Okay, my dad claims to be friends with Bob Matthews, which is cool and all, but now my dad is saying that Bob Matthews was the bass player in the Warlocks before Phil joined. I like to consider myself a Dead Historian, but I have never heard that at all....ever...by any source. My dad tends to exaggerate, but I think he actually believes this one.

Anyone know anything about Bob Matthews playing bass in the Warlocks?

I hate to call anyone a liar, but this one smells funny to me.

joel

Nope, but Bob Matthews was once a member of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the precursor to the Warlocks.

It was Dana Morgan jr. His father owned a music store (Dana Morgan music in Palo Alto) that helped with their getting instruments. It is also where Jerry gave lessons, and where he met Bobby. Dana Jr. was let go, as per Jerrry, "because they had to tell him what notes to play". Phil got one bass lesson from Jerry, and the rest is history.

So, thank you Morgan family.

jcmarckx wrote:


Dad must have had the Warlocks confused with Mother Mc Cree's. It hapens

Matthews also played an important part in the very beginning of the Garcia/Weir alliance:

From Dennis McNally's A Long Strange Trip:

Late on the afternoon of December 31, 1963, three teenagers named Bob Weir, Bob Matthews, and Rich McCauley were aimlessly wandering around the streets of Palo Alto when they heard the sound of a banjo coming from Dana Morgan’s store. They followed the notes in and began to talk with Jerry Garcia. When they pointed out that it seemed unlikely for any of his students to appear on New Year’s Eve, he agreed, then opened the front of the store and lent them some instruments. They began to jam. It was an appropriate beginning; for much of the rest of his life, Garcia would have Weir off to his side. . . One reason that it had been easy for Weir, Matthews, and McCauley to barge into Morgan's on New Year's Eve was that Matthews was one of Garcia's banjo students, although admittedly an extremely lazy one. Matthews did contribute a good idea to the circle—it was he who suggested they begin a jug band.

• • • •

From Blair Jackson's Garcia: An American Life:

For a change, Jerry didin't have to worry about whether this player or that was going back to school in September or after Christmas break: Mother McCree's was mainly folks who were part of the same dropout culture he was from. The personnel was always changing: Bob Matthews thinks as many as twenty different people played with the group at one time or another; that may be an exaggeration. "I think I only lasted six months," said Matthews. "I went from washboard to first kazoo, to second kazoo, to being out of the band. I think I was out of the band the night we were playing and Jerry leaned over to me in the middle of a tune and said, 'Why don't you take a break,' and I got off the stage."

So we seem to have answered that question.
What I forgot to mention before was it was at Dana Morgan's
that Jerry met a drum teacher that would become the first (and only)
drummer for the Warlocks. The man with the golden right arm, Bill the
Drummer.

Well, it's clear that he was around at the time, and definitely a member of Mother McCree's. I suppose he could have played bass for a day or two in the Warlocks. My dad apparently hangs out with Matthews now, and he claims that Matthews told him he was in The Warlocks. I'm guessing that if he was, he was not in it long enough for anyone but him to remember.

Anyway, my dad likes to talk a lot. I often have to fact-check his stories.

Joel