Taper's Section

In this space, every Monday, you will find information on the recorded history of the Grateful Dead’s music as it pertains to that week, specifically focusing on the shows for that week, through the band’s 30 year performing history, that reside in the Grateful Dead’s storied tape vault. Although not everything is in there, with more than 1,600 of the band’s 2,400-odd shows represented, there is plenty about which to talk. Check back weekly for new entries and insight into the vault, as well as exclusive audio clips relating to that week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history.
May 14 - May 20, 2012
Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1974, 1977 and 1981.
May 7 - May 13, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have tunes covering seven years of Grateful Dead history, 1977-1984.
April 30 - May 6, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have some fine Grateful Dead from 1981, 1984 and 1989.
April 23 - April 29, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have some fine summer Grateful Dead from the 1980s.
April 16 - April 22, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music spanning 15 years of Grateful Dead history, 1974-1989.
April 9 - April 15, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1969, 1979 and 1980.
April 2 - April 8, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1973, 1979 and 1980.
March 26 - April 1, 2012
Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1966, 1979 and 1980.
March 19 - March 25, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1972, 1973 and 1979.
March 12 - March 18, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1969, 1980 and 1985.
March 5 - March 11, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1969, 1970 and 1988.
February 27 - March 4, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we will remain within a four year span of Grateful Dead history, with some great music from 1978 and 1982.
February 20 - February 26, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 12 years in Grateful Dead history, 1970-1982.
February 13 - February19, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music spanning 21 years of Grateful Dead history, 1969-1990.
February 6 - February 12, 2012
Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll cover 22 years of Grateful Dead history, starting in 1970 and running to 1992, with a huge gap in between.
January 30 - February 5, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll check out some Grateful Dead music from 1970, 1974 and 1981.
January 23 - January 29, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from 1972, 1973 and 1991.
January 16 - January 22, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have some pretty early Grateful Dead, from 1972, and some pretty late Dead, 1991 and 1992.
January 9- January 15, 2012
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music spanning 17 years in Grateful Dead history, 1969-1986.
January 2- January 8, 2012
Welcome back, and Happy New Year everyone! This week we cover almost 20 years in Grateful Dead history with music from 1970 to 1989.
December 12- December 18, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll cover a relatively short period in Grateful Dead history, 1978 to 1986.
December 05 - Deccember 11, 2011
Welcome back! This week, we'll check out music exclusively from the 1980s, 1981-1989.
November 28-December 4, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll have some tunes from an 11 year span in Grateful Dead history, 1978-1989.
November 21 - November 27, 2011
Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, this week we'll cover a dozen years in the Grateful Dead's history, 1977-1989.
November 14- November 20, 2011
This week we have a nice range of Grateful Dead music spanning 16 years, 1973 to 1989.
November 7- November 13, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll have a double dose of 1982 Grateful Dead music, and a nice piece from 1990.
October 31-November 6, 2011
Happy Halloween everyone! Always a fun night in Grateful Dead history…
October 24- October 30, 2011
This week at the Tapers' Section we have a similar time spam as last week, extended by four years earlier to 1984, and running to 1992.
October 17- October 23, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have a batch of Grateful Dead spanning a short spam, 1988-1992.
October 10- October 16, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, and a big Happy Birthday to Bob! Like last week, this week we're going to check out some early, mid and late 80s Dead.
October 3- October 9, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll check out some early, mid and late 80s Dead.
September 26 - October 2, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll hang out in the 1980s, with music from 1981, 1985 and 1988.
September 19 - September 25, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section! This week we'll cover a dozen years in Grateful Dead history with music from 1972-1984.
September 12 - September 18, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have music from a 13 year span in Grateful Dead history, 1977-1990.
September 5 - September 11, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, and we hope you all had a good labor day weekend. This week we're going to hear music from 11 years of Grateful Dead history, 1973-1984.
August 29 - September 4, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll close out August and begin September with music from two decades of Dead, 1969-1989
August 22 - August 28, 2011
Welcome back everyone! This week we have a very solid batch of Grateful Dead music spanning almost exactly 20 years, 1969 to 1989.
August 15 - August 21, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have batch of Dead spanning a decade in Grateful Dead history, 1979-1989.
August 8 - August 14, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have a fine batch o' Dead from 1970, 1972 and 1982.
August 1- August 7, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, and a big Happy Birthday to Jerry, who would have been 69 years old today. This week we'll span a dozen years in Grateful Dead history, 1972-1984.
July 25 - July 31, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section as we close out July with a tasty batch of Dead from 1970, 1973 and 1984.
July 18 - July 24, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll span 20 years of Grateful Dead history, 1970-1990.
May 23 - May 29, 2011
Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll have a double dose of 1969 Grateful Dead music, plus a nice taste of some great 1972 Dead.
July 11- July 17, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll have music from 1970, 1972 and 1982.
July 4 - July 10, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, and a Happy July 4th!
June 27 - July 3, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, as we wrap up June and head into July with some Grateful Dead music from 1978, 1981 and 1989.
June 20 - June 26, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll span 11 years of Grateful Dead history, 1978-1989.
June 6 - June 12, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll stay within a short span of the 1980s, 1984-1988.
May 30 - June 5, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we have a nice span of 20 years of Grateful Dead music, 1971 to 1991.
May 9 - May 15, 2011
This week at the Tapers' Section we'll stick to the Grateful Dead's first 15 years, with music from 1969, 1972 and 1980.
May 2 - May 8, 2011
This week we're going to check in with a similar range of Grateful Dead music as we did last week, which is to say 1973, 1988 and 1990.
March 20 - March 26, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll hear music spanning about eight years in the Grateful Dead's history, 1969-1977.
March 7- March 13, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we're going to be spanning almost two full decade of Grateful Dead music.
February 28 - March 6, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we're sticking around in the 1980s, some mighty fine Brent-era material.
February 7 - February 13, 2011
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll have music from 1973, 1979 and 1980.
April 5 - April 11, 2010
Welcome back to the Tapers’ Section, where this week, as promised, we’ll be digging back into unreleased Grateful Dead music, from 1974 and 1990, all from the Bay Area.
March 29 - April 4, 2010
Welcome back to the Tapers’ Section. Our focus here will continue to be unreleased Grateful Dead music for the most part, but occasionally we come across some music on commercially released CDs that we’d forgotten how good it was, so we’ll play it for you here.
November 16 - November 22, 2009
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week, like last week, we'll immerse ourselves in Grateful Dead music from 1971 and 1972. It's odd how it happens like this, where we'll have a few weeks of 1980s music, then a few weeks of 1970s music. Regardless, there's loads of good stuff in the vault, so we expect we'll keep hopping around forever like this.
October 5 - October 11, 2009
Greetings and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll be excusively checking out music from the 1980s, with a good selection from throughout the decade.
December 15 - December 21, 2008
Welcome back to our continuation of our December march through the history of the Grateful Dead’s recorded legacy. This week we’re going to check out bits from two years, specifically 1969 and 1973.
November 17 - November 23, 2008
As we mentioned last week, we’re going to stay in 1972 and 1973 this week here at the Tapers’ Section, but hold onto your hats, as we have some great material from those two mighty fine years.
May 19 - May 25, 2008
Welcome back to the Tapers' Section. This week we're going to jump right into a nice, big jam from 1969, followed my some great music from throughout the band's recorded history.
March 24 - March 30, 2008
Welcome back to the Tapers Section. With so much great music played throughout the Grateful Dead's history during the latter part of March, we'll jump right in with some tasty stuff from Spring of 1990.
March 17 - 23, 2008
This week we're going to hang out on the East Coast during a couple of the fine Spring Tours of the later years that took place, including music from 1990 and 1991.
January 21 - January 27, 2008
We’ve been having such a great time the past few weeks focusing one specific year in the Taper’s Section, we’ve decided to continue the trend this week by exploring some excellent music from 1976.
January 7 - January 13, 2008
Like the last few weeks, this week here at the Taper’s Section we’re going to focus on one year in Grateful Dead history, and this week we’ve selected 1974 as our year.
October 22- October 28, 2007
This week we have some music from 1968, 1982 and 1984
October 1 - October 7, 2007
Heading into October, we have some terrific Grateful Dead music to cover this week, including a good selection from the brilliant September-October, 1976 tour.
August 20 - August 26, 2007
As we move toward the symbolic end of summer (Labour Day, of course), we have some great music to play spanning about 21 years of Grateful Dead music, from 1968 to 1989, two fine years with which t
August 13 - August 19, 2007
In addition to some excellent moments from this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history, we also have some great material from outside of our date range, including a good chunk of music from 19
July 30 - August 5
We have more than 20 years of Grateful Dead music for you this week, spanning many great eras. Hopefully we’ll have something for everyone.
July 23 - July 29
Late July finds us with a whole lot of 1974 material for you, plus a few other choice bits from 1966 and 1982.
August 6 - August 12
This week, we have 15 years of Grateful Dead music for you, spanning a nice period from 1972 to 1987.
July 16 - July 22
Rolling along toward the dog days of summer, the Grateful Dead continued to perform exceptional shows around the country, and we have music from 1970 through 1989 from this week in the band’s rec
July 9 - July 15, 2007
This week we have almost 25 years of Grateful Dead music for you to hear, including plenty of material from this week in the history of the band’s recorded legacy, as well as a few other bits tha
July 2 - July 8, 2007
There is some great music this week, so we’ll jump right in.
June 25 - July 1, 2007
The summer months were excellent times to see the band, with not only so many shows, but with so many downright excellent shows.
June 18 - June 24, 2007
June was always busy month in the Grateful Dead’s touring schedule, and we once again cover more than 20 years of recorded music.
April 30 - May 6, 2007
The year seems to keep getting busier for the Grateful Dead, at least in regards to their recorded history. We have a nice span of music this week, hopefully something for everyone.
April 23 - April 29, 2007
Plenty took place this week in the Grateful Dead's recorded history, including some rehearsal material, plus a lot of live material 1969 to 1991, which we're pleased to bring to you today.<
April 16- April 22, 2007
April continues to roll on strongly in the history of the Grateful Dead's recordings. We have a great variety of music this week, spanning 20 years, 1969 to 1989.
April 9- April 15, 2007
Like last week, we've got some very good early-1970s material from this week in the Grateful Dead's recorded history, as well as some nice early 1980s material and a taste of 1989.
June 11 - June 17, 2007
This week, we have a nice selection of music from 1970 to 1991, with hopefully a little something that’ll suit everyone’s taste.
June 4 - June 10, 2007
Once again this week, we’ll be covering more than 20 years of the Grateful Dead’s recorded history in the Tapers Section, from 1969 through to 1991, plus a taste of 1967.
May 21 - May 28, 2007
We’ve got almost 25 years of Grateful Dead music to cover in this week’s installment, so let’s jump right into it.
May 14 - May 20, 2007
This week, we’ll span 23 years of the Grateful Dead’s recorded history, from 1970 to 1993.
May 28 - June 3, 2007
This is quite a light week in regards to vault tapes from this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history, so as we’ll often do, we have some music from outside of this week that we think you’
May 7 - May 13, 2007
It seems as though as the year rolls on, the music just keeps getting better, and this week, like last, is filled with a good variety of some deep, big jams.
March 26 - April 1, 2007
Week of March 26-April 1
March 19 - March 25, 2007
This week, we’re going to continue with some gems from the Spring Tour of 1990, as well as music from throughout the band’s career in regards to its recorded history as it exists in the vault.
March 12 - March 18, 2007
Mid-March often the saw the band in full swing with East Coast touring, and we therefore have some great East Coast Dead to play this week, plus a bit of West Coast and Midwest for good measure.
March 5- March 11, 2007
Week of March 5-11
February 26 - March 4, 2007
We’ve got some great material this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history, plus a few extra tracks that we didn’t play in December, but which have significance in the history of the ban
February 19 - February 25, 2007
By mid-February, the Grateful Dead’s touring year was really getting under way, with the usual March madness just around the corner.
February 12 - February 18, 2007
There’s plenty to play from this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history, and in addition to loads of great material from the week of February 12-18, we also have a great jam from a week l
February 5- February 11, 2007
There’s plenty of great material that was played during this week in the Grateful Dead’s performing history, much of which thankfully resides in the Grateful Dead’s vault.
January 29 - February 4, 2007
Mid-winter occasionally saw the band playing shorter runs of shows around the country, including the exceptional six show tour in the Midwest in 1978, consisting of the three shows at the Uptown Th
January 22 - January 28, 2007
We have some great music to play this week, spanning this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history from 1969 to 1993, with a cool studio jam from 1968 thrown in, just because we thought you
January 15 - January 21, 2007
Another relatively quiet week in the Grateful Dead’s performing history, although there were some great shows performed as the new year got rolling.
January 8 - January 14, 2007
Like the previous week, the week of January 8 was also a less-than-prolific week in the Grateful Dead’s performing history.
January 1 - January 7, 2007
As with us all, the week after New Year’s Eve was usually a quiet one in the Grateful Dead world.
December 25 - December 31, 2006
Well, if there was one holy week in Grateful Dead performing history, it certainly was the pre-New Year’s Eve week, culminating with the big New Year’s extravaganza hosted by Bill Graham and hi
December 18 - December 24, 2006
The week before Christmas was usually a quiet week for the Grateful Dead, as they needed their rest, too, before the big annual New Year’s festivities, which often ran the entire week from Decemb
December 11 - December 17, 2006
December moves along in the Grateful Dead recorded-history world to the tune of some outstanding shows.
December 4 - December 10, 2006
One of the most intriguing short tours in Grateful Dead history took place in the first two weeks of December, 1971, and featured the return of Pigpen, who had been resting himself the previous cou
November 27 - December 3, 2006
Welcome to the first installment of the weekly feature, the Taper Section.
April 2- April 8, 2007
This week, with plenty of Spring Tours happening throughout the years, we have plenty of music to play, spanning the years 1972-1990.


