San Bernardino 1971

[Mario]

Infact, I told that my only doubt was about some guitar parts on "Dragonfly", but the jam session number has some congas and if the conga player is Nigel Watson, then this is one of the Peter's gig.

Maybe........

Mario.

[chiliD]

Ah, HAH!!! "The Nigel Factor"

There you have it, its settled. It IS Peter on the second guitar.

[wetcamelfood]

Originally posted by dansven
Maybe the long Black Magic Woman jams was something that Peter decided some time into the tour... ? It had also been written that he held a low profile during the first dates.

Perhaps, but I'd say no, because the "legend" has been insinuated that PG "would only return ON 2 CONDITIONS:

1. That they only play jams and

2. That Nigel could come along and play congas.

As they were desperate in needing someone on short notice they agreed".

So either the legend is false (and these shows songs WERE structured and NOT "just jams") or, the conditions weren't in place (or both).

John

[SteveMacD]

Okay, here's my speculation:

I think the legend has been overstated. Musically, Mick, John, Danny, and Christine could have toured as a four piece. Christine did it with Chicken Shack for years, and the Mac, to my ears, only used two guitarists at one time when they had three guitar players. So, being a quartet wouldn't have been so unusual.

However, I don't think Danny and Christine had enough material ready to go on as a four piece. Neither had a lot of non-blues material out at the time, and the band was trying to break away from the blues. What they needed more than an extra musician was a way to fill time. So, they asked Peter, and he agreed on the condition that HIS contributions to the set would be jams based around "Black Magic Woman."

[chiliD]

Originally posted by SteveMacD
So, they asked Peter, and he agreed on the condition that HIS contributions to the set would be jams based around "Black Magic Woman."

Addendum: But, that didn't preclude Peter from playing along on their other tunes upon his whim, right?

[sharksfan2000]

Originally posted by SteveMacD
Okay, here's my speculation:

I think the legend has been overstated. Musically, Mick, John, Danny, and Christine could have toured as a four piece. Christine did it with Chicken Shack for years, and the Mac, to my ears, only used two guitarists at one time when they had three guitar players. So, being a quartet wouldn't have been so unusual.

However, I don't think Danny and Christine had enough material ready to go on as a four piece. Neither had a lot of non-blues material out at the time, and the band was trying to break away from the blues. What they needed more than an extra musician was a way to fill time. So, they asked Peter, and he agreed on the condition that HIS contributions to the set would be jams based around "Black Magic Woman."

That makes a lot of sense to me. It's just hard for me to believe that their ENTIRE show would have been jamming.

By the way, I listened this weekend to side 2 of the old "Merely a Portmanteau" album, and I believe it's from a '71 show with Peter and Nigel ("The Nigel Factor" is unmistakable). I'm not 100% sure that it's not the same show as the San Bernadino disc though - I need to listen & compare the two again. The "Portmanteau" album contains only "Station Man" and "Tell Me All the Things You Do".

[SteveMacD]

Originally posted by chiliD
Addendum: But, that didn't preclude Peter from playing along on their other tunes upon his whim, right?

My assumption is that Peter played along on the other songs as well.

[sharksfan2000]

I tried this evening to compare more carefully the San Bernadino disc and side 2 of "Merely a Portmanteau". Very interesting!

"Station Man" is almost certainly the same performance. I'm pretty sure that "Tell Me All the Things You Do" is as well, but it's harder to tell since I believe the version on the disc has been edited (aside from fading out before the end). The later parts of TMATTYD have some differences, and I was getting tired of comparing them - maybe I'll try some more tomorrow. As I say, I'm pretty sure some editing has taken place. Comparing Christine announcing the song and the beginning of the actual playing - there's more between the announcement and the band actually starting to play on "Portmanteau", but it sounds like that part's been edited out on the disc version.

The sound on "Portmanteau" is considerably better than the disc. Must have been too many poorly dubbed tapes before the show made it onto cd-r.

[dansven]

Interesting!
I haven't thought of comparing the two shows, I guess I always thought of "MAP" as BBC sessions.
I'll have to listen!!