Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839, San Francisco, July 29 & 30, 1977 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Live album by | ||||
Released | June 1, 2004 | |||
Recorded | July 29 – 30, 1977 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 198:37 | |||
Label | Jerry Made | |||
Jerry Garcia Band chronology | ||||
| ||||
Jerry Garcia chronology | ||||
|
Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839, San Francisco, July 29 & 30, 1977 is an album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was the first release in the Pure Jerry series of live recordings by Jerry Garcia and his various solo bands. [1] [2] As the title suggests, it was recorded on July 29 and 30, 1977, at Theatre 1839 in San Francisco, California. It was released on June 1, 2004.
The lineup of the Jerry Garcia Band featured on this recording had been together for 18 months. In addition to Garcia on guitar and vocals, the group included fellow Grateful Dead members Keith Godchaux on keyboards and Donna Jean Godchaux on vocals, along with John Kahn on bass and Ron Tutt on drums. [3] [4] Other albums recorded by this lineup are Don't Let Go , Garcia Live Volume Seven , and Garcia Live Volume 17 .
The album includes one song, "Gomorrah", that would appear on the band's 1978 studio album Cats Under the Stars .
Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839 was reissued in July 2007 exclusively at Borders stores. [5] This release features the same track listing with slight alterations to the color of the packaging.
The back cover of Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839 says, "As the Jerry Garcia Band soundboard tapes of July 29 and 30, 1977 are incomplete, the CDs contained herein compile the best performances among those available. Please accept our assurance that every step has been taken to overcome the various challenges presented by 27-year-old 7½ i.p.s. reel tapes — mysterious interferences, frustrating omissions, and some sticky stuff of unknown origin — in order to transfer, edit, and master this music in a way that faithfully celebrates its original performance."
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Music Box | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
On Allmusic, Lindsay Planer said, "Immediately striking is how good the recordings sound, adding to the intimacy and presence of the band's musical communication. The set list reflects Garcia's own decidedly eclectic tastes in addition to the wider variety of styles afforded him, in contrast to his concurrent involvement with the Grateful Dead. Even the songs that were being played by both outfits, such as "Friend of the Devil" and "They Love Each Other", are rendered with significantly different energies. The combo likewise became an outlet for Garcia's lengthy and expressive improvisations, one of the unquestionable fortes of the guitarist's non-Dead endeavors. There are no compact arrangements, as each of the selections — consisting of classic R&B, rock, and reggae tunes — are thoroughly explored..." [3]
In The Music Box, John Metzger wrote, "For certain, the bright, clean, crisp, and soulful sound of Garcia’s guitar sang proudly throughout the Theatre 1839 concerts, and no matter how far the relaxed grooves concocted by his backing band drifted out of focus, it was he who consistently put them back on target and guided them forward with his infectiously incendiary intensity. As he and pianist Keith Godchaux took turns twisting and turning the melodies — more often than not with a lighter-than-air touch that was simply divine — Kahn’s bass rumbled beneath the surface with a punctuated efficacy while Tutt steadfastly kept time with the understated precision of an atomic clock. Indeed, the first edition of Pure Jerry is a loose, inspired, fun-filled endeavor, and although it’s far from perfect, it also sounds just right, particularly whenever the collective takes flight on a mind-blowing journey across the heavens." [4]
On All About Jazz, Doug Collette said, "Not surprisingly, Jerry's band at this time included Keith and Donna Godchaux, who had been part of the Dead retinue since early in the decade; their presence is notable for the admirable restraint displayed by the latter, especially as she chimes in on lovable covers such as the Temptations' [sic] "I Second That Emotion".... while the sturdy accompaniment Keith supplies here lacks some of the clarity and contrast of interplay with Jerry's guitar work as captured with the Dead, that's in large measure due to an important change in tone on Garcia's part: the tone of his guitar solos, fills and rhythm work, particularly on reggae covers including "Stir It Up" and "The Harder They Come", is earthier and warmer, with much less of a psychedelic edge." [6]
On Jambands.com, John Patrick Gatta wrote, "If you're used to the fluid jams of sessions with Merl Saunders or Legion of Mary or the gospel-like fervor created by the last version of JGB, the pace, intimacy and space between the notes on these three discs (18 songs) becomes disconcerting. I'm ready to groove and this outfit does as well, but the members want to ease into it.... As the setlist goes deeper, the rhythms of the material meshed with mine, and began to make sense of it all. Disc three's handful of tunes then brings matters up towards a more familiar energetic level. The quietness and determined pace comes to highlight the musicianship.... Not only does [the album] offer a sense of discovery by providing a rarely heard ensemble in their live element but it catches Garcia casually throwing off bolts of brilliance in a manner that unites him and the music." [7]
Disc one
Disc two
Disc three
Sunshine Daydream is a music documentary film, starring the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was shot at their August 27, 1972 concert at the Old Renaissance Faire Grounds in Veneta, Oregon. Unreleased for many years, the film was sometimes shown at small film festivals, and bootleg recordings of it circulated on VHS and DVD, and as digital downloads. A digitally remastered and reedited official version of the film was released on August 1, 2013, showing only one time in selected theaters as that year's edition of the Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies. It was screened with Grateful Days, a new documentary short that includes interviews with some of the concert attendees. Sunshine Daydream was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 17, 2013.
Garcia Plays Dylan is an album composed of various live performances featuring Jerry Garcia playing covers of Bob Dylan songs. It is culled from performances from 1973–1995, and features Garcia playing with Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia Band, and Garcia-Saunders. Garcia takes lead vocals on all tracks.
Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1 is an album by Legion of Mary, a jazz influenced rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. It was recorded live on various dates from December 1974 to July 1975, at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, and the Paramount Theatre in Portland, Oregon. It was released on August 23, 2005.
Cats Under the Stars is the only studio album by the American rock band the Jerry Garcia Band. Released in 1978 on Arista Records, the album was the first release by the group, which was a long-running side project of Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia. While the band continued until 1995, they were primarily a live concert act following the release of Cats Under the Stars and never recorded another studio effort. Grateful Dead members Keith and Donna Godchaux, who were at the time also part of the Garcia Band, contributed to the album.
Reflections is Jerry Garcia's third solo album, released in 1976. Partway through production, Garcia stopped recording with his solo band and brought in the members of the Grateful Dead, who performed on four songs, plus a bonus jam from 2004 release. Three of the four Grateful Dead-performed songs had earlier live debuts: "Comes a Time" (1971), "They Love Each Other" (1973) and "It Must Have Been the Roses" (1974); "Might as Well" entered their rotation in 1976, and "Mission in the Rain" received a select few performances that same year. Most of the songs entered the live rotation of the new Jerry Garcia Band as well.
Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux-MacKay is an American singer who was a member of the Grateful Dead from 1972 until 1979.
So Many Roads (1965–1995) is a five-disc box set by the Grateful Dead. Primarily consisting of concert recordings from different periods of the band's history, it also contains several songs recorded in the studio. All but one of the tracks were previously unreleased. The album was released on November 7, 1999. It was certified a gold record by the RIAA on April 12, 2000.
Don't Let Go is the third live album, and fourth album overall, by the Jerry Garcia Band. It includes the complete May 21, 1976 performance at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, with a bonus track recorded on September 11, 1976 at the Keystone in Berkeley. It was released on January 23, 2001.
Dick's Picks Volume 35 is the 35th installment of the Dick's Pick's series of Grateful Dead concert recordings. It is a four-CD set that contains the complete shows recorded on August 7, 1971 at Golden Hall in San Diego, California, and on August 24, 1971 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. It also includes bonus tracks from August 6, 1971, at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California.
Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings is a 9 CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains three complete concerts. It was recorded on June 7, 8, and 9, 1977, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The album was released on October 1, 2009.
Ragged but Right is the second live album by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. It was recorded in October and December 1987 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City, the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. It was released on November 16, 2010, twenty-two years after the band's first album, Almost Acoustic.
Pure Jerry: Warner Theatre, March 18, 1978 is a two-CD live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It contains two complete concerts — the early and late shows performed on March 18, 1978, at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. The sixth in the Pure Jerry series of archival concert albums, it was released on August 9, 2005.
Pure Jerry: Bay Area 1978 is a two-CD live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It contains selections from four concerts performed in the San Francisco Bay Area in February and June 1978. The ninth and last entry in the Pure Jerry series of archival concert albums, it was released on August 31, 2009.
May 1977 is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains five complete concerts, on 14 CDs. It was recorded at five consecutive shows, from May 11–17, 1977. Packaged as a box set, it includes a booklet with a historical essay and photos from the concerts, along with individual liner notes for each show. Produced as a limited edition of 15,000 numbered copies, it was released on June 11, 2013.
Garcia Live Volume Four is a two-CD live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It contains the complete concert recorded at Veteran's Hall in Sebastopol, California on March 22, 1978. It was released by ATO Records on July 8, 2014.
Dave's Picks Volume 18 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on July 17, 1976 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, California. It was produced as a limited edition of 16,500 copies, and released on May 1, 2016.
Garcia Live Volume Seven is a two-disc live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded at Sophie's in Palo Alto, California on November 8, 1976. It was released on August 19, 2016.
Jerry Garcia was an American musician. A guitarist, singer, and songwriter, he became famous as a member of the rock band the Grateful Dead, from 1965 to 1995. When not touring or recording with the Dead, Garcia was often playing music in other bands and with other musicians.
Garcia Live Volume 17 is a three-CD live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded in November 1976 at several venues in northern California. It was released on November 12, 2021.
Dave's Picks Volume 41 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on May 26, 1977, at the Baltimore Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. It was released on January 28, 2022, in a limited edition of 25,000 copies.