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Run for the Roses

Jerry Garcia Band

Initial release : November 1982

Arista AL 9603

The second and last studio album credited to the Jerry Garcia Band. Includes three Garcia/Hunter songs and one by Garcia, Hunter and John Kahn. This album plus bonus tracks was included in the All Good Things box set in 2004. A colored vinyl limited edition of the album was released on Record Store Day in 2018.

Tracks

  • Run For The Roses (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter)
  • I Saw Her Standing There (John Lennon / Paul McCartney)
  • Without Love (Clyde McPhatter)
  • Midnight Getaway (Jerry Garcia / John Kahn / Robert Hunter)
  • Leave The Little Girl Alone (John Kahn / Robert Hunter)
  • Valerie (Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter)
  • Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan)
Bonus tracks included on the CD version of album included in the All Good Things box set in 2004 and the subsequent individual CD release in 2005;
  • Fennario (Traditional) (aka Peggy-O) *
  • Alabama Getaway (Garcia / Hunter) *
  • Tangled Up In Blue (Dylan) **
  • Simple Twist Of Fate (Dylan) *
  • Dear Prudence (Lennon / McCartney) *
  • Valerie (Alternate Mix) (Garcia / Hunter) **

    * previously unreleased studio recordings from Spring 1979
    ** previously unreleased outtakes from the Run For The Roses recording sessions in 1981

Musicians

The liner notes provide track by track information about musicians.

Run For The Roses;

  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • Melvin Seals - organ
  • James Warren - piano, clavinet
  • John Kahn - bass, synthesizer
  • Ron Tutt - drums, tambourine
I Saw Her Standing There;
  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
  • Michael O'Martian - clavinet
  • John Kahn - bass
  • Ron Tutt - drums, tambourine
Without Love;
  • Jerry Garcia - vocals
  • Michael O'Martian - piano
  • Merl Saunders - organ
  • John Kahn - bass
  • Roger Neuman - trumpet, horn section leader, horn arrangement
  • Ron Tutt - drums
Midnight Getaway;
  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • Ron Tutt - drums
  • James Warren - piano
  • Melvin Seals - organ
  • John Kahn - bass, fretless bass, synthesizer
Leave The Little Girl Alone;
  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • James Warren - piano
  • Melvin Seals - organ
  • John Kahn - bass, guitar, slide guitar, synthesizer
  • Ron Tutt - drums
Valerie;
  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • James Warren - piano
  • Melvin Seals - organ
  • John Kahn - bass, fretless bass
  • Ron Tutt - drums
Knockin' On Heaven's Door;
  • Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
  • Melvin Seals - organ
  • John Kahn - bass, piano, clavinet, guitar, synthesizer
  • Ron Tutt - drums, percussion
  • Liz Stires - background vocals
  • Julie Stafford - vocals
Credits

  • Producer - Jerry Garcia, John Kahn
  • Basic recording - Betty Cantor-Jackson, Ron Malo
  • Overdubs, mixing - Bob Matthews
  • Art - Victor Moscoso
  • Crew - Steve Parish, Harry Popick, George Varra
  • Arrangement - Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Roger Neuman (horn arrangements on Without Love)
  • Management - Rock Scully, Sue Stephens, Alan Trist
  • Thanks to - Grateful Dead Productions, John Cutler, Willy Legate, Dan Steadman
  • Mastering - George Horn
  • Tracks 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 recorded at Club Front, San Rafael, September to December 1981
  • Tracks 2 and 3 recorded at Devonshire Studios, Los Angeles, September to December 1981
Notes

This was Melvin Seals first recording with Garcia and indeed his only full studio recording with the Jerry Garcia Band despite being in the band for nearly 15 years.

In an interview in The Music Box in 1998, Seals commented on his first meetings with Garcia and the group;

I did some gigs with Maria Muldaur. Her boyfriend at the time was John Kahn. He [came to] the gigs, and he admired what I was doing so he asked me if I'd be interested in jamming with another band sometime. He never really went into the details of what it was. Nobody even told me he played with [Jerry].

[Kahn] called me up one day [and said] we're trying to put some rehearsals together to get some gigs. I went up to the address and there's Jerry Garcia and John Kahn and all these other musicians. I didn't even know what was going on. Really, it still didn't hit me until the end of the rehearsal.

Garcia remembers his introduction slightly differently. In an interview with Scott Muni in 1991 he said;
;.... somewhere there in the '70s the Grateful Dead did a show with Elvin Bishop. I was standing behind this guy on the stage. He was the second keyboard player in Elvin's band. This big guy, he was just playing a Fender Rhodes. But he was playing so tasty, I'm just standing behind him. It's a pretty thick band, so figuring out just how to get in there was, I thought, the work of a good musician. He was just playing the tastiest little stuff. I thought, 'This guy is just too much!'

I asked him what his name was. He said, 'Melvin Seals'. Melvin Seals. So years later I got Melvin. I don't remember exactly when he started playing with us, but right around the late '70s, early '80s, Melvin started playing with us, and he was just a monster. He's turned out to be the guy that we were looking for all along.

Related releases

Reissued by Arista on CD in 1986 (ARCD 8557)

The complete Run For The Roses album plus bonus tracks from the album recording sessions were included in the Garcia box set;

The All Good Things version of the album was subsequently released as a single CD in 2005.

Run For The Roses, Knockin' On Heaven's Door and Without Love were included on;

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album cover

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