Photo by Jeffrey Mayer. You can buy it here.
Yes, this is Jerry's "Alligator" Stratocaster, which he originally got from Graham Nash. If you don't already know, you can read about it here.
"Whatever people think about the Grateful Dead is a huge misconception and we seem to spend all our energies patching up this misconception."
--Jerry Garcia to Roy Carr, Hit Parader, September 1972
"You'll be happy to know that we are NOT like the Grateful Dead. You'll not be here until four in the morning."
(CROWD BOOS)
"You can stay, but enjoy the solitude of silence."
--Rick Nielsen, XM Studios, July 13, 2004
Since today would have been Jerry's 82nd birthday, I thought it would appropriate to explain why someone who attended 138 Grateful Dead concerts wrote a book on Cheap Trick. I have a feeling this make take a while, so I'll post the second half next week. Incidentally, that Hit Parader article, entitled "Garcia Speaks," has a few of Jeff Mayer's shots. Jeff contributed two photos to my book, both from the Whiskey shows in June of 1977. Cheap Trick fanatics may note that one of his shots appeared in the "Out To Get You" release from 2020.
Rick's comments came during the "Budokan" show the band did with Lou Brutus hosting and Jack Douglas in attendance. It's not surprising that he would attempt to "roast" the Dead. I am sure he only associated the band with meandering solos and long concerts. In one of the hundreds of interviews I read for my book, he said whatever people thought of his music he was happy they weren't compared to the Grateful Dead. If I stumble upon the interview at some point, I'll post here.
It's no shock he'd use them for a zinger and I sincerely doubt he had any real opinion on their music. The only influence both bands share is the Beatles and unlike Cheap Trick, you wouldn't hear anything from the Dead that would remind you of the Fab Four. John Lennon attended Jerry's late show in November 5 of 1974 and was intrigued enough to sit in. The show was at the The Bottom Line, the same venue Cheap Trick played on Bun E. Carlos' birthday in 1978. That June 12 show was supposed to be a watershed moment for the band, but because Robin Zander blew his vocal chords out trying to compensate for the shitty sound system. Bob Gruen's photo with Andy Warhol holding Rick's "Flying V" is the most impactful part of the evening. Yes, Bun has a copy of Trouser Press in his hand. It's actually the very issue in which Ira Robbins proclaims Cheap Trick the best band in America with the Clash being the best from across the pond.
When Lennon showed up at the Bottom Line, he was completely shit faced as this was his "Lost Weekend" period. Jerry apparently didn't want Lennon to play in that state, which I am sure would shock Rick Nielsen. You can hear John commenting on the show on the surviving recording. He's drunkenly commenting on the pace of the show before a version of Bo Diddley's "I'm A Road Runner" that stretches over ten minutes. John says that about 3/4 of the way through the tune, Jerry picks it up. He echoes similar sentiments after the 16:29 "Harder They Come." If you don't know the full story of this show, you can read about it here.
Looking at this shot from 1974, it's no surprise that Bun was the only one to eventually cross paths with the Dead's music (more on that later). Seriously, though, this look wouldn't be out of place in Haight-Ashbury. John Lennon's influence on Cheap Trick is far more documented, especially Bun and Rick's guest spots during the Double Fantasy sessions. I cover it in my book as well.
That's Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams wearing an original Allan Turk band shirt from 1967. A similar one sold at Sotheby's for 18 grand a couple of years go. I did buy myself a replica for my collection.
The story of Cheap Trick's formative years in the bars of Milwaukee and Wisconsin aren't all that dissimilar from the Dead's rise from the Acid Tests a decade earlier. Seriously, just replace the beer with LSD and they are both musical incubators for these groups to gel before being unleashed on the world. Jerry's quote about the misconceptions faced by the band are something Cheap Trick could empathize with. Of course, the misconceptions they grappled with came from their stage persona and subsequent Epic Records bio, written by Eric Von Lustbader. The Dead had no stage persona, of course.
I ended my book with Jerry's interview on WCMF in 1978 in which he mentions Cheap Trick. Clearly I am not the only one who noticed the reference, as you can buy the shirt below here.
What did Jerry say about Cheap Trick? DJ Gary Whipple, who had to navigate some serious partying between Jerry and bassist John Kahn's before the Garcia Band's show that night at Rochester's Auditorium Theatre, asked how he felt about the new music coming out in March of 1978.
Of course, Jerry says that "the players" in Cheap Trick aren't "any good," which part of THEIR misconception. They wanted you to think they were just fucking around on stage when in reality they were talented and hard working. They only wanted it to seem like the opposite. One of the more interesting interviews I encountered while researching Cheap Trick was the March, 1977 conversation with Howie Klein. Klein had been seeing the Dead from the beginning, but at this point was looking for that same spirit of rebellion in hard rock and punk. When Cheap Trick played those first shows in San Francisco, the Dead had just left town after three shows at Winterland, the first featuring the debut of "Fire on the Mountain." On March 23, before Cheap Trick's second show at the Old Waldorf, Klein and Nielsen discuss the satirical nature of his stage presence. Jerry also mentions Cheap Trick being an antidote to the "glib slickness" of the LA studio trip in the interview. Ironically, both bands had spent time at the same LA studio, Sound City. The Dead were working in 1977 on Terrapin Station, with Keith Olsen. Cheap Trick, of course, was recording Heaven Tonight in 1978, which was later moved to the Record Plant. Even though it's the title of my book and even though it's on Wikipedia, Epic wasn't calling the album American Standard. However, if you click on the Heaven Tonight Wikipedia entry, you will see a link to the only review of the album I've ever seen that didn't mention "Surrender" at all. It was Kelly Pike's piece in England's Record Mirror. It's really noteworthy, especially since Cheap Trick's most enduring song kicks off the album.
I once saw Bill Kreutzmann's son Justin, a renowned filmmaker, Tweet out the interview to Rick. I've also seen tons of references to "Jerry's Favorite band" in all sorts of click-bait articles. One even erroneously says he thought they were an example of "glib slickness" rather than the intended reference to the contrary. On March 10, while the Garcia Band were in Rochester, Springsteen was at the War Memorial simultaneously. I would bet Jerry was as aware of Cheap Trick's goofy stage presence from the two albums they'd released as he was with the music on it at that point. He also mentions Elvis Costello, which is noteworthy since they would become friendly and play together at the Sweetwater in 1989.
You can see Costello still has some of his '70s look. Interestingly, it wasn't until he appeared on the 1991 Deadicated tribute album that his attendance on the Europe '72 tour was widely known. He included the pic of him in the crowd in the liner notes, after all.
In March of 1991, Jerry and Elvis Costello appeared on the cover of Musician for a really interesting interview, which you can read here.
Rick Nielsen famously introduced Elvis Costello at their first Wisconsin date at Bunky's in 1977. Costello's manager, Jake Riviera pops up as well in my book. He wanted to put out Cheap Trick's debut on his Stiff Records label since Epic thought it was too raw for the UK in 1977. It didn't come out in England until 1980.
Somehow, Bun E. Carlos has been playing Dead covers this year. Here's a shot from Toffler's Pub & Grill in New Glarus, WI. The image of him under a Steal Your Face is something I thought I'd never see. Check back here next week for the second part of my Dead-themed Cheap Trick ramblings. We're a little over a month out from the release of American Standard, so expect even more random content.
Until then, Happy Birthday Jerry.
RLW
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