#donna godchaux

[longliverockback]

Grateful Dead Terrapin Station 1977 Arista ————————————————— Tracks: 1. Estimated Prophet 2. Dancing in the Streets 3. Passenger 4. Samson and Delilah 5. Sunrise 6. Terrapin Station —————————————————

Jerry García

Donna Godchaux

Keith Godchaux

Mickey Hart

Bill Kreutzmann

Phil Lesh

Bob Weir

* Long Live Rock Archive

[spilladabalia]

Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street

[krispyweiss]

Demo Review: Grateful Dead - “Wave that Flag”

On Feb. 9, 1973, Jerry Garcia made an instructional audio recording of “Wave that Flag” so he could teach the song to his Grateful Dead bandmates.

The solo demo of the song that would eventually become “U.S. Blues” is out to announce the forthcoming From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). It finds Garcia at home, on acoustic and electric guitars and percussion, singing mostly complete - but slightly varied - lyrics to the short-lived member of the Dead’s live repertoire.

The recording reveals Garcia pretty much knew what he wanted his collaborators to do with the song. That’s particularly strange, given the many iterations it went through as it morphed from “Wave that Flag” into “U.S. Blues.” As such, it’s a super-cool peek behind the curtain and a demo that checks all boxes as it’s a good listen to boot.

Out June 21, Mars Hotel 50 includes a remaster of the original LP, the Dead’s previously unreleased May 12, 1974, concert in Nevada and a demo of “China Doll” to go with “Wave that Flag.”

Grade card: Grateful Dead - “Wave that Flag” (Demo) - A

3/27/24

[mrgratefuldean]

[rgray34]

9/20/07 Sweetwater

[imlikebubbles]

[borntomecassidy78]

I was looking for a good picture of Donna Jean, but please look at Phil. His face, his shirt, perfect.

[the-birth-of-art]

A day late, and I’ll be damned if I’m even short a dollar, but here’s Ms. Donna Jean, circa 1973, who you know from such hit songs as Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds”, Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman”, and the Grateful Dead’s “Sunrise”. Happy birthday Ms. Donna Jean. You rule.

[longliverockback]

Grateful Dead Europe ′72 1972 Warner Brothers ————————————————— Tracks LP One: 1. Cumberland Blues 2. He’s Gone 3. One More Saturday Night 4. Jack Straw 5. You Win Again 6. China Cat Sunflower 7. I Know You Rider

Tracks LP Two: 1. Brown-Eyed Woman 2. Hurts Me Too 3. Ramble on Rose 4. Sugar Magnolia 5. Mr. Charlie 6. Tennessee Jed

Tracks LP Three: 1. Truckin’ 2. Epilogue 3. Prelude 4. Morning Dew —————————————————

Jerry García

Donna Godchaux

Keith Godchaux

Bill Kreutzmann

Phil Lesh

Ronald Charles McKernan “Pigpen”

Bob Weir

* Long Live Rock Archive

[1264doghouse]

Maria Muldaur, Donna Godchaux & Jerry Garcia, Capitol Theater 1978

[lithium-91]

~~~a tale of Baby Lithium, many years ago~~~

12 yo female-presenting me: -very excited to be wearing my new grateful dead tee-

older guy who thinks he’s found a Fake Fan: “oh cool shirt, what’s your favorite Dead album?”

me: “i dunno, i don’t really listen to the albums….”

him: -puffs himself up, gets ready to be very smug-

me: “…. because i usually just listen to dicks picks, the live recordings are way better. my favorite is probably volume 18 because i love donna godchaux, what about you?”

him: “oh….. that’s…. cool… i have to go”

the best part is i had No Idea what was really going on, i was just having an honest conversation. didn’t realize till much later how badly i owned that guy.

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share

Given all the difficulty Phil Lesh had when trying to teach “Unbroken Chain” to his bandmates, it’s no surprise the Grateful Dead ignored the song for more than two decades before finally playing it live in 1995.

Fans were ecstatic when the song finally made it to the stage. But, truth be told, the Dead had as hard a time with the “Unbroken Chain” in ’95 as they did in 1973.

The group began working on what was known as “Phil’s Song” during sessions for Wake of the Flood. As outtakes released on the digital-only Angel’s Share edition of that LP make clear, Lesh stumped his comrades with the song’s complexity, causing Jerry Garcia to complain he wasn’t having a good time.

“It’s not supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be right,” an exasperated Lesh tells the guitarist.

“It turns around,” Lesh had said to the band earlier. “I’m telling you, it turns around so that what was the offbeat is now the one.”

Surrounded by multiple takes of the songs that would make up Wake of the Flood - “Unbroken Chain” was held for From the Mars Hotel - “Phil’s Song” is a highlight. Other insightful gems include the band, with sax player Martin Fierro in tow, poring over the sonic blueprints to construct Keith Godchaux’s “Let Me Sing Your Blues Away” from scratch and the stunningly delicate and intricate ensemble playing across four stabs at “Weather Report Suite” and three earlier takes dubbed “I Am the Rain.”

As with the previously released Angel’s Share editions of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, the consecutive iterations of album tracks including ‘Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” “Stella Blue,” “Eyes of the World” and “Pistol Shot (China Doll)” can grow tedious; mercifully, “Row Jimmy” appears but once.

Donna Jean Godchaux must’ve added her parts toward the end of the recording process as she is a non-factor on this bonus LP, which previews the 50th-anniversary edition of Wake, slated for Sept. 29. Instead, listeners are treated to tentative vocal performances as the band works out the music, paired with chatter, false starts, aborted takes and related ephemera. This makes Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share a fascinating one- or two-time listen to the Grateful Dead in raw form. But it’s not something for regular spinning.

Grade card: Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share - B

9/5/23

[mrgratefuldean]

[zencowpoke]

grateful dead-gaelic park, bronx, NY., august 26, 1971.

there is nothing not to like about the dead in the summer of 1971. the band was absolutely raging, as evidenced in the high voltage shows at the hollywood palladium, chicago’s auditorium theatre (featured on dick’s vol. 35), and the yale bowl—all of which resurfaced when donna godchaux discovered the original reels on a houseboat that was owned by keith’s parents.

1971 is also the year when bootleg recordings begin to sprout up like weeds, and grateful dead bootleg LPs were selling like goddamn hot cakes. outside of gaelic park a number of freaks were peddling their pirated analog wares and the dead’s manager, sam cutler, had other ideas. the grateful dead hated busting people, but they were fed up with this growing scene. cutler and a posse of security guards descended on the LP slinging hippies and informed them that garcia told them personally, “we want you guys to go outside and liberate those bootlegs.” and this is exactly what happened on this evening in the bronx, though word is that they would return many before the night was over.

in addition to discouraging  bootleg sales, the dead were also cracking down on the tapers. one such taper who consistently eluded cutler and head roadie big steve parish, was marty weinberg. marty didn’t get caught, he was too crafty for that. the bronx native was in front of the stage on this august night, holding his microphone level to his chest, a Uher 4000L portable slung over his shoulder. marty had been taping the dead since their central park gig back in ’68. since then, he’d accumulated hours and hours of grateful dead music, taped in very high fidelity. marty’s field tape from this night is first rate and linked at the header of this post for your aural consumption.

the gaelic park show is notable for mckernan's superlative first set performance, highlighted by his recitation of empty pages—one of only two versions in circulation. this would be pig's last gig until december '71, and he rocks it throughout. big boss man and mr. charlie are both impeccable. hard to handle is a barnburner and certainly on par with 8/6 or 4/29; unfortunately, it would be the last time pigpen would sing the otis redding number with the dead. the remainder of the set is an exact balance of songs led by garcia and weir, including a ripping bertha, a solid sugar magnolia, an early rendition of loser with the soon-to be-dropped ‘sweet suzie’ line, and a top-notch sugaree, featuring impassioned vocals by jerome.

set two opens with me & my uncle and tonight's take is absolutely brimming with energy. from here, we get a succinct 10-minute china cat > know you rider with some bright and wily lead bass from phil. jerry's vox kicks out and bobby takes his customary northbound train verse, an anomaly that i believe only occurred once during garcia's tenure with the band. following workman-like versions of deal and cumberland blues, the quintet rolls out a 25-minute truckin' > other one that features some especially potent guitar playing from weir. this other one jam is classic '71, slashing and building to towering freaky heights. three quick tunes, including a tight uncle john's band, gets us ready for another fabulous jam sequence that begins with st. stephen, and then flows—with great alacrity—into a tasty not fade away > goin' down the road > not fade away sandwich with plenty of zesty riffs. after a lengthy break, the boys return to the bandstand and send the crowd home with a rocking johnny b. goode.

this is the last show the dead played featuring the original five members and they put their foot on the gas throughtout, delivering a shitkicker of a performance. the following week, carman moore wrote about the event in his village voice 'new time' column. moore referred to the band's output as "good music making," and the structure of the concert as "...a general crescendo, light at the beginning and heavy-groovy at the end—not a shooting star, call-the-law finale, just a heightened physical-emotional climate...the goods delivered as promised...sort of like good preaching in a church known to be a happy place." in other words, an ideal spot to shake your bones on a late-august new york night.  

[adjst]

From the Mars Hotel (1974) album cover art was created by Kelley/Mouse. The front depicts an actual San Francisco building, juxtaposed in an extraterrestrial landscape. The real Mars Hotel was a derelict flophouse, at 192 Fourth Street, that had been the temporary residence of Jack Kerouac. It was demolished during the Yerba Buena redevelopment and is now the site of the Moscone West Exhibition Hall.

The working title for the album was "Ugly Roomers". Kreutzmann said it was "a self-deprecating dig at ourselves, but we changed it to 'rumors' out of respect to the boarders at the hotel." After another title change to From the Mars Hotel, the punning spelling "Ugly Rumors" was retained in stylized Aztecan text on the front cover, as rotated mirror writing. The rear cover depicts the band as the "ugly roomers", in the guise of cartoon characters lounging in a room in outer space, watching television. Lesh wears a pharaonic nemes, Garcia a space helmet and Kreutzmann a galea. Weir is a space-clown marked with a "Z". Keyboardist Keith Godchaux bears a halo of lightning bolts and backing vocalist Donna Godchaux, who had recently become a mother, is depicted as a madonna. The image was created from a group photograph taken in the lounge of a hotel in the Tenderloin district.