33 Years Ago Tonight - Blues For Salvador, HJK
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Lance minimum goad Newberry
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This classic benefit concert at the Kaiser in '88 has always been a highlight show for me. So much happened at that show; it was epically long with so much good music, a rare chance to see Jerry jam outside the GD setting, the chance to see the only time Jerry & Wayne Shorter performed together (something I'd always said would be great... it was!) and lastly, this was the night I "discovered" NRBQ, who I knew nothing about.
It was an incredible lineup of mostly Bay Area players, and pretty much everything with Carlos, Caribbean Allstars, Tower of Power, Jerry & Weir, Shorter, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs etc. was uniquely great, but my experience with NRBQ that night is probably more memorable than any of it.
I had heard of them but knew absolutely nothing about them, and when they started their set my friend & I were both, "Who the fuck are THESE guys? THEY SUCK!!" They were a noisy, goofy, disjointed mess. It didn't look like the drummer knew how to play the drums and the keyboard player was some type of spastic clown. But right when we were about to bail their set to get a beer and sit down for a while, all of a sudden the lumpy, disjointed, off-rhythm sound came together to create ROCK 'N ROLL!!!!
Their sound was like a blurry camera coming into focus, and we began to notice that the guitar player was RIPPING, the drummer was actually RIGHT in the groove and the keyboard player suddenly sounded like Thelonious Monk. I became mesmerized, and by the end of their set my friend & I were TOTAL fans. Holy cow, NRBQ with Big Al was such a great band.
I've never been able to find a recording of this show, so it's all just memory & legend in my head, but I remember it well, as a great if loooong night.
Shows like this just don't happen any more, and I was glad to see a reminder about it today.
Lineup & set lists...
First Set
Caribbean All-Stars (*w/ Santana and Armando Perassa)
01 Santana Intro [00:46]
02 Caught In The Middle [07:57]
03 Unity [07:32]
04 Rub-A-Dub Tonight [13:02]
05 Rasta* [11:57]
06 Loosen Up* [12:54]
07 Bill Graham intro/Alicia Mendoza speech [02:27]
Total time: 56:38
Second Set
Santana & Chester "CT" Thompson
01 Blues for El Salvador [03:44]
02 Santana Intro of Tower of Power [01:16]
Tower of Power
03 Real Soul Love [04:36]
04 Down To The Night Club [02:43]
05 She's a Pro (But She's a Con) [04:29]
06 How Can This Happen To Me [04:35]
07 Playin' For Keeps [04:53]
08 Way Down Low To The Ground [04:58]
Tower of Power w/ Santana, CT, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Perassa (*w/ Wayne Shorter)
09 introductions [00:59]
10 What Is Hip [11:50]
11 Soul Vaccination [09:26]
12 Mandela* [09:36]
13 Lovelight [05:04]
14 Goodnight Irene [06:30]
Tower of Power
15 You're Still A Young Man [05:14]
Total time: 79:57
Third Set
Bonnie Raitt & Johnny Lee Schell
01 Love Me Like A Man [05:54]
02 Viva El Salvador [04:42]
03 Angel from Montgomery [04:58]
04 Raitt introducing NRBQ [00:34]
NRBQ
05 I Want You To Feel Good Too [05:13]
06 White Lightnin' [04:37]
07 Let's Make Love, Not War [01:39]
08 My Baby Pulls My Strings [02:56]
09 Rocket In My Pocket [04:09]
10 Hey Baby Be My Girl [03:04]
11 Hold On Tight [04:22]
12 Get Rhythm [04:45]
NRBQ w/Bonnie Raitt & Terry Haggerty (*w/ Boz Scaggs)
13 Green Light [04:25]
14 The Last Time [03:56]
15 The End Of The World [03:16]
16 Me And The Boys [04:07]
17 Muddy Waters tune " "* [05:36]
18 Got A Good Mind To Give Up Living (And Go Shopping Instead)* [07:07]
19 Nadine* [04:33]
Total time: 79:56
All Star Jam
Santana, CT, Garcia, Weir, Raitt, TOP, NRBQ, Haggerty, Perassa, Caribbeean All-Stars
01 Cloud Nine[07:37]
02 Jam [10:12]
03 Johnny B. Goode [03:51]
04 Shake Ratte & Roll [06:53]
05 Concierto de Aranjuez [08:33]
06 Squib Cakes [10:01]
07 Bill Graham closer [00:34]
Total time: 47:41
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: nevermind
There's audio of Blues For
There's audio of Blues For Salvador out there, so I'm guessing a little digging might yield some more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw0NvFNsQPQ
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: nevermind
Here's Mandela (Carlos
Here's Mandela (Carlos Santana & Friends w/ Wayne Shorter & Jerry Garcia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmRk6U2Khs
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
Yeah, I know there's a full
Yeah, I've known there's a full recording out there, I've just never been able to find a copy.
I don't think it's ever been widely circulated, and I'm not that technically savvy with searching out that sort of thing.
If it's not on archive.org it's probably beyond me, and a google search comes up zip.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: That’s Nancy with the laughin’ face
What was the benefit show
What was the benefit show with Bob Hope?! Earthquake relief, maybe? OMG, Talk about awful, I recall the hippies booing Bob Hope.
edit, found it
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-28-ca-191-story.html
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mike Dalton
Lance - I remember kicking
Lance - I remember kicking myself for missing this show. However I was fortunate enough in the early 80s to have a friend drag me to see NRBQ at the old KPA. I was mesmerized, sang along to Henery the 8th (5th verse same as the first) and lost it when they announced 'we're going to play the next song...blindfolded!' Which they did. Fortunately I got to see them a number of times after that and closed the Catalyst with Big Al one night. Good times.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Localcountyline
I would have loved to have
I would have loved to have been there, my former girlfriend was there and future Mrs. LCL was also. They both loved it.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
Well, anyone who'd boo Bob
Well, anyone who'd boo Bob Hope is a douchebag.
Hope actually appeared at two Earthquake Benefit shows that night, first at the Cow Palace, then at the Kaiser (which I recall was more the hippy wanna'be show). Bill Graham, who put on three huge benefit shows that day (Santana, Los Lobos & others in Watsonville) took him in his helicopter from the Cow Palace to the Kaiser.
I was at the Cow Palace show (Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Steve Miller, America, Carlos Santana & Taj Mahal, Chambers Brothers, Paul Kantner, etc.).
We didn't boo the legend there.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: That’s Nancy with the laughin’ face
I was at the Kaiser show. Bob
I was at the Kaiser show. Bob Hope was singing Ronald Reagan's praises and that went over like a lead balloon. His jokes fell flat and comedians who aren't funny and don't know their audience get booed. Boo hoo. I was so fuckin high I couldn't speak, let alone boo.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
Well, I guess that makes some
Well, I guess that makes some sense, but still, in general I'm rarely a fan of booing, and it seems tacky given the circumstances of the night.
At the Cow Palace he seemed a bit blown away by the crowd, and all he said was how beautiful we all looked and how good it smelled in the room.
And he wasn't talking about manure.
I miss those types of shows. But they take personal attention & care to set up & present, and in the modern corporate concert world there's nobody to care and no money to be made.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Woz
I was at the Blues for
I was at the Blues for Salvador show too Tom, a truly epic "only in the Bay Area" evevt!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Druba
I saw the Blues for Salvador
I saw the Blues for Salvador tour when it came to the Hult Center in Eugene (May 88?). Great show, loved seeing Alphonso Johnson play a "stick".
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
That was a looooong "waiting
That was a looooong "waiting for Garcia show". Nobody really new what to expect or who was gonna play when with whom. I think I still have the handbill.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
Except from show review:
Except from show review:
A whole string of guests came out to join Tower Of Power. Conguero Armando Peraza and timbalero Orestes Vilato, long time anchors of the Santana Latin percussion section, were joined by Santana organist Chester Thompson, himself a Tower alumni from the previous decade. A thunderous roar greeted Jerry Garcia's arrival on stage, wearing a Hawaiian shirt over his mandatory black tee. Unexpectedly, he was followed out by Bob Weir, wearing not just a Hawaiian shirt but shorts (in January!), and then of course Carlos Santana himself.
What were they going to play now? There were 14 players on stage, with four guitars and five horns on top of a huge rhythm section, so my ability to speculate went right out the window. I assumed, per usual practice, that they would play some blues number that everyone knew, so that everyone could take their solo. Fair enough. Wrong.
Amazingly, Tower Of Power continued their set, and everyone on stage joined in. Why not? Everyone who had lived in the Bay Area in the 1970s knew the songs, and the guys on stage were no different. First up was a ten-minute version of "What Is Hip." This was followed by the classic "Soul Vaccination" (with a bit of "You've Got To Funkifize" thrown in). The highlight of the nine-minute version was just after the second verse, when it was time for the solo, and Castillo shouted "who wants it?" and Jerry let it fly, making it clear that for all the firepower on stage he was ready to bring it. If you've ever wondered what happens when you go all the way down Shakedown Street, I can say with certainty that it leads you straight to Bump City.
Remarkably, at the end of the song, there was another shift in personnel, and the Tower rhythm section was replaced by Santana drummer Graham Lear and bassist Randy Jackson (yes, the American Idol guy-really). Carlos stepped up to the mic and announced that it was an incredible evening, and introduced saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who would join in on soprano sax for the song "It Speaks For Itself." Shorter is a giant of twentieth century music, an amazing saxophonist and composer, and an anchor of some of the greatest lineups of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the Miles Davis Quintet and Weather Report. This was the only public performance of Shorter and Jerry Garcia, and this moved the night from memorable to epic.
After a beautiful 8-minute performance, Shorter and most of the Santana players left the stage, except for Armando Peraza, and the Tower rhythm section returned. Weir lead the band through a smoking "Turn On Your Lovelight," and Peraza--at the time about 64 years old--absolutely rocked the house on congas. Garcia followed with a great version "Goodnight Irene, " and Garcia, Weir and Peraza left the stage. The stunned and enthusiastic crowd were calmed by an excellent version of Tower's classic "You're Still A Young Man," dedicated to Bill Graham.
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/10/january-23-1988-henry-j-kaiser....
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
Sounds like their might be
Sounds like there might be pro shot video of this show. This guy thinks Carlos has it:
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/10/january-23-1988-henry-j-kaiser....