The summer of 1975 marked the last days of Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders project Legion of Mary. After that, Jerry would channel his solo activities into the Jerry Garcia Band. But the summer of ‘75 saw Legion Of Mary — consisting of Garcia (guitar), Saunders (keyboards), John Kahn (bass), Martin Fierro (saxophone, flute) and Elvis Presley drummer Ron Tutt — going out with a bang, fittingly on the Fourth of July where they performed at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco for one of their last shows.
In honor of Melvin Seals and Karl Denson announcing their Legion Of Mary tribute at the 4848 Festival in West Virginia this summer, JamBase takes a look at the aforementioned LOM Fourth Of July gem for this edition of Full Show Friday.
The band kicks things off with Merl singing on King Floyd’s “I Feel Like Dynamite” before Jerry heads into a particularly twangy bit of riffing. Jerry then steps to the mic for blues standard “Someday Baby” which sees Saunders on some phased out clav. A funky version of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right, Mama” follows, awash in Merl’s Hammond organ, before the band slows things down with “Mississippi Moon.” Legion Of Mary closes out the first set with Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” with Saunders on lead vocals.
The second set gets underway with Garcia handling lead vocal duties on Bob Dylan’s “Tough Mama” followed by a brooding rendition of Al Jarreau and Freddie Hubbard’s jazz number “Little Sunflower,” with flighty flute soloing from Fierro. A rollicking version of Hank Ballard’s “Tore Up Over You” came next ahead of “Every Word You Say” by Jesse Winchester. The Saunders-penned “My Problems Got Problems” followed before Jerry led the band on the laid back blues of “It’s Too Late.” Legion Of Mary closed out the evening with Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come.”
Listen to the entire show (note: the last two songs in the video are not from the Fourth Of July show) via Whoaduderighteous below:
Setlist via Whoaduderighteous
Set One: I Feel Like Dynamite, Someday Baby, That’s All Right Mama, Mississippi Moon,
Boogie On Reggae Woman
Set Two: Tough Mama, Little Sunflower, Tore Up Over You, Every Word You Say, My Problems Got Problems, It’s Too Late, Harder They Come
