| Tech Note | COMMENTS He Was A Friend cuts off. Song order is speculation by Teddy GoodBear,
based on the late 70's tape and cuts.
Jeff Tiedrich:
No way this is 9/29/67, which is where Deadbase moved this list for Vol 9. Their
contention is that this is the famous Mickey's first show falls apart when you
hear the entire tape. Alligator comes to a definite conclusion and is no way
part of the infamous two-hour Alligator/Caution.
David Sorochty:
The info in Deadbase about 5/5/67 really being 9/29/67 is not so of course. The
song order I have is:
Dancin'
Golden Road >
New Potato
Alligatior
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Alligator starts and comes to a complete finish, so all the talk of a two hour
long Alligator (for the show on this tape at least) is not possible. The info
listed in Deadbase saying Alligator---> Caution is obviously wrong then too.
Teddy GoodBear:
On my older tape that I got in the late 70's -
He Was A Friend Of Mine# [4:24]
#Stage Banter [:50] Jerry: "...We're stalling...corn plaster on his bass drum" >
Golden Road [1:58] Bob: "This one is for Laughlin" >
Caboose# [6:48]
On my newer tape that I got in the 80's -
#Stage Banter [2:08] Jerry: "...We're stalling...corn plaster on his bass drum"
>
Golden Road [2:11] Bob: "This one is for Laughlin" >
Caboose [9:14]
Alligator [11:00]
He Was A Friend Of Mine# [5:06]
What's DeadBase's logic? Does anybody hear Mickey on the tape? I don't. So if
there is no Mickey then the tape has to be before 9/29/67 or whenever Mickey was
out of the band during the early 70's. I'll go along with labeling it,
"circulates as 5/5/67, but date is uncertain".
As I said, I got my older copy around the late 70's from a NY trader who had a
lot of "Fillmore" tapes in his collection. He told me the date & said it was
from the Fillmore. Assuming we believe it's from the Fillmore, that narrows down
the date quite a bit.
And if you look at these songs, they fit in with the other "timeframe wise"
dates these songs were being played. If I came into this cold without any dates
attached to this tape, I would say based upon other setlists that this was
3/19/67, 4/12/67 or 5/5+6/67.
Christian Crumlish, his unedited review some of which was published in "The
DeadHead's Taping Compendium vol. #1":
05/05/67, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, California
[stage banter], The Golden Road > New Potato Caboose, Alligator, He Was a Friend
of Mine//
The tape itself came to me mislabeled as a "Fillmore West Acid Test 02/06/67."
Not only was there no Acid Test on that date, but there was no Fillmore West in
1967 either. It probably got called an acid test along the way because of the
trippy stage banter, labeled on my original as "The Effects of Vitamin A." My
first copy of this was an audience tape but a soundboard is now available. Some
tapes have the He Was a Friend of Mine first (before the chatter), but the
soundboard shows that it clearly comes after Alligator.
Here's a transcript of what's said on stage before The Golden Road:
--tuning sound--
?:
Wheeeeeew
Bob and others:
aaaaghh, urrrghhh, etc.
Jerry:
We're stalling. We're stalling while our uh drum-- I'll tell you tell you
exactly what's going on up here so nobody has to wonder anymore.
Bob?:
Lay it on me. ["on" pronounced "own"]
Jerry:
What's going on is our drummer is putting a uh corn plaster on his bass drum.
Phil?:
He is lifting his left thumb....
Jerry:
That's what's happening.
--bass drumming and cheers, organ notes--
Bob:
OK now this is a drop-out song and as far as you all are drop-outting, dance
dance dance....
?:
waauugh!
?:
Did somebody say "waaaugh!"?
?:
waaaaeghh
Bob:
Everybody say "waaaa!"
?:
Waaaagh!
Bob:
Thank you--
Jerry:
Gosh
Pigpen:
Let me hear everybody say "fuck!"
audience (weakly):
Fuck!
Jerry (languid):
Louuuder.
Bob:
Everybody say "dope"
audience:
dope!
Jerry:
awww
Bob:
Everybody say "primate"
??:
What?
Jerry:
Say what?
Bobby:
Oh yeah? ... Everybody say "What?"
audience:
What!
??? (goober voice):
Whut?
Jerry:
Hey that was good that was good.
Phil:
Everybody say "Ohhh noooo!"
audience:
No!
Pig (singing):
T'ain't nothing 'a me...
--golden road starts--
Here are some glimpses into the personalities of the members of the band:
Bobby tends to take things to an abstracted level, his cry of "primate" is not
taken up and leaves even the other band members puzzled. Phil's suggestion seems
to be based on the sound that people sometimes make when they're tripping too
hard. Pig's contribution is more earthy and natural.
The hippie attitude without the intellectual pretensions. Jerry, back when he
still spoke from the stage, is actually filling in the audience on what's going
on upstage, in a small way leveling the barrier between performer and fans.
The Golden Road is energetic and over quickly, segueing neatly into New Potato.
(Bobby says something like "This one if for Laughlin" before launching into the
first verse.
Highlights: The Golden Road, Bobby's inarticulate lysergic insight that we're
all primates. |
