Here's one for the Grateful Dead fans out there. I'm not really one, but was still fascinated by this article about the lost Betty Boards recordings - tapes made by Betty Cantor-Jackson, a longtime recording engineer for the Grateful Dead.

Warning: It's very long,so you might want to get a glass of wine before you settle into this one. But it is filled with cool stuff like how they were ahead of their time in amplifying their concerts. Who knew they were so technologically advanced? Here's a snippet:

The Dead’s first great benefactor, Owsley (Bear) Stanley, the scion of a Kentucky political family, was a pioneering manufacturer of LSD. He also had an idiosyncratic but fierce interest in sound quality, and, while his technical contributions were not always practicable, his early financial support, near-evangelical dedication to sonic fidelity, and steady supply of acid created an atmosphere of experimentation and advancement that culminated, first, in the creation of a groundbreaking company called Alembic and, later, in the so-called Wall of Sound. The Wall of Sound, which has nothing to do with Phil Spector’s, consisted of six hundred and four speakers, channelling twenty-six thousand watts of power. It has been called the greatest vessel for the amplification of sound in history. Every modern P.A. system is based on it; it employed a so-called line-array system that is now the industry standard. It was also so cumbersome, and took so long to unload and assemble, that it nearly bankrupted the band. It was Stanley, too, who began recording the band’s performances, in 1966, so that they could listen later, to check the sound or mine ideas. (Kesey and his Merry Pranksters had also inculcated them with the ethos of taping and filming everything.) When Owsley went to prison, for making LSD, others, among them Betty Cantor, stepped in for months at a stretch. A taping regimen took root, even as the band members stopped paying attention.

[www.newyorker.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-20 03:20 by latebloomer.

Too bad the Stones never had such people in their circle.

latebloomer - I started reading this article tonight and "bookmarked" it for later, because,
as you say, it is hella long. But --knowing a little bit about the Grateful Dead, and being in SF
and crossing paths with many peeps from that crowd-- I was surprised how little I knew about
Betty Cantor-Jackson. So, I googled her, and one of the first things that popped up was a
Phil Lesh fan board where someone posted on her behalf, looking to see whether anyone had a
junker car they no longer want - would they consider donating it to Betty Cantor-Jackson? She
lives out in the sticks somewhere, and each week, this iconic sound engineer travels into
the city (San Francisco) to do sound as a volunteer for this church that does all kinds of social
justice work, called GLIDE, which has been around forever. And to get here she has to ride 3 buses,
and it takes over 2 hours each way.

I saw that post and thought "awwwwww, those Deadheads - so kind to take care of each other this
way." But then started reading the hundreds of responses. Given what it said in that article (the part
II read) about her not getting paid for some of her work with the Dead, falling apart at the seams,
and having to stash her belongings in a storage space until she could pay for it no longer -- and
it being auctioned off--including the soundboards for a pile of Grateful Dead shows that hadn't
been heard before, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was sad to get the sense that
after producing Workingmans Dead and other masterpieces that Betty Cantor-Jackson seems to be
--and to have been for some time-- pretty much persona non grata with the Grateful Dead "family,"
and is still or again close to destitute.

So, oddly enough, of the hundreds of responses to this plea, 80% were straight-up vicious, hostile,
sardonic, mean-spirited, judgmental, full of resentment, blame, and finger pointing--like, she must
have brought this on herself--she made her bed so now she can lie in it--let her eat cake, kind of posts.

I mean, Jeez Louise, curmudgeons abound here on iorr, no doubt, but

(a) we're Rolling Stones fans and never claim to be huggy-wuggy-sweetie-pie-smoochums-vegan-
wiccan-earth-mama/daddy-freelovin-ecstatic-dancing-spirit-channeling-openminded-Eastern-enlightened-
ubermoral-luvbugs (tho some of us may be )

and

(b) even on a bad day most of us don't tend to come close to how nasty these peeps were to one
of their own.

Like if, say, in some parallel universe, many years ago, a producer who'd contributed mightily to
Stones' albums and concerts that mean the world to us, had been bilked out of a lot of $$ (repeat:
this is apocryphal). And fans knew it and thought it was crappy, the way evidently serious
Deadheads know about Betty Cantor-Jackson (tho I have to say: I don't know the whole story). And
then someone in 2012 posted on iorr that this former producer is broke and is riding 4 hours of buses
into Chicago 1x/week to do charity sound engineering for a church! and his friend tells us he'd love even
an old beater of a car but doesn't have the cash flow that will allow that -- can you imagine
many of us saying "A$$hole - it's his fault if he screwed up his finances! Go #$%^ yourself!" But
that's what these Deadheads were saying. Hundreds of them. Made me sad.

I have great respect for the musicology of the band, as well as the influence of the Grateful Dead
culturally, and find the Deadhead fan phenomenon/sociology fascinating, but have often wondered
how deep the peace n love ethos goes with some of those folks.

I'll read the rest of the article later -- thanks for posting it -- and ps I have something to share
with iorr in the next months about Owsley Stanley and the Stones...

- swiss



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-20 10:36 by swiss.

Great article, I read it yesterday. His description of Deadheads is brilliant.

Quote
swiss
-- and ps I have something to share with iorr in the next months about Owsley Stanley and the Stones...

- swiss

I would love to hear about this!

Quote
misterfrias

Quote
swiss
-- and ps I have something to share with iorr in the next months about Owsley Stanley and the Stones...

- swiss

I would love to hear about this!

Thanks misterfrias - I'm working on it! Great story

-swiss

Hey swiss, sorry I didn't answer sooner - thanks for your interesting response to the article.

Doesn't reallly surprise me so much that the peace and love Dead crowd can be so nasty. I used to work around politicians and political pundits and, although you would think that the most liberal guys would be the nicest, it was many times the opposite. Conversely, the died in the wool conservatives who wanted to ditch welfare and food stamps were many times the sweethearts. Just goes to show you that political/social outlook has nothing to do with basic human decency.

You really wear a lot of hats, I'd love to hear all about your background someday. If you are coming east to NJ for the Dec. 15th show, let me know, I'll buy the first round.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing more about Owsley Stanley and his Stones connection.

Quote
latebloomer
Hey swiss, sorry I didn't answer sooner - thanks for your interesting response to the article.

Doesn't reallly surprise me so much that the peace and love Dead crowd can be so nasty. I used to work around politicians and political pundits and, although you would think that the most liberal guys would be the nicest, it was many times the opposite. Conversely, the died in the wool conservatives who wanted to ditch welfare and food stamps were many times the sweethearts. Just goes to show you that political/social outlook has nothing to do with basic human decency.

You really wear a lot of hats, I'd love to hear all about your background someday. If you are coming east to NJ for the Dec. 15th show, let me know, I'll buy the first round.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing more about Owsley Stanley and his Stones connection.

hi latebloomer,

I wish I were coming to NJ for the show but it's not in my budget for 2012. It
was so fun meeting other iorrers in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago - now I want
to meet more, so perhaps in 2013 our paths will cross, and I will take you up on
the first round

Great anecdote about the politicians you used to come across - and how well
stereotypes do and do not hold up.

As to hats -- I don't really wear that many . I'm a librarian by education (and nature).
I love being able to organize and find things, and helping others to find things.
So--I worked for many years creating systems, tools, and web/mobile experiences
that organize vast quantities of info with an eye toward user experience (i.e.,
user friendliness). I have always been a musical/cultural history fiend. So, in
the past 2 years I've been migrating from my former professional roles and into
digital archives---particularly in the area of late 20th Century music/social/
cultural history. I was at the Grateful Dead Archive for a stint learning about
archives. So--when it comes to archives I'm interested both in the processes of
preparing objects to be archived, but perhaps even more---translating what I've
done for many years into another context---so, creating products, research tools,
and digital experiences that organize vast quantities of, in this case, digitized
multimedia archival assets, with emphasis on browse, search, and the design of fun
smart immersive user experiences. So, in addition to a literal, say, iPad
application - this might take the form of a multimedia documentary. Or a mobile
experience that has elements of documentary or oral history built into it. Not
that many hats. Music, working, and projects that usually have to do with music
and working --and people involved with same/similar-- tend to be my main hats

I'm producing a multimedia documentary on a narrow slice of popular music/cultural
history that involves the Stones right now--had hoped it would be finished by
December 2012--but missing a key interview, so it won't be completed until 2013.
In the process of interviewing people for this piece I got the amazing story that
involves Owsley and the Stones. It may or may not make it into this immediate
piece. But it will go into the next piece, which is a fuller treatment of the
historical chapter.
- swiss



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-28 08:44 by swiss.