I've got Pneumonia... and the Flu

100 Days of the Dead Day 31 Jerry Garcia Band October 23, 1975 Palace Theatre Providence, Rhode Island

10-23-75 a.k.a. 10/23/75 Palace Theater a.k.a. 75-10-23 setlist & mp3 download, not Flac, sorry, not a soundboard (SBD)

33 Years Ago Tonight...

1st Set: Tore Up Over You, Catfish John,
Crazy Arms, Pig's Boogie, Sitting In Limbo,
Touch Mama, Mississippi Moon, Mystery Train

Set 2: Mission In the Rain, That's What Love Will Make You Do,
Every Word You Say, Lady Sleeps-> No Time,
Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, I'll Take A Melody,
Sugaree, Mean Woman Blues

Jerry fans are familiar with a lot of tunes. Tore Up and Catfish John are definitely two that most Deadheads know very well. Mixed into this show, with other well-known and much-loved Garcia songs, is a few that not everyone might know...

Crazy Arms dates way back to September (a whole month before) and isn't on any Jerry release. It was only done just a handful (or two) of times with Nicky Hopkins in the band, some nice keys from him here, I wonder if maybe it was his idea. Maybe not because it was done at least once with NRPS in '73. Apparently this is a tune penned by Ralph Mooney and Chuck Seals and was a country music hit in the mid-1950's for Ray Price.

An original Hopkins instrumental is Pig's Boogie which was also played by the JGB only when he was in the band in second half of 1975. This tune is also not on any official Garcia release but it can be found on a 1973 Nicky Hopkins album.

A standout for me in the first set is Sitting In Limbo. By over a minute and a half it's the longest song of the set -- almost 11 minutes long -- which gives everyone some nice room to just play. So beautiful is this Jimmy Cliff reggae tune.

Dylan's Touch Mama seems custom-made for Jerry. Nice solos from Nicky and Jerry. Just perfect. Mississippi Moon slows things a whole lot before the groovy Mystery Train to close the set.

Brand spanking new (to the East Coast crowd) is Mission In The Rain to open Set 2. Earlier in October, this song had its first four times played and all in Northern California. Here was just time number 5 with around 240 more to in the next couple of decades. It's rather brief in its infancy, only 6 minutes long compared to double that in later years.

One of the two longest songs of the 2nd Set is the fun That's What Love Will Make You Do. Just like in Sitting In Limbo, plenty of room for the band to just play.

Every Word You Say is, for the most part, a '75 only tune. Early in '76, after Nicky Hopkins had left the band, Jerry gave the Jesse Winchester song a whirl only a couple times and then it vanished from the Garcia repertoire. Too bad because it's really nice and it's no wonder it was included on the Legion Of Mary release.

The band gets a break for a few minutes as Hopkins treats the crowd to a quiet piano solo (Lady Sleeps) before going into No Time, another song of his from before being in the Jerry Band.

Rockin' Pneumonia makes not only its East Coast debut with Garcia outside of the Grateful Dead, but this is the first time played. Only 3 more performances of this would follow and all would be on this tour. It's not entirely foreign to Jerry -- in '72 the Dead played it 5 times in the span of about 6 months. One version can be found on the GD release Steppin' Out.

The other long song of Set 2 is I'll Take A Melody which had not yet become the crowd favorite that Sugaree was. I'll Take A Melody was only 6 months old whereas Sugaree had been a Dead staple since mid-1971! But the devoted fans of Garcia outside of the Dead more than likely had NO clue this was about to be played, though -- this is the first time played outside of the GD! The crowd claps along, their approval and enthusiasm and thankfulness a part of the show. Nice!

How sweet it woulda been if that was the last song or encore but, for whatever reason, another new tune made its debut right here in Rhode Island on this night -- Mean Woman Blues. A song covered by Roy Orbison and Elvis, it's rockin' and swingin', Jerry's playing back and forth with Nicky, and John Kahn's seemingly on overdrive on that bass of his, all of which helps make this a really fun song... but it just didn't stick around for over 150 performances like Sugaree... just 2 more ever, both on this tour.

Overall -- I dig this show. Well, then again, of course I do! Sound quality ain't the best but methinks it's perfectly tolerable. Neither instruments or vocals get lost in sound, the crowd isn't overbearing, it's not too distant or muddy... not bad. I'm glad I gave it a listen and I'm sure there are better shows, in performance and quality, from this tour that I'll someday get around to posting!

Source: Master Audience Cassette
(Front of Board, taped by Jimmy Warburton)> Reel > CD > SHN

Audio Quality:
Not the crispiest Aud
but without cassette generations, it ain't too bad.

As of 10/23/08, Garcia is still not on Archive.org...

Download The Show Right Here

10-16-96 aka 10/16/96 aka 96-10-16 setlist 320 kbps mp3 SBD download

JGB - 10/23/75 - Providence - 1st Set

JGB on 10-23-75! (this & the above image copyright by Robert Corwin.)

Set 2 - Palace Theatre - 10/23/75