD Hour broadcast in memory of Dick Latvala, the wonderful crazy Deadhead who was hired in 1985 to take care of the Grateful Dead's tape archive, and later became the namesake of the Dick' Picks series of live concert releases.

As you will hear in the program, Dick was working with Blair Jackson, Steve Silberman and me on the boxed set So Many Roads: 1965-1995, filling our heads with possibilities as we struggled to pack thirty years of musical development into a 5-CD compilation, when he had a heart attack. He remained in a coma for several days before departing this life.

Dick Latvala was a hero to Deadheads everywhere because of the work he did in serving this music we all love so much. He is loved, and he is missed.

Grateful Dead, Dick's Picks vol. 14 (12/2/73)
MORNING DEW

TRIBUTE TO DICK LATVALA part 1:
Interview with Dick when Dick's Picks vol 1 was released ... How Dick became a Deadhead ... got paid to take psychedelics in a clinical study ... worked as a mailman ... moved to Hawaii ... What made the Dead more special than the other bands on the SF scene ... how he got into collecting tapes ... kept notes on every tape he collected ... Dick's work in support of the So Many Roads boxed set project ... Phone interview with David Nelson ... post from John Cutler: "Tonight I ask that all who have been touched by Dick and wish to celebrate his unique and special life adopt Bob's toast: Latvala!” Dick's first meeting with the GD at Red Rocks in 1979 ... Closing of Winterland was the most powerful day of his life ... “Primal Dead” ... hired as the archivist ... origin of the Dick's Picks series... how he made his choices and how the process worked ...

Grateful Dead, Dick's Picks vol. 1 (12/19/73)
HERE COMES SUNSHINE

You can browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the GD Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour@dead.net

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 317

ccasal — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:15:56 -0700

Week of October 17, 1994

I'm posting this show at the request of Jaime Gomez, a resident of Chile who lived in Iowa for several years and saw the Grateful Dead in the summer of 1994.

This is an all-music show (hooray!). For a while during the course of my weird business relationship with the Dead organization, I wasn't allowed to play complete sets on the Grateful Dead Hour. So in this program I swapped in the Europe 72 version of "Ramble on Rose". Bureaucrats, mumble-mumble...

A highlight of this set is "Eternity," written by Bob Weir in collaboration with blues great Willie Dixon. I found Bob Weir's account of the collaboration on the Grateful Dead Family Discography site:

I had this chord progression and melody that I wanted to run by Willie to see if he liked it .... he did, so he started dashing off words. He wanted me to run a certain section by him again and stuff like that, and we started working on a bridge. Then he dashes off this sheet of lyrics and hands it to me. Now I'm really stoked to be working with the legendary Willie Dixon and I'm prepared for just about anything.

He hands these lyrics to me and I'm reading through them. And they seem, you know, awfully simplistic. Like there wasn't a whole lot to them....

....Now he wants me to read through it and sing the melody I have and see if they fit. And so I started singing through these simplistic lyrics, and that simplicity takes on a whole other direction.

By the time I had sung through them, it's like my head is suddenly eons wide. I can hear what's happening just sort of echoing around in there and I'm astounded by the simple grace of what he has just presented to me. I'm sitting there with my mouth open literally, and Willie's laughing. He's just sitting there laughing, saying, 'Now you see it. Now you see it. That's the wisdom of the blues.'

Grateful Dead 9/17/94 Shoreline, Mtn View CA
JACK STRAW
FENNARIO
THE SAME THING
WEST LA FADEAWAY
QUEEN JANE, APPROXIMATELY

Grateful Dead, Europe 72
RAMBLE ON ROSE

Grateful Dead 9/17/94 Shoreline, Mtn View CA
ETERNITY->
DON'T EASE ME IN

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 519

ccasal — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:00:59 -0700

Week of August 31, 1998

Interview with David Grisman recorded live on the air at KPFA July 29, 1998, at the time of the release of the Jerry Garcia-David Grisman CD So What, a collection of jazz instrumentals.

The first song in this broadcast, Take 1 of Miles Davis' "So What," was the first piece of music Jerry and Dawg recorded in David's studio with the David Grisman Quintet's rhythm section, Jim Kerwin (bass) Joe Craven (percussion).

Grisman also tells the story of how he and Jerry met in 1964 when they were young bluegrass freaks, "chasin' the high lonesome sound around with [their] tape recorders"; how he came to play mandolin on "Friend of the Devil" and "Ripple" in the sessions for the Grateful Dead's American Beauty (1970); and how their latter-day collaboration began with a couple of chance meetings in 1990.

We also hear a few selections from the first (and I'm pretty sure only) comedy release on Grisman's Acoustic Disc label: Buh-Doom!, by the legendary session drummer Hal Blaine.

And friends, I swear it was a complete surprise to me when Grisman invited me to play my then-new CD single, "Monica Lewinsky." I had brought a copy to give to him, and the next thing I knew he was asking me to play it on the air.

And as a lagniappe at the end of the broadcast, David tells a sweet story about how his composition "16/16" got its name.

David Grisman interviewed on KPFA's Dead to the World July 29, 1998

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, So What
SO WHAT (Take 1 12/6/90)

Grateful Dead, American Beauty
FRIEND OF THE DEVIL

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, So What
BAGS' GROOVE (Take 5 11/24/92)

Hal Blaine, Buh-Doom!
DRUMMERS
RAT IN A PAWN SHOP
ACCORDION PLAYER
OVER THE RAINBOW

David Gans and the Broken Angels
MONICA LEWINSKY

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, So What
16/16

Thanks for listening!

David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 027

ccasal — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:12:21 -0700

Week of March 6, 1989

This week's program features live Grateful Dead music recorded February 23-24, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Portchester, New York - including, by popular demand, four numbers featuring Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on the lead vocals, organ and harmonica.

Pigpen was a blues freak who hooked up with Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia in the early Sixties to form Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and it was his idea to get a rhythm section and some electric instruments and turn it into a blues band that they called the Warlocks and later the Grateful Dead. His health forced him to quit performing with the band in 1972. I learned a lot about him when I interviewed the other band members for my book Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead. In a 1984 interview - which was long before I had any idea I'd be working on this radio program, so the recording conditions were a little less than first-class - Mickey Hart talked about Pigpen as a musician and as a friend.

Also: "Little Red Rooster" was a double slide-guitar showcase for the Dead all through the ‘80s. Here’s a recording of it by the guy who wrote it: Willie Dixon.

Mickey Hart talks about Pigpen 11/11/84

Grateful Dead 2/23/71 Capitol Theatre, Portchester NY
BIG BOSS MAN
BERTHA
NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME
SUGAR MAGNOLIA
CASEY JONES

Willie Dixon, I Am the Blues
LITTLE RED ROOSTER

Grateful Dead 2/24/71 Capitol Theatre, Portchester NY
HARD TO HANDLE
ME AND BOBBY McGEE
KING BEE

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 319

ccasal — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:22:47 -0700

Week of October 31, 1994

Conclusion of the two part interview with Steve Silberman and David Shenk, authors of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads. More info in last week's entry.

Grateful Dead 8/6/74 Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City NJ
EYES OF THE WORLD

David Crosby, Jerry Garcia et al (unreleased)
KIDS AND DOGS

Grateful Dead 12/1/79 Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh PA
NOT FADE AWAY

Grateful Dead 7/16/88 Greek Theater, Berkeley CA
BIRD SONG

Note: "Kids and Dogs" was released not long ago on David Crosby's boxed set Voyage.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour@dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 318

ccasal — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:50:00 -0700

Week of October 24, 1994

Featured: The first half of a two-part interview with Steve Silberman and David Shenk, authors of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads, taken from a live broadcast on KPFA.

Grateful Dead 11/10/85 Meadowlands, E. Rutherford NJ
CASSIDY
FEEL LIKE A STRANGER
MISSISSIPPI HALFSTEP->
I KNOW YOU RIDER

Jerry Garcia, David Crosby et al, January 1971 (unreleased)
LOSER

Steve Silberman's articles appear regularly in Wired, Dwell, the Shambhala Sun, and other magazines. Recently, he has written about neurologist Oliver Sacks and music, the health of veterans returning from the war in Iraq, and the Jewish/Buddhist teacher and author Sylvia Boorstein.

Steve is very pleased to say that after ten years of trying, he was finally successful in convincing the powers that be to officially release "Kids and Dogs," a luminous 1970 recording by David Crosby and Jerry Garcia. The song appears on Crosby's 3-CD box set Voyage -- which Steve helped create -- and on the enhanced version of Crosby's masterpiece If I Could Only Remember My Name, which features performances by members of the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and others.

David Shenk Writes:

Here's an update on what I've done in the 14 years since this crazy fun book: I've written four other books: The Forgetting, The Immortal Game, Data Smog, and The End of Patience. The Los Angeles Times called The Forgetting "A remarkable addition to the literature of the science of the mind." he Immortal Game was hailed as "superb" by The Wall Street Journal. Data Smog was praised by The New York Times as an “indispensable guide to the big picture of technology's cultural impact.” Sven Birkerts called The End of Patience “Exhilarating . . . a startling glimpse of where we are.” Most meaningfully of all, Steve has liked my books.

I've also contributed to National Geographic, Harper's, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Gourmet, Wired, The American Scholar, NPR and PBS. I've advised the President's Council on Bioethics, co-founded the "Technorealism" movement, and directed four short films on Alzheimer's. In 2004, the PBS documentary The Forgetting won an Emmy. Coolest of all, by far, my original term "data smog" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. (That's immortality, baby).

Right now, I'm working on a book about the new science of genetics, talent and intelligence. It's a very hopeful book that shows -- contrary to popular myth -- that we are not born with strict genetic limitations on capabilities and IQ. You can find out more than you'd ever want to know about me at davidshenk.com.

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 164

ccasal — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:15:08 -0700

Week of November 11, 1991

Grateful Dead 9/16/78 Sound and Light Theatre, Cairo, Egypt (with Hamza El-Din)
OLLIN ARAGEED
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN->
IKO IKO

The "UNCLE BOBO" incident: Bob Weir, Bill Graham

Grateful Dead, One from the Vault
HELP ON THE WAY->
SLIPKNOT!->
FRANKLIN'S TOWER

BILL GRAHAM REMEMBERED: Wavy Gravy, Dr. David E. Smith, Thom O'hair, Mickey Hart, Robin Williams

Concert promoter Bill Graham died in a helicopter crash on a rainy night in October 1991, along with his girlfriend, Melissa Gold, and his pilot, Steve Kahn.

Dr. David E. Smith was the founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic. His long-out-of-print memoir Love Needs Care is well worth reading if you can find a copy. Thom O'hair, now deceased, was the program director at KSAN in its heyday, back in that time when FM radio was the community listening post of the counterculture. Wavy Gravy is Wavy Gravy, of course. The insane/delightful actor/comedian Robin Williams is a San Francisco native, and he - along with hundreds of other Bay Area luminaries - spent November 3, 1991 at Golden Gate Park, grieving and celebrating with the rest of us at a memorial event titled Laughter, Love and Music.

* * *

Thanks for listening!

David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 261

ccasal — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:03:13 -0700

Week of September 20, 1993

OREGON TRAIL MIX

Grateful Dead 8/21/93 Autzen Stadium, Eugene OR
BIRD SONG->
PROMISED LAND

Grateful Dead 8/21/93 Autzen Stadium, Eugene OR
w/ Huey Lewis, harmonica
TRUCKIN'->
GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL->
SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING

"Oregon Trail Mix" is a radio play written by Jack Ellis and featuring the voices of Jack Ellis, Mary Weatherly, Sue Ellis, Ken Nordine, and me. We went to Eugene to broadcast the August 21 and 22 shows live on KLCC (with tons of help from KLCC's "Dead Air" hostess Deb Trist and other KLCC staffers), and Dan Healy thought it would be fun to create a piece of radio drama for the occasion. Dan played it over the PA at Autzen Stadium, too!

Huey Lewis was in town to appear as Elvis Presley (!) in Ken Kesey's play "Twister," which was presented at the Armory not far from Autzen Stadium. The play was a weird twist on "The Wizard of Oz"; I wish I remembered anything about the play.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 503

ccasal — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:57:34 -0700

Week of May 11, 1998

Grateful Dead 8/1/73 Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City
DARK STAR->
EL PASO

The DEAD at CANDLESTICK 4/93

AN ALTERNATIVE ANTHEM

Grateful Dead 12/29/77 Winterland (Dick's Picks vol. 10)
TENNESSEE JED

Ruth Allison requested this show for the Jerry-Bobby-Vince "Star Spangled Banner" and a montage of media coverage of the event. I think the quote of the day is Jerry telling a reporter, "We're like bad architecture and old whores: eventually you get respectable if you're around long enough."

"An Alternative Anthem" was my not-terribly-successful attempt to stitch together a new set of patriotic images.

And: the "Dark Star" from Jerry's 31st birthday ain't too shabby.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 388

ccasal — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:06:17 -0700

Week of February 26, 1996

Grateful Dead 2/66 (?) unknown venue
GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL->
YOU DON'T LOVE ME->
GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL

Interview: DICK LATVALA with excerpts from Dick's Picks vol. 4

Grateful Dead, Dick's Picks vol. 4 (2/13-14/70)
CASEY JONES

Trent Henley requested this show, and I am always happy to hear the voice of our dear departed friend, vault archivist Dick Latvala.

Dick brings in a terrific early 1966 performance that he calls the first example he had found of the band slipping a song into the middle of the jam in another song.

In the second half of the show, we introduce Dick's Picks volume 4, from the Fillmore East February 13 and 14, 1970. Dick also explains the process of getting his Picks released.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 630

ccasal — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:00:37 -0800

Week of October 16, 2000

Grateful Dead 8/6/74 Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City NJ
THE OTHER ONE->
goin' down the road feelin' bad->
SUNSHINE DAYDREAM
US BLUES

Grateful Dead 12/26/69 McFarlin Auditorium, SMU, Dallas TX
THE MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER
LITTLE SADIE
LONG BLACK LIMOUSINE
I'VE BEEN ALL AROUND THIS WORLD
THE MASTER'S BOUQUET
BLACK PETER

Program #631 included the end of the acoustic set of 12/26/69. Many people wrote to request the previous show, with the beginning of that set. Here it is!

What would you like to hear? Browse and/or search the program logs on the Grateful Dead Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour (at) dead.net

Thanks for listening!
David Gans
gdhour (at) dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 634

ccasal — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:52:17 -0800

Week of November 13, 2000

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
ARABIA

Interview: David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead
MINGLEWOOD
RIPPLE
DARK STAR
CASEY JONES

After opening with the extended instrumental from the first Garcia-Grisman CD, this show moves on to the conclusion of our interview with archivist David Lemieux and engineer Jeffrey Norman regarding their work on the April 1971 multitrack compilation Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead.Former keyboardist Tom Constanten dropped back in for a jam on April 28, and his participation adds some nice swirling magic to one of my all-time favorite Dark Stars. The St. Stephen/Not Fade Away sandwich that follows (although not on this broadcast) is also one for the books. This show circulated on much-loved tape for years; getting to hear it mixed and mastered in pristine state-of-the-art HDCD was and is a thrill. Ladies and Gents... also includes the great Alligator->GDTRFB->Cold Rain and Snow from 4/29/71 (last show at the Fillmore East, last Alligator) and many other gems.

Your requests are requested and your wishes are wished for! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the GD Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour (at) dead.net

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 633

ccasal — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:18:28 -0800

Week of November 6, 2000

Grateful Dead 12/26/69 McFarlin Auditorium, SMU, Dallas TX
NEW SPEEDWAY BOOGIE
LOVELIGHT

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead (April 1971)
GOOD LOVIN' (excerpt)

Interview: David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead (April 1971)
I'M A KING BEE

Interview: David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman

"You just had it done to you by the Grateful Dead, ladies and gentlemen, the Grateful Dead!" the promoter says at the end of the 12/26/69 show. Well said, says I!

Part 2 of this program is part 1 of an interview with archivist David Lemieux and engineer Jeffrey Norman, who collaborated to produce the wonderful 4-CD set Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead. Taken from the band's last run at the Fillmore East in April 1971, this collection includes one of my all-time favorite "Dark Stars," which you'll hear in next week's Grateful Dead Hour post here on DeadNet.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 632

ccasal — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:54:37 -0800

Week of October 30, 2000

Bob Weir interview Part 2
Including excerpts from "Evening Moods":
TWO DJINN
CORRINA

Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead
LIBERTY

Grateful Dead 12/26/69 McFarlin Auditorium, SMU, Dallas TX
ME AND MY UNCLE
DARK STAR

Your requests are welcome! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the show's home page, www.gdhour.com. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour [at] dead.net

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 631

ccasal — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:18:14 -0800

Week of October 23, 2000

Bob Weir interview Part 1
Including excerpts from Ratdog's new CD, Evening Moods
OCTOBER QUEEN
ASHES AND GLASS
ODESSA

Grateful Dead 12/26/69 McFarlin Auditorium, SMU, Dallas TX
UNCLE JOHN'S BAND
CASEY JONES
HARD TO HANDLE
COLD RAIN AND SNOW
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER->
HIGH TIME

At the start of the interview with Bob Weir, you'll hear me saying some extremely positive things about the then-new CD by Bob Weir and Ratdog, Evening Moods. I wasn't just buttering him up: Except for "Corrina," which dated back to the last three years of the Grateful Dead's career, Evening Moods is all new material - and every song is a winner. (You can order it from the DeadNet store.)

The December 1969 excerpt begins at the end of an acoustic set that happened because (as the band explained at the start of the show) drummer Bill Kreutzmann's flight was late. That's why we hear Bob Weir say, "And now, the man who's responsible for all this: Bill Kreutzmann!" What follows is some damn fine Grateful Dead music!

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 58

ccasal — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:55:14 -0800

Week of October 23, 1989

Rex Radio excerpt: Phil Lesh, Gary Lambert, and Jerry Garcia present the 1989 Ralph J. Gleason Memorial Award to Peter Apfelbaum

Libya Blues (excerpt) - Peter Apfelbaum and the Hieroglyphics Ensemble with Don Cherry

Attics of My Life - Grateful Dead, American Beauty

Scarlet Begonias->
Touch of Grey->
Fire on the Mountain - Grateful Dead 7/13/84 Greek Theatre, Berkeley CA

This week's archival includes an excerpt from Rex Radio (later known as Eyes of Chaos/Veil of Order), a monthly program on KPFA (Berkeley CA) hosted by Phil Lesh and Gary Lambert.

Here's Phil: "The Rex Foundation is a philanthropic organization which donates money that... the Grateful Dead earns through the donation of our services. The money is distributed as we see fit, generally speaking, mostly to environmental organziations - percentage-wise I'd say environmental and health-related things get most of the money. We also support ... creative activity in music and recording of unusual music - just about anything that you can name that hippies love."

Rex gives three awards each year: the Ralph J. Gleason Award, the Jerry Garcia Award, and the Bill Graham Award. The listings on the Rex site don't go back to 1989, for some reason - but please click on that link for an explanation of the meaning of the three gifts.

The recipient of the 1989 Ralph J Gleason award was Berkeley jazz musician Peter Apfelbaum. Gary Lambert keeps in touch with Peter, so I asked him for an update:

Since receiving the Rex Foundation's Ralph J. Gleason award in 1988, Peter Apfelbaum has remained true to the musical vision that earned him Rex's highest artistic accolade. Like so many of his fellow distinguished alumni of Berkeley High School's jazz education program, Peter migrated to New York City, where he has been a vital member of that city's thriving improv music community since the late 1990s. He has recorded and/or performed live with a wide variety of musicians in various genres, including Charlie Hunter, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, the Josh Roseman Unit, Levon Helm, Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey, Harry Belafonte, the late Don Cherry, and many more. Fans of Trey Anastasio might remember Peter as a key member of the great 10-piece band that toured with Trey a few years back.

Peter currently leads an updated version of the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, the remarkable jazz/world fusion big band that he formed shortly after graduating from high school some 30 years ago. Now called the New York Hieroglyphics, the group brings together some of Peter's oldest musical friends from the Berkeley days who now reside on the East Coast, as well as some stalwarts of the New York scene. The 2005 New York Hieroglyphics album It Is Written reveals that Peter Apfelbaum's creative light burns as bright as ever.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 393

ccasal — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:58:15 -0800

Week of April 1, 1996

Grateful Dead+Jefferson Airplane 9/7/69 Family Dog, SF
PEGGY SUE
THAT'LL BE THE DAY
JOHNNY B. GOODE
BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?
PIPELINE/BIG RAILROAD BLUES
LOUIE LOUIE->
BLUE MOON

Grateful Dead 11/10/85 Meadowlands Arena, E Rutherford NJ
TOUCH OF GREY->
HELL IN A BUCKET->
SUGAREE

Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady and drummer/vocalist Joey Covington join the GD for a weird and wonderful set at the Family Dog on the Great Highway in San Francisco.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 101

ccasal — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:36:43 -0800

Week of August 27, 1990

Grateful Dead 3/18/90 Hartford Civic Center
Iko Iko

Grateful Dead 2/11/89 Forum, Inglewood CA
We Can Run

Grateful Dead 4/17/82 Hartford Civic Center
Shakedown Street
post-Saint jam

Grateful Dead 10/3/87 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA
Bird Song

Grateful Dead 10/21/88 Reunion Arena, Dallas TX
jam->
I Will Take You Home

This is the conclusion of a three-part tribute to Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland, who died in July 1990.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 100

ccasal — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:59:24 -0800

Week of August 20, 1990

Grateful Dead 7/29/88 Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey CA
BLOW AWAY

Excerpt from Deadhead Hour 4/8/85
Interview: Jerry Garcia/Brent Mydland

Grateful Dead 10/10/82 Frost Amphitheatre
FAR FROM ME

Interview: Brent Mydland

Grateful Dead 7/23/90 World Music Thtr, Tinley Park IL
GOOD TIME BLUES

Excerpt from KFOG Deadhead Hour 4/8/85
Grateful Dead 8/28/81 Long Beach Arena
JAM

Interview: Brent Mydland

Grateful Dead 9/10/83 Santa Fe Downs
JAM

Grateful Dead 7/15/84 Greek Theatre, Berkeley
DON’T NEED LOVE

Bobby and the Midnites
BOOK OF RULES

This is the second of a three-part tribute to Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland, who died in July 1990.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 99

ccasal — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:55:15 -0800

Week of August 13, 1990

Grateful Dead 10/3/87 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA
STELLA BLUE

Grateful Dead 6/8/90 Cal Expo, Sacramento
EASY TO LOVE YOU

Interview: John Barlow

Grateful Dead 6/26/88 Civic Arena, Pittsburgh PA
GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES

Interview: Brent Mydland/Jerry Garcia (Deadhead Hour 4/8/85)

Grateful Dead 4/22/79 Spartan Stadium, San Jose
JACK STRAW

Interview: Dan Healy

Phone calls from listeners

Silver
MUSICIAN (IT'S NOT AN EASY LIFE)

Phone calls

Grateful Dead 3/18/90 Hartford Civic Center
JUST A LITTLE LIGHT

This is the first of a three-part show that originated as a live broadcast on KPFA in Berkeley on the day after Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland was found dead at his home.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 65

ccasal — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:58:58 -0800

Week of December 18, 1989

Shakedown Street->
Uncle John's Band (reprise) - Grateful Dead 12/26/79 Oakland Auditorium

Oh Mommy - Brewer and Shipley, Tarkio Road
Jerry Garcia, pedal steel guitar
Transverse City - Warren Zevon, Transverse City
Jerry Garcia, electric guitar
Last Lonely Eagle - New Riders of the Purple Sage
Jerry Garcia, pedal steel; Mickey Hart, drums
Danger Man - David Bromberg, Wanted Dead or Alive
Jerry Garcia, electric guitar; Phil Lesh, bass;
Bill Kreutzmann, drums; Keith Godchaux, piano

You Win Again
Bottle Let Me Down
Why Don't You Love Me?
*Riot in Cell Block #9
**Goin' Down - Elvis Costello and Friends 4/24/89 Sweetwater, Mill Valley

* Commander Cody, lead vocal
** Sammy Hagar, lead vocal

This show opens with the brilliant double encore of 12/26/79 at the Oakland Auditorium (later released as Dick's Picks vol. 5, and then we hear four recordings by other artists featuring one or more members of the Grateful Dead.

Brewer and Shipley were famous for "One Toke Over the Line," from the same album as this track, but it wasn't Jerry playing pedal steel on the big hit. (According to Wikipedia, players on Tarkio included bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt, both of whom played with Jerry and Merl Saunders in the early '70s; Kahn played bass in Jerry's side bands for the rest of their days.)

The second half of this program is from a mono soundboard feed from the PA at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, California. It was an anniversary party for Village Music, and Elvis and friends were the scheduled performers. The band included James Burton, the legendary lead guitarist who backed the first Elvis and Ricky Nelson (and was a member of Emmylou Harris's first Hot Band); Burton's classmate Jerry Scheff on bass; and Bay Areans Austin De Lone (keyboards) and Scott Mathews (drums). Other guest musicians included Nick Lowe, Charles Brown, Kim Wilson, Mitch Woods, Jeff Burton (James's son), Annie Sampson, Commander Cody, Sammy Hagar, Pete Sears, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir.

I have an especially fond memory of this April '89 event: I had the privilege of introducing Elvis Costello to Jerry Garcia - and, even cooler than that, introducing Jerry to one of his heroes, James Burton.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 424

ccasal — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:27:38 -0800

Week of November 4, 1996

Interview: PHIL LESH and JOHN CUTLER talk about Dozin' at the Knick

Grateful Dead, Dozin' at the Knick
Blow Away (3/26/90)

Space->
the wheel->
All Along the Watchtower->
Stella Blue (3/24/90)

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 41

ccasal — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:56:57 -0800

Week of June 12, 1989

David Crosby 12/31/86 Henry J Kaiser, Oakland CA
Almost Cut My Hair

Crosby & Nash 11/11/71 (studio rough) with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann
The Wall Song

Grateful Dead 2/11/89 Forum, Inglewood CA
Bird Song

The Byrds, Fifth Dimension
Eight Miles High

Grateful Dead 12/31/86 Henry J Kaiser, Oakland CA
US Blues

This week's show features a wonderful interview with famous Deadhead David Crosby recorded on May 2, 1989. Crosby and the Grateful Dead go way back, and a large part of this conversation is about David's love for the Dead's music.

David Crosby opened the NYE '86 show with a solo acoustic set, from which you hear "Almost Cut My Hair."

Also in there is a studio rough of "The Wall Song" from a Crosby & Nash recording session on November 11, 11/71, with Graham Nash on piano; David and Jerry on guitars; Phil Lesh on bass; and Bill Kreutzmann on drums.

Crosby's first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, was reissued recently in a deluxe package with a CD and an audio DVD. It is a truly brilliant record, with contributions from members of the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, and Santana, plus David Freiberg, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, and others. Great songs, great performances, and a great recording.

From the introduction to the radio show:

I have a snapshot in my mind of of New Year's Eve 1986 at the Henry J. Kaiser auditorium, walking into a room backstage and seeing Jerry Garcia and David Crosby engaged in conversation. We almost lost those two guys in '86, but there they were, big as life.

Six months earlier David was in jail and Jerry was in a coma. Two of this generation's most beloved souls found themselves skidding toward heaven, but each made the decision to turn that wheel before it was too late.

While Crosby was in prison I collected greetings from several of his northern California friends in a book and sent it to him. I learned later that he was deeply touched by these messages from these people he had loved and lost during his years of enslavement to cocaine, and when I met him face to face in 1987 Crosby greeted me like an old friend.

And I feel like a friend, even though we didn't meet til recently. With the Byrds and then with Crosby, Stills and Nash, Crosby's music has always been precious to me. His singing and/or songwriting credits are almost too numerous to mention, including "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Eight Miles High," "Wooden Ships," "Guinnevere," and "Long Time Gone," to name but a few. (The first disc of Crosby's boxed set Voyage tells you all you need to know, really, but the rest of the set is pretty damn wonderful, too.) In the '60s, rock and roll wasn't just music, it was the bulletin board and the grapevine of a generation, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were heroes who gave their fans political and musical inspiration in equally generous measure.

The story turned sour for Crosby in the '80s, as drugs crowded everything else out of the picture and he exhausted the love and patience of the people around him. The quality of his performances suffered, his songwriting output dropped to zero, and even his most loyal friends believed he was as gone as you can get and still have a heartbeat.

Crosby had to go to prison to get clean, but as he wrote in his autobiography, Long Time Gone [by Crosby and Carl Gottlieb. Doubleday, 1988], he doesn't regret a minute of that time because it brought him back to life and music.

At the time this radio show was created, Crosby had just finished a tour featuring music from his solo album Oh Yes I Can. He came to the Truth and Fun studios for this interview; I kept my cool at the time, but I don't mind telling you that David Crosby is one of the musical heroes of my life. What else can I say but "So glad you made it!"

And here is a transcript of the interview in the radio show:

David Crosby: [Paul] Kantner and I and David Freiberg used to live together, down in Venice. I went and started the Byrds with McGuinn and them, and then Paul started the Airplane. And then David got together with those people and started Quicksilver. So I was tapped into each new band that started in San Francisco. And as soon as there was a Grateful Dead, I heard about it. And we had played up here - the Byrds - at the Peppermint Tree. You haven't lived until you've seen us trying to do something like "Chimes of Freedom" with two girls dancing topless on either side of us. "Don't you guys know something with a beat?" [laughter] Total mismatch. I think I heard about Garcia playing even before that down in Palo Alto, at some little club down there. But as soon as they started playing, we started to hear about them, and then I went to visit 'em when they were still living on Ashbury [in San Francisco]. I liked them right away, because they were totally outrageous and obviously completely crazed. And that was just my style. I remember thinking, God, this kid Weir is too young to be in this band, isn't he? I mean, do you have like a note from his parents or something?

Crosby: That record, If I Could Only Remember My Name... I was just coming off of Deja Vu [Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young], and I had carte blanche. I got to put together exactly whatever the hell I wanted. And I invited the craziest people I knew. Jerry Garcia is responsible for that record a very great deal. He was there night after night after night after night after night after night after night.

Q: Doing what?

Crosby: Oh, thinking, listening, talking - you know, acting as a friend, saying "Hmmm, man, what if you, how did you, why don't you try a little more, and...." And he would play. He played on a lot of stuff. That record is the only place on record, that I know of, that he and [Jefferson Airplane and later Hot Tuna guitarist] Jorma Kaukonen ever played together. On "Song With No Words." That's one of the first times that [Garcia] did pedal steel too. I think the first time he put it on a record was on Deja Vu, on "Teach Your Children." But he played it on "Laughing" [on If I Could Only Remember My Name...], too. A beautiful, strange thing that he played. Lesh played great on that too. And Joni [Mitchell] sang this one beautiful, little strange thing on it - ooh!

"Cowboy Movie" is Crosbosis mixed with Grateful Dead-itis in perfect fashion. What I like is when it goes to the bridge...

I've done several things with them that got me off. They played a lot on "What Are Their Names?" That was just a jam. I walked out in the room, started playing a lick. Then Jerry comes out in the room, starts playing, and you hear him start to play. Then Neil [Young] comes out in the room and starts to play. Then Phil [Lesh] comes out in the room and starts to play... and then Michael Shrieve, who played drums for Santana, comes in and sits down and starts playing drums. And that was how we made the record. I had those words that I wrote on an airplane, and I didn't know what to do with them. I was listening to this track and I realized that there's a place where the track goes up and then [claps hands] cuts away and leaves a space, and then it comes back in again. And that space is exactly the length of these words:

I wonder who they are
The men who really run this land
And I wonder why they run it
With such a thoughtless hand
What are their names
And on what streets do they live
I'd like to ride right over this afternoon and give them
A piece of my mind
About peace for mankind
Peace is not an awful lot to ask

Crosby: Oh, man, I couldn't have done it with anybody else. The only time when we ever really got organized was on "The Wall Song." That was pretty organized, 'cause it goes through a lot of changes. And so we learned that and actually played it like an arrangement.

One of the best periods in my life, musically, was a period of time when I was very frustrated about Crosby, Stills and Nash, and it wasn't working. I was living in Mill Valley, and Bobby [Weir] lived in Mill Valley. They were trying to rehearse, and I would go over and drag along my Stratocaster and cause trouble. I would go in and they would be trying to record, even, and I would cause trouble. I would go in and say, "Aah, you guys don't have a real rhythm guitar player." [laughs] Which endeared me to Bob forever, I'm sure. But I would go in there and, you know, just be crazed and try and involve myself with them, because they were so into all what I think is important about music. They were into the music, you know. They didn't let the peripheral stuff pull 'em away from it. They didn't give a hoot how much money something made; they didn't give a damn what the reviews were; they were not in it for chicks, glory, money, fame; they did not make the "I must be smart - look how many people are listening to me" mistake; they kept intensely focused on music. And I loved that. That was just what I, how I felt about stuff. That was my set of values, and I needed that affirmation very strongly at that point, because I had just had this enormous taste of huge money and crazedness and... I wasn't sure, you know, what was what. I'd been in Hollywood, you know what that's... Hollyweird... That was when we started playing that eleven that became their song "The Eleven" and became the beginning of my song "Low Down Payment." I didn't even know it was in eleven until they counted it for me. I had no idea. I'd start playing that.. and they would.... "Oh, okay..." [scats a little eleven-beat phrase]... It was all what I loved about music the most.

Q: I always thought Crosby, Stills and Nash should have been a little more willing to open up and play looser things, like from song to song.

Crosby: After the beginning, we didn't trust each other that much. At the beginning we did.

Q: And what happened?

Crosby: Hmm... money, chicks, glory, fame, drugs. Values change, people change... people don't stay the same.

Crosby: The fascinating thing about [the Grateful Dead], I think, aside from the fact that they have always understood.... they came out of the period when folk music still had an impact on them, and they understand about telling the tale. See, they're more concerned with telling the tale than they are with polish. They always have been. They want to make you feel something. But I think the really most innovative thing about the band is... Everybody else thinks in terms of block chords and pedal tones, bass lines, normal kind of structures. These guys have evolved a thing where each guy is playing a running line all the time. There's three of them at a very minimum and then the percussion. That's electronic Dixieland.

In this case you've got three running lines all the time. The keyboard player, traditionally, in the Dead has been the only guy who was tacking it down to reality at any point, you know. But what you've got is Jerry and Phil and Bobby playing these three weaving lines. And it's this incredibly fluid music. What happens in the best of it is that you submerge your ego and you understand that several people can achieve a telepathic or near-telepathic union playing music and speak with one voice. I heard a symphony orchestra when I was a little kid, and I was so completely overwhelmed by it that it made a deep imprint on me. The power of music made by the cooperation of musicians - I was only about four or five years old, and it bowled me over. It was like a wave. The power of a symphony orchestra playing in front of me. And I saw all the elbows moving the same time, all the little tweedly-tweets at the same time, all the little little drum things going at the same time, and I said "I get it!" And it's never left me. I'm stuck with it. I love to make music with other human beings.

***

Crosby recently reunited with fellow Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman for a handful of concerts. They had so much fun that they're talking about making a record together:

Crosby: [This story] starts off kinda grubby but it winds up good. Some unscrupulous people, and I use the words carefully, got hold of [Byrds co-founder] Michael Clarke. These are the same people that put Gene Clark on the road as The Byrds. I was unhappy about that, but it was marginally valid because at least he was a singer-songwriter and one of the people who started the band. It wasn't good, which was why I wasn't happy about it. It was quite bad, as a matter of fact. But it was marginally valid, in a certain way. You could find a way to justify it. These same people got hold of Michael, and he had fallen on hard times, and... he did it. They put him on the road as the Byrds. Well, okay. If it doesn't have Roger McGuinn in it, it's not the Byrds. I don't care who else it's got, including me - if it doesn't have Roger McGuinn in it, it isn't the Byrds. He is the heart and soul of the Byrds - always has been, always will be. There isn't any question about that. I'm not belittling my contribution or Gene's or Christopher's, or even Michael's. Roger is the central issue. It's the way he reads a song. He's the one who took those songs and made 'em feel like that. He has a certain rhythmic feel and a certain way of reading a song. A certain understanding... He's a brilliant guy, you know. He has a genuinely enormous talent. Then I had this horrible thought and checked it out, and I found out that they were going to try and copyright the name. These sleazeballs.

Q: Had you guys never done that?

Crosby: Roger had held onto it for a while, but had let it slip, and so it was up for grabs. I said, "What if they copyright the name?" And they said, "Aw they wouldn't do that." I said, "I think they're going to. If they have a band on the road, they can do it. I said, "I don't want that to happen. Then we can't have it. I don't care if I own it at all, but I think it should be in Roger's hands." Christopher agreed with me, and Roger agreed with me, and so I said, "Look, why don't we just beat 'em to the punch?" And they said okay. I was surprised. But we didn't do it through managers or, you know, third parties. I just said, "Hey look, let's be real. Let's just do it." So we got together. Here's where it gets good. Okay, the first confession is, I had forgotten how good Roger is. He's brilliant. He's better now than he was then. The last time I played with Chris, he was a kid. Now he's been through like three or four hit bands -

Q: The Desert Rose Band -

Crosby: Yeah. They're strong. And Chris is strong. He's confident; he knows what the hell he's doing. And we buried the hatchet a long time ago. He's been my friend for a long time, and so has Roger. And there's a difference in me, too. When we parted company, it was my fault. It wasn't their fault. They threw me out for a reason. I really was being sort of impossible. I wanted to spread my wings. I wanted to be the center of attention. You know, I was jealous of Roger. I was a growing singer-songwriter. I was starting to write really good songs, and I didn't feel that I had the attention and the recognition that I deserved. I was in ego conflict with them. Now I've got nothing to prove. Anybody that doesn't know I can play and sing hasn't been listening. I can now contribute what I was supposed to contribute.

Q: Where did you play?

Crosby: San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, and Ventura. [Los Angeles Times critic Robert] Hilburn, who never says anything nice about anybody except Springsteen, said we were fantastic. But that's not the point. There were other people there who said we were really good, whose opinions matter to me more. Tom Petty came, and sang "Rock and Roll Star" with us and said, "Man, you guys are so good I can't believe it." And he's a real Byrds fan. And he's a great musician, and a really nice guy too. And he wasn't shucking. Later on, Elliot Roberts [Bob Dylan's manager] told me that Dylan had been there and had been raving about it for days. He snuck in with his hood over his head, brought three kids... But anyway, the point is we had a great time. So if the managers don't screw it up, and if the record companies don't screw it up - we're all signed to different record companies, and we've all got all these different people with their own agendas - if none of those people screw it up, you'll hear it. It'll be good.

Q: Are you going to make a record?

Crosby: I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, consider this: We have this thing that we do, okay: it starts with the way Roger grasps hold of a song, and his rhythmic feel and his reading of the tune. Then it comes with me being one of the stranger harmony singers of our time, you know. Then it comes with Hillman not knowing how to play bass. He's a mandolin player; he doesn't know bass lick one. He plays a running line. He's playing mandolin three octaves down. [laughter]

Q: That's an interesting approach. Does he know Lesh? [laughter]

Crosby: There's a lot of similarity, in a way. They're musically different people - their conception is different - but the fact is, neither one of them knows any bass licks. Okay, so there is this certain - it's not a formula, but there's a certain set of influences, and we've only ever applied that to one great writer: Bob Dylan. And one Pete Seeger tune ["Turn, Turn, Turn!"]. What happens when you do that to a Randy Newman song?

Q: Wow.

Crosby: Yeah, that's what I said. What happens when you do it to Tracy Chapman, who writes these beautiful, sparse, wonderful songs about real stuff?

Q: ...There are a lot of great writers out there.

Crosby: That's what I was thinking. The idea slays me completely, so... I'm hoping - but it would be easy to go down the tubes in Hollywood, you know.

Q: Is there anything you'd like to say to the Deadheads of America?

Crosby: They must be real perceptive people, man, because they see and love something that's wonderful and genuine and crazed and completely undependable and outrageous and going for the peaks, you know. I figure that if they love it, you know, they're lucky to have something that good to love.

***

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Listen Now

Grateful Dead Hour no. 501

ccasal — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:17:43 -0800

Week of April 27, 1998

Grateful Dead (composite of 3/28/94 and 4/4/94)
DAYS BETWEEN

Grateful Dead 7/16/66 Fillmore Auditorium, SF
CREAM PUFF WAR

Mutilaudio
by David Gans and Peter Barsotti
NEW YEAR'S EVE 1987

Interview 1/97
Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia

Grateful Dead 5/26/93 Cal Expo, Sacramento CA
PLAYING IN THE BAND

Mutilaudio by David Gans
BRICKSHAKE #7

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman 5/92 (unreleased)
16 x 16

This is the sequel to last week's show...

As I said in the intro to GDH500, "I thought I'd put together some stuff that you heard first on the Grateful Dead Hour, and some things you probably wouldn't have heard otherwise." GDH501 has more of these firsts and exclusives.

"Days Between" is one of the last songs Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter wrote together, and it is one of my all-time favorites. A sober but unsentimental look back - I think of it as a companion piece to Hunter's poem "An American Adventure" - both pieces dealing with the history of the Grateful Dead form the perspective of age and wisdom.

The 7/16/66 "Cream Puff War" came from a reel that my friend Dave Angress brought over in January 1994. A friend of his had had it in the closet since his family occupied an old scout camp in Marin County following the Dead's occupancy there. There were four reels in the stash, one of which was a copy of Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony (transcribed from an LP). The others were Grateful Dead music. These reels wound up in the Grateful Dead vault where they belonged, and I believe some of the music was included on the two-CD set Birth of the Dead in the boxed set The Golden Road (1965-1973).

In the late fall of 1986, I got a call from Peter Barsotti, one of Bill Graham's principal creative aides, inviting me to create a sound montage for Bill's midnight ride on New Year's Eve. It was an honor and a thrill! Peter came over with some records and a bunch of great ideas, and we went to work. The result was pleasing enough that I was invited to do it again the next two New Year's Eves. The 1987 edition, included here, related to the theme of the midnight pageant, with Tony Bennett's classic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" as the central thread (although we ducked "San Francisco" at the end, since the event took place in Oakland. Peter's instruction to me was simple: take a room full of really high people right over the top!

The interview with Mountain Girl is a short excerpt from a longer talk that aired on KPFA on March 19, 1997. I plan to play this conversation on Sirius Satellite Radio in the near future.

The Cal Expo '93 "Playing in the Band" speaks for itself: that three-day run of shows was pretty damn satisfying throughout, and this jam in particular recalled the mind-melts of old.

"Brickshake #7" is another of my Mutilaudio digital audio art pieces - this one shuffles "Shakedown Street" ad Pink Floyd's "Anther Brick in the Wall" together like a pack of cards.

And finally, "16 x 16" is from a collection of unreleased live Garcia-Grisman performances recorded at the Warfield Theater in May 1992, given to my by Grisman to share with you nice folks. Ther's an excellent studio version of "16 x 16" on the Garcia-Grisman CD So What.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 500

ccasal — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:41:46 -0800

Week of April 20, 1998

Documentary by David Gans
GREATEST PUMP SONG EVER WROTE

Grateful Dead 4/6/71, 5/3/72, 2/23/74, 9/20/90
PUMP SONG/GREATEST STORY Composite

Grateful Dead 6/27/69 Veterans Auditorium, Santa Rosa CA
SLEWFOOT
CASEY JONES
DIRE WOLF

Grateful Dead 3/11/93 Rosemont (IL) Horizon
FLIBBERTY JIB/ISLAND (With Ken Nordine)

Mutilaudio by David Gans and Gary Lambert
HANDLE

ID by David Crosby

David Crosby and Jerry Garcia
KIDS AND DOGS

Steve Silberman 11/7/94 Icon Byte, San Francisco
THE DRUM CIRCLE

Mickey Hart (unreleased)
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

I had a request for the legendary Mickey Hart "rap" "Fire on the Mountain," which has been broadcast several times over the course of the Grateful Dead Hour's history. This one was easier to get to than the first airing, which is archived in PCM digital form on a video cassette. One o' these days I'll get those Betas transferred...

This "500th" show is actually somewhere closer to the 600th hour of GD-related radio programming I had produced. As I noted in the hoopla surrounding GD Hour #1000, my first broadcast was on February 18th, 1985 on the KFOG Deadhead Hour in San Francisco. I was one of several area Deadheads assisting original host M. Dung with the show at that time (the others were Paul Grushkin, author of The Official Book of the Dead Heads, and Dr Richard Raffel); later that year I was asked to take responsibility for the show, and then other radio stations started asking if they could carry it, too. The band gave their blessing, and that's how I inadvertently became the producer and host of a nationally syndicated radio show. I started numbering them in 1987 and got up to #55 before a commercial syndicator got involved in September 1988 and started the numbers over again from 1.

"Greatest Pump Song Ever Wrote" is the documentary I produced for my first appearance on the KFOG Deadhead Hour. "Greatest Story Ever Told" opens Bob Weir's 1972 solo album Ace, but an earlier version appears on Mickey Hart's 1972 solo album Rolling Thunder as "The Pump Song." I had interviews with Weir, Hart, and lyricist Robert Hunter talking about how this song came to be, and Mickey did me the gigantic favor of inviting me up to his studio, hauling out the multitrack master of "The Pump Song," and soloing up the individual tracks. The song began with a recording of a pump on his ranch, to which Mickey added some log drums; he then gave the tape to Bob with a challenge to turn it into a song. Hunter added lyrics, which Weir altered a bit (e.g. "Moses come ridin' up on a guitar" became "...on a quasar"). Bobby also changed the title; "That song was 'Moses,'" Hunter told me. I followed the documentary with a composite of the song edited together from four very different-sounding live renditions.

The 1969 live GD excerpt includes a rare country cover of "Old Slewfoot," an early "Casey Jones" from before the intro was worked out, and "Dire Wolf" with Bob Weir singing lead while Jerry Garcia played pedal steel.

"Kids and Dogs," a lovely multitracked instrumental duet by David Crosby and Jerry Garcia, was brought to my attention by Deadhead author and Crosby confidant Steve Silberman, who learned of its existence via a bootleg tape of an unreleased early-'80s Crosby solo album and made it his business to tell the world about it. Steve's campaign came to fruition a year so ago when the song was included on the Crosby boxed set Voyage.

Steve Silberman also appears in the program reading his poem "The Drum Circle," the text of which you can read on his web page.

"Flibberty Jib" is from a guest appearance by Ken Nordine at the Rosemont Horizon on March 11, 1993. Ken was famous in the 1950s and '60s for a unique form of poetry with music that he calls Word Jazz (and which he still creates to this day). Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and sound man Dan Healy were huge fans of Ken Nordine's work. We met him in 1990 and invited him to join us for the live broadcast of New Year's Eve, and then in February of 1991 he made a CD called Devout Catalyst with the Garcia-Grisman band backing him. Ken also co-anchored the New Year's Eve 1991 broadcast.

"Handle" is a bit of digital audio art that I made with my pal Gary Lambert, editor of the Grateful Dead Almanac and one of the editors of this web site you're reading right now. We found half a dozen performances of this great Otis Redding song and shuffled 'em together like a deck of cards. After we finished the work we realized that we'd left out one very cool cover of the song, from Toots in Memphis.

And of course, we have the legendary unreleased Mickey Hart "rap" version of "Fire on the Mountain," from an unreleased 1974 studio recording that featured Jerry Garcia on guitar and I'm not sure who else. I got a copy of M Dung's reel, which he got from Mickey's master. This track really oughta see the light of day officially some time.

Enjoy!

Your requests are requested! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the show's home page, www.gdhour.com. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour [at] dead.net

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 026

ccasal — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:24:45 -0800

Week of February 27, 1989

Grateful Dead 4/19/87 Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA

ALABAMA GETAWAY->
PROMISED LAND
TONS OF STEEL
I NEED A MIRACLE->
CUMBERLAND BLUES->
DRUMS
MISSISSIPPI HALFSTEP->
FRANKLIN'S TOWER
RAMBLE ON ROSE
BOX OF RAIN

Selections from the first and second sets, in no particular order.

David Kerr requested this show, and your requests are most welcome, too! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the show's home page, www.gdhour.com. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour [at] dead.net

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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Grateful Dead Hour no. 312

ccasal — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:35:46 -0800

Grateful Dead Hour no. 312

Week of September 12, 1994

Grateful Dead 9/19/70 Fillmore East, New York City
ST. STEPHEN->
NOT FADE AWAY->
LOVELIGHT

Grateful Dead, Without a Net
LET IT GROW

Concluding our three-week run of awesome 1970 recordings, this show features a wild, F-word-laden "Lovelight." We present it here as it was broadcast; given the context, I didn't want to put plain ol' "bleep tones" in there, so I used sound effects in those spots.

Pigpen was doing one of his classic salacious raps, and when he uttered that word, Bobby stepped up and said, "Pigpen, did you say 'fuck'?"

I said "FUCK!" he roared, and the band put the pedal to the metal.

At the end of the show, the audience was out of its mind. The applause went on for a very long time, the house music came up (the Youngbloods again, "Get Together"), and eventually Phil and Pig came out to tell the audience Bobby had lost his voice, etc. Pigpen sent them home with one last profane exhortation, the house music came up, and eventually the crowd settled down and began to leave the building. After "Get Together" ends, you hear one guy scream one last thing: "Casey Jones!"

I had to abridge the post-show events for broadcast, but you get the gist of it.

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

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