High Notes: A Rock Memoir by Richard Loren & Stephen Abney

Author:Richard Loren & Stephen Abney [Loren, Richard & Abney, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Personal Memoirs
ISBN: 9780970940711
Google: cpG4oQEACAAJ
Publisher: East Pond Publishing
Published: 2014-11-15T23:51:19.320747+00:00

Part Three:

The Grateful Dead

Politics, Grateful Dead Movie, Garcia Bands, Egypt, Saturday Night Live, Alaska, and Radio City Music Hall

Chapter 16

Compliments and Changes

In September 1973, Ron Rakow needed new product for Round Records – the subsidiary of Grateful Dead Records owned by Garcia and Rakow – and he was on Jerry’s case to make another album.

Jerry was into doing something completely different for his second solo venture. He turned to his good friend John Kahn, the bass player from Old and in the Way and the Garcia-Saunders Band, and asked him to produce the record. John was also a close friend of mine, and he asked me to be the production coordinator. John had been a music mentor for me, expanding my musical knowledge and introducing me to a variety of genres from his vast collection. We shared musical interests, and he knew we could work well together. The new album would eventually be called Compliments, and I was thrilled and honored to be part of it.

Most of the recording took place in LA in late December 1973. John had top session musicians lay down the basic tracks first, and then he used Jerry as a vocalist and support player. The approach was to insert a dramatically different approach compared to how Jerry recorded with the Dead. John chose songs that not only fit Jerry’s vocal range but also reflected their shared lyrical and musical tastes, including selections from Van Morrison, Dr. John, the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, and Irving Berlin. In an interview about the sessions, Jerry said, “I went in there like a studio vocalist with the lyrics. Most of them I’d only heard once or twice before. It was one of the few times I didn’t really go on a trip about the material. I let John select most all of it, but I made a few suggestions like . . . ‘Russian Lullaby’ was my idea.”

The album and style were a huge departure for Jerry. Some of his Dead fans were disappointed, but sales were good and the critical response from reviewers was encouraging. For me, the fun of collaborating creatively with two close friends was a great learning experience in the art of record production, and working on Compliments remains one of the highlights of my career.

Angel Archives

On a bright September day in 1973, had Liberty been a live lady instead of a statue in New York Harbor, she would have raised her eyebrows in disdain at the sight of “the wretched refuse” partying on the passing steamship. They were not the tired, the poor, or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free; they were the Hells Angels drinking beer, sucking nitrous oxide out of party balloons, and rollicking on the upper deck of the SS Bay Belle. Specifically, they were members of the New York City and Richmond chapter of the Hells Angels outlaw biker club and their friends. Resplendent in leathers and tattoos, they were rocking to the sounds of Bo Diddley

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