I have been contemplating a blog like this for some time. Ever since an old tape trading buddy's wife interviewed me two years ago for a graduate thesis in a class called "Collecting & Social Groups" - she picked her husband's Dead taper social group to study - I've been thinking about the demise of what so many of us participated in and cherished so deeply. Things are not how they used to be.
If you've only known tape collecting as a high-speed Internet, downloading experience, and have never rushed home from work to open up the mailbox NOT to find the trade package you swore would have to show up today, or found the mailbox crammed with more than one bubble envelope, you've missed much.
Don't feel bad. At the end of the day one would be hard pressed not to appreciate the "kid in a candy store" aspect of having all this music so easily accessed on line. I personally appreciate it too. But even just that aspect of checking the mailbox (something all old tapers can agree was a wonderful part of trading) is for the most part gone.
Doing a ten tape trade and letting the other guy put whatever he thought you might like on the last tape - gone.
Mulling over three lists, each with thousands of tapes listed, and carefully crafting three different multi-tape trades so that you get the very best from each list - gone.
Making and sending your tapes in a timely fashion; agreeing on exactly what levels your trading partner wanted his tapes recorded at; balancing 90 and 100 minute tapes so that each of you got an even trade; cleaning and demagnetizing your deck heads - gone.
I don't go out to shows that much - okay hardly ever. But, I was invited to see DSO on Feb 2nd and caught their 1500th show at the Vic Theater from the front row of the balcony, center. They played an incredible show. At one point in Drums, these young guys behind me and my friend were trying to tell each other what songs had just been played. One guy mistakenly thought Viola Lee Blues was Dupree's. I turned around to correct him and we had a pleasant conversation about the mythical-like Dead show we were seeing (Women Smarter>Shakedown>Easy Wind>Jam>Viola Lee>Drums - I mean, wow!).
It was there that I began to worry a bit about the challenges and risks presented by an ocean of Dead shows into which those who can't swim might wade up to their eyeballs. What if someone downloads a show from 1966, makes a CD with no label, hands it to a buddy and that buddy starts calling "Viola Lee" "Dupree's" and burns twenty copies for his friends at school saying, "You gotta hear this incredible Durpree's jam!" Okay, it's kind of farfetched, I know. But you get the picture.
There was something to learning about tapes from the deadheads kind enough to trade with you. These sorts of human things fade away as technology plays its pied piper tune into waiting ears.
I'm never going to have the time to trade tapes again. I'm never going to have time to copy tapes, or burn piles of CDs. But I will try to share my swimming skills with anyone interested.
Not Sure Where To Begin?
my thoughts on Music & Being, which guide my writing.
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2008
Swimming In A Sea Of The Dead
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Welcomes and Greetings
Hello fellow fans of the Grateful Dead. My purpose in creating this blog comes from years of devotion to Grateful Dead tape/CD trading, and doing everything I could to share the music of the Grateful Dead with interested ears.
Times have changed in the world of our trading community, and some of the most apparent trends seem to be a deterioration or absence of what we once called the "community" and the explosion of availability of nearly every Dead recording ever at everyone's finger tips. It seems that the latter gave rise (or decline) to the former.
Most folks are no longer getting to know other traders, building lists of trading partners, exchanging lists, and mailing discs (or cassette tapes!) to each other, waiting anxiously at the mailbox for that next package of shows to arrive. Such is the price of the progress of technology. The bubble envelope has been replaced with the Bit Torrent and online archives. At the same time, there are more and more people "finding" the Dead and seeking out music to enjoy. Everyone wants to hear the best Grateful Dead show from 1973, after all. But which one is it?
The music is easy enough to find (http://www.archive.org/, etc..). Knowing where to start is more and more of a mystery.
When I started trading, I dreamed of having all tapes at my fingertips (and set about collecting thousands of hours on tape to get there). Now that everything is so widely within the reach of a clever mouse, it seems likely that a paralysis can set in, preventing someone from knowing where to step first. Knowing that the Dead have plenty of shows that lack quite the luster of others (a hugely debated topic as to which shows are, and are not, worthy of either distinction), it is easy to potentially mis-step and come out disappointed. With such a huge collection to choose from, this is one adventure where it can get frustrating looking for a needle in a haystack.
Disappointment would be somewhat avoidable if every Dead tape collecting newbie had a grizzled old deadhead living across the street who invited them over to listen to old recordings and walk back home with arms full of music to copy. Online, that's not something easily found. And that is just what I aim to bring to you. If you came over to my home to borrow shows, I know a number of them that I'd recommend over others, and I would gain as much joy in sharing as you might in being turned onto some of the greatest music out there. Figuring out what you might like, and guiding you to more, would be a pleasure.
So, here on this blog, you can listen to a deadhead who has walls of tapes and CDs rant and rave over this great show, and that great solo; this amazing transition from Truckin' to Other One, and that amazing tone hanging in the air of an outdoor arena (mostly of the audience recording variety - more on that later). Hopefully you'll come away all the more devoted to the band you already love. I will provide signposts and spotlights for you to get the most out of every moment you take in listening to the Grateful Dead.
Times have changed in the world of our trading community, and some of the most apparent trends seem to be a deterioration or absence of what we once called the "community" and the explosion of availability of nearly every Dead recording ever at everyone's finger tips. It seems that the latter gave rise (or decline) to the former.
Most folks are no longer getting to know other traders, building lists of trading partners, exchanging lists, and mailing discs (or cassette tapes!) to each other, waiting anxiously at the mailbox for that next package of shows to arrive. Such is the price of the progress of technology. The bubble envelope has been replaced with the Bit Torrent and online archives. At the same time, there are more and more people "finding" the Dead and seeking out music to enjoy. Everyone wants to hear the best Grateful Dead show from 1973, after all. But which one is it?
The music is easy enough to find (http://www.archive.org/, etc..). Knowing where to start is more and more of a mystery.
When I started trading, I dreamed of having all tapes at my fingertips (and set about collecting thousands of hours on tape to get there). Now that everything is so widely within the reach of a clever mouse, it seems likely that a paralysis can set in, preventing someone from knowing where to step first. Knowing that the Dead have plenty of shows that lack quite the luster of others (a hugely debated topic as to which shows are, and are not, worthy of either distinction), it is easy to potentially mis-step and come out disappointed. With such a huge collection to choose from, this is one adventure where it can get frustrating looking for a needle in a haystack.
Disappointment would be somewhat avoidable if every Dead tape collecting newbie had a grizzled old deadhead living across the street who invited them over to listen to old recordings and walk back home with arms full of music to copy. Online, that's not something easily found. And that is just what I aim to bring to you. If you came over to my home to borrow shows, I know a number of them that I'd recommend over others, and I would gain as much joy in sharing as you might in being turned onto some of the greatest music out there. Figuring out what you might like, and guiding you to more, would be a pleasure.
So, here on this blog, you can listen to a deadhead who has walls of tapes and CDs rant and rave over this great show, and that great solo; this amazing transition from Truckin' to Other One, and that amazing tone hanging in the air of an outdoor arena (mostly of the audience recording variety - more on that later). Hopefully you'll come away all the more devoted to the band you already love. I will provide signposts and spotlights for you to get the most out of every moment you take in listening to the Grateful Dead.
Welcome.
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