Club Front Street Shakedown!

Artifacts of the Week: Shakedown Street Artifacts!
Club Front pix, Shakedown Street promo 45 and 8-Track

Tape of the Week: a 3-Decade Survey of Club Front Rehearsals

Put on your Zoot Suit because this week, Dark Star Palace is going to take a trip on down to Shakedown Street...it used to be the heart of town! Yes, in the heart of the funk by the steamy canals of East San Rafael lurks the true heart of the Grateful Dead universe.  You could make a case for other Dead sites like 710 Ashbury, the business office at 5th and Lincoln, or even Olompali or Market/Van Ness if you can spin a real good tale.  But, for those of us in this space called Dark Star Palace, Club Front takes the cake and screws the pooch, too. Used by the band to write/ rehearse/ record/ overdub nearly all of their records from the late 70's on, used by the roadies and equipment crew to store and maintain all of their instruments and gear, and used by about everyone in the Dead's organization to meet, greet and hang-out or sleep...well, you think that there is nothin' here that can interest you, well, well, well...you can never tell!

Take a gander at some of the pix we snapped on a recent visit to the Dead's old studio/rehearsal hall/equipment facility/hang-out joint, and compare these with some amazing shots that David Gans took at 20 Front back in the 1970's and 1980's (be sure to check out David's Flickr blog to see more of his amazing Grateful Dead photos), as well as some of Roger Ressmeyer's shots of Front Street's recording gear during the Warfield run in 1980. While you check these photos out, you can stream a few different rehearsals we dug up from Club Front from the 70's, 80's and 90's. We'll pair all this Club Front-love with several Shakedown Street artifacts and toss in a few videos for good measure. Hell, you'll even find out how Club Front helped Bob Dylan go Born-Again (music that is, not Jesus). So don't tell me this town ain't got no heart!  You just gotta poke around....

This week, the Artifact(s) of the Week contain some pure 1970's gems....(can I hear a bow-shacka-bow-bow..do the disco duck!). We've got the 1978 Dead-gone-Disco classic, Shakedown Street- on 8-TRACK no less! We also have the Shakedown Street Promo 45/single in MONO (and stereo too).  For some reason, I always thought that this album sounds best in mono. Seems to the folks in the Palace that you need a '77 TRANS-AM blasting the AM-radio mono mix as you cruise around East San Rafael with the windows down, tunes blaring, smoke danglin' from the lip and a big 'ole grin on yer face.  Can you feel that 90 degree heat? Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart... 'cause I can hear it beat out loud! WHEW!

In particular, this 8-track is a real treat.  When did these things die out anyway?  Around the same time when Betamax was introduced?  And Mono...was mono really an essential promotional audio release vehicle in the late 1970's?  Even the Beatles had phased out official mono mixes by 1969, so this seems really interesting that Arista deemed a mono mix necessary.  AM radio must be the answer! That, or they realized Garcia's love of mixing to tiny 5" speakers in the center of Front Street's Neve 80-series mixing console (can I hear a YEAH! for a future Palace blog on these speakers? Indeed, the Palace has an original Dead-used pair of these Hard Trucker's gems that we will check out soon).

Now, the Shakedown Street album was recorded at Club Le Front from July 31 to August 18, 1978. Work was stopped so that the band could head off to Egypt and jam at the pyramids under the Dark Star. It was released on November 15, 1978 (as Arista, AB 4198). The Shakedown Street single was released in April, 1979 (Arista, AS 0410) as a 3 minute, 46 second single mix. It was released as a double-A side with Shakedown in stereo on one side, and mono on the other.  This was many, many months after the original single pairing of Shakedown / France was released as a 45.  From what I have found out, no 45 picture sleeve was ever put out...just the generic Arista sleeve (why was the great Shakedown Zoot Suit man not used?  Why was it used instead for the Good Lovin' 45?? Weird). The copy at the Palace is the DJ-only, "leased" promotional version.

Visiting Club Le Front was quite interesting.  I had always wanted to visit, but before the days of GPS devices and Google Maps, it proved to be somewhat more difficult to find.  I headed to East San Rafael with my wife and 7-month old son only to find that...well...not all that much had changed since it's 70's heyday.  It was still sketchy on the street... drug deals were taking place in the hotel complex right across the street from the studio (you can see that same building in the pix of Robert Hunter and Betty Cantor-Jackson on Sonny's motorbike). I just said hello and waved and stopped in to chat with a few folks at the local businesses on the steet (car repair, storage facility, etc.). What was interesting was that out on the curb, if you listened really intensely, you could still hear some Dead tunes playing in mono on an AM radio down the way...only to be interrupted by a Hell's Angels cruising on down the avenue.

In doing a bit of research on 20 Front, I learned that it had been taken over by a pluming supply company after the Dead moved up to Novato in the early 1990's. I tracked down this pluming company's manager, because I thought it would be great for the Palace to preserve the 20 Front Street sign before it completely fell apart.  Glad I called this guy, because he let me know that he actually had his team put that sign up well after the Dead moved out! Amazing that it looked so cracked and aged already. He said that "20 Front" was originally just painted on the front of the building and was pretty faded....so they repainted the building and put up the sign.  

When I asked about other artifacts that may have emerged, he said the place was "a bit nasty," or something along those lines, when they took the lease over from the owner. Sounds like there were some areas for roadies/engineers to crash that hadn't been cleaned since Jimmy Carter's time. This pluming crew then gutted the entire building and "found a few drumsticks and stuff, but nothing worthwhile."  He closed out by saying that several members of the Dead had come by after Jerry Garcia died and were very nostalgic of the old club and walked through the building to see how it had all been transformed from a Rock and Roll haven into pluming supply madness!

This week's Tape of Week will actually be a survey of three decades of Club Front rehearsals!  I've linked a few streams of some interesting sessions from 1975, 1987 and 1992.  The 1987 sessions are quite famous, as these tapes are the best surviving examples of Bob Dylan jamming and collaborating with the Grateful Dead.  We all know that the official release from their 1987 tour was a bit of a letdown...OK...a total letdown (besides the great cover). Was this due to Bob insisting to monitor the mixes on a boom box? Jerry thinks so! Anyway, these tapes are a real thrill.  I remember when I first saw bootlegs come out on CD of these sessions in the early 1990's when I was in Boulder, Colorado.  I believe they came out under the title of "the French Girl."   

Bob Dylan credited these sessions for his "rebirth" with music, and sure enough, Dylan's "Never Ending Tour" kicked off right after his round of playing with the Dead.  In his autobiography, Chronicles Volume 1, there is an amazing section how he walked out on these rehearsals at Club Front (ready to quit) and wandered down Front Street into a dive bar down a few blocks from the studio...he walks in, he sees a soul band playing in the corner, a heavenly light strikes him from above and the Bard receives a vision for how he will sing, phrase, write and perform going forward in his life.  Thank you Grateful Dead!  Thank you Front Street! I've just added some shots of this bar in case you want to see the old sailors bar off of Front Street that completely altered Bob Dylan's career.  Even had a few drinks there to celebrate before seeing Bob and Phil play a show a block away. Some of Bob's best work has come directly from that vision in this bar...you must be ready when opportunity knocks!

Anyway, these rehearsals below are an amazing window on the band as they work up new tunes, jam on old standards, joke around (great stuff on the 90's stream), and lay the groundwork for magical jams to come... Hope you enjoy!!

• Club Front Rehearsals 1975
• Club Front Rehearsals 1987 (w/ Bob Dylan)
• Club Front Rehearsals 1992

In terms of videos of the Grateful Dead at Front Street, here's one from the 1990's:

And now for some Shakedown's from NYC 1980 and Germany 1981:

For those of you craving even more detail on the Shakedown Street release, this info comes to you from DeadDisc:

Tracks

• Good Lovin' (Resnick/Clark)
• France (Hart/Weir/Hunter)
• Shakedown Street (Garcia/Hunter)
• Serengetti (Hart/Kreutzmann)
• Fire On The Mountain (Hart/Hunter)
• I Need A Miracle (Weir/Barlow)
• From The Heart Of Me (D. Godchaux)
• Stagger Lee (Garcia/Hunter)
• All New Minglewood Blues (Tradition arr. Bob Weir)
• If I Had The World To Give (Garcia/Hunter)

Bonus tracks on CD version released in the Beyond Description box set in 2004 and as a separate CD in 2006;

• Good Lovin' (Resnick / Clark) - Studio outtake featuring Lowell George, 7/28/78
• Ollin Arageed (Hamza El Din) - Live, Egypt, 9/16/78
• Fire On The Mountain (Hart / Hunter) - Live, Egypt, 9/16/78
• Stagger Lee (Garcia / Hunter) - Live, Egypt, 9/15/78
• All New Minglewood Blues (Traditional) - Live, Passaic, 11/24/78

Musicians

• Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
• Donna Godchaux - vocals
• Keith Godchaux - keyboards
• Mickey Hart - drums, percussion
• Robert Hunter - lyrics
• Billy Kreutzmann - drums, percussion
• Phil Lesh - bass, vocals
• Bob Weir - guitar, vocals

Additional musicians:

• Jordan Amarantha - percussion
• Matthew Kelly - harp
• Steve Schuster - horn (on From The Heart Of Me)

Additional musicians on CD bonus tracks:

• Lowell George - lead vocals (on Good Lovin' studio outtake)
• Hamza El Din - oud, tar, hand clapping, vocals (on Ollin Arageed)
• The Nubian Youth Choir - hand clapping, tar, vocals (on Ollin Arageed)

Credits

• Producer - Lowell George
• Co-Producer - Dan Healy
• Associate Producer - John Kahn
• Engineer - Bob Matthews
• Engineer (Serengetti only) - Brett Cohen
• Horn arrangements - John Kahn
• Artwork - Gilbert Shelton
• Assistants - Ramrod, Steve Parish, Bill Candelario, Robbie Taylor, John Hagen, Jeffrey Boden, Betty Cantor-Jackson, Harry Popick, Brett Cohen, Sue Stephens
• Recorded and mixed at Club Le Front, San Rafael, CA, 7/31/78 - 8/18/78
• Mastered by George Horn at the Automat, San Francisco
• Serengetti recorded by MERT at Meta Tantay, Carlin, Nevada

Notes

The Dead chose Lowell George as producer in an attempt to get away from the 'in charge producer' role that they had whilst recording Terrain Station with Keith Olsen. According to Garcia: "We chose Lowell George because we wanted someone who understood band mechanics."

Bill Kreutzmann commented in an interview;... Lowell was really like a member of the band more. If we were working on a song and he didn't feel it was going right, he'd just grab a guitar and come into the studio and show us how he felt it. That was one of the ways he'd communicate, and it worked great. I had a tremendous amount of respect for him. The recording was interrupted by the Egypt tour in 1978. After that tour the Dead cancelled shows in the UK to finish Shakedown Street so that it would be released for their tour in the US in late 1978. Lowell George was not available for the final stages of putting together the album and the production work was completed by John Kahn

Related releases

Two singles were released in conjunction with this LP:

• Good Lovin' / Stagger Lee, Grateful Dead, 1978
• Shakedown Street / France, Grateful Dead, 1978

A promotional single comprising two versions of Shakedown Street was also distributed:

• Shakedown Street promo, Grateful Dead, 1978

A third single included one song from Shakedown Street:

• Alabama Getaway / Shakedown Street, Grateful Dead, 1981

Released on CD in 1986, Arista ARCD-4198.

A remastered, expanded version of Shakedown Street was included in the box set;

• Beyond Description, Grateful Dead, Oct 2004

This remastered, expanded version was released as a single CD in 2006.

Good Lovin', Shakedown Street, Fire On The Mountain and I Need A Miracle were included on;

• The Arista Years, Grateful Dead, 1996

The Shakedown Street CD release was included in;

• Dead Zone: The Grateful Dead CD Collection (1977-1987), Grateful Dead, 1987

Fire On The Mountain was included on;

• The Very Best Of The Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead, 2003

During the week that Shakedown Street was released the Grateful Dead appeared on Saturday Night Live to promote the album. They played three songs I Need A Miracle, Good Lovin' and Casey Jones. Casey Jones was included on the compilation album;

• SNL ²⁵ Saturday Night Live: The Musical performances, Volume 1, Various Artists, September 1999

 

ESP and the Dead

Artifact of the Week: Grateful Dead ESP!
Original copy of the Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine, Volume 20, No. 1, 1973

Tape of the Week: 2/18/71

This week, we are going to be taking a look at one of the good 'ole weird Grateful Dead experiments...an ESP "dream telepathy" experiment done across 5 shows in February, 1971 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. Dark Star Palace has a copy of the original publication from the Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine from early 1973 that contained the first official publication on the experiments.  We are going to pair this artifact with a tape of the opening night of the run... which happens to contain a version of Dark Star known simply as "Beautiful Jam." It is also the first known "Betty Board" tape, the last full show with Mickey Hart on drums until 1975, and contains the debut performance of Playing in the Band, Wharf Rat, Loser, Greatest Story, and Bertha!

This week's Artifact of the Week was a really great find...an original copy of the Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine from 1973. Now, this is one WEIRD publication.  First off, when I first opened up this journal, there was a poem written by one of the Doctor's...interesting to say the least! Then, the article after the Dead's ESP experiment was on "Personality Correlates of Venereal Disease Experience."  The fact that this is a society of "Psychosomatic Dentists and Doctors" makes one really wonder what other professions I could have landed in over the years.  Anyway, it's weird, that's all.

Moving along, Dr. Stanley Krippner was the main doc behind the experiment.  He was very interested to see how psychedelics and an audience of 2,000+ people would affect "mind to mind transmissions."  As written up in 2007 when the ESP / Dead experiment was revisited in another blog, here were the basics (link to the article):

"The purpose of the particular experiment with the Grateful Dead was to look at how the dream ESP experience of the receiver was affected if the number of senders was multiplied by about 2,000. In other words, would dream ESP improve if more than one sender was used; in this case, nearly 2,000 senders? The band members of The Grateful Dead, having visited the Maimonides sleep lab and learned about the dream ESP research going on there, agreed to try a dream ESP experiment with their audience during a series of six concerts they were giving in early 1971 (Krippner, Honorton, & Ullman, 1973).

The concerts were being held at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York- about 45 miles away from the Maimonides Hospital. The experiment was focused on dream telepathy, with the senders being the audience of “Deadheads” and the receiver being English psychic subject Malcolm Bessent, who had scored well in previous ESP experiments, particularly in those testing for precognition. Each night in the sleep lab at Maimonides, Bessent would go to bed early so that he would be asleep by 11:30 PM, when the experiment would begin. At that same time, the audience in attendance at The Grateful Dead concert would be shown a series of six slides that were being projected onto a large screen above the stage. The first five slides shown to the audience read:

   1. You are about to participate in an ESP experiment.
   2. In a few seconds you will see a picture.
   3. Try using your ESP to “send” this picture to Malcolm Bessent.
   4. He will try to dream about the picture. Try to “send” it to him.
   5. Malcolm Bessent is now at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory in Brooklyn.

The audience would then be shown the sixth slide, containing a randomly selected art print or a photograph, for 15 minutes while The Grateful Dead continued to perform on stage. Observers at the concert noticed that the majority of the people in the audience were already in an altered state of consciousness by the time of the experiment, having been brought about by the rock music, by the contact between people in the crowd, and, of course, by people “tripping” on LSD and other psychedelic drugs during the concert.

Unbeknownst to the audience, there was also a second receiver involved in the experiment in addition to Bessent. This second receiver was Felicia Parise, a medical technician at Maimonides who also had been successful in previous dream ESP experiments. She spent the night in her apartment and was called every 90 minutes during the experiment and asked about any dreams she was having. Since the focus of the audience was on Bessent, the researchers thought it would be interesting to see whether a “control” receiver whose name the audience did not know could pick up on ESP information being “sent” by 2,000 senders, or whether the information would be limited only to Bessent, a finding that might tell us something about the interpersonal nature of ESP.

....In all, Bessent was able to successfully dream about the picture the concert audience was sending a total of 4 times (out of 6 concert nights), a result that is greater than chance alone by statistical standards. On the other hand, Parise was only to successfully dream about the picture once out of six times. This suggests that the ESP information was mostly limited to Bessent in real-time, and that some kind of focusing by the senders toward the receiver may play a role in the manifestation of telepathy. However, when looking closely at Parise’s data, there is some indication that her ESP was displaced in time. As the example above shows, it seems that Parise was able to dream about the concert picture a few nights after it was shown, and in some cases, she apparently was able to dream about it before it was shown (in other words, she was dreaming about a picture that would be shown at a Grateful Dead concert a few nights into the future, suggesting precognition). In general, it seems that this dream experiment with The Grateful Dead was successful for the most part, giving us a hint about how using multiple senders may influence the telepathic experience of the receiver." 

Below are a few links if you want more detailed info on the Grateful Dead ESP experiments, including the full text from the original journal publication.

• http://dozin.com/esp/thedream.html
• http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/169/the_grateful_deads_acid_test_for_esp.html
• http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/235-Revisiting-a-Dream-ESP-Experiment-with-The-Grateful-Dead.html
• http://stanleykrippner.weebly.com/a-pilot-study-in-dream-telepathy-with-the-grateful-dead.html

The Tape of the Week this week is the opening night of the Port Chester ESP run: 2/18/71.  This show is a real beauty..and in fact, the portion that has been officially released (the Dark Star jam) on the "So Many Roads" box set named the jam "Beautiful Jam" in honor of how gorgeous this improvisation (ESP in action!) is. 

This 2/18 tape is special in other ways too. It is the first Dead show that Betty Cantor-Jackson recorded and was one of the first that circulated after Betty's treasure chest of master reels was put up for auction (sources show that this current tape first circulated on DAT and cassette in 1996).  In addition, it was the LAST full show Mickey Hart would play with the band until 1975 (outside of his 1-song encore at the Winterland "The Final One" show on 10/20/74). It also showed the debut of 5, count em...5, classic new songs (Playing in the Band, Loser, Bertha, Greatest Story and Wharf Rat).  Wow!!  It was recorded on multi-track for the Skullfuck album, but was not used. The Palace predicts a Road Trips release on this down the road apiece....

Since the next night of the run, 2/19/71, has now been officially released via the master multi-track reels on "Three from the Vault," a lot of Dead Heads have overlooked 2/18.  Don't miss it!  I've provided some links below so you can do your own ESP tests at home with some of your friends by streaming or downloading the soundboard. Enjoy!!

• http://www.archive.org/details/gd71-02-18.sbd.orf.107.sbeok.shnf
• http://stash.nugs.net/attics/710218_mp3.asp?artist=1&show=59&cmd=shows
• http://www.dead.net/features/gd-radio-hour/grateful-dead-hour-no-361?page=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=d1igVj3w8KE&feature=watch_response (Beautiful Jam Video tribute) 

Until next time at Dark Star Palace....