gdead.berkeley.edu/gdead.berkeley.edu.tar/gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/dead-hours/gdh001.050

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DHH#1 9/5/88
interview with Jerry and Mary Eisenhart

Cat's Under the Stars
Gomorrah
Terrapin 10/18/78
Dark Star single
Scarlet Begonias 5/19/74 (with GREAT Donna scat singing/screaming)
Viola Lee Blues/Feedback/Bid You Goodnight 5/2/70 (a SMOKER!!!!!!)

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DHH#2 9/12/88

    2-18-71       Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.

Bertha*
Loser*
Greatest Story Ever Told*->
Johnny B. Goode*->
Playing in the Band*

Dark Star->
Wharf Rat*->
Dark Star->
Me and My Uncle

* First Live! (6 of them no less....)
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Grateful Dead Hour
Week of September 19, 1988
Program No. 3

Featured:   California guitarist Henry Kaiser (who is the grandson of
the man for whom the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center was named, in
case you were wondering) talks about his new recording of "Dark Star,"
the classic vehicle of Grateful Dead improvisation. The program
includes two short segments of the 30-minute version from the CD (the
LP /cassette version is somewhat shorter).
    Henry selected the rest of the music in this program, including
"Mason's Children"; "Happiness Is Drumming," a 1976 Diga Rhythm Band
track which became "Fire on the Mountain"; and "New Potato Caboose,"
from the Grateful Dead's second album, Anthem of the Sun.

Part 1 25:36
    Kaiser: Well, David, I grew up here in the San Francisco area
during that summer of love time. I listened to the Grateful Dead and a
lot of bands, and the Grateful Dead specifically really got me
interested in improvisation in music, and expression with an electric
guitar and to make it do really exciting things.
    I listened to it all my musically active life, but I never
played that kind of music much before. And I suddenly realized I can.
It's okay to do that.
    Q: What do you mean "It's okay to do that"? Was there some musical
reason for you not to get involved with Grateful Dead music before?
    Kaiser:  I'm sorry to say that most of the people who normally
buy my records think of themselves as these kind of intellectual,
ay-vant-garde types, and they kind of frown on the Grateful Dead...
They more tend to like Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and things like that,
and my taste is much towards the Grateful Dead... Not many people I
play with are interested in the Grateful Dead.
    So I took Glenn Phillips, an amazing guitar player from Atlanta
Georgia, who was in a group called the Hampton Grease Band and has made
many fine records of his own; one of my few musical friends who loves
the Dead... We got together and looked for what would make the perfect
rhythm section for us to do Dark Star, which is the biggest challenge,
which is the most exciting thing to do, which is our favorite Dead
song. We picked the rhythm section of another guitarist friend of mine,
Bill Frisell: Joey Baron, drums; Kermit Driscoll, bass; and Hank
Roberts, cello. They weren't that into the Dead, but we rehearsed a
little bit and coerced the spirit into them and had a good time in the
studio. It was the longest night - the vernal equinox of 1987,
December, in New York City.

Dark Star (excerpt) (Hunter-Garcia-Weir-Lesh)
Henry Kaiser, Those Who Know History Are Doomed to Repeat It
    (SST CD 198, 1988)

    Q:  So the bass and the drums and the cello were all musicians
who were not into the Grateful Dead before?
    Kaiser: That's right, David. They were all jazz musicians from
New York who weren't into the Grateful Dead at all. I had to first
convince them that this was a worthwhile undertaking, and second, get
them to play that kind of music and get the spirit of Dark Star to play
through them. And for a couple of months I'd been taking a very close
look at Weir and Garcia's guitar stylings myself, trying to decide some
way to relate to it and still be myself.
    Q:  So what did you tell these musicians by way of explaining
how Grateful Dead music works?
    Kaiser:  I gave them tapes of about four different Dark Stars
that were radically different ... and said, "Here's this song, the
Dead's primary vehicle for improvisation in rock - for space
improvisation in rock. Look at it - they play great!" And the guys
said, "Yeah, you're right. It's a lot better than I thought ... These
guys do sound pretty good."
    I said, "We're going to let that same spirit play through us,
but we're going to play like ourselves. You guys are all improvisers -
95% of the music you play is improvisation, so that's no problem. This
is just a special style  of improvisation, a particular style. It's
different from jazz improvisation, pure jazz or jazz fusion, or
avant-garde jazz, atonal jazz - and in a way it includes all those
things. And I think you guys are really gonna dig this, because you're
really going to get to express yourselves."
    We rehearsed for two days in a recording studio in New York,
and the first day the rhythm section was very skeptical compared to
Glenn Phillips' and my attitude towards the music.
    The second day they were pretty darn skeptical, too, but the
third day, when we got to the recording studio everybody seemed to see
the light, and the music just flowed really naturally and played itself
right through us.
    And I feel like I really got away with something, 'cause it was
a hard thing to do. It's hard to play that kind of music unless you've
played together for a long time, and we hadn't played together for a
long time.
    I wasn't trying to do a Grateful Dead clone kind of thing, or
an imitation Grateful Dead, but I was trying to do both kind of a
little tribute and a thank-you to the Dead, who I owe so much to for
turning my musical attention to improvisation and a lot of good
qualities that the Dead's music always has shown. And also I wanted to
let that spirit of Dark Star - which the Grateful Dead have been, I
think sady, neglecting for quite a while, for a few years now - I
wanted to give that spirit a chance to play through some folks who
could play and say whatever it wanted to say. Because that's how I
think of it, as kind of a shamanistic thing. Dark Star's something that
plays you - plays through you.

Dark Star (excerpt)

    Kaiser:  When I finished the recording I was very pleased with
it, and I remembered how on the original Dark Star single there was a
very brief little bit of poetry, that never showed up in Dark Star
again, that Hunter recites. So I sent a tape of the finished Dark Star
to Hunter and said, "Would you want to put the extra lyrics on the end
of this for me? I'd be real grateful," and he just sent me a tape of it
to put on there.

Happiness Is Drumming (Diga Rhythm Band)
Diga Rhythm Band, Diga   (Round Records RX-110, 1976)


Part 2 26:32
    Kaiser:  New Potato Caboose is a song from Anthem of the Sun. It's
in the middle of the first side, and the Dead haven't played it for
twenty years. it's a song that I miss a lot. It's one of my favorite
ten or so Dead songs. The lyrics are by the late Bobby Petersen.

New Potato Caboose (Lesh-Petersen)
2/68?

    Kaiser:  Mason's Children is a song the Dead performed only a few
times, probably less than 10 times back in late '69, early 1970 before
they discarded it from their performing repertoire without ever releasing
a recording of it. I think it's a very interesting and good song, which
you were kind enough to bring to my attention. We got together with
some friends of ours here in the Bay Area and played Dark Star quite a
few times, and you showed me Mason's Children.
    I said, "Boy, that would be really cool to record that tune!" and
I said, "David, do you want to do that?" So you're on the record, too!

Mason's Children-> (Hunter-Garcia-Weir-Lesh)
Black Peter (Hunter-Garcia)
1/10/70  Community Concourse, San Diego CA


Program notes

"Happiness Is Drumming" is from the 1976 album by the Diga Rhythm Band,
with a guest performance by Jerry Garcia on guitar. Robert Hunter wrote
some words for it and it turned into the Grateful Dead's "Fire on the
Mountain," which appears on the album Shakedown Street.


Selected Henry Kaiser discography
% Henry Kaiser: Those Who know History Are Doomed to Repeat It. SST CD-198
  (This is the one with "Dark Star" and "Mason's Children")
  SST Records, Box 1, Lawndale CA 90260
% French/Frith/Kaiser/Thompson: Live, Love, Larf & Loaf. Rhino RNCD-70831
% Henry Kaiser: Devil in the Drain. SST 118
% Henry Kaiser, Charles K. Noyes, Sang-Won Park: Invite the Spirit.
  OAO Celluloid CELL 5008/5009
% Crazy Backwards Alphabet: Crazy Backwards Alphabet. SST 110
% Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser: With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends?
  SST CD-147
% Henry Kaiser: Remarrying for Money.  (soon come, on SST)

    I helped Kaiser prepare for his New York "Dark Star" session both by
playing some Grateful Dead tapes for him and by jamming with him (and a
sympathetic bassist and drummer) in his studio. We had so much fun
playing old Grateful Dead songs that after Kaiser returned from New
York with his "Dark Star" recordings we decided to continue as a band,
which we call Crazy Fingers. Henry also invited me to play and sing on
"Mason's Children," which we recorded at San Francisco's Mobius Music.
I was delighted to participate, since I regard "Mason's Children" as a
neglected Grateful Dead treasure. (Coincidentally, "Mason's Children"
appears on a new album by Living Earth; you'll hear that version on an
upcoming Grateful Dead Hour.) Anyone who suspects me of promoting Henry
Kaiser's record merely because of my own participation in it need only
listen to "Dark Star" and the spectacular version of "Ode to Billy Joe"
on the album.  -- D.G.


Rainforest Action Network

On September 24 the Grateful Dead concluded their nine-show run at
Madison Square Garden with a benefit concert to fight the destruction
of the rainforests, a vital part of our planet's life support system.
Bruce Hornsby and the Range and Suzanne Vega were also on the bill,
with the proceeds going to Greenpeace, Cultural Survival and the
Rainforest Action Network.  The following is a transcript of an
interview with  Randy Hayes, director of the Rainforest Action
Network.
    Randy Hayes:  Rainforest Action Network is an organization
based in San Francisco working internationally with tribal peoples in
the Amazon and in Malaysia, environmental groups in third world
countries, in Indonesia and Africa and Brazil, as well as environmental
groups in the industrial centers of the north: Japan and Europe and the
United States.
    Tropical rainforests are the oldest and most complex ecosystems
on the earth.  They once occupied 14% of the land mass, and, largely
since World War II, that's been cut in half - 7%. They're being
destroyed at the rate of about 100 acres a minute.
    The destruction of the rainforest is complicated, but it can be
figured out, and it can be solved. In some respects this is probably
one of the more solveable of the complex global environmental issues.
And that's because it takes money to cut the rainforest down, to
finance these destructive projects.  And that money comes from the
industrial north, from Japan and Europe and the US. There's probably
more to be done in the United States to save the Amazon than down in
Brazil.
    A lot of the multinational corporations based in the United
States, the engineering firms that build massive projects like the
Alaska oil pipeline, are also building hydroelectric dams and roads in
the Amazon and in African rainforest and in Southeast Asian rainforest.
So in many respects our foreign aid dollars are not really going to
benefit the poor people of the third world; they go to hire the
construction companies that destroy rainforest.
    The strategy to save the rainforest - there's going to have to
be a multifaceted strategy of people here in the United States, Europe,
and Japan, stopping their consumption of products that destroy
rainforest.  Tropical hardwoods, teaks and mahoganies, hamburgers that
are raised in rainforest. Until recently Burger King was a major
contributor to the destruction of tropical rainforest. They'd bought
$35 million worth of beef from the country of Costa Rica, and in Costa
Rica the major cause of the destruction of rainforest was conversion of
forest into cattle pasture.
    So we can do a lot here in the United States to turn that
around. The Grateful Dead have offered to do this benefit for the
rainforest. Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bobby Weir and the other band members
are really concerned about his issue. They understand that a rainforest
is non-renewable.
    What we're talking about here is that the life support systems
of the planet are being threatened by the cutting of the rainforest.
    For more information you can write to the Rainforest Action
Network at 300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, California 94133. If
you're interested in setting up a local rainforest action group, write
to us and ask for the RAG manual. We need you to contribute and
participate in monthly letter-writing campaigns, so that the eyes of
the world are upon the different governments, countries, and
legislators about this issue.
    For 15 bucks you can join the Rainforest Action Network, and
then you will get monthly updates.  One of the things you can do right
off the bat to get involved in the rainforest issue is to go down to
your corner video store and rent "The Emerald Forest," invite a few
friends over for beer and pizza, show the film and have a
letter-writing party. Just call the Rainforest Action Network and we
can give you information about where letters are needed to be written.
    You can call the Rainforest Action Network at 415-398-4404.


G r a t e f u l   D e a d   H o u r
Copyright 1988 Truth and Fun, Inc. All rights reserved.



Grateful Dead Hour
Week of September 26, 1988
Program No. 4

Featured:  live Grateful Dead music recorded December 28, 1983 at the
San Francisco Civic Auditorium. Feel Like a Stranger opened the
concert. Dire Wolf is out of sequence in the program because of timing.
After The Wheel, the band played at Playing in the Band for a short
while and then veered off into The Other One; they never did reprise
Playing in the Band that night. The second set closed with a Chuck
Berry double-header - Around & Around and Johnny B Goode - with Brent
Mydland singing along with his organ solo in Johnny B. Goode.
  -- D.G.

Part 1 25:27
Feel Like a Stranger      12/28/83 San Francisco Civic Auditorium
Playing in the Band      12/28/83

Part 2 27:18
ALF: I've decided to reveal myself to the world. This way I can meet new
people, travel, see a Grateful Dead concert...
Willie: I don't think the authorities would even let you out in public,
much less become a Deadhead. You'd become government property.
ALF: That's fine. As long as I've got my freedom.

Dire Wolf      12/28/83
The Wheel  ->
Playing in the Band tease ->
The Other One     12/28/83
Around & Around ->
Johnny B. Goode         12/28/83

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Grateful Dead Hour
Week of October 3, 1988
Program No. 5

Part 1 26:37
Jack Straw     12/28/82 H J. K Convention Center, Oakland CA
Lazy Lightnin'->
Supplication ->
Deal          12/28/82 H J. K Convention Center, Oakland CA
When I Paint My Masterpiece     The Band, Cahoots


Part 2 26:32
Rose of Sharon     Robert Hunter, Tiger Rose (Round Records RX-105, 1975)
Shakedown Street->
Samson & Delilah     12/28/82 Henry J. Kaiser, Oakland CA

Jack Straw was the first set opener, and Lazy Lightning/Supplication->
Deal closed the first set. Shakedown Street-> Samson and Delilah was
the second set opener.

The Grateful Dead started performing "When I Paint My Masterpiece" in
June of 1987 with Bob Weir doing the lead vocal, but which has also
been part of the the Garcia Band's repertoire since 1983.

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Grateful Dead Hour
Week of October 10, 1988
Program No. 6

Part 1 25:12
On the Road Again ->
Touch of Grey     12/28/82 HJK, Oakland CA
Good Time Blues     12/28/82 HJK, Oakland CA
Hard to Handle      Bear's Choice, Warner Bros. 2721,1973)

Part 2 25:46
Throwing Stones->     12/28/82 HJK, Oakland CA
Not Fade Away->
Morning Dew       12/28/82 HJK, Oakland CA

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Grateful Dead Hour
Week of October 17, 1988
Program No. 7

Part 1 28:59
To Lay Me Down     5/22/81 Warfield Theatre (w/ John Kahn)
Mason's Children  Living Earth (Relix RRCD 2033, 1988)
Fire on the Mountain     Mickey Hart et al. (unreleased Hart album)
Cold Rain & Snow     1/10/70 Community Concourse, San Diego

Part 2 26:04
Turn On Your Love Light
1/10/70 Community Concourse, San Diego CA

Program notes
Mickey Hart sings!  This is the GD percussionist's unreleased studio
version of "Fire on the Mountain," a rap record before the term was
coined. These are the original lyrics by Robert Hunter, who Mickey has
referred to as his "vocal guru."

"To Lay Me Down" originally appeared on Jerry Garcia's 1972 solo album,
Garcia, and recently re-entered the band's live repertoire. The May 22,
1981 tape is an acoustic performance in a Nuclear Disarmament benefit
at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, with John Kahn of Garcia Band
fame playing stand-up bass in place of Phil Lesh.

I saw the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden in 1983 and again at
the end of the recent 9-show run, and I have to say it is a very
different experience from the California shows I'm used to. So between
sets on September 24 I asked Deadheads what they thought about the
difference between East Coast and West Coast Grateful Dead shows. Asked
whether they'd send a first-timer to the East Coast or the West Coast,
west was favored by two out of three Deadheads.

The GD introduced "Mason's Children" in the fall of 1969, then
abandoned it in the spring of 1970 after only about a dozen
performances.  They never put it on an album, although it was recorded
around the time of theWorkingman's Dead sessions. This is a new
recording from the self-titled debut album by a Pennsylvania band,
Living Earth.

Editorial comment:   Election day is almost here, and a lot of people I
know feel that their votes don't count for much these days. But I think
that if everybody who feels that way went to the polls it could make a
difference, in local elections and maybe even in the presidential race.
The phrase "consent of the governed" loses its power if the electorate
remain ignorant and apathetic and don't even bother to vote. So let's
give it a try - pass the word: this year the Deadheads are going to
drop in an vote. Thanks for listening .   -- David Gans

Next week:  Live Grateful Dead music from Utica, New York, March 21
1973, including the "original" versions of U S Blues and They Love Each
Other, plus at least one flippant remark from the stage.
----------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour # 8     October 24, 1988.

This show consisted of selections from the March 21, 1973 show at
Memorial Auditorium, Utica, NY.  As David Gans said, the tape was
a low-gen soundboard, but it had distortion problems and there was
an equipment buzz through most of the first set.  We heard:

Wave That Flag
Looks Like Rain
   'We don't play St. Stephen any more because you like it too much' comments
Beat It On Down The Line
They Love Each Other

  'Step Back' comments by Phil
Big River
Brown Eyed Women
Playing In The Band ->
  'Thank you and we'll be right back after a short break' comments
----------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 9      October 31, 1988

end of the Slipknot jam ->    10/9/76  Oakland Stadium
Franklin's Tower ->
One More Saturday Night
U.S. Blues -> "Good Afternoon" comment

Tons of Steel - GD from 'In the Dark'
Dark Star              7/13/84  Greek Theater
----------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 10    November7, 1988.

We heard excerpts from the Rain Forest Benefit Press Conference held
at the United Nations in NYCity on September 14, 1988.  Most of this
press conference had been posted here previously by David Gans.  We
also heard some music:

 Press Conference excerpts
Morning Dew - 2/23/71 at the Capitol Theater, Portchester, NY
 Press Conference excerpts

 Press Conference excerpts
Box of Rain - 7/7/78(?)
 Press Conference excerpts
Dire Wolf - 7/7/88(?) at Red Rocks
 Press Conference excerpts
Throwing Stones - 6/15/85(?)
 Phil, Bill, and Brent add their views on the rainforest crisis.

----------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour #11      November 14, 1988

Uncle John's Band ->    4/16/1983    Brendan Byrne Arena, Meadowlands, NJ
Truckin' ->
Bob Weir jamming with the drummers ->
beginning of Drums
    Phil Lesh promo for GDH ('Hi, ...')

Black Queen (w/ Steven Stills) ->
Iko Iko (w/ Steven Stills) ->
    Steven Stills introduced as he leaves the stage ->
Bob's 'Little Star' song ->
The Other One

The Dead played Steven Stills' 'Black Queen' and he remained on stage
to play 'Iko Iko'.  After that, 'The Other One' began, and Bob Weir
sang his 'Little Star' (or 'Bob Star') and the jam led into 'The Other
One' proper.  'Little Star' is a nice song, sung over the music intro to
'The Other One'.  It was only sung three times:  the first time the night
before; and the last time was later that summer.  The words (as sung):

    Long as we got to be,
    Long as we are,
    I just want to be,
    One of them little stars.
    Yea!
    One of them little stars.
    And it would be just fine.
    All you got to do
    is hang up there and shine.
    Hang up there and shine,
    Hang up there and shine,
    Hang up there and shine,
    Hang up there and shine,
    Hang up there and shine.

I seemed to notice the difference in the band's playing between 'Black
Queen' and 'The Other One'.  Black Queen seemed to drag - maybe because
it was the first time being played - and Stills didn't seem to pickup
on the switch to Iko-Iko until Jerry started singing.  Once Stills went
off the stage, The Other One started up, almost with a sigh of relief
and a with a certain lightness, and quickly went into the depths of the
intro and Little Star.


-----------------------------------------------------
Program #12    Week of November 21, 1988

Part 1 27:59
Razooli - Diga Rhythm Band, Diga
Fire on the Mountain - 10/22/78 Winterland

Part 2 22:49
Good Night Irene - Leadbelly, from The Original Vision
Good Night Irene - 12/31/83 w/ Rick Danko and Maria Muldaur
Hobo's Lullaby - Emmylou Harris, A Vision Shared/Woody
 Guthrie, The Original Vision
Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad - Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs, Vol. 2

-----------------------------------------------------
Program #13    Week of November 28, 1988

Part 1 24:47
Tum Balalaika - Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra
Nugumi - Music of Upper and Lower Egypt
    Weir: "My stuff all works, but Jerry's stuff doesn't all work..."
Alabama Getaway->
Greatest Story Ever Told - 10/9/82 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford

Part 2 27:30
Jackaroe - 4/17/82 Hartford Civic Center
King Solomon's Marbles - 8/13/75 Great American Music Hall, SF

  "Greatest Story Ever Told" was written by Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and
Robert Hunter, based on the rhythm of a pump on Mickey's ranch in Marin
County. It appeared on his 1972 solo album, Rolling Thunder, as "The
Pump Song," and then Weir evolved it into Greatest Story Ever Told and
included it on his 1972 solo debut, Ace.
  The instrumental "King Solomon's Marbles" was recorded August 13,
1975 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, one of only
four shows the band played that year.

----------------
Grateful Dead Hour    Programs 12 and 13    Weeks of November 21 and 28, 1988

Two programs exploring the catholic and cosmopolitan consciousness of
Grateful Dead percussionist and world music maven Mickey Hart, whose
recent extracurricular activities include a series of compact discs
with the ambitious title "The World," a high-tech sonic scrubbing of
the priceless Folkways music archive, and presentation of the Gyuto
Monks Tibetan Tantric Choir.

The first six titles of the CD series _The World: Recordings of Music
from Around the Globe_ have been remastered and released by Rykodisc:
Diga Rhythm Band, Diga; Drums of Passion: the Invocation, by Babatunde
Olatunji; Eclipse, Sudanese folk music by Hamza el-Din (who performs
with the Grateful Dead in concert from time to time); Sarangi, music of
India; The Music of Upper and Lower Egypt; and the Golden Gate Gypsy
Orchestra's Traveling Jewish Wedding.  Ryko has also put together a 3"
sampler CD with introductions by Mickey (sampled herein).

DIGA: THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN

Hart: The Diga record is the jewel in the crown.  It's one of my
favorite of all.  We were all students at the Ali Akbar College of
Music.  Zakir [Hussein] was there, teaching tabla. I had known Zakir
from the old days when Alla Rakha, his father, Ravi Shankar's drummer,
he introduced me to Zakir, and we became friends, buddies, and then
co-composers.  And he had a band called the Talvadim Rhythm Band. When
I joined in '75 we renamed it Diga and made a record in '76, as the
Diga Rhythm Band.  We had to baffle everything with transparent
baffles, because we had to see our hands moving. But remember, tablas
being in the room with drum sets and congas and marimbas and duggies -
these are tiny, delicate instruments in there amongst the bigger boys
of the forest, you know, the drums.

Q:  How did you pull it off?

Hart: Transparent baffles, and also everybody had to learn how to play
on earphones.  Most of them were kids, you know. It was a percussion
orchestra made up of members of the Ali Akbar College of Music.  And
so they really weren't proficient at the use of earphones. As a matter
of fact, all of Diga is actually a live performance.  You know - no
splices and stuff like that.  We performed it from beginning to end,
and having these fourteen or fifteen people doing unison at those
speeds and in those time signatures was impossible.  We practiced it
for three months, and then opened up the microphones and recorded in
three days.  We never really did have a chance to mix this record.  It
was the end of Round Records...  I remember going in there trying mix
this record at Wally Heider's...  We had six days to mix the record,
and of course it was the most complicated record I had ever done in my
life.  Each day it took us six hours to set up, and by the time we set
up the session was ending, and they broke us down every day.

Q:  Why did it take so long to set up?

Hart: Because it was so complicated.  We had gates on every channel,
and we had to equalize everything [adjust the tone quality].  It was
recorded at the barn under weird, funny conditions, and there was a
lot of processing that had to go in it just to make it sound crystal
clear.  We'd do a lot of cleaning.  We were really struggling with it,
and they broke us down for three days. And on the fourth day I walked
in and I said, "This studio is ours in the name of the people," and we
took the studio.  Me and Sweet William, a Hell's Angel friend of mine,
we took Wally's for three days.  And Wally was standing down there on
the steps on the first floor, negotiating with us.  I said "Sorry,
Wally, the studio is ours."  Trying to mix under those conditions - my
engineer was going crazy, I was trying to keep the owners away, keep
them at bay, there are Hell's Angels everywhere and you know, tension
filled the air, and it was no way to really mix.  So now, with Tom
Flye, who has an extraordinary ear, we went back and delicately
remixed the Diga record. So it's a completely new mix - it's sterling,
it just shines - it's as good as it gets, now. [Editor's note: He
ain't lying!  The remix of Diga is spectacular!]

Q:  Twelve years' better technology  . . .

Hart: Well, there wasn't even digital delay then.  There was no
digital reverb.  We were making reverb in cans and in tubes, in echo
chambers and... you know, in the old way.

Q: Can you describe the progression [from "Happiness Is Drumming" to
"Fire on the Mountain"] - which came first -

Hart: Gee, I don't remember, actually.  I think "Happiness Is
Drumming" came first, and then "Fire" came out of that... I can't
remember; it's all a blur, to be honest with you.

Q:  Describe the process of getting your vocal on...

Hart: Well, [lyricist Robert] Hunter being my vocal guru and
everything, it's sort of in the Hunter style, which is sort of my
style, of singing.  It's more like barking, you know, and rapping -
half rapping, barking, and just being real intense and sort of really
eating the words up a little bit, getting into it, and doing it at
twice the speed as the Grateful Dead.

THE GYUTO MONKS [The sound of the Gyuto Monks is a wonder of the
musical, scientific and religious worlds.  It's the sound of prayer, a
celebration of the spirit manifested in their phenomenal stretching of
the limits of the human voice.  There's a recording of this choir on
Windham Hill Records, The Gyuto Monks: Tibetan Tantric Choir (Windham
Hill 2001 P LP, cassette, compact disc).]

Hart: Huston Smith went over to India to study them in '65 - but to
study religion. He was a professor of religion at MIT.  He went over
there, and as he told it to me, he went there, and he arrived in the
afternoon, and then they had dinner, and he went to sleep.  And in
morning at about four o'clock he heard this incredible sound coming
from the courtyard.  He peered over the balcony and there were 140
monks, doing [makes rumbling sound].  And he just sat there and
looked, and his mouth fell open.  And then every one of them stopped,
except one - they all stopped but one monk! - and in that voice he
heard the chord ... and just said, Now I know why I'm here.  So he
forgot all about the religious aspect of it and studied the
multiphonic chanting. Took it back to MIT, put it on a computer,
analyzed it, and found out where they were vibrating, and how they
were - at least physically, what it looked like.  Oh boy, this is the
rarest of the rare, David.  When you talk about the extended voice -
in Western vocal music each person in a choir holds one note.  One
person stops, that note goes away.  Two people stop out of three, two
notes go away. And the chord's gone.  Not so in the Monks. Each
person, or each monk, each lama, holds three notes simultaneously - a
chord, you see - and that's the special thing about these monks.  They
are celibate monks that go to the Gyuto college - who are the Gyuto
College Tantric choir, and it's a monastery, it's in India.  And they
specialize in higher forms of meditation.  This is the Dalai Lama's
choir.  And that's what they do all day: they pray.  And they pray at
70 cycles - their prayer is through chant.  They recite the Sanskrit
text, but their low note is 70 cycles.  So they're all holding three
notes, they're vibrating at 70 cycles, and then half of them split
down to 68, the other half split to 72, and then they'll come back and
forth, in and out of unity.  And I'm talking about subtle things here.
I'm talking about nuance.  And if you participate in this kind of
music, it's transformational in nature.

Q:  What's the purpose of this tour?

Hart: Well, to spread the dharma, I think, you know, the teachings. If
Buddhism is going to exist and is going to flourish, it's time to get
out.  And I think the Dalai Lama let them come out, because they've
only been out two or three times in four hundred years.  This is not
exactly a touring group.  Letting them out, letting people see a
little bit about who they are, and the humanness of what theyUre about
to do, and the compassion, is what Buddhism is all about.

Q:  Do new people join this order?

Hart: Well, not too much any more.  I mean it's one of those things,
they're getting less and less monks to be able to do it.  There's not
that many to pull on.  Because this is a very rigorous - these are
athletes.  There's about 110 of them left.  There used to be four or
five hundred of them, and it's a tradition that has basically been
unchanged in 450 years.  They're trying to empty their bodies and
their mind of all evil or bad or daily thoughts and replenish their
vessel with new thoughts.  Through their prayers they hope to make a
better world.  They conjure the deity, they bring him down, the
Mahakala, the Yamantaka...  They entertain him, they send him away to
do their bidding.  This is very serious business, but I might add that
they're very joyful, very happy, fun-loving - they're very light.
They're what we call enlightened people.  They have lightened up.
They are light! I mean, they go through New York City like it wasnUt
even there!

 "A DATE WITH MICKEY HART"

Hart: I recorded the music of upper and lower Egypt in 1978 in Aswan.
This is music of the Nile river, always flowing, and it's music of the
desert, soft, dry, relentless, timeless.  Together, the river and the
desert are the essence of Egypt.  The Aswan boatmen sail up and down
the Nile, playing and singing these songs.  It helps them in their
work, and it adds music and joy to their lives.  "Nugumi" is a song of
communal celebration.  Forced out by the floodwaters rising behind the
Aswan High Dam, the body of En-nugumi, an Egyptian folk hero, was
moved from its tomb in Toshuka to a new one at Aswan. (narration from
"World" sampler CD)

Hart: Upper and Lower Egypt was recorded on our trip to Egypt in '78,
to the great pyramids, where we played three nights.  Afterwards I
went on a little hike down the - up the Nile, or however you like;
down is up and up is down, of course - for a month, where I traveled
into the Sudan with Hamza el-Din.  Hamza's village is Kom Ombo, which
is about 600 kilometers southwest of Aswan.  I recorded from
Alexandria, which is the Mediterranean coast, down to the Sudan.  So
on this record is music of the Bedouins, the tribespeople - the music
of the desert - and there's music of the water, the Aswan
boatmen.there's the Nile, and there's the desert, and this is a
representation of both.

Q: Now that there are portable DAT machines, you're just going to have
to go back around the world and collect all the music again.  Hart:
Yeah, but unfortunately it's not that simple, David.  It takes me
weeks sometimes to find this music.  You just don't open up shop and
go out to the country and open your microphones.  It took a lot of
effort, and that was more than ten years ago.  I could hardly find the
music then, so we've got cultural grayout - you know, we have a lot of
music being lost.  We're left with the remnants of what the old music
was...

Q:  Are you thinking about doing more expeditions like this?

Hart: Oh, absolutely. I love going out in the field and recording.  To
me that's high adventure, that's a date with Mickey Hart, you know?  I
mean, going out in the field is my - that's my vacation.  You have do
do whatever you have to do to get the recordings, because you're at
the mercy of nature.  There's the wind, there's the cars, there's the
dogs, there's even - one time a cricket destroyed my recording...  I
was going to record the Koran.  This was when I was in Cairo, on my
way out. So we did a test run, and we found the best chanter, and we
went... Underneath the mosques there are these long places where they
clean their feet.  They're like latrines.  And they're really long,
under the whole mosque, and they usually are made of some kind of
resonant material, like tile.  We put him downstairs, because upstairs
it was too noisy, the street and everything would come in.  He started
to sing, and there was one cricket in there, and it was the loudest
thing in the world.  It went "Chirp chirp. Chirp chirp." This guy
would sing, and every time he'd stop - "Chirp chirp."  In the field
you're at the mercy of the elements, and it's a lot of fun. It's
nothing like the studio.  It's an adventure a minute, you know, and
then when you come back with it in hand, it's really a great thrill.
I usually take my kids, or Billy's kid, or Ram Rod's kid, or one of
the Grateful Dead equipment guys' children, on these runs, because
they love it, it's an adventure.  When we did the Arctic, my crew was
all under 11 years old.  I had three of them, and the oldest was 11 -
Creek, my stepson, was 11.  See, Billy's boy was 10, and Ram Rod's boy
was nine.  Each one of them has their own job, and they bring back the
goods.  It's a good family adventure for me.

  Musics that you hear on [Rykodisc] are, hopefully, the finest
recordings that you can possibly get of it at the time.  Remember,
when I recorded 15 years ago or 10 years ago, there was no digital
technology.  But it's the best analog you can find, and that music
isn't available any more.  If I were to go back there, I would have to
go find those same Bedouin tribesmen.  They're never in the same place
for more than two or three weeks.  I mean, this is the desert, David.
It's just not that simple.  You have to go there, you have to make
friends, you have to hang out, you have to know what you're doing. I
know all the beats, or the grooves, or the customs of the people when
I go there, I study it before I go there.  And then we usually have a
big party - I'll get lamb or something, or a cow, we'll slaughter it,
we'll have a party and we'll play and I'll record.  It's not a real
recording session as much as - this music isn't like that.  This music
is music of celebration and trance, and of transformation, and that's
what all of this music has in common.  It has transformational aspects
to it.

 THE BEAST AND BIG HAIR

Hart: The Beast is just the drums.  The center drum is "home plate."
Those are the eyes of the beast, those three big drums.  It's a
three-eyed beast, you have to understand.  The Big Noise comes from
Big Hair.

Q:  And it's called Big Hair because -

Hart: - it makes your Big Hair stand up.  Because it is Big Hair.
That's why it's called Big Hair.  The heart of it is a Dynacord [one
for each drummer].  It's a computer; that's where I store the samples.
The samples come from the locker of all the percussion instruments
Billy and I have collected over the years.  We put the sounds in there
and we manipulate them through processing and MIDI, in real time.  I
can call it up instantaneously, and they don't get broken, and - I
mean, to carry my collection around it takes a whole semi just by
itself.  I have a [mixing] board behind me that all this comes
through.  Bob Bralove brings it up through the board, and I have
pedals where my pads are on the drum riser that introduce into the
signal what I want.  And then, of course, I have my MIDI selector up
there; it is preprogrammed to change all of the devices.  That's what
MIDI is all about.  So when I go to 22, I get quattro delays. When I
go to 24, I get infinite reverb and panned delays. I've already
programmed what I want, so I have many of those settings, so I can
choose any setting any night that I want.

Q: So when people see you turn to the side there, and you're hitting
that rack of pads...

Hart: Each pad is a sound, and I have [64] sounds on each pad because
of the computer, because I can swtch between banks.  I have eight
banks [of eight sounds each].

Q:  What happens then when you're playing on the Beam or some of the things on the Beast and stuff -
Hart:  The Beam is real-time.

Q:  It doesn't get signal processed?

Hart: Oh, yes, it does.  The Beam definitely gets signal processing.
It gets signal processing, but the Beast doesn't, except the octave
divider.  Like Healy will dump home plate sometimes down an octave.

Q:  That's where that big roaring bass note comes from...

Hart: That's right, that's an octave divider.  That takes what I have
as my low octave and takes it down another octave.

Q: So there's a lot of interactive stuff going on here.  You're
controlling your stuff, and Bralove's working - are you giving him
instructions?

Hart: No, when it goes on, instructions are pretty well inaudible.

Q:  Bralove's jammin' too?
Hart:  HeUs jammin'.

Q: How much do you and Billy plan ahead on these things?

Hart: Well, what we do is, usually, before the second set we'll go up
there and determine what we want to do - approximately.  We'll say
it's "Marching to hell" or something, "Rhythm Devils at 60,000 feet,"
or "Peace in the Middle East" - we'll have some kind of a theme that
we'll say.  And then we'll try to think of what sound would be
appropriate, like "Drums over India" or something.  Any thought that
comes into our mind, you know.  And then we try to get some disk that
in some way has a relationship to it, or at least we might think it
does, you know?  It doesn't have to really relate to it in any way
except there's sort of a unifying thought, even if it doesn't sound
anything like it....  We prearrange it, and then usually we donUt
follow that [laughs].  It's just a starting point, you know, and the
thing is that it's carved in stone and we can change it at any moment.

Q:  Best of both worlds.
Hart:  It's Grateful Dead.

 DYNAMICS

Hart: We blew out half of the PA in Laguna Seca, a 300-amp circuit, at
66 thousand watts!  We took one half of the PA down at Laguna Seca.
[Grateful Dead sound man Dan] Healy says that's a world record.
That's the most current ever drawn for one percussive note.

Q: What did you hit to do it?

Hart: Well, I laid into the Beast at the same time as he dumped the
octave, and so we took the whole mains out.  We took the whole right
side of the PA out - it went out for about a minute until it regained
its composure.

Q: Could you hear it from where you were?

Hart: No. I was told about it afterwards.  'Cause we'd never taken
down a main like that.  The PA's never gone off like that.  Especially
for one note. He presented me with a plaque with a golden - he took
the circuit breaker and gold plated it.  And I have a little plaque
that says "To Mickey Hart, for the most current ever drawn on one
percussive note," and the date, and the amps and the watts.

 WHAT GRATEFUL DEAD RECORD?

Q:  What's going on with the Grateful Dead record?
Hart:  Grateful Dead record? What do you mean, Grateful Dead record?

Q:  Well, there are rumors afoot. . .
Hart:  Rumors?

Q:  Various stories abound. . .
Hart:  Stor

Q: Is it being worked on?

Hart: Of course it's being worked on.  We work on it in mysterious
ways.  Are we in the studio right now working on it every minute, you
know, and knocking out tracks?  No.  It will happen.  It will see the
light of day.

---------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 14
Week of December 5, 1988

Part 1 26:33
Don't Ease Me In
Lost Sailor->
Saint of Circumstance  9/1/79 Holleder Memorial Stadium, Rochester NY
Mercy Mercy Mercy - Brian Melvin's Nightfood,  (Global Pacific ZK 40733, 1988)
Run for the Roses - Jerry Garcia, Run for the Roses

Part 2 23:26
Wharf Rat->
I Need a Miracle->
Bertha->
Good Lovin'  9/1/79 Holleder Memorial Stadium, Rochester NY

There wasn't time to play the whole "Wharf Rat" and still get the end
of the set in, but Garcia's last solo was so stunning I had to include
it.

According to DeadBase, the complete book of Grateful Dead Song Lists,
9/1/79 was Brent Mydland's 20th concert since breaking in with the band
on April 22 of that year. Brand new to the repertoire were the Bob
Weir-John Barlow composition "Lost Sailor," introduced in Oakland on
August 4, and its companion piece, "Saint of Circumstance," which Weir
sang in public for the first time in Glens Falls, New York, the night
before this Rochester performance.

"Mercy Mercy Mercy" is from a new Global Pacific album by Brian
Melvin's Nightfood, with the late Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Weir
on guitar and lead vocal. The song made the pop charts twice in 1967 -
as an instrumental by Cannonball Adderley and in a vocal version by the
Buckinghams. It was written by Josef Zawinul, who played keyboards with
the Adderley Quintet and later founded Weather Report, where Pastorius
became famous for his innovations on the electric bass. Weir also
appears on "Fever," sharing lead vocals with Jan Fanucci.  - DG
-----------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 15    Week of December 12, 1988

Brown-eyed Women    3/18/88    HJK
Bird Song
The Music Never Stopped
    "There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert" cheer

Drums/Space
Push Comes to Shove
Man Smart, Woman Smarter

------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 16    Week of December 19, 1988

Grateful Dead live from the Bermuda Triangle, playing in front of a
humongous sound system at Miami Jai-Alai.  Each instrument had its own
amplification system and a couple dozen speakers, and it sure did sound
fine!  During the energy crisis of the early '70s it got too expensive
to drive all that hardware around, and not long after this show the
band took a 19-month vacation from touring.  When they came back in
1976 their whole setup was a more reasonable size.

Jai-Alai is a team sport played in a huge racquetball court with one
side wall replaced by a net so the spectators can see the game without
being hit by stray jai-alai balls.  I saw the Dead play there in '78,
but I don't remember whether they left the net up or not.

The Dark Star-US Blues jam is slightly abridged; the master tape had a
break in it, plus I had to lose another couple of minutes to make it
fit into the Hour.  - D.G.


Part 1 27:07
Let It Rock  6/23/74 Miami Jai-Alai
Black Peter  6/23/74
Around & Around  6/23/74
To Lay Me Down  6/23/74

Part 2 25:29
Dark Star->
Bolero->
U S Blues  6/23/74 Miami Jai-Alai

------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 17    Week of December 26, 1988

Featuring excerpts from the Grateful Dead's second set July 26, 1987
at the Big A (Anaheim Stadium), not far from Disneyland and Leo
Fender's house.  The Dead played a set with Bob Dylan that night, and
there's a live album from that tour due out very early in 1989.

Part 1 26:28
If I had the world to give...One pane of glass...Blue suede shoes...A
ruffled dress, a necklace made of gold...all the French perfume you'd
care to smell...Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons...Bucket hanging clear to
Hell...A broken angel...Just a box of rain...I'll take a melody...Just
a plaintive little tune...Ten gold dollars...Money money, money money
money...A thousand dollars, please...A dime for a cup of coffee...
Little Ben clock...An electric guitar...Something like a bird...
Burgundy wine...Couple shots of whiskey...Couple more shots of
whiskey...Couple more shots of whiskey...Just a cup of cold coffee...
Pile of smokin' leather...A leaf of all colors...And very few rules to
guide...A land that's free for you and me...You know the one thing we
need is a left-hand monkeywrench...You know I'm ready to give
everything for anything I take...There is nothing like a Grateful Dead
concert! <applause>

Shakedown Street  7/26/87 Anaheim Stadium
Notes from the Rosetta Stone (first section)  Peter Apfelbaum and the
  Hieroglyphics Ensemble with Don Cherry, 10/14/88 Palace of Fine Arts
  Theatre, SF
China Doll  Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel
  (Mobile Fidelity MFCD 830 (orig. released 1974))

Part 2 25:59
Terrapin->
percussion  7/26/87 Anaheim Stadium
Throwing Stones  7/26/87
Not Fade Away  Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones  (1964)

Peter Apfelbaum and Hieroglyphics Ensemble was Phil Lesh's choice to open the show on New Year's Eve this year.  It's a 15-piece band from Berkeley, using some "World Beat" dance rhythms for composition and improvisation in a big-band context. I think this band should appeal equally to the dancers and the serious listeners in the Grateful Dead audience.   The following is an excerpt from an interview with Apfelbaum on the December 1988 instalment of Rex Radio, hosted by Phil Lesh.

  Lesh: [Recalling a newspaper article in which] you were extolling the virtues of Reggae and African rhythms as opposed to swing rhythms... You were saying that most jazz composers only rely on swing rhythms, and that Reggae and African are a whole new untapped resource, in a way. And to my ears you've taken those rhythms and developed them considerably - especially overlaying more than one at one time.

  Apfelbaum:  That is a product of our continuing investigation of the roots of what we call jazz. In the process of investigating that root we realized that the basis of swing and the basis of the rhythms that make up what we call jazz come from Africa - specifically, from West Africa. There've been numerous attempts in this century to combine African rhythms with American jazz. Dizzy Gillespie was somebody who did that by way of Afro-Cuban music; Ellington did it, and more recently the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra... There was an outgrowth of awareness in the sixties that contributed to the overall awareness of African music, and it became an element that is more and more used in composition. What we're doing is taking modern dance forms and using them as a basis for composition and improvisation, much in the way that Ellington did, and people of his time that were orchestrating for a large ensemble.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Grateful Dead Hour No. 19
Week of January 9, 1989

Side 1 25:15
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
In the Midnight Hour     8/22/87 Angels Camp CA (with Carlos Santana, guitar)
Iko Iko->
All Along the Watchtower 8/23/87 Angels Camp CA (with Carlos Santana, guitar)
ID by Mickey Hart

Side 2 27:06
Truckin' - Squalls, No Time (Dog Gone Records DOG 0001, 1988)
    Q: Who would you choose to play the other band members in the movie of
     the life of the Grateful Dead? - Grateful Dead Talk to Themselves
     (Arista ADP-9630, 1987)
Dear Mr. Fantasy->
Playing in the Band->
Morning Dew         8/23/87 Angels Camp CA


Santana was on the bill both days (along with David Lindley and El Rayo-X)
at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp, California, August 22
and 23, 1987, and Carlos Santana sat in on guitar for the last couple of
songs in the first sets of both shows.

Interesting reading of Truckin' by Squalls, from their recent album _No
Time_ (Dog Gone Records, P.O. Box 1742, Athens GA 30603). Thanks to nethead
Richard Baum for sending it in. _Grateful Dead Talk to Themselves_ is a
promotional disc put out to radio stations by Arista in Summer '87 to
coincide with the release of In the Dark) - DG

-------------------------------------------------------------
On this week's (January 16, 1989) GDHour No. 20, we heard excerpts
from the March, 1987 shows at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center
in Oakland, CA:

Feel Like a Stranger (3/2/87) -> 'We'll be back in a few minutes'
Fennario (3/1/87)
It's All Over Now (3/1/87)
Diamond Joe - from the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band 'Almost Acoustic' CD

Half Step ->
Promised Land (3/3/87)
Quinn the Eskimo (3/3/87)
Hell in a Bucket (3/1/87)

The 'Diamond Joe' cut was interesting to listen to on headphones.
The shows were recorded on a 2 track DAT.  This makes the recording
very clean sounding, and I'm sure there was some equalization
done to bring up the sound.  However, a two track recording makes
it almost impossible to mix - so the CD sounds like an excellent
audience tape!

---------------------------------

On this week's (January 23, 1989) GDHour No. 21, we heard excerpts
from the December 31, 1978 show at Winterland:

Samson and Delilah
Dark Star -> The Other One -> Dark Star jam

Stagger Lee
Good Lovin'
Casey Jones -> Johnny B. Goode
    Bill Graham band intros

This show at Winterland was the last show there, as it closed after this.
The band played some very nice music that night.  I would have liked to
hear the rest of the Dark Star set, but don't know if it would have fit
into the GDHour format or time slot.
---------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 22
Week of January 30, 1989

Side 1 25:14
Walkin' Blues 12/28/88 Oakland Coliseum
Bird Song 12/28/88
Jack Straw 12/28/88 Oakland Coliseum

Side 2 28:18
Mason's Children - Henry Kaiser, Alternate Versions
(SST CD 237, 1989)
Uncle John's Band->
I Need a Miracle 12/28/88 Oakland Coliseum

Mason's Children is a late-'60s-vintage song which the Grateful Dead performed
live a few times but never put out on record. This one is from a 3-inch compact
disc by Henry Kaiser, "Alternate Versions" (SST Records). It's a remix of the
version that appeared on last year's lp Those Who Know History Are Doomed to
Repeat It,  featuring keyboard overdubs by former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom
Constanten and lead vocal and a guitar solo by yours truly.   - DG

----------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour 23    February 6, 1989

Turn On Your Lovelight             12/28/88    Oakland Coliseum
New Year's Wishes
Wang Dang Doodle w/ Clarence Clemmons    12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
West L.A. Fadeaway w/Clarence Clemmons    12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
    GDHour promo by Mickey Hart

When I Paint My Masterpiece    12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
Cold Rain and Snow             12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
Cassidy                 12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
Don't Ease Me In            12/31/88    Oakland Coliseum
    New Year's Wishes

-----------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour24     February 13, 1989

New Year's Countdown ->
Sugar Magnolia ->
Touch of Grey (12/31/88) (w/ Clarence Clemmons)
    Interview with Steve Marcus of the GDTS office:
Oh the Wind and the Rain - Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band from the
        'Almost Acoustic' CD

The Wheel ->
Gimme Some Lovin' ->
All Along the Watchtower (12/31/88)
    New Year's Eve Greetings
Got to Serve Somebody        'Dylan & the Dead' release.

Suagr Magnolia was the second set opener.  The Wheel was played after Space.
All Along the Watchtower segues into Morning Dew (which we'll hear next week).
----------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 25    Week of  February 20, 1989

Side 1 26:57
Morning Dew->
Sunshine Daydream 12/31/88 Oakland Coliseum Arena
Uncle John's Band  Workingman's Dead
(Warner Bros. 1869, 1970)
Salt Lake City - Bob Weir, Heaven Help the Fool
(Arista ARCD 8165, orig. released 1978)

Side 2 28:17
Queen Jane Approximately 12/29/88 Oakland Coliseum Arena
Wharf Rat->
*Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad->
*One More Saturday Night 12/31/88 Oakland Coliseum Arena

* with Clarence Clemons, saxophone
-------------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 26    Week of  February 27, 1989

Side 1 27:47
Alabama Getaway->
Promised Land
Weir:  RWe'll be back in a moment or two.S
Tons of Steel
I Need a Miracle->
Cumberland Blues->
drums  4/19/87 Irvine Meadows

Side 2 27:39
Mississippi Halfstep->
Franklin's Tower
Ramble On Rose
Box of Rain  4/19/87 Irvine Meadows

------------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 27    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 the book Playing in
the Band.  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.
  "Little Red Rooster" has been a double slide-guitar showcase for the Dead all
through the U80s.  HereUs a recording of it by the guy who wrote it: Willie
Dixon.

Side 1 27:31
Mickey Hart talks about Pigpen 11/11/84 (1)
Big Boss Man
Bertha
Next Time You See Me
Sugar Magnolia
Casey Jones  2/23/71 Capitol Theatre, Portchester NY

Side 2 26:46
Little Red Rooster - Willie Dixon, I Am the Blues     (Mobile Fidelity MFCD 872, originally released 1970)
Mickey Hart talks about Pigpen 11/11/84 (2)
Hard to Handle
Me  & Bobby McGee
King Bee  2/24/71 Capitol Theatre, Portchester NY

------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 28    Week of  March 13, 1989

Side 1 26:58
Cold Rain & Snow;
Hell in a Bucket
Beat It On Down the Line->    Promised Land 2/12/89 Forum, Inglewood CA
Big River 2/11/89 Forum

Side 2 26:42
Estimated Prophet->
MIDI jam 2/11/89
Wharf Rat 2/10/89 Forum

The band turned their second set inside out at the Forum on February 11.
Following Estimated Prophet, which usually leads to Eyes of the World and
then into less structured realms, the drummers took a break and left guitarists
Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and keyboardist Brent Mydland to do
some exploring together with their respective computer music interfaces.  The
quartet continued through Brent's new ballad, Little Girl Lost (which is
likely be part of the new album which the band is working on), and then they
left the stage to Billy Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, who were joined by the
Moreira family (Airto, Flora Purim and their daughter, Diana) for some wild
vocals and percussion - and then the band went into Eyes of the World.

Another interesting statistic: This Big River was played without another
cowboy song attached for the first time in about ten years...   - DG
---------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 29    Week of March 20, 1989

Side 1  26:27
Looks Like Rain  7/26/87 Anaheim Stadium
Bombs Away - Bob Weir, Heaven Help the Fool    (Arista ARCD 8165 (AB 4155, 1978))
    "And now the polka, you worms - and play as you've never played before in your life!"
Mexicali Blues  5/26/73 Kezar Stadium, San Francisco
The Race is On - Reckoning        (Arista A2L 8604,1981)
Louie, Louie  5/1/88 Frost Amphitheatre, Palo Alto CA

Side 2  25:08
Truckin'->
Crazy Fingers->
Samson & Delilah  5/1/88 Frost Amphitheatre

  The Kingsmen had a big hit with "Louie, Louie" (written by Richard Berry) in
1963.  Their incomprehensible vocal performance made the record a legend among
pubescent suburban boys of the time - although no one could quote anything
specific, we were sure they were singing something deliciously dirty.
  Since then, just about everybody who has ever plugged in a guitar has taken a
crack at it. The song has been recorded thousands of times; Rhino
Records released a Best of Louie, Louie compilation (including Richard
Berry's original, the Kingsmen single and versions by the Sandpipers,
Black Flag, the Rice University Marching Owl Band (!), and others) in
1983, and Bay Area college radio station KFJC aired more than 300
versions of the song during "Maximum Louie, Louie" in August of 1983.
  The Grateful Dead introduced "Louie, Louie" in the second set at the
Hartford Civic Center April 5, 1988, with three- (or was it four-) part
harmony on the choruses and Brent Mydland singing the verses.  I heard
Richard Berry sing "Louie, Louie" a couple of years ago at the
Sweetwater in Mill Valley with a band that included Ry Cooder on
guitar.  Berry's version is slower, swingin'er, downright romantic; the
version Brent and the boys played was more like Richard Berry than the
Kingsmen.
  "Louie, Louie" only appeared a few more times in 1988 - the last one was
at Madison Square Garden on September 20 (thanks, Mal) - possibly because
the band started working on new songs of their own right after that.
  "Bombs Away" is the opening cut on Bob Weir's 1978 solo album, Heaven
Help the Fool, recorded on the heels of the Dead's Terrapin Station
with the same producer, Keith Olsen, in the same LA studio.
  That's the late Keith Godchaux playing piano on "Mexicali Blues."  He
played with the Grateful Dead from 1971 until February, 1979.  Brent
joined in April of that year - hey, it's almost his Tenth Aniversary!
  "The Race Is On" is from Reckoning, a live album of acoustic
performances recorded in September and October, 1980 at San Francisco's
Warfield Theatre and Radio City Music Hall in New York.   -DG


--------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 30    Week of March 27, 1989

Part 1  26:11
    Weir: Could I have a follow spot, please?... This gentleman
    presented me with this... pussy willow....and we're going to respond
    in kind by doing our most`requested number.
El Paso     4/28/71
Fillmore East, NYC The Rub Dark Star

Part 2  24:45
Morning Dew - Bonnie Dobson at Folk City    (Prestige/International 13057)
St. Stephen->     4/28/71 Fillmore East, NYC
Not Fade Away->
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad->
Not Fade Away

--------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 31    Week of April 3, 1989

Part 1  25:34
Ripple     4/28/71 Fillmore East, NYC
Cumberland Blues
Morning Dew
Me & My Uncle

Part 2  24:44
Mama Tried - Merle Haggard    The Best of the Best of Merle Haggard (Capitol ST-11082, 1972)
Hey Pocky Way      4/30/88 Frost Amphitheatre, Palo Alto CA
China Cat Sunflower->
I Know You Rider->
One More Saturday Night

The guitars are slightly out of tune as the band begins "Ripple," but
by the time Jerry Garcia starts singing both he and Bob Weir have
adjusted their instruments, and although their tuning remains a little
tentative throughout the song the performance is a warm one.  The
definitive recording of this song can be found on the GD's 1971 studio
album American Beauty.

Merle Haggard first achieved heavy name recognition among the rock
generation with his jingo anthem "Okie from Muskogee" ("...'n we don't
take our trips on ell-ess-dee...").  The song drew at least two
responses from Bay Area musicians: Nick Gravenites's "I'll Fix Your
Flat Tire, Merle" and the Youngbloods' parody "Hippie from Olema."

My attitude toward Haggard changed when I became a fan of country music. Asleep
at the Wheel and Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen brought Nashville,
Bakersfield, Bluegrass, Louis Jordan, Texas swing and bebop to the party, and
all of a sudden us hippies had some culture in common with the author of "Okie"
and "The Fightin' Side of Me."  Haggard's tributes to Bob Wills and His Texas
Playboys are a real treat.

According to DeadBase, the Bob Weir started performing "Mama Tried" in
June of 1969 at a San Francisco gig billed as "Bobby Ace and the Cards
from the Bottom."  Other Weir choices from that period include Buck
Owens' "Tiger by the Tail," a couple of Everly Brothers numbers, and
the Beatles' "I've Just Seen a Face."  The book doesn't mention
whether Garcia played six-string or pedal steel.  Acoustic sets became
pretty frequent for the next couple of years, and the country/cowboy
material has remained in the band's repertoire ever since.

"Hey Pocky Way" is a Neville Brothers tune, with Brent Mydland singing
lead.  "China Cat Sunflower->I Know You Rider->One More Saturday
Night" was the encore, believe it or not, of the Dead's performance at
the Frost Amphitheatre on April 30, 1988.  I think Weir had to change
guitars in the last song of the second set, so the show may have
seemed incomplete to the band. Anyway, they came back with this
extraordinary capper and made sure everybody got off before they left
the stage.  - DG
---------------------------------------------------------

GDHour #32 - April 10, 1989

Part 1
Let It Grow                (11/4/77)
    Interview with Jerry, Bob, Mickey, Huey Lewis, Bill Graham and
    the organizer of the In Concert Against AIDS Benefit in May, 1989.
Swing Low Sweet Chariot    'Almost Acoustic' (Jerry Garcia band)

Part 2
Turn On Your Lovelight    Bobby Blue Bland
Slow Train            Dylan & The Dead
Phil Lesh intro: the Jones Gang     (11/4/77)
Samson and Delilah ->         (11/4/77)
Cold Rain and Snow
----------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour    #33     April 17, 1989

Part 1
Estimated Prophet        (3/18/77)
Dancin' in the Streets            GD (single with horns mix)
Easy to Slip                     'Heaven Help the Fool'
Tennessee Jed            (2/26/77)

Part 2
    Garcia interview on composing and writing 'Terrapin'
    Hunter about the inspiration for 'Terrapin'
Terrapin ->             (3/18/77)
At a Siding ->
Drums intro
Garcia interview
excerpt from 'Terrapin Station' album
Deal                (2/26/77)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 34        Week of April 24, 1989

Part 1  25:25
All New Minglewood Blues     3/18/77    Winterland
Not Fade Away         3/18/77

Part 2  24:44
Burger:  Your honor, we've heard the testimony of this witness that the first
  part of this tape has been edited or tampered with.
Mason:  All this working on the tape, this cutting and splicing, must have
  been important.
Witness:  I should think you'd be grateful.
Burger:  Well, we're not grateful, mister.  I should like this tape entered in
  evidence and marked for the people exhibit D.  Let's listen to it again,
  shall we?  Lieutenant, turn it up with the volume high.
St Stephen->            3/18/77
Around and Around
Ivory Wheels/Rosewood Track->        Robert Hunter, Jack O'Roses
Jack O'Roses->
Terrapin Station

-------------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 35    Week of May 1, 1989

Part 1  23:54
Dupree's Diamond Blues
Jack Straw             10/21/88    Reunion Arena, Dallas
Tons of Steel            In the Dark (Arista ARCD 8452, 1987)
Happy birthday, Brentski!->    10/21/88    Reunion Arena, Dallas
Wang Dang Doodle

Part 2  26:45
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue    Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia CK 9128,1965)
All Along the Watchtower->    10/21/88    Reunion Arena, Dallas
Stella Blue->
Sugar Magnolia


-------------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No.  36    Week of May 8, 1989

Part 1  25:29
    Crowd:  WE WANT PHIL!!!
    Weir: Phil says no prisoners.
Greatest Story Ever Told->
Devil with a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly
    Channel n News
Late for Supper->         Jerry Garcia, Garcia
Spidergawd->
Eep Hour
Gomorrah            Cats Under the Stars

Part 2  26:23
China Cat Sunflower->    9/9/87    Providence RI
I Know You Rider
Playing in the Band->    9/9/87    Providence RI
China Doll
-----------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 37    Week of May 15, 1989

The creators of the Grateful Dead's 1987 video So Far talk to the press.
And for you tape collectors: one of the all-time great performances of
"Sugaree," plus the first electric "Ripple" since 1971.

Part 1  22:08
    Jerry Garcia, Len Dell'Amico and Bob Weir talk about
     So Far and In the Dark  NYC 9/14/87
Queen Jane, Approximately - Dylan & the Dead (Columbia 45056, 1988)

Part 2  25:58
Sugaree - 3/18/77 Winterland
    Claire: I want to get married again.
    Grant: You hear that?
    Claire: Come on, is that so much to ask? To show me how much you love me?
    Grant: No, no, it's perfectly easy.  We'll just go out and
    find a nice dead minister... a dead band - maybe the Grateful Dead.
    Should be a night to remember.

One More Saturday Night
Ripple - 9/3/88 Capitol Center, Landover MD

  In 1987 the Grateful Dead released their most successful album ever, In the Dark, and made news with two best-selling home videotapes: The Making of the "Touch of Grey" Video [directed by Justin Kreutzmann] and So Far.
 So Far, directed by Jerry Garcia and Len Dell'Amico, is 55 minutes of
nonstop Grateful Dead, bouncing back and forth between a studio
session and the 1985 New Year's Eve show at the Oakland Coliseum. The
performance includes Uncle John's Band, Playing in the Band, Lady with
a Fan, Space, Rhythm Devils, Throwing Stones and Not Fade Away.  Jerry
and Len spent more than a year building a visual feast to match the
soundtrack, using different images and techniques for different
passages.  They covered a lot of technological ground, from optical to
electronic to computer animation, using newsreel film, tarot cards,
microscopic and telescopic photography, religious images, human faces
- all kinds of stuff, interleaved with shots of the musicians playing
music.  It's not only a fabulously entertaining piece of video, it's
also pretty good music to watch with your eyes closed.
 The following is from a press conference held in New York City September 14, 1987.

 Dell'Amico: We did a live show at Oakland Coliseum, and the live
pieces were taken from that show.  Then we shot four days at Marin
Vets - which is where the album basics were recorded - without an
audience, and then intercut them.

 Garcia: The gamble was, could we go into a place with no audience
and, just relating to ourselves, could we... find some energy there.
And we had hits and misses.  Some of it worked out pretty good, some
of it was interesting - but it's definitely a different kind of
energy.  A lot of this stuff is... mad luck. There's a cut in there
that goes from "Playing in the Band" - studio version, say - to
"Playing in the Band" live - that just happened to be just about
identical tempo. That kind of stuff is luck - you can't really
rehearse it. There's no way for us to have... We didn't plan
continuity from one situation to another, but every once in a while
something like that works.


 *  *  *

 Garcia: The way this developed was not a result of planning, so
much....We started off with all kinds of plans. We had real specific
things we were going to do - something scripted, something very tight
and formal.  That sort of dissolved.  After we did the shoot at Marin
Vets the whole contour of it started to look different, so we started
to look for a different methodology to be able to do what it seemed to
call for.

 Q: What's Marin Vets?

 Garcia: It's a nice, tasty concert hall in Marin County, about five
minutes from where we all live... An 1800-2000 seater, small but very
nicely articulated so it really sounds beautiful.  It really has a
good, crisp recording sound.

 Q: Is it a theater in the round?  I noticed you were all facing each
other.

 Garcia: No.  We just set up that way... 'cause we were addressing
ourselves rather than addressing an audience.

 Q: Why isn't "Touch of Grey" on [So Far]?

 Garcia: We didn't have a workable arrangement of it, really.  We tried it...

 Q: With the exception of "Touch of Grey," which has a fade ending,
all the songs [on In the Dark] are set up the same way they would be
live. Was that a conscious effort to get the songs out on an album the
way they are live?

 Garcia: Not intentionally. Sometimes we let 'em run out. We didn't
really plan the ends. [giggle]

 Weir: We never do.

 Garcia: Y'know, it's us, man! [laughter] ... Some of them sort of
trail off, some of them build.  They tended to be as idiosyncratic as
they are at live shows. The performances were quite different from
each other.


 *  *  *

 Dell'Amico: You have to find the most talented people, and the place
where the machines are, and then set 'em loose.  The main thing is the
"setting 'em loose" part: telling them that you want them to help you
rather than just do what you tell them to do.  If you give them time
to play, they can come up with great stuff.

 Q: Considering most of the concerts go three, four hours, why only 55
minutes?  Why not an hour and a half? ...two hours?  ...three hours?

 Garcia: It really has to do with what we get.  If you record five
shows and get maybe an hour's worth of good stuff, say...in this case
it's something like that, although the ratio is probably steeper.  It
just really is the stuff that works.

 For me, it's a process of recognition. You put stuff together: "These
two tunes sorta go together, but it needs something here to make this
passage work..."  You assemble it, and it starts to look like
something... We constructed the shape, kind of the way they do
animated films: we constructed the shape that was the soundtrack, and
then used that as the basic template for everything else: all the
visuals, the live action stuff, the cutaways, and the rest...

 The interesting thing about it, methodology-wise, was that we
approached a video editing facility as though it were a multitrack
audio facility, so we had many levels of images to choose from at any
given moment, which is kind of an unusual way to work in video.  There
were never decisions up until the last edit about what image actually
goes where at what moment.  That stuff came together toward the end;
really, we were assembling layers of possibilities, all on individual
machines.

 Dell'Amico: Like if you had a track with a kick drum and a track with
a snare drum and a track with a guitar, you could have tracks which
have different types of visuals and decide later how to mix them.

 Garcia: There is no multitrack video; video does not exist in that
realm, so it was a matter of kluging a version of that that would
deliver that notion.

 Dell'Amico:  - using a lot of machines.

 *  *  *

 Q: Where did you get the vintage film clips? I think we saw Adolf
Hitler in there, the KKK...

 Garcia: Trotsky... Lenin...

 Dell'Amico: We started by coming up with image lists of what we
wanted to stick in there. Then we'd come up with places to get it.
Associate producer Ann Uzdavinis went out and found all this stuff,
and editor Veronica Loza put it together.  It comes from the National
Archives... all kinds of archival places. You buy it and use it.

 A great deal of work went into editing all the cutaway images.  First
we shot it, and then it took a year, year and a half to substitute
visuals: get 'em, try 'em, throw them away, get new ones, work out the
special effects.

 Q: Was it a conscious effect to get trails on a video?

 Garcia: Yeah.  Sure.

 Dell'Amico: What do you mean by trails?  [laughter]

 Garcia: You know, man - trails.

 Dell'Amico: Oh, that !  That's an easy effect.  Just so you know,
that's called "image strobe decay" in video.  You just push a button
and you got it.

 Garcia: What we're doing is sort of painting along with the music.
You see what you'll see in it, y'know.

 Q: Has this wave of success taken you by surprise... the album going
platinum so quick?

 Weir: Not me. [laughter]

 Garcia: Fifteen years ago it would have taken us by surprise, but we
sort of crept up on it, really.

 Weir: We've been building up to it.  We knew we had good songs to
record for the last few years, and we finally got around to recording
them...

 Q: Has success spoiled the Dead?

 Garcia & Weir: Yeah. [laughter]

 Q: How so?

 Weir: He looks pretty rotten to me.  Doesn't he to you?

 Q: So how has it changed you?

 Weir: I was noticing the other night, for instance, that when I'm
going through pistachios, the hard-to-open ones - I don't bother with
them any more. [laughter] Who's got time?


 *  *  *

 Q:  What was it like doing the mega-gigs with Dylan?
 Garcia:  It was fun.  Yeah.
 Q:  Think he enjoyed it?
 Garcia: Yeah, he did enjoy it.  It's tough to get it out of him, but
he did enjoy it.

 Q:  Why didn't he join in on "Touch of Grey"?
 Weir:  Sometimes he did.  Depended on how it was going.
 Q:  Did it take more rehearsal than usual?
 Garcia:  [laughs]
 Weir:  We rehearsed a lot of stuff...
 Garcia: And when we went on the road we didn't have the slightest
idea what we were going to do.

-----------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 38    Week of May 22, 1989

Part 1  23:11
The Music Never Stopped     9/12/88    Spectrum, Philadelphia
jam->
The Other One            9/12/88

Part 2  26:28
 Receptionist:  I'm sorry, but I can't keep Dr. Garcia waiting all afternoon.
 Erica:  Well, if you will just give us a little more time, I'm sure that Mr.
 Hunter will be here any minute.
 Receptionist:  I'm afraid I can't keep juggling Dr. Garcia's schedule.

Man Smart, Woman Smarter->
Eyes of the World        9/12/88
Good Lovin'            9/12/88

-------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour     No. 39    Week of May 29, 1989

Part 1  28:08
Me & My Uncle->     5/7/89 Frost
Mexicali Blues
Rain and Snow     Pentangle, Reflection
He's Gone->
snakey jam         5/7/89 Frost
Spoonful        Howlin' Wolf

Part 2  24:48
The Other One->     5/7/89 Frost
Black Peter->
Love Light

---------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour    #40    Week of June 5, 1989

Part 1  23:35
They Love Each Other      5/6/89    Frost
The Race Is On
West LA Fadeaway
Hey Pocky Way

Part 2  26:38
Wharf Rat->          5/6/89    Frost
Around & Around->
Not Fade Away
Ripple     Chris Hillman    Morning Sky  (Sugar Hill SH-3729, 1982)
------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 41    Week of June 12, 1989

Featuring an interview with Famous Deadhead David Crosby

Part 1  25:26
Almost Cut My Hair    Crosby     12/31/86    HJK, Oakland
The Wall Song    Crosby & Nash    11/11/71    (studio rough)
  with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann

Part 2  25:16
Bird Song                2/11/89    Forum, Inglewood CA
Eight Miles High    Byrds, Fifth Dimension (Columbia CS 9349, 1966)
U.S. Blues             12/31/86    Henry J. Kaiser, Oakland


  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.  In the '60s, rock and roll wasn't just music, it
was the bulletin board and the grapevine of a generation, and Crosby,
Stills and Nash 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.
  Crosby recently finished a tour featuring music from his solo album
Oh Yes I Can [A&M 5232, 1989].  He came to the Truth and Fun studios
for this interview the night before his show at the Fillmore Auditorium
last month.  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!"  -- David Gans

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.

-------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 42    Week of June 19, 1989

Part 1  26:30
Brown-Eyed Women
Box of Rain
Don't Ease Me In
Beat It On Down the Line
Weir dedicates it to Bill Graham:
Sugar Magnolia 12/31/72 Winterland, San Francisco


Part 2  25:15
Truckin' 12/31/72 Winterland, San Francisco

-------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 43    Week of June 26, 1989

12/31/86 Henry J Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland CA

The Grateful Dead were out of circulation for the second half of 1986,
while Jerry Garcia recovered from the diabetic coma that felled him in
July.  The band re-emerged in December with three shows at the Oakland
Coliseum and a four-show New Year's Eve run at HJK. All of these shows
had a very affectionate, "So glad you made it" feel to them, and stuff
like the last verse of Candyman took on a little extra meaning: Hand me
my old git-tar/Pass the whiskey 'round/Won't you tell everybody you
meet/That the candyman's in town.

Part 1  25:03
Candyman;
Desolation Row  12/31/86
U S Blues  12/31/86

Part 2  25:43
Tiger Rose - Robert Hunter, Tiger Rose
  Rykodisc RCD 10115, 1989 (also available on cassette).  Original
  version released 1975.  Vocals recut 1988; digital remix by Tom Flye at
  Fantasy Studios, Berkeley.
Terrapin  12/31/86
Gimme Some Lovin';
When Push Comes to Shove  12/31/86

-------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 44    Week of July 3, 1989

Part 1 25:51
Phil Lesh interview pt 1
MIDI jam  GD 5/6/89 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford CA
Phil Lesh interview pt 2
Bird Song  GD 2/11/89 Forum, Inglewood CA

Part 2 26:38
Phil Lesh interview pt 3
Box of Rain->
Cold Rain & Snow  GD 9/12/88 Spectrum, Philadelphia
Eyes of the World  GD 2/23/74 Winterland, SF

Once a month Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh comes to the Truth and Fun
studios to work on Rex Radio, a program of new and unusual music hosted
by Phil and Gary Lambert which airs on KPFA (94.1 FM) here in the San
Francisco area at 10pm on the second Monday of each month. So the last
time he was here we took a few minutes to talk about what's going on
with the Grateful Dead.  -- D.G.


Q:  How's the recording going?

Lesh:  Really well.  We're probably going to be finished with it, oh, a
couple of years from now. [laughter]

Q:  How many songs do you have?

Lesh:  Nine, this time.

Q:  Are they all going to get on the record?

Lesh:  I think so.  As far as I know, the plan is to put 'em all on.
It's not a record any more - it's a CD, and we can put as much time on
there as we can cram in, up to 73 minutes.

Q:  So maybe this time the CD will have a lot and the album will have
one less?

Lesh:  I think that's the way the record business is leaning at this
time.  They're really pushing CD hard.

Q:  If paintings had had to be split into two sides, art would be a
different picture entirely . So now we have a chance to present an
album as one continuous piece of music.

Lesh:  In that sense, each of the recorded mediums has defined the
nature of music that's recorded on it.  The 78 is good for three
minutes or so, and it was mainly used for popular music.  When the LP
came along, composers even started writing pieces that were 25 minutes
long and would fit nicely on the side of an LP.

Q:  So now all of Dave Marsh's worst dreams can come true and the
Grateful Dead can have a 70-minute song!

Lesh:  Yeah, and then maybe we can put him in the music appreciation
chair and make him listen to it!

Q:  Do you have a favorite tune out of all these?

Lesh:  Oh, yeah: "Foolish Heart."  I really like that tune; it's really
fun to play.

Q:  How's "Victim or the Crime" doing?

Lesh:  It's actually growing a face of sorts.  It actually has turned
into something that has harmony and is rather euphonious.  It almost
sounds too pretty for the subject matter.

Q:  I knew you guys would come around to that song.

Lesh:  - we would dilute the image [laughs], the message -

Q:  That's up to you.  I knew that musically it would grow on you.

Lesh:  It just doesn't sound as ugly as it used to.

Q:  About those trumpet solos Jerry's been playing -

Lesh:  What trumpet solos, Dave?

Q:  You mean you don't hear them up there?

Lesh:  Oh, that!   Now everybody - myself, Jerry, Bob, Brent, and the
drummers - has sampled sounds available to use, mostly in the space as
far as the four front-line guys are concerned.  The drummers use
sampled sounds throughout the entire show.

Q:  We've known about that with the percussion players, but it wasn't
until Jerry started playing flute and trumpet solos that the world sort
of went "Oh, listen to that - technology!"

Lesh:  Whatever, but the fact has been that guitars are not as MIDI
compatible as keyboards are, and they're just now becoming playable in
terms of the fluency of the response in the MIDI realm.  And the bass
is still lagging behind.  Of course, I have to learn the more or less
very different touch required.

Q:  So it does require a different technique.

Lesh:  Yeah.  But it will work.

Q:  I understand there are going to be some changes in the policy about camping
and other outside-the-facility stuff for the  Grateful Dead now.  Was that a
result of [events this spring in] Irvine? -

Lesh:  It's a direct result of three to five years of experience with
what's been happening in the camp areas and around the venues where we
play.  There's entrirely too much trashing going on, too much
defecation  in people's yards, that sort of thing.  This could be the
last camping summer, and it probably will be, because I don't see any
evidence of people trying to clean it up.  Is there?

Q:  I don't know.  I know that here in Oakland we've put a lot of
effort into trying to ease the fears and the tension in the [Henry J.
Kaiser Convention Center] neighborhood by having a presence there, but
I can't speak for what happens out in the midwest and what happened in
Pittsburgh, etc.

Lesh:  It seems to be happening everywhere we go, and that really
threatens us - in the sense that if it gets any worse this summer there
won't be any more camping.

Q:  So it sort of boils down to if the camping scene continued, the
Grateful Dead scene might not -

Lesh:  Well, we won't be allowed to go to places where we want to bring
in camping.  We might not be allowed to go to some of these places at
all.  And that sort of cuts down our options as to where we're going to
be able to play.

Q:  So the idea is that by prohibiting the camping and the vending
scene, then the 5000 uninvited  followers will -

Lesh:  It's a music scene.  It's not a camping scene and it's not a
vending scene.  It's not a party scene, unless you're inside - that's
the way we like to think about it.  You want to party outside?  Stay
home - we'll broadcast it.  It could be a stranglehold on our touring
activity.
  The message we're trying to send out is, Leave nothing but footprints.

Q:  And if you don't have a ticket -

Lesh:  Stay home.  We'll broadcast it.

Q:  Are you planning to broadcast all the shows?

Lesh:  No, we plan to make the decision a show at a time.  If we go to
a city and we're playing there three days, if there's too many people
without tickets the first night, we'll broadcast the second two nights.
That sort of thing.  But it's not going to be policy to broadcast
everything.

Q:  How's the family?

Lesh:  Never better. We're expecting a second child in September.

Q:  And that's the reaason there won't be a Grateful Dead tour this  fall?

Lesh:  There is going to be a Grateful Dead Tour this fall - it's in October.

Q:  So you're just taking September off to stay home with Jill -

Lesh:  Yes, and the new baby.

Q:  Do you know which flavor this baby is going to be?

Lesh:  No.  We decided not to find out.  We like the excitement and the
mystery.

Q:  Is Graham excited?

Lesh:  Yeah.  He's already designated one of his trains for the new baby.

Q:  How old is Graham?

Lesh:  He's two and a half.  They'll be two years, nine months apart.

Q:  What's the anticipated date?

Lesh:  The tenth of September.

--------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 45    July 10, 1989

Part 1  26:50
Introduction by Bill Graham;
Around & Around        2/23/74 Winterland
Here Comes Sunshine     2/23/74
Ship of Fools            2/23/74
That's What Love Will Make You Do    Jerry Garcia, Garcia  (Round Records RX102, 1974)

Part 2  25:33
Jack Straw            2/23/74
Deal                2/23/74
Promised Land->        2/23/74
Bertha->
Greatest Story Ever Told

Notes:

Saturday, February 23, 1974 at Winterland in San Francisco was the
second concert of three-day run during which the band played what
turned out to be their last public performance of Here Comes Sunshine
and introduced Ship of Fools, It Must Have Been the Roses, and the
finished version of U.S. Blues.

This concert was recorded on quarter-inch two-track tape (at 7.5 inches
per second), which was the state of the art fifteen years ago.  The
shortcomings of the tape are for the most part the fault of the stage
gear - an occasional rattle in the bass cabinets, for example.  Bill
Graham introduces the band in his inimitable style, with a dramatic
pause parting the artist's name down the middle.  The mix is a little
unstable in the first song, but it settles down after that.

These shows took place around the time Jerry Garcia was working on his
second solo album, Garcia (Round Records RX102, 1974, due out on CD
from Grateful Dead Merchandising later this year).  That's the one
which  is often referred to as 'Compliments of Garcia' because the
radio and review copies had the words 'Compliments of' stamped above
the title.  And so what if his first two albums were both named
'Garcia' - by this time Chicago was already up to Roman numeral VII!

------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 46    Week of July 17, 1989

Oakland Coliseum Arena December 27, 1987

Part 1  25:04
Jack Straw            12/27/87
Fennario;
Walkin' Blues        12/27/87
My Brother Esau             B side of "Touch of Grey"
Silvio        Bob Dylan     Down in the Groove      Columbia 40957, 1988

Part 2  26:07
Ramble On Rose        12/27/87
Uncle John's Band->        12/27/87
Estimated Prophet


  Bob Dylan picked up a notebook of Robert Hunter's lyrics at the Grateful
Dead's studio.  He set "Silvio" and "Ugliest Girl in the World" to music and
included them both on Down in the Groove, to Hunter's surprise and delight.
Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Brent Mydland contributed background vocals to
"Silvio."

-------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour No. 47        Week of July 24, 1989

Scarlet Begonias ->
Fire on the Mountain     3/18/77        Winterland
St Stephen->
Mason's Children        2/2/70        St Louis
Next Time You See Me    12/12/69        LA

Comes a Time
One More Sat Night
Casey Jones            10/19/71        Minneapolis
--------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour #48    Broadcast : 7/31/89

Uncle John's Band ->        12/12/69    Thelma Theater L.A.
He was a Friend of Mine
Alligator ->            12/12/69    Thelma Theater L.A.
Drums ->
We Bid You Goodnight ->
Alligator ->
Caution

--------------------------------------------------------
Grateful Dead Hour #49    Broadcast : 8/7/89

5/17/74            P.N.E Coliseum
Vancouver, B.C.

7/19/74            Selland Arena
Fresno, Ca

Money Money            5/17/74     P.N.E Coliseum
Chinacat Sunflower ->    5/17/74     P.N.E Coliseum
I Know You Rider
WRS (Prelude) ->        7/19/74    Selland Arena
WRS(Part One) ->
Let It Grow



----------------------------------------
GDhour 50 (August 14, 1989)

Feel Like a Stranger     Rochester, NY, 4/15/83
He's Gone >
Little Star >
Jam > intro to drums
Baby Blue (encore)

The Wheel         Garcia's first solo album
Not Fade Away >     Rochester, NY, 4/15/83
Going Down the Road Feeling Bad >
Around and Around >
Johnny B. Goode

----------------------------------------