Grateful Dead

Boycott Rhino, they own the rights to just about every '80's cartoon. Transformers, G.I Joe. They bought up the rights to the dead's treasure trove. They want to treat their consumer with contempt. So I'll treat them by being content to put my wallet back in my pocket. The new motto. So if it says Rhino on it........ Stick it back on the shelf!

People keep alluding to this, and of course a vehement comment about the Starbucks release is what prompted David Gans's heated response last week... I think there are real reasons why the Starbucks release concerns many Dead Heads. They may not be fair reasons, but they're valid from a certain point of view, and I don't think they've been aired in a calm way yet (I might have missed a post, though). First, rightly or wrongly, I'd imagine that for a lot of us, Starbucks represents a certain kind of corporate, yuppie mentality--huge international chain, highly standardized product and merchandizing environment, etc. The opposite of what the Dead stood for in many of our imaginations. That's a romanticized image: the Dead have been a big (or at least mid-sized) business for a long time now. And a negative attitude toward Starbucks may be unfair. But still, there have to be at least a few unreconstructed hippies around the Dead organization who could tell you that the Starbucks alliance would cause a gut reaction in some fans. That gut reaction is not necessarily a reason for Rhino/GDP to refrain from putting out a Starbucks release, but it does, I think, explain at least some of the negative response to it on these boards. Especially combined with (and this is my second point) the fact that the new Starbucks release comes at a time when archival releases are few and far between. This is two best-ofs released in the last four years. Obviously, it took somebody some man-hours to put the new one together, and I imagine many fans wish those man-hours had been spent on a release that they could appreciate, instead. This combines with some frustration about Three From The Vault, which many found to be a less-than-overwhelming release, but which seems like it may have been easier to market to a mass audience than, say, the once-rumored Winterland '73 box would have been. In other words, there seems to be a perception, not entirely unjustified, that more effort right now is being put into trying to recruit new fans/customers than trying to please the faithful. (To be fair, the faithful can be very hard to please--we're loyal, but veeeery cantankerous, and often passionate rather than considered in our responses.) There's nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with Rhino/GDP trying to enlarge the audience for Grateful Dead music. It's not like '87, when there was a delicate ecology to the scene that was thrown out of whack by the arrival of the "Touchheads" (then again, that's when I first got into the Dead, and here I am still, twenty years later). Now, it's just a question of how many people are going to buy each new vault release, and so it's truly the more the merrier. Right? Maybe. Again, I would never argue that Rhino/GDP should NOT try to increase their audience. But from the hardcore fan's perspective, there can certainly be a difference between a label that's dedicated to serving an existing, knowledgeable fanbase and one that's dedicated to appealing to as broad a market as possible. I'm a big Dylan collector, and I don't think I'm alone in feeling that the big problem with Columbia/Sony's approach to Dylan archival sets is that they're trying to appeal to a broad, uncommitted audience, rather than the real hardcore fans. It's no coincidence, I think, that Starbucks also released an exclusive Dylan album, Live At The Gaslight 1962--and Dylan collectors were wildly disappointed with this. What was on it was great, but it left off a good chunk of what's on the circulating Gaslight tape, maybe so as not to scare off casual purchasers with too many unfamiliar songs. Again, Columbia/Sony's Dylan archival releases always seem calculated to rope in as many casual fans as possible, rather than trying to get it right (if I may say so) for the hardcore fans. It's possible that some of us have reacted to the Starbuck's set, 3FTV, and the discontinuance of the DPs and Download Series as Rhino's steps in that direction, as trying to appeal to a broad but casual audience at the expense of the faithful. I take DL2's and everybody else's word for it that this is not the case--that it's just taking a while for Rhino to get all its cylinders firing, and that there will be lots of things to make us hardcore fans very happy (something that the Taper's Section mp3s were doing, incidentally--one reason why taking them away provoked such a reaction). I live in hope. But I just thought I'd point out that the reaction to the Starbucks set was not entirely paranoid or silly. Let's hope the Starbucks set creates thousands and thousands of new Dead fans, and that all of them are ready to make a big box o' '73 their next purchase.

ok, i too was a downloader- but i feel no guilt for it. if no one running the show knew until recently about the downloading, the people running the forums (what are you currently listening to? what's in your mp3 player?) certainly did and mercifully weren't telling!!! if my downloading was a contributing factor, i will line up for my lashes with the wet noodle... or for streaming poor quality sound... but i can live with it. it isn't ideal- but, as willie nelson says, 'thankfully, i am not in charge' so, my new thing on mondays will be to tune in and enjoy while grading papers instead of tuning in, downloading, giggling like a little kid on her birthday, and loading up my mp3 player will new goodies to take to school to play for myself and all the impressionable young minds... in an ironic twist, our school has prohibited teachers from bringing in music (or film, etc) to use in the classroom for either academic or recreational purposes. the reason given is that the teacher and the school may be sued for copyright infringement (can you smell the disney attorneys in the air there???) and the school can't pay the fines (up to 10k)... so my plan was to continue my old plan: all dead, all day... and this decision to drop mp3s has NOT changed my plan at all (unless the suits come knocking on the door of 1607 looking to take me for all the $500 i'm worth...). although my other plans for an all sugar mag or all shakedown st cd will probably not pan out... i don't want to pour gas on the fire! anyway, david, you have been more than kind to me (and to the collective 'we') in your choices and in your generosity. i have no complaints, only compliments to you on your fine taste in music and your vast knowledge on the band. thanks for all if it. caroline