Dick's Picks 34

Has no one posted this yet?? (GD Monthly Flash No. 19)

QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT

Question:Do you ever need to use pieces of music from other shows in the production of Dick's Picks or other releases? There are certain tapes I've had for a long time that have a very noticeable cut/missing piece, and then when that particular show is released as a Dick's Pick, the cut is miraculously fixed.
M.S.-P., Sebastopol, CA

Answer:A: It is quite rare, but occasionally we do use very short snippets of music from other concerts while putting together Dick's Picks and other releases. Most of the tapes we are working with for the production of Dick's Picks are 7" reel-to-reel tapes with a running time of approximately 45 minutes, and occasionally cassettes with a running time of 45 minutes per side. With no second tape recorder running "overlap," anytime the recorder cuts at the 45 minute mark, it requires a few seconds to change reels or to flip the tape, meaning a few seconds of missing music. Our most desired option is to fix these cuts with a piece of music from the same show from an alternate source tape. We have gotten lucky on a few notable occasions using this method: on Dick's Picks Vol. 25, the first 2 CDs (the May 10 New Haven show) were recorded by Bear. Unfortunately, there were some nasty cuts during the music (reel changes), but fortunately Betty had also recorded this concert, so the 2 or 3 instances of missing 15-20 second pieces of music were fixed using Betty's master reels, as her reels cut in different places. Likewise, on Dick's Picks Vol. 26 (4/26&27/69), there were a couple of nasty cuts on the 4/27 part of the Pick. Once again, we used pieces from the same show to fix these cuts, as Bear had recorded a cassette master of this show in addition to the reel-to-reel master we used for the source of the Pick. Our least favorite option is to fix cuts with pieces of music from another show. This is quite rare, but it is an important option to fix certain problems in order to present the best possible listening experience. On Dick's Picks 28, for instance, one of the versions of "Eyes Of The World" had a missing piece that disrupted the flow of the set. Because there was no other source tape from the show, we were forced to use a short, 30 second piece of "Eyes Of The World" from a show earlier that same week. Again, this is not our ideal situation, but is a very suitable solution to problems well beyond our control. Occasionally, a cut is such an identifiable part of a show that has circulated for years that the cut is not fixed, such as the beginning of "St. Stephen" from 5/2/70 (Dick's Picks Vol. 8).

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

The China Doll edit on DP29 is virtually flawless.

If the next pick is not primal, I am making an assault on the vault, who wants to join me???

for the next pick, they are gonna just look at the set list, and record the album versions of each song onto disk in the order of the show's set list. no music from the actual show. :-)

I got your back, rk! Doo Dah and Winters are in :-)

Alright, we've got a posse, baby!

Let me know when you guys get to the pitchfork and flaming torch stage of your raid.

The reel flip in Weather Report on this pick was patched with a segment from 12/18.

The only way I will tolerate a non-primal pick is the announcement of the Live Dead Box Set

Otherwise, I'm all for mob rule

if the next pick is not primal, I am making an assault on the vault, who wants to join me???

Dont even joke about that rk.

Really. The Secret Service will be knocking on your door if you keep that talk up.

Who's joking???

Speaking of great DPs, am listening to 5/19/77 disc 3 right now!!!

DP 30 SugarMag>OtherOne