Friday, July 13, 2012

Boar's Head #2, Jewish Community Center (3), Holly Street? or Cherry Street?, San Carlos, CA

Boar’s Head is the British way of marking Twelfth Night — the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, or Epiphany — bringing the Christmas period to an end.
The Boar’s Head Feast precedes Christianity, going back to ancient times when the boar was sovereign of the forest. Hunted as a public enemy, boar was the first dish served at banquets. As Christian beliefs overtook pagan customs, the presentation of a boar’s head at Christmas, beginning in the 14th century, came to symbolize the triumph of virtue over sin.(6)
A celebration of Twelfth Night - The Boar's Head - a 650 year old celebration, with the music of Medieval, Renaissance & Contemporary England!  Legend has it that a scholar was studying a book of Aristotle while walking through the forest on his way to Midnight Mass.  Suddenly, he was confronted by an angry wild boar. Having no other weapon, the resourceful Oxonian rammed his metal-bound philosophy book down the throat of the charging animal, whereupon the brute choked to death.  That night the boar's head, finely dressed and garnished, was borne in procession to the dining room, accompanied by carolers singing "in honor of the King of bliss." (5)

Capacity 40

There were two Boar's Head's in San Carlos, CA, not open all at the same time.

Boar's Head (23), Jewish Community Center, San Carlos, CA.
The Jewish Community Center was founded by a group of enthusiastic Jewish community members, the Peninsula Jewish Community Center was brought to life in a rented home in Burlingame in 1948. A place of compassion and a symbol of unity to all, the PJCC quickly became popular among many San Mateo County residents. With demand for the Center growing by leaps and bounds, the tiny house was soon too small to support the needs of its membership, so the Center was moved to a storefront (anyone know the exact address?) in San Carlos.
By 1960, due to the Peninsula’s increasing population, the Board of Directors eagerly set out to find a new home yet again.
In 1963, the PJCC purchased and opened a much larger facility on a 4+ acre site in the Belmont hills where it remained for the next 40 years.(1)

Jerry performed here on
6/11/62  Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers (Marshall Leicester, banjo, guitar; Dick Arnold, fiddle)[2]
Jerry introduces the band as listed above.
Buck Dancer's Choice [1:16] (Instrumental) (Buck Dance by Reverand Gary Davis)
A comment is made that they don't know why the song is called that, maybe at some point a buck dancer chose it.
Little Birdie [2:47](Jerry pays banjo solo and sings)
Credit is given to the "Coon Creek Girls". This song is interesting because it contains the lines:
I have a short time to stay here
And a long time to be gone.
and..
I'd rather be in some dark holler
Where the sun don't never shine
Than to see you be (?????)
And to know that you'll never be mine
Sally Goodin' [1:18]
Hold The Woodpile Down [2:52]
Crow Black Chicken [2:27]
The Johnson Boys [2:21]
Shady Grove [2:25]
Hop High Ladies [1:51]
Sweet Sunny South [2:57]
All Go Hungry Hash House [2:44]
Jerry announces the next tune with all of the folkie seriousness and none of the banter:
Garcia: Thank you. On a sort of serious note, for a change, before there were instruments, or a lot of instruments around in the mountains, and well, way back in England and Scotland, and so forth, songs were mostly sung unaccompanied. So I’d like to sing a song that probably almost everyone is familiar with around here, you’ve probably heard it quite a bit. I’d like to do it unaccompanied, the way I heard a man named Roscoe Holcombe do it. It’s called “Man of Constant Sorrow."(5)
Man Of Constant Sorrow [1:46](sung acapella by Jerry)
Jerry mentions that he heard Roscoe Holcomb do it that way.
Rabbit Chase [2:17]
Three Men Went A-Hunting [1:47]

6/11/62 Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Mike Sector
"We retained the name Boar's Head as we still had the signs, so we could put them up each Friday and Saturday. This location flourished even more than the previous one and they had people like Jesse Fuller there as well as the various string bands (most of which had Garcia in) like the Wildwood Boys and all the other Palo Alto outfits. The Boar's Head lasted about another year (till about mid 1964) when due to hostility from not only the establishment but the local straight kids as well, they were forced to close down."[3]
"He was hanging around at the various scenes that were going on in Palo Alto. At that time I was sort of a beatnik guitar player. And he’d come around to these parties and I’d be playing blues, and he’d watch very carefully and he’d go home and learn things, all on the sly. And he took up the harmonica as well back in those days… He was deathly afraid to play in front of anybody. He’d been playing harmonica secretly for a long time, and one time he got up on stage at a folk music place and I backed him up on the guitar; he played harmonica and sang. And he could sing like Lightnin’ Hopkins, which just blew everybody’s mind!”[6]


Boar's Head (Peninsula Jewish Community Center), San Carlos, CA
1.)^History of the Peninsula Jewish Community Center, http://www.pjcc.org/about/about-history.html
2.)^Troy, Sandy,  Captain Trips, pg. 39-41, 257
3.)^Albin, Peter, Platt, John, Pete Albin: Be A Brother, Comstock Lode 3.
4.)^The Times, 1960-05-17, pg. 17, http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/51726785/
5.)^Getz, Michael M. and Dwork, John R., The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, pg. 72.
6.)^Garcia, Jerry, Pigpen Solo, 2011-04-22, Grateful Dead Guide, http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2011/04/pigpen-solo.html
7.)^Albin, Peter, 2015-01-26, email to author.
8.)^Albin, Peter, Platt, John, Pete Albin:Be A Brother, Comstock Lode 3.

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