Although I never witnessed it with my own ears but am going on Butch’s description, a possible classic jam fail may have been at the ‘73 Watkins Glen show when members of the ABB, The Dead and The Band got onstage after their respective sets with the intention to make some additional “magic”, only to fall prey to cocaine, LSD and alcohol all on the same stage. That musta been a hell of a set !!

In defense of the late, great Jaco P., that show with Jorma, though not sure of the date, may have been after he was well in the grips of his severe mental illness when erratic, bizarre behavior was the norm unfortunately. Which is sad because he was a true musical “genius” in every sense of the word, on the same plane as Parker, Miles, ‘Trane, Hendrix.
He was “out there” for sure but that’s what probably made him special.

I was at Watkins Glen - by the time that jam occurred nobody cared much what was going on, it was pretty late. Have heard tapes, they suck. Too many cooks for sure. I doubt there was any LSD going down, the Dead hadn't done a performance under acid since the sixties.

Re Jaco, yeah he was great - just in that event he took over, technically excellent but overkill and pure showboat, I thought he was being pretty obnoxious.

santana opened for clapton in 74.
the last encore by clapton had santana and john mclaughlin come on stage.
mclaughlin pretty much blew them off the stage and santana actually stopped
playing and just watched. the jam failed but john was great.

There was a video of Jeff Beck with BB that I taped. I do not recall when it was from; I am pretty sure it was post 2000. Post late 90s at the very least. BB was being classic BB, but Jeff was still in his 90s-and-beyond bleep bloop bleep sci-fi / techno mode. They played some blues and it was a real mismatch to have solid blues paired with futuristic sqwawks.

On the "Joe Bonnamossa" thread running recently, I posted a video of Albert King and Gary Moore doing "Stormy Monday" together. Gary is shredding on steroids while Albert brings the playing down to a whisper. At one point, Gary Moore does a pick slide - in "Stormy Monday." Albert King leaps back in either mock fear or genuine terror. Jeepers.

I vaguely recall that back from maybe the 80s, there was an all-star guitar show at the capital theater in passaic NJ that featured Dickey Betts, Tony Iommi, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer, among others. They played Johnny B Good and Green Onions at the end of the night. Some of it aired on MTV. It was not good.

Dickey Betts, Tony Iommi, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer, among others. They played Johnny B Good and Green Onions at the end of the night. Some of it aired on MTV. It was not good.

Hahaha! That sounds like the epic jam fail. Hate to say it, but Rocknroll Heaven might be Rocknroll Hell, the eternal jam fail.

There was a video of Jeff Beck with BB that I taped. I do not recall when it was from; I am pretty sure it was post 2000. Post late 90s at the very least. BB was being classic BB, but Jeff was still in his 90s-and-beyond bleep bloop bleep sci-fi / techno mode. They played some blues and it was a real mismatch to have solid blues paired with futuristic sqwawks.

On the "Joe Bonnamossa" thread running recently, I posted a video of Albert King and Gary Moore doing "Stormy Monday" together. Gary is shredding on steroids while Albert brings the playing down to a whisper. At one point, Gary Moore does a pick slide - in "Stormy Monday." Albert King leaps back in either mock fear or genuine terror. Jeepers.

I vaguely recall that back from maybe the 80s, there was an all-star guitar show at the capital theater in passaic NJ that featured Dickey Betts, Tony Iommi, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer, among others. They played Johnny B Good and Green Onions at the end of the night. Some of it aired on MTV. It was not good.

I bought that Gary Moore video when it came out years ago. I remember watching it and thought ,this is not a good match.

I always wanted GM to get back to his hard rock roots. His blues stuff was good, but just preferred the other.

I vaguely recall that back from maybe the 80s, there was an all-star guitar show at the capital theater in passaic NJ that featured Dickey Betts, Tony Iommi, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer, among others. They played Johnny B Good and Green Onions at the end of the night. Some of it aired on MTV. It was not good.

Gotta be this show:

I took my mom to see Zac Brown Band at Wrigley Field a few years back and at some point in their second set, they brought out Richie Sambora to play on a tune. Richie was HAMMERED. He basically just shredded away, often in the wrong key, for like 6 or 7 minutes. The band tried to make him look good and played along until they finally got fed up and the whole thing just crashed and burned into a super awkward ending. I kind of enjoyed watching the trainwreck it was so bad. The only things I remember about the show were that and that the covered Whipping Post.

Ever seen a show where a guest came out and it tanked? Or a random pairing at an awards thing like RRHOF that was a hopeless mismatch?

-Neil Young and Jimmy Page, RRHOF awards show - ridiculous. Jimmy Page had zero clue how to blend, and Neil banged out two chords for ten minutes. Sounded like two kids in a garage with their Fender Squier guitar amp combo starter packs.

-Jorma Kaukonen show at the Lone Star, Jaco Pastorius waltzes in, Jorma invites him to play bass - Jaco nukes the place, goes into full solo blowout, acts like he is the only person on the planet. Jorma played along for a couple minutes then just waited until Jaco was done Jacoing off.

- Lol, the classic jam fail that gave me the idea for this thread- I have a 1981 Rockpalast video of Pete Townsend guesting with the Grateful Dead. No flow whatsoever. Pete and Jerry must have been on the same drugs, both sweating profusely and grinding their teeth furiously - all the songs were sped up .

I thought the GD was a jam fail to begin with. 😉 😛

I thought the GD was a jam fail to begin with.

Hahaha! Good one. They were the first to make jamfail an art form. In fairness to Pete Townshend he didn't trash the music, he came out and laid way back into the flow, not playing much, throwing tasty little chops into the mix, very Deadlike, it was clear he enjoyed, understood, and respected the style. Easy to assume he was windmilling and dropping bombs, but it was Garcia, overplaying and chopping hard, like he was trying to be hard rock guy to egg Pete on, which happened, then it just got brutal. Garcia looked awful, like Blackbeard the Pirate, just mean looking, probably coked to the gills. However, it made for a great heavymetaldisco take on Shakedown Street, unlike any Dead ever.