now playing

10-14-1980 Warfield Theater, San Francisco.


Still can't get out of the Brent Years. .

Still can't get into the Brent years. But that's what makes the Dead so great over their thirty year tenure--the ability to grow and change and gain new audiences who appreciate whatever they were into at the time.
Every so often, a new wave of DeadHeads would emerge, and the band at that point in time would be THEIR Dead. I think that Brent certainly gave them one well needed kick in the ass and brought them out of the lethargy of late 78-79; I just don't like the slower paced meandering.

now playing.

2/26/1977 San Berdo, CA

great show. Love how they start off with Terrapin Station.

The other day I was in my parking lot playing the Dead loud in my car. A fellow having a smoke outside my office building approached me to tell me he was a bigtime Dead head, who went to dozens of concerts. He has a bag full of tapes that he wants to convert to CD. Any suggestions as to how to do this.

You could run the tape deck into one of these Terapin recorders!

More info please. I'm in the process of retrieving a boatload of art ensemble et al cassettes I did in the 70s.
Thanks, Lon.

Well, you have a number of options of standalone cd recorders that act almost the same as cassette decks recording to cdr. . . .

I thought the Terapin models (which are geared towards converting VHS tapes to Video cdrs but I'm pretty sure they all do cassette audio to cdr) would be a nice funny response. I don't have any experience with them, and I'm not sure that they are still made; i mostly have seen them on ebay going at lowish prices.

I myself use an HHB Burnit Pro model now, a very nice machine that allows one to use regular PC blanks (a lot of the standalones use Audio cdrs which generally cost more) and allows a lot of level adjustment, fade in and out, etc. Not cheap, but my experience is that cheap machines don't last long at all.

Now of course you can also rn an audio in to your pc and record that way. THAT is something I haven't ever done, but it's not rocket science. (Doesn't mean I'd ever get it off the ground, but I know you could!)

Yeah, I just thought that Terapin was a tad ironic. I do have total record installed. I guess i just have to find the right connection. That ought to take a few weeks. I want to preserve these dubious quality tapes before they fall apart (assuming they haven't already).

Old fashion recording--like snail mail or phones with cords.


I'll send you copies of all of them. Oh, yeah, I forgot, you don't like the aec.

That's right. . .haven't developed the taste yet. Next decade maybe!

I've actually got a dvd recorder at home and I'm going to use that to transfer a lot of old band tapes. Most all my machines will read the blanks including my best system (with a modified Sony SACD/DVD player as the source) and it allows more information to be stored, probably as much as three or four times cdr length, and you can set it to make indexes automatically every five minutes, which is just right for all those different takes of The Blue Flames doing "Party Door," "Deborah's New Bed" or "The King of LA!"

Just stumbled across this guy's web page. He gives rec's for best versions of some songs. Plus he links you to the archive.org page where you can listen to the song(s) and judge for yourself. Pretty cool stuff.

http://members.cox.net/thats-it-4-the-othe...j/frontpage.htm

Plus, don't know if there's any additional music on here (as opposed to what's on bt.etree.org and the others) but it might be worth it to check this one out.

http://shnflac.net/torrents.php

Listening to Luxembourg May 16, 1972. A great "The Other One"!

Highly recommended: The Other One from 7-25-72, easily available from GDLive. This one is so outrageous that Bob gets lost.

Listening to some sort of wierd compilation called "Pigpen Rides Again" Vol. 7.

I'll be getting around to that one soon. . . .

Wonder what label that one is on!

I'm reading the McNally "history." So far it isn't really telling me much I didn't know, but it's fun to read about the boys.

Yeah, not a lot of new info there.

What I found strange was that McNally was an employee from circa 1980 right up to a few years ago and he devoted 3/4ths of the book to the band's first 10 years. I would have preferred to hear his first hand accounts of the time he was w/ the band instead of his rehashing of what is by now "old news" that has been documented elsewhere. If you've read Blair Jackson's Garcia bio you're gonna get most of the same story.

Yup, I've read the Jackson bio, and am getting the same story.

But, I'm so bored here in Houston, and it's entertaining me.

Yup. But unfortunately, the Dead mythos centers on the formative years, the wildcatting years when they flew by the seat of their pants. Note that even Phil's book tends to focus on the first decade of the band.
Face it: they weren't as exciting in their personal lives as they were when they were a true, maniacal collective, a six or seven headed beast. Their youthful excesses were an integral part of their growth and formation while the later excesses were simply the spoils of rock and roll. It's one thing to talk about Owsley's acid or running under the radar when it's "cool;" it's another to talk about Persian heroin and alcohol--not "cool." Besides, as mentioned, Jerry's drug habits have already been written about. The Acid Test days still hold exciting stories as yet untold about a much more interesting time and cast of characters. It's like Grandpa telling us about when he was a boy. Gee, gramps, what was it like to be 40?

I too think there's exciting stories still to be told about the Acid Test years and the role of the Beat and Prankster figures in the shaping of the Dead, etc. I'm very interested in this . . . .

Good to hear the feedback. Read Blair's book but have passed on McNally's as I felt it was too soon since I picked up the former.

Blair's site has outtakes from his book arranged by chapter. As he's writing about Jerry & the Dead, there has to be unreleased stuff to share.

An American Life outtakes

Now listening - 6/09/1976

wow, i downloaded so much Dead in the last month or two, its going to take me a while to go through it all.

Before (well, and after) the archives shut off the downloads, I went through and catagorically downloaded all of 1966. 67, 68, 69, and was working on 70. Waaaaaaaaay too much--especially of one band. I used to joke about doing a ten cd box set of Me and My Uncle, and now I can do it.

I don't need all the short songs--I'm just into definitive versions of High Time, etc., but all those Dark Stars--well, you need to listen to them several times to really hear them. Still, I'm glad I did it. Someday, when they come to get me, I can hopefully grab all my cds and live happily ever after.

Say, did you hear the one about the old yeller dog?

I'm kindof glad they got rid of those soundboards availability wise. . . I'm enjoying the audience tapes in a different way. On the best of them you're really right there! Someone is shouting right behind you, around you, in front of you. . . I've had some really interesting moments walkinga bout with headphones! I'm really glad to have them. I'm up to 1972 now, and hope to polish off that year and then pause and savor. . . .

Some soundboards do seem to be antiseptic in their clarity--like a studio recording. It's interesting to note that Healy did some Matrix boards--soundboard plus audience mics--to increase the depth and lend some of the concert experience. ANd certainly, there are plenty of great shows available only on audience--especially 1968.

From 1970--73 I recorded a good number of shows on shitty little cassette recorders, and I had a blast listening to the muddy, hissy tapes--because I could close my eyes and enjoy the show again.

But I still love them soundboards.

Oh good gosh yes, continue to love the soundboards! I'm loving the ones that I have as well, indeed. And I really enjoy, REALLY ENJOY, those released as Dick's Picks, just great sound and good picks of shows. . . .

The audience ones just have their own flavors, and I enjoy downloading them. I don't know what I would do if there were the soundboards AND the audience to download! Most likely get really bogged down trying to listen and evaluate and choose what to burn!

you can still get a lot of sbds on bt.etre.org and other sites out there.

Yes, but I don't do shn files, convert to wav. files etc; I just do what I can easily import into iTunes. I've limited time to mess with this type of thing and limited skills. So the official products released, the MP3 soundboards I have found, and the audience MP3 recordings are what I'm concentrating on, and really that's a huge amount right there.

that's ridiculous. shn/flac is just about as easy as Mp3s. There's only one additional step.

Besides, why would you want lossy when you can have lossless ?

You guys are killing me!!

I'm like a kid staring at an item in a store that I want but can't get.

I'm still living in the sticks and stuck with dial-up with no cable or DSL available....

However- people have been so kind as to offering shows to me......

sorry but i love the internet for getting some SICK DEAD shows, including LOSSLESS soundboards.

To each their own young whippersnapper. My iBook and I just have problems with some things, and I understand limits on both my time, talents, and resources. You may understand that one day yourself!

There's an ongoing debate over the lossless vs. lossy formats. Some stuff is just available in mp3, other stuff in shn/flac. Some in both.

I agree that in this age of advanced technology, one should take advantage of lossless. After all, folks on the archive--for example-have spent hours cleaning up tapes to make them sound as good as possible.

But, on the other hand, unless you are playing the material on a high quality system, it doesn't matter as much whether you choose the expedience of mp3 or lossless. Ipod, which Lon often uses, is mp3 based anyway. I tend to listen on my computer speakers.

Me, I've blown my ears out with LOUD music since the sixties. I can't really tell the difference. You "whippersnappers" can still enjoy the extra edge of lossless. That's why I hate you.

To each his own. It's all good.

http://www.maverick-music.com/scripts/vint...?idCategory=123


Please, Lon, buy me the Travis Bean for Xmas . . . .

That might be the guitar I saw him play at my first Dead-related show, the JGB in Kansas City in early '76.

I was all of 16. We sat way up in the balcony of the cavernous KC Music Hall. Reflections off the guitar's white body kept getting our eyes.

I went with a friend who was 17. He hated every minute of it.

Yeah, yeah. Then will YOU buy it for me. Please?

I was going to get Lon to buy it for me.

Then I'll burn you a copy.

Nuh-uh. I asked Uncle Lon first.

Sorry, lately Lon's vast financial holdings have been all tied up in hepharon supplies and other central venous catheter accessories for my wife!

I'd love to have one of those guitars, though to be honest a man of my financial status really should have Tiger or Rosebud. . . .

Okay, Big Daddy, howz about the top hat then?

I'll think about it if the cape and cane come with it.

Well, if you buy me the top hat, I'll see if that toilet seat is back on ebay. I really think the thing to do is to go around chopping off middle fingers and . . . .

Hey, without middle fingers, we'd have to SAY the obscene words!

The boys played a great, great show 34 years ago today in Philly. Time to break out your DP#36!!

now playing Sick Bits Vol 9 6/30/1973

I need to put more shows on my ipod!

I keep lauding that show!! The Dark Star--that jam at the end--then BAM--Morning Dew. I was so pleased when it came out. I had audience taped that show on a super crappy deck (like a dictaphone machine), but I would play that ten minutes over and over until the tape wore out. That's Jerry at his best.

Why am the only one without an IPOD? Lon? I mean, if you won't spring for the hat . . . . .

Hey, you've got so many silver discs now. . . I'll send you a Walkman!

Deal.

I'll send it with the next batch of Pigpen compilation series artwork from your art director. . . .