Remembering Quincy Jones and The Grateful Dead having fun on Stage with the The Jones Gang Incident

Deadhead Cannabis Show

Phil Lesh: A Tribute to a Musical Icon

In this episode of the Deadhead Cannabis Show, Larry Mishkin discusses the significance of the Grateful Dead's concert on November 4, 1977, at Colgate University, along with various music news updates, tributes to Phil Lesh, and reflections on Quincy Jones's legacy. The conversation highlights the dynamics of the band during the concert, the impact of newer jam bands like Goose, and the importance of preserving musical legacies through releases like Dave's Picks. In this episode, Larry discusses the latest music news, particularly focusing on the Grateful Dead's legacy and their recent box set releases. He reflects on the band's unique performances and the significance of their music. The conversation then shifts to marijuana legalization efforts, particularly in Florida, where a recent ballot measure was rejected despite public support. Larry expresses disappointment in the political landscape surrounding marijuana and emphasizes the benefits of legalization. The episode concludes with a deep dive into a specific Grateful Dead performance, highlighting the band's improvisational style and the joy their music brings to fans.

Takeaways

• This episode was recorded on Election Day, November 5th.
• The Grateful Dead's show on November 4, 1977, is a highlight.
• The Jones Gang incident showcased the band's playful dynamics.
• Goose represents the new generation of jam bands.
• Phil Lesh's influence on music and improvisation is profound.
• Quincy Jones's legacy in music is celebrated.
• Dave's Picks Volume 52 features a remarkable concert.
• The importance of preserving musical history through recordings.
• Larry reflects on his personal experiences with the Grateful Dead.
• The episode blends cannabis culture with music appreciation. Music brings joy and relaxation after a long day.
• The Grateful Dead's legacy continues to inspire new generations.
• Unique performances can redefine classic songs.
• Marijuana legalization faces political challenges despite public support.
• The benefits of marijuana legalization are well-documented.
• Music and cannabis culture often intersect in meaningful ways.
• The improvisational nature of the Grateful Dead's music is a hallmark of their performances.
• Public sentiment can sometimes clash with political decisions.
• The Grateful Dead's music remains timeless and relevant.
• Engaging with music and cannabis responsibly enhances the experience.

Sound Bites

• "This is a special episode being taped on Election Day."
• "It's just a big love fest with all these guys."
• "Phil has changed my life."
• "Quincy was the man I won my first Grammy with."
• "It's a wonderful, wonderful show."
• "You just don't know what you're missing out on."
• "It's just cool to hear it."
• "This is a pretty amazing second set."
• "It's a very cool segue from one into the other."
• "It's a must hear."
• "It's a wonderful part of the show."
• "It's a very unfortunate thing that this happened."
• "People in Florida are gonna smoke marijuana anyway."
• "It's a great way to end this wonderful show."

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Context of the Episode

03:45Exploring the Grateful Dead's November 4, 1977 Show

11:34The Jones Gang Incident and Band Dynamics

16:49Music News: Goose and Gen 3 Jam Bands

20:51Tributes to Phil Lesh and Reflections on Legacy

25:30Remembering Quincy Jones: A Musical Legend

30:06Dave's Picks Volume 52: A Review

36:30Celebrating Music and New Releases

38:53Exploring the Grateful Dead's Legacy

44:17Marijuana News and Legalization Efforts

01:01:01Deep Dive into Grateful Dead Performances

01:09:55Closing Thoughts and Reflections

LARRY'S NOTES:

Grateful Dead November 11, 1977 (47 years ago)

Cotterrell Gymnasium

Colgate University

Hamilton, NY

Grateful Dead Live at Cotterrell Gym, Colgate U on 1977-11-04 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Dave’s Picks #12

This show literally “popped up out of nowhere” during the very famous fall tour of the very famous 1977 year of touring. On November 1st they played in Detroit’s legendary Cobo Hall. The next night up in Toronto. They had Nov. 3 set for Utica, NY but the show fell through a few weeks before. They were still set for Rochester on Nov. 5th (which was released as Dick’s Picks #34) and Binghamton on Nov. 7th. So less than 4 weeks before this show, while already hitting the road, negotiations began for this show which were only finalized the night before.

Cotterrell gym on the Colgate campus is a small venue. Think large high school gym with pull out bleachers. There were only 3,000 folks at the show. But 2300 of them were held for Colgate students so only 700 were sold to the public or really the Deadheads. A tough ticket as the Heads used to say. But those who made it in had a ball and saw one of the best shows of the year.

One of those shows that lots of Deadheads wished they had seen.

This version of the show from Archive, is an audience tape and a great contrast to other episodes where we have featured Dead show clips from audience tapes. This one was taped by Jerry Moore who was set up directly behind the soundboard. Go to Archive and check out the entire show.

On a personal note, glad to see that Archive is back up and running after its hacking episode a few weeks ago.

INTRO: Dupree’s Diamond Blues

Track #8

2:50 – 4:52

• "Dupree's Diamond Blues" is based on an American folk song titled "Frankie Dupree," which was based on a real historical figure named Frank Dupree.
  According to In The Pine: Selected Kentucky Folksongs, Dupree tried robbing a diamond wedding ring from a jewelry store in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1921. He intended to give the ring to his girlfriend Betty. When a police officer showed up, Dupree shot him dead. He then fled to Chicago where he killed another officer and wounded others.
  Authorities eventually apprehended Dupree while he was getting his mail. They shipped him back to Atlanta where he was executed on September 1, 1922.
• The song is the second track on the Grateful Dead's third album, Aoxomoxoa (1969). As with most of the songs on the album, Dead lyricist Robert Hunter wrote the words and Dead frontman Jerry Garcia wrote the music.
• Well when I get those jelly roll blues
  The term "jelly roll" was once common African American slang for a woman's genitalia. The great ragtime pianist Jelly Roll Morton took his name from that very meaning. In 1924, Morton recorded an influential jazz song titled "Jelly Roll Blues," which is most likely what Hunter is referencing here.

• Debuted in January, 1969 and played a total of 17 times that year.

• Then dropped until Oct 2, 1977 at the Paramount Theater in Portland, OR, played 4 times that year, this version being the last one of the year.

• Played twice in 1978, then put back on the shelf until Aug. 28, 1982 at the Oregon County Fair in Veneta, OR (home to the famous show from August 27, 1972 to support the Creamery).

• From ’82 to ’90 played at least once a year, ’85 was the outlier with 16 performances

• Only played two more times, both in 1994.

This is a great version with Jerry’s lyrics and playing both very strong.

The 8th song of the first set following: GO TO ARCHIVE LINK

A beautiful Bertha opening but I have featured that song so much, and it is such a common opener, that I needed to go with something else today. I love it from the 1969 Fillmore West shows where two of the nights the second set would start with DuPree’s into Mountains of the Moon before jumping into the fabulous Dark Star/St. Stephen/11/Lovelight suite (in my humble opinion, the best suite of songs ever played by the Dead and certainly the one that best defines the band and the basic foundation that supports so much of their music.

Played: 82 times

First: January 24, 1969 at Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: October 13, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA

SHOW No. 1: Tuning (start of second set, stage banter re Jones Gang)

Track #10

:15 – End

Why did Phil do this? To kill time, he was dosed, adding a bit of levity to the evening’s proceedings. Or there is this:

Two nights before the Dead played in Toronto at Seneca College’s Field House. The night before was at Cobo Hall in Detroit. So they took the 3d off while traveling from Toronto to Hamilton, NY to play this show. Apparently, the band could not or did not want to try to take their stash into Canada. Keith Richards of the Stones had just been busted in Canada for possession and no one wanted to take any chances. SO . . . . it seems they were “jonesing” from something, weed, acid, or whatever.

Many of the Deadhead reports of the show in Archive and at the Dead Setlist Program note that the guys seemed very stoned or, more likely, dosed. They were wearing sunglasses indoors in the evening.

Good friend Henry was a student at Colgate in 1977 and attended the show. In telling me about it, he basically began with the Jones Gang episode. So it was cool to finally hear the show and hear Phil do his thing. A great way to keep everybody entertained while waiting for some technical issues to be resolved. And something that was sadly missing in their later years when basically none of them said anything while on stage, Bobby sporadically with a comment and Jerry I saw speak from the stage maybe 5 times out of 110 shows. This is the kind of stuff that normalized them and separated them from the button down rock acts that showed up, played the same set list that they had played all tour and would keep playing When they spoke it was all pre planned, “Thank you (insert name of city where they are playing).

And then launched into a killer Samson (even though it was a Friday). Just part of another great Dead experience and the kind of thing that makes it easy to remember the show even years later. Everyone talks about the Jones Gang show, maybe more than they think of it as a Colgate show or Hamilton, NY show. Sure took Henry back.

MUSIC NEWS: Music Intro:

Cold Rain & Snow

Goose

10.25.2024

LJVM Coliseum

Winston-Salem, N.C.

Goose - “Cold Rain and Snow” (10/25/24 - LJVM Coliseum - Winston-Salem, NC) (youtube.com)

0:10 – 1:05

Another Phil tribute by one of the most promising Gen3 (Gen1 = Dead; Gen2=Phish) jam bands on the scene. Not the first time they have covered the Dead, but it’s a damn good cover of a tune that traces its Dead roots to their very first album and even before that. Jerry loved it. Phil made it happen and restarted his singing career on the closing chorus in 1982 at MSG. And Goose nails it here. They really bring it every time they play. The jam band that I figure will outlast me!

1. Mickey and Mike Gordon statements on Phil’s passing:

1. Quincy Jones dies:

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024 at 91) was an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer.[1] Over his course of his career he received several accolades including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for seven Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.[2]

Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor before producing pop hit records for Lesley Gore in the early 1960s (including "It's My Party") and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between the jazz artists Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Jones produced three of the most successful albums by pop star Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). In 1985, Jones produced and conducted the charity song "We Are the World", which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.[3]

Jones composed numerous films scores including for The Pawnbroker (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), The Italian Job (1969), The Wiz (1978), and The Color Purple (1985). He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the miniseries Roots (1977). He received a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical as a producer for the revival of The Color Purple (2016).

Throughout career he was the recipient of numerous honorary awards including the Grammy Legend Award in 1992, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the National Medal of the Arts in 2011, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2024. He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.[1]

"I woke up today to the Terrible news that we lost Quincy Jones.. Genius is a description loosely used but Rarely deserved. Point blank, Quincy was the MAN. I won my 1st Grammy with Quincy and I live with his Wisdom daily," Ice-T on X.

1. Dave's Picks, Volume 52 (The Downs At Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM • 9/11/83)

Time to order Dave’s Picks 2025 subscription. I say it every year.

SHOW No. 2: Eyes of the World

Track #15

11:10 – END

INTO

Estimated Prophet

Track #16

Start - :20

The unique thing in this segment is that it is the first, and one of the only times, that the band played Eyes into Estimated as it was almost always played as Estimated>Eyes. This is the end of Eyes jam and segue into Estimated. Very cool to hear it played “backwards”. This entire Eyes (all 13 minutes of it), is magnificent and a must hear if you are looking for some great Dead jamming to rock to. On this night, the boys were apparently in a state of mind that let them do a bit of exploring away from the norm for them, if there even is a “Dead norm”. It sure worked out well for the rest of us.

SHOW No. 3: The Other One

Track #17

:52 – 3:00

We’ve featured this song so many times, discussed the whole That’s It For The Other One suite and all of its subparts. This one is the opposite, a 4 minutes 20 seconds version, with the first 3+ minutes just a hard jam. They only sing the first verse of the standard Other One and then head straight into Drums. This clip just features the jam with Jerry leading the way. So clean and powerful, if 1977 is the best year ever for the band, then this has to be one of its peaks. Maybe not the best of ’77 because Barton Hall, but still way up there for nights when the band was truly smoking hot and holding nothing back. Some of the best post-1970 psychedelic Dead that you will ever hear. Everyone in sync and making the magic that kept us all coming back for more until there was no more to come back to. Just buckle in and enjoy the ride.

Played: 550 times

First: October 31, 1967 at Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago

MJ NEWS:

SHOW No. 4: Playin Reprise

Track #21

3:00 – 6:34

"Playing in the Band" is a song by the Grateful Dead. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter and rhythm guitaristBob Weir composed the music, with some assistance from percussionist Mickey Hart.[1] The song first emerged in embryonic form on the self-titled 1971 live albumGrateful Dead. It then appeared in a more polished form on Ace, Bob Weir's first solo album (which included every Grateful Dead member except Ron "Pigpen" McKernan).

During a Bob Weir and Wolf Bros concert livestream on February 12, 2021, Weir credited David Crosby with the composition of the main riff. Weir stated, "David Crosby came up with the seminal lick... and then he left. We were out at Mickey's barn. So Mickey said, 'Make a song out of that'. Next day, I had it".[

It has since become one of the best-known Grateful Dead numbers and a standard part of their repertoire. According to Deadbase X, it ranks fourth on the list of songs played most often in concert by the band with 581 performances.

In the Grateful Dead's live repertoire, all songs featured musical improvisation and many featured extended instrumental solos; but certain key songs were used as starting points for serious collective musical improvisation—the entire band creating spontaneously all at once. In this regard "Playing in the Band" was of major importance, second only to "Dark Star". During "Playing in the Band" the Grateful Dead would play the planned verses and choruses of the song itself; then they would improvise and explore brand new musical territory, sometimes for twenty minutes or more; and then the chorus would usually be reprised, to bring the song to its end. Sometimes during these extended "jams", the band would even perform other entire songs, before at last coming back around to the final chorus aka the “Reprise”.

On some occasions, more early on than later, the band would play the main song, jam for some amount of time and slide back in for the reprise. Its performance in this style on 21 May 1974 at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle has been cited as the longest uninterrupted performance of a single song in the Grateful Dead's history, clocking in at 46 minutes and 32 seconds.[3][4] It was released in 2018 on the boxset Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings and as its own LP. Very cool – an entire album just for one song. Like Phish’ Ruby Waves at Alpine Valley in 2019 got its own album.

Then later they might add a song or two in between the main portion and the reprise.

Then later they might hold it for the encore the same night the main song had been performed.

Then later, they might hold it until the night after the main song had been performed and then two nights later and sometimes 3. Not uncommon for play the main song the first night of a multi-night run and then the reprise the last night. Usually during the show, but as stated, sometimes in the encore.

Then they might forget to ever get back to it, play the main song again and the whole process would repeat as everyone would wait to see if and when they would finally play the reprise.

David Dodd: To me, the unpredictability of a “Playin” jam was always a highlight of a show. It could get incredibly far out there—completely away from anything—and then, just like that, snap back in, quietly and cautiously or slam-bang, or later, after they’d played most of another song, or a whole set, into the “Playin Reprise.” Sometimes the reprise would never occur.

While it usually ran 3 or 4 minutes, this show’s reprise went almost 7 minutes with an extended jam before they every got to the reprise lyrics.

For Phish fans, think Twe-pri. For non Phish fans that’s the song Tweezer and its “reprise” and that band takes all sorts of liberties with it. Not so unlike the Dead’s style as previously discussed but most famously, at least as far as I know as a still neophyte Phish head, during their 13 show Baker’s Dozen run at MSG, Phish played Tweezer the very first night on July 21st to open the second set and then the Twi-Pri finally showed up on August 6th as the second song of the encore after On The Road Again to close out the entire 13 night run.

Reprises are great!

Played: 648 times (no separate breakdown for how may Reprises were played but I’m sure there were times they never got back to a reprise although one year April Fools 1985 at Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland MA – actually March 31st but called it their April Fools joke even though they did play again the next night, April 1, at the same venue - they played the reprise first and then the main song)

First: February 18, 1971 at Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, USA

Last: July 5, 1995 at the Riverport Amphitheater in Maryland Heights (St. Louis), MO

OUTRO Johnny B. Goode (Bob – “Happy Homecoming”)

Track #22

0:12 – 2:08

We’ve also featured this song quite a bit, a Chuck Berry classic covered by almost every rock n roll band that ever played a set of music and even some that never did. Its guitar intro is as famous a song opening as any in the genre. I love this version because of Bobby’s greetings to the students wishing them a happy homecoming! Imagine going to your high school or college homecoming dance and the band is the Grateful Dead. Now that’s a story to tell. Not sure and I don’t think it really matters whether that weekend was or was not Colgate’s homecoming. It just showed that stoned and all, Bobby knew he was on a college campus.

Almost always played as an encore or show closer if no encore. Unlike another Chuck Berry classic covered by the Dead, The Promised Land, which could be played as a show opener, set closer, second set opener, encore, it would pop up just about anywhere.

Great way to end a great show. The boys just blow the walls down on this one. Or, as commenter RFKROX posted back in 2008 about this version, “Oh, and the Johnny B. Goode is the most incredible rockin’ version I’ve ever heard this band play!! It’s the fucking SHIT!!” I couldn’t have said it any better myself!

Played: 283 times

First: September 7, 1969 at Family Dog on the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: April 5, 1995 at Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum, Birmingham, AL, USA - very interesting, not played at all on the final summer tour.

.Produced by PodConx

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast