tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post4001952497515128027..comments2024-03-16T07:13:50.487-07:00Comments on Lost Live Dead: David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band, Summer 1966 (David Nelson I)Corry342http://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-3367034144432021842023-09-18T07:12:03.854-07:002023-09-18T07:12:03.854-07:00Ross - New Delhi River Band at The Barn. October 1...Ross - New Delhi River Band at The Barn. October 14, 15 with Flowers and Magic Light Show. October 28/29 with Magic Light Show. Friday December 16. January 20/21 with Country Joe and The Fish. February 18 with Peter and His Group and Magic Theatre Light Show. There is an advert that implies the NDRB and Peter and His Group had a Friday and Saturday night run for a number (unknown) of weeks. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-1303161450142494022023-09-18T07:00:40.236-07:002023-09-18T07:00:40.236-07:00This was from Ross.
I have no idea why I was thin...This was from Ross.<br /> I have no idea why I was thinking about this today.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-68879755222306441302023-09-18T06:58:56.036-07:002023-09-18T06:58:56.036-07:00There are other Bethlehem Exit shows inclusing Feb...There are other Bethlehem Exit shows inclusing Feb 4, 1966 at the State Theatre in Martinez with Jack and The Rippers, Six Go-Go Girls (Jeri Edgar, Ginger Johnson, Glenna Graffort, Karen Bullard, Cynthia Zufall, Kathy Moore - all of Concord), KSS DJs and Batgirls. The Bairs Lair on March 24 featured Bethlehem Exit ,Acid Test Record Pemiered and Sassy Sophie (Limbo Dancer from El Cid). March 25 is correct. For May 27 I believe it took place at Geary Street Temple (1859 Geary Street) with the SF Mime Troupe NY, LA and Bay Area Sculptors, dancers, painters, writers, actors, filmmakers, musicians in Theater Events, with the Bethlehem Exit but no dancing. Something did happen on 27/28 overnight or the 28th with Bethlehem Exit, Sopwith Camel and Robert Baker films at KPFA (Divisider).<br />A House Concert took place on April 23 at 1815 10th Street in Berkeley with Bethlehem Exit and some sort of guide to discotheque dancing.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-74486845567253709732019-08-11T17:07:53.681-07:002019-08-11T17:07:53.681-07:00I had inferred this but it's always good to ge...I had inferred this but it's always good to get confirmation.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-21092042261197731642019-08-09T19:51:12.939-07:002019-08-09T19:51:12.939-07:00RJG's Ad Libs from the SFC 11/21/66 says NDRB ...RJG's Ad Libs from the SFC 11/21/66 says NDRB plays Fridays at The Barn in Scott's Valley. You probably already have that, but just being sure.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-77176665362392115282018-03-10T18:45:29.748-08:002018-03-10T18:45:29.748-08:00Eyewitness Brad, a former employee at Losers in Sa...Eyewitness Brad, a former employee at Losers in San Jose, contributed some remarkable memories of seeing NDRB there. Among other things, it seems that they did Morning Dew, which would have been before the Dead were known to have performed it.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-49301170343875644142017-12-08T21:58:09.669-08:002017-12-08T21:58:09.669-08:00JGMF not only found a hitherto unknown NDRB date (...JGMF not only found a hitherto unknown NDRB date (Sep 24 '66 at The Barn), he found an ad for it. Amazing work. I added it to the post.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-2310724783639574232012-02-26T21:47:33.436-08:002012-02-26T21:47:33.436-08:00The amazing thing is, EVERYONE seems to have given...The amazing thing is, EVERYONE seems to have given Phil tips on the bass - practically the same tips, too. It's like the Warlocks bass player was a communal project! <br /><br />Jackson's Garcia bio says that Phil "picked up the rudiments of the instrument from whoever was around: Garcia, John Dawson, David Nelson, Eric Thompson... [Thompson said,] 'Phil moved into the room across from me in this house and he'd never touched an electric bass before. I remember him picking up the bass for the first time and saying, 'Oh, how does this work?' and he started figuring out how to play scales on it immediately, very methodically.'" <br /><br />In Phil's book, he doesn't specifically mention any pointers from anybody, except that he got a guitar & some advice from his then-roommate Tom Purvis, and a tip from Jerry: "The bottom four strings on a guitar are tuned the same as the four strings of a bass, so borrow a guitar from somebody and practice scales on it until you can get down here and we'll start rehearsing."<br /><br />In the Dark Star book (p65), John Dawson remembers: "Phil came down one day and I got to meet Phil. They were in the back room at Dana's and they said, 'Here Phil, here's a bass.' And Phil said, 'What do I do with it?' And I said, 'This is the A string, this is the E string, and you get to make the E string be the same as the A string by pushing on the fifth fret, and then the same tone. The basic beat is boom boom, boom boom, and then you need to go up to here, boom boom, boom boom.' I just showed him which string was which, and where an E was on the A string. He picked up on that right away."<br /><br />Phil also mentions getting a room in the communal house. Since it was full of guitar players, he probably got quite a bit of advice from everyone as he started learning bass!<br /><br />I noticed that Nelson's memory was accurate enough that he says, "Gilman Street is where Jerry found Phil," meaning that it's where Jerry was living when he tapped Phil to be bass-player. (Which was true.) <br />The interesting perspective that Nelson gives here - we always hear about Phil's end of it, but from one of Jerry's friends, it was more like, "Phil was always going to Las Vegas or he was studying classical music under Berio and stuff like that, or jazz trumpet, and the big news was, wow, we found Phil! And he's coming, and he's going to play bass." <br />Phil had always been in & out of Palo Alto, there mainly on visits, hence more a person Jerry met at parties than someone to do musical projects with. You can tell from that quote how much Jerry had admired Phil before then, and glad he was to finally have a chance to work with him - "wow, we found Phil!" Indeed, for Jerry to invite Phil to be bass-player, he might have been thinking about it for quite some time before then. <br /><br />There are a couple hints that Jerry was planning to ask Phil - Eric Thompson recalled, "I remember exactly when it was clear that Dana Jr was not with the program on bass. Jerry said, 'We're gonna get Phil.'" (Jackson 74) Sue Swanson also remembered, "I drove Jerry up to the city the day that he went to find Phil to get him to play in the band. We went up in my car. It just wasn't working with Dana Morgan playing bass." (Greenfield 64)<br /><br />Also - note that, as far as we know, Jerry did NOT invite anyone else (like, say, David Nelson) to be the new bass player. And yet, with all these people living together, the housemates were kind of 'in on' the Warlocks anyway - it's no wonder Hunter, Nelson, Dawson & David Parker were all at Magoo's.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-77883811507947107382012-02-26T11:24:43.771-08:002012-02-26T11:24:43.771-08:00It seems clear that Phil's lesson with Nelson ...It seems clear that Phil's lesson with Nelson was brief and rudimentary. And it appears that EVERYONE was schooled by Jerry in various ways at various times.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-70757616968215166692012-02-26T10:55:28.045-08:002012-02-26T10:55:28.045-08:00David, this is an amazing story. The conventional ...David, this is an amazing story. The conventional wisdom was that Phil learned bass from Jerry, but it appears to be that he initially learned it from Nelson. Yet both Garcia's and Nelson's primary, if not sole, experience as electric bassists were as part-time members of Troy Weidenheimer's Zodiacs.<br /><br />What goes around, comes around, though. Just four years later Phil would end up as Nelson's bass player in the New Riders, if only temporarily. I'm really looking forward to the whole interview...Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-26477387364037530612012-02-26T10:12:07.207-08:002012-02-26T10:12:07.207-08:00I can't resist. This might help you with your...I can't resist. This might help you with your time line...<br /><br />NELSON: Here's the thing that goes back to Waverley Street, which followed Gilman Street, okay? Gilman Street was only a month or two long because the guy said it's in its interim stage, but Gilman Street is where Jerry found Phil, because Phil was always going to Las Vegas or he was studying classical music under Berio and stuff like that, or jazz trumpet, and uh the big news was, wow, we found Phil! And he's coming, and he's going to play bass. So I think Jerry asked me to show Phil something about the bass – about a fretted stringed instrument. <br /><br />DG: Because he had never played one.<br /><br />DN: “I'd be glad to.” I forget what it was, though. I think it was more than just telling him, but it might have been just that – it was Jerry's not going to be available that day and he wanted me to tell him because he's getting his bass. Because he got a room at Gilman Street. That's why – yeah, yeah.<br /><br />DG: He moved in and joined the band.<br /><br />DN: He's got his room, and uh so maybe I gave him the first talk and I said, you know, “Tuning is this, and each fret's a half step, blah, blah, blah.” Phil goes, “Got it. That's all I need to know.” And I showed him bass positions because I had played bass before, yeah and I said, “Here’s the basic thing they use. This finger's for the tonic and here's a boogie pattern, 'boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom'” I think I showed him that or something like that and he goes, “Okay, thanks Dave.” And then every day I’d hear ... the guy practicing on the electric instrument without an amp, you know.<br /><br />DG: It's the clatter of the string on the frets.<br /><br />DN: All day, every day.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-43640035720706705932012-02-26T10:06:23.501-08:002012-02-26T10:06:23.501-08:00One more, unrelated to the current topic but a gem...One more, unrelated to the current topic but a gem nonetheless:<br /><br />...like Dylan says, “I’m just a person who walked by and I picked up on it. You walked by that many times. You didn't pick it up. But that song idea, I saw it like a seashell at the seashore, you know. Oh there's one!” He said that in an interview and it's always stuck with me about writing songs; he was asked something like, How do you come up with these ideas? He was asked specifically about one song – where did you get the idea? And he said, “Well, I was there at the time and I saw it.” So what he's suggesting is like I suggest to people who ask me, how did you end up choosing music as a career? I say, “No, no, no, no. Music chooses you.” It's just looking' for some motherfucker it can trust.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-28580525044625853432012-02-26T10:05:41.650-08:002012-02-26T10:05:41.650-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-1411169103499449682012-02-26T10:02:48.563-08:002012-02-26T10:02:48.563-08:00I am working on the transcript of a 3.5-hour inter...I am working on the transcript of a 3.5-hour interview I did with Nelson in January. Once I have mined it for this book I'm working on, I'll post the whole thing somewhere. As Corry learned in the encounter he talked about here, David is a wonderful informant!David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-57596832197390383572012-02-25T19:36:02.738-08:002012-02-25T19:36:02.738-08:00Very nice interview quotes - if the rest of it is ...Very nice interview quotes - if the rest of it is like this, it must be something! <br /><br />And it's quite interesting to see that Nelson had a connection with Troy Weidenheimer too, in that rotating bass slot!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-26489320967765286942012-02-25T19:21:01.851-08:002012-02-25T19:21:01.851-08:00Wow, that is wonderful stuff. Thank you, David and...Wow, that is wonderful stuff. Thank you, David and David!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-60028758455417306572012-02-25T15:31:12.714-08:002012-02-25T15:31:12.714-08:00David, thanks so much for sharing this amazing stu...David, thanks so much for sharing this amazing stuff. It seems like Nelson followed Garcia into the electric world in more ways than one. Its interesting also to find out that Nelson played electric bass with Troy Weidenheimer, just as Garcia had done (probably at Searsville Lake, too). This fits in with one of my sources memories of Nelson "debuting" as an electric musician on the bass, even though my source may have conflated it with another group.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-1422801660362765662012-02-25T14:22:23.534-08:002012-02-25T14:22:23.534-08:00And more...
DN: There was a lot of talk on what ...And more... <br /><br />DN: There was a lot of talk on what we called the "trips couch." "Come on over here and sit on the trips couch," you know? And there was talk about going electric. Yeah! Jerry and me both recalled, remember those nights just a couple years ago we'd get together and just do old rock and roll songs all night long? Once you do one - “Oh yeah, let's do 'Searchin',” you know. “Let's do all that kind of stuff.” And Jerry even had a couple of gigs through Stanford University where it was him and some – Troy Weidenheimer, who already played electric, because electric wasn't out of the question. Not at all. It was to the world, the media and everything. But... rock and roll is where I started in music actually. And Troy Weidenheimer was a working electric guitar player. We used to just admire him and sit there and watch him play. I later played a couple of gigs - I played bass with Troy Weidenheimer. So, there's all this thinking about yeah, go electric. I’m still working with The Pine Valley Boys, but Eric [Thompson] comes by one time to Gilman Street and says, “Hey, they're practicing down at Dana Morgan's Music Store right now.” It was about this time of day [late afternoon]. I said, “Yeah? Let's go over.” So we walked over there, and there they are in the window and you know, and Garcia's going, to Weir, “No, no, no, not like that you goony child!” I thought, oh man.<br /><br />DG: Jerry was being mean to Bob?<br /><br /> DN: We thought that's awful hard to take. I don't know if I could stand that, man.<br /><br />DG: Being yelled at by Jerry?<br /><br /> DN: Because we would be in the same position.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-66799259153273115432012-02-25T13:04:29.994-08:002012-02-25T13:04:29.994-08:00More from the same interview:
DN: So [Rick] Shubb...More from the same interview:<br /><br />DN: So [Rick] Shubb comes over on that day. So that day, I think it was nine people or thirteen people or something like that that, all took acid at the same time for their first time. It was Jerry and Sara, me, Eric Thompson, David and Bonnie [Parker], Rick Shubb, and then some more – I swear there was more, but anyway that was the hard core – then we all decided, “Yeah I think it's best the first time, I'm kind of queasy and nervous and let's all go off and then we'll meet, you know when we're there.” That was a good idea. I went and laid on the bed and stuff started to go swirling around and everything and I’d go, “I feel good now.”<br />.... And several of us are sitting there and we talked, “What if there's like some dangerous pitfalls and things to watch out for? We gotta go ask Hunter! He's done it before.” And so we all run down over to Ramona Street and knock on his door and he looks at us and he goes, “Do you always jump out of planes without a parachute?” We said, “Please, please Mr. Man, will you please help us here?” So he says, “Okay, just a minute.” And we come in and he's got chairs lined up.<br />DG: He was expecting you? DN: No, no, he just said, “Just a minute” and he set these chairs up facing him, you know. So he was sitting like this and I remember him talking and it sounding really profound, but I remember he made a gesture like this – then it just goes “pfeew” and I saw “brrd, brrd, brrd, brrrrrrrrrrrd” a fan, the fingers. “Brrrrrrd, brrrrrrrd, brrrrrrd”. My eyes just went “waahhh” and that was it. For me, that was it. The visual stuff was just like so fantastic.<br /><br />Then we went back to the house and we discovered looking at yourself in the mirror is a total thing. It's like, “Who is that? I didn't know I looked like that!” You don't look the same. You really don't. And you look at your hand, it doesn't look like the same hand. There's all kinds of stuff – really fun. Anyway, so that started the thing of, "I think we're going to go electric."David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-67618081222851006912012-02-25T12:58:56.775-08:002012-02-25T12:58:56.775-08:00From my January 10, 2012 interview with Nelson. D...From my January 10, 2012 interview with Nelson. Does this help at all?<br /><br />DN: I got with The Pine Valley Boys and went to Los Angeles and played with Herb Pedersen and Butch Waller.<br />DG: You went to LA To play bluegrass? <br />DN: Hunter was in LA<br />DG: What was he doing in LA?<br />DN: I don't want to say.<br />DG: The Scientology thing?<br /> DN: Yeah.David Ganshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13674096216123540184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-25341718962250522852012-02-23T20:14:43.402-08:002012-02-23T20:14:43.402-08:00It can be hard to recover what these guys were doi...It can be hard to recover what these guys were doing in 1965, because often they don't remember themselves! <br /><br />Per McNally, Robert Hunter was around in Palo Alto for Jerry's first acid trip in April 65, and Nelson and Sara both confirm that Hunter was there at the time - and Garcia, Nelson & co. moved into the same Waverley house as Hunter in summer 65. And Hunter even told McNally he was at the Magoo's shows. <br />But this is from a 1991 interview with Blair Jackson:<br /><br />Q: Where were you when the Warlocks started? <br />HUNTER: I must've been down in LA at that point; I'm not really sure. <br />GARCIA: He was doing other stuff, but he only barely missed it. The first time I saw him after we'd been playing - there was a big hole there for a while because he wasn't around for the Acid Tests either, except at the very end, were you? <br />HUNTER: No, I was there at the San Jose Acid Test and the Fillmore Acid Test. [December '65]<br />GARCIA: That's right, I remember you at the Fillmore Acid Test. <br />HUNTER: I made most of the local ones. <br />GARCIA: And you and me first talked about writing tunes together sometime after our first record came out. <br />HUNTER: That sounds about right.<br /><br />Yet, weren't they living in the same house together during/before the Acid Tests?<br />Given such confusion from the musicians themselves, historians have quite a task getting things straight!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-74191016356667964182012-02-23T18:41:22.761-08:002012-02-23T18:41:22.761-08:00Thanks for the interesting information about the t...Thanks for the interesting information about the timing of Nelson's trip to Los Angeles to "investigate Scientology." It has been very hard to pin down the dates. I guess Nelson really wasn't interested in playing electric music until 1966.<br /><br />You are right on the money about my suspicions about band spelling. I know that Mother McRee's was intentionally misspelled on posters as a sort of folklore joke. Given the number of times that the New Delhi River Band's name was corrupted on posters, I no longer believe that it was merely an accident.Corry342https://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5493557313410969282.post-31262994635249649362012-02-23T17:57:49.821-08:002012-02-23T17:57:49.821-08:00Cool stuff!
I have to question your mid-1965 tim...Cool stuff! <br /><br />I have to question your mid-1965 timeline, though. You say that Nelson was in Los Angeles at the time the Warlocks were formed, so he was not invited to join. <br />All the sources I've seen, though, say that he was in Palo Alto. McNally (p.80) says that in April 1965, Nelson and Hunter were in Palo Alto. Nelson also says (Dark Star p.55) that he moved into the Gilman Street house in Palo Alto in the spring of '65.<br />Nelson also told Blair Jackson, "I remember the first rehearsals at Dana Morgan’s: me and Eric Thompson went over and checked them out." <br />McNally mentions that Hunter saw the shows at Magoo's (Hunter thought the May 12 show was "wonderful"). <br />Hank Harrison (for what it's worth) said that John Dawson & David Nelson were both also at Magoo's - Dawson himself has confirmed, "I was at the Warlocks’ first gig at the pizza parlor at Magoo’s." And I can see no reason why Nelson wouldn't have been there as well - it seems to have been the Warlocks' policy to invite all their friends! (I don't recall Nelson ever mentioning a Magoo's show, though.)<br />In Dark Star p.67, Nelson says he stayed on the house on Gilman Street for "about six months," and then moved into the house on Waverley. McNally says the move happened in August, which would also place Nelson in Palo Alto in spring '65. <br /><br />In short, whatever reason he wasn't in the Warlocks, it wasn't because he was in LA. Hunter was definitely around too, but he had no place in the Warlocks!<br /><br />(For those interested, Nelson has a cute story of listening to the Meet the Beatles album with Garcia in Dark Star p.51.)<br /><br />And a minor thing - the spelling "New Dalie River Band" on the poster reminds me of an earlier Nelson band. As he said, "Me and Hunter came up with the name Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions." And as we know, Mother McCree's had a habit of spelling their name differently on each poster... Could the hand of Nelson be behind these practices?Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com