• https://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/september-17-september-23-2007-0
    September 17 - September 23, 2007
    We’ve got some outstanding music for you this week, covering a rather limited span in the Grateful Dead’s performing history, but it’s a span that includes some of the best years.

    First up in our mid-September journey is Paris in 1974, where the Grateful Dead closed out their short tour of the continent. From 9/20/74, we have this very good Weather Report Suite>Stella Blue, and from the next night, 9/21/74, we have the second set jam featuring Seastones>Playing In The Band. It was rather rare for the band to join Phil and Ned during Seastones, but this jam works very well, and hits some remarkably deep spaces. One quick digression: while going through the Grateful Dead Movie’s outtakes in preparation for the DVD production, we came across some footage of the band getting together in a dressing room before the show on 10/16/74, the first night at Winterland. Evidently, they hadn’t seen each other since the end of the Europe tour, and while talking about the excellent music on that tour, Billy begins raving about the high quality of the recordings from the Europe tour, to which the rest of the band responds that they found the recordings equally impressive. Certainly some of Kidd’s best 2-track work.

    Going back a few years, we are pleased to play a couple of jams from 9/21/68. This material is drawn from a very interesting tape, in that it features Phil, Jerry and Mickey, plus a couple of guest musicians, in a studio jam right in the midst of the period in which the Mickey and the Hartbeats shows were being performed without Bobby and Pigpen. From this studio session, we have a nice Clementine Jam and another very interesting Jam.

    We’re going to take a detour away from our featured week and head off to May, 1973, specifically 5/13/73 in Des Moines, Iowa. From that excellent, long show (the first of three consecutive long shows in May, with 5/20 in Santa Barbara and 5/26 in San Francisco being the others), we have Here Comes Sunshine and a nice, long and spacey Playing In The Band from the second set, and from the first set we have the rocking combination of Don’t Ease Me In>Around and Around.

    Finally this week, and in memory of Corinne Crawford from Berkeley and Vermont, is the mournful Death Don’t Have No Mercy from 2/28/69.

    As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Feel free to write about anything. And be sure to check back in next week when we’ll have some stellar music from 1972, 1976 and 1981.

    David Lemieux
    vault [at] dead.net
    10785
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  • cactuswax
    17 years 2 months ago
    speaking of Beefheart
    I dunno if you're a guitar player, Badger, but if yr a Beefheart fan maybe this'll cheer you up anyway: 1. LISTEN TO THE BIRDS That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere. 2. YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one. 3. PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread. 4. WALK WITH THE DEVIL Old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts demons and devils. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub. 5. IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing. 6. NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field. 7. ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CHURCH KEY You must carry your key and use it when called upon. That's your part of the bargain. Like One String Sam. He was a Detroit street musician in the fifties who played a homemade instrument. His song "I Need A Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another church key holder is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty making you want to look up her dress to see how he's doing it. 8. DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music. 9. KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it. 10. YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE Wear a hat when you play and keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a wet paper towel around it to make it grow. ps- KILLER jam through "Let it Grow"!!!!!!!
  • cosmicbadger
    17 years 2 months ago
    miserable
    sorry no jokes this week because this is so frustrating...have I earned a good whine by now? However I set it up, my connection is not good enough to hear these long streams without numerous buffering breaks, Sirius is no use to me as I am not prepared to move to the USA, I don't go to Starbucks and do not play video games, so all these 'exciting developments' are either useless or like being locked outside the stadium week after week while the show is going on. I've tried to keep myself and others amused outside here in the parking lot (and I am told that 'backchannel' I am quite the hero), but to borrow a phrase from somewhere 'its wearing thin' right now and I don't know why I bother. If Kidd made such good 2-track recordings why the hell aren't more being made into Dave's Faves? Wouldn't it be nice if someone at Rhino would just have a little courtesy and respect and let us know what if anything the intention is for putting out further official releases. I know i am not entitled to anything, but I am entitled to stop supporting this website and to spend my spare time instead learning how to BT and doing some trading As you may be able to tell I've just about had enough.....as Captain Beefheart once said 'I'm not really here, I just stick around for my friends' Will someone please cheer me up
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    Little Ben Clock
    17 years 2 months ago
    Missing "Jam" and life in general
    I think we should accept that the streaming is here to stay. It's obvious that it's better to have downloadable tracks. I loved having them and have been really disappointed that they were replaced with streaming. But I've realised that constantly asking for them back isn't going to bring them back. I know it's a hassle for a lot of people - they can't stream at work, their connection isn't fast enough, they like to listen to the tracks in the car, when walking, etc, but, unfortunately, the downloads are not coming back. It sucks for those who can't stream, but that's life. I think David would be pretty sick of reading that people want them back. This whole thing was his idea and I'm sure he knows that people would rather the recordings were available for everyone for free (he's a fan too, remember?) but that's not going to happen anymore (apparently) and we have to grin and put up with it. Or, like some, we can refuse to interact with Rhino anymore. That's a legitimate choice. We all know where to download free Dead music if we want to. I agree that this isn't the best situation (from out point of view) and it wasn't handled as well as it might have been (again, from out point of view) but please stop attacking David Lemieux. He continues to provide great tidbits of Grate music for as many people as he can. He has to do what Rhino tells him - they employ him. He's trying and he's assured us that some interesting stuff is in the works. Let's trust him - how often has he let us down before? David, keep it up. It is appreciated. What I've heard of this week's picks is wonderful. Unfortunately the second 1968 track "Jam" appears to be missing. Any way this could be fixed up? Can't wait to see next week's stuff. Especially the 1981 tracks. The Taper's Section has really turned me on to the 1980s Dead - I was a bit of a 68-78 snob but I'm learning how much wonderful music there is to hear, from every year.
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We’ve got some outstanding music for you this week, covering a rather limited span in the Grateful Dead’s performing history, but it’s a span that includes some of the best years.

First up in our mid-September journey is Paris in 1974, where the Grateful Dead closed out their short tour of the continent. From 9/20/74, we have this very good Weather Report Suite>Stella Blue, and from the next night, 9/21/74, we have the second set jam featuring Seastones>Playing In The Band. It was rather rare for the band to join Phil and Ned during Seastones, but this jam works very well, and hits some remarkably deep spaces. One quick digression: while going through the Grateful Dead Movie’s outtakes in preparation for the DVD production, we came across some footage of the band getting together in a dressing room before the show on 10/16/74, the first night at Winterland. Evidently, they hadn’t seen each other since the end of the Europe tour, and while talking about the excellent music on that tour, Billy begins raving about the high quality of the recordings from the Europe tour, to which the rest of the band responds that they found the recordings equally impressive. Certainly some of Kidd’s best 2-track work.

Going back a few years, we are pleased to play a couple of jams from 9/21/68. This material is drawn from a very interesting tape, in that it features Phil, Jerry and Mickey, plus a couple of guest musicians, in a studio jam right in the midst of the period in which the Mickey and the Hartbeats shows were being performed without Bobby and Pigpen. From this studio session, we have a nice Clementine Jam and another very interesting Jam.

We’re going to take a detour away from our featured week and head off to May, 1973, specifically 5/13/73 in Des Moines, Iowa. From that excellent, long show (the first of three consecutive long shows in May, with 5/20 in Santa Barbara and 5/26 in San Francisco being the others), we have Here Comes Sunshine and a nice, long and spacey Playing In The Band from the second set, and from the first set we have the rocking combination of Don’t Ease Me In>Around and Around.

Finally this week, and in memory of Corinne Crawford from Berkeley and Vermont, is the mournful Death Don’t Have No Mercy from 2/28/69.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Feel free to write about anything. And be sure to check back in next week when we’ll have some stellar music from 1972, 1976 and 1981.

David Lemieux
vault [at] dead.net
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just a note. When I don't log in i have to allocate the player every clik. When I log in i just clik and dance. ...just in case anyone wondered. love Weather Report / Stella btw, warm and sunny here round and round
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I loved when you guys introduced this so very cool I used to download and then put them in my player and do my mountain bike ride a few days a week to new good tunes Now I dont know what kind of apple *.mov files your using but it sucks I have gone from visting dead.net every week to never even checkin in Please if you can go back to the mp3s thats all thank you see you on the next ratdog tour !
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I thought that we might have gotten a taste from Egypt.THere I go thinking again.I usually let my wife do that for me.Otherwise good stuff Dave.
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Thank you for sharing music from the 5/13/73 Des Moines concert. That was my first GD experience, and it certainly was a long show with three full sets plus an encore. It was also a beautiful spring day outdoors at the State Fairgrounds. I remember the band played Looks Like Rain and segueyed into Here Comes Sunshine with the weather cooperating on both songs with a little shower followed by sun. I have waited for years for the Dead to release a tape or CD of that concert. Is there any way I could get a copy of a tape/CD?
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Does anyone know the long-range goals for this site or Rhino? It is nice gettting these tidbits each week, but is there a bigger picture for all of the Dead's audio material? It would be cool to have the vault opened up a bit more. At least a better idea of what is and isn't in the collection would be great. I also wonder if some of us have anything that may not exist in the vault that we could contribute. I have an immense collection, sort of my own little version of a vault, and I know some people with crazy collections.....points to ponder.
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Try getting a stream recorder. They are inexpensive and really great. I have recorded quite a few excellent streams from this site. The music hasn't died, just taken a few more minimal steps to keep.
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for the first time in about 25 years, I feel like I have homework. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
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I haven't been able to hear them, can't get 'em to stream. If anyone wants to know how to turn any song available in the archive.com from the Grateful Dead soundboard shows (and NOT by ripping streams, but from actual downloading) send me an e-mail and I'll tell you how to do it. Rhino can go fuck themselves if they want to buy this enormous block of music and seal it up in a cave somewhere without making it available to anyone. I also downloaded hundreds of shows before archive.com was essentially 'taken down'. I also traded for hundreds of shows before archive.com was 'put up'. Let's get trading again! E-mail me when you can...Craig craigeyler@yahoo.com
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There has been plenty of good music on here!! But that doesn't help w/ Dead music where i need it!! Wich is in my car when i go visit my mom who is gravelly ill or in my MP3 player for my mom who love's the jerry tunes because that is all she heard coming from my room when i was a kid!! Look i said it before and i'll say i again i Love This Site!! But that being said Please release some nuggets on CD or for download we are willing pay for these things !! It seems to me there is an untapped market here that Rhino is foolishly overlooking!Rogue
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It has all been said on here I guess, reading back over the comments left. It seems that this "shitstorm", as someone put it, all has to do with the fact that there still has been no real or honest communication from anyone running this site. The mistake Rhino is making is that a lot of their target audience for the Dead's music is getting older, most of us already have a ton of Dead and we can smell bullshit a mile away,,,,I do not think they understand their overall audience when it comes to the Grateful Dead's following. Most younger people think of the Dead less and less...you would think Rhino would want to be firing up interest with a whole new generation who think the Dead is tie-dye shirt you buy at the mall. There are some great things they could do with the holdings they have.
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Storms across Florida could develop into tropical storm in gulf 9:18 a.m. Forecasters say Hurricane Jerry could organize as early as late Thursday evening in the gulf coast off of the coast of Florida. "May the four winds blow you safely home"-
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My mother lives in Florida, on the Gulf. Hope Jerry takes it easy on her! Hadn't known about a hurricane there, thanks estimated, now will call her.
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17 years 3 months
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Checkin' in here for the first time in weeks.I can do without the mp3s, though I do miss them. But I cannot deal with THE LACK OF RESPECTFUL COMMUNICATION from DL and/or Rhino. For many of us, this just makes us feel disenfranchised. This may be the "Official Site of the Grateful Dead" inc. LTD, all rights reserved, but it does not represent the soul legacy of the band we knew and still love. There would be a way to do that and have it fly commercially, but it would take a much more tuned in sensibility than is being applied by whoever is in charge. Oh well, have fun! I'll see you at the Phil Show at Red Rocks, at other shows down the line, and elsewhere online where Dead Heads congregate in places that are not transparent commercial ventures leaching off of our love... "KNOW OUR CASH COW WILL NOT FADE AWAY..... ...NO MATTER HOW WE TREAT THEM TODAY!"
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Well said Dr. Funky....nobody running this site seems to care, respond or give a crap...their loss in the long run. I am new on here, but I can sense the overall attitude and you are right on. Too bad....I had some optimism when I came in here. See you on the road....again, well said....
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Thansk, izzie, for finding the recording I heard on youtube, this would be "Hard to Handle" from the 8/6/70 Hollywood Palladium, downloaded from Archive. This is a audience recording, and is excelelnt both sound, with a full, ambient sound, and performance. If anyone here knows of other such recordings, please let me know...thanks! "If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise." - --Johann von Goethe--
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I've been ignoring this site for a little while and now that I've returned for a visit, I see absolutely nothing has changed. No news on new releases, no plausible explanation for why the mp3s were removed. Nothing. Fuck Rhino and everyone who has anything whatsoever to do with it. You are all pathetic corporate dipshits who wouldn't know how to run a record company if Ahmet Ertegun himself walked up and kicked you in the fucking nuts. Fucking morons. All of you.
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I bought the dead studio albums when they were crappy. I went to dead shows when Jerry fell asleep. I bought all of the dicks picks. I am still waiting for the final studio album, David, but I know that the dead will never release it. I bought all, I mean all, of the dead videos and movies. It's not you David- I know that Debra Koons is pulling the strings. What would Rex Jackson think of all of this? I never sold a bootleg. I bought only dead tie dies, none in the parking lot. And now- you all are getting cheap about a few downloads that I already have copies of. I guess that corporate greed has finally hit the dead empire, after 29 years of supporting the band. Tooooooo bad. The ideals that supported the band have finally undone them. Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose. David, keep your day job! My great memories of the band are still free-
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beenwaytoolongatsea i have every single taper section song since the beginning it's easy everyone shouldn't cry so bad you can do it since they don't seem to be taking away dirty posts any more that's cool like all these people telling rhino to go fuck off, it's great, it does greatly compound the lameosity of removing the downloadables by giving the crock of shit non-explanation it's hard to swallow, like most shit, I HEREBY CHALLENGE YOU DAVID LEMIEUX TELL US WHAT HAPPENED AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT WAS CRAP TO SAY NOBODY THOUGHT THE MP3S WOULD BE DOWNLOADED THAT'S WHAT THEY WERE FOR. just tell us the truth, go out on a limb, and i ask others to join in one voice in this seeking of redress of our grievance, and our grievance is not the loss of the downloads but the bullshit, make peace with us by speaking to us, all join in this call to david ..... right now jerry's screaming 'COME ON IN WHEN IT'S RAININ' GO ON OUT WHEN IT'S GONE ........ '70, from a tapers section ..... it's awesome. peace
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Streaming should work fluidly, but yours doesn't. I pause my player to do something else for a short second, and it won't log back in. It asks for user name and password. Try linking to something else from the site, and the streaming buffers or stops completely... I have to admit to being one of the many who downloaded the MP3. They went right into my iPOD, and I listened each week enjoying the many snippets of shows that I wish I had been at. A real pleasure. But this streaming is for the birds. Dave, I'm really sorry you got stuck in the middle of this. It was a wonderful service. the discussions were super. Now it's anger and frustration. I guess the end was inevitable.....I miss jerry. Sacto Bob, the original Dead since 1971
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beenwaytoolongatsea this streaming format is sub-optimal there's no question but it's quirks seem manageable you basically can't stop it for more than a second or two or it will stop, and ask you some stupid shit about a password and then you just have to quit it and start the link over, if your not too pissed off by then, if you don't stop it it's cool
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The only posts ever taken down were a handful of below-the-belt personal insults.
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beenwaytoolongatsea peace
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The way this site seems set up, you have several wonderful ladies sort of running / policing it, then when the going gets a bit too rough with the comments, PatRhino swoops down and tries to interject. This same cycle seems to be how the entire business is now run.....no foresight or proactivity, just firefighting.
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We're never going to get an explanation. Ever. The contempt for the fans that Rhino and its minions at GDP display is nauseating. The "explanation" previously offered was an insult to every living Deadhead with an IQ larger than his shoe size. The arrogance and incompetence just blows my mind. It's like the fucking Bush administration has taken over the vault.
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I think csmiller just insulted GW.
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C’mon David Lemieux… WE LOVE YOUR WORK! You can’t be enjoying this. You can’t be ignoring this. Just give us some truth. We can be a very forgiving bunch. Drop us a line. Show us a sign. It can be discreet, subtle, cryptic. Maybe its not safe for you here -you can post it somewhere else and we will find it. Just a little light?
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Did this really happen, Jerry falling asleep on stage? I find this very hard to swallow. Which in turn makes your post worthless. If I'm wrong here please inform me !!
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tj crowley again....i've been apart of this blog(ing) and as most are angry (dis-appointed) so to am i...i utilized the acces to downloading to make the ride to/fro work (45 mins. one way) as well any other time in the car (while at home there's no music..just listenning to the wind and tress atop this mountain). i too struggled w/ learning to stream (very computor inept). not only do/did i lack computoer savvy to do the stream had i learned my place of business (addictions specialist in a long term in-patient treatment center for the rich/famous) wouldn't permit BUT..where have/has any one seen where this switch in policy/availability is by the hand(s) of rhino. trust me, i'm the last to support and/or advocate for corporate ameriKa but no where have i seen this was a rhino position. i have tho seen mulitple attacks on not just king rhino but the two Dave's who have a hand in the filtering of the music that runs thru our veins.SO..why the attacks on who "WE" don't know IS responsible? i too would like to get a clearer answer from dave L but obviously his response is restricted (either by his choosing or corporate ameriKa). relax...trade...listen to the shows already downloaded...switch the tunes around to make new cd's interesting...don't lable the cd and surprise yourself as to waht tunes you burned..relax..our time on the planet is too short to be hostile with each other.."WE" all breath the same air
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It's called "being facetious". I believe he was using it to illustrate a point.
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tj crowley isn't it referred to as 'nodding'
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OK, I'll try that but only if I can get one via a free download. Viva la Resistance!! "We were led to believe there would be punch and pie."
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we can support our habit by listening to the streams from archive, which are easier to use, about the only thing here to stream is the GD hour, nice long stream, and streams can be recorded, if desired. It's to bad that GDP doesn't know how to make things work correctly, that's their loss. BTW, tried to listen to some of the songs from the download section to see if I wanted to buy them, wouldn't work (surprise?) but on the CD versions, the preview (if that what you would call it) worked just fine, go figure... "If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise." - --Johann von Goethe--
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AP, er cb has made the claim that all the chaos (here) is the direct result of Dr. Evil's desire to gain free marketing advice, measured by the decibel level of horror and outrage to the absence of free downloads (probably planted, imo). Evil's poor henchmen silenced by the menacing Mr. Bigglesworth, as he lay in wait for defectors, at the edge of various trust funds. Dave Gans and marye have touched their noses, in a stinging cue of defiance of their evil master. Perhaps my grandmother and aunt were correct after all when they would say (yell over the punches), "Silence is golden!" I just can't figure out who gets the gold, there isn't anything for sale yet. Silence is certainly a valuable weapon, at this point. Evil has employed it and I urge we all take note. "A word to the wise is sufficient". "Viva la Resistance!"
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I think this may be more of a FREE HAT issue now.
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I am responsible for there being no more downloads available here. I Blew up th Dam.
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this is probably the result of poor planning/execution on the part of GDP and Rhino. Rhino's a pretty big operation, and these dead tunes are likely small potatoes for them, so they are not going out of their way to deal with this in a more constructive way, i.e., customer service, etc. And we all know that GDP has been fumbly around for years, as much as I like the dead and what they and GDP have done for all of us, to say that they have their acts together would be a misstatement of past and current actions... "If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise." - --Johann von Goethe--
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"And we all know that GDP has been fumbly around for years, as much as I like the dead and what they and GDP have done for all of us, to say that they have their acts together would be a misstatement of past and current actions..." GDP's management of the vault, even at its most scattershot, was several orders of magnitude better than Rhino. Rhino clearly has absolutely no idea what they are selling and who they are selling it to. At least GDP was the production arm of the band, selling it's own product, as opposed to some oblivious multinational corporation run by a bunch of fuckwits. The so called "Deadheads" at Rhino (I refuse to believe there are any, btw; being a Rhino employee with an account on this site means nothing) are so fucking inept and downright stupid its amazing they even live, let alone go to work every day and ignore the thousands of GD tapes sitting in their vault. Something tells me Rhino will somehow become the first corporation to win the Darwin award. I don't know how all the employees will inadvertantly off themselves en masse, but their heretofore inanity fills me with faith that they will pull it off in most spectacular fashion. Or at least we can hope.
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Hurricane Jerry?? COOL! if not the least cause we need rain soooo baddddd! I hope the four winds DO get blowin... Thats right! Saturday night
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i love Donna in Playing in the band, she really belts it out there. great job with the site, I had no trouble hearing the streams right away i dont know what the complaining is all about, if you can sign on to a forum and post you should be able to download a free realplayer or quick time. [IMG]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/zjman/zjmansig73.jpg[/IMG]
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yes, sorry- quoted in a few reputable dead books.
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I have to go away on a work trip for a couple of weeks so I have left you with a paranoid epic to entertain or annoy you through the streaming hours to come. It’s in 7 not-too-long parts numbered in case the order goes wrong. I’ve been amusing myself with this for a while as light relief from compiling a mind-crushingly tedious official report. Hope you enjoy it
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Charlie Ford and his big sister Charlene grew up in a small city in the Midwest. Bill, their dad, ran an auto repair shop, mom Cindy did hair and make up They made enough money to live in modest comfort in a small house on the edge of the city, not far from the local stadium. Charlie did not do so well at school, and he was a strange kid, with few friends and who worshipped his dad, helping out in the repair shop after school every day. The steady, uneventful rhythm of small town life suited this apparently normal little family, except for a few days each summer when their cosy existence was thrown into turmoil. It normally started with a trickle of longhairs showing up at the auto repair shop, asking Bob to go out and fix their cars on the highway. But Bob (who hated foreign cars and hippies) always demanded cash in advance and chased them away with a tire iron in his hand. Little Charlie soon learned to throw a few rocks at them too.
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In the days before the annual Grateful Dead show, as the crowds, cars and buses gathered along the road to the stadium, Bob Ford would lead his little family into their well-rehearsed siege routine. Charlie helped his dad unroll coils of razor wire round the front yard and board up the windows. Cindy and Charlene would be commanded to load the shotguns and bake a week’s supply of pies. Bob Ford would then gather his family and issue them with a chilling warning. ‘You stay away from them Dead Heads, y’all hear. Thems all commie nazi drug crazed perverts and homo-sexuals and if you go near them you’ll end up just like ‘em. And I will rot in hell before I let you do that ’. Charlie and Charlene would be driven to and from school and otherwise not allowed out the house. But sometimes Cindy and her daughter would secretly peer through a tiny crack in the shutters, watching in awe as the mysterious, colourful deadheads passed by. The night of the show Bob would tune the radio to a Country Station and turn it way up loud in a futile attempt to drown out the rolling thunder from the stadium. Over the years Charlene even grew to recognise one or two songs; one winter she was grounded for a week for humming a tune that, years later, she would recognise as ‘Brown-Eyed Women’. Bob Ford complained loud and often to the city authorities, but they ignored him ‘All your whining is giving us hairballs Bob’ the mayor and chief of police would say ‘those kids look poor but they spend so much money here, they’re like golden nuggets. If you would just fix their cars for them you could get some of those nuggets too’. But Bob would never listen.
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Then one summer something changed. The new head teacher (wearing a very colourful tie) gathered the students in the school gym and addressed them. ‘As you know boys and girls, every year about this time our city welcomes the Dead Heads as our guests; so this time we decided to invite some of them to our school. First they are going to play us some music, next they will tell us some stories and then we’re all going to learn how to make a tie die shirt’. Half a dozen smiley hairy colourfully dressed people walked a little nervously onto the stage, plugged a little cassette player into the school PA and put in a tape. ‘Hi’ one of them said ‘I’m Lilly, these are my friends and this music is why we are here’ Right on cue a man with a big grey beard pressed the ‘on’ button, and as the sweet opening notes of ‘Here Comes Sunshine’ drifted across the gym a deadhead with flowers in her hair started to dance. Soon the others joined in and the assembly sat entranced by the beautiful, joyful music and the spinning, whirling dancers. Suddenly Charlie Ford leapt to his feet: ‘Shut the fuck up you dicks ’ he screamed ‘my dad says you’re a bunch of commie Nazi perverts whose all going to hell and if I listen to this shit the devil’s going to use me for his own special plaything’
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Part 4: The riotThe dancers stopped and looked nervously over to the head teacher who just stood and fiddled with his tie. Then one of the children broke into laughter and soon they all joined in, pointing at Charlie and starting a cruel, taunting chant. ‘Charlie is a Dead Head, Charlie is a Dead Head. Devil’s Plaything, Devil’s Plaything’. The little group on the stage conferred with eachother and one of them shouted above the rising cacophony. ‘’Stop it! Take a step back! Be kind! We all love Charlie and we’re going to give him a big group hug’ With that the Deadheads bravely jumped down from the stage. They gathered round the beleaguered Charlie, joined arms and enveloped him in an unfamiliar, but not unpleasant cocoon of velvet, hair, and warm, soft bodies, all scented with a heady combination of patchouli, bonfire smoke, gasoline and dirty laundry. But deep inside the hug, above the soaring sounds of ‘Here Comes Sunshine’ Charlie could still hear the chanting as it went on and on ‘Devils gonna getcha. Devils gonna getcha’. In those moments two opposing forces fought for control of the confused young mind of poor suffocating Charlie Ford. Yield to the love or surrender to the hate. The spell of love was slowly winning, but before it could fully take hold, it was savagely and irreparably broken as Bob Ford crashed into the gym, tire irons in his tattooed fists screaming ‘Where’s my boy?’.