I have only been listening to the Grateful Dead for about a week now. I had never really liked the band until I actually listened to their music. And I wasn't aware of the ride I was going on by listening to them.
The Owsley "Bear" Stanley album of an early, essential New York Allman Brothers show (over 6 months before they found success) taped in NYC entitled _Fillmore East 2/70_ (GDCD 4063) I wish I didn't know how much of a snitch rat Gregg Allman was. Any doubters Google the following words; Gregg Allman Scooter Herring. I must separate the music from the man. But so it goes..
I'm a musician so I have experience with live sound systems. I have a degree in audio production. I'm also a Deadhead who caught 64 shows between 1984 and 1995. What The Dead tried to do here was get it to sound on stage the same as it sounded for the crowd. Now when you look at how sound works and everything that idea is practically impossible. But the fact that they tried it, and the ridiculousness and intricacies of this sound system are classic example of the Grateful Dead legend. Crazy half assed idea after crazy half assed idea that shouldn't have worked but did.
when you say the idea is practically impossible do you just mean the actual acoustics of projecting sound into a large open area where a large crowd would sit, say in an arena, or for a technical reason ?
phoenix jones No the idea of getting it to sound On the stage how it sounds in the "House". I'm under the understand that that's what they were going for. But there's no way they could get it to sound on stage the way it did In the larger area, with high ceilings, and a few hundred people for the sound waves to bounce off of and around.
If this interests you than read Owsley Stanley's book. The guy was a literal genius with a lot of far out quirks (his obsession with a meat ONLY diet). He changed how we hear live music today and doesn't get nearly enough credit. He also was THE MAN making LSD in those days. What a fellow!
No one mentions Mile Nestorovic, he designed many McIntosh amplifiers back in the 1960s like the MC-3500, it's his work, he's an audio legend, because of its amplifiers, the way the concert sound was changed...Greateful Dead, Woodstock...
Is there two different things called wall of sound in music, cos i heard about the one phil spector used on the studio recording of pet sounds for instance
Yes. Spector was developing studio recording techniques. This is all about live concert sound systems which absolutely sucked before the Dead came along. The main reason the Beatles stopped playing live concerts and became a studio band.
In the 70's my brother worked at a factory that made stereo speakers. Some of the employees had a band, and they made a PA based on this concept. Every singer had two mics, carefully spaced. I don't remember how they mic'ed the drums. It worked great, but was too much to carry around.
It was in late 1973 -I think it was in Guitar Player magazine - I read an interview - was it with Bear, or Dan Healy? - describing the then-brand new Wall of Sound. My band was always trying to get more gain in the monitors, but hopefully without the microphones feeding back, so I was extremely impressed when he mentioned that each singer had two mikes - next to each other, but wired out of phase. The singer would sing into one mike, while any ambient noise - or feedback from nearby speakers - would enter both mikes, and be be phase-cancelled, I had a brief Twitter exchange with David Gans this past year, and mentioned the phase-canceling mikes, and he didn't believe me. I scoured google and Guitar Player looking for that 1973 interview, but couldn't find it. Ah, but I recently stumbled on this on UA-cam, , and tweeted it at Gans, but haven't heard back: @Hard2Handle2269: @davidgans Here it is. about 2:30 in, Parish, @DonnaJeanG & @BKreutzmann, @BobWeir, describing #Bear's #WallOfSound w/2 out-of-phase omni mics for each singer. The Grateful Dead's - 'Wall Of Sound' ua-cam.com/video/PODPgBaiFI4/v-deo.html via @You Thanks for this post, @UCXkNod_JcH7PleOjwK_8rYQ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Healy_(soundman)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Healy_(soundman)
I did :D Over 20 speakers. Any speaker I found. I had no idea about ohms or anything else. I can't believe it actually worked. These days I'll take 2 really nice speakers over 100 average speakers. It reminds me of how stereo systems were hand me downs back in the day. Now you just get brand new plastic shit boxes.
This is a great video! Thank you! I would like to hear more about what followed the Wall of Sound... Was is as good..? How did the Wall of Sound effect the future of concert audio...? Perhaps a part two...?
The wall of sound experiment led to the sound systems almost all big concerts use now. It's called "line array" technology. The initial wall of sound was cutting edge and ultimately extremely expensive and cumbersome. But the experiments led to improvements in to modern systems and sound design became it's own off shoot industry for rock & roll. When the Dead started touring again there were professional PA sound system companies that developed more affordable manageable sized systems. The Dead started renting those by 1976. Still great sound, but not as crystalline clear as the original wall. A sound company can have systems available in a region and rent to acts coming through town on tour which is fairly standard in the industry. P.S. When you hear about the Beatle stopping live concerts because they couldn't hear themselves over screaming girls, it's because they didn't have rock & roll sound systems at that time. The Dead were the 1st band to give a shit AND pay for experiments to improve live concert sound. There were other sound professionals working on the issues at that time, (late '60's, early '70's), but no one had the money besides Owsley "The Bear" and the Dead to really make major advances.
@@edm781 Fantastic explanation... Thank you! Now let's turn it into a documentary... Seriously! I think the Dead is so under rated (on all levels) and basically unknown as the progenitors of sound technology that they are/were... I mean we have so much to thank the Dead for... As you said they gave a shit about the sound. A friend of mine says that if the wall of sound had not been created we would not have stadium concerts... That may be an over statement- but I like it. Moreover, I am personally of the mind that one day... We will be called to for our sins as species... And if we are smart, we will point to The Grateful Dead, and say "But we also did this..." I can only assume that what ever is calling us to account will pause and say... "Let me/us think about that..."
LSD is not nefarious. I graduate with a B.S. in Psychology in May and have taken LSD, and other psychedelics like psilocin and 2ci, on numerous occasions. If anything, these compounds have made me a more open minded person.
Was going to write this as a PM but it seems I can't find that function anymore: Decibel, not decibals. Hope you don't take any offence as there is none intended.
I enjoyed the presentation but in the back of my mind a voice is saying "if he can't take time to find the correct spelling of decibel, what else in this video is inaccurate?"
This cannot be a true representation of a live sound unless this live audio was captured exclusively with a single stereo mic out at stage front (as per cassette recording). The "clarity of sound" you are describing here might have more to do with some multitrack multichannel recording, with post mixing and mastering applied
I had a music lecturer who made fun of the wall of sound for being absolutely terrible. Now I doubt whether or not he actually did any more research than just seeing a picture of it
Were all in 1984 didn't you know citizen ? Big Brother approves of my comment , don't worry about being watched , Big Brother has your best interest in mind citizen , be well and stay safe , happy company picnic to you and yours .
One thing that you should have mentioned is that acid was legal to make in California until 1966; this explains why Owsley was originally able to get away with making it. There's even a story from 1965 where police raided his lab for amphetamines but only found LSD, and he successfully sued them for the return of his equipment.
@@romanlegion4282 Tell me what is wrong about enjoying something that doesn't do any harm to you at all. In fact, fighting drugs costs Americans on average 50 billion a year. So what is really hurting you more?
@@ZiggyBonham First, your lack of morality.Second your right we spend that much to defeat the cartels and drug dealers .Doing drugs is supporting them. Plain and simple Get out of your plastic suburban living and live life.
@@romanlegion4282 Do you think doing drugs supports cartels more or the fact that there is an Illegal market created by the US government? Do you think alcohol prohibition worked? Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.
Wow. I had heard about the wall of sound, but I had never seen it before. I didn't realize it was a literal wall of towering speakers. That's amazing. Excellent work as always Mr. Polyphonic.
Well. This is probably not the same type as you have heard about before. The more famous use of the phrase is a production technique that was "invented" by Phil Spector to create a bigger musical sound on record. One of the main characteristics was muktitracking instruments to make them feel fuller. If you want a prime example of this sound then you have to check out Devin Townsend's "Ocean Machine".
I thought part of Spector's wall of sound also had to do with utilizing the bleed from other instruments in to the mics. He would pack the studio with session musicians. Doubling, even tripling the instruments and everyone would play in unison. The microphones would pickup the sounds from everyone around. he also used an echo chamber of sorts. But the thing is he was doing that for mono. Once stereo came in, that idea just sounded muddy.
Back in the eighties when I was an aspiring teen rock star, a friend of mine loaned me a speaker cabinet that apparently had been part of the Wall of Sound. His mother had lived in the Bay area in the seventies and picked it up somewhere along the line. It was made of maple plywood, corners heavily rounded over for transport, completely enclosed and had held 2 twelve inch speakers that were no longer installed. Looking at photos, it would have been one of the cabinets on the far left vertical stack (when facing the stage). I had it set up in my bedroom for years (with new speakers installed) before the realities of life forced me to focus on making a real living. I gave it back years later. It was a cool little piece of history I treasured playing through and shared my living space with.
I saw the Dead with the Wall Of Sound in Philadelphia in 1974. Two things, apart from the music itself, stand out in my memory of it. The music they played at intermission was an incredible test of the system. The thundering bass, when isolated, was amazing!! I heard later that Lesh designed the audio for the intermission, which was kinda like a space jam. Also, when all the lights were out in the theater at the beginning of the show , all the individual red lights from each JBL speaker looked like a field of stars reaching to the rafters, so cool!!
JBL through and through huh?! what?! Yes!! JBL up down ans side side!!! OH!! ~I'm trying to find a rundown of all the specific gear in there, like a schematic. All these UA-cam guys are doing is essays on the wow and the yeow, man, lol ~where are the techy specifics??
Pity most of them are made for women and children.. I tried the main models from the major manufacturers.. Bose, Sony, etc in the airport.. I have a cheap chinese pair that work decently and fit perfectly however the way I make it cordless is that I plug them into a 3. 5mm Bluetooth adapter. (
Lyrics While the music played, you worked by candlelight Those San Francisco nights You were the best in town Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl You turned it on the world That's when you turned the world around (Did you feel like Jesus?) Did you realize That you were a champion in their eyes? On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene But yours was kitchen-clean Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home Every A-Frame had your number on the wall You must have had it all You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone (Could you live forever?) Could you see the day? Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away? Now your patrons have all left you in the red Your low-rent friends are dead This life can be very strange All those day-glo freaks who used to paint the face They've joined the human race Some things will never change (Son, you were mistaken) You are obsolete Look at all the white men on the street Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail Those test-tubes and the scale Just get it all out of here Is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car I think the people down the hall know who you are 'Cause the man is wise You are still an outlaw in their eyes
I thought Kesey was Kid Charlemagne. Based on your comment I did a search and saw Wikipedia entry that did say it was based on Owsley but it also conflated stuff like the Technicolor motorhome which was Kesey.
Great video! I'm the sound guy/road manager from Melvin Seal's JGB from years ago and I think you nailed most of what the wall of sound was. A couple of friends of mine actually own pieces of the wall! They auctioned it all off after they stopped using it. My only critique of your video is that the recordings you used for the wall of sound weren't audience recordings so don't really represent what the band or audience were hearing. Bear actually split the snake and ran every channel to a back room where there was a "recording studio" of sorts where they could get an independent mix of the show. They couldn't use what the band used because the band was constantly making adjustments and they didn't want the adjustments on tape. They created a separate recording mix live for the recordings and that is what you heard on the clip you played. That being said, my friend Marty(former Bass player for Melvin) was actually at a few of the wall of sound shows. Unfortunately I am a little too young being born in 72'. He told me that it wasn't loud and you could hear a pin drop on stage no matter where you were in the venue. He also said that the Dead was the ONLY band to ever make the Cow Palace in South SF sound good! It is a huge concrete box which is notoriously terrible to mix in. The dead actually made it sound like a warm home stereo! I have a million factoids about the wall of sound. I don't want to bore anyone here in a message. Let me know if you are interested to hear more. Thanks for making this video! It is definitely an amazing period of an amazing band and they were huge innovators of sound!
Hey just read this, you sound like you know your stuff, I am trying to replicate the bands microphone set up with my own band to try and put the PA behind us. I think Ive got it figured out but I would like to run it by you... Maybe you have an email or a phone number. Thaks
@@lukeholroyd2239 I know it’s a little late but I recreated it a while ago , just took 2 Sonos mics, with a polarity flip on one , and a 2 way adapter. They gotta be kinda close for it to cancel the right frequencies
As a young lad in the late 70’s and 80’s, I never really got the Dead. When they came to town, their fans kind of disgusted me - a zombie horde of white dreadlocked hippie burn-outs following them everywhere. But the ones I knew personally were all good people and lived (mostly) normal lives. The music was all loose and jangly. Was it psychedelic, or folk music? I hardly listened since it all seemed kind of long, slow and boring. It bounced around all over the place. I was puzzled about why some people were so obsessed. Later in my teens, I got some of Deadhead friends and they had vast collections of concert tapes (technically not bootlegs since the Dead allowed it). These were polite Deadheads and usually offered to change the music when non-fans like me came over while they were blasting one of those tapes. But one fateful day, I walked in and declined their offer to turn off the Dead tape. I was mostly ignoring the music when something strange happened. I was 100% sober, but at some point, I slowly started hearing the music with completely new ears. It was incredible - a glorious sound. It was like all my life, I had been standing outside Grateful Dead music, hearing it at a distance and hearing it in 2-dimensions. All of a sudden, I was standing inside the music and it surrounded me and I heard it in 5 dimensions (I swear I was not high). For the first time, I was hearing all the instruments at the same time and noticing how it all fit together. The music no longer sounded sloppy and wobbly - it was deeply layered and free - they were winging it... improvising. Garcia was playing these amazing guitar lines, the keyboard answering in call-and-response fashion. And the rhythm guitar and bass and drums were not playing a standard back-beat; they were jamming too, feeding off one another and weaving in and around. What I heard was not a typical solo - it was group improvisation; the band was conversing musically. But it wasn’t avant-garde or aimless. They were making a point, or trying too. They were striving to reach musical inspiration, and it was like listening to your favorite band composing a new song in real-time in public. It was a little like jazz, but closer to a hoedown or a Dixieland revival, transformed into an arena rock concert. It was a crazy revelation - one of the greatest things I had ever heard. I started borrowing my friends’ tapes and quickly fell down a rabbit hole and been a die-hard fan ever since. But I still understand why some people who don’t like the Dead. Not everyone wants music which is long-form and escapist. It’s not short and crisp and not for perfectionists. You don’t play it in the background - you have to actively listen. So, it’s not music for socializing (unless all others are also Deadheads). But I know that a certain percentage of people are like I used to be. You are potential Deadheads who just does not “get-it” yet. But it’s all hard to explain since they’re a band beyond description.
@@dorlo7933 "What's your worst crime? The fourth dimension is...time" Idk about the other one lol, maybe sound? As in seeing moving structures made of sound. That would make a lot of sense given the nature of the band, actually. Definitely not hard to imagine if you've ever taken LSD, but listening to the Dead will do the trick too lol.
Well stated. Jaimoe, the Allman Bros drummer, said something similar. He said he never got the Dead until he sat in with them. Then he found himself in the middle of the sonic cauldron that is the Grateful Dead. When you become an active participant in the creation, the music takes on a new light. Jerry has stated that often times he would pick out an attractive dancer and play his leads to match her movement and rhythm. Audience and band thus completing the circuit.
I would argue that nefarious can either mean "evil" or "criminal," but obviously those are not the same thing. Maybe still not a great choice of words, since it's ambiguous, but LSD is inarguably nefarious in the latter sense.
Another innovative sound system you could look at is Pink Floyd's early use of quadraphonic sound system with its Azimuth Co-ordinator, a joystick they could use to pan the sound around the audience.
I heard that system the first time they toured it in the Us . I heard them in a university venue that was better known for classical chamber music - very good acoustics, and it sounded great. But I also heard the Sound Test gig by the Dead's Wall of Sound- Lightyears richer and more detailed . Nver heard an audiophile system that could begin to compare.
@@sambac2053 I agree. Saw both Acts and I saw floyd outside at the CNE Grandstand befor it was torn down. The delicate sound of thunder tour. I would love to hear Floyd inside a smaller arena where they can control the sound better.
Heard Floyd's system at Hec Ed Pavillion at the U. of Washington. They played stuff from their first few albums including 'Meddle', then they took a break and said, "We have a new album coming out next month, here's a few tunes from it. They played the entire, 'Dark Side of the Moon', with the Quad, swirling the guitar from corner to corner ... the purple micro-dot helped too
Quick reminder: Quadrophonic is actually fairly simple to do, doesn't require the otherwise *very cool* Azimuth joystick, and is like IMAX for your ears. For example: I did an EP as a finishing project, with Ableton Live 9, a Steinberg UR44 interface, and 4 Yamaha HS8 speakers. Spent a month writing and recording four of the tracks (had one full song recorded beforehand and focused a lot on simple compositions with tons of improvisation and layering), mixing everything in quad (did leg work in stereo or even mono, and positioned and leveled everything over three or four sessions with four available speakers) and even had a day to set up a listening room real nice, before the exhibition. All I needed to achieve quad was two return tracks in my DAW with outputs set to EXT 1/2 and EXT 3/4 instead of MASTER. I even played around with imposed quad (mono or stereo signals panned in quad) and true quad recordings (basically just laid two ZOOM H1's on top of each other facing different directions) with sections in stereo (which is slightly richer in quad) and mono. I also spent a lot of time correcting a myriad of phase issues, since I'm new to multi-input recording, but even that wasn't impossible, or much more complex than stereo phase. All of this is not *just* a gratuitous humble-brag: It's also an example of an enthusiastic amateur deciding to work in quad for the first time ever, with no experience, and realizing that it's actually fairly easy. It's a recommendation that everyone tries their hand with it, because it's a fun way of deepening one's understanding of stereo spread and how we perceive sound in general. And finally, it's a meager attempt at pushing the industry towards quad, because it's an amazing way of listening to music, that offers a depth that stereo couldn't possibly reach. TL;DR: I made a quadraphonic EP, realized it was pretty easy, and realized that quad is far superior to both stereo and mono, and that more music should utilize it.
Poor Mickey Hart, he never got to experience the "wall of sound" except for the last gig at Winterland just FOR ONE SONG! After that, The Dead stopped using that wall of sound and Mickey never had a chance to experience that ever in his life. I love you Mickey despite that many deadheads hate you since majority of them say "the dead's peak was 71-74" which was the era he wasnt in the band.
Europe 72 has - in my opinion - the absolute very best China Cat /Rider.....this recording and American Beauty - Working Man's Dead my all-time favorite albums. 💀
They had their thing, but just overall not as great to me and many deadheads claim. It's subjective. Yes I saw them live 4X when Jerry was alive And on a few other incarnations. They were good, just for me, not great, nothing like what many of you folks describe. JIMNSHO
The problem with this video is that the sound samples which are meant to demonstrate/compare the various PA systems are actually SOUNDBOARD recordings. The soundboard captures the audio signals from stage before they ever get to the PA so they cannot possibly be used for this kind of comparison. In fact, these recordings would sound the same regardless of the PA being used at the time. One issue I have always had with soundboard recordings is that they do not represent the actual sound of the venue and do not capture what the audience was hearing as far as sonic qualities. I agree with the points made in the video, but the examples are not scientific at all. Also consider that recording technology has changed over time as well. The Grateful Dead were generally doing a much better job recording shows and were working with better equipment in the 1970's as compared to the 1960's . Since all we have are recordings to sample, this must be considered as well.
@@JayRiemenschneider The vocals really stand out because the WOS could not be used with a standard mic configuration because of feedback, so the fix was to use two omnidirectional mics out of phase with each other. One mic was to capture the audio and one to cancel the audio coming from the WOS. If you look at photos you'll see the two mics stacked for each singer. The result was poor vocal fidelity we like to call "distinctive" to the WOS era :)
@@robertbrown6970 thanks for your reply. I actually knew all of what you relayed to me, sorry. What I meant was why did the soundboards have that distinctive fuzzy vocal quality if the signal is sent directly before it goes to the PA, where I understood that funny sound originated. Thanks again man, don't feel obligated to educate my tiny brain further:)
The Grateful Dead are SO important. There will never be anyone like them. They broke so many barriers with what they could do with sound, lyrics, and what it meant to be a musician. Their artistry will live on in music history forever. I am so proud to be a deadhead.
A faithful Deadhead - still playing acoustic guitar / mandolin. People amazingly still like hearing the Dead's music! My alltime favorite is China Cat on mandolin - I recently solo played it before a country audience - they loved it!
One issue...the 73-74 examples are recorded from the soundboard and not an audience recording so it doesn't really apply. You're of course correct in Stanley's innovations were amazing.
of note is that in light of the walls' transport problem/cost a new idea had to happen and thus the hanging of smaller arrays of speakers with bass speakers on stage or on the floor in front of the stage which the grateful dead were amongst first, if not the first to use. and, of course, different kinds of hardware to 'work' the sound coming out of those speakers. you got very close to the wall of sound and as time has gone by i feel surpassed it. having just retired from studio work after 35 years i was always amazed at how the technical side of what the grateful dead were doing would show up in the trade magazines and then in what we were doing. they were unrelenting in making sure their live sound sounded as if it was in the studio and for the most part they made it happen. the next big moment was the ear monitors/buds. totally changed the game. it was said that jerry held out for the wedges, but everyone else loved it for it made it sound like a studio---or truly the front porch---they were playing in for the first time. and for the audio guy a final end to most of the most common feedback problems. so when you go to a live show here in america today, and you love the sound, chances are you are hearing a by product of the deads' early and subsequent work in live audio reproduction. and i find that pretty cool! i've seen hundreds of live shows of all sorts of bands over the years, but i have to admit that the grateful dead shows were consistently sounding good no mater what 'room' they were playing in. others might sound good here, but not there, in light of the mixers or the venues not taking to heart the deads' lessons. those grateful dead shows were live music magic to be sure. thanks for this generalized look at a major moment in live audio history!
The Dead turned me on to sound reinforcement - I had signed up to the Deadheads - address on Skull Roses album (1970) - they sent me some sampler "mini records" and a drawing layout of the proposed (at that time) Wall Of Sound system.
Great vid! One thing you left out: because it took so long to set up and break down the WOS, they actually needed two of them: 2 complete systems. While one was in use in one city, the second was already at the next city/venue being set up, and then the first one would get broken down and leap-frog the second one on to the third city. Major cost inefficiency, but just goes to show their dedication to the sound that they would do it for so long despite losing money.
I saw Dead first time when Wake of Flood released - they had huge artwork of album cover draped behind band - Wall of Sound system - it was absolutely awesome sound - unforgettable.
For the full experience, listen to the audience recordings from 74. Contrast them with AUD's from 72. Avoid the soundboards for this experiment as you have to compare apples to apples.
There is a great biography of Owsley for anyone who wants to know more about his mysterious life and career with the Dead. It's called Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III by Robert Greenfield. Highly recommend!!
Thank you very much -- had not known that existed. Just downloaded it, and added it to the ever-growing To Be Read List. Maybe I'll get to it by the start of the next millennium...
Fantastic. This dead head loves the separation of instruments of this era. Hearing Bobby and Jerry separate yet together is what made the wall so great. Bob is often times muddled in the mix, but as you mentioned, the wall allowed for each to be heard distinctly and brightly.
Another crazy thing is they brought some of Owsley Ashes to the 50-year anniversary fare-thee-well shows. There's pictures floating around, where you can see a clear bottle with ashes in it. It was sitting right on the soundboard. He was definitely a man of many many talents! Even that is an understatement... N.F.A.......
If you want more tech specs, there is a 5-6 hour Dead doc on Amazon prime, they go through the tech in it pretty extensively. I am not a Dead Fan, but I enjoyed the doc.
Essentially yes. And this is about live concert P.A. sound technology. Not home or studio sound. John Meyer of Meyer Sound Labs was a participant in the designs and at the forefront of following live sound systems among others.
I've never been to a "loud" dead show. I could always talk comfortably with people around me yet feel the music as if I was right by the speakers. Miss those days.
Interesting topic. But I don’t think using a remastered soundboard that was also an official band release as an example of the “made specifically for live experience” Wall of Sound is a good comparison.
DeciBel. Its named for Alex G Bell, telephone inventor guy. Not Ernie Ball. Custom string set and volume pedal magnate. Btw, you should also mention that massive sound systems with large numbers of speakers was required because power amplifiers topped out at about 300 watts, and most woofers could only handle about 100 watts. Today we have 1000 watt woofers and 2000 wpc amps. Could acheive the same SPL as wall of sound with a fraction of the weight.
I love music trivia and would probably consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to music history but I always come away from your videos with something new. I love it. Keep up the great work.
I have seen 4 dead shows. All in Hamilton On Canada. The first 2 had a pretty hefty quad speaker setup that shook the bass levels wickedly. The second 2 had a sony walkman setup with 4 little speaker trees hangin off the roof in the middle of the arena and they mixedbit with the stage speaker setupbto move the sound around the room creating a shelving effect that had the different instruments in different spots to be able to creat a 3D effect. Clear? Holy! I have never heard such quality ever, anywhere, period!! Glad I got to be there for it and got to see Brent, & 1 of the shows they performed Terrapin Station and it was ovahhh for Me... blew me away... blew me away. I missed some great shows but I got to see the Fukin Dead!!! Yeahh!!
Another innovation to their sound: the first time I saw the Dead at Englishtown, NJ, they had 6 or 7 speaker banks out in the audience, because it was so large (125K people), so that everyone could hear the same sound mix even in the back, just like the people right up in front of the stage. I stood right underneath one of them, and the sound was incredible. It was almost like you were standing on stage with them! The only other band that I have heard have as good a live sound as them was Pink Floyd.
It was 12 towers. Not only that, but Dan Healy and other sound engineers rigged it up so there was no sound delay. Everybody could hear exactly what the band was playing with no delay.
When you say no delay, I'm guessing you mean the effect of the sound repeating itself? Because in order to avoid that, delaying the signal (adding latency) playing further from stage was exactly what one would do. As in stage->stage speakers = no latency. Stage->second set of speakers = a little latency to make up for sounds travel time through air versus electric travel time through cabling, and so on, and so forth. You actually need to do the same thing today, even in very small set-ups, because the slightest latency discrepancy between the speakers will introduce phase problems that'll "thin out" the sound. Of course, speaker technology and sound technology has come a very long way this past half century, so Haley et al might be some of the first engineers to actually do something about these things.
You seem like an expert so I defer to you as to how it was done. All I know was that I was there and when a drummer hit the snare drum you heard it simultaneously.
I've merely dabbled in it, and learned some of the technical stuff out of necessity. What you're describing seems different from what I laid out above, but it might be possible with phase cancellation. Basically sending the same signal towards itself, making the waves cancel out because they're identical. I guess this could remove the signal coming from the stage, which would remove the need for latency, due to the natural latency being cancelled out. That's the bet I can come up with at the moment, but they might've done something completely different for all I know.
5:14 The reason why the live audio sounds great to us listeners is because is because it was mixed right and they used a 16 track recorder on the road. The speakers really have more to do with the live show as it happened. What we hear now isn't coming from the speakers the fans heard.
Thanks for including this info because this was a major feat of the GD sound crew. There are the Official Dead Live Show albums, then there are the "Tapes" recorded by random fans with their own equipment.
No, that recording of China Doll at 5:14 is a 2-track recording, they did not use a 16-track recorder regularly on the road. The big reason why so many of the GD 2-track soundboard recordings sound so good is because they were specifically and separately mixed for recording, not just a recording of what was being sent to the PA. Betty Cantor-Jackson had a separate mixer and mixed live to 2-track for recording through much of the 70s. That is also why 80's soundboard recordings up until 1987 or so don't sound as balanced, more of Brent's keyboards and less of Jerry's guitar - because the band stopped making a separate recording mix and just recorded what was being sent to the PA.
Here is the thing.. Owsley didn't invent the inverted mic phasing technique.. Although if you've ever met him, I'm sure he would tell you he did. I had the uncomfortable privilege of meeting him a few times, and while it was great to be in the presence of such a storied character, Owsley notoriously took credit for everything, telling me he was the entire reason anyone ever knew about the Dead, and that he created the entire scene.. .. Granted, he had a big part to play in it, and he indeed contributed plenty.. but unless it was something otherwise easily proven, he would take credit for it... I nearly thought he was going to tell me he was the guy who told Jerry to take up the Guitar, and taught him how to play it as well... I was surprised that the King Of LSD, a substance notoriously (and erroneously mind you) believed to "dissolved ones ego".. was himself the most egotistical person one could ever come across. If you check a Video Called "The Rivalry of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney".. around the 6:55 mark, you will see the Beatles performing in what looks like around 1966 with the same mic setup to cancel out the vocals coming from their loudspeakers directly behind them. A technique presumably originally developed by engineers at EMI Abbey Road
My mom used to go see them religiously in the 90s and they would have open markets before the concert and you could get a "miracle" which was a free ticket to get in. They really have changed live music and built friendships and peace within a show.
I toured in the 90s, and sometimes would bring an extra ticket. Onetime in Canada I was selling one to a guy who proceeded to start piling change. I knew I could not dance around with THAT in my pockets (or maybe I should have to add to the music and spread it all over, I was already selling it for like half price). I said No, just take it. You should have seen his face. I also literally could have given a ticket to your mom, and certainly 100% saw her walking around with probably a "one" finger up and a "need a miracle" home made sign. I didn't even know how magical all of it was, but now it was such a moment in our culture.
I heard Steve Parish talking about how there were rubber mats on the floor in front of the mics that were switches. So when someone would stop singing and step off the mat, it would shut off the mic. You can see this in videos from the Wall of Sound era. They would step up to sing, and step back when they were done, turning the mics on and off. Brilliant.
That mat technology came in to being later on. They stepped back from the wall mic's so that the phase cancellation would activate and not allow any speaker sound leaking in the mic's which would create horrible feedback. That's why those wall mic's had two barrels.
I have made two of those mic mats that i use for 'problem vocalists' that have difficult vocal technique. Simple mute when they are away from the mic, that way I can concentrate on the rest of the mix. Works great.
@@edm781 I knew the twin mics were for phase cancellation, but I really thought they were stepping away to activate the mute on the mics. At least that's the way Steve explained it. Interesting...I wonder if there's more info to be found on the WoS.
Nice using cuts from recently released Pacific Northwest 73-74 box set. Have not yet listened through all of mine yet. (subliminal promotion at its finest, good ol' Grateful Dead!)
He was definitely an important innovator within the field of stage performance in the history of rock n roll music since no one dared before to throw poop at the audience
I grew up in Sacramento California just down the road from San Francisco. In 1979 two of those Blond, pine marine plywood cabinets went on sale at a local music store. The owner of the store told me that they had belonged to The Dead, and I had seen the movie (where the wall of sound is featured prominently) so I recognized them. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, more of a “well that’s cool”. The JBL D140’s had been pulled out of them, but they were re-loaded with EVM 15B speakers, and were really awesome as bass cabinets. After hearing them, I bought them. 200 each. They were difficult to move around, but beautiful. I really wish I still had them.
The bear traded cigarettes for steaks in prison. He was smart enough to maintain his carnivore diet. Later transferred to kitchen duty. Genius no matter what he did
Omfg you did grateful dead! I'm so happy even though I really am not a fan. Me and my partner wanted a video so we could understand their history, since it's a band that's referenced a lot. Not to disrespect them they just aren't our cuppa tea, so this will be great to learn something!
What kind of music are you into? I could give some suggestions. A small issue with the dead being so creative was that they changed and always sounded so different
They played in every genre you could name and a half-dozen more besides, as well as inventing a couple-three of their own... But they were first, foremost, and always a folkie band; that's where they got their start (Phil's classical & jazz backgrounds notwithstanding), and always ultimately what was at the heart of their music. Might could check out their folk covers (Jack-a-Roe, Peggy-o, Whiskey in the Jar, Dark Hollow, Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad, And We Bid U Good-Night) and their faux-folk originals (Dire Wolf, Cumberland Blues, Friend of the Devil, Ripple, Lazy River Road) if that field appeals...
Got to meet Owlesley.In the fall of 1990.The Dead were doing a European tour.My friend and I had seen the Stockholm show.Now we were in Copenhagen heading south.The big train schedule book showed a passenger car leaving with a frieght train several hours before other passenger trains.When we went to the freight side,There was one man already there.We chatted about his interaction with the cook on the ferry.He just wanted cooked burger patties.The cook insisted they be complete burgers.He offered to pay for complete burgers but just cook the patties.It was an interesting ride from Copenhagen to Amersfoort.
Nice video ;-)
haha whoah, so can you verify it's all legit?
.
Grateful Dead 💯
It is absolutely legit; www.amazon.com/Grateful-Dead-Gear-Instruments-Recording/dp/0879308931
The Grateful Dead are grateful.
I have only been listening to the Grateful Dead for about a week now. I had never really liked the band until I actually listened to their music. And I wasn't aware of the ride I was going on by listening to them.
You really need to listen to the Jerry Garcia Band too 🤘🏼☮️💜
For anyone who wants more of this experience, watch the Grateful Dead movie, from that era. Its a must see!
You should do the Allman Bros next!
The Owsley "Bear" Stanley album of an early, essential New York Allman Brothers show (over 6 months before they found success) taped in NYC entitled _Fillmore East 2/70_ (GDCD 4063)
I wish I didn't know how much of a snitch rat Gregg Allman was. Any doubters Google the following words; Gregg Allman Scooter Herring.
I must separate the music from the man. But so it goes..
Absolutely love this, thank you!
So creative and still amazing sound translated to the live recordings to this day.
I'm a musician so I have experience with live sound systems. I have a degree in audio production. I'm also a Deadhead who caught 64 shows between 1984 and 1995. What The Dead tried to do here was get it to sound on stage the same as it sounded for the crowd. Now when you look at how sound works and everything that idea is practically impossible. But the fact that they tried it, and the ridiculousness and intricacies of this sound system are classic example of the Grateful Dead legend. Crazy half assed idea after crazy half assed idea that shouldn't have worked but did.
when you say the idea is practically impossible do you just mean the actual acoustics of projecting sound into a large open area where a large crowd would sit, say in an arena, or for a technical reason ?
phoenix jones No the idea of getting it to sound On the stage how it sounds in the "House". I'm under the understand that that's what they were going for. But there's no way they could get it to sound on stage the way it did In the larger area, with high ceilings, and a few hundred people for the sound waves to bounce off of and around.
@@SalAvenueNJ ah okay that makes sense. I was just curious if you knew something about live sounds that I was missing
i love how you pick these peculiar topics in rock music, authentic and brilliant tbh
Not only the video is great, but playing China, that makes great
I got to see several shows with the "Wall of Sound".
I go to hear the "Wall of Sound" three times: Once at the Hollywood Bowl and twice at Universal Amphitheatre. Unbelievable quality and power.
Oh I forgot. And a fourth time at Long Beach Arena.
If this interests you than read Owsley Stanley's book. The guy was a literal genius with a lot of far out quirks (his obsession with a meat ONLY diet). He changed how we hear live music today and doesn't get nearly enough credit. He also was THE MAN making LSD in those days. What a fellow!
Bear was an excellent gourmet chef. The wall of sound was definately a little to labor intensive in the end.......
As always a great video...
But, i think is decibel not decibal
I am certain it is decibel.
..me too ;-)
it is decibel for sure
Yeah, a tenth of a bel, named after Alexander Graham Bell.
I still have the original speaker set from voice of the theatre (VOT) bass/crossovers /and the most amazing build horns.Solid
No one mentions Mile Nestorovic, he designed many McIntosh amplifiers back in the 1960s like the MC-3500, it's his work, he's an audio legend, because of its amplifiers, the way the concert sound was changed...Greateful Dead, Woodstock...
A little trivia that wasn’t mentioned is the Steely Dan song “Kid Charlemagne” is based on the life of Owsley Stanley.
Is there two different things called wall of sound in music, cos i heard about the one phil spector used on the studio recording of pet sounds for instance
Yes. Spector was developing studio recording techniques. This is all about live concert sound systems which absolutely sucked before the Dead came along. The main reason the Beatles stopped playing live concerts and became a studio band.
In the 70's my brother worked at a factory that made stereo speakers. Some of the employees had a band, and they made a PA based on this concept. Every singer had two mics, carefully spaced. I don't remember how they mic'ed the drums. It worked great, but was too much to carry around.
Amazing video, as always.
I would love to see a video about Neutral Milk Hotel next.
Key Part of the sound was the McIntosh Amps The wall could not have worked without them
I'd like it if you made a video on another kind of wall of sound- the kind Devin Townsend uses in his songs.
Just think about the over head on the Wall.. Moving it from show to show.. But wow did it make a difference.
As a dead head I’ve been waiting for this one forever. Great job man
Such a good video. Thanks!! :-)
It was in late 1973 -I think it was in Guitar Player magazine - I read an interview - was it with Bear, or Dan Healy? - describing the then-brand new Wall of Sound.
My band was always trying to get more gain in the monitors, but hopefully without the microphones feeding back, so I was extremely impressed when he mentioned that each singer had two mikes - next to each other, but wired out of phase. The singer would sing into one mike, while any ambient noise - or feedback from nearby speakers - would enter both mikes, and be be phase-cancelled,
I had a brief Twitter exchange with David Gans this past year, and mentioned the phase-canceling mikes, and he didn't believe me.
I scoured google and Guitar Player looking for that 1973 interview, but couldn't find it.
Ah, but I recently stumbled on this on UA-cam, , and tweeted it at Gans, but haven't heard back:
@Hard2Handle2269: @davidgans Here it is. about 2:30 in, Parish, @DonnaJeanG & @BKreutzmann, @BobWeir, describing #Bear's #WallOfSound w/2 out-of-phase omni mics for each singer. The Grateful Dead's - 'Wall Of Sound' ua-cam.com/video/PODPgBaiFI4/v-deo.html via @You
Thanks for this post, @UCXkNod_JcH7PleOjwK_8rYQ!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Healy_(soundman)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Healy_(soundman)
Who else besides myself built their own wall of sound in their bedroom out of any old speaker you found laying around the neighborhood.? Lol
I did :D Over 20 speakers. Any speaker I found. I had no idea about ohms or anything else. I can't believe it actually worked. These days I'll take 2 really nice speakers over 100 average speakers.
It reminds me of how stereo systems were hand me downs back in the day. Now you just get brand new plastic shit boxes.
+crush537 Lol right. I remember having speakers all over.
+crush537 yea now I have klipsch 5.1 . Its awesome.
Back in the day, I went to Deadhead and Arlo Guthrie concerts the most, because they were so much better live than on vinyl.
So sucks that the Glasseress Mix had to get muted out.
This is a great video! Thank you! I would like to hear more about what followed the Wall of Sound... Was is as good..? How did the Wall of Sound effect the future of concert audio...? Perhaps a part two...?
The wall of sound experiment led to the sound systems almost all big concerts use now. It's called "line array" technology. The initial wall of sound was cutting edge and ultimately extremely expensive and cumbersome. But the experiments led to improvements in to modern systems and sound design became it's own off shoot industry for rock & roll. When the Dead started touring again there were professional PA sound system companies that developed more affordable manageable sized systems. The Dead started renting those by 1976. Still great sound, but not as crystalline clear as the original wall. A sound company can have systems available in a region and rent to acts coming through town on tour which is fairly standard in the industry. P.S. When you hear about the Beatle stopping live concerts because they couldn't hear themselves over screaming girls, it's because they didn't have rock & roll sound systems at that time. The Dead were the 1st band to give a shit AND pay for experiments to improve live concert sound. There were other sound professionals working on the issues at that time, (late '60's, early '70's), but no one had the money besides Owsley "The Bear" and the Dead to really make major advances.
@@edm781 Fantastic explanation... Thank you! Now let's turn it into a documentary... Seriously!
I think the Dead is so under rated (on all levels) and basically unknown as the progenitors of sound technology that they are/were... I mean we have so much to thank the Dead for... As you said they gave a shit about the sound.
A friend of mine says that if the wall of sound had not been created we would not have stadium concerts... That may be an over statement- but I like it.
Moreover, I am personally of the mind that one day... We will be called to for our sins as species... And if we are smart, we will point to The Grateful Dead, and say "But we also did this..." I can only assume that what ever is calling us to account will pause and say... "Let me/us think about that..."
"But we also did this..." That actually brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.
please make a video about Phil Spector's wrecking crew. that would be amazing
No mention of JBL or Macintosh Amps....?
Exactly!!!
Make a video on The Alan Parsons Project
6:55 ‘decibAls’... in the US it would be ‘DecibEls’. No worries, pleasant presentation.
Aw man. That's the shit right there. That's some gooood music. I hope this video might introduce some people to The Dead.
The music plays the band 🎶🎵🎶
LSD is not nefarious. I graduate with a B.S. in Psychology in May and have taken LSD, and other psychedelics like psilocin and 2ci, on numerous occasions. If anything, these compounds have made me a more open minded person.
Decibals? Are they different than decibels?
Was going to write this as a PM but it seems I can't find that function anymore: Decibel, not decibals. Hope you don't take any offence as there is none intended.
I enjoyed the presentation but in the back of my mind a voice is saying "if he can't take time to find the correct spelling of decibel, what else in this video is inaccurate?"
This cannot be a true representation of a live sound unless this live audio was captured exclusively with a single stereo mic out at stage front (as per cassette recording). The "clarity of sound" you are describing here might have more to do with some multitrack multichannel recording, with post mixing and mastering applied
I had a music lecturer who made fun of the wall of sound for being absolutely terrible. Now I doubt whether or not he actually did any more research than just seeing a picture of it
7:03 Should be decibels
Another innovative sound system is Nirvana turning the amp all the way up and then smashing their guitars into the speakers to increase feedback
Nirvana was not innovative at all. Hendrix, The Dead & others were doing that in the 1960's. Watch Hendrix, "Live at Monterey Pop".
What is SEEYOWND and HYADPHONES?
You should do a vid on the other wall of sound.
The irony of the song cutting out because of copyright on a video about sound.
I know! Goddam UA-cam Copyright strikes!!!!
Were all in 1984 didn't you know citizen ? Big Brother approves of my comment , don't worry about being watched , Big Brother has your best interest in mind citizen , be well and stay safe , happy company picnic to you and yours .
I was wandering about that....thanks!
Frrrr >0< I thought my gd headphones brok or somethin lmao
I was fuckin wondering
That thumbnail is beautiful.
woah no answers.
but yes, it is indeed beautiful
RUDY WOAH
Bro, even your comments are cringe
HEY RUDY!
The wall of sound was beautiful
One thing that you should have mentioned is that acid was legal to make in California until 1966; this explains why Owsley was originally able to get away with making it. There's even a story from 1965 where police raided his lab for amphetamines but only found LSD, and he successfully sued them for the return of his equipment.
Drug loosers.
@@romanlegion4282 Tell me what is wrong about enjoying something that doesn't do any harm to you at all. In fact, fighting drugs costs Americans on average 50 billion a year. So what is really hurting you more?
@@ZiggyBonham First, your lack of morality.Second your right we spend that much to defeat the cartels and drug dealers .Doing drugs is supporting them. Plain and simple Get out of your plastic suburban living and live life.
@@romanlegion4282 Lack of morality? Please, enlighten me as to how consuming something that effects only the consumer can have any basis in morality.
@@romanlegion4282 Do you think doing drugs supports cartels more or the fact that there is an Illegal market created by the US government? Do you think alcohol prohibition worked? Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.
Wow. I had heard about the wall of sound, but I had never seen it before. I didn't realize it was a literal wall of towering speakers. That's amazing. Excellent work as always Mr. Polyphonic.
HardLeg Try this - ua-cam.com/video/r86Sb4heCWM/v-deo.html
Well. This is probably not the same type as you have heard about before. The more famous use of the phrase is a production technique that was "invented" by Phil Spector to create a bigger musical sound on record. One of the main characteristics was muktitracking instruments to make them feel fuller. If you want a prime example of this sound then you have to check out Devin Townsend's "Ocean Machine".
HardLeg Gaming Didn’t know you liked the dead.
I thought part of Spector's wall of sound also had to do with utilizing the bleed from other instruments in to the mics. He would pack the studio with session musicians. Doubling, even tripling the instruments and everyone would play in unison. The microphones would pickup the sounds from everyone around. he also used an echo chamber of sorts. But the thing is he was doing that for mono. Once stereo came in, that idea just sounded muddy.
Mark Garber true. I just explained the basics as straight forward as I could. There is a lot that goes into it.
Oh no, there is a mute in the sound of this video... UA-cam copyright strikes. I hope its only a mute & it goes no further @polyphonic
why did you say @polyphonic
@@ToasterBrain51702 Nobody:
This is crazy. The above video is in essence a documentary. The use of that song should fall under fair use guidelines.
@Robert Nelson Haha
The sound block is a violation of fair use and ruins a central point of the video
Back in the eighties when I was an aspiring teen rock star, a friend of mine loaned me a speaker cabinet that apparently had been part of the Wall of Sound. His mother had lived in the Bay area in the seventies and picked it up somewhere along the line. It was made of maple plywood, corners heavily rounded over for transport, completely enclosed and had held 2 twelve inch speakers that were no longer installed. Looking at photos, it would have been one of the cabinets on the far left vertical stack (when facing the stage). I had it set up in my bedroom for years (with new speakers installed) before the realities of life forced me to focus on making a real living. I gave it back years later. It was a cool little piece of history I treasured playing through and shared my living space with.
I saw the Dead with the Wall Of Sound in Philadelphia in 1974. Two things, apart from the music itself, stand out in my memory of it. The music they played at intermission was an incredible test of the system. The thundering bass, when isolated, was amazing!! I heard later that Lesh designed the audio for the intermission, which was kinda like a space jam. Also, when all the lights were out in the theater at the beginning of the show , all the individual red lights from each JBL speaker looked like a field of stars reaching to the rafters, so cool!!
1974 - Wake of the Flood tour - Wall of Sound system - St Louis MO - outstanding concert. Seeing / hearing Wall of Sound was just so amazing.
I heard Steve Parrish say the bass stack was 32 ft. high because that was the length of a standing bass wave. Science!
Some of the the intermission music was Ned Lagin and members of the Dead: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seastones
JBL through and through huh?! what?! Yes!! JBL up down ans side side!!! OH!! ~I'm trying to find a rundown of all the specific gear in there, like a schematic. All these UA-cam guys are doing is essays on the wow and the yeow, man, lol ~where are the techy specifics??
1974 Mars Hotel was newest.
Noise-cancelling hEAADDphones
CodyAlushin the Grateful dEAADD
What's the big deal, it's just an Eastern Canadian accent
Pity most of them are made for women and children.. I tried the main models from the major manufacturers.. Bose, Sony, etc in the airport.. I have a cheap chinese pair that work decently and fit perfectly however the way I make it cordless is that I plug them into a 3.
5mm Bluetooth adapter. (
It could be...
"oh no this man didn't mispronounce the Latin alphabet as much as my go-to imperialist linguistic institution recommends"
Owsley Stanley is also the inspiration for the Steely Dan song "Kid Charlamagne"
Lyrics
While the music played, you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
(Did you feel like Jesus?)
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes?
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen-clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare and you'd go it alone
(Could you live forever?)
Could you see the day?
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away?
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low-rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those day-glo freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
(Son, you were mistaken)
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test-tubes and the scale
Just get it all out of here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall know who you are
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes
I thought Kesey was Kid Charlemagne. Based on your comment I did a search and saw Wikipedia entry that did say it was based on Owsley but it also conflated stuff like the Technicolor motorhome which was Kesey.
Scoobert Doobert Indeed.
And Steely Dan is the cynical, wry version of the dead
he's also mentioned in the jefferson airplane song mexico
Great video! I'm the sound guy/road manager from Melvin Seal's JGB from years ago and I think you nailed most of what the wall of sound was. A couple of friends of mine actually own pieces of the wall! They auctioned it all off after they stopped using it. My only critique of your video is that the recordings you used for the wall of sound weren't audience recordings so don't really represent what the band or audience were hearing. Bear actually split the snake and ran every channel to a back room where there was a "recording studio" of sorts where they could get an independent mix of the show. They couldn't use what the band used because the band was constantly making adjustments and they didn't want the adjustments on tape. They created a separate recording mix live for the recordings and that is what you heard on the clip you played.
That being said, my friend Marty(former Bass player for Melvin) was actually at a few of the wall of sound shows. Unfortunately I am a little too young being born in 72'. He told me that it wasn't loud and you could hear a pin drop on stage no matter where you were in the venue. He also said that the Dead was the ONLY band to ever make the Cow Palace in South SF sound good! It is a huge concrete box which is notoriously terrible to mix in. The dead actually made it sound like a warm home stereo!
I have a million factoids about the wall of sound. I don't want to bore anyone here in a message. Let me know if you are interested to hear more. Thanks for making this video! It is definitely an amazing period of an amazing band and they were huge innovators of sound!
Hey just read this, you sound like you know your stuff, I am trying to replicate the bands microphone set up with my own band to try and put the PA behind us. I think Ive got it figured out but I would like to run it by you... Maybe you have an email or a phone number. Thaks
Cow Palace in 73 that was a fucking awesome concert
@@lukeholroyd2239 look me up. Bill Turtle on Facebook. I can probably give you a tip or two.
Stop lying. What year.
@@lukeholroyd2239 I know it’s a little late but I recreated it a while ago , just took 2 Sonos mics, with a polarity flip on one , and a 2 way adapter. They gotta be kinda close for it to cancel the right frequencies
As a young lad in the late 70’s and 80’s, I never really got the Dead. When they came to town, their fans kind of disgusted me - a zombie horde of white dreadlocked hippie burn-outs following them everywhere. But the ones I knew personally were all good people and lived (mostly) normal lives.
The music was all loose and jangly. Was it psychedelic, or folk music? I hardly listened since it all seemed kind of long, slow and boring. It bounced around all over the place. I was puzzled about why some people were so obsessed. Later in my teens, I got some of Deadhead friends and they had vast collections of concert tapes (technically not bootlegs since the Dead allowed it). These were polite Deadheads and usually offered to change the music when non-fans like me came over while they were blasting one of those tapes. But one fateful day, I walked in and declined their offer to turn off the Dead tape. I was mostly ignoring the music when something strange happened. I was 100% sober, but at some point, I slowly started hearing the music with completely new ears. It was incredible - a glorious sound. It was like all my life, I had been standing outside Grateful Dead music, hearing it at a distance and hearing it in 2-dimensions. All of a sudden, I was standing inside the music and it surrounded me and I heard it in 5 dimensions (I swear I was not high). For the first time, I was hearing all the instruments at the same time and noticing how it all fit together. The music no longer sounded sloppy and wobbly - it was deeply layered and free - they were winging it... improvising. Garcia was playing these amazing guitar lines, the keyboard answering in call-and-response fashion. And the rhythm guitar and bass and drums were not playing a standard back-beat; they were jamming too, feeding off one another and weaving in and around. What I heard was not a typical solo - it was group improvisation; the band was conversing musically. But it wasn’t avant-garde or aimless. They were making a point, or trying too. They were striving to reach musical inspiration, and it was like listening to your favorite band composing
a new song in real-time in public. It was a little like jazz, but closer to a
hoedown or a Dixieland revival, transformed into an arena rock concert. It was a crazy revelation - one of the greatest things I had ever heard. I started
borrowing my friends’ tapes and quickly fell down a rabbit hole and been a die-hard fan ever since. But I still understand why some people who don’t like the Dead. Not everyone wants music which is long-form and escapist. It’s not short and crisp and not for perfectionists. You don’t play it in the background - you have to actively listen. So, it’s not music for socializing (unless all others are also Deadheads). But I know that a certain percentage of people are like I used to be. You are potential Deadheads who just does not “get-it” yet. But it’s all hard to explain since they’re a band beyond description.
The real question is, what are the 2 extra dimensions?
@@dorlo7933 "What's your worst crime? The fourth dimension is...time"
Idk about the other one lol, maybe sound? As in seeing moving structures made of sound. That would make a lot of sense given the nature of the band, actually. Definitely not hard to imagine if you've ever taken LSD, but listening to the Dead will do the trick too lol.
Beautifully spoken
Well stated. Jaimoe, the Allman Bros drummer, said something similar. He said he never got the Dead until he sat in with them. Then he found himself in the middle of the sonic cauldron that is the Grateful Dead. When you become an active participant in the creation, the music takes on a new light. Jerry has stated that often times he would pick out an attractive dancer and play his leads to match her movement and rhythm. Audience and band thus completing the circuit.
Like Jehova's favorite choir...
I'd hardly describe LSD as nefarious, as most people who've taken it would agree. Not to take the piss out of the video, which was great by the way
DeadheadYates I couldn't agree more. Wrong choice of words on the part of the uploader, they probably did not mean to make it sound negative.
Not in moderate use, but heavy use can
@Mr. Meatballs I would argue that LSD is a positive experience for alcoholics even if they don't have a "good" experience with it
Mr. Meatballs No
I would argue that nefarious can either mean "evil" or "criminal," but obviously those are not the same thing. Maybe still not a great choice of words, since it's ambiguous, but LSD is inarguably nefarious in the latter sense.
Another innovative sound system you could look at is Pink Floyd's early use of quadraphonic sound system with its Azimuth Co-ordinator, a joystick they could use to pan the sound around the audience.
I heard that system the first time they toured it in the Us . I heard them in a university venue that was better known for classical chamber music - very good acoustics, and it sounded great. But I also heard the Sound Test gig by the Dead's Wall of Sound- Lightyears richer and more detailed . Nver heard an audiophile system that could begin to compare.
@@sambac2053 I agree. Saw both Acts and I saw floyd outside at the CNE Grandstand befor it was torn down. The delicate sound of thunder tour. I would love to hear Floyd inside a smaller arena where they can control the sound better.
astrophonix that is such a great example, not enough people know about it
Heard Floyd's system at Hec Ed Pavillion at the U. of Washington. They played stuff from their first few albums including 'Meddle', then they took a break and said, "We have a new album coming out next month, here's a few tunes from it.
They played the entire, 'Dark Side of the Moon', with the Quad, swirling the guitar from corner to corner ... the purple micro-dot helped too
Quick reminder: Quadrophonic is actually fairly simple to do, doesn't require the otherwise *very cool* Azimuth joystick, and is like IMAX for your ears.
For example: I did an EP as a finishing project, with Ableton Live 9, a Steinberg UR44 interface, and 4 Yamaha HS8 speakers. Spent a month writing and recording four of the tracks (had one full song recorded beforehand and focused a lot on simple compositions with tons of improvisation and layering), mixing everything in quad (did leg work in stereo or even mono, and positioned and leveled everything over three or four sessions with four available speakers) and even had a day to set up a listening room real nice, before the exhibition. All I needed to achieve quad was two return tracks in my DAW with outputs set to EXT 1/2 and EXT 3/4 instead of MASTER. I even played around with imposed quad (mono or stereo signals panned in quad) and true quad recordings (basically just laid two ZOOM H1's on top of each other facing different directions) with sections in stereo (which is slightly richer in quad) and mono. I also spent a lot of time correcting a myriad of phase issues, since I'm new to multi-input recording, but even that wasn't impossible, or much more complex than stereo phase.
All of this is not *just* a gratuitous humble-brag: It's also an example of an enthusiastic amateur deciding to work in quad for the first time ever, with no experience, and realizing that it's actually fairly easy. It's a recommendation that everyone tries their hand with it, because it's a fun way of deepening one's understanding of stereo spread and how we perceive sound in general. And finally, it's a meager attempt at pushing the industry towards quad, because it's an amazing way of listening to music, that offers a depth that stereo couldn't possibly reach.
TL;DR: I made a quadraphonic EP, realized it was pretty easy, and realized that quad is far superior to both stereo and mono, and that more music should utilize it.
Poor Mickey Hart, he never got to experience the "wall of sound" except for the last gig at Winterland just FOR ONE SONG! After that, The Dead stopped using that wall of sound and Mickey never had a chance to experience that ever in his life. I love you Mickey despite that many deadheads hate you since majority of them say "the dead's peak was 71-74" which was the era he wasnt in the band.
If only all bands' goal in their live sound was high fidelity instead of high volume
I wasn't really impressed with the audio quality of the last Korn show but that's okay .
change after 20 years I guess
American Beauty is one of the best musical masterpieces ever made
I had a strange friend who didn't like the dead. just that album and workingman's dead... personally I only listen to live shows
Without any doubt you are correct sir. It is a fucking masterpeice!
NFA.
Europe 72 has - in my opinion - the absolute very best China Cat /Rider.....this recording and American Beauty - Working Man's Dead my all-time favorite albums.
💀
They had their thing, but just overall not as great to me and many deadheads claim. It's subjective. Yes I saw them live 4X when Jerry was alive And on a few other incarnations. They were good, just for me, not great, nothing like what many of you folks describe. JIMNSHO
@@marcsalzman8082 understandable...nice comment. I've become more attracted to the acoustic music these days.
The problem with this video is that the sound samples which are meant to demonstrate/compare the various PA systems are actually SOUNDBOARD recordings. The soundboard captures the audio signals from stage before they ever get to the PA so they cannot possibly be used for this kind of comparison. In fact, these recordings would sound the same regardless of the PA being used at the time. One issue I have always had with soundboard recordings is that they do not represent the actual sound of the venue and do not capture what the audience was hearing as far as sonic qualities.
I agree with the points made in the video, but the examples are not scientific at all. Also consider that recording technology has changed over time as well. The Grateful Dead were generally doing a much better job recording shows and were working with better equipment in the 1970's as compared to the 1960's . Since all we have are recordings to sample, this must be considered as well.
thats a great point
would have been something to ne in that audience and actually hear what this sound system was like. Must have been unreal
Indeed a great point and as an unlearned one, something I've wondered about. Why tho do WOS soundboards sound so distinctive, especially the vocals?
@@JayRiemenschneider The vocals really stand out because the WOS could not be used with a standard mic configuration because of feedback, so the fix was to use two omnidirectional mics out of phase with each other. One mic was to capture the audio and one to cancel the audio coming from the WOS. If you look at photos you'll see the two mics stacked for each singer. The result was poor vocal fidelity we like to call "distinctive" to the WOS era :)
@@robertbrown6970 thanks for your reply. I actually knew all of what you relayed to me, sorry. What I meant was why did the soundboards have that distinctive fuzzy vocal quality if the signal is sent directly before it goes to the PA, where I understood that funny sound originated. Thanks again man, don't feel obligated to educate my tiny brain further:)
That mute happened the second I plugged in my headphones. Really freaked me out, I thought I broke my computer lol
The Grateful Dead are SO important. There will never be anyone like them. They broke so many barriers with what they could do with sound, lyrics, and what it meant to be a musician. Their artistry will live on in music history forever. I am so proud to be a deadhead.
Cecilia Flores
Long live the Dead! 🤘
@@robertscott2210 isn't that like ......hot and cold or night and day???? Lol!
Well put sister. 💀🌹⚡
A faithful Deadhead - still playing acoustic guitar / mandolin. People amazingly still like hearing the Dead's music! My alltime favorite is China Cat on mandolin - I recently solo played it before a country audience - they loved it!
One issue...the 73-74 examples are recorded from the soundboard and not an audience recording so it doesn't really apply. You're of course correct in Stanley's innovations were amazing.
I was about to say the same thing.
Me too!
Good call.
Exactly. What a weird video.....
Also, not every late 60s St Stephen sounds as muddy as the one presented here.....not even close.
Straight fact right here
Please do a video on talking heads!!!
Yes
yessss totally
Yes!
Yes!
that would be great!
A video about Nick Drake please !!!
Garbage94Man Yes!
oh yeah!!!!
YES
pink moon is my shit
this video is great, you should think about making video about Kinks. not many people talking about them nowadays
Agreed
ABSOLUTELY! One of the greatest,
most influential acts in all of R&R...and, sadly, largely forgotten.
Definitely
I saw the Kinks in '81 or '82--a great live band and also one with a very clear sound system
been waiting for a deadhead video!!
YEAH!!!
You get the box set?
"The grayetfuwl Da-Ed"
of note is that in light of the walls' transport problem/cost a new idea had to happen and thus the hanging of smaller arrays of speakers with bass speakers on stage or on the floor in front of the stage which the grateful dead were amongst first, if not the first to use. and, of course, different kinds of hardware to 'work' the sound coming out of those speakers. you got very close to the wall of sound and as time has gone by i feel surpassed it.
having just retired from studio work after 35 years i was always amazed at how the technical side of what the grateful dead were doing would show up in the trade magazines and then in what we were doing. they were unrelenting in making sure their live sound sounded as if it was in the studio and for the most part they made it happen.
the next big moment was the ear monitors/buds. totally changed the game. it was said that jerry held out for the wedges, but everyone else loved it for it made it sound like a studio---or truly the front porch---they were playing in for the first time. and for the audio guy a final end to most of the most common feedback problems.
so when you go to a live show here in america today, and you love the sound, chances are you are hearing a by product of the deads' early and subsequent work in live audio reproduction. and i find that pretty cool!
i've seen hundreds of live shows of all sorts of bands over the years, but i have to admit that the grateful dead shows were consistently sounding good no mater what 'room' they were playing in. others might sound good here, but not there, in light of the mixers or the venues not taking to heart the deads' lessons. those grateful dead shows were live music magic to be sure. thanks for this generalized look at a major moment in live audio history!
jebstewart666 It could not have been said any better.
The Dead turned me on to sound reinforcement - I had signed up to the Deadheads - address on Skull Roses album (1970) - they sent me some sampler "mini records" and a drawing layout of the proposed (at that time) Wall Of Sound system.
@@raybin6873 wow, that's really cool!
Great vid! One thing you left out: because it took so long to set up and break down the WOS, they actually needed two of them: 2 complete systems. While one was in use in one city, the second was already at the next city/venue being set up, and then the first one would get broken down and leap-frog the second one on to the third city. Major cost inefficiency, but just goes to show their dedication to the sound that they would do it for so long despite losing money.
They're a band beyond description.
This is how I would describe it 💩
@@garret6464 Go white knight elsewhere beta Male cuck!
The only time I saw the Dead live they had this system. Vancouver, 1974.
good show - one of my teacher's was like that also.. just saw the dead in vancouver, I figured it was '74
I saw Dead first time when Wake of Flood released - they had huge artwork of album cover draped behind band - Wall of Sound system - it was absolutely awesome sound - unforgettable.
For the full experience, listen to the audience recordings from 74. Contrast them with AUD's from 72. Avoid the soundboards for this experiment as you have to compare apples to apples.
I Love the Dead!! Maybe do a essay about Joe Strummer and/or the Clash? Thanks in advance and love from Sweden!
Please... I would love a video on this
Damn thanks for reminding me about the clash,I gotta go listen to guns of brixton again
@@someguy4313
Listen to the whole album, i could never get tired of London Calling, best album of all time.
There is a great biography of Owsley for anyone who wants to know more about his mysterious life and career with the Dead. It's called Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III by Robert Greenfield. Highly recommend!!
Thank you very much -- had not known that existed.
Just downloaded it, and added it to the ever-growing To Be Read List.
Maybe I'll get to it by the start of the next millennium...
@@smartalek180 When you do read it, your head will be totally blown by this mans life.
Fantastic. This dead head loves the separation of instruments of this era. Hearing Bobby and Jerry separate yet together is what made the wall so great. Bob is often times muddled in the mix, but as you mentioned, the wall allowed for each to be heard distinctly and brightly.
Another crazy thing is they brought some of Owsley Ashes to the 50-year anniversary fare-thee-well shows. There's pictures floating around, where you can see a clear bottle with ashes in it. It was sitting right on the soundboard. He was definitely a man of many many talents! Even that is an understatement...
N.F.A.......
This could have used some more technical specs, but a pretty good video overall, thanks.
If you want more tech specs, there is a 5-6 hour Dead doc on Amazon prime, they go through the tech in it pretty extensively. I am not a Dead Fan, but I enjoyed the doc.
Oh nice. Downloading as we speak.
Good point
Wasn't this the first line array system? Bose made a few bucks out of that concept
Essentially yes. And this is about live concert P.A. sound technology. Not home or studio sound. John Meyer of Meyer Sound Labs was a participant in the designs and at the forefront of following live sound systems among others.
Ed M
Right--Bose makes a PA system based on the line array
I've never been to a "loud" dead show. I could always talk comfortably with people around me yet feel the music as if I was right by the speakers. Miss those days.
They were pretty fuckin loud. Sound always really clear..it was clearly loud af
Interesting topic. But I don’t think using a remastered soundboard that was also an official band release as an example of the “made specifically for live experience” Wall of Sound is a good comparison.
DeciBel. Its named for Alex G Bell, telephone inventor guy. Not Ernie Ball. Custom string set and volume pedal magnate.
Btw, you should also mention that massive sound systems with large numbers of speakers was required because power amplifiers topped out at about 300 watts, and most woofers could only handle about 100 watts. Today we have 1000 watt woofers and 2000 wpc amps. Could acheive the same SPL as wall of sound with a fraction of the weight.
I love music trivia and would probably consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to music history but I always come away from your videos with something new. I love it. Keep up the great work.
Their music, their sound system & Jerry Garcia. Some of the audience tapes from 74 are absolutely magical. Mind blowing stuff. Can't imagine it live.
I have seen 4 dead shows. All in Hamilton On Canada. The first 2 had a pretty hefty quad speaker setup that shook the bass levels wickedly. The second 2 had a sony walkman setup with 4 little speaker trees hangin off the roof in the middle of the arena and they mixedbit with the stage speaker setupbto move the sound around the room creating a shelving effect that had the different instruments in different spots to be able to creat a 3D effect. Clear? Holy! I have never heard such quality ever, anywhere, period!!
Glad I got to be there for it and got to see Brent, & 1 of the shows they performed Terrapin Station and it was ovahhh for Me... blew me away... blew me away. I missed some great shows but I got to see the Fukin Dead!!! Yeahh!!
Hamilton, Ontario. Must be the shows I saw on spring tour March 1990 and March 1992, eh ?🇨🇦
Another innovation to their sound: the first time I saw the Dead at Englishtown, NJ, they had 6 or 7 speaker banks out in the audience, because it was so large (125K people), so that everyone could hear the same sound mix even in the back, just like the people right up in front of the stage. I stood right underneath one of them, and the sound was incredible. It was almost like you were standing on stage with them! The only other band that I have heard have as good a live sound as them was Pink Floyd.
It was 12 towers. Not only that, but Dan Healy and other sound engineers rigged it up so there was no sound delay. Everybody could hear exactly what the band was playing with no delay.
When you say no delay, I'm guessing you mean the effect of the sound repeating itself? Because in order to avoid that, delaying the signal (adding latency) playing further from stage was exactly what one would do. As in stage->stage speakers = no latency. Stage->second set of speakers = a little latency to make up for sounds travel time through air versus electric travel time through cabling, and so on, and so forth.
You actually need to do the same thing today, even in very small set-ups, because the slightest latency discrepancy between the speakers will introduce phase problems that'll "thin out" the sound. Of course, speaker technology and sound technology has come a very long way this past half century, so Haley et al might be some of the first engineers to actually do something about these things.
You seem like an expert so I defer to you as to how it was done. All I know was that I was there and when a drummer hit the snare drum you heard it simultaneously.
I've merely dabbled in it, and learned some of the technical stuff out of necessity.
What you're describing seems different from what I laid out above, but it might be possible with phase cancellation. Basically sending the same signal towards itself, making the waves cancel out because they're identical. I guess this could remove the signal coming from the stage, which would remove the need for latency, due to the natural latency being cancelled out.
That's the bet I can come up with at the moment, but they might've done something completely different for all I know.
What about the Who and Grand Funk they both had great sound systems in the 70’s too imo!
"Nefarious"
That's a pretty badly biased word in the context.
5:14 The reason why the live audio sounds great to us listeners is because is because it was mixed right and they used a 16 track recorder on the road. The speakers really have more to do with the live show as it happened. What we hear now isn't coming from the speakers the fans heard.
Thanks for including this info because this was a major feat of the GD sound crew. There are the Official Dead Live Show albums, then there are the "Tapes" recorded by random fans with their own equipment.
No, that recording of China Doll at 5:14 is a 2-track recording, they did not use a 16-track recorder regularly on the road. The big reason why so many of the GD 2-track soundboard recordings sound so good is because they were specifically and separately mixed for recording, not just a recording of what was being sent to the PA. Betty Cantor-Jackson had a separate mixer and mixed live to 2-track for recording through much of the 70s. That is also why 80's soundboard recordings up until 1987 or so don't sound as balanced, more of Brent's keyboards and less of Jerry's guitar - because the band stopped making a separate recording mix and just recorded what was being sent to the PA.
Here is the thing.. Owsley didn't invent the inverted mic phasing technique.. Although if you've ever met him, I'm sure he would tell you he did. I had the uncomfortable privilege of meeting him a few times, and while it was great to be in the presence of such a storied character, Owsley notoriously took credit for everything, telling me he was the entire reason anyone ever knew about the Dead, and that he created the entire scene.. .. Granted, he had a big part to play in it, and he indeed contributed plenty.. but unless it was something otherwise easily proven, he would take credit for it... I nearly thought he was going to tell me he was the guy who told Jerry to take up the Guitar, and taught him how to play it as well... I was surprised that the King Of LSD, a substance notoriously (and erroneously mind you) believed to "dissolved ones ego".. was himself the most egotistical person one could ever come across. If you check a Video Called "The Rivalry of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney".. around the 6:55 mark, you will see the Beatles performing in what looks like around 1966 with the same mic setup to cancel out the vocals coming from their loudspeakers directly behind them. A technique presumably originally developed by engineers at EMI Abbey Road
No mention of McIntosh amps as a vital part of the Wall of Sound?
Exactly
My mom used to go see them religiously in the 90s and they would have open markets before the concert and you could get a "miracle" which was a free ticket to get in. They really have changed live music and built friendships and peace within a show.
I toured in the 90s, and sometimes would bring an extra ticket. Onetime in Canada I was selling one to a guy who proceeded to start piling change. I knew I could not dance around with THAT in my pockets (or maybe I should have to add to the music and spread it all over, I was already selling it for like half price). I said No, just take it. You should have seen his face. I also literally could have given a ticket to your mom, and certainly 100% saw her walking around with probably a "one" finger up and a "need a miracle" home made sign. I didn't even know how magical all of it was, but now it was such a moment in our culture.
I heard Steve Parish talking about how there were rubber mats on the floor in front of the mics that were switches. So when someone would stop singing and step off the mat, it would shut off the mic. You can see this in videos from the Wall of Sound era. They would step up to sing, and step back when they were done, turning the mics on and off. Brilliant.
Yea that freaking awesome.
That mat technology came in to being later on. They stepped back from the wall mic's so that the phase cancellation would activate and not allow any speaker sound leaking in the mic's which would create horrible feedback. That's why those wall mic's had two barrels.
I have made two of those mic mats that i use for 'problem vocalists' that have difficult vocal technique. Simple mute when they are away from the mic, that way I can concentrate on the rest of the mix. Works great.
@@edm781 I knew the twin mics were for phase cancellation, but I really thought they were stepping away to activate the mute on the mics. At least that's the way Steve explained it. Interesting...I wonder if there's more info to be found on the WoS.
@@andyevans2336 I kinda wish my band had those! lol
Nice using cuts from recently released Pacific Northwest 73-74 box set. Have not yet listened through all of mine yet. (subliminal promotion at its finest, good ol' Grateful Dead!)
How gg allin changed live music forever
He was definitely an important innovator within the field of stage performance in the history of rock n roll music since no one dared before to throw poop at the audience
I'd say "How GG Allin performed"... I love GG from a pure punk perspective, but thank absolute fuck he didn't influence live performance much
Welcome to my world, it's a battlefield blitz
YES
Anally btw
I grew up in Sacramento California just down the road from San Francisco. In 1979 two of those Blond, pine marine plywood cabinets went on sale at a local music store. The owner of the store told me that they had belonged to The Dead, and I had seen the movie (where the wall of sound is featured prominently) so I recognized them. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, more of a “well that’s cool”. The JBL D140’s had been pulled out of them, but they were re-loaded with EVM 15B speakers, and were really awesome as bass cabinets. After hearing them, I bought them. 200 each. They were difficult to move around, but beautiful. I really wish I still had them.
Please make this video into a poster
The bear traded cigarettes for steaks in prison. He was smart enough to maintain his carnivore diet. Later transferred to kitchen duty. Genius no matter what he did
Omfg you did grateful dead! I'm so happy even though I really am not a fan. Me and my partner wanted a video so we could understand their history, since it's a band that's referenced a lot. Not to disrespect them they just aren't our cuppa tea, so this will be great to learn something!
What kind of music are you into? I could give some suggestions. A small issue with the dead being so creative was that they changed and always sounded so different
They played in every genre you could name and a half-dozen more besides, as well as inventing a couple-three of their own...
But they were first, foremost, and always a folkie band; that's where they got their start (Phil's classical & jazz backgrounds notwithstanding), and always ultimately what was at the heart of their music. Might could check out their folk covers (Jack-a-Roe, Peggy-o, Whiskey in the Jar, Dark Hollow, Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad, And We Bid U Good-Night) and their faux-folk originals (Dire Wolf, Cumberland Blues, Friend of the Devil, Ripple, Lazy River Road) if that field appeals...
Got to meet Owlesley.In the fall of 1990.The Dead were doing a European tour.My friend and I had seen the Stockholm show.Now we were in Copenhagen heading south.The big train schedule book showed a passenger car leaving with a frieght train several hours before other passenger trains.When we went to the freight side,There was one man already there.We chatted about his interaction with the cook on the ferry.He just wanted cooked burger patties.The cook insisted they be complete burgers.He offered to pay for complete burgers but just cook the patties.It was an interesting ride from Copenhagen to Amersfoort.