Grateful Dead

Following previous post it’s now crystal clear… Mssrs. Pascucci, Goldman & Edwards must be Lily Allen fans, confirmed by being so astute, knowing the market place, knowing what sells. Yeh, this makes the most sense for the long-term success of Grateful Dead. Yes, I hear their thought process; this’ll preserve and nurture the special relationship. Anyway, listened to 3FTV again today, thinking it's rather good, particularly the Pigpen stuff. Okay, not an all-time best but if I was selecting all you’d likely get is 68/69. Looking out for a new and smarter release :-)

If you post it, they will come.......... .....and download, Baby!

Greg MacFarlane...don't think your little logo has gone unnoticed ;-)

This is comparable to Jerry coming up to us after the show and wanting it back....it was never about that...David, you have done a remarkable job of providing material unavailable to many. I can only hope that the goal of the current "powers that be" realize and appreciate the goal of the longtime fans - to enjoy it whereve we may be.

hey folks, there ain't nothing stopping you from networking with each other to trade shows. there's a plethora of sites out there to download music from.....

Me likey.

...I have a horrible feeling that we all should have just kept our thoughts to ourselves. I believe this whole section was his way of sneaking out downloadable tidbits to keep us interested and keen. He's a fan - he knows what we want. Now that the cat is out of the bag, he has been forced to deny any knowledge of this and instigate a change of format. Even so, he's still trying to get the stuff out there. I can't help but feel it would have been better if we'd all just taken the hint (as some have suggested) rather than say that he must be faking it or that he and his people are naive because they should have known we could download the MP3s. It's probably academic now, but I'm guessing that the quieter we were about this, the less chance there was of David being "found out" by the powers that be. Hmmmmmmmm. I guess I'm just adding to it with this post.

Go here!

DAVID LEMIEUX *** THE ULTIMATE PRANKSTER

Discretion is, indeed, the better part of valor.

Has anybody else noticed on this (ahem) auspicious 35th anniversary of a most important show in GD history, we hear not a peep out of DL? (DownLoad, David Lemieux..coincidence???) Archive.org is also missing the show. Hmmmm. Is that good news? A portent of things to come, or am I just being overly optimistic? I figured I'd bring up something germane to this week in GD history, rather than the standard piss and vinegar that's been sloshing about, lo, these 21 (60something including last week's) pages. Come on folks lets start rumor mongering about something positive!

controls this site and all of GDP's intellectual property, so I really can't imagine they wouldn't have known. I hope DL isn't in trouble. He's the only person I think really understands Deadhead's point of view. What I really hope is that praising DL won't lead to his dismissal. I mean, Deadheads universally love him (pretty much). Given Rhino's track record, if the fans want it, it must be bad for business, right?

hey david im sending you this apology for making remarks towards you yesterday. i said you were not honest with the fans in explaining away the removal of downloads. after thinking things through objectively today and talking to a friend. i realized that rhino was the entity that did this action. so i apology to you david. its too bad the dead hooked up with a company with attitude. oh well what you gonna do? i realized you had to say what you had to say in order to protect the dead net. from being punished by rhino.

The 4/7/72 Sugaree isn't playable. Greatest Story plays and ends, but no Sugaree follows. Sure would like to hear it.

It's actually here. Cleaned up, 1st generation, with two-channel restored soundtrack. Complete with the missing intro, and bonus material at the end. Get your DVD burners warmed up! You're going to love it. (You may, or may not get access, if the site is maxed out on users and won't let you create an account. In which case PM me and we'll see what else we can do..)

Well guys, as you should all be well aware, you cannot keep this stuff in the bag. As Jerry said, once it's out there, it's not YOURS anymore. That's the truth. This music is ours, just as much as it is David's or Rhino's... despite any contractual whatever, most of us have downloaded or burned soundboards, with the blessing of the artists who created the music. You already gave it to us! Bob, Phil, Bill, Mickey... you guys made this music, and you have CERTAINLY made plenty of money from all of us over the years.... we love you, we thank you, and we truly have a symbiotic relationship. All we are asking for is to enjoy what we love, and the truth is that we are all completely willing to pay you and your organzation more money for it -- but the format you have established has an eerie pusher-junkie quality to it. Rhino must understand the dynamic of this addiction, so they are holding out, presumably with the idea that a strung out junkie will pay more when the stuff finally comes around. But they are alienating their core clients... and, as we all know, there are other sources for this stuff and maybe that's where we should all be intent on going. It strikes me that Rhino is probably just interested in doing major distributions of whatever they choose to "release". That's fine for the crowd in Record & Tape Traders or whatever who might get newly turned on... but think about your relationship with the hardcore fans that are in your pocket -- the junkies. For one, we are used to Vault releases coming fast and furious. The Download Series was a great idea that should have continued.Why not open up the Vault? Many others have suggested a subscription. You could even charge a pretty nice price for this, and people would pay it. You could, even, charge like $20 for a full show download. That's how much I would pay to go see the Dead. Sh&t, I'm paying three times that to see Phil in NY. So think about it guys, please. Do you want to keep putting out "major releases" in packaged CDs that are resource-intensive and are just laden with overhead costs that burn holes in your pockets?? Just think, you can offer us the downloads, charge us the same amount of money, and keep it all (no middleman whatsoever) !! Get smart!!! I mean, you've already done this once before. The solution to everyone's griping is just total access. Give it to us.... and charge us for it. By the way, thank you David for all your great work on these weekly selections. You've got a great job and you are doing it well. All the best, keep up the great work, and thank you for everything!!!

If you have posted on this week's or last week's Taper Section page more than five times, you might consider giving it a rest. Isn't there laundry to fold, bikes to ride, family to talk to, bills to pay? Hasn't one person or another said most everything there is to say about TS, Rhino, streaming, etc. probably more than once? 80 pages ought to be plenty; why not get on with your lives and see what happens? Someone out in the real world misses you. Life goes on . . . (The poems were nice though.) DW

Don Wolfe! A most sensible post!

Hey folks, thought I would burn the whole Tapers Section in CD. Came out with 14 CDS with 8-10 hours of GD music in MP3 format. Thats about 126 hours of classic GD. I have my own home made box set. I really hope that this new site can save its self. I will keep waiting for Rhino to throw us a bone. Keep Jamming.Coconut Phil.

Careful Phil, Rhino knows where you live. I wonder if they'd be dumb enough to sick the Man on Taper's Section mp3 downloaders when the website never explicitly said the mp3s where not for download, the name Taper's Section implies the mp3s where for download and the mp3s were their, unsecured, for the taking. If they did that, they might as well close up shop and ship the Vault back up to Marin County.

Move along folks, nothing to see here. But, for what its worth: Tapers paid to attend shows and make AUDience recordings. Trading of AUD recordings is not in any way discouraged digitally or otherwise. However, the soundboard recordings "From The Vault" are an investment made by the GD. They paid people to man the boards. They continue to pay people to mix down the recordings even if they end up here. Look, money isn't all bad. It is surely paying the rent for the vault. Hard earned DeadHead money made the vault possible. It became clear with the "From The Vault" series that the vault's recordings would be leveraged for sales, not handouts. The MP3's are gone. Mondays were a lot more fun with 'em, but all things pass sooner or later. Now, everybody, get back into trading! Its legal and fun! | I'm just a, well...porpoise. |

tj crowley notice the voice of "THE PEOPLE"..over the months rarely was there any feed-back (other than posting thankyou's) on the 'rate this' section..maybe 3 or 4 votes...NOW with the decision to go stream the response there (as well the posting's and 'feedback' section(s) has been overwhelming POOR..not the quality of the choices (i haven't heard yet but historically has always beed superb) but rather the decision to stream or better yet..limit access to because most of us DON'T listen to music via the computor...just a point of interest..what i have noticed is an overwhelming response of traders to assist each other on how to download from stream and/or set up communication to trade...YES! "UNITED 'WE' STAND" "WE" are no closer the the answer than when 'WE" began...so let of voice(s) fill the void so all my know..that in the land of the nite..the ship of the sun..is (not) drawn by king rhino"

A while ago, somewhere, I don't know when. Boo! Bring back the old tapers section. You are angering loyal fans and causing more problems than you know. Was it really that big of a deal to have an occasional song downloaded by fans that buy almost every official release that is put out? Please rethink this stream-only policy.

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but haven't we come to expect this sort of shit in this endless parade of misery that passes for earthly life? I have to say that this whole, "we just realized that people were downloading the music" explanation is patently absurd. I would have preferred an honest "we aren't giving you any more free music" explanation. Are you actually saying that for 32 weeks you weren't aware that we were hitting the right mouse button and saving the files? I'm no computer expert, but wouldn't the number of hits and bandwith being used have been much higher if we were repeatedly connecting to the server to listen to the music, as opposed to connecting once, downloading the music, and then not connecting again? As someone else pointed out, free streaming audio download programs are easily available, so we can bypass this greedy scheme if we want to. Most of us, however, have an ethical relationship with the band, and don't want to steal the music. I won't. But this hurts, and feels wrong, and may well negatively influence my decision to purchase official releases in the future.

I'VE READ MOST OF THE POSTS FROM THE LAST 10 DAYS.I'VE CONCLUDED FROM THESE POSTS THAT .1-MOST WOULD PAY FOR SOME KIND OF MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION 4 THE CONTNUED TIDBITS 2-BRING BACK THE DOWNLOADS 3-GIVE US THE STUFF WE WANT TO HEAR.NOT JUST BOX SETS W/ SOME UNRELEASED MUSIC BONUS SHIT 4-LETS TAKE ASTEP BACK AND GIVE IT SOME TIME.THEY KNOW WHAT WE WANT.WE ALL KNOW IT COMES DOWN TO$$$$.WE ALL WORK .WE ALL CAN'T GIVE ARE SERVICES AWAY FOR FREE.WE ALL HAVE BILLS TO PAY.WHY SHOULD THEY.IT WAS GOOD WHILE IT LASTED.I HAVE FAITH THAT THEY'LL GET IT RIGHT. 5-IPOSTED TWICE LAST JUST AS ANGRY AS EVERYONE ELSE 6-LAST WEDNESDAY MY COMPUTER CRASHED & I LOST IT ALL!!!!!!!HELP!!!! PEACE OUT ALL!!!!!! JIM thatsit41120@yahoo.com

RE: David L's response this Monday - 1. It's another misstep in a series of abrupt missteps regarding the legacy of something we all feel passionate about, the handling of the music in the vault. It's not just the yanking of the downloads, it's also the return of the Download Series discs without the covers. Ummm, why would I want to complete my collection without the matching cover art to the eight I've already got? Same with Dick's Pick's, I started to download them to save on postage costs, and since they offered tray cards & covers the only thing missing was the liner notes, again, now no cover art. Perhaps you get it after purchase, but it doesn't say that anywhere. Where's the 66 Rarities disc? The amount of solo and related music, even stuff on the Rhino label is paltry. Where's the Garcia plays Dylan disc? The store (the vault in effect) feels so half assed and poorly thought out. 12/31/76 & 2/19/71 both good shows in wide circulation, both are sonic improvements, but they feel less than inspired as choices. 11/73 anyone? I think for me all these things coalesced this past Monday with the streaming note. 2. The Taper's Section and the GDH archive releases was rebuilding interest in the music and the community, with older fans as well as newcomers. What an advertisting blunder, you have a hungry, near captive audience willing and eager to be pummeled with promo's for new products, features & services that now is once again scattered, upset, dissapointed and quickly losing interest again. 3. The trolls are out and they are really nasty. Alot of people wrote very heartfelt and interesting posts on the boards connected to the Taper's Section & the GDH Vault sections, but some of the posts are so angry and personal in nature, the vibe they put forth spoils it. I suppose this is generally true in any semi-anynomous forum and not too surprising, still... 4. Part of David Lemieux's response, posted this Monday, bothers me, David Lemieux (in quotes) wrote: "Recently, I and others that work on dead.net became aware that certain fans had been regularly downloading the tracks offered in the Taper Section." (cue: Dooley Wilson playing piano & singing As Time Goes By) I'm shocked, shocked to find out that people were downloading the free content dead.net put up! This sounds so lame and disingenuous. Since November of last year, I assure you, people have been regularly downloading these tracks. What may have happened is that as word of mouth spread, their bandwidth useage & costs skyrocketed. "From the very beginning, this program has always been intended to be a "for streaming only" service. Downloading was never announced, described or promoted in any manner." Perhaps not, and one can never know what's in another's mind, but does David really want us to believe that he thought we would all sit at our PC's & laptops to listen and not save these files? Really? In an era when I-Pod's are ubiquitous? That the IT folks at WEA/Rhino/dead.net and the suits never saw this situation for what it was in any way, shape or form at any time. Phooey. Defies logic. "The situation that developed over the past months is very different than my original plan." I don't think anybody is really surprised by this. It's tragic as this was without a doubt one of the coolest things that has ever been done by any artist/record company for the fans. Particularly the rabid collectors, the heard most of it crowd, the deeply cynical, everyone was finding something of interest in what was being done every week in the Taper's Section. 5. Having taken the time to write a concise letter (due to filter: under 1000 characters) to the webmaster at dead.net getting their trite form response: "Dear Friend, Thanks for your recent input regarding dead.net. We truly appreciate your ongoing interest and support. Dead.net Team" I should note that every time I wrote to David L. with query'sabout music in the vault I received a personal response. Robert Tacker

I think this "Taper's section" has been a scam all along. Look at the graphic at the top right of this page. It shows the "taper's section" from an apparently outdoor Grateful Dead concert. I would guess the vintage of the photo is late 80's - early 90's. Where are the crispy lo-gen aud tapes that the guys in the graphic were getting? All we ever got from this site was soundboards recorded by Bear, Betty, Healy or whoever. "Taper's section" indeed.

I stumbled across this tidbit on Yahoo! News: Satellite radio adds Grateful Dead Maybe the situation IS more complicated than it looks. Maybe Sirius wanted other official sources plugged up: they are promising exclusive content. Maybe I need to subscribe to @#$%^ satellite radio now ... Cut, paste, and remove the space between _de and ad; to use this link. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_en_mu/radio_de ad;_ylt=AoZG06Er2eA3smZ7iaSswmus0NUE

Over the years I've drifted in and out of my Dead craze. For some years after Jerry died, I didn't really listen at all, got into other bands. Then Dick's Pix came along and sucked me right back in, started buying those and trading boots. Then came Rhino, and I drifted again, lost interest, nothing new worth listening too. But alas, Taper's section, cool, and I was right back into it. All the while I was thinking, what a genius marketing strategy, give me a little taste, I get the addiction back. I think a lot of this has to do with lawsuits pending by Coons too, which is unfortunate, because I do believe this will alienate a lot of otherwise loyal customers. Anyway, what to do, there's a ton of good music out there these days, and without my interest being peaked so often anymore, I will spend more money elsewhere.

In the summer of Jerry 65, Rhino Expeditions sent out a call to Deadheads far and wide and near and narrow saying “Come and join us on another voyage on the Grateful River.”Well the Deadheads climbed aboard the shiny new Rhino raft to float on Grateful River. More and more joined; friends who hadn’t seen each other in years and newcomers who had never even ever been on the Grateful River. And they all started talking to each other, bringing up memories of other trips on Grateful River and all the shows along the way and telling each other all about themselves. Everyone was bringing up the magic golden times and the old Deadheads smiled in reminiscing and the young ones basked in the afterglow. The sun was shining, the fish were jumping, the birds were singing and the flowers were blooming along the banks of the Grateful River. The raft was huge with all sorts of conversations taking place. As the voyage progressed people started noticing that the Rhino raft filled with golden nuggets every Monday and Wednesday. They picked up the nuggets and put them up to their ears and they heard the songs of the magic golden times. And the Deadheads started filling their pockets with the golden nuggets and put them up to their ears and listened again and again to the songs of the magic golden times. And nobody told them they couldn’t fill their pockets with the golden nuggets and listen to them over and over. The golden nuggets kept appearing in the raft every Monday and Wednesday and the pockets filled and the smiles got bigger and bigger and bigger. The Deadheads were all beaming on the Rhino raft and thought that it was one of the best things to ever happen in the land of the Dead on the Grateful River since the magic golden times. The Rhino raft was so clean and shiny and filled with golden nuggets. But then one Monday morning the golden nuggets appeared and lots of the Deadheads couldn’t even pick them off the floor of the raft and some that could get them off the floor of the raft lifted the golden nuggets to their ears and couldn’t hear a thing. And none of the Deadheads could stick the new golden nuggets of songs of the magic golden times in their old pockets. And then the Rhino raft started shaking and rolling and then WHOOSH it went over a waterfall and into a whirlpool. The Deadheads all started saying “What happened to the golden nuggets, some of us can’t hear them and none of us can keep them, what’s up?” They sent out a loud collective call to Rhino Expeditions but didn’t hear a thing back. And then some of the Deadheads started to get so mad that they were no longer being given magic golden nuggets to keep and weren’t told why by Rhino Expeditions that they started jumping out of the raft even as it kept going round and round in the whirlpool below the waterfall. Then worst of all, some of the Deadheads started calling each other names and upsetting other Deadheads and causing them to have hairballs! Well let me tell you the sight of Deadheads having hairballs is something that I wish I had never seen or heard. Then some Deadheads said that maybe some of you aren’t really Deadheads because of your behavior and then lots of the Deadheads started to question if they were really Deadheads after all. Yikes, confused yelling Deadheads having hairballs en masse on the Rhino raft. But still Rhino Expeditions did not reply. And I was there that week and I said “How many Deadheads does it take to give a silent Rhino a hairball?” But still Rhino expeditions didn’t answer. Well the raft kept swirling around in the whirlpool for over a week with more and more Deadheads jumping out of the Rhino raft. But many stayed aboard and started to relax and stopped calling each other names and some realized that they could listen to the golden nuggets of the magic golden times and others just said “This doesn’t work for me”, but they still stayed on board too. Speculation and much talk circulated about what was in store for the next Monday. The next Monday the golden nuggets appeared again but the Deadheads couldn’t keep these either. Along with the golden nuggets the Deadheads found a note from Rhino Expeditions written by a fellow Deadhead saying “We never meant for you all to keep the golden nuggets.” Most of the Deadheads were stunned and amazed at this since no one had ever told them not to keep the golden nuggets. Who wouldn’t have picked up free golden nuggets and put them in their pockets? So now the Rhino raft is still on the Grateful River but the Deadheads that are left can’t yet tell if it is still in a whirlpool or starting to float down the river again. They do have some great new friends they have met on the raft and have listened to some amazing golden nuggets. And I got the answer to my question; it takes 544 Deadheads to give a silent Rhino a hairball. Gotta go, time to check on some cats. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

Maybe if everyone put this much anger into politics, maybe just maybe we might be able to save this planet!!

Hal R, I'd just like to let you know that that has been my favourite post so far in this morass.

On August 29th, 2007 Steve-O said:Maybe if everyone put this much anger into politics, maybe just maybe we might be able to save this planet!! Steve-O, trust me, some of us do. (Just not the way you might like.)

So starting Sept 7 the Dead will have their own channel on Sirus satillite radio. Apparently the new channel will launch with the Hollywood Bowl show from 1974. Also according to what I read in an article today in the NY Post the "Greatful Dead channel will also feature unreleased live performances" Hmmmmm OK so now things are making a little sense here. Now, my question is can I record these live performances or do I need permission. Of course I can, but alas, I won't because I get XM radio which also carries the GD Hour or used to unlesss something changed there. So there is your pay per show concept right there. Unfortunatly I think they would reach a bigger audience if they just charged us for the downloads, and let us subscribe to their own radio ( Tapers section ) But if you think folks aren't gonna record shows off the radio, then there is a certain bridge I'd like to sell for cheap.

RHINOgate...

Hey Fred, like the post, check this out, a real bridge for sale! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2003858241_bridgefor…

Dave says;"Recently, I and others that work on dead.net became aware that certain fans had been regularly downloading the tracks offered in the Taper Section. From the very beginning, this program has always been intended to be a "for streaming only" service. Downloading was never announced, described or promoted in any manner. The situation that developed over the past months is very different than my original plan." That statement is self-serving. If you had meant it to be streaming only, why didn't you format it that way from the beginning? You really expect us to believe that no-one at dead.net knew that people could right-click your MP3 links and download them? Your comments sound like someone covering their ass. You want to be honest with the visitors to this site, or continue to bullshit them?

By GOLLY I SPELLLED GRATEFUL WRONG!!!!! SORRY FOLKS......Been a REEEEEEEEAAAAALLLLLLLLYYYYYY LOOOOOOOOONG DAY. Sorry everyone, hope this doesn't end up getting me put in the BOX. Long Live the Hairball!!!!

David -- We're counting on you to keep at it. You've been doing a fine job, and boy do I envy what you do for a living! All this sounding off, in case the powers that be don't quite understand, is because we still care. There seems to be a void in pulling the tarp off the real issue, and my PR counsel to the boardroom is that transparency and honest, rapid response will win the day. It's called crisis communications, and often the good will leads to increased sales as well. I doubt this has involved substantial copyright or royalty issues, but I might be wrong. Or perhaps it's the dreaded Coons factor. In the meantime, it sure is fun poking at Rhino, and I guess everybody's going to keep at it until the label wakes up and shows us that someone's sitting behind the wheel. Their shareholders at least would expect that there is a professional in charge of responding to consumer concerns related to corporate reputation. If not, I'm available. Thanks again for the treats and commentary. If this streaming thing gets too complicated, you can simply send the MP3s directly to me every Monday. I'll take care of getting them to everybody else. Have a great day. Toodles, Chris

What was it like with MP3s before RHINOgate??? Brilliant MOVe Rhino...!!!

checking this board....and then Hal R's parable appeared. It seems that no matter how much bullsh*t there is, one can always find a golden nugget!!!!

Nice one itsburnsy, a little old and sounds like a mess to deal with, but hey....ya can't beat the price. Maybe we can use it to make a bridge between Rhino and us freedownloaders. OOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!! Sorry had to get that one in there. Now who has a hairball to sell? And still waiting for a Capernicus reference. Someone, please make my day!!!

There ya go! I tried to find an mp3 of a cat horking up a hairball to embed in the picture, but no luck.

Ed, ABSOULUTLY PHUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST POST EVER AND I'M NOMINATING YOU FOR AN AWARD. CHEERS!!! I asked Gans last week if he taped his poor cat horking up a hairball and that it should be this weeks GD hour. You did me one better!

for that hairball mp3. When I find it, I'll post it!

Could you hook up a MIDI to that hairball ? Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

Nuggets……? Rafts ? Whirlpools…? What’s got into you Hal man? Some of us are trying to deal with some serious shit on this forum and these fairy stories just aren’t helping. Now as I was saying, I think the real reason behind all this is that …………………… ………………………. I love these moments when I am the only user online......gives me an irrational sense of power!!

I don't think it would be a good idea to post that MP3 hairball clip. We all know that MP3's aren't allowed on this site. Fluffy might sue you for copyright infringement ...

once again you guys have done it......i really dont understand why a few songs a week cant be downloaded.... i mean come on....i have been to well over 1000 dead shows dont you think i have paid enough money .......you guys are all about making money