"Sailing Through Sounds: JRad's Revelations & Dylan Surprises" Larry Mishkin discusses JRad (Joe Russo's Almost Dead) December 1st concert at the Riviera nightclub in Chicago. He talks about the band's unique covers, including Grateful Dead songs, and their ability to recreate the sound of the original artists. He highlight the performance of "Foolish Heart" during a previous show, describing its musical construction and its significance in the Grateful Dead's live repertoire. .Produced by PodConx
"Sailing Through Sounds: JRad's Revelations & Dylan Surprises"
Larry Mishkin discusses JRad (Joe Russo's Almost Dead) December 1st concert at the Riviera nightclub in Chicago. He talks about the band's unique covers, including Grateful Dead songs, and their ability to recreate the sound of the original artists. He highlight the performance of "Foolish Heart" during a previous show, describing its musical construction and its significance in the Grateful Dead's live repertoire.
Delving into the band members' backgrounds, emphasizing their musical talents and contributions to JRad. It provides detailed information about each member's musical history and collaborations, discussing Joe Russo's drumming, Marco Benevento's keyboards, Dave Drywitz's bass, Tom Hamilton's guitar, and Scott Metzger's diverse musical styles.
He also reviews JRad's surprise performances, such as their rendition of Bob Dylan's "Tell Me Mama," a song exclusively performed during Dylan's 1966 world tour. Larry expresses surprise at how JRad, despite being younger and not following Dylan in 1966, managed to perform the song so well.
Additionally, he briefly touches on the issue of marijuana prohibition on cruise ships, by criticizing the strict enforcement against cannabis use, considering the changing attitudes toward marijuana. The discussion also touches upon ticket availability for concerts by bands like Phish and rumors surrounding potential performances.
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
Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/
JRAD
December 1, 2023
The Riviera Nightclub
Chicago
Episode title: JRAD Rocks The Riv in Chicago on 12.1.2023: channel Dylan and Dire Straits
Happy Birthday Keith Richards (80!)
INTRO: Foolish Heart
Track #3
5:45 – 7:17
SHOW No. 1: Tell Me, Momma
Track #4
0:57 – 2:33
Tell Me, Momma is a song written by Bob Dylan and performed exclusively during his 1966 World Tour with the Band (then known as the Hawks). It was used to introduce the second half of a concert, when Dylan switched from an acoustic solo performance to an electric performance backed by a band. The song was not recorded on a studio album, nor was it ever performed again by Dylan in concert.
Dylan's May 17, 1966 live performance of the song was released in 1998 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.[1] In 2016, all Dylan's recorded live performances of "Tell Me, Momma" from 1966 were released in the 36-CD boxed set The 1966 Live Recordings, with the May 26, 1966 performance released separately on the album The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert. The boxed set contains all the live versions of "Tell Me, Momma" ever performed by Dylan and his band.
SHOW No. 2: Fire On The Mountain
Track #7
0:30 – 2:05
SHOW No. 3: Before They Make Me Run
Keith Richards
ROLLING STONES: Before They Make Me Run (Promo - 7" Single Version) (youtube.com)
1:54 – 3:21
Today Keith turned 80. Cannot let that milestone go unnoticed.
Richards was born in and grew up in Dartford, Kent. He studied at the Dartford Technical School and Sidcup Art College. After graduating, Richards befriended Jagger, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Brian Jones and joined the Rolling Stones. As a member of the Rolling Stones, Richards also sings lead on some Stones songs. Richards typically sings lead on at least one song a concert, including "Happy", "Before They Make Me Run", and "Connection". Outside of his career with the Rolling Stones, Richards has also played with his own side-project, The X-Pensive Winos. He also appeared in three Pirates of the Caribbean films as Captain Teague, father of Jack Sparrow, whose look and characterisation was inspired by Richards himself.
In 1989, Richards was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2004 into the UK Music Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him fourth on its list of 100 best guitarists in 2011. In 2023, Rolling Stone's ranking was 15th.[1] The magazine lists fourteen songs that Richards wrote with Jagger on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
My favorite “Keith tune” in the Stone’s songbook. 1978 version.
"Before They Make Me Run" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, featured on their 1978 album Some Girls.
English musician, songwriter, singer and recording producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure.
Written by guitaristKeith Richards, the song is a response to his arrest for heroin possession in Toronto in February 1977. The criminal charges and prospect of a prison sentence loomed over the Some Girls recording sessions and endangered the future of the Rolling Stones.[2]
In the lyrics, Richards reflects unapologetically on his lifestyle up to that point. The line "it's another goodbye to another good friend" in the first verse can be interpreted as referring to Gram Parsons, Richards's close friend who died in 1973 from a drug overdose,[3] and/or to heroin itself: Richards had sought medical treatment for heroin addiction following his arrest in Toronto, and his resolution to overcome his addiction would be a significant factor in his upcoming trial.[4]
Richards recorded the song in five days without sleeping.[5] Originally entitled "Rotten Roll", the song was recorded in a Paris studio in March 1978 during one of Mick Jagger's absences from the Some Girls sessions.[6] The completed track, "a high-energy rock & roller",[7] features Richards on lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, and bass; Ronnie Wood on pedal steel guitar, slide guitar and backing vocals; Charlie Watts on drums; and Jagger on backing vocals.
Richards first performed the song in concert on the New Barbarians' tour of North America in 1979; it was not until the Steel Wheels Tour in 1989 that it entered the Rolling Stones' concert repertoire
SHOW No. 4: Romeo and Juliet
Track #13
1:54 – 3:21
"Romeo and Juliet" is a rock[1][4][5] song by the British rock band Dire Straits, written by frontman Mark Knopfler. It first appeared on the 1980 album Making Movies and was released as a single in 1981.[6] The song subsequently appeared on the Dire Straits live albums Alchemy and On the Night, and later on Knopfler's live duet album with Emmylou Harris, Real Live Roadrunning (though Harris does not perform on the track).
The song itself, written by Knopfler, was inspired by his failed romance with Holly Vincent, lead singer of the short-lived band Holly and the Italians. The song speaks of a Romeo who is still very much in love with his Juliet, but she now treats him like "just another one of [her] deals". Knopfler has both stated and implied that he believes Vincent was using him to boost her career. The song's line, "Now you just say, oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him," refers to an interview with Vincent, where she says "What happened was that I had a scene with Mark Knopfler and it got to the point where he couldn't handle it and we split up.
OUTRO: Hard To Handle
Track #17
5:00 – 6:45
Otis Redding recorded Hard to Handle in late 1967, shortly before his death. It was released as a single in June 1968. By 1969, it was being covered by a number of people, and surprisingly, the Dead seem to have been one of the first. If anyone were to think of the least likely groups in ‘69 to cover some funky new R&B, the Dead would probably be on that list. They hadn’t shown any interest in picking up new R&B covers since mid-1967, when they started doing Lovelight – since then, they had focused on their original ‘acid-rock’ material. Many old covers dropped out of their setlists, and from summer ’68 through winter ’69, their shows were almost exclusively devoted to Anthem & Live/Dead suite material, with a few new Aoxomoxoa songs dropped in.
But by March 1969, they seem to have felt the need for something new – the Live/Dead album was in the can, and their repertoire had not varied much in months. Aside from a couple sluggish, misbegotten renditions of Hey Jude that winter, Hard to Handle was their first new cover song in over a year. Over the course of the spring, they would gradually bring in more cover tunes, bringing back many songs they had stopped playing in previous years, and the shows would start to reflect a wider set of influences.
Pigpen probably emulated Otis, and of course this song would have matched his strutting stage persona; it may have been his idea to cover it. The Dead must have known they could not recapture the tight, snappy Stax horn sound of Redding’s original, and they didn’t even try. Instead they adapted it to their loud, heavy, lumbering two-drum, two-guitar style – of course adding a big guitar solo. Pigpen had a set way of singing the song from the start, closely following Redding’s phrasing, which would vary little over the next couple years; but the band would go through some dramatic changes in the way they played the song. (The next year, a bit lighter on their feet, they would also attempt James Brown’s ‘Man’s World’ – not one of his funkiest efforts – but would only play it for about five months.)
The Dead had long been fans of Otis Redding – in 1966-67, Pigpen was performing his ‘63 song ‘Pain in My Heart.’ (Though the impetus to cover it may have come from the Rolling Stones’ version.)
Redding came to the Fillmore in December ’66 – musicians were clamoring to Bill Graham that he needed to book Otis. When he came, according to Graham, “Every artist in the city asked to open for Otis. The first night, it was the Grateful Dead. Janis Joplin came at three in the afternoon the day of the first show to make sure that she’d be in front… Every musician then into music came.” *
The Dead opened for Redding on 12/20/66; the next two nights, other bands opened. (The Dead went to play in Santa Clara.) Bill Graham was permanently impressed: “By far, Otis Redding was the single most extraordinary talent I had ever seen. There was no comparison, then or now... That was the best gig I ever put on in my entire life.” * Janis also mentioned that Otis was a particular inspiration to her. (I believe Ralph Gleason also wrote a review of one of the shows for the Chronicle, which I’d like to see.)
When Garcia & Lesh appeared on Tom Donahue’s FM show in April ’67, they played Otis’ cover of ‘Day Tripper’ and reminisced about the show. Otis had an 18-piece band with him, and Garcia recalled that Otis did his standard show, “where the band would get up and play some numbers, and a girl singer would come up” and warm up the audience before Otis appeared.
Lesh: “It was kind of scary to work with Otis… He tore it up!”
Garcia: “Otis is really heavy… He tore the place apart… When he came on stage, it was like the whole place got about six times as big, and the band just got real snappy – it was so fine, and the music was really good.”
The Dead debuted Hard to Handle at the Black & White Ball (Hilton Hotel, S.F.) , 3/15/69 – the very first song of the show! In their eagerness to tackle it, they perhaps neglected to rehearse it a few more times… They have trouble keeping together in the precise arrangement, and sometimes stumble around erratically before syncing up again. Garcia plays swooping slide throughout, but seems to have little idea what to do with it, so there’s not much of a solo and they just sort of stagger forward aimlessly for a while. Pigpen is also a little confused about the verses. At the end the band thinks Pigpen’s finished, but he continues with another verse, so they bring it to an abrupt end.
Last played on December 31, 1982 at the Oakland Civic Auditorium. Played it a total of 120 times.
Other stories:
Dan Humiston (00:18.71)
Yeah, just jump in whenever, because the music isn't playing.
Larry (00:22.069)
Okay.
Larry (00:28.78)
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Deadhead Cannabis show. I'm Larry Mishkin of Mishkin Law in Chicago and I'm here today with another great show for you guys. As promised the other day when I was talking about seeing JRad on December 1st at the Riviera nightclub on the north side of Chicago, corner of Lawrence and Broadway, just down the street from the Uptown Theater where the dad came and played.
many a great show, none of which I ever saw there, but that's a story for a different day. Uh, but we are going to feature that December 1st show and, uh, very excited to do it. And we'll talk all about JRad and the songs they're playing. And, uh, we got a birthday shout out to a rock and roll legend and some more shenanigans by the, uh, federal government, uh, with regard to marijuana. That's no surprise. So let's dive right into, uh,
12, 123 from the Riv in Chicago where we've got, uh, Jay red walking out on stage.
Larry (01:44.556)
Foolish Heart is a really great tune that I've always really liked a lot. It's a later dead tune. It's the lead single and opening song from the Build to Last album, which for some people is a bit of a trivial footnote maybe being as it's the band's final studio album. But all in all, I think it's not up there in the pantheon of a great Grateful Dead albums, although we did get some good songs off of it.
that survived and were played in concert quite a bit, Foolish Heart being one of them. And it's really a great combination of the band's unique instrumental chemistry and Hunter's profound ponderings in the lyrics. If you throw in Strong Performance by Jerry Garcia and his lead guitar, this is a real gem in the Dead's rather large catalog of live music that's been released and that's accessible.
And it's a really, uh, it's a great song. And, uh, you know, when they played it, we know, uh, real negative reactions from my crowd Garcia, who wrote the music spoke, uh, about its unique construction in a previous interview from 1989, where he said, the thing that's interesting about foolish heart is it doesn't have any pads in it. He said, nobody's playing chords in the song, not anybody.
Everybody's playing lines and the lines hook up and tell you everything you need to know about the harmonic content of the song. You don't wonder where it's going. It's so beautifully designed. It's like a clock. It's really lovely. It surprised me that it came out so interesting and so perfect. And so totally its own personality. That's the Grateful Dead in action. Really? You know, what a great way for Garcia to describe it. And you can now listen to the song and really think about it on a whole different level and realize.
how important it was to the Grateful Dead. They played it 88 times after it came out, the first time June 19th, 1989, excuse me, 1988, at Alpine Valley Show I was lucky enough to be at. Last played on June 27th, 1995, by the Dead at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside of Detroit. It's been a consistent song in the J-Rad catalog of the tunes that they play.
Larry (04:04.012)
They're a little bit irreverent in the sense that they come out with set lists that are mostly grateful dead tunes with some unique covers, which we'll get into in today's show. And one of the reasons why I was really excited to go back and cover this show today. Um, but, uh, it always helps to have a little bit of background knowledge about who we're talking about. Everybody's sort of Jay Rad, Joe Russo is almost dead. Um, and I think by agreement of a lot of people who I consider, uh,
Uh, the folks in the dead universe that I look up to, you know, kind of gauge the way of the winds and what the current trends are and everything like that. That they pretty much check in as the number one grateful dead cover band going out there right now, no disrespect meant the dark star orchestra, uh, any of the other myriad groups out there that are doing it, um, but these guys just bring it all together and they, they do it so tight and so well, uh, that when they were, when they came out and they opened with.
Um, foolish heart, you know, it almost even sounds a little bit like it is the Grateful Dead playing it. And they just have this ability to, uh, bring a unique sound to something while maintaining the original sound. That may not make sense, but that's what they do. And that's what really makes them kind of cool. Um, they were formed in 2013. Uh, as I said, mainly just covering music of the Grateful Dead. Uh, the band was formed by Further.
and Ben Avento Russo drummer, Joe Russo. Uh, the band played their first show on January 26, 2013 at the Brooklyn bowl in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to Russo, the band also includes Ween's Ween bassist, David Drywitz, keyboardist Marco Benavente, Marco Benavento, Scott Metzger on guitar and vocals and Tom Hamilton of Brothers Past, Ghost Light, American Babies and, um, Billy and the kids.
uh, on lead guitars and vocals. And they're all great musicians. Joe's amazing on the drums. Marco is fantastic on the keyboards. Uh, anybody who's a fan of Ween recognizes, uh, um, Dave Drywich's talents on the bass. Uh, and Tom Hamilton, excuse me. Um, Scott Metzger, uh, plays a great guitar as well and takes his turn at the microphone. And it's really a lot of fun, but just some quick background on these guys.
Larry (06:32.28)
Uh, that Russo was born in 76. He's an American drummer, originally half of the Benvento Russo duo toured and performed with a number of other bands, including Cas McCombs, a big yes, small no fat mama, Robert Walters, 20th Congress bustle in your hedgerow, younger brothers, Spongel, Tom Hamilton's American babies, the tray, Anastasia, Mike Gordon duo, the gene weaned band and further, uh, with Phil and Bobby. Uh, and, uh,
John Catalassic. Um, he formed a grateful dead tribute band called Joe Russo's almost dead. In mid 2006, he was the drummer in collaboration with Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Marco Benevento, sometimes referred to as grab or jokingly Mike and the Italians, and I saw those guys in 2006, um, at the, uh, the, uh,
Larry (07:27.688)
outdoor theater on the, sorry guys, I'm spacing on the name right now. The outdoor theater out where Migs Field used to be where they have a really nice summer venue for music shows here in Chicago. And you can go out and see the music and you get a great skyline view of the city. And we went and saw my brother and I who now lives in New York, but at the time he was here. And he and I went out there for a show that the opening act was the duo, Joe Russo and Marco.
Ben Avento, um, and, uh, we'll, we'll talk about them more in a minute. And then, uh, after they played a set of pretty interesting music, I thought they came back out with Trey and Mike, and this was during, uh, fish's 2005 to 2009 hiatus, I think was the timing there. So people were excited to see Trey. People were excited to see Trey and Mike and they really didn't play.
any fish tunes that I can recall. For some reason that night, Trey had a songworm in his ear of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, something about being in Chicago, and the Cubs who at that time were still 10 years away from winning their first World Series. But he kept peppering the little Take Me Out to the Ball Game theme all the way through the night after he and Mike came out there. It was a great show, a lot of fun, and a beautiful venue, still yet to be named, but I'll think of it at some point.
Um, but Marco benefit, but that evento is an American pianist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He's been a fixture in the New York experimental music rock and jazz scene since 1999. He's the founder and recording engineer of Fred short, a recu recording studio in upstate New York and a member of the rock groups, bed evento Russo duo, and Joe Russo is almost dead. Both of which feature his regular musical collaborator, Joe Russo.
Benevento plays on a Casio sampling keyboard, an effects pedal, a Hammon organ with bass pedal board and a Wurlitzer electric piano, all of which are great, but when he gets going on that Hammon B3, it's really something special. The duo that we keep referring to the, the Benevento Russo duo is an instrumental indie rock experimental, a Hammon organ, a Wurlitzer electric piano and drum duo that he formed with drummer Joe Russo in 2001.
Larry (09:53.056)
The band makes use of samplers, loops, circuits, circuit bent toys, guitars, as well as black and spiels to augment their sound. The Medevento Russo do have performed at events like Lollapalooza, Austin city limits, Fuji rock festival, Bonnaroo, high Sierra music festival, and have drawn reviews in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork media. Uh, then we've got Tom Hamilton, who's the lead guitar singer.
He's an American songwriter, musician and producer, best known as vocalist and guitarist in bands like Brothers Past, American Babies, JRad, and just as importantly, Billy and the Kids. If you've seen Billy and the Kids, he's out there doing the same thing. And he really brings another level to it and seems to be the go-to guy for some of these great covers that they pull off. And, you know, really just a tremendous talent. Dave Drywitz.
As an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, he's best known as the bassist for the band Ween. And Joe Russo is almost dead. Some people are fans of the band Ween, some people aren't. I'm kind of right down the middle with them. If somebody puts them on, I'll listen to it. But it's not necessarily the first choice of music I would pick if it was my turn to pick the next music for a group of people who are all hanging out. But nevertheless, no disrespect to Dave Drywood because he's a great talent and really brings a lot to JRad.
uh... in terms of the base playing that he doesn't so much of the grateful dead music that they cover uh... has such a strong base presence because of phil and uh... dave does i think a really good job of stepping in there on these tunes and doing more than a passable job a very formidable job i would say of uh... of picking up the baselines for the grateful dead tunes and for all of the other great covers that they play uh... with just a strong rotating uh...
Ark of covers, so many that I thought I had heard them all and I'm hearing ones at this show on December 1st that we'll get to that I didn't even realize that they had ever played before or that they even knew. That's what's so wonderful about JRad. They're such talented musicians. They can just pop into songs like this. I'm sure there's a lot of practice involved, but they really, really do it and do a great job. Drywitz is from New York City. His parents were traditional jazz musicians.
Larry (12:16.428)
His father played trombone, his mother tuba. He joined the Hoboken, New Jersey based psychedelic rock band, Tiny Lights in 1983, his first professional band out of high school in 86 while attending Rutgers in New Brunswick. He met his fellow schoolmate and drummer, Scott Byrne. And through a love of similar music, they started the rock band Instant Death in 1991. And it dissolved with the passing of Byrne, unfortunately in 2005.
In 97, Drywitz joined Ween. He was also a member, as we said, of JRad, the Dean Ween Group and the Led Zeppelin Instrumental Tribute Band, Bustle and Your Hedge Row. He occasionally plays bass with Chris Harford and the Band of Changes, Old Rugged Sauce, as well as his own drum and bass duo, Crescent Moon, which features Drywitz on bass and vocals alongside various guest drummers. Crescent Moon drummers have included Claude Coleman of Ween, Tomato from the Sound of Urchin, Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, and of course, Joe Russo.
And then finally, Scott Metzger, who's from Trent, New Jersey, is an American guitarist. His work touches on a lot of different styles, psychedelic rock, soul, country, jazz, surf rock. His collaborations with other artists include Phil, John Scofield, Joe Russo, John Mayer, O'Teal, Warren Haynes, Shooter Jennings, La Brooks of the Crystals, Trixie Whitley, Nicole Atkins, Anders Osborn, one of my favorites, Dean Wein, Russ Lawton, and others.
circles around the sun, the Stanton Moore trio, and Umfri's Metzger is a full-time member of Joe Russo's Almost Dead since its inception of 2013, and he continues to play with a lot of these other artists. So, you know, that's who we're really talking about here, and they make up a great, content of musicians, and they're so much fun to see, and like we say, they came right out and opened up with Foolish Heart, which was great fun, a wonderful way to start a show, but.
quickly gave way to what became one of the biggest surprises of the night in the very next song.
Larry (15:56.076)
So that's Tell Me Mama. It's a song written by Bob Dylan, and this is important performed exclusively during his 1966 world tour with the band, then known as the Hawks. It was used to introduce the second half of a concert when Dylan switched from an acoustic solo performance to an electric performance backed by the band. The song was never recorded on a studio album, nor was it ever performed again by Dylan in concert after the end of the 1966 tour.
Uh, Dylan's May 17th, 1966 live performance of the song was released in 1998 on the bootleg series volume for Bob Dylan live 1966, the Royal Albert Hall concert in 2016. All of Dylan's recorded live performances of tell me mama from 1966 were released in the 36 CD box set. The 1966 live recordings with the May 26th, 1966 performance released separately on the album.
the real Royal Albert Hall 1966 concert. The box contained sets, excuse me, the box that contains all the live versions of Tell Me Mama ever performed by Dylan and his band, which answered a question for me because when I saw that they were.
Larry (17:11.3)
hadn't only played it, you know, that one time and it never came out on an album. That just for me kind of begs the question of how is it that these guys even knew about the song to be able to play it? Um, none of those guys, you know, track out an age old enough to be, uh, necessarily following Dylan around in 1966 on his world tour. Um, but I guess if they got their hands on the bootleg versions, uh, and knew it from there, uh, and decided it would be fun to play.
Dan Humiston (17:13.057)
Thank you.
Larry (17:38.336)
But you know, for all of us, this is just like a bonus because these guys are really tight. They play it really well. They sound like Dylan. It's really kind of funny, I think. And you know, it's a little bit of rock and roll history. A song from one of the, if not the greatest rock composers of all time, and Dylan. And from a period of his touring life that was very singular and unique, the 66 World Tour. And this is, you know, a great example of that. But...
You know, they bring it out to the rest of us. So everybody goes running for their phones in the middle of the show. You see them all light up. Everybody's typing in, tell me mama, what is it? And there's other, there's other versions. There's other songs called tell me mama, uh, by other performers that, that are not this one. And so, you know, it took a few minutes for people to settle on, uh, which one it was, but once somebody called up the lyrics and figured out that they could more or less sing along, uh, we knew that he had hit on the right one.
And so we could all focus on that. And that really, I thought was funny right there, sitting in the concert and seeing that we were hearing a song that Dylan himself had only played over, you know, one, uh, one tour, uh, the span of one tour in 1966. And that's, that's pretty amazing. So it was great. They played it really, really well. And it's one of the reasons why we really like, um, uh, JRED so much because they're not afraid to dig really, really deep.
into the songbook of any artist that they would like to be covering. And this is a great example of that. And you just don't hear people out there covering songs like Tell Me Mama all the time. And certainly none who play it this well. And it sounds so much like a Dylan-led band. So that was really a lot of fun too. And really glad to be able to get that song in there.
Dan Humiston (19:05.227)
You know, the song of any artist they would like to be...
Dan Humiston (19:27.025)
Thank you.
Larry (19:31.68)
One thing I want to talk about really fast, and I suppose that this could have come up during the cannabis side, but it's actually, it has a lot to do on the marijuana side, and the music side too, for a reason that'll become clear in a moment. So I think I'm going to get to this quickly and then maybe dip in for a little more music before we slide over for our cannabis chat of the day, because there's some stuff there that really needs to be discussed. First thing, music news.
Dan Humiston (19:54.532)
Thank you.
Larry (20:00.708)
Fish tickets for the sphere are apparently out. So the big question is, did you guys get any? Uh, my short answer is, is as of now, I have not gotten anything from fish one way or the other. And I'm told by my son and his gang of friends that fish will certainly show me the courtesy of, uh, at a minimum, sending me something saying, Nope, you didn't get it. Uh, you know, tough luck for you. Uh, but I haven't gotten that yet. At least I don't think so.
So, um, you know, we'll, we'll find out who knows, maybe that's something that, you know, like would come be coming across my, uh, my desk right now, but nope. Even right now is I'm taping this on a Friday night, uh, the 15th at, uh, just before six o'clock central time, I have not officially heard from fish yet. So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and see if that happens. Cause it would be fun to go for a few of those shows. If I could pull it off. Um, if not, Oh, well, was it meant to be? And.
Uh, there's now rumors floating around that, uh, dead and co with John Mayer in tow are going to perform at the sphere. And I figure that's as good as anything to get them back up on stage, which just begs the question. Well, a guy like, uh, Bill Kreutzman who loves the, uh, the psychedelics and the lights and all of that be tempted to mend whatever creative differences came up at the very end and join them back on stage. And that would certainly be a lot of fun if he could pull it off, but if not, then, you know, I guess we kind of get them.
as we get them and just do it that way. Um, but here's what I was going to say. There's an article out there that I read online one day when I was bored and I was flipping around on the internet for a few minutes before I dived back into, um, all of my, uh, big legal work that I have here all day long at Michigan law in lovely Northbrook, Illinois. Um, and this article was talking about cruise ships and
I enjoy the concept of cruising, my wife, not so much. So we really haven't gone on a lot of them, but, uh, and you know, with all the COVID stuff, then still kind of kicking around on some levels, I'm not even sure that now would be the time, but I could see a time later in life when you'd like to see a lot of places and not have to move around too much, um, you know, and have everything taken care of. And you just kind of have one room you stay in the whole time. Could be kind of nice. Um, but that may not happen right away because it turns out that.
Larry (22:26.312)
Uh, not only do cannabis is surprise, have no canvas rule. Of course they do, but they actually enforce it. Most cruise lines and they enforce it very vigorously. And they, they start off by enforcing it when you're boarding the ship and they take your luggage and it's subjected to a screening system that's, uh, as, as detailed, if not more so than the TSA screening, because they're looking for more than weapons and they have dogs that are trained to both sniff out, um, some dogs that can sniff out.
residue of, of gunpowder or things that might be associated with bombs or weapons and other dogs that are there to sniff out cannabis and marijuana products. And the second way they do it is they, they keep an eye on everybody on the cruise. There's cameras everywhere. Um, you know, if you think, well, I'll have a balcony and I'll step out on my balcony. If you know, you're not the very last one at the very back and you know, the wind is blowing backwards or however it blows on those boats.
There's groups of people that are going to get exposed to the smoke you're blowing out, assuming you're combusting, as the kids say. And, you know, that could be kind of hard to pull off. People have reported smoking on some of the decks later at night when most people have either moved inside or are gambling or getting drunk or already in bed. And they have been, they report that they were picked up by some of the cameras and.
You know, crews came out and did everything from taking all of it away to, in some cases, uh, you know, actually, uh, kicking the passengers off at the next port. Just saying, here's your bags, you're off. It's up to you to find a way to get a hotel room and to get yourself home. You broke the rules. And when they asked the cruise ships about it, you know, their response is, Hey, look, there's laws out there, both us law, but more importantly, the laws of many of the, uh,
islands and countries that we sail to. And we can't be in a situation where we're potentially breaking those laws. Not to mention the fact that, like any other type of smoking, not everybody enjoys it, and it's not fair to the other people on board who don't wanna have smoke if they've paid extra to get a room with a balcony and the guy next to them smokes, and there's a constant smell of marijuana being blown onto their balcony day in and day out.
Larry (24:50.268)
They may not like that and they shouldn't have to put up with that anymore. And the people smoking the marijuana should have to put up with cigarette smoke. If somebody one balcony up from them is sitting out there smoking cigarettes all day, although it's not clear to me that it's a strict no smoking ban. And I'm willing to guess that cigarettes and cigars, which are probably very hot items in the gift stores there. Cause once you're out of us waters, they can sell Cuban cigars all day long. Um, and you know, I don't remember the one cruise I was on.
Dan Humiston (24:52.638)
Thank you.
Larry (25:18.696)
wasn't a big cigar smoker at the time and we smoked plenty of marijuana without any trouble but of course that was 25 almost 30 years ago or more and you know I'm sure things have changed and the boats all been upgraded and all of that but you know this really kind of sucks because you know if you're going on a cruise you're going away to relax you're going away to have a good time and you know they certainly have no problem with you drinking and in fact a lot of people think that's all this is that they're trying to shut down the pot smoking because they want people to drink instead.
Um, you know, and, and run up, you know, huge, huge bar bills, which is where they really get you on these things. So that's already, uh, you know, more than hypocritical. My answer is sell your own goddamn marijuana on the board, the ship. Don't say people can't smoke it, sell it. And, you know, establish one of the decks as a smoking deck and one of the decks is a non-smoking deck. It's not that complicated to do. Anybody who doesn't smoke, it's free to go to any deck they want.
If they don't, if they don't like the smoke or whatever they smell on the marijuana deck, they can drop back down or drop back up. You guys have engineers that figure out which are the ones where the, which, which smoke, the direction of the smoke is most likely to go. Um, and in the privacy of a cabin, you know, if you have a window, if you have a balcony, you know, I get that it could be a problem, but how about just being nice and the neighbor saying, Hey, you know, your smoke bothers me. Can we agree that we want to be sitting out on our deck, you know, from
Dan Humiston (26:36.471)
It'd be a problem.
Larry (26:45.192)
four to six PM every night without you smoking marijuana. That shouldn't be so hard to accommodate for people. I would like to think. And this can work, but there's so many people these days who enjoy smoking marijuana and with adult approval rates, depending on which polls you're watching, being anywhere from 70 to 90% across the country these days, it's not surprising that people are gonna wanna take marijuana on these cruises.
A lot of people who go on cruises tend to be older, retired people, but not the really old retired people, right? So some of the baby boomers who now or in the last few years or whatever it's been have all come of age and want to relax and celebrate their golden years, if you will, with some nice cruises while they're healthy and agile enough to be able to do it and to really take advantage of all the great places they get to go and all the great food that they serve.
And all of that kind of stuff. And those are the people that are really starting to smoke marijuana again. They were folks who smoked it in high school and college, but then stopped because they were, they were entering the work world at a time when there was no understanding of the concept of medical cannabis or even just using cannabis in your own time, instead of going home and getting drunk every night. Um, but now that, you know, their kids have all grown up for the most part, moved out, gotten married, whatever the case may be, many of them are retiring. Um,
living a more relaxed lifestyle now. They don't have to worry about job recruitment or drug testing or anything like that. And for many of them, they're going back to marijuana. We've talked about this in some of the studies that we've related in terms of it's used for helping with sleep and with discomfort and with all sorts of other types of depressions and mental ailments where people need a way to be able to calm their mind and relax and take a deep breath. And...
It really does that for so many people, but the cruises say no. And I'm no predictor of the market. And for all I know, people will just say, screw it, and they'll go anywhere. They'll do it, and they'll sneak it on. I'm sure over time we'll see stories if it becomes a real problem. But I just hope that they would be willing to find another way to handle the situation where they don't have to lose out on any money, and everybody can find their own way to relax, certainly a much more healthy way. And we've talked about that.
Larry (29:10.944)
considerably on this show and a lot of money to be made if they just want to go in and sell it all themselves. So we'll see. But if you're going on a cruise or thinking about going on a cruise, think about that. Here's the thing, because you got the jam band cruise and my son's buddy Kevin goes on that every year. I know other people who have gone on it. I've never quite made it there, but I think that would be a really hard sell to tell people you're going on the jam band cruise and you can't smoke. And the other thing that I saw is you can't eat gummies. They don't want you to take gummies.
Dan Humiston (29:15.574)
Thank you.
Larry (29:41.012)
And that's a real problem for me because eating gummies should not be anybody's freaking business. Nobody smells it. Nobody sees it. And if I've taken three gummies and I'm acting a little loopy, I'm no different than the woman at the table next to me who's had five margaritas and a sloshing all over herself. So, you know, that, that in my opinion is carrying it a step too far and gummies are a lot easier to manage and to get on board. So maybe that's the answer. Um, but, uh,
Dan Humiston (29:48.822)
Here we go.
Larry (30:07.456)
you know, maybe they'll see clear to let, you know, vapes and smoking and all stuff like that, uh, take place. So people don't have to pay a lot of money and then feel like they're in high school and breaking the rules. Um, okay. Back to my concert here because, uh,
Larry (30:24.64)
This is another great tune that's a wonderful, grateful dead tune and that JRad covers as well as anybody. And on December 1st of this year, they did a really good job.
Larry (30:46.156)
Everybody Knows Fire on the Mountain, song by The Grateful Dead, lyrics by Robert Hunter, and never forget that the music is by drummer Mickey Hart, not Jerry Garcia, even though many mistakenly believe that Garcia wrote the music for it because he plays guitar and sings it. But this is a Mickey Hart tune with Robert Hunter. It was commercially released on the album Shakedown Street in November 1978. There was an earlier instrumental version titled Happiness is Drumming, which appeared in 1976.
on Mickey Hart's album, Diga, with the Diga Rhythm Band. And we've talked about other instances when Mickey has actually sung the tune himself, and he kind of tends to do it in a Caribbean rap style that's actually kind of fun to listen to. And you can find it pretty easily on YouTube or anywhere you go for your musical clips. If you just type in Mickey Hardfire on the Mountain, Mickey's rap, or rap, and it'll take you.
to one of those and Mickey really gets into it. It's a good time and it would have been fun to have him do it like that every now and then for the dead. Uh, prior to the, uh, release of the shakedown street album, uh, the, uh, song fire on the mountain premiered at a concert on March 18th, uh, 1977 in San Francisco, that's that night is almost always, it was coupled with Scarlett begonias coming on the backend. Uh, in other words, Scarlett into fire on the mountain during live performances.
producing lengthy musical improvisations. The pair of songs were soon nicknamed, of course, Scarlet Fire, and the sequence typically timed in from anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. The November 1st, 1979 performance in the Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, New York was likely the longest one coming in at over 34 minutes. Fire on the Mountain was performed in concert by the Grateful Dead 253 times between 77 and 1995. It appears on numerous live Grateful Dead albums.
Um, but it was never released on an album itself, uh, was included. Um, uh, um, in other collections. Um, but, uh, um, then we got to strike that hold on. I screwed up there.
Dan Humiston (33:01.218)
Thank you.
Larry (33:02.76)
So I'm going to dive, start that over again at the, how many times was performed.
Dan Humiston (33:08.834)
Just pause for, just give it a pause. What's the time on it?
Larry (33:16.5)
Right now I'm at 33 minutes, 33 17 or well now it's, it's still going. So it was probably somewhere around 32 or something.
Dan Humiston (33:25.171)
Good. Yep.
Larry (33:32.596)
Fire on the Mountain was performed in concert by the Grateful Dead 253 times between 1977 and 1995. And it's also appeared on numerous live Grateful Dead albums all throughout the Dick's Picks series, Dave Picks series, and 253 times. So a measurable percentage of any dead shows that you're gonna pull down off of any of the archives out there during the 77 to 95 period.
Uh, first played on March 18th, 77 at winter land. And, uh, it was played for the last time on July 2nd, 1995 at deer Creek in, uh, Noblesville, Indiana, uh, just outside of Indy. Um, and you know, look again, you know, give all these guys credit. Uh, Joe Russo is awesome as a drummer. He's sitting there right in the middle of everything. Um, he's got Marco and Tom Hamilton on his right.
And he's got Metzger and Drywood's on his left and he's shouting the instructions backwards and forwards. And he's doing all the playing and he's, you know, just. Doing everything with it. And it's really, uh, he's like a band leader while he's belted out, but you know, the drum line as impressive as, uh, you know, as impressive as Molo, as impressive as Jay Lane, certainly, you know, in its own way, uh, very impressive, like Mickey and Billy, although not Mickey and Billy. Um, but, but he's a real, you know,
active guy up there bouncing around on his seat behind his drum kit. And, uh, you know, they, they really do such a great job and Tom, uh, taking the lead on fire, uh, did a stellar performance with it, uh, on December 1st and much beloved by the crowd. And, um, it was great. So, you know, uh, this whole show, by the way, is now available on archive.org.
which is where we pull down these clips to play for you guys today. And I would, you know, suggest that anybody who's interested in hearing any of this great live music make their way over to archive.org if you don't already have all the Grateful Dead CDs. And if you do have them, then you're smart like me because we'll always have them even if the computers crash. And if you don't have them, well, that's okay. You can still have them electronically and if the computers crash, the rest of us promise we'll let you, you know, burn copies off of ours. But
Larry (35:57.436)
It's, uh, I just, I'd love to collect them. And we've talked about that before. Um, but, uh, all good stuff, uh, killing it on fire on the mountain. Having a great time at this concert. I was there with my good buddy, JT, his wife, Marnie, uh, my good buddy, Rick, my buddy, Stefan, and my good buddy, Joel, who's Mr. Music and goes to everything. And, uh, if we could all be like Joel, he's just like my buddy, Alex. They probably have some of the best musical karma.
of any people I know out there. They, they know all the great bands. They know all the great music and somehow they make their way there. And, uh, they're always a part of it. It's a wonderful thing to see. I always love seeing Joel at a concert. Uh, we always enjoy it and have a chance to talk and soak in some great music. And, uh, December 1st was no different. Um, now we're going to stay on the music side, but we're going to step away from, uh, the JRAD performance for a minute because today is December 18th, 2023.
And that makes it my brother Michael's birthday. My brother Michael, who lives in New York with his family, his wife, Tamara, and Lily, and Ben, and Nathan. And nice to celebrate him as he turns 53 years old today. But that's not the guy who we're really totally interested in here. Even though I love my brother Michael and he's a big music fan and has gone to, he went with me, like I said, to see the
Uh, Ben Avento Russo duo, and then play with a train. Mike, he was with me that night and he's we've seen shows at the Capitol theater together and other places like that. But December 18th is also the birthday of rock and roll legend. And he is a rock and roll legend, like very few other rock and roll legends, Keith Richards, and not only is it Keith Richards birthday today, but today Keith Richards turns.
years old, eight zero, 80 years old, four decades. He's made it through life. We cannot let that milestone go unnoticed. Um, it's, it's absolutely amazing to me because, uh, by all rights, Keith, uh, Richard should not be alive at all. We look at all these famous rock and roll musicians who have died. The fame 27 club, including his former bandmate, Brian Jones. Um, and so many people have just.
Larry (38:22.6)
not made it in Keith who, uh, kind of made a profession out of abusing drugs and alcohol and, and things like that. And, you know, writes about it in his autobiography and, and all of that kind of stuff. And famously said that after his father passed away and they cremated his father, he smoked some of his father's ashes. So, you know, I guess that's pretty hardcore. You can't be any more than that. And yet the man is alive and not only is he alive, but he just played guitar on a new Rolling Stones album that just came out.
He'll be touring again with the Rolling Stones this summer as they tour all across North America and wherever else they're going for outrageous amounts of money. But so what, a lot of people go to see them anyway, and of course you should, it's the Rolling Stones. And they are the greatest rock and roll band in the world. No, I don't say jam band, but just pure, flat out rock and roll. The Rolling Stones are it. Get Your Yah Yahs Out is far and away one of my favorite live albums of all time.
Exile on Main Street is one of my all-time favorite albums. Um, but Keith is turning 80 today. So, uh, we're going to drop in here a, a quick tune. That's one of my favorite Keith tunes.
Larry (39:41.492)
So that's the song before they make me run. It is a song by the Rolling Stones written by Keith, featured on their 1978 album, Some Girls. One of the great albums I think of all time, I love Some Girls as an album. And after Exile on Main Street, it's probably my second favorite Rolling Stones album. English musician, songwriter, and singer, and recording producer, was an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter.
of the Rolling Stones, his songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist, Mick Jagger, is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades. Their latest album, I'm sorry, I forget the name, that's terrible, just made it into the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The Rolling Stones are now the first band to have at least one album in the Billboard top ranking, top 10 ranking for six consecutive decades in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, aughts,
tens and now the twenties and, uh, or is that seven? Well, whatever it is, six or seven, he said they've set the record now. And, uh, it's pretty amazing, uh, that, you know, not only are they the world's greatest rock and roll band, but this many years later, 60 going on 70 years later, they're still musically relevant and people still want to hear what they have to say and the tickets for these shows have all sold out and they'll, if they're not already, they'll soon be appearing on the secondary market.
for the amount that you could use to make a down payment on probably a reasonably mid-sized house in most of America. But if it's going to see the Rolling Stones, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I can't argue with that. Not everybody has access to the Uncle Dave tickets like we did back in 1981 when we saw the opening Stone's show at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Thank you, Uncle Dave, wherever you are these days. Shout out to Buddy Dan and the gang. We all had fun. The balloons are still up there.
Um, but, uh, let's dive into, um,
Larry (41:44.992)
time out. Did we play the clip already? No. Okay. Thank you.
Larry (41:54.368)
So here's the song, uh, before they make me run.
Larry (42:07.58)
Um, just by quickly, by way of background, uh, Keith was born and grew up in, uh, Dartford, Kent studied at Dartford technical school and, uh, Cid Cub Art College. After graduating, he befriended Jagger, Bill Lyman, Charlie Watson, Brian Jones joined the Rolling Stones. Uh, he also sings lead on, uh, some of the stone songs such as happy and connection. In addition to before they make me run, although I've always been very partial to before they make me run.
He also has played with his own side project, the X pence of winos. And he also appeared in three of the pirates of the Caribbean films as captain Teague father of Jack Sparrow. Uh, Johnny Depp, who's looking characterization was inspired by Keith himself with all of the, uh, scarves, colorful scars and everything that he wears and all that good stuff. Uh, in 89, Richards was inducted into the rolling into the rock and roll hall of fame and in 2000 into the.
Um, United Kingdom music hall of fame, uh, with again, with the rolling stones, the rolling stone magazine ranked him fourth on the list of its 100 best guitarists in 2011 in 2023, rolling stones ranking was 15th. The magazine lists 14 songs that Richards wrote with Jagger on its 500 greatest songs of all time. And, um, like I say before they make me run, uh, it is just a song of theirs that I like.
Um, he says it's his response to his arrest for heroin possession in Toronto in February of 1977. The criminal charges and the prospect of a prison sentence loomed over some of those, some girls recording sessions and endangered the future of the Rolling Stones, but they eventually, uh, made their way through all of that. Um, and in the, you know, in the lyrics, Richard's reflects on apologetically onto his lifestyle up to that point. Uh, it's another goodbye to another good friend and his verse version can be referred.
Interpreters referring to Graham Parsons, who was Richard's close friend who died in 73 from a drug overdose and heroin itself. Richards had sought medical treatment for heroin addiction following his arrest in Toronto and his resolution to overcome the addiction would be significant factor in his upcoming trial that he had to face for that. He recorded the song in five days without sleeping, originally titled Rotten Roll.
Larry (44:24.512)
The song was recorded in a Paris studio in March, 1978, during one of Mick Jagger's absences from the Sum Girl Sessions. The completed track, A High Energy Rock and Roller, features Richards on lead vocals and acoustic and electric guitars, and bass Ronnie Woods on pedal steel guitar, slide guitar, and backing vocals, Charlie Watts on drums, and Jagger on backing vocals. Richards first performed the song in concert on the New Barbarians tour of North America in 1979.
It was not until the steel wheels tour in 1982, uh, that it entered the Rolling Stones concert, uh, um, repertoire and, um, Just a great song that I really like a lot and, uh, you know, can't really quite get, uh, enough of when I listened to live Rolling Stones stuff and the, the road, the live Rolling Stones love you live, uh, from the late 1970s has a really good version of before they make me run on there that, uh,
is another version I would recommend if you really want to hear, hear it sound great. So happy birthday, Keith man. Everybody's counted you out for a long time. So here's hoping that they're still wrong and you're around, you know, for another 20 years. And if you are, we'll be celebrating you then as much as ever. And you know, probably going back to this same song or some of the others, cause I'm sure your new stuff is great and good and all of that, but it's not the old stuff. And you know, for some of us, it never will be really, but that's just great. Anyway, we love you.
and all of your music and I can listen to Rolling Stones all day. Uh, once I get started doing it. Um,
Larry (46:01.212)
So here's another song that I want to play. Uh, oh no, excuse me. We just did that song. So what we're going to do now is we are going to cut over and we are going to take a minute to, um, listen to, uh, dance clip for the day as we enter into cannabis news.
Larry (46:25.22)
A young Paul McCartney, yes, boy, those Beatles sure knew how to make a point about things and especially cannabis. It was no wonder Richard Nixon hated them and his hatred for the Beatles and all things hippie was one of the reasons why, uh, tricky Dick went ahead and put, uh, marijuana right up on schedule one of his new controlled substances act that was enacted in 1970 and folks, unfortunately, this takes us to our big news story of the day, thanks to the folks at marijuana moment and
Ben Adlin for such a great article from which we can draw new sources to share with you on what's going on in the world of marijuana. But in a letter sent to the heads of the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration this week, 29 former U.S. attorneys are urging the Biden administration to leave cannabis and schedule one of the Controlled Substances Act, arguing that marijuana has only become a more dangerous, potent, and addictive.
substance since the government last reviewed its scheduling in 2016. The correspondence comes as the DEA continues its review of marijuana scheduling after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended in August that the substance be moved reportedly to schedule three. Here's a quote from our friends over at the Department of Justice with their trying to explain what they're doing.
Larry (47:49.012)
has benefited from legal weed, the former federal prosecutors claim in the new letter. But there is one group coming out on top, drug cartels. Many states have enacted home grow marijuana laws, which led to cartels growing marijuana in the United States to cut trafficking costs." Close quote. But, and you know there's always going to be a but when somebody from the government says something stupid like that.
The letter to attorney general Merrick Garland and DEA administrator, Anne Milgram does not cite a source, any source for that claim. No source. This is the 29 former federal prosecutors trying to urge the Biden administration to leave marijuana on schedule one, which is my grandmother would have used to say in Yiddish, Ashanda, a terrible thing. Just leave it alone. They can't even come up with a good reason.
for why they're doing it. So they have to fall back on reefer madness nonsense. No one has benefited from legal read. Hey guys, I have an idea. Listen to the Deadhead Cannabis Show and all the freaking studies we've been citing week after week after week. And I'm barely scratching the surface of what's out there. Everything that's good with marijuana. Remember, overall insurance rates have gone down, health insurance rates have gone down in communities that have legal marijuana.
People are taking less opioids. People, people are smoking less cigarettes. They're drinking less alcohol. Road rage accidents have gone down. Violent crimes have gone down. Teenage smoking has not gone up. And in some instances, it's gone down marijuana smoking by teenagers. Everything that they said would happen hasn't happened. And these clowns come out and say, Oh, no one is, you know,
No one benefits from legal weed, but then they go on to say, but yes, the drug cartels. Okay. You know, now we're living in Alice in wonderland turned upside down. Why? Because when marijuana is not legal, the only place we can get it is from the drug cartels. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it has fentanyl. Sometimes it doesn't have fentanyl, but a lot of times involves weapons of one kind or another and should be the last place that any of us want to ever have to go.
Larry (50:08.5)
to find a source of marijuana to be able to smoke in a country where an overwhelmingly huge majority of the population believes that marijuana should be legal and available for reasonable adult use with proper rules, which we've always agreed with and which are out there and which exist and which are certainly as strong, if not stronger than the rules we have for alcohol, which kills people and is dangerous and terrible, cigarettes, which kills people and is dangerous and is terrible, prescription drugs.
and other opioids, which are all handed out like candy to people. Right. Nobody cares about what happens when we have people on those drugs and, and they do things that hurt people, but marijuana, this is the special one. So, okay, great. Thanks guys at the DEA. So you're telling us that this creates drug cartels. Why? Because homegrown marijuana laws allow cartels to start business in the United States. Wow. Yeah. You see, because if you're growing it home in the United States,
You're basically allowed to grow five plants and it costs money to set these little things up and you have to have somebody there all the time to watch it. It's, it's, it's labor intensive. So what are you telling me that the cartels for Mexico are going to send over 500 people to all live on the north side of Chicago and all buy homes and use those homes so that they can grow their five marijuana plants so they can then take them and congregate them. No, that's not saving anybody, any money or any trouble.
Thank you very much. They don't appear to be having very much trouble getting those drugs into the United States or picking them up from illegal grows in the United States and moving it around. Um, they don't seem to have any trouble doing that at all. So, uh, you know, the, the only thing that slows them down is when people who would buy from people who would buy from these cartels have a legal alternative. When they say, look, I love my buddy, Bobby out there, but I don't have to go buy from Bobby this time around. And for people named Bobby, that's just a name I pulled out of my ass.
It's not the name of anybody I've ever bought marijuana from, so people can relax on that. You can walk into a nice, beautiful store. Any of these ones that they have, Cura Leaf, Zen Leaf, all the ones, cookies, everything all across the country, all the local ones, everything, and there it all is for you. Yes, some of it's more expensive than it should be, and some of it's not nearly as good as it should be. You can find your places. In the Midwest, you can all get to Michigan pretty easily and find really, really good stuff.
Larry (52:36.116)
We've found some good stuff in Missouri, not enough in Illinois yet, but hopefully the craft growers, once they come online here very shortly, will make a big difference in that regard. And we'll see if they're brave enough to go forward with that. But look, this is really preposterous. So this is what they're saying why we have to do it. But again, they cite nothing, nothing to support these claims. We're just supposed to take them at their word. They do, however, assert that data...
supports the determination that marijuana does not have an accepted medical use or safe use under medical supervision, alluding to a June, 2023 review that the former U S attorney said concluded that canvas mace medicines increase adverse events related to the central nervous system. Well, you know, look, you and I can go find people to say that the sun is sky is yellow and the sun is blue to borrow a famous line from Robert Hunter. That doesn't make it so. And.
If you, if you choose to ignore the known science that's out there, this is the result that you get stupid. You get stupid. And quite frankly, these guys are embarrassing themselves. Why are they doing this? Why don't they just freaking go home and, and forget about it. Okay. So, you know, they, they talk about how, no, we can't have this because, uh, we have to have two ADE because if we don't have two ADE, then the marijuana companies can, uh,
uh, be able to deduct expenses for advertisements appealing to youth and the sale of kid friendly marijuana gummies. What are they talking about? Have they bothered to read the statutes in any state that's approved marijuana that specifically talks about the type of packaging you can have? Who, the people who wrap it that way are the black market. It's the black market that's trying to cash in on this, not your legal growers, your legal manufacturers, your legal distributors.
This is stupid to talk like that, right? As stupid as it would be for us to say, well, you know, why can't they, you can deduct the cost of beer. Why can't you go put kitty cartoons out for people to drink beer? And in fact, they do. We see people drinking beer in all sorts of types of shows that are directed at kids. But all of a sudden everybody's so, so worried about this, uh, you know, and that for 50 years, they wrote both Democrat and Republican administrations have followed the science and affirm at the marijuana.
Larry (55:00.8)
should not be rescheduled. And they quote that there haven't been enough large scale clinical trials to show that the benefits outweigh the risks. But that's because it's schedule one and they can't do any tests. If they really believe this crap, they would say, OK, fine. Go ahead. For purposes of testing, we won't prosecute anyone. But they won't do that. So then they could say, there's no tests to prove it safe, but you can't do any tests because it's schedule one. Right?
It's the greatest bullshit you can imagine. And, and, you know, playing it in, this is like, this is like the mob coming out of retirement saying, yeah, we're going to go around and start whacking people again. It's just dumb. So there's a group out there called smart approach to marijuana or Sam. And they posted a letter on social media Thursday morning and the president of Sam Kevin Sabat says, we know today's high-potency THC drugs are associated with lower IQ.
psychosis, depression, suicide, allow suicidality, motor impairment, psychosis, and schizophrenia, among other consequences. Rescheduling marijuana will put the commercial drug industry on steroids and make it even worse for those suffering from addiction.
We don't have enough time to pull that apart. You folks are smart. You know that what he's saying is bullshit and it's bullshit for this reason, because almost all of this relates to the use of marijuana by teenagers and people under the age of 21.
That's what he's talking about and who he's worried about. But most states don't let you buy marijuana until you're over the age of 21. And that keeps, as we've seen, teenagers from going to even greater accesses and increasing the amount of marijuana. They don't do it when it comes in. They don't have to. They don't want to. They don't. So this guy like Sabet, he's proud that his organization helped organize the letter with Fetual. Here we go, folks. Here's the tell.
Larry (57:03.52)
Federal products, executors from bipartisan administrations, but bipartisan might be overstating it just a bit. We go back and we look at the board. 16 were appointed by Trump. 13 were appointed by George W. One was appointed by Bush senior. One was appointed by Reagan. So if my math is any good, that's 29, 30, 31, and then three had a democratic overlay and that two.
were Trump appointees that Biden reappointed and one was an Obama late term appointee that Trump kept on. So no, that's not bipartisan. That's overwhelmingly Republican reactionary. You're out of your freaking minds. You're trying to model everybody's moral behavior to conform with your warped view of what reality is, because you won't look at the evidence. You won't pay attention to it. I I'm sorry. There it's just.
So frustrating. And by the way, the president of Columbia says that blocking marijuana legalization bills is only helping cartels. Of course it is. Because if you can't get it legally, you can only get it on the black market. They know about it. They're not idiots down in Columbia. They know this. But these federal prosecutors, they think they know it all. And they're going to go out there, and they're going to tell us all this nonsense. They're repeating old, tired crap that's been disproven and discredited time and time again.
especially by folks like Paul Armantano and Mason Devert and the late Steve Fox and these guys who spent so much time debunking all of these myths and all of this bullshit and yet they still play the same stupid game. And by the way, some of the Republicans who are supporting this, siding with this are the same ones who say that no marijuana should be rescheduled without the Senate getting to approve it. We've already talked about that being bullshit, that separation of powers, it's an administrative thing. They don't need to do it.
That's all we're going to talk about on marijuana today, because quite frankly, it makes me really angry. And there's nothing more to say about it other than it's just more examples of the federal government or those who supposedly serve the federal government in the name of justice and interest and fairness to all continue to perpetuate these bullshit myths and stereotypes and lies about marijuana and cannabis and the people who use cannabis. And
Larry (59:25.272)
It's maddening is all that it is. People who just don't know and don't care. And they ruin far more lives when they make it illegal again, like they want to. So they can go around busting people and using it, uh, you know, as a, as a, as an entirely as a ruse to be able to harass people of color, to be able to harass minorities like they have traditionally for years and years and years. It's a cheap, easy way for them to open somebody's car and use it to leverage a search into something.
that may either be there or something that they conveniently find there because they put it in there themselves. So yeah, let's not take any of this very seriously when you have these types of people in law enforcement who represent such one side of the political spectrum trying to come in and tell us, and we all laugh in their face because even my kids, my younger kids, not young in their 20s, know that when they hear that this is bullshit. And their friends and their contemporaries are all old enough and smart enough to understand that it's bullshit.
you can't do this and then turn around later on and say there needs to be respect for the law when the law doesn't respect the people that it's serving. So guys, let's try and work on that. Please find something better to do with your time than wasting all of our times trying to perpetuate a terrible myth about the necessity to have marijuana on schedule one of the Controlled Substances Act or even have it on the Controlled Substances Act at all. But if you're going to make the argument, try to please come up with real evidence next time.
instead of rehashing old crap that's been regurgitated and puked out so many times that you know it looks like what people do after they've had a little too much to drink not too much to smoke. So we're going back to music man we're going back to JRad we're going back to the Riviera nightclub on December 1st and this was the highlight of this entire concert I talked about it a couple of weeks ago but here it is live for you JRad covering an incredible band and an incredible song.
Larry (01:01:29.72)
Romeo and Juliet is a rock song by British rock band Dire Straits written by its frontman Mark Knopfler, lead guitar player. It first appeared on the band's 1980 album Making Movies, by the way, one of my all-time favorite albums. One of my wife's as well, Romeo and Juliet may be her favorite song of all time. The song was released as a single in 1981. The song subsequently appeared on the Dire Straits live album Alchemy, which is again, both for my wife and I, one of our favorite
uh... and this is one of the highlights of the alchemy album. If you've never listened to alchemy, I strongly recommend it. The song also appeared later on Knopfler's live duet album with Emmylou Harris, real live road running, although Harris does not actually perform on this particular track, Romeo and Juliet, even though she's on a lot of the other part of the live duet album. This is a live duet album. The song itself was written by Knopfler. He says he was inspired by his fail
romance with Holly Vincent, lead singer of the short-lived band Holly and the Italians. The song speaks of a Romeo who's still very much in love with his Juliet, but she now treats him like just another one of her deals. Noffler has both stated and implied that he believes Vincent was using him to boost her career. The song's line, now you just say, oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him, refers to an interview with Vincent where she says, what happened was that I had a scene with Mark Noffler and it got to the point where he couldn't handle it.
and we split up. So, okay, you know, there's a real heartthrob story back behind it, but it's a beautiful tune. Not only do they play it so well, but it's the fact that they would venture off into a song like Dire Straits is one of the reasons why I love to go to see J-Rad. Right? They just had this really nice jam going and they jam out everything in it, but they don't just do it for the sake of doing it. They do it in such a way that it's so lovely. It just really...
It was great. They were coming out of a feels like a stranger and just playing it and playing it and all of a sudden and we didn't play the opening part of the song there because quite frankly, the part that we played I think was, you know, they really built up to it and that's a great part of the song to hear. But the opening is very, very distinctive, so distinctive and in the midst of this grateful, dead heavy feels like a stranger jam as I heard one or two little notes coming out and again, you know, for the second set I was down on the floor in the rift so
Larry (01:03:56.148)
little closer proximity to the stage and really soaking it all in. And boy, man, within two or three notes, I knew what it was. I still was convinced myself that that's what they were going to really be playing until Hamilton started singing it. And again, he's, he's like a chameleon because he sounds very much like Mark Knopfler when he's singing that song. But what a great thing to hear. My wife was totally bummed that she missed it because she didn't go to the show. But you know, like a well has always told us miss a little miss a lot. And he was very big in pushing me.
to find the inspiration to get up and drive downtown on a Friday night. But being able to go with my friends, John and Marnie and Rick and Stephanie and Joel also made it a little more fun. And, uh, we, we really had a great time that night and, uh, it was, was a great show all the way around. Um, so we still have one song left, which we're going to play here on our way out at the end of the show today. Um, thank you to everyone for listening. Uh, it was really a lot of fun.
Sorry for the ranting and raving about the federal government with marijuana, but you know when you're that blatantly Hypocrite Hypocritical or you know even just you know even if it's not hypocrisy because you Continue to maintain the same position over and over again but an uneducated uninformed opinion that works wonderful for law enforcement that wants to build more jails and build up a Profit industry out of throwing innocent otherwise very innocent and productive people in jail simply because they choose a different form
of intoxicant to help them relax or enjoy life a little bit. You know, they don't drink, they don't take Xanax or Valium or things like that, they don't snort cocaine. They light marijuana up and they smoke it or they vape it or they take gummies. And to treat these people like criminals is a terrible, terrible thing. And there's no excuse for the government still engaging in behavior as odious and just overall.
Larry (01:05:51.048)
Not good, that's all I'm gonna say. On the way out, we're gonna listen to Hard to Handle. We've listened to Hard to Handle before. It's an Otis Redding tune that he recorded in late 1967, shortly before his death. It was released as a single in June 1968, and by 1969, it was being covered by a number of people, and surprisingly, The Grateful Dead seemed to have been one of the first. If anyone were to think of the least likely groups in 69 to cover some funky new R&B,
The Dead would probably be on that list. They hadn't shown any interest in picking up new R&B covers since mid-1967 when they started doing Love Light. And since then, they had focused on their original acid rock material. Many old covers dropped out of their set list and from the summer of 68 through the winter of 69, their shows were almost exclusively devoted to Anthem of the Sun, Live Dead Sweet material, maybe with a little Oximoxa coming in to the mix as well.
But by March of 1969 and, and moving on from there, they, they seemed to have felt a need for something new. Uh, the live dead album was in the can and the repertoire had not varied much in months and aside from a couple of sluggish, misbegotten renditions of Hey Jude that winter, um, and you can hear it on the, uh, Fillmore West 69. Uh, I think it's the March 1st show. It is, uh, it is pretty misbegotten version. That's a great way to say it. Hard to handle was their first cover of their first cover song in over a year.
Over the course of the spring, they would gradually bring in more cover tunes, bringing back many songs they had stopped playing in previous years and the shows would start to reflect a wider set of influences. Pigpen probably emulated Otis and of course this song would have matched his strutting stage persona. It may have even been his idea to cover it. They must have known they could not recapture the tight snappy Stax horn and sound of Reading's original and they didn't even try. Instead they adapted it to their loud heavy lumbering two drum two guitar style. Of course adding a big guitar solo.
Pig Pan had a set way of playing the song closely following Redding's performance, which would vary little over the next few years. The band would go through some dramatic changes and they played the song a little bit lighter on their feet. They would also attempt James Brown Man's World, not one of his funkiest efforts, but it would only last for a few months. The debted long bid fans of Otis Redding.
Larry (01:08:10.06)
Um, and 67 and 66, 66 and 67 pig pen was recording his 63 song pain in my heart. Um, the dead open for Otis Redding once on December 20th, 1966. Um, and, uh, there's, there's music out there on that, which we may get to someday, um, uh, on a show with Tom Donahue, uh, in April of 1967, Tom Donahue was the guy who was around in media all the way through the seventies and even in the early eighties.
eventually becoming one of the first really late night TV talk show hosts. He was asking about going out and playing a number, either with Otis or coming out and playing after he would, you know, get everybody warmed up. And Les says it was kind of scary to work with Otis. He tore it up. Garcia said, Otis is really heavy. He tore the place apart. When he came on stage, it was like the whole place got about six times as big and the band just got real snappy. It was so fine and the music was really good.
The Dead debuted hard to handle at the Black and White Ball, the Hilton Hotel show from San Francisco on March 15th, 69. They came out and opened the show with it. They hadn't really played it a lot, so they still had a lot of trouble keeping it together. At the end, the band thinks that they were confused about some of the verses and maybe Pigpen just got out there and finished it. But then he sang another verse, they tried to come to an abrupt end and whatever. It was great, typical Grateful Dead stuff. They last played it on December 31st, 82.
at the Oakland Civic Auditorium, total of 120 times overall. Um, but it's a great, great tune. It's a good way to go out. So I hope you will listen and enjoy it. Thank you as always for listening. Uh, we'll probably have one more show this year before we take a little break for the holiday. So hopefully you'll listen to us again next week. Thanks to Dan for producing. Um, have a great night, everybody and enjoy your cannabis responsibly.