Description
Book SynopsisThe Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live acts of the rock era. Performing more than 2,300 shows between 1965 and 1995, the Grateful Dead's reputation as a live band was-and continues to be-sustained by thousands of live concert recordings from every era of the group's long and colorful career. In Live Dead, musicologist John Brackett examines how live recordings-from the group's official releases to fan-produced tapes, bootlegs to Betty Boards, and Dick's Picks to From the Vault-have shaped the general history and popular mythology of the Grateful Dead for more than fifty years. Drawing on a diverse array of materials and documents contained in the Grateful Dead Archive, Live Dead details how live recordings became meaningful among the band and their fans not only as sonic souvenirs of past musical performances but also as expressions of assorted ideals, including notions of liveness, authenticity, and the power of recorded sound.
Trade Review“Integrating material from popular, academic, and archival sources, John Brackett writes with the sensibilities of a Deadhead and the rigor of a scholar. As someone who likes her Dead live and prefers to dance to music in person, his perspective resonates with me. As an academic who studies Deadheads, I welcome this thoroughly researched and impeccably documented account of how and why ‘live recordings came to dominate the discourse of the Grateful Dead.’” -- Rebecca G. Adams, University of North Carolina Greensboro, coeditor of * Deadhead Social Science *
“As avatars of without-a-net musical improvisation, the Grateful Dead staked out sonic territory that took the importance of live performance to whole new levels. John Brackett does an exceptional job of presenting the history of ‘liveness’ in modern music and then placing the Grateful Dead securely within that tradition.” -- Peter Conners, author of * Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall *
"Brackett’s measured and thoughtful approach makes this worthwhile reading for both committed Deadheads and those interested in the study of live music." * Publishers Weekly *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. Becoming Live 1
1. “To Capture That Special Feeling”: Recorded (and Recording) Liveness (The Warner Bros. Years, 1966–1973) 31
2. “The Next Best Thing to Being There”: Tapes, Taping, and an Alternative Aesthetic of Recorded Liveness 61
3. A Time of
Reckoning: New Approaches to Producing and Marketing Liveness (The 1980s, Part 1) 85
4. “That Quintessential Spirit of the Band”: “Touch of Grey,” the “Betty Boards,” and the Rebirth of the Dead (The 1980s, Part 2) 105
5. “The Live Feel of a Tape”:
From the Vault,
Dick’s Picks, and the Language(s) of Liveness 125
6. Post-Dead: “Obstinately Physical,” “Vaporous Cargo,” and the Material Remains of Liveness 152
Conclusion: Memento Mori 169
Notes 177
Bibliography 201
Index 211
