Dick's Picks 31

Here is an article about DL2 that I found in the December 6 issue of my local newsrag, the Victoria (BC) Times-Colonist. I think you will all find it to be of interest.

Richard Chamberlain, "Dead End Job 'The Best in The World."

When he was 18, David Lemieux read about the best damned job in the world.

Lemieux, a one-time Victorian now residing in California, had stumbled across an article about the legendary Dick Latvala. Latvala's job was looking after the Grateful Dead's warehouse of audio recordings and films. He was the most unlikely of all things: a Grateful Dead archivist.

"God, I was in awe of that phrase, 'Grateful Dead archivist.' I thought that would be absolutely the best job in the world," said Lemieux.

Today, the 33-year old Canadian is the Grateful Dead's archivist. Lemieux, a former audio-visual technician with British Columbia Archives, has held the full-time position since Sept. 15, 1999.

Far out, dude. For those who don't know, the Grateful Dead are (or were) the archetypal psychedelic 60s band. The Dead are about endless jams, tie-dyed shirts and, uh, mind-altering substances. Many of today's Deadheads are, like Lemieux, too young to have been around in the 1960s. Call 'em neo-Deadheads.

Lemieux, who holds a masters degree from a British university, is a trained archivist. The Ottawa native is also a neo-Deadhead who's witnessed more than 100 concerts. In the land of the Deadhead, Lemieux has the best job possible, short of actually being in the Grateful Dead (the latter is almost possible if one inhales with sufficient gusto).

"The Vault is Valhalla. It's heaven for Deadheads," he said.

The Vault is located in Novato, Calif., 25 miles north of San Francisco. It's part of a Grateful Dead warehouse complex that includes their rehearsal studio, offices and merchandising space.

The Vault is a 2,400 square foot climate-controlled room with 12-foot high ceilings. Thirteen thousand audio tapes, 3,000 videotapes, and a quarter of a million feet of 16 mm film are protected by five-layer thick walls and fire-suppression system that, if triggered, releases Inergen--a gas that replaces all the oxygen in the Vault. As the Talking Heads once sang, "This ain't no fooling around."

Lemieux tends to the Dea's legacy with the exquisite care a mother might extend to a newborn. But there's more to it than that.

If a Grateful Dead member--say Phil Lesh or Bob Weir--develops a hankering to hear an old recording, Lemieux digs it up. More significantly, he's also the man who produces the Dead's archival recordings (released through the "Dick's Picks" series) and DVDs. For instance, the new DVD "Grateful Dead --The Closing of Winterland." Lemieux produced it.

It's a great gig. "Ultimately," he says, "your job is to listen to Grateful Dead music."

So how does a Canuck become the gatekeeper to America's best-loved hippie institution?

During his 18 month stint with BC Archives, Lemieux was finishing off his master's thesis for the University of East Anglia. The paper was on film-archiving techniques.

On a whim, he wrote a letter to Grateful Dead archivist Latvala, asking if he could inspect the Vault's film archives. Although ostensibly a scholarly visit, Lemieux admits he had a hidden motive.

"Specifically, I just wanted to see the Dead's archive," he said.

"I didn't mention I was a Deadhead. Which I was."

To Lemieux's surprise, three months later, Latvala wrote back inviting him to the Vault. The pair got along famously and Lemieux was eventually offered contract work. Ultimately, the 56-year-old Latvala died after a heart attack in 1999. Lemieux got the job of Grateful Dead archivist. Eventually, he took over producer duties as well.

How cool is this job? Well, Lemieux once discovered a long-forgotten audiotape of the Grateful Dead playing a bowling alley gig in Lake Tahoe in 1968. The quality of the performance and the tape were so outstanding, it was released on CD.

"The posters were billed as 'trip and ski.' You know, come up to Tahoe, eat some acid and go skiing, and see the Dead."

Although Lemieux sometimes listens to the Grateful Dead up to 12 hours a day as part of his duties (a mind-numbing task for non-fans), he swears he never tires of the music. At cocktail parties, he tends not to tell "regular people" specifically what he does for a living, merely saying he's a film and recording archivist.

And Deadheads?

"Deadheads I definitely don't bring up the Grateful Dead thing," said Lemieux. That's because the tie-dyed-in-the-wool fans would be constantly demanding dubs of recordings and so on.

And it's Lemieux's job to guard and protect, after all.

One might think a Grateful Dead archivist might wear long hair, a beard, and tie-dyed shirt with one of those lightning bolt skulls or dancing bear emblems.

Nope. Lemieux's locks are neatly clipped, and he wears a "shirt with a collar."

As for the other obvious question, the answer is also negative.

Lemieux says puffing certain substances skewers his appreciation of the music, which is certainly a no-no--at least on the job.

"Everything becomes good at that point, and I become very uncritical," he said.

"It's been a very long time since that's gone down."

The End

Cool little article, Adam!

David, you're a year younger than ME! :-)

PDT (#2016 of 2016)
3/17/93 for DP31, please & thank you :-)!

3/17/93

I hope they do release 3/17/93. I hope DL2 personally visits you with that DP and shoves it down your throat.

PDT (#2016 of 2016)
primal DP31, please & thank you :-)!

PRIMAL!

hope they do release 3/17/93. I hope DL2 personally visits you with that DP and shoves it down your throat.

LOL

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Mr. 93 - 02:20pm Dec 7, 2003 PDT (#2078 of 2080)

PDT (#2016 of 2016)
11/1/68!

I have seen the light! 11/1/68!!

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LOL!

Nice interview

93, if you're going to troll at least learn how to cut and paste.

 i knew when nafta was passed that US jobs (like vault archivist) would go "offshore"

now that steel tarrifs are out, songs like "Tons of Steel" will be meaningless to future generations of Deadheads

And for that, they will be thankful.

Walter Keenan - 04:17pm Dec 7, 2003 PDT (#2084 of 2085)
The easier it looks, the harder it hooks.

93, if you're going to troll at least learn how to cut and paste.
(#2078 of 2085)

PDT (#2016 of 2016)
3/17/93 for DP31, please & thank you :-)!

3/17/93

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