u/South-Style-134

Hey now! 

We’ve got another listening party tonight. 

It’s been a tough couple of months for our community, but for our discussion tonight, I want to focus on what’s good. Share what’s good. What are you grateful for this week?

Start time 9:02 (after Edge of Desire lol)

John: He’s had so much positive feedback and no notes. Carl (John's brother) told John to stick to the stories about being in the band and give insight to the structure of the band. Holding to that directive, this week’s list starts with a JGB live tune. John can’t explain why Jerry had to go on these side trips with the band (and now he’s explaining it anyway). It’s a wish fulfillment like Bob’s cowboy songs. Jerry wanted Motown songs so he put together a band to do that. 

How Sweet it Is (To Be Loved By You) - 2/28/80 - Kean College, Union Twnship, NJ

John: The Grateful Dead and Dead & Co only played Samson and Delilah on Sundays. It's said to never miss a Sunday show, and this is a Sunday show, so we're playing Samson and Delilah. But we’re playing a Samson and Delilah and running into a Franklin’s Tower from the same show. 

Samson and Delilah - 10/9/76 - Oakland, CA
[Slipknot! was originally between these two but John did not include the track during the listening party]
Franklin’s Tower - 10/9/76 - Oakland, CA

John: We just heard two songs from the same show. Now it’s time for what he calls a “Grateful Dead Shortie.” It’s a Merle Haggard song. 
Reading the lyrics reminds him of texting with Bobby. 
John asks us to come with him as we remember Bobby. Weir (we’re) not done yet. 

Mama Tried - 5/8/77 - Ithaca, NY

John: This is a very rare instance of Jerry Garcia playing slide guitar. John contends Jerry could have used a liquor bottle to play slide guitar and it would have been a success. 
John thinks this is from Dick’s Picks Vol. 29 [it is]
Either way, May ‘77 is stellar listening for Grateful Dead. 

Row Jimmy - 5/19/77 - Atlanta, GA

John: This is a Dead & Co Althea. He doesn’t know when this became a marquee song for him, but he really did enjoy playing it. There’s one chord in the song that stops every guitar player from just leaning, back, closing their eyes and letting go. You have to hit the ‘A’ chord. When he started playing it, he played it how Jerry played it live, but John loves the way the album starts with a single-note chirp, so he’d start the song that way and move into the live version. [There was lots of John vocal-riffing the examples that I just can’t replicate here lol.]

Althea - 6/17/22 - Folsom Field, Boulder, CO

John: Next is a Bobby Weir led tune. John had to count in this song because there were five hits between when Bobby finished singing and they moved on to the next phrase. But John learned not to mouth the number but to visualize them instead. So he visualized Futura Bold numbers in his head to count the beats. 

Black-Throated Wind - 11/30/73 - Boston, MA 

John:  It’s often been said by fans that compared to studio albums, there’s nothing like live concert records. Though it’s not universally true. Dire Wolf from Workingman’s Dead live never matched the recording. Maybe because of the acoustic or maybe because of Jerry playing pedal steel guitar. 
-Jerry Garcia played pedal steel on “Teach Your Children.” Did you know that?- 

Dire Wolf - Workingman’s Dead - 1970

John: Going back to Oakland ‘76. It’s the 3rd or 4th song from that show in this listening party. 
Any night he had to play Slipknot!, it was always second set and John would run around in his dressing room with an unplugged guitar during set break practicing it so that we wouldn’t hate him [as if we could ever]. Once he got through it, he had such relief. If he didn’t get it, he’d have to wait a whole week to redeem himself. 

Help On The Way>Slipknot! - Franklin’s Tower - 10/9/76 - Oakland, CA 

Internet Archive to the whole show: https://archive.org/details/gd1976-10-09.sbd.unknown.249.sbeok.shnf

John: A firehole is something he invented with his friend Greg. When he was cooking on the grill at his house in Montana, overlooking the Yellowstone River, John decided to play all the “Fire on the Mountains” on Spotify and calls it going down the firehole. He highly recommends it if you’re with a certain group of people and in a “certain” frame of mind. He might to that for the anniversary of this little listening party. lol
This version is from their three-night run in Egypt. 
Keith Godcheaux is the keyboardist and is hitting some interesting R&B-type notes. 

Fire on the Mountain - 9/16/1978 - Giza, Egypt

John: He was surprised to learn GD went on tour with Bob Dylan. It was a short tour and he knows it was short because he has a vintage tour shirt. It says “Dylan and the Dead” and it had three dates. This next tune is from that tour. 
I Want You - 7/24/87 - Oakland, CA (w/Bob Dylan)

John: He’s leaving off with a song so important to him and to others. John did sing Standing on the Moon the first two or three times Dead & Co did it, and then Bobby decided he wanted to sing it, so John let him. It was just how it should be. John believes it was Jerry speaking through Bobby’s signing. John’s guitar-playing toward the end of them playing this was him communing with Jerry and Bobby. John played it a little like sax lines. He played repeated lines like a soprano sax with the idea that he was sending the lines up to the moon. 
He and Bobby were on Artemis -1/Artemis 0 to visit a guy up there named Jerry. 

Thank you for helping him move forward and he hopes he’s helped us move forward. 

Standing on the Moon - 7/3/23 - Boulder, CO