Thursday, June 10, 2010

October 12, 1968 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: The Grateful Dead--plus Jimi?

(a scan of the Wes Wilson poster [FD141] for the October 11-12-13, 1968 Avalon Ballroom show, with the Grateful Dead, Lee Michaels, Linn County and Mance Lipscomb)

In the early days of tape trading, one of the first and finest pieces of listenable early Grateful Dead was a scalding performance from the Avalon Ballroom. It initially circulated as October 13, 1968, the third night of a three night run, but subsequent research revealed it to be from Saturday, October 12, 1968. No matter. It was a classic performance of the Dead's finest early material, with the band burning rubber and Jerry Garcia playing like he was possessed.

Stories subsequently circulated over the years that Jimi Hendrix was supposed to jam with the Dead that night. Jimi Hendrix was headlining at Winterland for three nights (Thursday thru Saturday, October 10-12), so he was unquestionably in San Francisco. The most common version of the story, and the one I find most plausible, was that Hendrix was supposed to jam with the Dead in their Novato rehearsal hall on Saturday afternoon. Hendrix blew the Dead off, but then showed up at the end of the Avalon show, guitar in hand. The story says that he stood at the side of the stage, waiting to be waved on, but a dismissive Garcia refused to look at him. I find the Avalon tape all the more thrilling to imagine a disrespected Jerry blazing away in front of Hendrix, trying to show him how little need he had for him.

For various reasons, I find this story quite plausible, and this post will explore some of the interesting crosscurrents that underlie both Hendrix's presumed actions as well as Garcia's.

Ships In The Night
As time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix have become increasingly iconic figures. Invoking either of their names conjures up a host of signs and signifiers that stand for much of the 60s: Jimi or Jerry are metonymies for the music, guitars, drugs, freedom, excesses and even hairstyles of the 1960s. Yet given the penchant of both musicians to jam with any and all players, it seems remarkable that they never played together, and possibly never spoke. Thus the apparent missed opportunity of October 12, 1968 looms as a particularly poignant event. It wasn't the first time that Hendrix and Garcia were in the same place, by any means.

June 15, 1967 Opening Night Party, Straight Theater, San Francisco, CA
The newly-renovated Straight Theater (at 1702 Haight) had a private party to celebrate its forthcoming Grand Opening (which did not in fact occur for several more months). The Grateful Dead were reputed to have played at the party, and Hendrix was reputed to have dropped by. Hendrix was in town in anticipation of attending the Monterey Pop Festival on the coming weekend (Friday-Sunday June 16-18).

I have been unable to confirm the Dead's presence, although it seems likely; Hendrix's presence seems decidedly more wishful. Keep in mind that prior to Monterey Pop, almost no one would have known what he looked like or even heard him. Given his then-obscurity in the United States, its unlikely that Garcia and Hendrix met, if Jimi was even there.

June 16-18, 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey County Fairgrounds, Monterey, CA
Jimi Hendrix was definitely around the Fairgrounds all weekend, and the Grateful Dead arrived Saturday morning from Los Angeles (June 17). Hendrix hung out and jammed in various places, while the Dead played for free at the Football field of the Junior College across the way. Ironically enough, Bob Weir found himself jamming with Hendrix in a tent sponsored by an equipment company, although Weir was playing acoustic guitar at the time. However, for all the jamming going on, Hendrix seems never to have gotten over to Football field, at least when Garcia and the Dead were there.

The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix Experience both performed on Sunday night, June 18, but the 30-minute sets at the Festival and the strict running order made no provision for sitting in. However, after Hendrix's set, everyone present--certainly including Garcia--knew who Hendrix was.

June 20-25, 1967 Fillmore Auditorium and Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
The Jimi Hendrix Experience followed the Monterey Pop Festival with a six night booking at the Fillmore Auditorium, opening for the Jefferson Airplane. The Dead and every other San Francisco band were playing a variety of free concerts around Golden Gate Park and the Bay Area. The Jimi Hendrix Experience even played a free concert in the park, on June 25, 1967, but Hendrix and Garcia never played together during this week.

August 16 & 18 Max Yasgur's Farm, Bethel, NY
The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix both played Woodstock, but I doubt they crossed paths. Leaving aside the enormous size of the backstage area, the Dead were scheduled for Saturday (August 16), although they did not play until very late that night. They were probably helicoptered out on Sunday (August 17). Hendrix was the last act of the concert, originally scheduled for Sunday night, but in fact he did not play until Monday morning, August 18.

May 16, 1970 Temple University Stadium, Philadelphia, PA
The Grateful Dead were second-billed to Jimi Hendrix for this outdoor show in the relatively modest Temple University football stadium (Steve Miller Band and Cactus filled out the bill). While Hendrix was recording in New York City and would have had a relatively easy journey to Philadelphia, the Dead were on a frantic leg where they played Kirkwood, MO Thursday night (May 14), then flew to New York for two shows at the Fillmore East on Friday night (May 15) for two shows using the Fillmore East sound system and then presumably met their equipment in Philadelphia on Saturday. Given that the Dead had a concert on the beach in Fairfield, CT on Sunday night (May 17), there wouldn't have been time for any jamming, and maybe not much for hanging out.

Nonetheless, if Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix ever exchanged more than pleasantries it would have been here in Philadelphia. By 1970, however, Jimi Hendrix was perhaps the biggest rock star in the world, and Jerry Garcia was an important guy in his own right, and the backstage scene would not have been the low-key musician's hangout that it had been in Monterey. Thus I find it pretty unlikely Jimi and Jerry did more than acknowledge each other amongst a crush of people, even if their schedules converged.

Jerry Garcia, Gunslinger
Among Jerry Garcia's most admirable non-musical qualities were both his continual willingness to choose Art over Commerce and his good natured graciousness to fans and others who were babbling and tongue tied in his presence. While the Dead were an avowedly commercial enterprise, Garcia made sure that Music came first, so the Dead continued to travel a challenging musical road long after their contemporaries had cheerily lapsed into easy listening music. There were plenty of compromises of course, but at a variety of critical junctures Garcia and the Dead always chose Music: not repeating songs every night, jamming with side groups, letting people tape shows, releasing their old performances. Garcia ranks very highly amongst sixties artists for succeeding on his terms more than those of others, and Deadheads are rightly proud of him for that.

On a more immediate level, Garcia had rock star status very early, and yet he was continually generous and witty with all sorts of journalists, fans and rubes, long after he had any reason to be. While Garcia tried to keep a low profile after 1969 and was rarely seen in public, we have all heard him give interesting answers to an unprepared doofus interviewer, and everyone knows a few stories of friends who somehow got backstage (or somewhere) and met Garcia, who indulged them, however briefly, by treating them like a human being. Really, who could be a better rock star than Jerry Garcia? A fantastic musician, performing endlessly, always taking the artistic High Road while friendly to his loyal fans. Brilliant, serious and decent: what more do you need?

About 1971, Keith Richard said in a Rolling Stone interview "nobody gets to be John Lennon by accident." He meant that for all of John's gifts as a musician, thinker and talker, his formidable status as the focal point of the world's most famous rock band was not just serendipity. One thing that gets lost in inevitable (and rightful) praise of Jerry Garcia was his burning ambition and ferocious competitiveness. Personally, I see those as virtues, but they are usually left out of the Garcia picture.

Garcia practiced nonstop, played live constantly and worked with a huge variety of musicians, always playing to the best of his abilities at any given moment. Most successful musicians learn a set of hits by rote to get them through shows night after night--Garcia's whole method involved constant improvisation. Garcia was diving off the 10-meter board every night instead of just jumping off the side of the pool. Jerry not only wanted to be a great musician, he wanted to be known as a great musician and succeed as one, and he devoted his whole life to that in a profoundly single-minded way.

From 1967 to 1970, San Francisco was one of the focal points of the rock music world. The Fillmore, Fillmore West and the Avalon were the coolest places to play, San Francisco bands were hugely successful on their own terms, and the whole scene more or less created the modern rock concert as we know it today. San Francisco also stood for Art over Commerce, supposedly a place where Music reigned, in direct opposition to "Plastic LA" and business-like New York City. While that characterization of all three cities is absurdly simplistic, such notions were in the air.

One of the rituals for touring bands playing San Francisco for the first time, particularly from England, was an invitation to spend an afternoon jamming with the Grateful Dead or the Jefferson Airplane, depending on who was in town. Part of the ritual involved getting high--really high--to prove you were cool, but another part of the ritual involved jamming. Real musicians will jam at the drop of a hat, and they like nothing better than playing something difficult and proving that they can lay it down with anybody. In jazz it was called a "cutting contest," usually a couple of saxophonists trading chorus after chorus to show who was better, but the essence was that true musicians relished the challenge. Bluegrass musicians enjoyed flaunting their chops as much as their jazz compatriots, so Garcia was no stranger to implicitly competitive music making.

Paul McCartney attended an Airplane rehearsal (probably at the Geary Temple) in 1967. Eric Burdon and The Animals hung out with the Dead soon after the Monterey Pop Festival. When Jimi Hendrix played Fillmore West in February 1968, and Hendrix and Mick Taylor (from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, who were opening the show) went off to jam with the Airplane. When Traffic came to San Francisco in March of 1968, they were met and dosed by representatives of the Dead at SFO Airport and spent the weekend jamming with the Dead. In January 1969, Fleetwood Mac spent an afternoon trading licks with the Dead.

Although these meetings took place offstage, they loomed large to musicians, and those initial contacts were made manifest in later years. Jack Casady was invited onstage to jam with Jimi Hendrix on occasion, and was even apparently offered a role in the Experience (presumably Noel Redding would have switched to guitar); Fleetwood Mac spent a memorable off-night in New York City at the Fillmore East jamming with the Dead (on February 11, 1970); Jerry Garcia sat in with Traffic at Giants Stadium in 1994. Garcia was a largely friendly guy, but he was as much of a gunslinger as any New York jazz saxophonist. If he invited you to jam, you were supposed to bring your guitar and your best licks if you were a Serious Guy and not just a Pop Star.

What's The Story?
I had heard the Hendrix/Avalon story in the past, but I had been unable to discover the source. No matter. Numerous people on the message boards of the Archive for October 12 recall different variations of the story, so it wasn't just me. The most dramatic version has it that Chet Helms had chartered a ferry to bring Hendrix to Marin, but Hendrix had been carrying on with some groupie and lost track of time. When he showed up at the Avalon, after his Winterland show ended, he was apologetic but Garcia was unmoved.

Tracking the personal life of Jimi Hendrix is even more difficult than most rock stars, since so many people had vested interests in his actions, and his death and subsequent litigation made everything more contentious. Still, a number of general observations can be made about Hendrix's life on the road. First of all, Hendrix, like all rock stars in the pre-cell phone era, wouldn't have gone to a town for concerts without his own crew and some local "handlers" who would get him to and from the hotel and the venue, and wherever else he wanted to go to. Although Jimi could be reckless with certain substances, and did not lack for female company, all sources without exception seem to suggest that his number one priority was always music, and with fellow musicians he was always a friendly, cooperative guy.

Based on what is known about Hendrix on the road (hardly exhaustive, I concede), it seems out of character for him to blow off a jam session with the Grateful Dead. Hendrix rarely or never missed shows, and he jammed with numerous artists all over the country, so he was certainly responsible enough and motivated enough to make sure he made his dates. The road has long periods of boredom, so for a guy like Hendrix, a chance to jam in the afternoon would be welcome. The week before October 12, Hendrix jammed with Buddy Miles at The Whisky in West Hollywood, and the week after he jammed with Lee Michaels (probably in a non-concert setting). Do we believe Jimi had time for Buddy Miles and Lee Michaels, but was so carried away with some groupie he "forgot" a jam with the Dead?

My hypothesis--completely unsupported by any additional facts or evidence, I should emphasize--is that some people weren't anxious for the Hendrix/Dead jam to take place. I'm not suggesting anything ultra sinister here; just that perhaps someone made sure that Hendrix's crew got the wrong departure time for the Ferry, or no one made a wake up call to the Hotel. Whether a groupie was involved or not that night, Hendrix was always popular with the ladies, and that hadn't prevented him from jamming with numerous musicians before or after. I am confident that Hendrix recognized Garcia's gunslinger challenge, and was anxious to answer it--it might really have been something, but it wasn't to be.

Who might be among the culprits? Well, Bill Graham might not have made it easy for Chet Helms to get access to his headline attraction. And Hendrix's notorious management (led by the late Mike Jeffery) may have found the Dead to be a subversive force that he didn't want to encourage. Jeffery couldn't have been worried about the Dead's penchant for drugs and outlaw behavior, since Jeffery favored both. However, the Dead had a tendency to think music should be free and that was a potentially dangerous proposition indeed.

An Eyewitness Account
If you read the reviews on the Archive board, some old memories are a lot more precise than others, because some people's memories are quite a bit sharper. Among the most consistently accurate memories are from Evan S Hunt. Consider his own comments on the Archive for October 12, 1968, and consider them in light of the history of rumors and what I have proposed
Some of my Diablo Valley College football team buddies went along to see Linn County, a popular underground blues band at the time. We were celebrating our earlier in the day victory over San Mateo Junior College.

That the Grateful Dead was the headliner was totally an afterthought, but most of us stayed to gather in their entire set which lasted until well past the 2 a.m. curfew.

There is a note attached to this show that there was no performance emanated from Blue Ron, but of little note there should be amended that towards the end of the Dead's venture into their nightly featured mania called Feedback, Jimi Hendrix came up on stage and added his howl to the ongoing din.

This is no lie. I saw it with my own eyes. Jimi came up on stage and played with the Dead. Nobody noticed and nobody said anything. There was no announcement.

After countless years of research consisting of reading every record ever written about the Grateful Dead, asking people in the know like Rock Scully, Danny Riskin, Chet Helms, David Gans and David Lemieux, and asking hundreds of various Dead Heads, past and present, apparently, I am the only one who ever saw Jimi actually get up there and play.

I'm not asking you to take my word for it and I surely would like it if someone could corroborate my claim, but it doesn't really matter in the long run. I saw what I saw and I was not stoned or altered, mentally or physically, in any way.

It happened just as I say it happened...on this night...forty unforgettable years ago.
To my knowledge, Jerry Garcia never said a bad word about Hendrix after he died, but did he ever say a good word? Part of Garcia's peculiar magic for interviews was that he told such great, quotable stories that no one usually asked anything resembling a difficult question.

If there were more evidence for this, it would probably have surfaced by now. Ultimately we are left with an imagined scene from Sergio Leone's psychedelic Spaghetti Western, The Good, The Bad and The Avalon, as Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix warily eye each other with weapons at the ready, yet the cataclysmic spark is never struck. Jerry and Jimi, two of the icons of 60s rock guitar, armed and ready to jam, stymied by some breach of the gunslinger's code. They both probably thought it would come around next year or the year after, but it was not to be.

38 comments:

  1. Really quickly: you are showing Monterey (1967) in May, but it should be June, which may also implicate the Straight Theater opening material.

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  2. Simply an incredible post ... much to consider.

    BTW, another date: When you say Jan. 1969 for Fleetwood Mac with the GD, I think you mean Jan 1970, right?

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  3. No, its January 1969, per Dinky Dawson's book (p.74). Mac came through and the Dead set up a jam, and they passed with flying colors. It took a year to get together on stage (Warehouse 2.1.70), but the connection was made in January 69.

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  4. Great post, I especially like your depiction of Jerry the Gunslinger, an interesting dimension that I never considered. I love reading about the Temple Stadium concert, it was not only my first Dead show, but also my first concert. I was only 12 years old and lived a short bike ride away from Temple Stadium. We went to see Jimi, but found ourselves sitting in the bleachers smoking bud (another first) when the Dead started playing. Needless to say, I was blown away.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. An astonishing work again. The only comment I have is about the Straight Theater Christening on June 15, 1967: I don't think that there is any doubt that the Dead played and this is a show I have discussed with Stephen Ehret in the past - as the Wildflower were the second act. I have no doubt that if Hendrix had of showed up and played then this would have been mentioned. The show is also listed on Reggie's list and Jackson makes passing reference to the show in his book. Ross

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  7. If Stephen Ehret recalls the Straight Party, then its confirmed. I didn't know we had an eyewitness. My reservations in the past were based on the fact that while I was sure the Dead were there (I think Rock Scully mentions it too), I wasn't certain they actually performed.

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  8. I found this post especially interesting, since I've written a post on the same topic!
    http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/08/hendrix-and-dead.html
    (It has about the only comment by Garcia on Hendrix that I've seen, along with the missed-Avalon-jam story.)

    Evan Hunt may often be reliable (he must have kept a diary of these things, or at least does his research?) - but here he can't be trusted.
    Hendrix was playing TWO shows at Winterland on Oct 12. Are we to think that he somehow made it to the end of the Dead's show at the Avalon? I don't think so. The 13th must have been the day he showed up.

    Unfortunately, Chet Helms is the only source I know for the story that Hendrix was waylaid by some lady. (Unless someone in the Dead has spoken up about it.) I don't know how reliable Helms' memories usually are - he suggests that the jam was scheduled for the night after the show, not the next afternoon.
    Admittedly, Hendrix was pretty tired on the night of the 12th (we have spoken onstage proof!) - even so, as you said, this was a guy who loved to jam, constantly, any day, with anyone handy. So for him not to connect with Garcia at all is bewildering. My suspicion is that it's not due to one of Hendrix's "handlers", but his own carelessness. (I wonder what was said when the Dead went backstage on the 13th?....)

    One commenter on my post repeated Rock Scully's story that the Dead did jam with Hendrix at Monterey..... But considering Scully's the only source, I'm pretty dubious.

    I also doubt the Dead spent much time (if any) with Hendrix on 5-16-70. I've often wondered about their show that day - four bands on the bill, and the Dead were only one of the opening groups I believe? So they must have played a shortened set (by May '70 standards, that is). Our tape is incomplete. Hendrix, the headliner, only played for about an hour....

    And by the way, you make some important points about Garcia. He's often remembered in particular ways, and his ambition, hard work, and discipline (yes - Discipline!) are usually forgotten. Long before Oct '68, this was a guy who was willing to spend all day rehearsing, and then spend hours carefully mixing tapes in the studio...
    Similar in many ways to Hendrix... But by Oct '68, Hendrix's discipline was evaporating (shown for instance by his frustrating Los Angeles studio sessions that month - filled with jams with whoever dropped by, and not one releasable track or finished song).

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  9. Your hypothesis is very interesting and in some ways a lot better than mine. It would make more sense for Jimi to show up at the Avalon on his night off.

    It doesn't change the scenario of Garcia ripping away with Hendrix offstage, although its a different night. Given the historic confusion with the tape date, that may provide an explanation.

    Thanks for the link on the Chet Helms quote, which appears to be the source of the story. While it does appear (through Helms) that Hendrix's carelessness was a big factor in missing the jam, note Garcia's comment (linked by you) where he says "I never saw [Jimi] without a half dozen weird people hanging around him. Vampires...its just a bummer]." Ramrod made sure the Dead were ready for the jam, and Jimi's entourage did not.

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  10. If anyone wants to go back to the Helms story about trying to set up a jam in context, it's on pp. 106-107 of Sandy Troy's One More Saturday Night. Having just read it, I find it utterly believable. FWIW.

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  11. A new point, that I hadn't noticed before -

    One of the openers for the Dead's Avalon shows was organist Lee Michaels.
    With Hendrix hanging around backstage, I don't think this would be the first time he'd met Michaels, but something was sparked - he showed up to jam with Lee Michaels onstage at the Whiskey (probably when Michaels was playing there the following week), and the week after that invited Michaels to play on several studio sessions with him in L.A.

    It's hard not to notice the glaring difference between Hendrix's involvement with Michaels and his non-involvement with the Dead! Particularly with them being at the same show.

    Of course, there are a couple reasons - Hendrix often looked for a keyboard player to fill out his band's sound (he'd just pulled Herbie Rich from Buddy Miles' band to play with him at Winterland) - also, I think Michaels was friends with Buddy Miles, so that would automatically put him into proximity with Hendrix.

    This is total speculation, but I wonder if things might have gone differently if Pigpen had been with the Dead that night? (He was absent from these shows, hence they had no keyboardist; and as their resident blues fan, he may well have struck it up with Hendrix...)

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  12. In an interview by Jay Itkowitz on October 11, 1970, there's this Q&A:

    JI: Did you ever jam with Hendrix?

    JG: No, I never did. The opportunity just never came up.

    http://www.itkowitz.com/mam1965text.php?aid=260.

    JG and JH never played together.

    QED.

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  13. Oh well--even if evidence takes all the fun out of speculation, I'd rather know the facts.

    Maybe Buddy Miles came on stage, and it just looked like Hendrix?

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  14. I just listened to both Feedbacks from the Avalon shows and nowhere do I hear Jimi. On the 13th there's a part where Bobby goes a little wild on his guitar and it sounds similar to Jimi but it's no Jimi. If Jimi did come on stage, he must have not plugged in because I just don't hear him.

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  15. Much as I would love this to have been so, I think it just wasn't. If Jimi was even around, he didn't play.

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  16. A correspondent writes in with yet another twist to this story:

    "I attended a Robert hunter concert up in Seattle about 10 years ago and have it on disc. In it Hunter starts talking about the song “what’s become of the baby” and even plays a bit of it. He explains that “baby” was originally a soft minuet-style song but that Jimi Hendrix was “supposed” to come by the “studio” (assuming recording studio) so they decided to get real weird with it.

    Not sure when the recording session of AoxomoxoA was but this comes right out of Hunter’s mouth so I’m sure there is some validity to it and may be the missed meeting that you alluded to."

    And indeed, at the Robert Hunter show at the Museum of History and Industry on June 3, 2011 (http://www.archive.org/details/rh2003-06-11.aud.unk.flac16)
    as an intro to "What's Become Of The Baby," Hunter says that they thought Jimi Hendrix was coming to the studio, so they made the song seem all weird.

    The timing fits. The Dead were working at Pacific Recorders on the first version of Aoxomoxoa in October of 1968, and Hendrix would have been in the Bay Area for at least 4 days. Hendrix was on Reprise, a corporate sister to Warner Brothers, so the record company would have been in favor of collaboration.

    If the Dead thought, rightly or wrongly, that Hendrix was supposed to drop by the studio and he didn't, and then Hendrix blew off the midnight jam, they would have been irritated indeed.

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  17. Wow! What a find.

    The Dead were indeed recording WBOTB (and Barbed Wire Whipping Party) during the first week of October. Hendrix may have vaguely mentioned that he'd drop by the studio...but clearly the Dead weren't high among his priorities!

    (I doubt his anticipated visit had much to do with the weirdness of WBOTB, though Hunter might've liked to remember it that way...)

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  18. ha ha, yes, I agree WBOTB has its own logic, but as my correspondent implies, the important thing is that Hunter still remembered that 30-odd years later. The band thought Hendrix was coming. It doesn't even mean his failure to show was Jimi's fault, but it would add to the evening's tension.

    Well, if six had turned out to be nine, maybe we would have had a feedback solo laid on top of WBOTB--now that would have been weird indeed.

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  19. "...And playing in Greenwich Village at a place called Club A-Go-Go a band did their first-ever gig, playing support for John Mayall - they were Blood, Sweat, and Tears. I also met and jammed with Stephen Stills, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead...so when I did join the Stones, musically, I’d already been round the block a couple of times.”[1]

    Recently I asked Mick Taylor about his jams with Jimi Hendrix, here is the answer he gave me: "I remember one time in 1966 ... 67 ... I think 67 (it was 1968) ... I played in San Francisco at the Fillmore West, and I was playing with John Mayall; Albert King was playing and Jimi Hendrix was at the top of the bill. At the end ... some guys from the Grateful Dead got together with us and jammed all night."[2]

    The group (Jimi Hendrix Experience) began a series of West Coast shows with a concert at the Fillmore West on February 1 with Albert King, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Soft Machine. Mick Taylor, who was playing with the Bluesbreakers, said "After the show…we went and played somewhere until five in the morning. It was like the Grateful Dead meets the blues."[3]

    Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Mick Taylor played together several times in SF:

    2/1/68-Fillmore Auditorium (GD at EMU Ballroom on 1/30/68)
    2/2/68-Winterland (GD at Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR)
    2/3/68-Winterland (GD at Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR)
    2/4/68-Fillmore Auditorium early and late shows (GD at south oregon college gym, ashland)
    2/9/68-Fillmore Auditorium (GD had no show scheduled)
    8/6/70-Fillmore West (Carousel Ballroom) (GD had no show scheduled)

    Maybe on 2/9/68 Jerry and Jimi had a lil' jam after the show according to Mick Taylor.


    1.)^Taylor, Mick, Sheridan, Jim, MICK TAYLOR RE-EXAMINED” RE-EXAMINED Part 1, http://www.micktaylor.net/MT_re-examinedp1.htm
    2.)^Taylor, Mick, http://www.rocksoff.org/jimi.htm
    3.)^Moskowitz, David, The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix, pg. 34, https://books.google.com/books?id=dzUlWk-RvfgC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=Jimi+Hendrix,+Albert+King,+John+Mayall,+Mick+Taylor+fillmore+west&source=bl&ots=nBr1fnzMj_&sig=xh1-uScxRODHC2Vh_5Hh2_VvLZk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7G6DVa_3E5CioQTDnIfoDQ&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Jimi%20Hendrix%2C%20Albert%20King%2C%20John%20Mayall%2C%20Mick%20Taylor%20fillmore%20west&f=false

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    1. Very interesting. Chris Hjort alludes to this in his excellent chronology Strange Brew. I believe the place they all jammed was "The Geary Temple" at 1859 Geary. It was an old Masonic temple owned at that time by Bill Graham, and bands playing the Fillmore were encouraged to use it as a rehearsal/hangout. I think it was here that Jack Casady first jammed with Jimi.

      Jerry has been very explicit that he never met or played with Jimi Hendrix. The only member of the Dead who did was Bob Weir, who played with Jimi a little bit in an instrument display at Monterey Pop, before Weir realized who Jimi was. So Jimi and the Dead didn't jam at Geary Temple, more's the pity.

      i did try and look into this, however, and I somehow came to the conclusion that Phil Lesh jammed with Mick Taylor at Geary Temple. I think it was a clue in Phil's book, combined with the Hjort book that led me to that conclusion.

      Bill Graham sold the Geary Temple in 1969, and it later became the headquarters of Jim Jones "People's Temple," and was wisely torn down later.

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    2. I should add that John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers were at the Fillmore through February 11, and the Dead had returned from the Northwest by then. So if Phil (or anyone) had jammed with Taylor, I would guess it would be around that time frame.

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    3. Interesting indeed.

      Hendrix, Albert King & the Bluesbreakers only played together in SF on the first four days of Feb '68, alternating between the Fillmore & Winterland.
      Taylor's longer quote about the jam, in Hjort's book: "After our show at Winterland, we went and played somewhere until about five in the morning [with Jimi]. It was kind of like the Grateful Dead meets the blues. Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane was there. I don't think we played songs, just riffs and notes, anything."

      The trouble is, of course, it would be impossible for anyone from the Dead to attend any San Francisco jam that weekend, since they were playing in Oregon - nor does Taylor really say they were there in this quote. Hence, no Dead/Hendrix meeting. (Hendrix headed elsewhere on tour after the 4th, and didn't return to SF.)

      The Bluesbreakers did play the Fillmore again on Feb 8-10, so it is possible the Dead could have encountered them that weekend, if Taylor's remembering an actual jam with some of them in the other quote.
      Also, though Feb '68 was the first time the Bluesbreakers played San Francisco, they came back with Taylor a few times over the next year.

      For what it's worth, Mountain Girl recalled that "Jerry was super into John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and loved their albums."

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  20. I've got an email out to Mick Taylor through someone else, let's see what he says...

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  21. Interesting reading... always wondered, did the taper of the 10-12-1968 show capture the opening acts, in particular Lee Michaels? I've never seen it in circulation, but always wondered if the people that showed up to tape the Dead ever bothered taping anyone else. I would love to see more Lee Michaels tapes surface. Please contact me directly if you have any information. Thanks.

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    1. Man, I would love it if Lee Michaels had been taped. Most of our Dead tapes from that era, however, come from the Dead themselves, who were taping off the board. This was mostly the inspiration of Owsley, who was generally only interested in bands where he mixed the sound.

      Its likely that there are some interesting tapes in Owsley's own archive, but not even a list has ever made it to the light of day, much less the tapes themselves, so I have no idea what's there. I can only hope for some vintage Lee Michaels.

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    2. Thanks for the response. I know that many tapes in circulation from this period were from the soundboard (by the Dead, Owsley, or as we see with Wolfgang's Vault, Bill Graham, etc.). I also know from my extensive trading (and now torrent sharing) that plenty of people were also taping shows in '68, '69, etc. on portable recording devices. While the Dead encouraged taping that morphed into trading among their fans, I suspect that people who taped shows of other acts, including the great Lee Michaels, probably did so for their own weren't as prolific when it came to trading. Still, I have managed to unearth a number of Lee Michaels tapes, many of which were not ever circulated but just collecting dust. It would indeed be great if a list from Owsley (who is now deceased, correct?) surfaced. Also, in the case of the Avalon Ballroom, I wonder was Chet Helms or whoever handled the sound there taping the shows in the same way Bill Graham was and if so, where are those tapes? As a collector, I am interested first in Lee Michaels, but more broadly in all the artists on a given night's bill -- so many of the bills were diverse and interesting, for example, this one with the Dead, Michaels, Mance Lipscomb, and Linn County. How amazing it would be if we could hear the entire night!

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    3. Owsley probably taped the October '68 Avalon shows, so it's fairly likely that he taped the opening acts as well.

      The Owsley Stanley Foundation is currently restoring his tapes - some more info here:
      http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2012/03/owsley-stanley-foundation.html

      You can try contacting them through their page:
      http://www.owsleystanleyfoundation.org/

      They are taking donations to restore reels - of particular interest is the "Adopt A Reel" program, where for $400:
      "You’ll select a reel from the vault catalog for priority rescue. Pick a show or artist, and we’ll prioritize the music you love most to the front of the queue. We’ll send you a photo of the reel with any of Bear’s notations, and we’ll include your name in all future credits as reel benefactor. (Please note: this perk does not guarantee you will get the music on your reel. After preservation, we will begin the process of working with each artist to hopefully release their music to the public.)"
      https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rescue-the-legendary-owsley-stanley-sonic-journals#/

      Oddly, all the reels that have been "adopted" so far is stuff that already circulates, nor has anyone shared a list of the vault catalog.

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    4. Thank you so much for sharing this information, even if doesn't leave me with much hope. I knew that Bear had a large collection and assumed he taped other acts on the bill. His estate is wise to preserve these, but based on what I've read in these links, their approach does not leave much to be desired. I would gladly pay $400 or even $4,000 to support the preservation of live recordings, but only if there is a clear timeline of when that work will be done and how the recordings will be made available for the public. After all, an archive is usually accessible in some way to the public. The thought of donating to preserve a reel that will then be passed on to the bands involved for licensing in the hopes of eventual release (which is a hopeless proposition with many of these groups that have little to no following at this point in time), is a fool's errand (except with the major acts, perhaps, and even in that case, why not have the licensing band pay for the restoration?). The better approach would have been for the estate to turn them over or sell them to a place such as Wolfgang's Vault which already has a digitization process and method for giving the public access. Digitization with an end toward streaming them online is probably the most one could hope for with this type of stuff. That's just my unsolicited open. As I said, I'd happily donate substantial money but only to a transparent process. Whatever the case, let's hope something comes of it... the indiegogo link indicates that they far exceeded their initial fundraising goal, but you say there's been no word on any progress or on what's even in the archive.

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    5. I think it's sad but true that there hasn't been any clear thinking on the part of the Owsley family with respect to how to handle the archive. I don't object to them trying to profit off of it, but they are going about it in a backwards way.

      As you say, the overwhelming majority of these bands have little following today. Fans and former band members might be very willing to contribute to the preservation of specific reels, but not on a wish and a prayer.

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    6. Does anyone know if they have made any progress at all since 2015, when they raised over $18,000 on Indiegogo? Using their math, that's enough to transfer 72 reels!

      I agree with you: I don't object to them making some profit, but the chances that any profit is there to be made are slim to none (unless he recorded the Beatles or some top tier act, and even then, if he captured a pristine recording).

      And, don't dare set up a nonprofit organization and ask for donations to restore material that you are going to either a) profit off of; or, b) not release in any way to the public.

      I maintain that the best way to honor the Bear's memory and add value to the live music loving community is to fundraise from within that community to digitize and preserve the reels; and then, as they are digitized, put them on a website where people can listen to them streaming. If you want to make money to cover operations, then charge a subscription or sell in digital FLAC form some of the concerts. And, most of all, do it while there are still people around who care about this music, which has an ever-dwindling fan base.

      I invite them to contact me for nonprofit business consultation and money...

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    7. Ah, I see on their Twitter feed that as of June 16, 2016 they had transferred 150 reels. No indication of what was on all of them, though. I guess I'll keep my eyes on it in the hopes it yields some fruit, particularly these lesser known groups with whom the Dead shared the bill.

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  22. I agree with everything you all are saying.

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  23. I have read, in more than one book about the Dead, about The Dead stealing the Jimi Hendrix Experience P.A. system after Monterey and trucking it to San Francisco to use in a concert in Golden Gate Park, and as "ransom" to lure Hendrix to play in the park. From what I've read this prank did not play well among the Hendrix camp. Could this have created some bad feelings between the groups (or their management) that would have dampened their desire to jam together?

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    1. I wonder what book that was.
      Dennis McNally's book has the most complete account of the Monterey festival aftermath:
      "The Dead would depart Monterey with a considerable stack of purloined amps and speakers and bring them to San Francisco, where they used them as part of the sound system at a summer solstice celebration in Golden Gate Park on June 21... A few days later...[they] returned [the gear] to the music store in Monterey where it had been rented, minus one amp, which had disappeared." (p.208)
      Blair Jackson also has an account in Grateful Dead Gear:
      "After the festival, manager Rock Scully and various others drove a van up to the backstage area at the end of the last concert and 'liberated' thousands of dollars' worth of amps and other equipment that had been provided by Fender for the event...[to use at the] free Summer Solstice celebration concert in Golden Gate Park... A few days later, the equipment was returned to a neutral spot - the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco - and Fender...was none the worse for it." (p.53)
      Phil Lesh also remembers this in his book:
      "On the way out of town, Danny and Rock decided to 'liberate' some gear from the clutches of Hollywood, planning to let some of the new bands use it at the solstice celebration back in San Francisco... They later returned everything." (p.106)

      Rock Scully's book has a couple pages on this, however it was ghostwritten, exaggerated and unreliable. He did say that "with that equipment, we got Hendrix to play at the Panhandle," however I haven't seen any other account that said the Dead had anything to do with Hendrix playing his June 25 Panhandle show - and they didn't have his equipment. (Scully claims that Hendrix played with the Dead, which he didn't.)
      Hendrix biographies say nothing of the Dead here, and he didn't play at the solstice celebration. In fact we don't know whether the Dead had any contact with Hendrix during his stay in San Francisco, or even saw him at the Panhandle.

      After Monterey, Bill Graham booked Hendrix to open for Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore, which is why he was in San Francisco. I don't know whose idea the free Panhandle show was, but Hendrix borrowed some gear from other bands. (Mitch used Spencer Dryden's drums, and supposedly Hendrix used guitar amps from the Ace of Cups, who opened for Hendrix - he thought they were "groovy.")
      Hendrix said later, "We played for nothing and I really enjoyed it, too. Those flower people are really groovy. All the bands playing for free - that's what I call groovy teamwork. It was one of the best gigs we've ever played."

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  24. Owing to a personal disaster, I lost my entire library a few years ago, I cannot find my sources. It is entirely possible that my question was born out of a mix of Scully's book and my own faulty memory. Thanks for indulging me with your response.

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  25. if you read Robert Greenfield's book “Owsley” there’s a fascinating story where owsley records Hendrix one on one and at the end of the jam Hendrix takes the tape and destroys it. I think this episode is the root of the weirdness between the Dead and Hendrix which has never really been properly explored.

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