The PERRO Sessions – November 1970 to January 1971 Wally Heider Studios - San Francisco, CA 2 Disc version (1975) : Disc 1 : Is It Really Monday+ You Sit There Loser #1+ Loser #2+ Loser #3+ Loser #4+ Wayfaring Stranger+ Walkin In The Mountains #1* Walkin In The Mountains #2* Walkin In The Mountains #3* Walkin In The Mountains #4* Leather Winged Bat% Disc 2 : Jorma & Jerry Jam #1% The Wall Song #1@ The Wall Song #2@ Eep Hour% Dope Rap With Piano% Piano Cont'd% Jam Slide II% Jorma & Jerry Jam #2% + = 01-02-71 , * = 01-03-71, % = 01-14-71, @ = 12-13-70 document.doc Page 1 sur 22
Transcript
The PERRO Sessions – November 1970 to January 1971Wally Heider Studios - San Francisco, CA
2 Disc version (1975) :
Disc 1 :Is It Really Monday+You Sit ThereLoser #1+Loser #2+Loser #3+Loser #4+Wayfaring Stranger+Walkin In The Mountains #1*Walkin In The Mountains #2*Walkin In The Mountains #3*Walkin In The Mountains #4*Leather Winged Bat%
Disc 2 :Jorma & Jerry Jam #1%The Wall Song #1@The Wall Song #2@Eep Hour%Dope Rap With Piano%Piano Cont'd%Jam Slide II%Jorma & Jerry Jam #2%
Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Michael Shrieve, Greg Rollie, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, David Freiberg and Laura Allan.
4 Disc version (1991) :
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***Studio outtakes from album sessions. Version Treed on 2400 Fulton St. 4/01*** (Disc 1 - November 1970) Jam #1, Laughing, Jam #2, Song With No Words #1, Song With No Words #2, What Are Their Names, Orleans, Jam #3, Tamalpais High #1, Tamalpais High #2, Jam #4,
(Disc 2 - November 1970) Wall Song #1, Wall Song #2, Pretty As You Feel, Eight Miles High, Alabama Bound, Cowboy Movie, Everybody Has Been Burned, Cowboy Movie Jam, Jam #5, Kids & Dogs, Motherless Children,
(Disc 3 - January 1971) Mountain Song Intro (Correct title: Walkin' In The Mountains), Is It Really Monday, You Sit There, Loser #1, Loser #2, Wayfaring Stranger, Mountain Song #1, Mountain Song #2, Mountain Song #3, Mountain Song #4, EEP Hour, Dope rap w/piano, Piano, Leather Winged Bat, Electric Bat,
(Disc 4 - January 1971) Wall Song #2, Rounds (Early version of EEP Hour), Electric Bat, Wall Song #1, Wall Song #3, Jam #6, Banjo, Wild Turkey, Wall Song #4, Jam #7,
The full story :
The PERRO tapes are the log of several days’ sessions with an incredible group of people creating music in a most serendipitous way. The time is late 1970 at Wally Heider Recording Studios in San Francisco, California, USA. This studio was built in 1969 to meet the demand of producers and artists alike in the bay area to have a full-service professional pop music recording facility that was up to the standards and quality of the big studios in Los Angeles. What better person than Wally should there be to meet the demand, for he was known to all as the most service-oriented studio owner in the business and his rooms and remote trucks were known throughout the world for their work. Wally loved San Francisco, and chose the location because the Blackhawk nightclub (where his company recorded 'Miles Davis Live at the Blackhawk') used to be located across the street. The studio is still operational today, as 'Hyde Street Studios'.
Two weeks after I was hired by Wally in the fall of 1969, I was assigned to be the assistant engineer on 'Deja Vu', the 1st CSNY and second CSN record. At the time, David was too overwrought with personal problems to pay attention to a lowly assistant engineer, and he did not have a high opinion of me, but after a year or so of other projects with Brewer and Shipley, Seals and Crofts, and the Grateful Dead and the urging of Jerry Garcia, David Crosby decided, in November 1970, that he really wanted me to record his solo album. He had just moved his boat up to Sausalito, and had decided to spend most of his time in the Bay Area.
I didn't want to work with him at first because of the way I was treated as an assistant engineer during the 'Deja Vu' sessions, but at his urging, I 'relented' and told him that I would do the project. As it turns out, we got along really well this time and have been great friends since then.
This was the project that eventually became 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'. The first session was on November 4, 1970, and the first song was 'Orleans'. We did the guitar first, then the vocals, then the second guitar harmony, all that first night. By 11pm he was out of the building with some beautiful woman and we were done for the night. Elapsed time : 4 hours.
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At first these sessions were just with David and myself. After a few days, he started inviting his buddies, including Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Graham Nash, Michael Shrieve, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Neil Young, Jorma Kaukonen, Joni Mitchell, Laura Allan, Jack Casady, and Greg Rollie. Not all these people were in the studio at the same time, mind you, and many times it was small groupings, except for the song 'What Are Their Names' where as many people from this group could get into Studio D did a sing-along chorus. We had so many people that I ran out of headphones, so we went to speakers instead, hence the 'boxy' quality of the vocals.
As I quickly learned from working with David, you never knew what might happen, and it might happen only once, so I got into the habit of rolling 2 inch tape whenever it seemed like something might happen. There were times I started the tape first and ran out and plugged more mics in while the tape was rolling! So every night was an adventure, and I got it all on tape! I'm sure it was Crosby who dubbed his gathering 'The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra', but Paul Kantner later claimed that he invented it, and Crosby can't remember. I couldn't put that on a tape box very quickly (and we accumulated over 30 reels of 2 inch tape at $125/reel) so I put PERRO on the boxes for short. (I was also drinking a coffee substitute by that name at the time....).
In late January 1971, David and I had some time to go over the pile of tapes and in a 4 hour session reviewed what had happened as I made some rough mixes -- one pass, in most cases. These rough mixes were what was to become the PERRO tapes. I made David a cassette, and put the masters away. I never had made myself a copy at that time.
Move forward to spring 1975. David and Graham called me up and asked me to work on the next Crosby And Nash record. So through the summer of that year, we worked long and hard to make this classic album. After that record came out, there arose problems with Atlantic Records.
After "Wind On The Water", Graham and David asked me to go through not only all the studio master tapes that he had in his vault in SF, but compile a tape of all unrecorded songs, alternate takes and weirdness that would be used to complete some kind of "contractual obligation" deal that was to counter demands for more material from Atlantic Records. I really didn't press the details, anyway it sounded fun to do.
It took me about month to go through everything, up in SF at Graham's home studio in the Haight, Rudy Records. This collection of songs became the notorious "Dirty Thirty", of which the PERRO material is a subset. So for the first time, these songs were included with a collection, complete with references to the source tapes. Joel Bernstein was also involved, combing through his personal collection in his apartment next door.
First I started with listening to the outtakes of "Wind On The Water". Between takes, the C/N backup band, the jitters, would either jam or do funny shit. Most of that band consisted of Craig Doerge on piano, Tim Drummond or Lee Sklar on Bass, Russ Kunkel on Drums, David Lindley on electric viola and lap steel, and Danny Kooch on guitar. The basic Jitters Doerge, Kooch, Kunkel and Sklar were otherwise known as "the Section". Some very good jams there, but no songs we could use.
Then, there was Nash's and Crosby's earliest home tapes -- transferred to 15 ips 1/4 inch reels from old 7.5 ips half tracks. I did most of the transfers and mixes and Joel Bernstein kept score (and his own set of copies), and David and Graham came in and listened to some of it when we were done. Quite an extensive survey.
The PERRO tapes were included verbatim, sort of at the end of the collection so I not only organized and brought to the front the PERRO tapes but all unreleased material on about 10 or 12 10 1/2" reels and I ran off cassettes for C&N.
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In the spring of 1991, I again revisited this Dirty Thirty resource as a place to look for rarities for the CSN Boxed Set. (And some made it there). Most of my DATS were made at this time except PERRO. On 8/23/91 a copy of the several PERRO reels were compiled onto a Sony 120 DAT on request by Paul to Graham (since the tapes where kept in the latter's vault) for a copy. At that time, I also had my DAT copy made, having not enough time during the Box Set to copy it. That is the only copy session to DAT that was ever done on those sessions.
When the Crosby, Stills & Nash box-set was being put together a couple of years ago*, three reels of 8-track tape labeled 'Kantner'** were uncovered and dusted off.
*Barncard : --- actually it was 1991. All of the Graham Nash tape collection was brought in to one place for the first time, including personal collections of Barncard, Joel Bernstein, Nash and Stills. One of the PERRO tapes had a small pipe with weed in it and we smoked it! It was still good.
**There were over 20 16 track reels and they were named "PERRO" on each (or D.C.) so it would fit when the reels were upright.
The tapes we worked with were never named "Kantner" although it is possible that Paul has a companion set of tapes from his RCA sessions during the same time period.
The 16 tracks were never remixed in 1991. The material on the PERRO tapes was very interesting, but had nothing to do with CSNY. There were 4 reels of 2 track mixes made in 1971 during the sessions (obviously there is more that has never been mixed). The tapes were put into storage in Nash's vault. Paul called Nash in 1992 and requested DATs of those tapes. This was the first time they had been outside of the CSNY organization. They were copied at A&M Post Production audio and my personal DAT was made at that time.
These were forwarded to the Doktor of Space for his consideration and in due course Holding Together was fortunate enough to get to hear two of the tapes. (Paul has decided that there's nothing of any great worth on the third. Maybe one day he'll let us have a listen to that one too?) The tapes in question are of excellent quality. They were recorded at Wally Heider's studio in the summer of 1971 with Stephen Barncard at the controls and they captured the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra working on some material that would later surface on 'solo' recordings by David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, Paul Kantner and Grace Slick.
On Kantner's 'solo' album of 1983. entitled 'Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra', he dedicated 'Mountain Song' ...'to David C, Jerry G, Graham N, Grace S, David F, Billy K and Mickey H and to one summer when all of our schedules almost didn't conflict.' The title track from that record also contained the verse
'Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra,Everybody Here Can Be In The Band,Planet Earth Rock And Roll Dream '
and it is quite clear that Paul, with his Tribal/Hippy/SciFi orientation, was the keenest to engender the 'you can all join in' approach - maybe because the Airplane was never quite the extended family that the Grateful Dead became.
However, the roots of PERRO go back a lot further than the summer of 1971. 1 guess it had its inception in the early years of the '60s (prior to the Airplane, the Byrds et al) when Kantner, Crosby and Freiberg used to hang out, play music, get high and rap together around Venice Beach. That was the initial bond, the start of it all.
Later, when they were in bands of their own, there were occasional points of interaction - like Garcia sitting in on the 'Surrealistic Pillow' sessions, like Crosby giving "Triad" to the Airplane
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when he couldn't get the Byrds to record it, like Kantner, Crosby and Stills writing "Wooden Ships".***
***Barncard : My friend Spencer Dryden has video tapes of the early airplane, and Crosby sitting around describing the writing of wooden ships...
Then, as the '60s drew to a close, two sets of circumstances combined to bring the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Dream a whole lot nearer
One was the opening of Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco - because now the local SF musicians (Airplane, Quicksilver, Dead) had a place on their doorstep where they could record. This gave them freedom from the corporate studios to record and produce as they saw fit, to come and go more as they pleased and to invite the musical neighborhood in if they chose. (It hadn't been so easy when they were holed up at RCA's or Warner's studios in Hollywood.)****
****Barncard : It's true...I started there in August, 1969, right after "Volunteers" and just before CSNY "Deja Vu". I was the assistant on the latter, as well as "Blows" and "Have you Seen the Saucers".
The other catalyst was the state of flux that a lot of bands were falling into by 1969/1970, for Crosby had left the Byrds, the Airplane was a less cohesive force with Dryden out and Hot Tuna splitting off, and Dino Valenti's arrival had unsettled QMS.
Things had come pretty much full circle by the end of the decade. Kantner was again hanging out with Crosby (quite often on the latter's yacht) and with David Freiberg - and, when Paul came to assemble musicians to record 'Blows Against The Empire', it wasn't just to his Airplane cohorts that he turned but also to Crosby and Garcia and even Graham Nash - who'd just bought a house in Frisco and ended up producing the whole second side of the 'Blows...' album at Heider's studio. 'Blows...’ was the first album by that collection of musicians whom Paul liked to term the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra.
The fact that he billed the album as being by Jefferson Starship shouldn't mislead anyone. Kantner, Crosby, Slick, Freiberg, Nash, Garcia, Kaukonen, Lesh, Casady, Kreutzmann, Hart - these people were the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra, supporting each other on key projects.
As Grace recalls, "These sessions were like 'Uh, do you wanna play guitar on this one?' 'No, man, I have to go to the bathroom.' 'Okay, David, you wanna play?' 'Sure'. Whoever felt like doing something did it. Parts interchanged, people interchanged."
Graham Nash says "They asked me my opinion and I just jumped right in. Grace, Paul, David - they let me do whatever I heard. I was searching for this kind of environment when I came to America and when I was mixing in the studio our imaginations were running rampant. We were creating virtual kingdoms with music."
Paul's recollection of proceedings is that "The combinations that happened on these records will probably never happen again." Let's hope he's wrong - but the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra was, for a couple of years, a freewheeling and quite radical musical concept.
The second such PERRO project was David Crosby's debut solo album, 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', which features all of the above-mentioned Planet Earthers plus the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Greg Rollie and Mike Shrieve.
Rumor has it that the third project was going to be another Kantner album entitled 'Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra'. Here at HT Towers we have a distant memory of Melody Maker
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announcing the impending release of such a work circa 1972. Of course, nothing answering to that name appeared for another ten years - by which time it was a different beast entirely...except for the concept and the inclusion of 'Mountain Song'. (it's just possible that the third project is what materialized as Grace's solo album 'Manhole'. Perhaps we shall never know).
But enough of this preamble, and on to the tapes in question. They come from sessions at Wally Heider's San Francisco studios in 1971. Crosby had sailed his boat up to Sausalito harbor. Nash was resident in the Haight. Kantner and Slick had moved out to Bolinas and the Dead were in Mill Valley but they would all head for Wally's of an evening to work on PERRO songs. Some of these things ended up on Crosby's solo, a couple on Garcia's solo, one on Grace's album, one on Paul's 1983 'Planet Earth...' album - and some have never seen the light of day, in which case we've had to guess at what they might be title. Roll the PER&RO tapes.
"Walkin' In The Mountains" (1' 47n): A Crosby composition featuring typically attractive chordings, but little in the way of finished lyrics. "All the words we got so far are just ideas of places we'd like to go,- he tells Garcia at the start of this...
Barncard : Two of the versions are actually the same performance, the second remixed a little better.
"I went walkin' out last summer Tryin' to find a breath of air. I went walkin' in the mountains. A friend had told me I'd find you there"
comprises just about all the words he has, but the feel is so airy and open you can almost smell that mountain air. The sequence makes a surprise reappearance later in the tape, as an intro to version four of 'The Mountain Song'.
"Is It Really Monday?" (4' 55"): Crosby again, and this one begins with his acoustic guitar and the composer scat- singing the abstruse melody. When the lyrics arrive, he asks:
"Is it really Monday? I must have been here before. Is it really Monday? I think the walls begin to speak."
The tempo is very slow, in a country blues vein and Garcia adds some restrained picking. The lugubrious bass sounds like that of Phil Lesh.
"Under Anesthesia" (5' 14"): The timing includes a false start of about 45 seconds, after which Crosby calls a halt and announces 'No, that's not it. Started too slow, it's outta time and I didn't get the right words!" When he does, it's another hugely impressive song, the lyrical angle of which is to bemoan the inertia of the common man - who is portrayed as stupefied by beer and TV.
Barncard : This song is actually called "You Sit There"
At the conclusion, Crosby launches into a brief sequence on guitar and comments 'I thought I'd try something original...if I write another song in E Minor, man, I'm gonna get fired!'
"Loser" (8' 41"): The timing includes several restarts and Jerry explaining - and indeed demonstrating - the chord progression to his colleagues, who could well be Crosby, Lesh and Papa John*****. There's certainly a violin in here and it works especially well, counterpointing the three guitars most effectively.
*****Barncard : Papa John never hung out in PERRO sessions1997 Update from David Freiberg:
Hey Steve:Someone pointed me at this [expired URL] And I thought I'd add that I was guilty of the viola playing on " Loser". FYI. At least that's how I remember it. Someone sent me a tape and it jogged my memory.hope all's well.David Freiberg
Additional note : Papa John *did* take part in some of the PERRO sessions. Of course “Loser” features David Freiberg on viola, not Papa John on violin. But “Jam #3” and “Jam #4” on CD 1 of the 4 CD set definitely feature Papa John (with Grace Slick on piano, Greg Rollie on organ and most probably Jack Casady on bass on “Jam #3”, and with Greg Rollie on organ and most probably Phil Lesh on bass and Bill Kreutzmann on drums on “Jam #4”). And obviously Papa John is also on “Pretty as you feel” on CD 2 of the 4 CD set. This take is a long version of the song featured on “Bark”. Both the album and the shorter single versions appear to be edits of this original 14-minute take. But it is more than likely that this one actually comes from the “Bark” sessions and doesn’t actually belong with the PERRO tapes.
It's obviously an early run through the song as Jerry doesn't have much more than the first verse written. The second crack has more audible vocals, but Garcia still resorts to "da da das" from the second verse on. The bridge is there, at least intact musically, even if the only line Jerry seems sure about is the closing
"Don't let that deal go down"
The genesis of a great song.
"Over Jordan" (3' 30"): Another Crosby song, replete with a beautiful structure, but short on completed lyrics. It begins with David's rippling acoustic guitar which is soon joined by that of Garcia for some impressive picking.
"I'm only going over Jordan, Just a-goin" to my home" sings the Cros, but after a couple of minutes he declares that he's forgotten the changes, so restarts the performance at the bridge. This is a delightful half-song which the composer should really have completed and recorded at some stage.
Barncard : It's an old folk song called "Wayfaring Stranger"
"The Mountain Song - 1" (5' 11"): This is the first of several attempts at what would eventually become a slice of classic Airmachine. However, at this stage, the only fragment of the song they had to work with was the line
"Gonna make the mountains be my home"
and the chord-sequence that supported it, so it's quite amazing that from such a meager base Kantner, Slick, Crosby and Garcia (possibly with Casady and Hart) are able to conjure 23 minutes of undulating beauty.
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There's a banjo featured prominently, plus two acoustic guitars and Grace's distinctive piano. The banjo could be Jerry but I suspect that, because some of the acoustic touches are so accomplished, it's Kantner on the five-string with Garcia and Crosby on guitars. Surprisingly, there's no trace of Paul's vocal - though the other three take care of that handsomely enough.
Barncard : the banjo parts were played by Paul. Kantner only played banjo and sang BG vocals on these particular sessions.
Early on, it's Jerry singing the line in orthodox fashion, while Grace embellishes with some improvised lyrics around the theme. Then Crosby takes Grace's place and scats around Jerry's vocal for a while. As you'd expect, the playing is loose and slightly tentative on this first version, but no less affecting for all that.
"The Mountain Song - 2" (5' 17"): Grace is back providing an improvised descant to Jerry's straight vocal at the start here, and she's singing about the sky and the river as he eulogizes the mountains. After a minute or so, Crosby introduces his scat and Grace leaves the chorus to concentrate on her keyboards. Her vocal chords are re-engaged towards the close.
"The Mountain Song - 3" (3' 44"): This version begins with Jerry and David singing the line and Grace gliding around them. Briefly, Crosby supersedes her in this role but soon the two of them are improvising around the structure as Jerry perseveres in the middle.
At the end of this effort, Paul is heard to remark "It sounds like everybody's going in and out of time" to which Crosby responds "No, no, no, it's all working - and it works perfectly." The listener is strongly inclined to agree with him.
"The Mountain Song - 4" (8' 20"): As you'll see, this is the longest version and undoubtedly the most satisfying of the four. This is where Crosby's embryonic "Walkin' In The Mountains" suddenly reemerges and he goes through the verse and various chord sequences as an introduction to "The Mountain Song," to which it bridges seamlessly and beautifully. It's a remarkable segue which makes the listener keenly aware of how the song could have developed in a very different direction had Crosby stayed to contribute throughout its evolution.
Speculation aside, what we do have is a return to the familiar pattern of banjo, guitars, bass, piano and percussion. Crosby reverts to his scatted counterpoint before it slips into a stunning instrumental section. Herein, the music weaves a genuinely hypnotic spell as it rolls effortlessly along the bed of Paul's banjo and Grace's piano, with Garcia picking exquisitely.
After several minutes of this, the vocal pattern is re- introduced, now in a more restrained vein against instrumentation which has become subdued, with Grace and the Cros gently dancing around Jerry to the finale of a wonderful excursion.
"Wild Turkey" (4' 20"): An interesting improvisation with Jorma and Jack at the controls, this may or may not be an early styling of what became the dynamic duo's "Bark" instrumental. It certainly starts off that way, with Kaukonen roaring out some aggressive electric noise and Casady on a familiar rumble. But soon it settles into something much gentler, employing a more reflective chord progression. Jorma's playing rises and falls in a fairly relaxed manner - until the finale, when he stirs it back towards the "Turkey" structure with some more combative lead guitar.
Barncard : Actually I think this called "Leather Winged Bat"
It could well be that Jack and Jorma decided the split- mood approach didn't work and restructured the number as the wholly aggressive strut we encountered on 'Bark'. Whatever, it's a nicely balanced piece and a pleasure to hear.
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"Jorma & Jerry's Jam - 1" (14' 22"): If the previous outing was a pleasure, this jam is a sensation! As readers will be aware, there's little recorded evidence of Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Garcia essaying their remarkable skills together, so this is a rare chance to hear the fruits of one such collaboration. Backed up by the supple bass of Jack Casady plus solid percussion (Mickey Hart?), this is a quarter-hour of incisive and responsive musicianship - intuitively structured and beautifully realized.
Jorma leads it off on electric guitar, his playing funky and rich in wah-wah, whilst Jerry complements it with a more subdued style. Casady is well mixed and excellent, but it's Jorma's sprawling mass of notes which take centre stage in this section; hot, handy and winding all over the soundscape in unfettered rampage.
Having played a disciplined supporting role for the first half of the jam - his accomplished touches providing the perfect foil to Jorma's aggression - Jerry assumes control for the second phase. Initially calm after the Kaukonen storm, this movement gradually builds over several minutes into a fabulous jam, delightfully evolved and transfixing the listener as it develops. Jerry's playing gets less lyrical, more earthy, until it is stylistically much closer to his partner's earlier contribution.
Naturally, Jorma then resumes the lead and steers the ensemble to a nicely judged conclusion.It would be perfectly reasonable to hail this example of superlative sparring as San Francisco jamming at its very finest.
"The Wall Song - 1" (6' 00"): After a waggish intro from the composer, we're into a captivating version of a Crosby song which appeared in 1972 on the LP 'Graham Nash David Crosby.' On that take, the duo were backed by Garcia, Lesh and Kreutzmann and there's no reason to suppose that the same trio isn't in support here. The real distinction between the released version and this is the absence of Nash - though this is more than ably compensated for by the double-tracking of Crosby's wonderful voice, which provides an imaginative and memorable harmony.
But there's a bonus. Just when listeners familiar with the 1972 record expect the track to finish, there's a lovely instrumental excursion with Garcia in winning form, shuffling percussion from Bill and a gentle ripple from Lesh. Really, this is so good it eclipses the official release by some distance - and should clearly have been included in the CS&N box of 1991.
Barncard : we ran out of room -- we had to put the full-length "Almost Cut My Hair" in there..
"The Wall Song - 2" (4' 27"): Again, David is doubly tracked, but this time there's only his own acoustic guitar in support, and the performance is generally a little lazier than before.
"Eep Hour" (4' 44"): A very dissimilar reading from the one which appeared on 'Garcia' and which had keyboard and pedal steel dominating the sound. This is just the acoustic guitars and bass and has a very Spanish ambiance. Presuming that Jerry isn't multi-tracked and playing everything himself - as he did on his album - we might take the other participants to be Lesh and either Kantner or Crosby.
Silberman : For what it's worth, I'm also pretty positive it's Jack Casady playing bass on EEP HOUR
At the close, there's a whoop of triumph from somebody and what sounds like Kantner's voice saying 'everybody just have a little break from their guitar strings!'
"Shuffle" (2' 20"): Two guitars (one electric), bass and drums glide effortlessly down a four-chord structure for a couple of minutes. The drums shuffle effectively but nothing much happens and the piece sounds more like an intro to something more substantial than an entity in itself.
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"Jorma & Jerry's Jam - 2" (14' 29"): This has a slightly longer introduction than its earlier incarnation (i.e. it starts a few seconds before) but is otherwise identical to the first version.
"Banjo Instrumental" (6' 31"): This begins with the musicians already in full flow but soon collapses and they begin afresh. The slightly startling proposition of a banjo taking the lead throws the listener at first but it becomes apparent that this is actually the reflective segment of "Wild Turkey" again. Confirmation is given after a few minutes when Jorma appears to add a brief burst of the aggressive electric movement before the banjo takes it back. The five-string player could be Jerry or Paul - it's hard to tell because the figures played are rather routine and not particularly distinguished.
When the track ends, rather precipitously, so does the recording - and that's it.
These tapes are a fabulous find, showing as they do the formative stages of some classic songs and hinting at others, notably by Crosby, that could have been among the best things he never recorded.
It's a mild disappointment thal there isn't more of Paul Kantner's material on here - what I wouldn't give to hear that third secreted tape - but the reproduction is so good and the quality of the playing so exceptional that the whole thing is an aural treat and one feels both excited and honoured to be able to eavesdrop in this way.
Barncard No guarantee that that there is more Paul on these tapes, but I should find out when all the tapes are located and we can find backing for the project....
One can only hope that these musicians will reconvene at some point (preferably in the studio so we can all legitimately enjoy the results) and that the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra hasn't run its course. The recent SEVA benefit (see Carry The Fire) and Paul's (still-) projected 'Blows' extravaganza suggest that it's not a hopeless dream, that it could happen again if all of their schedules can be made to almost not conflict one more time! Here's to that day when the members of the Orchestra will meet again and see each other's minds, turn up the band and start another story...
Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra Tapes Story(Bill Parry, Steve Rowland, and Steven Barncard *edited by Jen &
Bret* - full story here)
Barncard : For the historical record, let's standardize the song titles. These are the original rough mix reels,the only source. I didn't make the transfers to DAT, so I don't know where the reel breaks are. Below are the original Tape Box notations. () is the corrected name
ORIGINAL TAPE BOX NOTATIONS
Perro Ruffs Recorded by S. Barncard Transferred at A&M Tape Copy 1/23/91 DAT 120 (2 hours)
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1/2/71 01. Mountain #5 02. Is it Really Monday 03. You Sit There / incomplete 04. You Sit There 05. Garcia's Tune (Loser) 06. Garcia's Tune (Loser) 07. Wayfaring Stranger *
1/3/71 08. Mountain #1 /ACCs/ -- wound Heads -- Garcia, Crosby, Kantner, Grace, Lesh 09. Mountain #2 /ACC's/ Little Slower 10. Mountain #3 /ACC's/ ** Organized (different mix of above take) 11. Mountain #4 Complete Set Of changes; Long Voiceless Jam
1/14/71 12. Leather Winged Bat /Slower/ 13. Electric Bat 14. Jam #10 15. Wall Song - Electric 12/13/70 ** 16. Wall Song - Acoustic - solo demo
1/11/71 17. Rounds (EEP Hour) 18. Dope Rap w/Piano /"Funny"/ 19. Jam Slide II good parts 11/04/70 20. Jam R&B Riff /Long/ 21. Jam After Electric Bat 1/14/71 abrupt end (two track runs out)
Steve Silberman Notes:
* I'm also not yet totally convinced that the name of that folk tune IS Wayfaring Stranger - it might be another tune. But Steve may be right.
** The Wall Song on this tape is not the track used for Graham Nash/David Crosby, the excellent out-of-print album on Atlantic. It is an out-take. Another, better performance was used for the record, although sadly, the record fades out just before the jam. That's especially a shame because the band on both the PERRO tape version and the album version was: Garcia, Lesh, and Kreutzmann, plus Crosby and Nash. If a choice were to be made for the CD, I would definitely go with the album version WITH the extended jam. It's a lot hotter than the PERRO tape take, with a fiery Garcia & Nash driven peak with that ultra-sweet Garcia Strat sound of that era...
Barncard continues... Obviously these tapes were not mixed in chronological order. As far as giving you some idea what will be on the CD, I don't know yet what I can use, and no, it won't be out for a couple of months....artwork and mixing, you know.....I have a lot of shit to do.... Soon I will get the 16 tracks, and I will have a better idea of what I can do with this, (and if it is worth it to remix all of it, or only parts.. some of the two track mixes are pretty good -- first generation.) At this early stage I cannot commit to any lineup. I might find <more> on the multis -- I haven't played those since '71 !!
DETAILS (mostly repeat of above version) :
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On 8/23/91 a copy of the several PERRO reels were compiled onto a DT 120 DAT on request by Paul to Graham (since the tapes where kept in the latter's vault) for a copy.
When the Crosby, Stills & Nash box-set was being put together, some mystery reels were found. All of the CSNY tape collection was brought in to one place for the first time, including personal collections of Barncard, Joel Bernstein, Nash and Stills. One of the PERRO tapes had a small pipe with weed in it and somebody smoked it! It was still good.
The material on the PERRO tapes was very interesting, but had nothing to do with CSNY. There were 4 reels of 2 track mixes made in 1971 during the sessions (obviously there is more that has never been mixed). The tapes were put into storage in Nash's vault.
Paul called Nash in 1992 and requested DATs of those tapes. This was the first time they had been outside of the CSNY organization. They were copied at A&M Post Production audio and my personal DAT was made at that time.
The roots of PER&RO go back a lot further than 1971. 1 guess it had its inception in the early years of the '60s (prior to the Airplane, the Byrds et al) when Kantner, Crosby and Freiberg used to hang out, play music, get high and rap together around Venice Beach. That was the initial bond, the start of it all.
Later, when they were in bands of their own, there were occasional points of interaction - like Garcia sitting in on the 'Surrealistic Pillow' sessions, like Crosby giving "Triad" to the Airplane when he couldn't get the Byrds to record it, like Kantner, Crosby and Stills writing "Wooden Ships". Then, as the '60s drew to a close, two sets of circumstances combined to bring the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Dream a whole lot nearer. One was the opening of Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco - because now the local SF musicians (Airplane, Quicksilver, Dead) had a place on their doorstep where they could record. This gave item freedom from the corporate studios to record and produce as they saw fit, to come and go more as they pleased and to invite the musical neighborhood in if they chose. (It hadn't been so easy when they were holed up at RCA's or Warner's studios in Hollywood.) The other catalyst was the state of flux that a lot of bands were falling into by 1969/1970, for Crosby had left the Byrds, the Airplane was a less cohesive force with Dryden out and Hot Tuna splitting off, and Dino Valenti's arrival had unsettled QMS.
Things had come pretty much full circle by the end of the decade. Kantner was again hanging out with Crosby (quite often on the latter's yacht) and with David Freiberg - and, when Paul came to assemble musicians to record 'Blows Against The Empire', it wasn't just to his Airplane cohorts that he turned but also to Crosby and Garcia and even Graham Nash - who'd just bought a house in Frisco and ended up producing the whole second side of the 'Blows...' album at Heider's studio. 'Blows..." was the first album by that collection of musicians whom Paul liked to term the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra. The fact that he billed the album as being by Jefferson Starship shouldn't mislead anyone. Kantner, Crosby, Slick, Freiberg, Nash, Garcia, Kaukonen, Lesh, Casady, Kreutzmann, Hart - these people were the Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra, supporting each other on key projects. As Grace recalls, "These sessions were like 'Uh, do you wanna play guitar on this one?' 'No, man, I have to go to the bathroom.' 'Okay, David, you wanna play?' 'Sure'. Whoever felt like doing something did it. Parts interchanged, people interchanged."
Graham Nash says "They asked me my opinion and I just jumped right in. Grace, Paul, David - they let me do whatever I heard. I was searching for this kind of environment when I came to
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America and when I was mixing in the studio our imaginations were running rampant. We were creating virtual kingdoms with music."
The second such PER&RO project was David Crosby's debut solo album, 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', which features all of the above-mentioned Planet Earthers plus the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Greg Rollie and Mike Shrieve. But enough of this preamble, and on to the tapes in question. They come from sessions at Wally Heider's San Francisco studios in 1971. Crosby had sailed his boat up to Sausalito harbor. Nash was resident in the Haight. Kantner and Slick had moved out to Bolinas and the Dead were in Mill Valley but they would all head for Wally's of an evening to work on PER&RO songs. Some of these things ended up on Crosby's solo, a couple on Garcia's solo, one on Grace's album, one on Paul's 1983 'Planet Earth...' album - and some have never seen the light of day, in which case we've had to guess at what they might be title. Roll the PER&RO tapes. "Walkin' In The Mountains" (1' 47n): A Crosby composition featuring typically attractive chordings, but little in the way of finished lyrics. "All the words we got so far are just ideas of places we'd like to go,- he tells Garcia at the start of this... > "I went walkin' out last summer > Tryin' to find a breath of air.
> I went walkin' in the mountains > A friend had told me I'd find you there" comprises just about all the words he has, but the feel is so airy and open you can almost smell that mountain air. The sequence makes a surprise reappearance later in the tape, as an intro to version four of 'The Mountain Song'.
Barncard : Two of the versions are actually the same performance, the second remixed a little better. "Is It Really Monday?" (4' 55"): Crosby again, and this one begins with his acoustic guitar and the composer scat-singing the abstruse melody. When the lyrics arrive, he asks: > "Is it really Monday? > I must have been here before. > Is it really Monday? > I think the walls begin to speak." The tempo is very slow, in a country blues vein and Garcia adds some restrained picking. The lugubrious bass sounds like that of Phil Lesh.
"Under Anesthesia" (5' 14"): The timing includes a false start of about 45 seconds, after which Crosby calls a halt and announces 'No, that's not it. Started too slow, it's outta time and I didn't get the right words!" When he does, it's another hugely impressive song, the lyrical angle of which is to bemoan the inertia of the common man - who is portrayed as stupefied by beer and TV. At the conclusion, Crosby launches into a brief sequence on guitar and comments 'I thought I'd try something original...if I write another song in E Minor, man, I'm gonna get fired!'
*This song is actually called "You Sit There"
"Loser" (8' 41"): The timing includes several restarts and Jerry explaining - and indeed demonstrating - the chord progression to his colleagues, who could well be Crosby, Lesh and Papa John*. There's certainly a violin in here and it works especially well, counterpointing the three guitars most effectively.
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*Papa John never hung out in PERRO sessions. David Freiberg on viola.
It's obviously an early run through the song as Jerry doesn't have much more than the first verse written. The second crack has more audible vocals, but Garcia still resorts to "da da das" from the second verse on. The bridge is there, at least intact musically, even if the only line Jerry seems sure about is the closing "Don't let that deal go down" The genesis of a great song.
"Over Jordan" (3' 30"): Another Crosby song, replete with a beautiful structure, but short on completed lyrics. It begins with David's rippling acoustic guitar which is soon joined by that of Garcia for some impressive picking. > "I'm only going over Jordan, > Just a-goin" to my home"
sings the Cros, but after a couple of minutes he declares that he's forgotten the changes, so restarts the performance at the bridge. This is a delightful half-song which the composer should really have completed and recorded at some stage. *Also called "Wayfaring Stranger"
"The Mountain Song - 1" (5' 11"): This is the first of several attempts at what would eventually become a slice of classic Airmachine. However, at this stage, the only fragment of the song they had to work with was the line "Gonna make the mountains be my home" and the chord-sequence that supported it, so it's quite amazing that from such a meager base Kantner, Slick, Crosby and Garcia (possibly with Casady and Hart) are able to conjure 23 minutes of undulating beauty. There's a banjo featured prominently, plus two acoustic guitars and Grace's distinctive piano. The banjo is Paul K.& the touches are so accomplished, it's Kantner on the five- string with Garcia and Crosby on guitars. Surprisingly, there's no trace of Paul's vocal - though the other three take care of that handsomely enough.
Early on, it's Jerry singing the line in orthodox fashion, while Grace embellishes with some improvised lyrics around the theme. Then Crosby takes Grace's place and scats around Jerry's vocal for a while. As you'd expect, the playing is loose and slightly tentative on this first version, but no less affecting for all that.
"The Mountain Song - 2" (5' 17"): Grace is back providing an improvised descant to Jerry's straight vocal at the start here, and she's singing about the sky and the river as he eulogizes the mountains. After a minute or so, Crosby introduces his scat and Grace leaves the chorus to concentrate on her keyboards. Her vocal chords are re-engaged towards the close. "The Mountain Song - 3" (3' 44"): This version begins with Jerry and David singing the line and Grace gliding around them. Briefly, Crosby supersedes her in this role but soon the two of them are improvising around the structure as Jerry perseveres in the middle. At the end of this effort, Paul is heard to remark "It sounds like everybody's going in and out of time" to which Crosby responds "No, no, no, it's all working - and it works perfectly." The listener is strongly inclined to agree with him. "The Mountain Song - 4" (8' 20"): As you'll see, this is the longest version and undoubtedly the most satisfying of the four. This is where Crosby's embryonic "Walkin' In The Mountains" suddenly reemerges and he goes through the verse and various chord sequences as an introduction to "The Mountain Song," to which it bridges seamlessly and beautifully. It's a remarkable segue which makes the listener keenly aware of how the song could have developed in a very different direction had Crosby stayed to contribute throughout its evolution. Speculation aside, what we do have is a return to the familiar pattern of banjo, guitars, bass, piano and percussion. Crosby reverts to his
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scatted counterpoint before it slips into a stunning instrumental section. Herein, the music weaves a genuinely hypnotic spell as it rolls effortlessly along the bed of Paul's banjo and Grace's piano, with Garcia picking exquisitely. After several minutes of this, the vocal pattern is re-introduced, now in a more restrained vein against instrumentation which has become subdued, with Grace and the Cros gently dancing around Jerry to the finale of a wonderful excursion. "Wild Turkey" (4' 20") (AKA "Leather Winged Bat"): An interesting improvisation with Jorma and Jack at the controls, this may or may not be an early styling of what became the dynamic duo's "Bark" instrumental. It certainly starts off that way, with Kaukonen roaring out some aggressive electric noise and Casady on a familiar rumble. But soon it settles into something much gentler, employing a more reflective chord progression. Jorma's playing rises and falls in a fairly relaxed manner - until the finale, when he stirs it back towards the "Turkey" structure with some more combative lead guitar. It could well be that Jack and Jorma decided the split-mood approach didn't work and restructured the number as the wholly aggressive strut we encountered on 'Bark'. Whatever, it's a nicely balanced piece and a pleasure to hear.
"Jorma & Jerry's Jam - 1" (14' 22"): If the previous outing was a pleasure, this jam is a sensation! As readers will be aware, there's little recorded evidence of Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Garcia essaying their remarkable skills together, so this is a rare chance to hear the fruits of one such collaboration. Backed up by the supple bass of Jack Casady plus solid percussion (Mickey Hart?), this is a quarter-hour of incisive and responsive musicianship - intuitively structured and beautifully realized. Jorma leads it off on electric guitar, his playing funky and rich in wah-wah, whilst Jerry complements it with a more subdued style. Casady is well mixed and excellent, but it's Jorma's sprawling mass of notes which take center stage in this section. Hot, handy and winding all over the soundscape in unfettered rampage. Having played a disciplined supporting role for the first half of the jam - his accomplished touches providing the perfect foil to Jorma's aggression - Jerry assumes control for the second phase. Initially calm after the Kaukonen storm, this movement gradually builds over several minutes into a fabulous jam, delightfully evolved and transfixing the listener as it develops. Jerry's playing gets less lyrical, more earthy, until it is stylistically much closer to his partner's earlier contribution. Naturally, Jorma then resumes the lead and steers the ensemble to a nicely judged conclusion. It would be perfectly reasonable to hail this example of superlative sparring as San Francisco jamming at its very finest.
"The Wall Song -1" (6' 00"): After a waggish intro from the composer, we're into a captivating version of a Crosby song which appeared in 1972 on the LP 'Graham Nash David Crosby.' On that take, the duo were backed by Garcia, Lesh and Kreutzmann and there's no reason to suppose that the same trio isn't in support here. The real distinction between the released version and this is the absence of Nash - though this is more than ably compensated for by the double-tracking of Crosby's wonderful voice, which provides an imaginative and memorable harmony. But there's a bonus. Just when listeners familiar with the 1972 record expect the track to finish, there's a lovely instrumental excursion with Garcia in winning form, shuffling percussion from Bill and a gentle ripple from Lesh. Really, this is so good it eclipses the official release by some distance - and should clearly have been included in the CS&N box of 1991. "The Wall Song - 2" (4' 27"): Again, David is doubly tracked, but this time there's only his own acoustic guitar in support, and the performance is generally a little lazier than before.
"Eep Hour" (4' 44"): A very dissimilar reading from the one which appeared on 'Garcia' and which had keyboard and pedal steel dominating the sound. This is just the acoustic guitars and bass and has a very Spanish ambiance. Presuming that Jerry isn't multi-tracked and playing everything himself - as he did on his album - we might take the other participants to be Lesh and either Kantner or Crosby.
*Jack Casady plays bass on EEP HOUR
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At the close, there's a whoop of triumph from somebody and what sounds like Kantner's voice saying 'everybody just have a little break from their guitar strings!'
"Shuffle" (2' 20"): Two guitars (one electric), bass and drums glide effortlessly down a four-chord structure for a couple of minutes. The drums shuffle effectively but nothing much happens and the piece sounds more like an intro to something more substantial than an entity in itself.
"Jorma & Jerry's Jam - 2" (14' 29"): This has a slightly longer introduction than its earlier incarnation (i.e. it starts a few seconds before) but is otherwise identical to the first version. These tapes are a fabulous find, showing as they do the formative stages of some classic songs and hinting at others, notably by Crosby, that could have been among the best things he never recorded.
