The Grateful Deadcast points itself towards 1975 to begin a song-by-song celebration of Blues For Allah’s 50th anniversary, loaded with raw session tapes, early lyric drafts, & the story of how the Dead built a new studio, musical language, batch of songs, & LP from the ground up.
Blues For Allah 50: Help On the Way supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
Though the Grateful Dead officially retired from the road following their October 1974 performances at Winterland, it was (obviously!) not the end of the Grateful Dead. The band began the new year with a flurry of collective and individual activities, somewhat tracked in their February 1975 newsletter, but continuing to sprawl as the band began to gather at Ace’s, Bobby Weir’s new home studio in Mill Valley, for daily writing sessions that ran late into the spring before the band began to lay down final tracks.
Built with the help of American Beauty producer Stephen Barncard (who also documented the multi-phase build-out), Ace’s was inaugurated not by the Dead, nor even Bobby Weir and Kingfish (who he’d joined in November 1974), but by James and the Mercedes. A group that Bobby’s then-partner Frankie was singing with, featuring James Good of the Good Brothers, Michael Parrish documented the short-lived James and the Mercedes in some January 1975 photos opening for Kingfish.
The Dead’s trusty assistant Steve Brown was once again helping to direct traffic at the studio sessions, and preserved vital documentation of the process, including these two early lyric drafts for “Help on the Way” – a very early typescript for Garcia to choose from “like a menu” (in Brown’s phrase), and a slightly more finished version (with an unused handwritten addendum that that includes the phrase “slipknot jig,” a hint of the title recorded on the tracking sheets, “SlipJig”). Images courtesy of Steve Brown.
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Tico Tico and Smiley Smile
Spectacular episode. And as someone who watched Get Back in its entirety five or six times, I think I'll be loving this season and giving it repeated listens. And now, an answer and a question: 1) The snappy session excerpt that Jarnow referred to as "Show Tune" (but didn't identify by its real name) is ,of course, "Tico Tico"! Sometimes played during tuning breaks like "Finniculi Finnicula". I do a podcast series (when I have time) on Michael Nesmith (Where's That Sound Coming From Presents: Questions But No Answers. Of possible interest: I interviewed Donna's bassist husband David Mackay for one episode ) and actually spent a couple minutes on "Tico Tico" during one episode because Nesmith once said that as a young boy, hearing an organ player in the window of a Dallas music store playing "Tico Tico" was a life-changing experience. I played clips of a few versions of the song, including a Dead tuning break (because I bring up the Dead given any chance..). And 2) In David Browne's book So Many Roads he refers to Blues For Allah session chatter in which Garcia is heard raving about The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile (which, upon reading, made me whoop with glee). During early Pandemic times, with nothing but time, I produced a three part podcast mini series about The Beach Boys and Grateful Dead's similarities, differences, and how they each define mid-century California in their own unique ways that have proven timeless. I took the episodes down when I shifted to the Nesmith podcast and honestly don't remember much about them (because pandemic/free time/idle hands..). But I do remember contacting Corey Arnold, who put me in touch with David Gans who put me in touch with David Browne, all in the name of tracking down that audio snippet of Garcia hyping Smiley Smile. Sadly, while I made some amazing contacts, I came up empty. Jesse, if you track down said audio clip, the next three rounds are on me if I ever run into you. Thanks for reading.
Dead Shows in 1975 - Blues For Allah timeframe
There really were 4 "Dead" shows in 1975. Yes, the 2 official ones at GAMH & the park. BUT really the SNACK Benefit performance was for all intents and purposes the first playing of Blues For Allah material. And the Bob Fried Benefit at Winterland on 6/17/75 was definitely full on Grateful Dead as well. The debut of Crazy Fingers, Help ->Slip->Franklins. And a full rendition of Blues for Allah...