January 19, 2010

Dick's Jams

There's a 2-CD set that's been floating around for years called "Dick's Jams", which Dick Latvala apparently put together from various tapes he liked. Though I presume he must have known the dates, some of these were left mysterious & misleading. The usual label:

Dick's Jams (from Dick Latvala's tape of 1968-1970 jams)
Disc 1:
1. Jam-> GDTRFB Jam-> UJB Jam (?/?/69)
2. Jam-> Tighten Up Jam-> Jam (?/?/70)
3. Jam-> The Eleven Jam-> Jam (?/?/68 - Mickey & the Hartbeats)
Disc 2:
1. Space-> Jam-> Feelin' Groovyish Jam-> Tighten Up Jam (11/2/69)
2. Jam-> The Other One Jam (6/19/68)
3. Tuning Jams (11/7/69)
4. Jam-> GDTRFB Jam (?/?/69)
5. Star Spangled Banner (slide flute - 11/7/69)

I thought it would be helpful to point out the actual dates for these jams - almost all of these jams are from circulating shows. I feel it's better to hear these jams in their full context, rather than in these excerpted pieces.
(Dick's copies, though, often sound much cleaner than my copies!)

Disc 1:
1. Jam-> Goodnight Jam-> UJB Jam - 14min
This is the Alligator jam from 11-1-69. It fades as they start Lovelight. (This is the first live UJB jam.)
http://www.archive.org/details/gd69-11-01.sbd.cotsman.6298.sbeok.shnf

2. Jam-> Tighten Up Jam-> Jam - 11min
This is an excerpt from the 8-30-69 Dark Star. It fades as they head back to the second verse. (This is the first Tighten Up jam.)
http://www.archive.org/details/gd69-08-30.sbd.barbella.8594.sbeok.shnf

3. Jam-> The Eleven Jam-> Jam - 33min
This is side B of the 8-28-69 Hartbeats tape (with Howard Wales on organ).
http://www.archive.org/details/gd69-08-28.sbd.lepley.4234.sbeok.shnf

Disc 2:
1. Space-> Jam-> Feelin' Groovyish Jam-> Tighten Up Jam - 14min
This is an excerpt from the 11-2-69 Dark Star. Fades as they return to the second verse.
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1969-11-02.sbd.miller.32350.sbeok.flac16

2. Jam-> The Other One Jam - 36min
From 6-19-68, with a third guitarist. This is an incomplete version of the 'second set,' omitting the Main Ten.
http://www.archive.org/details/gd68-06-19.sbd.cotsman.4511.sbeok.shnf

4. Jam-> Goodnight Jam - 8min
This is the only *mystery* piece in this collection. It comes from an Alligator jam. Phil strongly teases Lovelight near the beginning, and it sounds like they're about to go into the "Alligator!" vocals - instead Jerry heads for a Goodnight jam, and finishes that with a China Cat tease (!) - then they storm back into Alligator & quickly slide into Caution, where this fades out.
This is extremely similar to the 12-12-69 and 12-30-69 Alligator jams, so it is definitely from a non-circulating Nov/Dec '69 show. Which is very frustrating - judging by this excerpt, the full jam could be even better than the other circulating Alligator>Cautions from this period.
(I don't know what show it could be, since almost all the shows around this time are accounted for. From the style, I really don't think it's from one of the spring '69 shows, but if anyone has a definite ID, speak up!)

UPDATE: This jam is now identified! It's an excerpt from the 2-5-70 Eleven>Caution jam -
http://archive.org/details/gd70-02-05.sbd.hanno.9184.sbefail.shnf

3. Tuning Jams (11/7/69)
5. Star Spangled Banner (slide flute - 11/7/69)
Wonder why Dick picked these when there was a perfectly good Dark Star jam in this show.... (The vault copy of Dark Star *might* be complete! - the vault copy of this show is 20 minutes longer than the edited circulating source.)
http://www.archive.org/details/gd69-11-07.sbd.kaplan.19783.sbefail.shnf

7 comments:

  1. where can one find such discs?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, I need to find this compilation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmm....
    There are only eight minutes of NEW material on this collection. (And as I said, that particular Alligator jam is almost identical to the other Alligators from Dec '69.) Everything else is available (in more complete versions) on the Archive copies of these shows.
    I should have added links - will do that later.

    This particular set isn't very common, but as with any show, there are a few ways to find it. Those who do torrents, I believe it's available at lossless legs. Or, you can look up traders who have this set at etree and ask for a trade or b&p (does anyone do those anymore, or has the download age killed it off?). Or, you can try asking for a copy at the Internet Archive GD Forum, there are sometimes some helpful folks on there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The "4. Jam-> Goodnight Jam - 8min" you speak of sounds similar to the one in the 2-7-69 show at the Stanley Theater as listed in Archive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That jam is not from 2-7-69, although that's another unique example of an Alligator with a China Cat riff. (Weir also plays the Cat's Squirrel riff during the 2/7/69 Alligator, as he tries to channel Cream...)
    I'm pretty certain that jam is from a Dec '69 show we don't have - perhaps 12/22/69?

    ReplyDelete
  6. An alert listener has pointed out that the mystery Alligator jam is actually from 2-5-70.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's all about the timing. Just got it off Lossless Legs. Only took about 2 minutes to download.

    ReplyDelete