Archive.org has an extensive online catalogue of recorded Grateful Dead concerts for available for online streaming and download. The Grateful Dead were one of the first bands to amass a huge network of followers, known as “deadheads”, who were allowed and even encouraged to tape shows. They traded these tapes, known as bootlegs, and today many of these recordings can be heard on archive.org. It’s important to consider how the internet, and this website in particular, changed how deadheads listened to their favorite band. After the death of Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead’s lead guitarist and singer, the archive takes on a new role as it is filled with songs of the dead. Since so many recordings of live performance have been uploaded, It allows listeners to hear multiple versions of the same show, and most shows played by the GD were taped, so the archive depicts a vast overview of their career as a band. It brings into question how these recordings Deadheads alter their memories of the shows that deadheads may or may not have listened to or even attended live. How the widespread use of psychedelic drugs affected their perception of the music is a different question, but less directly relevant to our class discussion of sound archives.
Grateful Dead Collection at archive.org
“nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile”
-Raphael Shamas
INTRODUCTION TO SOUND STUDIES 