Do you sometimes like JGB more than GD

jer ber is a mood, and always changing..... jgb is just the shizzle, for the most part....

Hard to say one over the other but I do love the Garcia Band. 

I don't love the gospel sound with backup singers as much as the rest of it. 

Loved JGB, but as the saying goes, there was nothing like a GD concert.

I can honestly say i prefer JGB to GD. 

Like church for me. 

No hesitation for me. 

Although it took Grateful Dead for me to find JGB. 

Lefty

What problem?

The JGB at the Warfield was what must have been a little like the GD at Winterland. Being lucky to live in the BA I got to experience that time in the late '80s - '95, and from about '86 'till the end I liked the JGB more than the GD.

Especially in the '90s Jerry at the Warfield (and other venues in the area) became such regular and low-key thing, without all the cack in & around the venues and lots and the showbiz bloat that came with late era GD.

I really liked how you could just head to the Warfield on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and check out a show featuring Jerry Garcia. If it wasn't great it was no big deal; it was still always fun and there would always be another one. With the GD the last ten years of their career EVERYTHING was a big deal.

i LOVE jgb SO Freaking GOOD !

Funny story back in the day my Burner Surfer friend Stephen, we would go on Surf Safaris and would Score sometimes We would always put on that JGB 2 disc release, I was usually The Driver looking Over at my Good Friend passed out in the passenger seat after 2 many Bowls and or a Long Surf....rip Stephen -- Rob

We were lucky to have both of them.  That is all I have to say about that.  Love you Jerry RIP.  

.

HIS LIFE AS A  FATHER IS QUESTONABLE!>>>>>>>

Yep it was what is was.  I didn't get to know Jerry, or his children.  My guess would be that it is none of my concern.  I love Jerry for what he provided me,

and have no desire to try and call him out on his parenting skills.  I bet he gave great hugs.  His kids probably got a bunch of them.  

more jerry. adv. jgb

Stop That Train I'm Leaving....

J

G

B

won't be too long

The two bands were different animals.  JGB was a far more intimate connection with Jerry.  I hate to use the word "family" but it was much more going on at a JGB show than the GD.  When you went to a GD show the circus was in town.  I liked them both.  I agree more Jerry was better in the final years.  

6 O'Clock

Shucks

Don't Let GO

Miliion Bucks

jgb

Not really.

Now, Reconstruction or L.O.M.?

Hells, yeah!

very tough for a 18000 seat (or much bigger) GD show to match the energy of a JGB show at a place like the capital in passaic (as a example) especially in later years.

for me if i was on the beer line at a stadium GD show and the band just came on stage i was waiting for my beer anyway.

i had my beer in hand and was firmly planted in my seat when Jerry came on stage

>>>>>"Yep it was what is was.  I didn't get to know Jerry, or his children.  My guess would be that it is none of my concern.  I love Jerry for what he provided me,

and have no desire to try and call him out on his parenting skills.  I bet he gave great hugs.  His kids probably got a bunch of them.  "

what is this?

Was talking about this subject with someone recently.

Personally, worked on a 1985 GD project for TMNSP. Needed to listen to every minute of show after show for 1985. You can not go to the next song due to I was listening for errors in the tape or in the processing. Had to listen to some of the 85 songs I did not like over and over again. The process got to be painful after awhile. To the point had a hard time listening to GD though still loved Jerry.

So started to listen to JGB and really liked the new song selection and the extended play length of almost every tune. On many JGB songs have longer jams then the GD and less vocals. Plus there were many incarnations of JGB from jazz to cover songs to solo or duet with John Kahn. Prefer JGB to GD now.

I always love the Dead, but there are definitely times when I'm more in the mood for JGB. 

I can listen to countless hours of GD, but I can't listen to that much JGB straight.

I can listen to the GD all day long.  I have never attempted to listen to JGB all day.  I bet it would be fine.  

GD was big and "important".

JGB was personal.

Which is better to listen to while making love?  I think JGB helps set the mood, but during the act I am going with GD.  Some really long DS helped me

work on my night moves when I was young.  My mind would be off in the music somewhere, and I could go at it for much longer periods of time.  The 

ultimate trifecta.  Both partners climax at the same time when the second verse of DS in sang.  

yes, sometimes

>>>> listen to while making love

I'm partial to  2/28/80 - Kean College

Agree...Surfhead

You must be careful not to get the speakers wet.  Just saying

>>>I hate to use the word "family" but it was much more going on at a JGB show than the GD.

By the 1990's JGB is where all the "cool kids" were hanging.   Certainly a more intimate and close knit scene.  Musically, it seemed like Jerry was often going through the motions with the GD by that time and some nights it didn't seem like he was really enjoying himself.  But go to a JGB show and the man would light up and you could tell he really was enjoying what he was doing.  Some of his most inspired playing during that time period.

yes i do sometimes.  I think playing in JGB let him be himself and interpret tunes as he wanted.  Lots of soul came out. Few weeks ago, i was listening to a shiningstar and it nearly brought me to tears. But like others, a variety is best! 53. still so sad

Jerry could do whatever he wanted to do at a JGB show, without people fucking with him about being sober.  As long as he did not nod off during the show nobody gave a damn.  Jerry never did.  Bobby on the other hand has had a few problems with that the last few years.  Everything came full circle. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EThZ1v-yXU         

This is where I meant to post the link.  

In the late 80s, JGB was way louder than the GD.

JGB = no Terrapin.  and many others that are my favorite songs in the world.  On the other hand Tangled up in Blue was a mainstay for JGB.  Apples

and oranges.  

Why on Earth didn't he play Believe it or Not with JGB? If there was any one tune made for that band, that was it.

Always liked both. But for song selection and treatment of both vocals and guitar delivery, I prefer JGB. Sure wish he could have heard Bob Dylan's song "Things Have Changed". I like to imagine that he likely would have covered it with JGB. Both the lyrics and chords likely would have caught his attention and suit him well.

Thoroughly concur with Lance.

 was also living in SF from the late '80s till the end of the run and Garcia Band shows were for me, as close as it's ever came to going to (high) church.  Literally hundreds of shows starting at the Stone, a few at the Orpheum some killer times at the Eel and Squaw Valley and dozens and dozens at the Warfield.  

I came from tons of East Coast JGB shows too.

To me JGB at the time was a demonstration that Jerry Garcia was the funkiest man on the planet.

Here's the Motherload of Garcia Band streams for VLZ's pleasure:
http://dylanstubs.com/jerry/jerry90s.htm

Thanks, great link

Sometimes.. On a JGB kick right now & haven't been listening to much dead. Listened to some of 12-12-73 yesterday, but mostly been listening to a bunch of Garcia stuff past couple weeks. Lots of good post LOM JGB stuff from late 75', love the delicacy in those shows. 76 can be hit or miss, I don't mind slower tempos, actually enjoy them a lot of the time, but some of the 76 JGB can seem tedious..other times it's incredible. Love 77-78 JGB..the emergence of Ruben & Cherise, Gomorrah & Cats into the shows are excellent..& Mission in the Rain really starts to jam more so than 75-76. Sometimes those late 71-72 Jerry & Merl shows are really satisfying too..esp if you want something a little edgier & spacier..& bluesier.. Jerry's blues & Freddie King influences are really evident in this era. I find myself going back to that 12-28-72 show quite a bit. The expressway>Jam>Georgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616U0-EPk0Q

I have to be in the mood for the Garcia-Saunders stuff with the horns..some great playing in there though. I've also recently found that Nov. 93 JGB is incredibly good. 

love jerry and merl

legion doing going, going, gone. 

sheesh. amazing. 

I may he drawn to Garcia Band because I never heard them live.  That and concentrated JG  

Had chances during my NJ years but I usually had to go to my crap gigs.  And if I didn't usually couldn't afford it.  Made a living but not much extra $. 

Never 

Yes I prefer to listen to the non GD Jerry catalog, from blue grass to gospel to Motown to Dylan to acid jazz and everything in between...Not to mention LOM is my fave band of all time...yup that Jerry fella sure left a strong body of work for us to enjoy...Once again thank you Jerry and the tapers too of course...

Yeah.

And sometimes I like Ry Cooder, or Richard Thompson better than GD or JGB.

interesting list - all passaic cap shows

An interesting (dead head) conversation for sure.

I always felt that the JGB came together as a group after the Lunt Fontaine extended run of shows in '87 with the acoustic band set. Before that my feeling about Jerry band shows were that they were more loose jams than a rehearsed group.

Calling the Jerry Garcia Band a "rehearsed group" in any era is a stretch, but when they did some shows at the Warfield right after that New York trip I thought they sounded tighter and more together as a group, and I remember thinking that maybe playing something like 20 shows in two weeks at the same nice venue allowed them to settle into themselves and find a consistent groove.

Maybe that was just my interpretation, especially because before that time most of the JGB shows I'd seen were in smoky, sloppy, noisy, uncomfortable little clubs like the Keystone Palo Alto, but from late '87 on I thought the band had more of a consistent direction. It didn't hurt that the group stayed virtually the same through all those final years.

It probably also helped my personal experience that from that point on the JGB moved out of the clubs and played almost all their local shows in theaters. The Warfield still had seats at the shows right after the NYC run, and right after that is when the Warfield changed hands for about a year and the seats were taken out, and Graham put the JGB in the very cool Orpheum Theater down the street.

I really enjoyed the shows I saw at the Orpheum, which was comfortable & groovy and had really good acoustics for rock 'n roll. I would say that it was the handful of shows I saw at the Orpheum that really turned me into a JGB head, and then at some point in '89 or so the bizarre, dark hipster nightclub the Warfield had been turned into failed, Graham took it back and the rest is history.

(Graham's people referred to the JGB as Just Good Business, and of course Jerry's fluxuating drub habit forced so many of those late era Warfield runs. Another example of how good can be found from bad.)

It seems Timmy & Eddie have lost focus on what this thread is about.

It isn't about shows Danny Scher produced at the Capitol Theater, and sometimes I like to listen to Yes, the Del McCoury band or the Buddy Rich Big Band more than the GD or JGB; what does that have to do with preferences of bands Jerry Garcia played in?

JGB was way above GD after Brent died.

>It seems Timmy & Eddie have lost focus on what this thread is about

 entirely possible lance but at least i didn't go in the micro penis direction

Agree with the notion of two JGB, jam vehicle and later more of a band.

Would h ave been nice to see what the Hopkins/Tutt version would have done if it had a chance.

Also sometimes ponder if GD had dialed it way back and JGB had dialed it up.  Fewer stadiums, more theatres  

Skylarking....

None of the heads I knew in those years gave anyone grief or contempt for Jerry shows, there was just a lack of interest compared to the GD because of the sloppiness of the band & the crowds at the Keystone PA and Catalyst in Santa Cruz, which was where I/we saw most of the JGB shows in those days.

At that time, at least from my perspective people weren't all sloppy drunk at GD shows (like they are at every show these days) but in those bars it was all drinking, talking, smoking cigarettes and yowling JERRRRRRRYYYYYYYY! every five seconds.

I had a good time, I just didn't think much of the overall quality of the shows. But then I was young at the time and didn't drink or smoke cigs. I'd probably enjoy those bar shows more nowadays.

(I still don't smoke cigarettes. Have never understood why anyone would.)

These days I'll put on JGB, LOM, or one of the incarnations before I put on some GD.  I listen to Zappa is  more often than either Jerry or GD.

In the grand scheme of things, yes...I saw more JGB and solo in the early 80's than the band and enjoyed the smaller settings and more intimate interludes...

Every tune was a Jerry Song

Loved the Gospel influence 

The only drawback (used lightly) was the smaller catalogue 

JGB did not play that many venues/states consistently. It was hard to see a lot of JGB unless you lived on the far east or west coast. Think CO had less then 10 JGB shows over about 20 years. Know some friends who moved to CA just to go see JGB shows in early 90s. So there was an awareness that the GD was on the decline and many thought JGB gave jerry the space to be creative mostly after mid to late 80's and especially the 90's. Never heard people being dissed for seeing JGB. Almost the opposite. Was jealous of people who saw a lot of JGB over GD.

Yes.

Saw fantastic JGB shows prior to my emmigration to SF in '87 at places like The Capital in Passaic, The Palladium in NYC, South Fallsburg, NY in June of '82, The Forum in Binghampton, NY in '83, Hampton Beach, NH, Moosic Park PA, Caldwell College, Mann Music Center in '84 and many more.

IMHO the band was tight but also super jammy prior to '87.

My first JGB was 2/13/81 at the Capital in Passaic.

My favorite East Coast Experience is a three way tie between South Fallsburg in '82 (which was like a mini-woodstock - Bobby & The Midnites followed JGB), The Moosic Park show in '84 (which took place on a floating theater in a lake in the middle of an amusement park and you could swim and dive off the thing during the show), and the Binghampton 2 show in one night run November of '83 (where we found a way to jump into the orchestra pit of the theater and sit on the Kettle drums at Jerry's feet.)

 

Favorite West Coast shows had to be the initial Eel River show with Almost Acoustic Band opening at French's Camp - August of '87 and the incredible 2 day festy at the Gold Coast Bowl at Squaw Valley with Garcia & Grisman joined by Bela Fleck and the great JGB on the second day - with the Ganjala ride to the party at 8500 feet.  On day 2 I won a pair of roller blades and tickets to any BGP show directly from Bill Graham after bouncing a tennis ball onto a velcro target!

At both of the above and the 2 follow up Eel River shows I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't a dream.

 

Always loved a good JGB show. Going to church (JGB) vs. going to a party (GD). Both fun and meaningful in different ways.

Great first show Ted

Here's some more of my Jerry Garcia Band stubs.

Surprised that a stub survived Music Mt.

Rarely, and the 70's bands more than the later versions.

The Keystone was just a great place to see him, but the wait for the late starts could be brutal.