Grateful Dead's 1982 Show Highlights and Unpopular Tunes Larry Mishkin, introduces a Grateful Dead show from August 28th, 1982, featuring an opener where Jerry Garcia stumbles over lyrics. Larry shares insights into the band's performance, suggesting they might have been dosed that day. He discusses the history of the Grateful Dead at Woodstock, why they were omitted from the film, and a song called "Keep Your Day Job," disliked by fans and dropped from their repertoire. Larry contrasts it with the successful breakout of "West LA Fadeaway" that night, highlighting the unique way the Grateful Dead introduced and refined songs in their concerts. Produced by PodConx
Grateful Dead's 1982 Show Highlights and Unpopular Tunes
Larry Mishkin, introduces a Grateful Dead show from August 28th, 1982, featuring an opener where Jerry Garcia stumbles over lyrics. Larry shares insights into the band's performance, suggesting they might have been dosed that day. He discusses the history of the Grateful Dead at Woodstock, why they were omitted from the film, and a song called "Keep Your Day Job," disliked by fans and dropped from their repertoire. Larry contrasts it with the successful breakout of "West LA Fadeaway" that night, highlighting the unique way the Grateful Dead introduced and refined songs in their concerts.
Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show
Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin
Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg
INTRO: Bertha
Track No. 1
3:16 – 4:46
Great opener, as always. One month after my first show and Jerry still can’t remember the words. So instead we focus on the jam. He may fall short in lyrics but his playing is electric. Story is that the band was supposedly dosed that day and the comments reflect that the band was “ON”.
SHOW #1: I Used To Love Her But It’s All Over Now
Track No. 7
1:05 – 2:22
It's All Over Now" is a song written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack.[1] It was first released by The Valentinos, featuring Bobby Womack, in 1964. The Rolling Stones heard it on its release and quickly recorded a cover version, which became their first number-one hit in the United Kingdom, in July 1964.
The Rolling Stones' version of "It's All Over Now" is the most famous version of the song. It was first released as a single in the UK, where it peaked at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the Rolling Stones their first number one hit.[5] It was the band's third single released in America, and stayed in the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks, peaking at number 26. Months later it appeared on their second American album 12 X 5. The song was a big hit in Europe and was part of the band's live set in the 1960s. Cash Box described it as a "contagious cover of the Valentinos' click" and "an infectious thumper that should head right for chartsville.”
Covered by almost everybody in the music industry from the Stones to Ry Cooder to Nils Lofgren, Wide Spread Panic, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and even Molly Hatchet (Flirtin With Disaster)
Covered by the Dead 154 times with Bobby singing.
Frist on September 6, 1969 - Family Dog at the Great Hightway
Last on July 2, 2995 – Deer Creek
SHOW #2: Day Job
Track No. 10
2:52 – 4:05
First time played in concert. Second set opener
Eventually played 57 times
Last time on April 4, 1986 at Hartford Civic Center
Per Robert Hunter in “A Box of Rain” collection of his lyrics, “this song was dropped from the Grateful Dead repertoire at the request of the fans. Seriously” First song ever ‘rejected’ by the Deadheads! And the band listened to them and stopped playing it!
But WHY was it so universally unpoplular?
“a lot of people thought it was the band making fun of/scolding deadheads who spent all their time following around the band. Hunter kind of hinted at that at one point in an interview I think.”
“Hippies don’t work”
“It sucks”
There are a few fans who liked the jamming or could relate to the song, but overall, NOPE.
SHOW #3: West LA Fadeaway
Track No. 12
1:08 – 2:35
Breakout version of this song, along with Day Job. Five years later In The Dark was released with Wet LA on there, but Day Job did not make the cut.
Dead would play this song 141 times in concert
Last was June 30, 1995 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh
Always a fan favorite, great music, fun lyrics (only Hunter could work “copasetic” into song lyrics)
SHOW #4: Playin’ In The Band
Track No. 14
1:50 – 3:10
Great version, very upbeat (a dosed band?) and sharp, Bobby right there with his inflection on PPPPLyaing in the BAAAnd, very sharp. I like this clip because it shows the transition from the hard charging opening of the song into a more mellow sound that signifies the jumping off point for the band into a Playin jam that could go anywhere. In this case, almost 20 minutes before segueing into Drums>Space>The Wheel>The Other One>Truckin’>Black Peter>Playin Reprise. What an amazing run of music. Great tunes, great jamming, outside in Oregon, what else could a Head ask for? Some clean Orange Sunshine or whatever the band was on!
OUTRO: Dupree’s Diamond Blues
Track No. 20
1:05 – 2:24
This song was written by Hunter/Garcia
It appeared on the Dead’s third album, Aoxomaxoa (released June 20, 1969).
First played on January 24, 1969 at the Avalon Ballroom
Last played on October 13, 1994 at MSG
Played a total of 83 times.
"Dupree's Diamond Blues" is based on an American folk song titled "Frankie Dupree," which was based on a real historical figure named Frank Dupree.
According to In The Pine: Selected Kentucky Folksongs, Dupree tried robbing a diamond wedding ring from a jewelry store in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1921. He intended to give the ring to his girlfriend Betty. When a police officer showed up, Dupree shot him dead. He then fled to Chicago where he killed another officer and wounded others.
Authorities eventually apprehended Dupree while he was getting his mail. They shipped him back to Atlanta where he was executed on September 1, 1922.
Giggles: The term "jelly roll" was once common African American slang for a woman's genitalia. The great ragtime pianist Jelly Roll Morton took his name from that very meaning. In 1924, Morton recorded an influential jazz song titled "Jelly Roll Blues," which is most likely what Hunter is referencing here.
In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s the band played it more frequently. Although more in the Americana style adopted by the Dead at the beginning of the ‘70’s than the primal Dead from the ‘60’s. But it became linked with primal Dead by being part of so many shows from that period. On the Fillmore West complete recordings for Feb. 27, 28 and March 1,2 on both the first and third night the band opened the second set with this song into Mountains of the Moon before launching in the Dark Star>St. Stephen>The Eleven>Lovelight suite made famous on Live Dead. But after that it just kind of fell off the band’s radar except for certain tours where it would show up for three or four shows before again getting pushed to the side. Very enduring.
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Deadhead Cannabis Show. I'm Larry Mishkin of Mishkin Law in Chicago. Got a fun show for you today, a wonderful Grateful Dead show we're gonna be featuring 41 years ago today, August 28th, 1982. The Grateful Dead at the Oregon County Fair in Vanita, Oregon. And let's dive in with the opener. As always, great opener by the dad, great opener for Jerry. Uh, this is fun though, cause as I was listening to the entire show, he comes right out of the box, completely stumbling over the lyrics. This show is about a month and a week after my first show, uh, in July of 1982. And they opened up that night with birth and Jerry came out and just couldn't remember the lyrics. So, you know, it must've been the case for this tour for Jerry. So instead I decided to focus more on the jam. I think that was an awesome jam. We know whether he remembers the lyrics or not, his playing is always electric and just so good. Now the story that I've been picking up from reading a lot of the comments and other stuff about this show is that the band supposedly dosed that day and the comments reflect that the band was on capital O, capital N, exclamation point. And certainly that's a energetic birther for them to come out of the box with. and Jerry trying his best to get with the words, but ultimately it really doesn't matter because we love it when he has the words, we love it when he forgets the words, just Jerry doing his thing. And for those of you who might be thinking, wait, Grateful Dead, Vanita, Oregon, August, end of August, yes, this show is 10 years and one day after the famous 1972 show at the Creamery in Vanita, which got its own separate box set released from the dead with. all the music and stories about how hot it was that day. And we've talked about that show in the past. It'll probably catch up to it again, maybe next year or the year after, depending on how the cycle goes. But there's something about being up in Veneta, being up in Oregon, that I think just always worked really well for the Dead. Keezy was parked up there for a long time and a lot of the Mary Pranksters were around. And I think that just always brings back a little bit of the Dead's late 60s. acid test memories and maybe that's why they decided to dose that day. If they did, if they did, I obviously don't know for sure, but the people in the crowd seem to think so, so why not? We can go along with that. It makes for a good story. But just a fun show, very standard for 1982. We'll get into a little bit more of that as we march through it. But here's a song now from the that was very popular in 1982, 83, 84, and kind of faded in and out of the Dead's repertoire for a while. Let's hear this one. I love that song, I used to love her but it's all over now or all over now or whatever we would shorten it to because it was too long to try and write it all into the tape box when it came time to list that song on the tracks. It's all over now or I used to love her but it's all over now is a song written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack. It was first released by the Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack in 1964. The Rolling Stones heard it upon its release and they quickly recorded a cover version which became their first number one hit in the United Kingdom in July of 1964. The Stones version of It's All Over now is the most famous version of the song, maybe. It was first released as a single in the UK where it peaked at number one on the UK singles chart, giving the Stones their first number one hit. It was the band's third single released in America and stayed in the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks, peaking at number 26. Months later, it appeared on their second American album, 12 by 5. The song was a big hit in Europe. and was a part of the band's live sets in the 1960s. Cashbox described it as a contagious cover of the Valentino's Click and an infectious thumper that should head right for Charlottesville. Yes, that's the way they talked back then, Charlottesville. It's been covered by almost everybody in the music industry, the Stones, Ry Cooder, Nils Lofgren, Widespread Panic, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and even Molly Hatch and Baby Flirting with Disaster. They stepped in and covered it, but... Of course, we're here to talk about the Grateful Dead covering it, and they did 154 times, always with Bobby singing. They broke it out for the first time on September 6, 1969, at the Family Dog at the Great Highway. And they last played it on July 2nd, 1995, in Deer Creek. So it stayed in the rotation for pretty much the entire time of the Grateful Dead, sometimes played with more frequency, sometimes with a little bit less. But it was always a great Bobby tune, nice one to mix in there in the first set and kind of keep everybody happy with stuff that was going on and always a lot of fun to hear. So yeah, we got a fun show going on up in Oregon today. All sorts of good stuff and on the Grateful Dead front, something that I stumbled upon that I've often wondered about and maybe you have too for those of us that have taken the time to watch the... the three plus hour Woodstock film documentary or film or whatever you want to, uh, whatever you want to call it. Um, but the dead were there and they played, uh, in the pouring rain and a thunderstorm and, uh, they've routinely called it one of their worst performances ever. But nevertheless, it was the Grateful Dead at Woodstock. Um, and yet they were somehow not in the Woodstock film. Why? Well, our friend, uh, Tyler Golson over at Far Out Magazine. looked into this issue recently. And he notes that the festival introduced plenty of legendary figures to the general public at large. Joe Cocker, Carlos Santana were largely unknown to most American music fans before their big show when he was at Woodstock. But it wasn't just the musicians who kickstarted their career there. Out in the crowd, running around, can only imagine in shorts and a bandana, possibly tripping a little bit was a young Martin Scorsese. helming a camera trying to capture footage of the chaotic rain soaked festivities. Roger Ebert had taken notice of Scorsese after he released his first future film in 1967, Who's That Knockin' at My Door? After Woodstock became the cultural moment of 69, Ebert profiled Scorsese along with film director, Mike Wadley and editors, Thomas Schoonmaker and Walter Murch about the process of reassembling the three day festival into a coherent. documentary film throughout early 1970. Ebert, of all people, was especially keen on why one of the festival's biggest draws, The Grateful Dead, wound up on the cutting room floor. So Scarcese starts out by explaining that the director Wade Law hates The Grateful Dead. No explanation why, just that he didn't like them. But apparently that wasn't the only reason why they got the shaft. The band themselves, of course, have always notoriously negative review of their performance. And in Ebert's piece, an unnamed assistant editor identified only as a serious face Japanese kid, oops, we're not trying that one today, was sorting through their footage to see if anything was salvageable. This is tougher than hell to cut the assistant set. What we have here is pig pen singing, let your love light shine, let your love light shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, and seeing that over and over and over, seeing the same goddamn thing for an hour. And you put it on the Keller, you're trying to sync three. different pieces of film and cut the hour down to maybe five minutes and you're trying to do it with film that was shot when it was so dark you could hardly see pig men who in any event is holding the microphone in front of his face anyway. So how would you go on? How are you gonna sync up this goddamn thing? You can't even see his mouth. So Scorsese says we had 14 dating cameras at Woodstock, counting wild cameras and that the editing of the footage that became Woodstock, there were three day, excuse me, those were. when those three days were over, we came back with 50 miles of film, 120 hours of film. It took us more than two weeks just to look at the rushes. So eventually Woodstock came out running at time at just over three hours in the original theatrical version. None of it featuring the Grateful Dead with the exception of a very brief glimpse of Jerry Garcia showing off a freshly rolled joint, wearing a serape with a big smile on his face. We all remember it well because that's the only time they show up. As they battled sound problems in the elements, the Dead played just five songs, St. Stephen, Mama Tried, a very short version of Dark Star, High Times, and a 40-minute turn on your love light, which is what got Scorsese so worked up in the first place. So even when Wadley assembled the four-hour director's cut in 94, the Dead were still omitted. It was only for the 40th anniversary edition of the film that the Dead's at least some portion of their 40-minute love light was eventually featured. When the director doesn't like you, That's not very helpful. But so, you know, this is it, folks. Here's your story. Why were the Grateful Dead not in the Woodstock film? Of course, it doesn't explain why they weren't on the Woodstock album, but, you know, that's another story that maybe we'll look at on a different day. But yeah, you know, politics and everything, even back then being what they are, it took a 40th anniversary director's cut special edition to get them in there for a few minutes with Pig Pen just. screaming over and over from the stage. And I've read stories about it, and Jerry and Bobby talked about how due to the lightning and everything, the stage was wet, so they were standing in water. They were all like perfect conductors of electricity. And when they touched the strings of their electric guitars, half the time they'd get little shocks, little volts of electricity through their fingers and into their bodies. And yet the boys persevered and played on, and they were probably tripping that night too. But... You know, the Dead at Woodstock was a thing, and even though we'll never be able to see it on the movie screen. And there's actually a CD out somewhere that purports to have all of the musical footage from the Dead's performance. And I've listened to part of it once and it doesn't sound particularly inspiring. But I guess if you're there and they came out and you were a deadhead, it was just happy to see a familiar face. And you know, maybe Jerry shared his joint with everybody. I don't know. Um, so yes, so Woodstock Martin score Sacy and, uh, things to be on the lookout for. Um, The funny thing about the Dead that we've talked about in the past is how unlike other bands, they don't follow the normal script, right? They don't sit in the studio, write a song, practice it forever, get it perfect, record a cut till they finally have one that they like, get a lot of airplay on it, and then wind up on tour, playing the song as the crowd demands it. The Dead kind of do it the other way. They come up with kind of more or less a song or half a song or an idea for a song. They start noodling on it in the middle of their concert. Sometimes it's part of a jam. Sometimes it's part of a, uh, a half-assed effort to see if they can come up with something in the moment and play it on stage. Um, you know, and so when you hear the dead play something that appears to be a new song, just because you've never heard it before, right? You can't say, Oh, this is the one that just came out on such and such an album. Because if you're hearing it, it's probably not coming out on an album for another two or three or five years. We've talked about Touch of Grey almost six years from when they first started playing it in concert in late 1981 to when the album In the Dark came out in July of 1987. Well, there are a lot of other songs from that era, and this being 1982, there were a lot of things that were very queued up for that time that they were just starting to pull out of their bag and click with. And we've got a couple of examples which we're going to dive into here in a second. but it's interesting to listen to them and ponder both how they sound then as well as where they wound up ultimately down the road. And of course, sitting here in 2023, too many years after this all came out, 30 plus years, we all know the story of some of these songs, but back at the time when they were first coming out, we were all left to wonder a little bit. So with that said, let's dive into the first of them here, which is the second set opener of all things from the Grateful Dead on August 28th, 82. That would be the infamous Dayjob. Something that we're gonna talk about here for a minute and you'll find out why it's infamous, but it truly is, it's infamous and yet at the same time, it's an amazing testament to the relationship between the Grateful Dead and their fans. But first let's go on to Brass Tax Dayjob, or Keep Your Dayjob is the official fancy title of the tune. And this in fact is the first time it was ever played in concert. This is the breakout version of Keep Your Day Job. It's a second set opener, so it's getting a lot of attention here. Uh, you know, they're, they're really trying to, uh, feature it. It would eventually be played 57 times. It was last played on April 4th, 1986 at the Hartford Civic Center. And so you're perhaps you're sitting there wondering and saying, well, hey, wait a second. This is 82, that's 86. That's only four years and for gosh sakes that's before In the Dark even came out. Surely there must be more versions of it, but surely there is not. Per Robert Hunter in the book A Box of Rain, a collection of the lyrics for his songs he wrote for The Grateful Dead and some other songs as well, Robert Hunter states as an aside after the day job lyrics, this song was dropped from the Grateful Dead repertoire at the request of the fans seriously." So yes, this is the first song that was ever rejected by the Deadheads and the band listened to them and stopped playing it. Now to me that's just absolutely unbelievable, right? Can you imagine any band out there? The Rolling Stones, hey guys we don't like Ruby Tuesday or something. happens to be a great tune, that's gonna be the problem with the Rolling Stones because there's not really something you're gonna find that sucks. But, you know, just for purposes of this debate, let's say it's Ruby Tuesday, you think that if you call into the Rolling Stones office enough and say, don't play Ruby Tuesday that they're gonna listen, no, they're gonna say, fuck you, and they're gonna come out and they're gonna play it. You know, Mick Jagger's not gonna put up with that, neither is Keith Richards. And it's just amazing to me because when they played Day Job, none of us were like, wow, what an amazing new tune. We just kind of tolerated it as, I mean, for me, The first time that I heard it, somewhere in probably 1983, I would guess, or early 1984, it was, you know, for me, just getting into the Grateful Dead, I was just beginning to even realize the concept of new tunes, right? I mean, everything was new to me at that point. So, you know, I wasn't the cynical dad head who could sit there and say, oh, this tune sucks compared to everything else. But even with that, you know, kind of explanation around it, It still never really struck me as being a very strong tune. And it was one that we were never particularly fond of hearing them play. And it would get thrown around all over the place. We went and saw a great show out in Syracuse Carrier Dome in the fall of 1983. My whole Ann Arbor crew drove out there in three cars and they opened the first set with an unbelievable shakedown street and closed it with an equally horrible day job. And it could really just kind of suck the air out of the venue sometimes. And here they were opening up the second set with it. But yeah, you know, what can I say? Some people ask, why was it so universally unpopular? So I was just reading through comments and I came up with a few that people had. Somebody said, a lot of people thought it was the band making fun of or scolding deadheads who spent all their time following around the band without any job or anything like that. Hunter kind of hinted at one point in an interview that might've been the topic of the song, I think. Okay, you know, I guess that's kind of interesting if you know, they're saying, you know, you have to have a job but I, you know, these people supported the Grateful Dead for years and years and years, you know, going to see the Grateful Dead was their job, selling their grilled cheese sandwiches and tie-dye t-shirts and all of that. Maybe, but you know, I mean, the same could be said about any of them. The dead or you know, any of those guys, but, you know, I'm not here to try to defend it one way or the other. I'm just trying to find You know, if there's any kind of a subjective statement that can be made, that could be universally accepted instead of kind of this kind of objective, you know, generality as to what it was. Somebody said, well, it's following up on the theme, hippies don't work. Other people were more succinct just saying it sucks. And then surprisingly within the comments, there are a few fans who liked the jamming. Some said they could relate to the song, but overall, nope, not happening. And yeah, you know, even a band like Fish, which has such a strong relationship with its fans and communicates so closely with them, you know, and I don't know a good enough Fish song to kind of lump into that category and throw in there as a song that, you know, ultimately is universally despised by all the Fishheads. Um, you know, and again, that may be what's unique about this is you don't get a band that's this popular that writes a song where everybody, all the people, 95% of the audience says, we don't like this song, guys. This was a mistake. Please stop playing it. So they did. But on this night, at least it was the second set opener and lots of great potential and future to it that never quite materialized. Unlike a song that shows up two songs later in the second set. also part of the same genre and era. Okay, so it's a double header for Deadheads at Night. This is also the breakout version of this song. So you go in, you get two for the price of one, a Dayjob breakout, a West LA Fadeaway breakout. Five years later, In the Dark is released with West LA Fadeaway, but Dayjob did not make the cut. The fans kept it off the album. West LA comes out. What a great tune. I never even really thought of West LA Fadeaway as a new tune because... like Althea, which was one album before. These tunes were as new to me as any of the other tunes out there. So I was learning these as I was learning the other songs. But this is a very funky version of West L.A. Fade Away. And you can, even in this brief clip, you can hear it both in the way Jerry is singing the song. A lot of the lyrics are still very loose and being jumbled around. And the way he's playing it is also being kind of still, tossed around, but... This was it. They took it out for their test run. Played it that night. Gets a decent response from the audience and they're on their way with what's about to become another Grateful Dead classic. So this one they played 141 times in concert and played it all the way through to June 30th of 95, a night at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. It's just great. it's great to be able to see and look in, you know, basically 30 years later, especially having lived through that period of time and been aware that these songs were coming out, you know, to just be able to sit back and watch their, their arcs right and how one of them didn't even really flame out it never even flame to begin with it just kind of puttered out there and puttered around and then puttered out and then West LA which came out, you know, kind of rocky at first and really needed to be refined, but once it was, and once they really got it moving, just became a great song. Always a fan favorite, fun lyrics. Only Robert Hunter could work copacetic into song lyrics, but that was his specialty and that's what he could do. It tells a fun story and it's just, it's an easy song to learn the lyrics to and great sing-along for everybody. So, you know, a special night. It's always fun to find these nights. when the dead are breaking out new tunes. And, you know, again, this is five years pre-release on In the Dark. By the time the album came out, you know, the dead heads, you know, were almost beginning to get sick of these songs. Not necessarily sick, but, you know, okay, yeah, we've heard this one. It goes in all the other categories. Give us something new. And, you know, I guess that's just the way it works for the Grateful Dead. And that's really what made it. so much fun for everyone and why we keep loving it and going back. We have some more from this show to feature and we will turn our attention back to that in a few minutes but I have a couple of things on the marijuana side that I'd like to talk about today, Dan. Who is it, Dan?
Dan Humiston:
Cab Calloway.
Larry:
Cab Calloway, love that. Yes, Dan keeps coming up with good ones. And maybe I should have known Cab Calloway. I've heard him sing before Mini the Moocher and stuff like that, but that's a great one. California reefer man, nice. We got some very, very interesting stories today, which kind of run the gamut, but the one that I wanna start with, because this is big, and... as the new licenses slowly but surely come online here in Illinois and in other states and people are still looking at the opportunities of buying in or consolidating or do whatever they can. The one thing I hear over and over and over and over again that drives me crazy is somebody telling me, oh, no, I've now got the hack for credit cards. I know a guy who knows a guy, we can use credit cards. We can use credit cards. And my response is, prove it, right? It doesn't work. Visa, MasterCard, none of them want to be in this arena yet. They can't be for many reasons because of the schedule one problems and the banking laws as they currently exist. And they just don't want anything to do with it. They make billions of dollars without servicing the marijuana market. And there's no reason for them to expose themselves to whatever risk there might be in entering the marijuana market and they don't do it. Okay, it sucks. But, you know, we've all more or less come to understand that and And I will say it again, if somebody says they've got a great idea and involves credit cards, turn and run fast, because I've yet to see one that works. But here, this story just goes to show why credit cards really are impossible. Because what has MasterCard now done? MasterCard now has conclusively put a ban on cannabis debit card purchases. And as they say in the MJ Biz headline, we're getting our stories today from MJ Biz. Thank you folks over there. Looking forward to seeing Las Vegas later this year. MJBiz says this is rocking the industry. Most places thought they had it figured out that by using a debit card, you got yourself around the marijuana issues because debit cards were just a straight bookkeeping change between one account and another account. These weren't. charges like checks or credit card charges that flow through the central bank registry and have to be cleared by the US bank, putting the schedule one status in direct conflict with the US monetary system and banking system. But debit cards, it has long been believed could be used. And a lot of places are using debit cards. just recently was down in Bloomington Normal. And there's a dispensary down there that I like to frequent when I'm down that way. And they've taken debit cards forever. And not every place will take them, but a lot of them will. And a lot of them kind of treated it as like, no, it's no big deal. But it is a big deal if your debit card says MasterCard or Visa at the top. Then it's a really big deal because these guys are not playing around. And to... and make their point, MasterCard felt the need to come out and make this statement. You know, and MJ Biz writes about it and says that MasterCard's new hardline demand that banks and payment processors immediately halt cannabis transactions involving its debit card has upended the marijuana industry and put more licensed operators at financial risk. Of course it has. It's much easier to do business when somebody doesn't have to walk into your store with $400 of cash. Like everywhere else in the world, they pull out a credit card, they buy what they wanna buy, you get paid, they get their stuff, everybody's happy. If you're gonna tell people it's only cash, that may cut back on business, that may put you in a position where you're not making as much money. And so this is development that's expected to affect the adult use and the medical marijuana retailers as well as their customers. Those consumers are now gonna have to revert back to the days of cash, only transactions. A throwback in an era when digital wallets are used to buy everything from groceries to gas, but not marijuana. Have to have cash. So it's a stark reminder that these types of business setbacks will persist without federal cannabis reform and as long as marijuana remains illegal under US law. Executives are saying, and again, of course it will. We know this every time Rob and I in the past have talked about. the Safe Banking Act and lamented the fact that it's obviously necessary and everybody knows it's necessary and they can't get their shit together enough to get the damn thing passed and solve these problems. And now you've got private industry saying, well, you know, it's not good enough for the government, it's not good enough for us, and they just make it harder for everyone. It creates, again, situations where crime is more prevalent when thieves know that dispensaries are sitting on large volumes of cash as well as large volumes of marijuana. remove the cash from the equation, and the target becomes a little bit less desirable in terms of the effort it's gonna take to try and go in and get around the security systems, which all have to measure up to certain standards as established by the state. So, what does this happen? Cannabis operators are forced to scramble and find new payroll providers because earlier this year, they all received memos from paychecks advising that the company would no longer process direct deposits or offer other services. for marijuana-related businesses. MasterCard issued its cease and desist order earlier this week to participating banks. They said, in accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that offer payment services to cannabis merchants and connect them to MasterCard to terminate the activity, the spokesperson said. It's widely believed the vast majority of marijuana debit transactions at U.S. marijuana stores are routed either through First Federal Bank of Florida or Dart Bank in Michigan. but executives from neither bank would respond to MJ Biz daily inquiries. As a result of the MasterCard order, cannabis businesses said consumers will likely see more ATMs in the store. And when you're using an ATM that's not from your bank, you're paying a much higher processing rate. You know, and it's a pain in the ass. And you walk in and, oh, our ATM is out of cash this week, sorry, you know, and then you're really screwed. It, there's just. no need to do this. It's going to affect retailers. The supply chain is going to have to deal with a lot more cash, which brings in its own set of challenges and risks there, right? Marijuana companies are particularly vulnerable to break-ins given the highly cash nature of the business. We're talking about a situation and making it harder for cannabis businesses to facilitate legal operations, said Don Morris, co-founder of California-based Proteus 420, which makes point of sale and inventory software for cannabis companies. What this means is moving increase the theft and potential for more illicit market operators to move back into a space prior to legalization. So all this has done is of course stepped up calls for reform, federal reform, and people are now going to start making them up, start making them a lot more. MasterCard is stepping into thwart the use of this debit card in cannabis via pin debit system. It's another painful reminder of the lack of federal recognition of legal cannabis said Morgan Paxia, co-founder. and managing director of San Francisco based cannabis hedge fund, Poseidon Investor Management, oh, excuse me, said Morgan Paxia. Cannabis should be treated like every other business in this industry, but it's not. The only way financial institutions are going to be comfortable working with it is by getting the okay from the safe, okay from the federal government, passage of the safe banking act and anything else that we can come up with. that we need to get it done. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to the action that's needed. Hopefully indeed because, you know, I hate to be the I told you so guy, but we cannot rely on plastic in this industry. Not now. Not as long as the federal government refuses to move. And we talked about it last week, right, with the reports that just go to show how stupid it is when the federal government sits there and tries to pretend. that marijuana has no recognized health benefits. So therefore we have to keep it on schedule one. That's bullshit. We know it, they know it. And these are the unfortunate side effects of the government playing that game. We're gonna pretend to be dumb. Maybe they're not pretending, maybe they really are. It's hard to say for sure, because when you put a company like MasterCard into position where it feels compelled to have to make this kind of pronouncement and really kind of put the hammer down on this thing. To me, that's a total abdication of leadership by the federal government on this very, very important issue. And again, we've talked about marijuana is no longer a nickel and dime business. There are businesses out there that were sold for close to a billion dollars. There's a huge volume of business being done. It may not matter whether some of the all the operators are or are not at this point in time making a profit. What really matters is the fact that this just all sucks. And there's really no other way to say it. And you know, as a marijuana fan and somebody who wants to be able to see us be able to just go into stores and buy the things we wanna buy and do it the way we wanna be able to do it, this is not the right way to get that done. But when there's frustration, there's also hope. So also from our friends over at MJ Biz, Chris Roberts writes a great article. on California cities and counties that are cutting marijuana taxes to aid struggling companies. Thank God somebody's finally paying attention, especially out in California, where we want to make sure they always have a strong market that flourishes. So an increasing number of county and local elected officials across California are acknowledging a long-time industry grievance that legal company taxes are too high, cutting local levies. So now they're cutting local levies on sales, retail sales, business operations, or both. At least 14 cities and counties in the state, including key consumer markets such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as places like Calaveras and Humboldt, have reduced or eliminated local sales, business or cultivation taxes over the past year, according to research that's been compiled on the topic. The trend reflects a growing acceptance among elected officials that legal marijuana in the state's roughly $6 billion market is simply too expensive for California consumers. who can patronize a still thriving illicit market that regulars in law enforcement have been unable to punish out of existence. Cannabis sales tax in California are subject to a 15% state excise tax, as well as the state sales tax, which ranges from 7.25% to as high as 10.75% in some areas. That's on top of any local taxes that cities and counties might choose to impose. The tax cuts are welcome, but limited relief for a struggling industry that's desperate to stay afloat. amid familiar pressures. Advocates say that the collapse this summer of Herbie, a major distributor alleged to have left a string of unpaid invoices across the state is a sign of things to come unless major changes are made. And they talk about across the state and they point out some of the cities and we've talked about them, Berkeley, Cathedral City, Long Beach, Palm Desert, San Francisco, Santa Ana. Some of the counties include Calaveras, Humboldt, Mendocino, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma. And part of this, as they say, is specifically designed to help people who are following the rules. Recognizing that cannabis is a fledgling industry is somewhat in a free fall. Some of these counties voted in late June to cut gross receipts taxes on cannabis businesses to 6%, bringing it down from 8% to 10%. All industries, when they first started out, are on a rocky road at first, they said. It's our responsibility as the local community to help people who are following the rules and paying their bills. Instead of being penalized, they should be supported and helped. Wow, what is that? That's just a very, very common sense approach to handling marijuana. There's no hysterics there. There's no craziness. There's no, this is the end of the world as we know it. This is a business that should be a welcomed and recognized part of any community. because it serves an industry where we now know, as we talked about last time, that over 50% of the people in this country have tried marijuana. We have to stop playing these games and think how these are. Here's the argument that I was about to make, but luckily here they make it just as well as I can and probably a little bit better. And these aren't the first people to make this argument either. And you can substitute in your. your vegetable or leafy green of choice. But what they basically are calling for is to regulate cannabis like they regulate kale, right? Kale, the great wonderful lettuce that became so popular, whatever the hell it is, everybody loves it all the time. Me, I'm just like lettuce is lettuce, but kale, okay, fine, whatever. So if policymakers want legal marijuana to be successful, they would do well to follow models from other stable and profitable industries. One thing we'd like to talk about is regulating cannabis like kale. If you want your company or your city to have the best benefit of reaping benefits in terms of jobs, regulate the industry like you do other prosperous sectors of the economy, which is to say like a normal agricultural product here or here. The idea that you have to set up a special system for cannabis with special stores that can sell nothing else on top of all this other stuff you're piling on top of it is really not learning from the lessons of what's succeeded under other industries. And that's just great advice. And that's a great, great way to look at this, that this should be treated as the same as kale, that this should be treated the same as any other leafy green that you might purchase at a store. And if they did, they'd really give the industry a chance to get a solid foundation and a solid base and really get it going. And more importantly, in my opinion, give many more mom and pop size owners a chance to get in there and compete with the big guys. And that's just so important to me. And that leads me right into my next story, which is the big guys aren't having their way quite as much in the industry anymore. And also, thank you to our friends over at MJ Biz for giving us the story about how cannabis, multi-state operators, Cresco Labs, and ColumbiaCare have now terminated a planned merger. They're officially walking away from their plan merger a deal that was valued at $2 billion when it was announced in March of 2022. In light of the evolving landscape in the cannabis industry, we believe the decision to terminate the plan transaction is in the long-term interest of Cresco Labs and our shareholders, Charlie Bachtel, CEO and co-founder of Cresco Labs, said in a statement, Cresco Labs being based right here in good old Chicago. The deadline to closing the deal had been delayed a number of times, most recently until June 30th. Then on June 30th, the companies announced they had not divested overlapping assets required by marijuana regulators in several states. The terminated deal also means that the company's plans to sell assets in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York to wrapper in business mogul Sean Diddy Combs have been terminated effectively July 28th, according to the release. Rob and I talked about on this show a month or two ago, would have created the largest black owned marijuana multi-state operator in the United States. Earlier this year, New York headquartered ColumbiaCare streamlined its operations, laying off 25% of its corporate employees and shuttering some operations. So I would say that for people who have been listening to our show and been following the rather disappointing financial landscape that the industry finds itself in right now. should not be totally surprised by this. The folks at Columbia Care went on to say, over the last 16 months, we have reviewed every aspect of our business, remained decisive and have made substantive changes that significantly improved our operations, positioning us with significant strategic and operational strengths at this inflection point in the company's history. That's Columbia Care CEO, Nicolas Vida. So what happened? A spokesperson for Cresco told MJ Biz Daily that the companies were struggling to divest assets as required in Florida and Ohio this spring and summer. Every time we would get close, financing would fall through because of the capital landscape. Capital markets have been challenges for the U.S. cannabis industry, burdened by high interest rates, low share prices, the slow pace of federal marijuana reform, inflation and wholesale cannabis price compression. Before the Columbia-Coresco deal was announced in March, the price of a share of Coresco in the U.S. fell from approximately $6.50 to just over $1.50 this past Friday. Over the same time period, shares of Columbia Care fell from $3.10 to little more than $0.40. Citing these challenges, equity analysts were not surprised at the announcement of the terminated deal. It hasn't stopped Diddy, though. He's... Committed to exploring opportunities, the creation of the country's first black-owned cannabis MSO was also contingent on the deal closing. Coombs Global, led by rapper and business vocal known as Diddy, agreed to buy both production and retail assets for up to $185 million last November. For an industry in need of greater diversity of leadership and perspective, the substantial presence of a minority-owned operator in some of the most influential markets in the country. being led by one of the most prolific and impactful entrepreneurs of our time is momentous and incredibly exciting. Cresco's Bactel said back at that time, though the deal also has been terminated, Combs Global president Tariq Brooks of the company hasn't walked away from cannabis entirely. Combs Global remains committed to exploring opportunities and pushing for diversity in the cannabis industry. So, you know, they're not going to give up and good for them. You know, I'm not a big corporate guy, so I can't say that this deal falling apart, you know, really upsets me or disappoints me in any way. You know, and if anything, I think that it's a positive sign for other people in the industry that the big guys are not always gonna get their way. You know, that there are people out there who are paying attention to what's going on, that the divestment rules apply so that there's no anti-trade violations, so that they're... otherwise in compliance with state rules regarding number of licenses you can own and any one of a number of different arguments that might come into play here. But even for the big boys like Cresco, sometimes the answer is no. And Columbia Care, they're both huge and they've both been, you know, otherwise fairly successful, I think, as far as MSOs go. And look, Cresco is Chicago-based. I'd like to see them succeed to a certain degree. But then we always run into that difficult point of when they succeed to a level that's so great that the mom and pops and the small time owners are negatively impacted. And I think this business cannot be successful. This industry cannot sink its roots in on a permanent basis until we have any number of mom and pop stores, stores owned by people who own one store, one dispensary, one cultivation center, and who are trying to make it in this industry. by finding a niche in the marketplace in which they find themselves located. And they're gonna do that by helping combat higher prices and by bringing more diversity of strains and genetics and terpene profiles and all those wonderful things to the products that are being sold in their dispensaries. And that's why it's so important for individual businesses in my opinion, to be able to survive. I really view them as the backbone of the industry, not the big corporate companies that Let's face it, as they said, they have shareholders, they owe a duty to those shareholders, and the duty they owe to the shareholders very often times conflicts with benefits that they might like to otherwise pass on to their customers and consumers. And customers and consumers follow that, and when they see a company favoring its shareholders over them, they go find a company that's gonna favor them over the shareholders. And, you know, hopefully, Cresco and Columbia Care, who are... both helmed by groups of people far wiser than I, are gonna figure out what they need to do and find a way to make them succeed because even though I'm all for the smaller retailers being able to exist and thrive, I don't think it's good for the industry to see big players like Columbia Care or Cresco fail. Their success I think brings a lot of... credibility and comfort to people who are smaller and operating in the market and kind of gives a lot of us a touchstone of saying, you know, there may be crazy times, but Cresco has its dispensaries growing, Columbia Care is growing its marijuana and doing its thing. And I think that for investors in the industry, even whether they're invested in those companies or not, it's an important point to be able to gauge. just how risky at any point in time you may feel your investment in the industry is. And certainly when you see a company like Cresco backing off of something, that's going to cause a few ripples. But at the same time, by pointing out what they're trying to focus on instead, and then demonstrating it with future performance, the hope will be that will keep investors calm and that will keep people in the industry working in a way that's good and consistent for everyone. instead of kind of running in their full scale panic attack, this guy is following type of mode that makes people, that pushes people and businesses into territory where they never thought they'd be or where they wanna be higher prices and having to fire more people and really tighten their belts. And do all the kinds of things that we like to think of marijuana companies as pushing back against the grain of traditional corporate values a little bit. And even though their business is just like any other and are all about profit and loss, We don't always need to be reminded of it quite so much in this way. But at the end of the day, we'll see where this goes. We'll see how those companies wind up doing and continue to monitor them. And we'll see if this creates a void that other large companies feel like they may be able to step into, that step they might have been reluctant to take thinking and not only is it so expensive, but it's gonna be very hard to compete against Cresco and Columbia Care at that level. But now Cresco and Columbia Care aren't gonna be at that level. And maybe we'll find another company or two that would like to be there. So again, something else to look forward to as we watch and see where things go over the next few months, at least through the end of this year in the industry. So that's our marijuana talk for the day. I think generally upbeat and positive with a few cautionary tales in there. and MasterCard making sure that everybody knows where they stand in this game. But let's look back in the last couple of minutes we have here to our wonderful concert from today's date in 1982 at the Oregon County Fair up in lovely Vanita, Oregon. And we've listened to them break out a couple of new tunes. We heard a couple of traditional tunes up front. And now we're gonna dive into a tune that was quickly becoming, by this point, had become a very traditional tune. And listen to it, listen to the way it's played, because it's just great. So we've talked so much about playing in the band over the last couple of months. It's big position in the Europe 72 tour. We heard some early versions of playing in the band and talked about how the main 10 kind of evolved into it on another level. And it's just such a great, great song. And I love this version of it. First of all, it's very, very upbeat. It's played with a tremendous amount of energy and it's very, very sharp. What I mean is, you know, Bobby's right there on his inflection on play and in the band, very sharp. And, you know, look, once again, a dosed band, you know, could they be up there dosed away and just playing with the extra energy that those of us that dose know comes with that little, comes with the great mind expansion when you have the right stuff and the right amount on the right day and you feel like you can do anything right there when you're listening to Bobby sing and play. He sure sounds like he could take on the world. and he's just doing a good job of it. But one of the reasons why I picked this particular clip from this song, because I think it really highlights very, very well the transition from the hard charging opening of the song into the more mellow sound that signifies for the band the jumping off point into a playing jam that could go anywhere. It's that moment like when you're sitting there and we all kind of look at each other, you know, and say, okay, guys, hold on, here we go. Jerry's taking us somewhere now. Bobby's taking us off on an adventure. And you know, for the next little while, you know, until they swing back around into it or later get into the reprise, that it's just gonna be some great open-minded jamming and who knows what you're gonna get. You know, and in this case, in this particular version, the jamming goes on for about 20 minutes actually, which really gives it, I think, a, the feel of versions played, you know, much earlier in the 1970s. Um, but, but this is where this show gets amazing because this 20 minute version of playing then segues into the drums and space section, which lead into the wheel. The other one truck and black Peter and back into the play and reprise. Finally, it's just an amazing run of music, great tunes, great jamming outside in Oregon, what else could I had asked for? Maybe some. Clean Orange Sunshine or whatever the band might have been on. But these are the kind of shows that I was seeing when I was first going. And you just get these amazing run of tunes, sometimes leading into the space, sometimes into the drums, sometimes coming out of the space. You know, and just whether the band was dosed or not, the clear message that it sent was they were having fun, they were having a great day and they really enjoy playing this venue. I'm sure they dig the vibes there. and it's just a great place for them. So yeah, playing in the band, an amazing tune, certainly a highlight of this show, I think. Anytime they break off into a 20-minute version, it has to be a highlight. And if you go back and listen to this concert, Start to Finish, on Archive.org, which I would strongly recommend, you need to give this version of playing an entire listen through and just hear the way the song evolves and peaks and crescendos and does all this wonderful stuff and then swings back around and Before it dumps you into the drums and if you have the time to listen all the way through that stretch Again, you just have to do it and by the time you make it to the playing reprise You're gonna be winded. It's just it's just a great run of music and One of those reasons why you never miss a dead show because you don't know what you're likely to miss. So We're getting to the end of our time here today Again, the hour always seems to go by much faster than I think it's going by. And since I'm not dozed today, I know that it must just be a combination of great topics to talk about and an opportunity to just talk about them for a little while, which is fun and why I do this and why we love having other people on the show and get to talk about the topics of the Grateful Dead and marijuana, which are near to dear to all of us. And my hope is that one day, The only marijuana stories we'll have to talk about is our own personal experiences, the stuff we tried last night, the stuff that somebody at the Dead Show gave us, the stuff that we found in an out of the way dispensary in Montana, or whatever the case may be. We don't really have to worry anymore about are they going to pass the Safe Banking Act? Is this still going to be a schedule one? How can they take such hypocritical positions and basically show complete disregard? for such a large segment of the population of this country that approves and even uses marijuana themselves. So you'll be back next week. We will have more exciting music and show for you. And on our way out today, and this I think just is a great, great tune to go out on. It's two pre-Diamonds Blues. And there's a lot of things about this song which I like. It's a Hunter Garcia tune. It appeared on the Dead's third album, Oxxamoxxah, released back in June of 69. It was first played on January 24th, 1969 at the Avalon Ballroom. It was last played on October 13th, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, and the Dead played it a total of 83 times. It doesn't really sound like a lot of times, but given the length of time it was in the repertoire, they obviously loved it. The notes say that it's based on an American folk song titled Frankie Dupree, which was based on a real historical figure named Frank Dupree. According to a book in the Pines Selected Kentucky Folk Songs, Dupree tried robbing a diamond wedding ring from a jewelry store in Atlanta in 1921. He intended to give the ring to his girlfriend, Betty. When a police officer showed up, Dupree shot him dead. He then fled to Chicago where he killed another officer and wounded others. authorities eventually apprehended Dupree while he was getting his mail. They shipped him back to Atlanta where he was executed on September 1st, 1922. So yeah, that tracks the story of Dupree's Diamond Blues pretty darn well. One other part about the song, and we always just kind of call it the giggles section of the song, is they keep talking in the song about the Jelly Roll Blues. The term Jelly Roll, which we all eventually figured out, was once common. African-American sling for women's genitalia. The great ragtime pianist Jelly Roll Morton took his name from that very meaning. In 1924, Morton recorded an influential jazz song titled Jelly Roll Blues, which is most likely what Hunter is referencing here. So, you know, you hear it, you think about it, and then you're like, yeah, maybe, oh, he, yep, that is, that is what they're talking about. Gee, I wonder if anybody else figures it out there. But I'm sure for a lot of us guys, when we stop and we think about it, say, yeah, you know, that's actually pretty true for the most part. We'll do lots of things for our women. And that's the good thing about having a person you love or a man or whoever your significant other might be. With Dupree's time in blues, it got played more often in the late 60s and early 70s. And although it's really more in the Americana style, what's interesting, it was adopted by the dead. really at the beginning of the 1970s, excuse me, I'm not saying this right. Although it was more Americana style adopted by the Den at the beginning of the 1970s than the Primal Dead from the 1960s, it became linked with Primal Dead by being a part of so many shows from that period. On the Fillmore West Complete Recordings from February 27th, 28th, March 1st and March 2nd, on both the first and third night, the band opened the second set with this song. into mountains of the moon before launching into the dark star St. Stephen, the 11 Love Light Suite, made famous on Live Dead. And think about that. I mean, for those of us that love Primal Dead, those shows at the Fillmore West in the month or two, the Avalon show leading up to it at the end of January and one or two others, these were the moments where they just created these amazing sounds. And rather than just launch into Dark Star, they, at the beginning of the set, they wanted to have a little bit of an introduction and Mountains of the Moon certainly kind of falls into that whole psychedelic catalog of tunes with really trippy lyrics and everything played with its harpsichord style by Tom Constantin. But Dupree's again, you know, just seemed a little more Americana in style. And yet, you know, that's the tune that they went out there and Jerry basically almost with the band behind him, but... basically almost singing it solo. It's lovely. Go back and check out those shows from the Fillmore and the February beginning of March of 1969. And specifically look for those tunes. You know, if you've gone to those shows, you've probably listened to the Dark Star Suite a number of times, but you may not have focused on Dupree's Into Mountains of the Moon. And it's just so much fun and adds a whole nother element of what they were doing at the time. It's just a very, very enduring tune. and one that obviously they had an affinity for. This one is particularly cool because it's played as an encore and I love that. By the time I was seeing the dead and the few times I saw it, my recollection of it is as always is basically a first set song. And I don't ever really recall singing in the second set, but they played as an encore this night. It made a great ending to the show. And so that's what we're gonna go out on. Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a great week. Be safe and enjoy your cannabis responsibly. Okay.