My Summer Project: Distilling The Dead

Summer is winding down--classes start up again later this month--and I'm still plugging away on my summer project: An absurd quest to burn myself copies of every 80s-era Grateful Dead show currently circulating in high-quality soundboard.

Which is, of course, kinda nuts. I've already got pretty much every 60s/70s show, and a pretty hefty helping of 80s & 90s shows. Do I really need any more?

Now, I've got a complicated relationship with 80s Dead. That's when I started seeing the band in concert, and some of the earliest shows I heard were from trading hissy cassettes of 80s performances, so there's a definite nostalgic vibe to these sets. On the other hand, the 80s were pretty damn iffy for the band--Jerry's voice was in steep decline, the shows were increasingly rote and unadventurous, tracks were often played at a cocaine-fueled velocity, and the cassette sources of most shows (coupled with Brent's keys) gave even pristine soundboards a distinctly tinny sound.

Still, being the obsessive collector/listener that I am--and recognizing that plenty of these performances continue to be outstanding--I decided it was time to plug some gaps. However, I made the decision--for the most part--to edit these shows down to the length of an 80-minute CDR. 

I recognize this is a pretty blasphemous move in diehard Dead circles (or jam band circles generally). To be sure, there was a time when I, like most, felt the need to own the complete show. Back when I was trading tapes (and later CDRs) via snail mail, it was important to maintain the integrity of the shows. But my tape-trading days are well behind me (I'm plucking these from torrent sites), and the music is strictly for personal listening now--and, deep into advancing middle age, life is short. I simply don't need every between-song tune-up and Weir admonition to take a few steps back. Nor do I need hundreds of copies of the songs I don't love (when a few dozen will suffice).

So what are my editing parameters?

For the most part--there are always exceptions to these rules!--my edits are focused on Set II jams and longer tracks. Set I selections are largely limited to Jerry; but sometimes I'll throw in some Bobby tunes (mostly originals, or maybe a Dylan cover or slide blues number).

Almost invariably cut are the cowboy songs, Chuck Berry covers, and anything sung by Brent. Plus grating Weir rockers like I Need A Miracle and One More Saturday Night.

The wild card is always Drums/Space. Now, personally, I'm a fan of Drums, especially as the decade wore on and they added some interesting electronic effects to the mix; Space could be more hit and miss, but, again, the electronic effects could get pretty wild. (Some of this is again the nostalgia vibe--during my late 80s/90s concertgoing, as the band performances became increasingly rote and shambolic, the Drums/Space break was often a trippy diversion.) So for my 80-minute mixdowns, I'm retaining as much (or as little) of Drums/Space as time allows--for the better shows, these are cut short (or eliminated entirely); for weaker shows, I'm more likely to take up a larger chunk of the disc with a fulsome Drums expedition.

All that said, the disc itself is immediately ripped to my hard drive and filed away for safekeeping, never to be played again. But the exercise forces me to limit each of these to the part of the show I actually want to listen to. And I'll concede it means there's a little less variety--lots of Sugarees and Jack Straws and Bird Songs, a handful of Cassidys and CC Riders, and no El Pasos or Tons of Steels.

But, again, life is short. And according to iTunes, I currently have 1250 Grateful Dead-related items in my digital library (this includes not just Dead shows, but studio albums and Jerry solo work as well)--which would take me nearly four months to play from start to finish (assuming I never slept). So, yeah, a little editing seems fair.

Anyway, let me know if you feel like stopping by. We'll hang out on the deck and take in a solid 80 minutes of live Dead.