"Cannabis, COVID, and Concerts: A Grateful Dead Fan's Journey" The episode features a detailed discussion of a special Grateful Dead concert from July 15, 1989, at Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, Indiana. Larry reminisces about the venue, the band’s setlist, and the memorable experience shared with friends. He highlights key performances from the show, including "Bertha," "Greatest Story Ever Told," "Candyman," "Walkin' Blues," and others.
"Cannabis, COVID, and Concerts: A Grateful Dead Fan's Journey"
Larry Mishkin is back from a break spent in South Carolina with his granddaughter he shares his experience of contracting a mild case of COVID, attributing his quick recovery to his cannabis use. He references studies suggesting that certain strains of sativa marijuana may mitigate COVID symptoms.
The episode features a detailed discussion of a special Grateful Dead concert from July 15, 1989, at Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, Indiana. Larry reminisces about the venue, the band’s setlist, and the memorable experience shared with friends. He highlights key performances from the show, including "Bertha," "Greatest Story Ever Told," "Candyman," "Walkin' Blues," and others.
Larry also covers recent music news, mentioning Melissa Etheridge's performance in Colorado and her upcoming summer tour. He shares updates on the String Cheese Incident's New Orleans-themed show at Red Rocks and Phish's recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where they performed "Evolve" from their new album.
Grateful Dead
Deer Creek Music Theater Center
Noblesville, IN
With: Judy, Andy K., Lary V., AWell and others
First Dead show ever at Deer Creek which had just opened that year. Became a regular stop on the Dead’s summer tour thereafter and one of the favorite places for the Deadheads given its relatively small size as compared to the stadium venues that soon became the norm for summer tours. Ironically, two days after this one-off Dead played their final 3 shows at Alpine Valley, switched to Tinley Park in 1990 and then starting in 1991 Chicago summer tour shows were confined to Soldier Field with 60,000 attendees.
INTRO: Bertha
Track #2
1:20 – 3:00
Garcia/Hunter – first appeared on Grateful Dead (live) aka Skull and Roses or Skullfuck (1971)
Played: 401
First: February 18, 1971 at Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, USA
Last: June 27, 1995 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI
SHOW No. 1: Walkin Blues
Track #5
1:38 – 3:20
"Walkin' Blues" or "Walking Blues" is a blues standard written and recorded by American Delta blues musician Son House in 1930. Although unissued at the time, it was part of House's repertoire and other musicians, including Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, adapted the song and recorded their own versions.
"Walkin' Blues" was not a commercial success when it was issued as a "race record" marketed to black listeners. However, the song was received with great enthusiasm by a small group of white jazz record collectors and critics. Producer John Hammond chose "Walkin' Blues" and "Preachin' Blues" as the records to be played at his 1938 From Spirituals to Swing concert, when Johnson himself could not appear (Johnson had died a few months earlier).[15] The 1961 Johnson compilation album King of the Delta Blues Singers was marketed to white enthusiasts. According to most sources, John Hammond was involved in the production and the selection of tracks. The album included the two House-style songs and a song with House-style guitar figures ("Cross Road Blues" and excluded songs in the commercial style of the late 1930s. Notable exclusions were Johnson's one commercial hit, "Terraplane Blues", and two songs which he passed on to the mainstream of blues recording, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Dust My Broom".
Dead first played it in 1966, once in 1982 and 4 times in 1985. Then, beginning in 1987 it became a standard part of Dead song lists, peaking in 1988 when it was played 23 times. Became one of Bobby’s early first set blues numbers with Minglewood Blues, CC Rider and Little Red Rooster.
Played: 141
First: October 7, 1966 at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN, USA
SHOW No. 2: Crazy Fingers
Track #12
4:30 – 6:12
Pretty standard second set song, usually pre-drums. Fist played in 1975, a few times in 1976 and then dropped until 1982 at Ventura County Fairgrounds (day after my first show). Played 7 times that year, dropped until 1985 (10 times), then dropped until 1987 and then played regularly until the end. Great tune, Jerry often forgot the lyrics and this version is great because Bobby saves him on the lyrics when Jerry starts to go astray. Good fun considering how many times Bobby would forget the words to his songs. But one of those things you remember if you see it happen
Garcia/Hunter, released on Blues For Allah (Sept. 1, 1975)
Played: 145 times
First: June 17, 1975 at Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: July 5, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO (St. Louis)
SHOW No. 3: Truckin
Track #13
7:00 – end
Hunter/Garcia/Weir/Lesh/Kreutzman (Pigpen went inside to take a nap) by the side of a pool.
Released on American Beauty (November, 1970) final tune on the album
Played: 532 times
First: August 17, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: July 6, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO
INTO
Smokestack Lightning
Track #14
0:00 – 0:36
"Smokestack Lightning" (also "Smoke Stack Lightning" or "Smokestack Lightnin'") is a blues song recorded by Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists later interpreted it. Recorded at Chess Records in Chicago and released in March, 1956 with You Can’t Be Beat on the B side.
Wolf had performed "Smokestack Lightning" in one form or another at least by the early 1930s,[1] when he was performing with Charley Patton in small Delta communities.[1] The song, described as "a hypnotic one-chord drone piece",[2] draws on earlier blues, such as Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues",[3] the Mississippi Sheiks' "Stop and Listen Blues",[4] and Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down".[5][6] Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night: "We used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning."
In a song review for AllMusic, Bill Janovitz described "Smokestack Lightning" as "almost like a distillation of the essence of the blues... a pleasingly primitive and raw representation of the blues, pure and chant-like. Wolf truly sounds like a man in otherwise inexpressible agony, flailing for words."[8] In 1999, the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, honoring its lasting historical significance.[13]Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 291 in its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"[7] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it in its list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[14] In 1985, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category[15] and, in 2009, it was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Janovitz also identifies "Smokestack Lightning" as a blues standard "open to varied interpretation, covered by artists ranging from the Yardbirds to Soundgarden, all stamping their personal imprint on the song".[8] Clapton identifies the Yardbirds' performances of the song as the group's most popular live number.[17] They played it almost every show, and sometimes it could last up to 30 minutes.
Dead often played it out of Truckin, would also play the blues tune Spoonful out of Truckin.
Played: 63 times
First: November 19, 1966 at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: October 18, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
SHOW No. 4: Space
Track #17
7:45 – 9:20
On November 28, 1973, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and drummer Mickey Hart staged a performance at San Francisco’s Palace Of Fine Arts. At the time, Hart – whose 80th birthday is today – was on a sabbatical from the Dead, having last performed in public with Garcia and the band in February 1971. Hart would rejoin the Dead for good in October 1974.
A poster promoting the concert shows a clean-shaven Garcia dressed in black beside an equally freshly shaven Hart wearing all white. At the bottom of the advertisement was printed “An Experiment in Quadrophonic Sound.”
Hart recalled his experience at the duo concert with Garcia in 1973 that was not only a Seastones precursor but also planted the seeds for the band’s mind-bending “Space” jams.
“There were so many exciting that we’ve done together. Adventurous musical things. He was also into adventure and creating new spaces, so we had that in common. We got together many times out of the ring – where he first discovered synthesizers, being able to synthesize his guitar, which led to MIDI.
“The first concert we did was in 1973. It was just a duo. He got an Arp [Odyssey], an electric instrument, a keyboard, and he plugged his guitar into it and that was the first time I had heard his guitar I had heard his guitar running through sophisticated synthesizers.
“I just thought of that concert, which kind of was the beginning of ‘Space’ – ‘Drums’ and ‘Space’ actually – it might have been the very beginning of it. And I think of that on his birthday, the seminal things we did together.”
After the November 28, 1973 concert, the Grateful Dead began to occasionally incorporate elements of a “Space” jam into their shows. In January 1978, Dead shows almost always included a nightly “Drums” jam paired with a freeform “Space” jam, consistently showing up mid-second set throughout the rest of their career.
Played: 1086
First: March 19, 1966 at Carthay Studios, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Last: July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL
OUTRO: Brokedown Palace
Track #22
5:04 – 6:43
The lyric to “Brokedown Palace” was written by Robert Hunter as part of a suite of songs that arrived via his pen during a stay in London in 1970. He entitled it “Broke-Down Palace,” and now that it exists as a piece of writing, it seems to have always existed. It was composed on the same afternoon as “Ripple” and “To Lay Me Down,” with the aid of a half bottle of retsina.
Its first performance was on August 18, 1970, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, and became a staple of the live repertoire. After the 1975 hiatus, “Brokedown Palace” appeared almost exclusively as the closing song of the show, as an encore. It had the effect of sending us out of the show on a gentle pillow of sound, the band bidding us “Fare you well, fare you well…”
Garcia/Hunter
Released on American Beauty (Nov. 1970)
Played: 219 times
First: August 18, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA
Last: June 25, 1995 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Larry (00:31.534)
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Deadhead Cannabis Show. I'm Larry Mishkin of Mishkin Law in Chicago, back after a week off to spend a little time down in very, very hot and humid South Carolina with my beautiful granddaughter Ruby. Unfortunately, I went through my first episode of COVID. She didn't get it. It's the good news. I didn't get too bad of a case. It's also the good news.
I'm not telling anybody that it has anything to do with the fact that I smoke lot of marijuana even though there's reports published from Canada and Israel during the pandemic. We talked about these on the show where...
based on studies they were doing, they determined that people who smoke certain strains of sativa marijuana were less likely to get COVID. And if they did, for their symptoms to not be as bad because of its impact on the ACE2 pathway, which is how the virus enters the body. And even though this was my first time getting it in four years, I had a very mild case and all is right with the world. So just throwing that out there. We've got great show today, a great, grateful dead show.
great but this one is really special from July 15th 1989 35 years ago today the first time the Grateful Dead ever played at the Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville Indiana and this is how they open the show.
Larry (03:30.048)
Yeah, we love Birth on this show, I love it. I've said it many times, first song I ever saw The Grateful Dead play live, many, many years ago. And here in 1989, which was only seven years after that first show, but 35 years since, a lifetime, The Dead came out and opened with Birth again, Jerry roaring on the vocals, playing great guitar, making for a wonderful night for the first Dead show ever at Deer Creek, and it just opened that year.
for those of you who've been there lately it wasn't like that then the theater itself was pretty much the same you know now there's stuff built up all around it back then it was out in the middle of some cornfields and took us a few minutes to figure out exactly how to get there we had a whole crew with us my wife was there good buddy andy cattlin was there larry van ochre was there a well was there countless others this was
became a regular stop on the Dead Summer Tour thereafter. One of their favorite places to play. The Deadheads just loved
given its relatively small sizes compared to the stadium venues that soon became the norm for the band summer tours ironically two days after this one -off dead show that they came and played one night they would never play those that few again at deer creek then they came back the next year to play two more we were there and then the either the that year the year after they switched to three shows of course your creek was the place where they had the unfortunate riot of the
quote unquote deadheads who didn't have tickets and were trying to get in and tearing down fences. But at the time, man, this was a brand new place and it was awesome and we all loved it. It was much smaller than Alpine Valley and more reminiscent of Poplar Creek, but it was a great place to see a show. And then two days after this show, we were all this whole same group. We were all back up at Alpine Valley.
Larry (05:24.148)
all for the final three shows that the dev would ever play there in nineteen eighty nine we've talked about those shows they're really really good ones and and that was it in ninety they switched to tingly park which was just an unmitigated disaster as well as being brent midlands final three shows with the band and then starting in ninety one of the chicago summer tours were confined to soldier field which is in a bad venue but you know when you're with fifty five or sixty thousand other fans it's just not quite the same as you know even being in a place like
Alpine Valley, probably had about somewhere between 35 and maybe 40 ,000. But even that seemed like less, because if you were in the pavilion of Alpine Valley, the huge crowd on the hill didn't make that much of a difference. For this show at Deer Creek, we were all up on the lawn. And as I recall, it was so not crowded that we were even able to get down into the pavilion for part of the show.
and watch it there, but it was a great group of friends. We all had a great time. And Bertha, what a great way to open. Of course, Bertha was a Garcia Hunter tune, first appeared on Grateful Dead Live, not Live Dead, but the Skull and Roses or Skullfuck album that came out in 1971 and had the little advertisements seeking information on all of the dead freaks out there so they could unite and ultimately become the deadheads. Bertha was played 401 times by the band, the first time on February 18th, 1971 at the
Theater in Port Chester, New York, and the final time on June 27, 1995 at the Palace of Auburn Hills just outside of Detroit, Michigan. So they come out with a great tune like Bertha, and of course everybody's on their feet right away rocking and rolling and just having a great time. And then they went into Greatest Story Ever Told, which is a wonderful version of that, A Killer Candyman by Jerry. Then it was Bobby's turn, and this is the one he pulled out of his hat.
Larry (08:57.806)
That's Walkin' Blues, a blues standard written and recorded by America Delta Blues musician, Son House in 1930. Although it was unissued at the time, it was part of House's repertoire and other musicians, including Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, adapted the song and recorded their own versions. Walkin' Blues was not a commercial success when it was issued as a, quote unquote, race record marketed to black listeners. However, the song was received with great enthusiasm by a small group of white jazz record collectors and critics, producer John
and shows walk in blues and preach in blues as the records to be played in his 1938 From Spirituals to Swing concert when Johnson himself could not appear. Johnson had died a few months earlier. The 1961 Johnson compilation album King of the Delta Blues Singers was marketed to white enthusiasts.
According to most sources, John Hammond was involved in the production of the selection of tracks. The album included the two house -style songs and a song with house -style guitar figures, Crossroad Blues, and it excluded songs in the commercial style of the late 1930s. Notable exclusions were Johnson's one commercial hit, Terraplane Blues, and two songs which he passed on to the mainstream of blues recording, Sweet Home Chicago and Dust My Broom.
It's kind of funny with the dead because they played it one time in 1966. Then they played it one more time in 1982. Then they played it four times in 1985. And then beginning in 1987, it became a standard part of their song list.
peaking in 1988 when it was played 23 times. It became one of Bobby's early first set blues numbers rotating in and out with Minglewood Blues, C .C. Ryder, and Little Red Rooster. And it just kind of cracks me up how they sampled it once, they came back to it.
Larry (10:50.35)
what 16, 17 years later, put it away, came back to it four years later, and finally decided, yep, we're going to work this in. And they did. They wound up playing it 141 times. The first, as we said, was October 7, 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. And the last time ever was July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, the site of today's show. And when they first started playing it, it was interesting because we
that it was a blues tune, it wasn't one of Red Rooster, Minglewood, or C .C. Ryder. They were going in another direction. And they also, as I recall, had a tune that they played, Meet Me at the Bottom, which was kind of a bluesy number that they would throw in. But it gave a little more variation, and that was always fun. Not so easy to just count three shows in a row and say, okay, it's a rooster night, it's a Minglewood night. You wouldn't always know. And as you can hear on this clip, there's some great
going on about a minute later after the next round of lyrics.
Brett dives in with just an absolute wonderful lead on the Hammond B3 where he just really takes the song and really moves it and adds a wonderful bluesy kind of B3 sound to it before they come back out and play it. And I definitely remember watching them play this tune and every time Brett would hit the right chords on the B3 and he'd get the little thing on the wooden panel down below circling around, whatever that was to, who the hell knows what it was for? I don't, because I don't
play Hammond B3. Good buddy Rob might know, but I don't have him on the show today, so just have to go back and watch videos. And when you see Brent really just jamming, look for it, you can see it down on the stage there. But that thing started spinning around like crazy. We knew we were rocking and rolling. But you know, it's interesting that a guy like Son House writes this song. It's never really quite released, so he doesn't get any royalties off of it or anything else. And then you think he wrote Sweet Home Chicago, which certainly in Chicago is very, very well known and much played,
Larry (12:56.205)
For many years during the Chicago Bulls run with Michael Jordan, it would get worked into one of the intermission or timeout.
musical things that they did when I was going with good buddy Blake who's no longer with us and of course my good buddy Johnny W from down in Sweet Home Atlanta. And so yeah, it was a great tune. It was always a lot of fun. Great in that show, in that context, and everybody had a good time. we are now going to turn our attention to music news and as always,
Dan Humiston, our wonderful producer, has something for us to listen to.
Larry (13:59.854)
Rock and roll, Hoochie Coo. Sometimes I learn things I just didn't even know. I I knew it was a Rick Deringer tune, but it was initially recorded by Johnny Winter in 1970 with his band, Johnny Winter and.
which at the time included Rick Derringer and other former members of the McCoys. According to Derringer, he says, first song I wrote for Johnny was Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo. Rock and roll to satisfy the rock and roll that I was supposed to be bringing into the picture and Hoochie Coo to satisfy the King of Blues sensibility that Johnny was supposed to maintain and it worked out great. However,
winter note and the reviewers liked it. didn't think rock and roll who she could do as well as it did because it was a little corny rock and roll who she could. You don't even know. The song is included on the Johnny winter and element reached number one fifty four on the billboard two hundred album chart in nineteen seventy. They recorded the song during the live Johnny winter and tour which was released as live at Fillmore East October third nineteen seventy in twenty ten in a review of the album for all music. Tom Juric commented that this
This one blows away the Johnny Winter and studio version or Derringer's own hit single take. Although he felt it did not measure up to the other songs recorded that night. Winter and Derringer later recorded the song with Winter's brother for Edgar Winter's White Trash Live 1972 album Road Work described in the album at inscribed to
described in an album review as a rousing rendition. Now Rick Derringer did record the song for his 1973 solo album All American Boy. He plays guitar, bass, and tambourine, sings the lead vocal with Bobby Caldwell on drums and Carl Hall, Laney Groves, and Tasha Thomas providing the backing vocals. The song was recorded at Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado. I actually recall hearing Rick Derringer play the tune in
Larry (15:55.562)
75, 76. A good buddy Mark from St. Louis and I went down to the Keele Auditorium to see, I can't remember who the opening act was, but then it was Rick Derringer after that. It may have been Sammy Hagar.
It may very well have been Sammy Hagar. And then Rick Derringer. And then Boston, I think. One of the many times that we saw Boston down there. Because when they were coming through at the time, we just thought that that was as big as it got in rock and roll. And for us, it was. And we had a great time. There was plenty of time to come to jump on the bus and pick up everything else. But that was a lot of fun. remember Rick Derringer playing rock and roll, Hoochie Coo. And it was fun. It was a great tune. It was always a lot of fun. Great to listen to.
And thank you, Dan. So let's get into a little bit of music news here. And first and foremost,
some information I picked up from Dan Humiston. Melissa Etheridge jammed out on July 3rd in Avon, Colorado to a crowd of over 5 ,000, which included our producer, Mr. Humiston. He reports it was a great show. She killed it. It was the first night of her summer tour. She's getting ready to head out for a whole big adventure. And if she comes through your town or anywhere nearby, Dan recommends, and I have no reason to doubt him. I've seen Melissa Etheridge and she's a great performer. Really a lot of
tunes.
Larry (17:20.438)
and well worth it if you have a chance to go see her. Melissa is one of those people who then gets you going on all the permutations of rock and roll relationships. And we remember that her two children are fathered by the late great David Crosby. And just one of those amazing things, right? Now have two completely talented musicians and putting their genes together to come up with kids. And I can't tell you anything about Melissa Etheridge's kids and whether they're musically inclined or not.
But with that gene pool, you have to hope that they've got something down the road ready for us if it's not already in creation. At any rate, so Melissa Etheridge, a great show, a lot of fun to go out and see if you have a chance. Highly recommended and see what you can pick up with it. There is some other music news, and I'm just kind of flipping through my notes here to find it because I.
should have had it out right in front of me.
Larry (18:24.142)
That's not it. We'll get to it.
Larry (18:29.812)
here we go, of course. Music news brought to you by Relics. So much going on and Relics, course, is always right on top of it. This past weekend, and Company closed out weekend number eight at the Sphere. They broke out in the midnight hour. They debuted It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. Just some really wonderful shows continuing in the line of stuff that they've been playing. And what's cool is that I've got buddies
who have been going out there for all the various weeks, and with different people going out on different weekends, really getting the feel for it all. And they're putting on solid shows. They're greatly inspired. They all love being there. And when we pick up some of the
shows it's great because there are some changes to the visuals that they're flashing up on the screen and it's kinda nice to see what other ones they've come up with but last night they
Larry (19:38.222)
Well, sorry. Last night closed out this most recent weekend three -night run. And now they have a break that they'll be back on August 1, which is actually Jerry Garcia's birthday. And one can only imagine what will go down at that time. So if you were there last night, and this past Saturday night, you were treated to a bust out of Wilson Pickett's in the midnight hour. They covered, as I say, it's all over now, Baby Blue.
Also, was it midnight hour, Mississippi half step, shake down street, boy that's a great way to open a show. Cold rain and snow, loser and sugary. Talk about
Jerry Garcia first sets, that's awesome, although in the Midnight Hour it was always a tune that Bobby sang when I saw them do it. So he got that in. And then starting the second set with One More Saturday Night, Deadhead's favorite. You know that Saturday night is coming. Get it out of the way, and you're surprised at the end for the encore instead of knowing that it's going to be One More Saturday Night. So they did that, and it helped slip Althea, St. Stephen, Drum Space.
It's all over now. Baby blue is there.
encore excuse me not as the encore as a bust out and then there's Bertha, Sugar Magnolia and finally closing it out with Broke Down Palace and then the encore was Good Lovin' so that's great because there's really three encores that get thrown into the post space segment of this show and I get a kick out of that because they're one of the things that makes this band interesting I think for older Deadheads is you just don't know
Larry (21:16.63)
what you're gonna get right you get a help slip there's no franklin's what the hell happened to the franklin's it's not there okay you know that they may have played at the night before maybe they played you know some other time but that's okay you know that like i say it's an it's all over now baby blue the only time i ever saw that was as an encore here they have it coming out of space
Bertha like we say you can just drop that in anywhere even though it's my favorite all -time opener for them Sugar mag that of course Bobby can jam on sugar mag all night long and Lovely broke down to end the set right sugar mags not even ending the Senate sugar bag broke down to add the set and then good lovin so you know If you haven't had a chance to get out there and see the shows yet the temperature is still ungodly hot and the hundred plus
but I would highly, highly recommend that you do get out there because they're really being kind of creative and fun with the songs that they're pulling out of the back pages of the Dead's Playlists and stuff that hasn't been played by them, or at least not by them in a long time. And those are fun tunes and they're great to hear. Once you're inside the sphere, it all becomes a special event anyway. certainly something to check out. Last night, String Cheese, this
and String Cheese has been jamming out at Red Rocks. On Friday night they had a whole show that they, String Cheese incident, they actually titled the show The New Orleans Incident, summoning up the spirit of the Big Easy with costumes, carefully tailored covers, slew of bust outs and a dream team of special guests.
including george porter junior of the meters dumpster funk and terry on a tank ball all of whom brought the soul of the bayou to the heart of the mountains for an unforgettable night of music they keep going all weekend and just rocking out having a great time good buddy alex and andy are out there i believe they were able to catch the show on saturday night because of course they do i know they're gonna be going there to see tedesky trucks little bit more towards the end of the month
Larry (23:24.958)
I'm going to miss that with them this year, because I'm going to be at Alpine Valley, back to Alpine Valley, talking about that earlier, to see three fish shows. I'm doing a little bit of fish touring this summer, so I'm going to miss the crowd in Colorado, bummed about that. But I've got to see fish while they're still around to be seen. And they always seem to do great shows at Alpine Valley. And that's where I'll be spending that weekend this year.
That's just one more fun thing going out at Red Rocks where the music really never stops and everybody has a great time. It's really a lot of fun. For people who were paying attention last week.
I believe it was Thursday night maybe that Fish was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. And it was really a lot of fun because they start off the very beginning of the show as they're going into the beginning of the show. They're announcing everything. Or even before that, I guess, right when they cut to the channel, they show them.
all in the elevator.
Jimmy Fallon gets in, two of the guys from Roots gets in, then the four guys from Phish get in, and they start singing Love in an Elevator, the Aerosmith song, doing an acapella version of it, and it's hysterical. It was very, very funny. And then one by one, they all get off the elevator, and then they do the intro and the announcements, and then the beginning of the show. But Phish is a great band to do that kind of stuff, right? They've been around forever, what have we said now, like 40 plus years.
Larry (25:06.432)
and they're totally game for doing this kind of stuff. They look grown up. John Fishman, other than the fact that he's wearing the donut dress, mean, you know, he's got that close -cropped haircut, a pair of, you know, grown -up glasses, look of the age. know, Mike Gordon still kind of has that shock of hair going, although it's pretty white now, dressed in some funky outfit as always. Paige wearing some very colorful, flowery button -down and Trey looking like, you know, he just got done.
hanging out with his buddies somewhere and he shows up and you know they have great voices they build it up really well it was a it was a wonderful acapella thing and we all enjoyed it and then they came out a little bit later in the show after Channing Tatum and one of the Jonas's Joe Jonas maybe I don't quite honestly can't tell him apart and never
took them very seriously as musicians not to slam them. I'm sure the people who liked them really liked them, and I'm sure their music is really good. It just wasn't music that ever spoke to me. But after all of them, then they came back right at the very end for Phish to perform Evolve off of their new album.
And much like back in the day when we'd see The Grateful Dead on The Tonight Show or The David Letterman Show or any one of the shows that were out there, the talk shows that they would sometimes appear on, this time happened to be the whole band. Apparently, Trey's been on the show before. I think this was the band's first time on The Tonight Show since 2016, back when they were promoting Big
And this was just great. They came out, they played it, the four of them up there. Obviously, it's not the jam version that we'll all hear in concert, but they have a very, very good way of playing it so that you get just enough of a sense of jamming from them and trade the lyrics and everybody really belting it out. And quite honestly, I'm looking forward to catching it on one of the many FISH shows I'll be seeing as we head into the end of July and then on the Mondagran green and
Larry (27:13.44)
over Delaware in August for the Fish Festival there. lots of fish coming my way soon, so I was excited to see them on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Vallon, who I have to say, I don't know that I can say that he's my favorite of the late night guys, but he's definitely the hippest when it comes to music and doing this kind of stuff. So good for him, good for the show, good for the guys from Fish for going along and just having some fun with everybody. I'm sure you can go and find it on YouTube or
and if you can, I would certainly recommend doing it because there's just a lot of fun stuff to see there and they're really, really good. So that's primarily what we got for music news today, folks. There's, like I say, you you know, I know, there's always great music going down somewhere and the key is to stay on top of it. And the problem is that there's so much damn good music these days that it's really hard to do. But I certainly feel like I've had my chance this summer and other than missing
Neil Young because of the the illness in his band. We've had a pretty good summer with music. I get a couple of weeks off here to regain my sea legs and then hitting it hard. But let's find ourselves back 35 years ago today on July 15th, 1989 at the Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, Indiana. And in the second set, this is what we got from the boys.
Larry (30:19.694)
Crazy Fingers, Garcia tune released on Blues for All on September 1st, 1975. Pretty standard second song set, usually pre -drums. It was first played in 1975, a few times in 1970, one time in 75, a few times in 76, and then dropped entirely until 1982. They brought it back in July of that year at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, the day after my first show with good buddy Mikey, so we did not see it.
they played seven times that year they dropped it again until nineteen eighty five they played ten times that year that they dropped it again until nineteen eighty seven that they played a pretty regularly until the end was a great tune jerry often forgot the lyrics of this version is really great
because Bobby saves him. You can hear on the lyrics when Jerry starts to go astray. And even after he still is forgetting some of the words as they go down the line. it happens. But I love the fact that this is happening because Bobby would forget words to his songs all the time.
But you know here he was all ready to help out his big buddy and it you know it's just one of those things you remember if you see it happen you know don't think about it all the time when you start talking about the show and what they played you're like crazy because yeah Bobby stepped in and saved Jerry and you could hear the crowd appreciating it you know because
most of us are singing along or trying to sing along. Crazy Fingers always had a lot of lyrics and back then you didn't have the internet to be able to go to lyrics wizards or whatever and the lyrics books hadn't been published yet or anything. So it take a little while to try and pick up some of those lyrics and try to sing along. If you're thinking singing along on a song where you're using Jerry to kind of keep you going because you think you know all the lyrics but you're not sure but as hear Jerry sing them you can do it and then you know that Jerry's
Larry (32:13.648)
made a mistake, but because you still don't quite know all the words to the song, you can't necessarily pick it up yourself, but there was Bob, we were doing it. So hats off to Bobby, one of those great save situations, and very much appreciated by the crowd.
the boys played this song hundred forty five times at first appeared on june seventeenth nineteen seventy five at winterland arena in san francisco it was last played on july fifth nineteen ninety five at the river port amphitheater in maryland heights missouri just outside louis another show i was lucky to be at with good buddy mark and cool cousin brent down there in saint louis in fact i'll be seen good buddy mark and cool cousin brent and my brother steven in a couple weeks for the two saint louis shows on the fish tour right after alpine valley
as the summer of fish will roll on. Looking forward to that as always. Now, so the second set comes out. Well, here, after the Walkin' Blues, Jerry came back with Peggy O. Bobby did his Dylan tune, Queen Jane. We had Brent jump in with We Can Run, But We Can't Hide. And then Jerry capped it off with about a 14 minute bird song that was just.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Second set open with Foolish Heart and Victim of the Crime. A 10 minute, almost an 11 minute Foolish Heart, great second set opener. A tune that we were still just really getting the feel for. Same with Victim of the Crime, but they were well received. We heard the crazy fingers, and now the boys went from there into this next one.
Larry (35:07.95)
truckin'. Everybody knows truckin' and this was a great truckin'. I played you the jam out at the end because quite frankly I thought that was the best part of the tune. It was a great version of truckin' that night, but Jerry got stronger and stronger with it as he went along and I couldn't quite play the entire jam out because I wanted to have enough room on there to kick over into the follow -up tune, Smoke Stack Lightning, which we'll get to in a minute. But it was a great truckin'. It was really a lot of fun.
you played really well every now and you know sometimes trucking can can be a great tune sometimes you know maybe you know not so much it just depends what kind of a mood they're in but that was certainly a good one so coming out of that crazy fingers they kicked into the really hot trucking
And then at the end, they made their way over into smokestacks. So Truckin, of course, is a Hunter Garcia, We're Lush, Kreutzman tune. We told the story about how they were all sitting up by the pool one day. And Pig went in to take a nap. The rest of them wrote the song. And so he's the one who doesn't get credit.
But it was released on American Beauty in November of 1970. It's the final tune on the album. Played 532 times, you know, in the top five or 10 of all time tunes played by the Grateful Dead. It was first played on August 17th, 1970 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Last played on July 6th, 1995 at the Riverport Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Once again with good buddy Mark and cool cousin Brent. The second of the last
in saint louis before going up to chicago for the final two at soldier field and we remember well from that night as well it was a lot of fun but that they take it into smokestack lightning and smokestack lightning is a blue sun recorded by holland wolf also known or really
Larry (36:55.15)
Originally known as Chester Burnett, then he just became Holland Wolf, and he recorded it in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It's based on earlier blues recordings, and numerous artists later interpreted it. It was recorded at Chess Records in Chicago, released in March 1956 with You Can't Be Beat on the B -side.
Wolf had performed smokestack lightning in one form or another, at least since the early 1930s when he was performing with Charlie Patton in small Delta communities. The song, described as a hypnotic one -chord drone piece, draws on earlier blues such as Tommy Johnson's Big Road Blues, the Mississippi Sheik's Stop and Listen Blues, and Charlie Patton's Moon Going Down.
Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night. used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by and watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning. In a song review for AllMusic, Ben Janovitz described smokestack lightning as almost like a distillation of the essence of the blues, a pleasingly primitive and raw representation of the blues, pure and chant -like. Wolf truly sounds like a man in otherwise inexpressible agony, flailing for
In 1999, the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award honoring its lasting historical significance. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it number 291 in its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included in its list of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. In 1985, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the Classics of Blues Recordings category and in 2009, it was selected for permanent preservation in the
recording registry of the US Library of Congress. Janovic also identifies smokestack lightning as a blues standard, open to varied interpretation, covered by artists ranging from the yard birds to sound garden, all stamping their personal imprint on the song. Clapton identifies the yard bird's performance of the song as the group's most popular live number. They played it almost every show and sometimes jammed it out for as long as 30 minutes.
Larry (39:02.946)
The Grateful Dead, before The Grateful Dead were doing it. The dead often played it out of truckin'. And if they were gonna play it, that was almost always where you would hear it. And interestingly, another tune, Blue Standard, that they played out of truckin', Spoonful, sometimes they'd go months or tours at a time, and then all of a sudden, you would start catching it. It was always a pleasure to catch one of those coming out of truckin'. And on this night, the Smoke Stack Lightning was fantastic.
The dead wound up playing smoke stack lightning a total of 63 times. The first back in November of 1966, November 19th at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. The last was on October 18th, 1994 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Now we are going to take a moment here and we're gonna jump over into our marijuana news and as we do that we have Dan Spinning of Marijuana.
related song for us. What do you got, Dan?
Larry (40:31.938)
Mary Jane, a blues song by Janis Joplin, birdsong inspired woman herself. The song has five verses. The first includes the line, when I bring home my hard earned pay, I spend my money all on Mary Jane.
i wonder how many people the world to say that how many people have partners who wish they were to spend it all on mary jane alive performance of the song recorded in san francisco nineteen sixty five with dick ox tight jazz band is on the nineteen seventy five compilation album janice the song is also included in the two thousand seven compilation the very best of janice joplin of the song is often incorrectly attributed to bestie smith but here
It serves as our lead -in to all of our marijuana stories today. Thank you, Dan, for getting that. The first one comes from Marijuana Moment. And folks, we've been telling you all about the many benefits of marijuana, everything about it, from good health to making people feel better, older people, younger people, sick people, healthy people. Well, guess what? We finally have a study that says marijuana use is linked to better and more frequent sex, the study finds.
Dosage, of course, as always, is critical, right? So a new scientific review of academic research on cannabis and human sexuality concludes.
that while the relationship between marijuana and sex is a complicated one, use of cannabis is generally associated with more frequent sexual activity as well as increased sexual desire and enjoyment. The article published this week in the journal Psychopharmacology also suggests that lower doses of marijuana may actually be best suited for sexual satisfaction. While if you get too high, it might possibly lead to a decrease in desire. And it suggests the effect may differ based on a person's gender.
Larry (42:21.484)
The report suggests that cannabis has the potential to enhance sexual pleasure, reduce inhibitions, alleviate anxiety and shame, and promote intimacy and connection with sexual partners, wrote the five author research team from the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar -Ilan University. And of course, this is from Israel. All these great studies are from Israel. We love Israel.
We love it anyway, but especially because of all the great stuff it gives us about marijuana. Among Jewish people, you mention Israel, and right away it gets a veneer of respectability that it might not otherwise ever have. So we love that. Furthermore, it has been associated with increased pleasure during masturbation and enhanced sensory experiences during sexual encounters. These observations indicate that cannabis may have notable effects on sexual experiences. The nine -page literature review says that while sex is a complex dynamic,
Influenced by various physical and emotional factors, marijuana affects individuals in an integrative manner, impacting both physical and emotional aspects, which can potentially influence sexual experiences. Now women typically see more beneficial sexual effects from cannabis use. The paper says, though less research has been done looking into women's experiences. Published literature suggests that marijuana can relieve painful intercourse, and the author noted adding, moreover, low doses of cannabinoids, including
THC and THCV, which possesses sedative and hypnotic qualities, could potentially alleviate anxiety associated with sexual activities and interpersonal interactions, consequently disinhibiting sexual desire and arousal, particularly for some women.
Some advocates have cited the potential for cannabis to improve sexual functions in women as a reason to add conditions such as female orgasmic disorder and as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. As for the men, the article notes that the study finds are conflicting. Some suggest that cannabis causes erectile dysfunction while others claim exactly the opposite. Dosages also appear to be key though there's still a need for more investigation. Throughout our study we found dosage and frequency of cannabis use
Larry (44:33.652)
to be modulating factors of the effects of cannabis on sexual experiences. However, the many conflicting findings of different studies raise questions that still have to be worked
As for frequency, more regular cannabis use appears to correlate with greater sexual function, at least in general. A survey of female customers in a cannabis dispensary, the paper said, found that compared to low frequency users, women who use cannabis more often scored higher on measures of female sexual function. So the story goes on and on and on as they all tend to do, but there you go. More positive news, maybe a guy like Ted Cruz who says the government's not gonna tell me how many beers I can drink
at the same time saying we shouldn't be smoking marijuana, who knows? Maybe that could improve things between him and the Mrs. We can only hope, but it's a positive impact thing on people and another reason why we should all be free to go out and purchase and consume marijuana if we choose to do so. And that we don't have to worry about the government telling us.
what to do, which leads us to our next story from Marijuana Moment. Once again, the GOP -led congressional committee approves a bill to ban most consumable hemp products, such as Delta -8 THC.
And so these types of products would be effectively banned under a bill that is advanced through a GOP controlled House committee, though the panel did add clarifying language to an attached report that appears to push federal officials to take steps toward creating a framework to adequately regulate rather than prohibit.
Larry (46:07.246)
certain hemp derivatives. House Appropriations Committee approved a 2025 spending bill covering agricultural, rural development, food and drug administration on Wednesday with a controversial section that would prohibit cannabinoid products such as Delta -8 THC and CBD containing any quantifiable amount of THC. Hemp industry stakeholders have rallied against the proposal, which is included in the base bill from the relevant subcommittee last month. It's virtually identical to a
the twenty twenty four farm bill that was attached by a separate committee in May the amendment from Illinois representative Mary Miller who we now all hate here in Illinois can't wait to get rid of her from office fast enough because I've never heard of Mary Miller ever until she decided to step in and take it upon herself to make these changes to hemp.
If either measure is entered into law, cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant would no longer meet the definition of legal hemp. The proposed ban faced sizable pushback from the hemp industry. Though certain key marijuana businesses have joined prohibitionists in supporting the proposed policy change. And we talked about this too, right, because this is just the greed of cannabis that is not good for the industry as a whole. These people who run their medical marijuana and adult use dispensaries and
centers don't like this because people can generate and sell constituent cannabinoids out of hemp that do have THC in them or they can be synthesized once outside of the plant for manufacture. And they it's not fair. They can sell it for a lot less. They don't have to do all the testing. They don't have to do this. They don't have to do that. This isn't fair. To which I say, suck eggs, guys. If you don't think it's fair, start selling it in your
dispensaries.
Larry (48:01.134)
There's no law that says you can't sell it in the dispensaries. Tell your cultivators to start growing hemp and to start pulling out the constituent cannabinoids, and then you can tap into the Delta 8 market. You're not taking business away from yourself because the people who don't want to get really high are not going to come in and buy your marijuana, or if they do, once they're going to realize it got them too high, and they're going to be looking for Delta 8 or THCA or one of the others that exist in hemp. So the question is, why aren't you guys taking the steps to incorporate that into
your stores and what you're already selling and doing. Instead, you're joining these crazy prohibitionists who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground to try to ban this. You're wiping out farmers all across the country who keep banking on the fact that they can grow hemp that can then be processed and from which all of these constituent cannabinoids, including CBD, yes, and all the others, whether they're heavy in THC or not, and when I say heavy, only up to 0 .3%.
Right? So this is not a significant source of getting high for people who really want to get high.
and you're ruining the party for everybody when you come out and sit around and bitch and moan about it, how it's not fair. And we'll get to that in a second because you're all making plenty of money anyway, so shut up and leave these guys alone and let them do what they want to do. And as far as Congress is concerned, you know, seriously, this is just more stupidity and I'm sorry because we all know that being a Republican or being a Democrat or being a liberal or conservative for the majority of the people in the world has no bearing whatsoever
and whether or not they like to smoke marijuana. The people that like to smoke it, like to smoke it. I've never heard of somebody who says, really enjoy smoking marijuana, but I'm a Republican and I don't think that as a Republican I should smoke it. Or anybody on the left say that either. Right? We don't get that, but the folks in Congress haven't gotten the message. that's why we have our friends like Mary Miller putting out these stupid bills, just like we've talked about all the governors out there and Ted Cruz, who all think they know better than their constituents when their constituents are all voting overwhelmingly.
Larry (50:08.157)
in favor of legal marijuana in their states, and yet the politicians step in, right? This is, by God, we never ever ever ever ever get Republicans who want.
big government to come in and do anything until it's something like this, right? No, they say, stay away from me. Don't tell me how many beers I can drink. Don't tell me this. Don't tell me that. Don't tell me anything. But I can't tell you whether or not you can have a baby. I can't tell you whether or not you can smoke marijuana. I can't tell you whether or not you can have certain books in your school. Where the hell did the government get off doing this shit on all of this? What world are we entering into where all of this happens? And why is it coming through the GOP, which was always
the party that strove to have the barrier between big government and the people. And now here they are, good old Mary Miller, You wonder if some of the old fashioned Republicans would have even wanted her around. Stop dabbling in state rights and what's going on at the state levels. Just work on whatever it is you guys work on in the federal government and leave
alone already. You've made it legal. You should have no more say on it because there's nothing else to say. While you're all sitting here worried about this, go look at the numbers. Has anybody died from it? No. Are people complaining about it? Not really because it's CBD. It's Delta 8. It's like saying the difference between having a glass of watered down beer and having a shot of 100 proof Jack Daniels.
They're both alcohol, but they're not going to get you drunk at the same level. Similarly here, you're not going to get intoxicated at the same level. So can we just please stop pretending like these are important distinctions which have to be addressed. It's very, very frustrating. Now, while Mary Miller is out there doing this, the story has now come out
Larry (52:02.638)
marijuana business daily. The total cannabis sales in Illinois surpassed one billion dollars for the second consecutive year and it happened faster this year. Illinois's marijuana industry reached the one billion sales mark on July 10th last year but hit that threshold this year on July 1st according to news released from the office of Governor JB Pritzker. The 2024 total includes more than 850 million in adult use sales and almost 150 million in medical marijuana sales. The release also noted that for Illinois's fiscal year 2024
That's July 1st to June 30th fiscal year. Cannabis sales exceeded 2 billion, up from 1 .9 billion in fiscal year 2023 and 1 .8 billion in fiscal year 2022. Statistics from the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office show that 81 % of the purchases in the first six months of 2024 were made by Illinois residents. The rest were made by out of staters. Flour comprised 49 % of all marijuana sales, vape 32 % and edible 22%. While adult use
retail sales, handily beat those for medical marijuana, wholesale medical marijuana sales, outpaced recreational sales from March 22nd to February 2024. There are 218 licensed marijuana retailers currently operating in Illinois, according to the release from Pritzker's office. More retail licenses will be issued to conditional licensees that were chosen in 2022 and 2023 lotteries once they meet the requirements for full licensure.
more and more cannabis businesses are opening their doors means more and more unique products for consumers to choose from. Aaron Johnson, who leads the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Committee, sent in statement. So let's break this down. First of all, this is great news for people in Illinois. And it should not be surprising news because all the studies and all the statistics have shown that Illinois not just has the number of people, but people who are predisposed to marijuana at a high enough number that Illinois should be one of the highest revenue generating states in the
after California, possibly New York.
Larry (54:01.838)
And, you know, there's not that many other states out there with overall populations after that that are greater than Illinois's. And Illinois is just killing it. And I'm very happy to see that for my friends, for my clients, for all the people who are involved in the Illinois industry. It's nice to see. But please note the fact that as they're talking about these records being set, these records are being set because finally, after years and years and years of waiting, and for some people as we saw here, still waiting,
all of these conditional
dispensary licenses, which were the first licenses issued to any group other than the multi -state operator medical groups like Cresco and Cureleaf and all of them who had spilled over. Of course, the numbers are going to be larger. That was why we were all screaming to get these other dispensary licenses issued. And they still have many more, as it says right here, from 2022 and 2023 that aren't even up and running yet because people were held on the sidelines for so long, they didn't have enough money when they were finally told that they could go forward to do all the work
What they now have to do is go, finally, we'll start building out of space and all the other startup costs that you have. Once you actually know, you get to go forward. So Illinois is not even close yet to where it should be in terms of total sales because there's still a huge number of dispensaries and a large number of craft cultivation centers that are not up and running yet. And some that are up and running, but not up and running at full speed yet. And I'm just sorry, but this is a combination of things. Bad government
this poor government planning. while Pritzker's office wants to take a lot of credit right now for where the number is at, yeah, I suppose so. He did help push it through.
Larry (55:43.192)
For God's sake, you guys screwed this up for so long, we won't even go back and mention the names of the Illinois legislators who groups of us used to go talk to and who told us in their snarky, we're Illinois legislators, we know best, most bullshit way that they knew best and there was no time for six months additional to have public comments and official agency rulemaking that they knew how to do it, it was all there and they were gonna save everyone's time. So instead of six months,
of additional rulemaking and public comments, would have surely put this program on a much better footing. Instead, we got this nonsense. And now here we are four years.
later, four and a half years later, and we're finally starting to see some real spikes in sales, which is wonderful to see. This all should have happened a lot sooner. The other problem that I keep coming back to in Illinois, and hopefully we're going to see this now, as this article does point out, that as more and more of these new license holders come on board, they're going to realize that they can't compete with Cresco and Curaleaf selling the same strains, the same tired strains that those guys all sell. And I say tired because they are tired.
hasn't been much change in the strain, strains that Cresco and Curaleaf and Zen and Verano and all of them sell in terms of strains. There hasn't been a whole lot of change in terms of the quality of the strains that they do sell. And again, as we've talked about, they're making a billion dollars. They're bringing in a billion dollars of money. Why do they want to change? What is there to motivate them? They're like the Budweiser of marijuana, right? It's the one that, you know, you'll smoke if you're at a party or you'll drink if you're at a party because it's there. And if you're hosting a party, you might even go buy it because you get many more cans
the same amount of money as you would for some of the higher level beers and craft beers and stuff that you could purchase. But somebody's going to have to start this market going in a direction of really coming up with unique strains and strains that are good strains. And I don't just mean have a lot of THC, but have great turf profiles in them and everything up and down the line, good marijuana that people want to smoke. And then the sales in this state will be like crazy.
Larry (57:49.538)
But hopefully, like we say, that the new craft growers and the new license holders for the dispensaries will understand that and will recognize that if they want to play ball and really compete with these guys, that's the level that they're going to have to bring it at. But at the end of the day, all of this going on and on and on is just demonstrating that marijuana in Illinois can and will eventually be
a huge thing in and may ultimately become the standard for this country now finally i want to move on to an interesting article i read because as a lawyer there's things that are happening out there that were interested in that i would assume most people don't always take such a huge interest in maybe you you heard recently about the courts
most one of the most recent decisions that significant significantly curtailed federal regulatory agency powers. And that's all of a sudden because it's now potentially people are looking and saying what can this mean for marijuana and here's what we mean the court a week ago.
a week and half ago, ruled six to three along partisan lines, the courts no longer must give deference to federal agencies interpretation of laws when Congress leaves ambiguity, marking an end to the so -called Chevron Doctrine, named for a 1984 court case. In the past, courts handed over their judicial power to interpret to the actual subject matter experts in the room, the regulators. Deb Tharpett
legal and policy research at NUG MD, an online provider of medical marijuana recommendations, mentioned MJ Biz. Thank you, MJ Biz.
Larry (59:37.688)
great article. Speculation about what consequences the Chevron ruling might present for existing state regulated marijuana markets includes questions about federal agencies ability to issue future non -binding guidance such as a new coal memorandum, as well as fresh doubts over whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will be able to rein in intoxicating hemp products such as Delta -8 -THC and THCA. But the ongoing formal rescheduling process, the DEA is weighing downgrading marijuana from
to one to schedule three of the Controlled Substance Act as soon as this fall likely won't be significantly impacted according to some legal experts who talked on it. So we'll see what really happens in terms of what's going to go down.
It gets into a lot more stuff that's a lot more complicated about the Chevron Doctrine and how it could affect things here. But you can all see that the basic issue that we're talking about is that on the federal level, you know, when the DEA came in and said, yeah, we're ready to reschedule marijuana, then marijuana gets rescheduled. But we've also seen how Congress doesn't necessarily like that. So, you know, what happens is that a very right leaning Supreme Court steps in and says, well, you know, guess what? Sometimes Congress passes laws like the 2018 Farm Bill.
And there's things that they find out ultimately they didn't want. Why? Because they were stupid and they didn't bother to do research at the time they passed the bill or else they would have understood the magnitude of the laws that they were opening and they could have avoided this whole problem by laying out a much better framework and timetable so by the time we got to now, everything would be running along smoothly. But that's not what they did. Right? And
i don't necessarily what the courts coming in and saying that's what congress meant to that's what congress should have done is they should have said you could not take constituent cannabinoids out of hemp
Larry (01:01:35.694)
that's otherwise legal hemp, 0 .3 % or less, that have measurable THC levels in them, because that's not really what Congress meant, and now we're gonna get it from the courts. Well, as you know, the DEA has not always been a fan of the cannabis industry in this area as well, so it's really kind of a mixed bag, I think, to some degree, although I think that groups like the DEA are more and more slowly but surely starting to come around and get a better sense of what's going on, and it's state legislators,
federal legislators such as Mary Miller of Illinois who go out and pass the stupid laws and try to stick their nose into something that they clearly don't understand for reasons that they can't possibly explain even if they wanted to to a group of people who will never believe a word out of their mouth anyway and also they go home and kind of pound on their chest and say I showed them we're not going to have these substances in the great state of Illinois of course I don't see her saying anything negative about the billions of dollars that are coming
in the state. So I guess it's all just a matter of perspective, right, Mayor? So at any rate, but this is what happens when major decisions like this come down. Nobody stops to think about all the other potential areas that could be affected negatively or positively from these types of rulings. And this type of shuffling of administrative authority and power that always traditionally has always been part of the
executive branch of government, The agencies and all of that all fall under the authority of the president and the executive branch. this is the Congress and now the Supreme Court reaching out and saying, maybe not so fast, guys. Maybe we should really be the ones doing this. And at least six of those guys on the Supreme Court scare the hell out of me. And I sure as hell do not want any of them having any kind of a final say in whether me, my friends,
and all of the other wonderful people out there in the world who don't understand the beauty and success of cannabis taking away our rights just because
Larry (01:03:45.496)
people don't understand what they're doing and really just don't care. So that's what we got going on in the marijuana world. Some good things, some bad things, which unfortunately seems to always be the way. But we take the good ones, we can get them. When the stupid ones come out, we blast the stupid people because obviously they just don't got it.
And or get it and that's the way it is but we move on because we always got the Grateful Dead and they didn't care whether you smoke marijuana or not as long as you came out and were respectful and peaceful at their shows They would do all sorts of great stuff for you and so going back to 35 years ago today The Grateful Dead headed into that part of the show that all of us know is space, right? They came out of that the crazy fingers and the truck and it's smokestack lightning with another bit of drug
than the drums and they drop down into the space. Now normally, you know, when they get to that part of the show, you're in for about eight or nine minutes of, you know, some mind -bending stuff or whatever the boys are gonna do. But on this night, they took us in a funky direction. Let's hear what they did.
Larry (01:06:30.136)
So yeah, you can imagine a whole group of us intrepid travelers or intrepid tripsters or whatever you want to call us hanging out there in Deer Creek and settling in for space and getting this tribute to
close encounters of the third kind. And I only laugh, of course, because the movie had come out like 14 or 15 years earlier in the mid -1970s. And here it was 1989, and the boys were diving into it. And one of the questions that people have is, well, why would the boys do it? Where was the inspiration from? Well, it turns out, for those people willing to do just a little bit of homework, that in the movie, the character,
who is played by Richard Dreyfus.
and in the movie his name is Roy Neary is a power line man and he lives in Muncie, Indiana and that's where he and his family live and that's where he makes the little model of the mountain where the stuff is going on out of mashed potatoes and all that stuff and so I guess the dead figured we're here in Indiana let's let's give a little shout out to the boys from Muncie and close encounters of the third kind but really either way it didn't matter because it was just wonderful to hear
always a lot of fun and everybody's like, that Close Encounters? Is that, I think that's Close Encounters. Well, of course it was Close Encounters and we had fun with it. Now, you know, we don't feature space a lot on this show because space is space and, you know, while it's fun, it typically is always much better enjoyed in the moment.
Larry (01:08:07.398)
you know perhaps if you're listening to an entire life that show a dave's pick or dick's pick or one of the others that they've released and you get to the point where their space in the show you know if you're really jamming with the whole show could be fun to take it through that space as well but you know otherwise space is space and you know people are
wanted to do all sorts of things. But this was one that caught our attention. But what is the history of space, right? I the Dead were always a jam band. And if you look at some of their set lists from the mid to late 60s, they would always have a section on their feedback. Usually right towards the end of the show, they'd play caution into feedback into something and then call it a day. And that feedback was they'd just stand in front of their speakers and literally get the feedback and keep looping it through and through.
But it turns out that, you know, for the folks who follow these kind of things and take these kind of notes, on November 28th, 1973, Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart staged a performance at San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts. At the time,
was on sabbatical from the dead having last performed with the band in february of seventy one and would not join the band for almost a year later until october of seventy four others a very famous posters itself that promotes the concert it shows a clean shit shaven garcia dressed in black besides an equally freshly shaven heart wearing all white at the bottom of the advertisement was printed an experiment in quadrophonic sound heart recalled his experience at
the duo concert with Garcia in 73 saying that not only did they first experiment with what would become Seastones with Ned Logan's.
Larry (01:09:49.238)
I always forget Ned's last name if it's not right in front of me. And Phil did the whole Seastones thing, which was always a little too dark and noisy for me. But it also planted the seed for the bands, what would soon become their mind -bending space jams. There are so many exciting things that we've done together, adventurous musical things. We got into adventure creating new spaces, so we had that in common. got together many times out of the ring where we first discovered synthesizers, being able to synthesize guitars.
Mickey talking about the first concert we did was in 1973. It was just a duo. Jerry got an ARP, an electric instrument, a keyboard. He plugged his guitar into it. That was the first time I heard his guitar.
It was first time I had heard his guitar. I'd heard his guitar running through sophisticated synthesizers. I just thought of that concert, which kind of was the beginning of space, drums in space actually. It might have been the very beginning of it. And I think that on his birthday, the seminal thing we did together. After the November 28th, 1973 concert, the Grateful Dead began to occasionally incorporate elements of a space jam into their shows. In January of 78, Dead shows almost always began to include a nightly drums
with a freeform space jam, always typically showing up at the midpoint of the second set. That's pretty much the way they did it for the rest of their career. So we don't really have statistics on it. mean, guess if you want to go to January 78 and take it forward to the end, that's about 1 ,000 plus shows, maybe 1 ,100 shows or something. And they did it all the way up to the final show at Soldier Field.
Space is an interesting thing and always more interesting when there's something fun about it. just kind of one of those things that we would listen to and like, yeah, I remember that, right? you take note of it when you're at the show. And then when you go back and listen to it later and you hear it. And it's fun to read the comments after the recordings on.
Larry (01:11:53.13)
on archive .org because you see people talking about it. Some guy writes, am I the only guy that heard Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme being played in there? And of course, we're all laughing because all of us felt that same way at that moment, right? But then, you know, sure enough, we all knew. And at this time, everybody was,
laughing and cheering and kind of encouraging the band on and on they did. just one of those fun things. And they came out of that space into a really great China. Now, Jerry had a little bit of trouble with the lyrics. And again, but they did pull it together for that. Really, really good all along the watch tower into Stella Blue into Sugar Magnolia to close it out.
And then we'll get to the encore in a minute on our way out the door here today, which was broke down palace. But this was just a great show. And as I say,
after the show was over. It was a Saturday night. We all drove back to Chicago. Maybe it was a Sunday night. I don't remember. thought it was a Saturday night. And then we all drove back to Chicago the next day. It was too late to drive back that night. Took all my good buddies out to a Steak and Shake, the ones from the West Coast, because Steak and Shake was a Midwest thing. And of course, we found the one Steak and Shake with only one person basically working behind the counter after midnight. So it took forever. And A. Wells' impression of it was that he got
carbon dated burger instead of the wonderful Steak and Shake burgers that we'd all enjoyed for years. But you know, that's just the way that kind of thing goes. But we all got up the next day and drove back to Chicago. And then a day later, we were all cruising up to Alpine Valley for, like we said, would be the final three shows that The Dead would play there. And they were all just great one after the other. The first night was wonderful with a we bid you good night encore. The second night was just a
Larry (01:13:49.552)
horrendous rainstorm and the third night I sat in the front row with cool cousin Brent for I think the first and only time at a show where I actually had a seat a ticket ticketed seat in the first row and we had a great time and 89 was also when they recorded downhill from here their live compilation from those three shows and always a lot of fun when we go and see it and one -armed Larry is convinced that he can see us in the crowd and I'm not going to be the one to say otherwise so I just play right along with it
say, there we are. Me wearing my red Cardinal baseball hat that I was always wearing back at the time. Him wearing some hip, cool colored thing that he was always wearing back at the time. And just everybody dancing around down there and really, really loving it. So we are going to close down today with Broke Down Palace. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter as part of a suite of songs that arrived via his pen during his stay in London in 1970. He originally titled it as Broke Down.
palace and now that it exists as a piece of writing it seems to have always existed. It was composed on the same afternoon as Ripple and To Lay Me Down with the aid of a half bottle of Retzina.
familiar with Retzina but he seemed to like it and those are great songs so kind of hard to argue with that. Its first performance was on August 18th 1970 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. It became a staple of the live repertoire after the 1975 hiatus broke down appeared almost exclusively as the closing song of the show or as an encore. It had the effect of sending us out into the show out of the show on a gentle pillow of sound the band bidding us fare you well fare you well and we love them as
as they loved us a Garcia Hunter tune released on American Beauty back in November 1970 played 219 times we said the first was August 18th 1970 at the Fillmore West and the final time the band played it was June 25th 1995 at RFK Stadium and you know that was one of those tunes that we always kind of imagined if like the dad ever knew they were gonna have a final concert wouldn't that be the the logical encore at least the logical final song fair you
Larry (01:16:02.352)
Fare you well, love you more than words can tell. But of course, they didn't know, because they know it was the last show after that final show in 1995 at Soldier Field. But when they did come back for the 2015 anniversary, 20 years after their final show and after Jerry died, and they called it Fare The Well, not Fare You Well, and in fact, Broke Down was played one of the nights out in...
Levi Stadium out near Santa Clara, Jose, not Santa, San Jose, that area out there. And the final song that the boys played in Chicago at the final of the five Fair the Well shows was Addicts of My Life.
A great tune as well, but it just, I always was surprised that with those beautiful lyrics for Broke Down that that wasn't the final tune they played. But on this night it is the final tune they played and it's a great way to go out. So everyone, thank you so much for listening to our show today. Before we go, there is one other thing that I want to throw in. We got some big birthdays coming up this week, starting with my son Matthew, who is the father of Ruby and even though I loved him before, that makes him really cool now. His birthday is tomorrow.
We just had the birthday of good buddy JT who's gone to many a dead show with me over the years and pretty much any Alpine Valley show we went to he was part of the group. The lovely lady Jewel celebrates a birthday this week as does my wonderful sister -in -law Karen. So it's a great month of July birthdays with many more to come. But certainly we'll be shouting out to all of those folks in the coming weeks. Thank you very much for listening everyone. We'll be back again next week with more great Grateful Dead
more interesting marijuana news. We do have some guests coming up and then the big fish run when I'll be giving updates from there all the time. So thanks for listening, have a great week and enjoy your cannabis responsibly. Enjoy Broke Down Palace.