note to self: Affect Bias

The critical source of error in my listening notes, for sure.

Great Moments in Taping History: Jim Durkin and Jim Wise @ Red Rocks, July 28, 1982

https://archive.org/details/gd1982-07-28.fob.senn421.wise.miller.102571.flac16/gd82-07-28d1t01.flac

https://jerrybase.com/events/19820728-01

Setting 

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO. Threatening midsummer Rocky Mountain rain clouds and all the rest; beautiful people everywhere.

Cast

Jim Wise (jimwise), a.k.a. aoxoa, a.k.a. tapersfriend, legendary East Coast taper, good friend of Dick Latvala's, all around good human

dude in the middle (DITM)

Jim Durkin (JD), who would go on to become sound engineer for Jose Feliciano and many other greats

nearby woman (NW)

the Grateful Dead (GD)

[crosstalk]

JD to DITM: I know. He can move over, too.

JD to jimwise: What are you doin' to my levels, man? [jimwise mumble] Don't put 'em up. Put it - dammit, Wise, I'm gonna fuckin' butcher -- [jim inaudible, crosstalk] Whaddya mean?!? You just put my fuckin' levels up! I'm gonna scream in the mics all night long if you fuckin' touch my levels, man. That fucking sucks!!"

DITM to jimwise: Calm down, Jim!

jimwise: OK. It's real good, now.

GD:

chk-PHWAWWWW----  chk-PHWAWWWW ==== 

phwen-u-wamp phwen uwam phenu wamp when whow

DAWWWWWWHHH

["Shakedown Street" continues]

[more crosstalk @ ca. 5:15]

I >>FF to LL -> Supplication

Bob forgets lyrics.

The WSJ piece

It's interesting how a thing in such a high profile place generates so much feedback, and a much wider range of feedback than I am used to from here or the Dead blogosphere/Twittersphere. I just want to sit at my desk and listen to tunes and parse data and think and write.

Let me just bullet a few things.

A lot of this was just off hand shit I say in conversation. Like, I don't think I am some kind of Einstein or anything. I certainly didn't lead with Steve by saying I was the world's greatest expert. I led by introducing myself, telling him I was working on a book about Garcia beyond the GD, and expressing interest in talking to him. In terms of being the "world's greatest expert", I would first qualify myself as an external expert, and even then, of course, there's Blair and Dennis and Gans and lots of other people in that mix. The big point is that such a claim is not meant seriously. I am known to quip that anyone who does a PhD becomes the world's greatest expert in a piece of a slice of a fraction of next-to-nothing. All of the professional incentives, or most of them, drive us to this kind of specialization, which to outsiders can look like -- maybe rightly!-- obscurantism, emphasis on the trivial, and so forth. What's more, I am a huge believer in Popper's notion that "in our infinite ignorance, we are all equal". I could get all metphysical and whatnot about that, but I'll just cop right now to the fact that the depth of my ignorance, even around stuff like the EU or Garcia On The Side (GOTS), is no less than the depth of anyone else's ignorance on these or any other topic. So it's all off-hand, and falsely immodest to try to sharpen the very real (often self-deprecating) circumspection I bring to my own ability to understand anything.

In the same vein, the fancy words like "cliometrics" are just offhand things that live in my brain. In engaging any Garcia event, I first want to pin down the who, the where, and the what. So I want the sociometric, geometric, and the chronometric particulars. (I prefer chrono- to clio-, truthfully.) If I can pin down those three pieces about any given event with reasonable certainty, I feel like it "exists" in a way I can work with. This is not some kind of fancy scientism. It's certainly not an ontological position. It's just what my brain needs to know so it can settle in to try to understand at a deeper level, in a more humanistic, qualitative, Verstehen kind of way, and also more broadly, trying to figure out implications for how Jerry (and, generalizing, all of us) try to manage our creative drives, marry passion and practicality, pursue a meaningful life within the constraints of late modern America, and so forth.

I also joke self-deprecatingly about being obsessive with this stuff, and this one is a little trickier. I almost certainly qualify as such on any reasonable denotation of the word. But beyond joking about it, the word "obsessive" holds a  negative connotation which I don't feel necessarily applies to my experience with this kind of intellectual / creative urge or drive. I prefer the word "passionate", which of course has positive connotations. But I challenge anyone to offer definitions of these words that differ denotatively, rather than merely insofar as one is negative or problematic or pitiable and the other is positive or productive or laudable. I think the best attempt would equate obsession with some kind of other pathology, or bad outcomes. As they say with addiction, if the thing starts getting in the way of other things in your life.

So then we get into whether my "passion" has been negative or positive. One guy on Facebook, projecting all kinds of his own issues it seems to me, seemed to think that I was wasting my life, that I had destroyed my personal relationships, that my kids would be scarred for life. On the first point, I consider myself to be living my life, and quite fully at that. I don't even know what someone would mean by "wasting" your life. It's just your life, you are living it. We have so many breaths, we take them, and we're done. I have an amazing day job, an amazing hobby, I meditate and exercise and try to be a good person and listen to lots of tunes and read good books and all of that. Could I have gotten more political science research done if I had spent these hours doing that? Maybe, but probably not as meaningfully. I like to work deeply, not churn stuff out. I think honesty does require that I acknowledge the possibility, though.

In terms of my personal relationships, I concede that the one alluded to in the piece probably suffered for my passion for researching GOTS. But, conversely, my passion for GOTS was partly product of avoidance of interpersonal unpleasantness. That's not a good thing, but it does reverse the causal arrow. In any case, 29 years is a good long run, and it wasn't going to last much longer, Jerry or no Jerry. In terms of my kiddos, you'd have to ask them, of course. But I can say that the EU and GOTS are only in second place (2A and 2B, if you'd like) in my hierarchy of passions. My children are #1 by a country mile. And I think they'd report that their dad is wildly in love with them, wildly devoted to them, has modeled for them how to live a life full of joy and enthusiasm, how to trust and follow one's own lights, and that the Garcia stuff was a quirky, fun, weird, interesting, unique thing about him that was a net positive. Again, though, one would have to ask them.

Some people think it's crazy, insane, pointless, a waste, stupid to do this work trying to figure out, e.g., who the Garcia Band backing vocalists were from October 24, 1982 to November 15, 1982. I get it. It's not gonna end world hunger. But art, literature, poetry, love, dance, music itself, birding, icthyology, space exploration, learning a dead language, and infinite numbers of other pursuits could be subject to the same evaluation. My question is - so what? Who cares what someone's passion is? Who cares if it "matters" in some broader sense? I always say that I make a difference in the world in the classroom and at the dinner table. That's where I create the kinds of positive externalities, certainly endeavor to, that will leave the world better off than I found it. So who cares if my 11 year old mind liked sorting baseball cards by number, then by team, then by position, then alphabetical by last name, only to do it over again the next day? Who cares if my teenaged self pored over Deadbase and tried to collect a tape of every single Dead show? Who cares if my adult self likes to read about how the EU legislative sausage gets made, or how cognition is classification, or how institutions form our puny attempts at forming outposts of local order to move forward through time and cirumstances which churn at a much higher rate around them, buffeted by the most fundamental "force" in the universe, entropy? And, similarly, who cares if I want to spend my leisure hours making spreadsheets about Jerry? No-one is hurt in the making of this work. It's a hobby, it keeps me off the streets, and it's good clean fun.

I guess I'll pause there for now. Hope you and yours are all well and that your lives can be full of joy and curiosities indulged.

The New Alphabet: ABCD GD

Here is a list of the Betty/Rex Grateful Dead recordings gathered together and returned to the Grateful Dead Vault in November 2016 by the ABCD group.

1971 – 35 REELS*- 1 REEL 10-19-71; + 1 REEL 12-2-71*= 35 REELS DELIVERED*

 

• 02-18-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-19-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-20-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-21-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-23-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-24-71 Portchester NY, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-05-71 NYC, 3 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-06-71 NYC, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-07-71 Boston MA, 1 x 7” REEL ¼ trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 04-08-71 Boston MA, 2 x 7” REELS ¼ trk 7.5ips Complete

• *10-19-71 Minneapolis MN, 1 x 7” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2 = *MISSING -1 REEL ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 11-15-71 Austin TX, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 11-17-71 Albuquerque NM, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

12-2-71 Boston MA, 1 x 10" REEL = + 1 REEL NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 12-04-71 NYC, 1 X 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #1

• 12-06-71 NYC, 3 X 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5 ips Complete

• 12-07-71 NYC, 1 X 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 12-10-71 St. Louis, MO, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #1

• 12-14-71 Ann Arbor MI, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2 trk 7.5ips Complete

• 12-15-71 Ann Arbor MI, 1 x 7” REEL ¼ trk 7.5ips Reel #1

• 12-15-71 Ann Arbor MI, 1 x 10” REEL ¼ trk 7.5ips Set #2

 
1972 – 47 REELS *+ 1 REEL 4-8-72; - 1 REEL 4-14-72; -1 REEL 4-16-72; + 1 REEL 8-25-72; + 1 REEL 9-9-72 = 48 REELS DELIVERED*

 

• 03-21-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-22-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-23-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-25-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-26-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-27-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-28-72 NYC, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• *04-08-72 London UK, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete =*+1 REEL NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 04-11-72 New Castle UK, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #3

• *04-14-72 Tivoli DK, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete * = MISSING -1 REEL ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• *04-16-72 Tivoli DK, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete * = MISSING -1 REEL ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 04-17-72 Tivoli DK, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #2, #3

• 05-03-72 Paris FN, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 05-04-72 Paris FR, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 05-07-72 Bickershaw Fest UK, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #2

• 05-24-72 London UK, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 05-25-72 London UK, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #3

• 08-21-72 Berkeley CA, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 08-22-72 Berkeley CA, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #2

• *08-25-72 Berkeley CA, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #2 * = + 1 REEL NOT ON INVENTORY*

• 08-27-72 Veneta OR, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #2

09-9-72 Hollywood CA 1 x 10" REEL = + 1 REEL NOT ON INVENTORY*

 

1973 - 35 REELS

 

• 03-15-73 Uniondale NY, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #3

• 03-16-73 Uniondale NY, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #3

• 03-21-73 Utica NY, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 03-22-73 Utica NY, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #1, #3

• 03-24-73 Philadelphia PA, 2 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Reels #2, #3

• 03-28-73 Springfield MA, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #3

• 03-30-73 Rochester NY, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 03-31-73 Buffalo NY, 1 x 10” REEL 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 04-02-73 Boston MA, 3 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 05-26-73 Kezar Stadium SF CA, 6 x 7” REELS 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-22-73 Vancouver BC, 5 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 15ips Reels #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

• 06-24-73 Coliseum, Portland OR, 4 X10” REELS 1/2trk 15ips Reels #1, #3, #4, #5

• 07-01-73 Universal Amphitheater, LA CA, 4 x 10” REELS 1/2trk 15ips Complete

 

1975 – 5 REELS

 

• 06-17-75 SF CA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 15ips Complete

 

1976 - 57 REELS

 

• 06-10-76 Boston MA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• *06-11-76 Boston MA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete *= + 1 REEL NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 06-14-76 NYC, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-15-76 NYC, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-17-76 Passaic NJ, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-18-76 Passaic NJ, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-19-76 Passaic NJ, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-21-76 Philadelphia PA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-22-76 Philadelphia PA, 5 X 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-23-76 Philadelphia PA, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #1

• 06-26-76 Chicago IL, 5 X 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-28-76 Chicago IL, 1 X 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #2

• 06-29-76 Chicago IL, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

 

1977 - 75 REELS

 

• 02-26-77 San Bernandino CA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 02-27-77 Santa Barbara CA, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #4

• 05-05-77 New Haven CT, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 05-07-77 Boston MA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 05-08-77 Ithaca NY, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 05-09-77 Buffalo NY, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 09-03-77 Raceway Park, Englishtown NJ, 9 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 15 ips

• 09-28-77 Seattle WA, 3 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 09-29-77 Seattle WA, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-01-77 Portland OR, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-02-77 Portland OR, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-28-77 Kansas City KS, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-29-77 DeKalb IL, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-30-77 Bloomington IN, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 11-01-77 Detroit MI, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 11-04-77 Hamilton NY, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #4

• 11-05-77 Rochester NY, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Reel #5

• 11-06-77 Binghampton NY, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

 

1978 - 85 REELS * = + 1 REEL 1-10-78 = 86 REELS DELIVERED*

 

• 01-06-78 Swing Aud, San Bernadino CA, 4 x 7” REELS 1/2 trk 7.5ips Nagra Complete

• *01-10-78 Shrine Aud, LA CA, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2 trk 7.5ips Complete *+1 REEL NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

• 01-22-78 McArthur Court, Eugene OR, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2 trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-06-78 Tampa FL, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-07-78 Hollywood FL, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-08-78 Jacksonville FL, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-10-78 Atlanta GA, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-11-78 Atlanta GA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-12-78 Durham NC, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-14-78 Blacksburg VA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-15-78 Williamsburg VA, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 04-16-78 Wheeling WV, 4 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 06-04-78 Santa Barbara CA, 2 x 10” REELS Nagra 1/2 trk 15ips Reels #3, #4

• 10-18-78 SF CA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-20-78 SF CA, 5 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 10-21-78 SF CA, 6 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

• 10-22-78 SF CA, 7 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Complete

• 12-31-78 SF CA, 6 x 10” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 15ips Complete

 

1979 - 11 REELS

 

• 02-17-79 Oakland CA, 9 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2 trk15ips Complete

• 04-22-79 San Jose CA, 2 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 15ips Reel #7,#8

 
1980 - 11 REELS

 

• 09-27-80 SF CA, 2 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-04-80 SF CA, 2 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-06-80 SF CA, 2 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-09-80 SF CA, 2 x 7” REELS Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-10-80 SF CA, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-11-80 SF CA, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

• 10-13-80 SF CA, 1 x 7” REEL Nagra 1/2trk 7.5ips Acoustic

 

CASSETTES

 

1. 10/25/69 Winterland = 1 *MISSING = - 1 CASSETTE*

2. 2/24/71 Capital Theater = 1

3. 4/1172 Newcastle = 3

4. 4/14/72 Tivoli = 3

5. 4/16/72 Aharus = 3

6. 4/17/72 Tivoli = 3

7. 4/21/72 Bremen = 2

8. 4/24/72 Frankfurt = 3

9. 4/26/72 Hamburg = 3

4/29/72 Hamburg *= +3 CASSETTES NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

10. 5/7/72 Wigan = 2 [*NOTE – LABELED AS 5/4/72*]

11. 5/11/72 Rotterdam = 1

12. 5/26/72 London = 1

13. 0/00/76 Studio = 1 *MISSING = - 1 CASSETTE*

14. 5/9/76 Rehearsal = 1

15. 6/11/76 Boston = 3

16. 7/18/76 Orpheum = 1

17. 12/31/76 Cow Palace = 2

18. 0/00/77 Studio = 1 [*NOTE LABELED “21APR”*]

19. 3/18/77 Winterland = 2

20. 3/19/77 Winterland = 3 *= +1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 4 CASSETTES FOR 3-19-77*

21. 3/20/77 Winterland = 3

4/23/77 Springfield *= +1 CASSETTE NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY*

22. 5/19/77 Atlanta = 3

23. 6/7/77 Winterland = 3

24. 6/8/77 Winterland = 3* = - 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 2 CASSETTES FOR 6-8-77*

25. 6/9/77 Winterland = 3 * = - 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 2 CASSETTES FOR 6-9-77*

26. 10/6/77 Tempe = 2 [*NOTE TAPE 2 MISLABELED AS 10-2-77*]

27. 10/9/77 Denver = 2

28. 10/11/77 Norman = 2

29. 10/12/77 Austin = 2

30. 10/14/77 Houston = 2

31. 10/15/77 Dallas = 2

32. 12/30/77 Winterland = 1

33. 1/6/78 San Bernardino = 2

34. 1/7/78 San Diego = 2

35. 1/8/78 San Diego = 2

36. 1/10/78 Shrine = 2

37. 1/14/78 Bakersfield = 2

38. 1/17/78 Sacramento = 1

39. 1/31/78 Chicago = 2

40. 4/6/78 Tampa = 3

41. 4/10/78 Atlanta = 2

42. 4/11/78 Atlanta = 3

43. 4/12/78 Duke = 3

44. 4/14/78 Virginia Poly = 3

45. 4/15/78 Williamsburg = 1

46. 4/19/78 Columbus = 3

47. 4/21/78 Lexington = 2

48. 4/22/78 Nashville = 1 * = + 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 2 CASSETTES FOR 4-22-78*

49. 5/9//78 Syracuse = 2

50. 5/13/78 Philly = 2

6/3/78 Santa Barbara Sound Check *= +1 CASSETTE NOT ON ORIGINAL INVENTORY* 51. 6/4/78 Santa Barbara = 2

52. 7/31/78 Studio = 1

53. 8/25/78 Studio = 1

54. 9/2/78 Giants Stadium = 2 *= + 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 3 CASSETTES FOR 9-2-78*

55. 9/16/78 Egypt = 1

56. 10/17/78 Winterland = 3

57. 10/20/78 Winterland = 3

58. 10/21/78 Winterland = 2

59. *10/22/78 Winterland = 3 * = + 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 4 CASSETTES FOR 10-22-78*

60. 10/22/78 Studio = 1

61. 12/17/78 Atlanta = 2

62. 12/21/78 Houston = 2

63. 12/31/78 Winterland = 1

64. 2/17/79 Oakland = 3

65. 6/21/79 Studio = 1

66. 6/28/79 Sacramento = 3

67. *8/4/79 Oakland = 2 *= + 2 CASSETTES = TOTAL 4 CASSETTES FOR 8-4-79*

68. 8/5/79 Oakland = 2

69. 10/18/79 Studio = 1

70. 11/23/79 San Diego = 2

71. 11/24/79 San Diego = 1

72. 11/25/79 UCLA = 1

73. *12/8/79 Studio = 1 * = + 1 CASSETTE = 2 TOTAL FOR 12-8-79*

74. *12/26/79 Oakland = 2 * = + 1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 2 CASSETTES FOR 12-26-79*

75. 12/27/79 Oakland = 1

76. 12/28/79 Oakland = 3

77. *12/30/79 Oakland = 1 * = +1 CASSETTE = TOTAL 2 CASSETTES FOR 12-30-79*

78. 12/31/79 Oakland = 3

79. 0/00/80 Studio = 1

80. 1/24/80 Studio = 1

81. 2/00/80 Studio = 1

82. 9/25/80 Warfield = 1

83. 10/9/80 Warfield = 3 [NOTE *LABELED AS 10-7-80*]

84. 10/13/80 Warfield = 3

85. 10/14/80 Warfield = 4

86. *10/31/80 Radio City = 3 *= - 3 CASSETTES MISSING*

87. 5/6/81 Nassau = 1

I don't do a lot of Weir talk

But man, I do love this guy. We are such fortunate fans to have such smart and literate artists in our lives!

Quote from a recent interview about his songwriting, which I recommend. One bigger point, one smaller point.

I take the dream seriously. That’s all I can say. They’re very real. It’s not just brain chatter. There’s chatter involved in your daily thinking, that’s all. But you know how people say it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream. There is no such thing. Dreams are every bit as real as any other part of your body. 

Getting in touch with that, being in touch with that dream world, is a lifelong pursuit. As you’re younger, you can train yourself to get better at it as you get older. Not just for art, but for any sort of endeavor. There’s a lot that dreams can tell you.

Smaller point: He drew inspiration from Of Mice and Men in writing Jack Straw. Maybe you all knew that, but I did not.

In the meantime ...

... have videos of Deadhead TV ever made it into the 21st century? I don't think I ever caught an episode, but I have always kind of wondered if anything interesting came up.

Jerry Garcia Hand Print Face Mask?

Anyone heard of any craftsy, enterprising Deadheads making Covid-era face masks with Garcia's hand print? If so, please let me know, as I am in the market for one.

Self-quarantine

I accidentally let a few notes of "Looks Like Rain" slip into my ears this morning. I immediately went to hit stop, but I was too late. I have disinfected everything and am self-quarantining for 14 days so as not to infect the rest of you.

YouTube Audience Tape Preservation Channel

Someone mentioned this at LL, new to me, thought I'd bring it here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAojTlp99hCvEmKSJ71t4A

9/9/72 Other One

Holy guacamole, the 9/9/72 Other One is a MONSTER.

https://archive.org/details/gd1972-09-09.sbd.miller.105458.flac16/gd72-09-09d3t01.flac

Two flamboyant snaps up.

Deadsources Index

Somehow it had eluded me that LIA was maintaining an index of posts at Deadsources. Wonderful - thanks!

Tighten Up

The "Tighten Up" jam has always been a favorite. I am partial to the 1/2/70 and 10/31/71 versions, always wondered where the heck that last one came from since it's so well-developed while not having been played in well over a year (and never before with Keith, AFAIK).

Just here to note that the wonderful jam out of the wonderful 7/17/76 Comes A Time has a little Tighten Up feel to my ears. It never really lands on it, but it sure sounds similar. Very nice.

https://archive.org/details/gd1976-07-17.141966.ecm270.menke-miller.flac1644

! seealso: LIA

I Need More Shows

This was posted to youtube five years ago. I am not sure who made it, but it never gets old, and never will.

Taper Extraordinaire Sean Webber-Small

Spinning Sean Webber-Small's spaced omni recordings of the GD at Cal Expo on this date in 1990. I am not sure if I was there - I don't think so, but I can't really remember and I can't find my stubs to verify one way or the other.

But SWS generously shares some insights into what went into this pull, via a comment at the Archive fileset, and they are so valuable for the historical record that I wanted to reproduce them here. Thank you, Sean Webber-Small and all the tapers, including Marcus Buick and Tom Hughes, good ol' Campolindo buddies and members in good standing of the elite Bay Area taper community of the day, who are namechecked here.

This was the first year since the 1980's that there was no Greek and Frost shows, which was a bummer. Fortunately Uncle Bill booked the band into Cal Expo. It was not the Greek, but it was good. 

For me, these shows were stressful, but that was somewhat normal. I always felt the pressure of making the best recording at the show. It was not as much of an ego thing as much as it was that I believed I was capturing "the record" for the show. This was especially true when I knew that none of my Schoeps / Digital posse was going to be there. And that was the case for Cal Expo in 1990. 

The stress and planning for these shows started the day mail order was announced. I had just had knee surgery and knew I was going to be on crutches in June. Worse, I needed to plan for who was going to help as the show was general admission and I wanted to run spaced omi-directional capsules which would require managing a large territory. I would need a plan and of course help. While I might have owned the gear, positioned the mics and hit play/record, good recordings were a 100% team effort. And I needed a team!

For me, the key to making a good recording always seems to come down down to a few key things:

1. Having the right gear for the application. 
2. Placing the microphones in the right spot to get the best balanced sound in the venue. 
3. Controlling the people around the microphones so that talking and extraneous noise is not heard or only minimally heard on the recording. 

From my knowledge of the venue, basically an open field, Schoeps MK2s spaced omni-directional capsules were my first choice. I would be using them with my Doug Oade built microphone power supply and a relatively new recording device: a DAT. Sometime in 1989 the PCM crew made the jump to using DATs. At these gig's I was using the Panasonic SV250. 

Location, location, location.... From my show experience and listening pleasure, I always wanted to be as close to the Front of House console as possible. If you think about it, the band's audio engineer, Dan Healy, is mixing first and foremost for himself. Is he making it sound good in the entire venue, sure. But the nature of mixing a room has it that the sound is naturally best where the engineer is standing. My goal: get in front of, but as close to Dan as possible without making it too easy for security to come in and get us. As a reminder, although taping in 1990 was allowed, it was only allowed BEHIND the front of house console. Recording in front of the console was a big No No and as such, put us at risk of being thrown out every time we recorded there. Risky business every show for me.

For spaced omni's I would need two areas (blankets), one for each mic between 8' and 12 ' apart - with each mic being equidistant from the stage. Today I would do this with a laser measure, but in 1990, not an option. So I had to triangulate using the front of house console and the side grandstands. More "feel" than exact science. 

To pull this off I would need 4 to 6 people around each microphone and stand and two to three blankets. That's roughly ten people and two mic stands to coordinate and manage.

The bad news was that I was on crutches - which, was also the good news as I was able to enter the venue early with the blankets, the gear and a helper. We laid out our spot and waited untill friends and people sympathetic to our recording arrived. 

As I was always trying to figure out how to make a better recording, I decided to try and move the microphones from closer to 8' on the 8th, 10' on the 9th and 12' on the 10th. I know the notes on this say the mics were spread at 8', but I just checked my notes and this night we were closer to 9.5'. 

While I hate to leave people out that helped at the show, and there were many - I need to special thanks a couple of peeps. First and foremost, my helper extraordinaire Cindy R. Calling her a helper is not quite right. These days I would call her a co-producer or associate producer. She helped in the planning, standing in line, getting friends over to help stand near the mics and telling them all to be quiet. I should probably mentioned she also put up with my crazy "taper" idiosyncrasies - and I had many. Thanks Cindy R! I also remember our friend Marc T. was also there. He was there with B&K 4011's in the middle of our spaced omni's. Also there an of huge help was Marcus B. and Tom - my old roomies! Thanks Dudes.

The recordings for all three nights turned out pretty fine. I would say some of our finest. So fine in fact, a friend of shared them with his pal who was tight with Dan Healy. The next thing I know he had digital soundboards of all three nights! Of course the SB's became the "goto" recordings for the shows for a while. But upon further review from the officials in the booth, these recordings get me closer to what it was like being there on those warm summer nights in 1990.

On the 9th, I can still remember Garcia rocking back and forth during lovelight looking offstage at someone, playing his heart out with an energy that filled us all up.

It was good.

Linear Dead Listening

I am a bicycle commuter (19 miles a day), and I generally listen to Dead shows while pedaling.

Awhile back, I did the whole E72 tour consecutively. Earlier this year, I ran sequentially through 1974. So much good music. I don't really retain too many specific memories, so just a few observations.

The February Winterland shows are uneven. 2/22 is the best of the bunch, IIRC, 2/23 has that nice Here Comes Sunshine (last one?), and 2/24 was weak. At least that's how I remember it. Maybe it was the other way around. ;-)

May and June - hamina hamina. So much good stuff. I didn't do the Pacific Northwest shows through the official release, which I wish I had. But there's just loads and loads of great music here.

"Money Money" is a great tune. I don't blame those who objected to its misogyny for doing so, but man do I wish they could have just done it with Bob's vocal mic turned down, because the music gets me tapping my toe.

July also strong, unsurprisingly. I seem to recall that the one show without a big jam (Roanoke?) actually had a great PITB. One of these shows really did, anyway.

August 4-5-6 also awesome.

E74? Yeesh, not so good, is my impression. There was a good Dark Star or two, 9/10 for sure, some other moments.

I thought I had recalled Phil saying he did a "Firebombing of Dresden" type assault somewhere in the Munich, maybe in Seastones, but I didn't hear it. I was ready.

The Last Ones, or whatever they were called? Blech. I know there are better tapes now than there used to be, but for some of these shows I still only managed to get the ones with the old reverbing out-of-sync crowd clapping, the booming room sound, etc. The 10/19 Caution Jam was pretty legit, wonder why they didn't do that more. They seemed to be trying hard, the shows had their moments, but mostly I found them to be a letdown.

One obvious conclusion from my '74 listening: Friend of the Devil should always, only, ever have been played upbeat. Another: I do love me some Spanish Jam.

I even listened to some Seastones, and it was often diverting.

Spoiler alert: Mickey Hart returns, and a drummer who doesn't really keep time just muddies the waters, IMO.

Now, I have started in on 1976. Some good stuff here the first few dates, though nothing that really destroys me. 1976 is often considered a relatively slow and sleepy year, and nothing I have heard so far dissuades me from that view. Might As Well is nice, The Music Never Stopped is nice, Help > Slip > Franklin's is nice, Crazy Fingers is nice, Lazy > Supp is fun, Cosmic Charlie is lame. The PITBs start off short, and the one I heard a few days ago sounded like it wanted to go into Dancin' In The Street, before it reprised. Today I was with the 6/10 version and, indeed, it segues nicely into DITS.

I seem to have skipped 6/9 II, so no Stephen yet, but I expect to be underwhelmed.

Interesting that Jerry hasn't figured out the wailing approach to Samson that he'd develop. I look forward to hearing that song develop over the course of the year.

I have been trying not to FF>> too much. For '74, It Must Have Been The Roses was my biggest challenge, Ship Of Fools not far behind. (Interesting these are Jerry tunes.) For '76, I WILL NOT listen to Looks Like Rain, and you can't make me do it. What a turd. I see now that it was on the shelf all through 1974, another point in that great year's favor.

So, there you have it.

GD Frost '85 matrix

Man, this recording from TDIH sounds nice to these ol' ears.

Poynette

Let me just remind you on the show's 49th birthday that

three years after the fact, a program called "Studio None" on cable channel 4 in Madison apparently broadcast footage of the Dead and Baby Huey from the [4/26/70] gig. The listing refers to "the 1969 Poynette Rock Festival", but I think this must be 4/26/70. Mmmm ... wonder where that tape might be? (! listing: Wisconsin State Journal, November 26, 1973, sec. 3, p. 3.)

Anyone know anyone in Madison who might be able to make inquiries? Nothing but photographs and memories circulates from this gig.

RIP, Freddie

Just back onto the grid and I see that Freddie Herrera has passed on.

Rest in peace, Freddie. I am sure he and Sandi are thrilled to be back together again.

Has anyone seen an obituary?

Here is link to my Freddie Herrera tag: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/search/label/Freddie%20Herrera

I had the chance to sit with Sandi and Freddie some years back. I don't think I have listened to the recording of our chat, but need to (and annotate it). They were totally delightful.

Popper on Ignorance

"The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance" (Popper 2002 [1963], 38).

"our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite"  (Popper 2002 [1963], 38).

"while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal"  (Popper 2002 [1963], 38).

we must "admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, and our hopes; that all we can do is to grope for truth even though it be beyond our reach"  (Popper 2002 [1963], 39).

"truth is beyond human authority" (Popper 2002 [1963], 39).

! ref: Popper, Karl. 2002 [1963]. On the Sources of Knowledge and Ignorance. In Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 3-39. London: Routledge.

RIP to the Legendary Marty

Martin Weinberg has passed away. LIA gives a rundown on the ur-Deadhead taper.