What clearly was the greatest force of grass root exposure for his music was the cassette tape. More specifically the cassette tapes of live Grateful Dead concerts. All through the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's the Grateful Dead performed hundreds of concerts and many of these were recorded by their fans, as well as the band. A practice that as time moved on was "allowed" and by 1984, eventually endorsed by the band as they created a section behind the sound board for tapers.
You could say the Dead were "Occupying" the record industry as their libertarian take on the music business led them to even " leak" sound board recordings of many shows. Some of these boards had legendary status with Dead Heads, such as ones that their early sound man Bear recorded or the "Betty" Cantor- Jackson boards from 1977 to the Wall of Sound shows from 1974. These were coveted and what was the most important detail was what generation it was?
You might be wondering what that meant but back in the days of analog recordings the more you copied a cassette tape the more the sound quality could, or more likely would, deteriorate. This could be a result of the equipment used, the type of tape and if it was normal or high bias, or whether noise reduction;most notably Dolby, was used or not used on multiple generations of copies of the tape. Tapers wanted " crispy" boards and 1st or 2nd generation audience recordings.Many of us had "hissy" boards from 1972 or 1973 but it was still acceptable to listen to. Actually it was required listening.
Generally if you wanted high quality cassette tapes of Dead shows you had to know a taper or start trading.
The majority of us were traders. We would slowly build our collections trying to find the best sounding copies that were out in circulation first in our home towns trading with our friends or the older heads in town. Next it was the neighboring towns and then entire state. We would network with other traders at shows and and more than likely some older taper with hundreds of tapes would throw you a bone and ask for your list and give you his mailing address. This would create much excitement in the hearts of young Dead Heads. Eventually we would type up our tape list and rate the sound quality, you had to be very honest in this regard as if you tried to misrepresent what you actually had you were violating taper edict. Finally you had to list all the tapes in chronological order in your collection.
If you had an address from a head from the last show you saw you would drop your list in the mail and wait. The day that this older heads tape list arrived in your mail box was like Christmas day. Words from this taper's list would jump out at you like golden beams of light. Shows from 1969, 1972, 1974, or 1977. Legendary locations such as Veneta, the Filmore West, the Warfield, or the Greek held mystical status. Or simply descriptions such as sound quality excellent or a 2nd generation sound board. You would be quickly over whelmed and overjoyed. Which ones should I choose? Back in the days before Dead Base. It was the lore spoken by fellow heads of the must have shows from the past. Places like Winterland , to run down coliseums in the northeast or Red Rocks these where the pantheons of our culture. Plus the Dead made sacred ground where ever they played so choosing was not always easy. The other condition was if the other person only wanted 3 or 4 tapes from your list, then that is all you could ask for in exchange. This was the perfect barter system. Another condition was the tape of choice preferred by the majority of all tapers the Maxell XLII-S.
Within in a couple weeks you would get your new tapes and begin making copies for all your friends who were not traders. That was also the other rule of tapers, they always made copies for their friends.
Granted it was a pain in the ass sometimes but you did it none the less. You had a responsibility to share the magic.
Another fun and rewarding way of connecting with other traders was to go through the classifieds of fan mags like Dupree's Diamond Blues or Relix's and mail your tape list to some other head hundreds or thousand miles from you in the hope that he or she, the majority of tapers were male, would be interested in your list. This was also a way you could meet these people at shows if you or they traveled. You might be juggling two or three other trader's requests at one time and running your decks 15 hours a day. You would start doing five, six, or ten tapes at a time for these new friends and very quickly your collection would blossom to 100 or 200 tapes or more.
You also had to start buying your Maxell tapes in bulk as the traditional retail store was too expensive. It was very common to buy them by the case, or "brick", through the mail from Terrapin Tapes. As your collection went beyond 200 tapes you would become much more selective in what you wanted and particularity the sound quality. You would go through folks list with a fine tooth comb cherry picking their best and they would do the same with you. A tape a that six months ago was rated very good, but was actually a good, was no longer acceptable. Tapers always want to up grade the quality of a killer show, and since cassette tapes could be taped over it was easy to do.
Then there were the tape covers you could make or buy on tour to personalize your collection. Next you needed storage racks, if you had a girl friend this was always a problem, and you wanted them on full display in the living room. So that you could easily access them any time your wanted. This of coarse included organizing them in chronological order and constantly rearranging sections of your collection to accommodate the newest tapes you collected.
By this point you could have major issues with your relationship because all of your free time was taken up making copies and then after a tour? It only got worse...or better. It was a never ending cycle . Bay area shows at Chinese New Years. Spring tour in late March. Summer tour. Fall tour in September I eventually joined a taping Co-Op out of California and would real off dozens of copies of FOB, front of the board, audience tapes as I would get first generation masters for my service.
To say it was a labor of love and that is an under statement. As Bob Weir sang " Too much of everything is just enough"
Then on August 9, 1995 it all came to a crashing halt..well sort of.
Enter the 21st century... everything changed the community of tapers/traders changed. We have the Archive now so you can stream almost any show you want, at any time, any where.
We now have Youtube where now all the " illegally" taped concert videos are popping up every day. Plus you get the killer official releases from deadnet too.
We also have couch tour in which the modern day tapers live stream shows they are taping through UStreams and you can join in from the comforts of your home.
It has a created a new freedom for all us former traders but it is not the same.
We have lost that community. A community in which we interacted in many ways that honored the human condition more and the spirit of the counter culture movement.
We had a living culture that we helped document and shared. A culture that was one of the funniest and most adventurous cultural oddities of the 20th century... The Grateful Dead and boy were we were head over heels in it.
Garcia's music in the 21st century continues to inspire a new and younger audience as well as a new generation of performers.
That is what is important.
No longer does the love affair for documenting and enjoying live music need all the work that so many of us did 18 years ago.
All you need now is a Ipod, a lap top, and a good wifi connection.
So the next time you are in the attic or that forgotten closet remember all those millions of feet of magnetic tape sitting in boxes collecting dust and as Jerry sang,
"Polished like a golden bowl
The finest ever seen
Hearts of summer held in trust
Still tender young and green
Left on shelves collecting dust
Not knowing what they mean"
Lucky for us we were blessed with Jerry's live music presence to know what "they mean" and we are all still very grateful all these many years later.
God speed Jerry.
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