So the original post says: “they didn’t give approval to people taping their show, they actively encouraged it.” (I’ll ignore the comma splice for now).
The word the poster wanted was, perhaps, “condemn” or “prohibit.”
I would describe myself as a post-dead deadhead, which there are many… I did happen to see one show in '95 when I was 15, but that was it. So the scene of a dead show really has no bearing on me liking them so much.
To me, obviously, it’s all about the music, which I admit is an acquired taste. But once you acquired that taste, it is like no other.
There is still a big online community with guys “releasing” better and better quality live recordings to this day. I think the insane amount of listenable shows they have available at the click of a mouse button is totally unique for any band and helps keep the music alive.
Thanks for the responses. I think this is a representative answer (bolding mine).
No, I said
meaning tape and trade, bootleg, in other words. I wasn’t sure to the extent they actively encouraged it though. I was certain that at the least, they knew people did it, and they accepted that fact, but I didn’t know if Garcia et al said, literally or otherwise, from the stage, “I hope somebody’s recording this concert and sharing the experience with their friends…”
At most venues they set up special sections for tapers, usually around the soundboard. You had to buy a taper ticket to be able to sit there and set up your equipment. I can’t imagine how they could have encouraged it more.
More ignorance fought. Thanks. 
ETA: sorry for the slow typing. Could almost say I had Crazy Fingers.
A moment on taping for those who are interested:
The Dead were always very open about their taping policy: you’re free to record the show as long as you don’t sell the recording afterward–pretty much trade only. From very early days they not only allowed direct taping, they allowed tapers to patch directly into the soundboards. It eventually grew to the point where they started selling special taper’s tickets. The same price as a regular ticket, the ticket made entry with recording equipment (including up to a 10’ mic stand, IIRC) easier, and sat you (where there was assigned seating) directly behind the soundboard. If it was a GA show (e.g., an amphitheater lawn) a tapers area was loosely marked off. Politeness dictated voices were kept relatively low in the taper’s section. People brought some pretty high tech stuff. By the mid- to late eighties, many were balancing little prisms and other reflectors on top of their mics, making for a beautiful display from afar.
So pre-internet, you had to actively collect different shows, making friends and connections along the way. But it was all centered on listening. You’d hear of this killer soundboard recording of a '72 show, you’d lend out your Cornell '77 more times than you’d get it back, all for the express purpose of sharing the music. An early 70s show is a world apart from an early 90s. Different shows from the same time period varied greatly too–kind of the essence of a jam band.
Now with the Internet, things are fantastic for access to the music, but there is a definite loss of comradery and friendship. There are still reviews and all, and just like here online communities aren’t totally devoid of personality, but it’s … different. But archive.org and furthurnet and a host of other sites are very active—and again, it’s all about the music.
Larry Borgia makes an excellent point. Cosplay, Sci-Fi, whatever you have that draws a large crowd exists not because of the relative minority that only like dressing up for conventions; they draw a large crowd that really really like the focus of the convention–anime, science fiction, or the music.
Shut your eyes and listen to the colors of your mind.
No. The word I wanted was condone. Again, I probably should have said “They didn’t merely condone taping of their shows, they actively encouraged it.” But I think my point was clear.
“Guys a bunch of people want to tape your show. You cool with that?”
Condone: “Jeez, really? We don’t want to look uncool, I guess. I guess we have to let em, but i’m not liking this.”
Actively encourage: “Hell yes! Let’s figure out an area for them to set up, so they can get good acoustics and not get their shit knocked over by the other fans. Whaddya think, Bob, center left look good for them?”
That is the last I have to say on this pointless semantic hijack.
I think most bands and performers starting out these days are OK with taping. They know that many people will want to hear or see something before they travel to hear an unknown artist (I know I do).
Well, I never followed them around, and only saw them once back in the early 80s, but I’m a big fan, if not a proper Dead Head.
I first heard Skull and Roses back when it came out and I bought most of the official releases after that as they came out - then cds appeared and I started going to record fairs and buying loads of live recordings, so I probably have 150+ hours on cd & tape. Some was traded, but most was bought.
I’ve worked in retail for years and find that it’s great shop music for people to browse to; if you like it, you can appreciate the intricacies, but otherwise most of it’s fairly innoffensive and fills the space!
There was a poll years ago in the music magazine Dark Star, I think, asking people all about their musical tastes and one of the questions was about what band’s music was most likely to put you to sleep? The organisers expected people to answer with what they thought were boring groups, but they were forced to split the vote into two categories. As they said, if someone’s voted for the Dead in all the other questions, voting for them in this one is probably seen as a positive thing!
Wow, I have already typed out three long posts and then erased them, as it is so difficult for me to put my feelings about the music of the Grateful Dead into the right words.
I guess the best and most straightforward way to describe attending a really exceptional Grateful Dead show is…
And that’s where I am stuck—There are SO many facets that made up the unique, ethereal, almost indescribable experience of an “on” night with the Grateful Dead.
Without question, it begins and ends with the music—All of the other trappings (drugs, other Deadheads, the venue, the journey to the show itself) were tangential, though certainly played a part in the whole experience—but the music alone was where it was at on those certain nights where the band was playing with a passion and intensity that has rarely been equalled in all of the history of live performance.
I could go on for pages about my thoughts and feelings, and recount some of the specific nights that I can still recall with crystal clarity, but my words could never do justice to the emotional connection that I continue to feel to the music of the Grateful Dead.
Obligatory Grateful Dead concert footage. Hope y’all like it, it’s one of my faves.
Along with what Hajario and RythymDvl and others said - yeah, the shows were unpredictable. What will they open with? Who else is in town tonight that might show up? One night at the Nassau Coliseum, Branford Marsalis came out for the second set and played “Eyes of the World” with a great solo.
I want to add: The Grateful Dead did terrific Beatles cover songs. I remember walking out of the Coliseum (not that show above) after they closed with “Rain” and…it was snowing
link to that Branford Marsalis show:
In Boulder in September, 1972, I was 17, about to turn 18.
We went to a Dead show. It rained, the sun came out, they played all my favorites, and from the stage, out flew many little packages. My boyfriend caught one.
Each plastic baggie had weed, papers, and matches.
It really was one big party.
A live show was like watching someone walk a tight rope a foot above ground. You never knew if they were going to fall, but if they did it was still OK.
Casual Dead fan here. I appreciate the harmony-based stuff they did on Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, but I think the long, jam stuff is what they did best (at least when they were “on”). Really nothing else quite like it in rock, and I would certainly argue with anyone who said it wasn’t “psychedelic” a good deal of the time.
I have no use at all for their endless covers of old country and rock ‘n’ roll songs – even as I understand they were fun for them to do and helped fill out their very long concerts. I just don’t find any musical value in most of them.
Back to the psychedelic angle – in the early 90s PBS ran a Grateful Dead concert as part of a special they did on the band. In the midst of one of their longer and, yes, very psychedelic jams, they ran their accompanying light show full screen for several minutes.
Let’s just say that it had its intended effect. I remember thinking “Wait…you’re telling me I’m supposed to listen to this music, look at this light show, and take acid???”
More than any group I’ve ever seen, they made you want to stand up and “shake your bones” to the music. Mythologist Joseph Campbell said he went to a Dead concert when in his 80s despite having little interest in rock music (although he noted the name has roots in Eastern European mythology). He found the thousands of people swaying to the music for several hours
intoxicating and speculating this is what primitive man must have done before fires at night when they were gathered together.
There is also something about the lyrics to their songs are a bit cryptic. You get a part of what Hunter-Garcia saying and sometime later get another revelation about what they are seeing.
They’re not.
I was in the Phish scene for a long time, and I also know a ton of Deadheads. Almost all of the big Phish fans I know appreciate and like the Dead, though they don’t usually have the same degree of fanatical devotion as they do for Phish.
The Deadheads that I know, almost to a man, absolutely hate Phish. Most are pretty vocal about it. Not only do they have no connection to the music, but they also find the Phish crowd to be immature and annoying and far more interested in the drugs and the party than the music. (To be fair, they’re not entirely wrong about that.)
There is some intersection, but the idea that the Dead fans just moved on to Phish is completely wrong. There’s no doubt that the Phish scene borrowed a lot from the Dead scene, culturally, and they look a lot alike on the surface, but deeper down they have less in common than you’d think.
Too often this fact gets almost criminally overlooked—Robert Hunter’s lyrics stand with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Neil Young etc. as some of the most insightful, intelligent, subtle yet striking songwriting in all of modern music.
"Once in a while you can get shown the Light…
Dan Healy occasionally handed patch cables to tapers in the section to provide direct audio feeds from the soundboard.
In earlier (pre-section) days, Bob Weir would sometimes spot mic stands and tell tapers to move to this or that spot for better sound. That may have just been Bobby goofing around, though, because I don’t think his advice was very good.
I have always preferred a high quality audience recording to a soundboard—A good audience tape (I guess I am still stuck in 1989) was typically more representative of my experience at a show than a soundboard recording was…