Last month, John Patrick Gatta began an extended conversation with Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux. The interview touched on many subjects, both familiar and new, including the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, which is referenced in the title above. This month, Lemieux talks a bit more about his relationship with Dick Latvala, outlines some of his own current endeavors and shares some thoughts on what’s in the works in terms of archival releases.
JOINING GDP
JPG: Let’s backtrack for a second here. I don’t think we talked about this last time. How did you get involved with Grateful Dead Productions?
DL: I did a masters in film archiving. That ended in late ’98. And while I was writing my thesis in the summer of ’ 98 I contacted them. I contacted Dick [Latvala] specifically, and said, ‘I’m going to be down in the Bay Area in a few months. I’m working on a masters thesis on film archiving in Canada, the history of Canadian film archives and I would love to see how GDP, which is primarily a commercial audio archive,’ — which is really what it was in ‘98/’99 – ‘how it holds its film and video.’ They released Downhill From Here and Ticket to New Year’s but they hadn’t really ventured into really using their video collection or even cataloging it to the extent that they could.
So, Dick called me two months after I sent that email and he said, ‘Oh, you’re coming down here.’ I said, ‘I’m coming down next week.’ He invited me to see the Vault. So I did. And we hit it off. And I hit it off with John Cutler who was the Dead’s sound guy and studio engineer. He produced In the Dark and all that stuff. Tremendous guy. That was summer of ’98. Then, in the fall of ’98 when I finished my masters I wrote both of those guys a thank you letter, an actual letter not an email but an actual printed out letter and said, ‘If you need a video archivist…’ because Dick was so busy with the audio stuff. It was more than a full-time job for him to keep that catalog organized and, of course, listening and picking the [Dick’s] Picks. It’s the kind of thing that I think anybody would throw that into a letter. I get letters like that all the time. A week later, Cutler called, ‘Yeah, we do need help with the video and you seem qualified. Come on down.’ I was down there doing the video work in the spring of ’99. I kept coming back through the Summer of ’99 on different contracts. And in August of ’99 while working on the initial cataloging of The Grateful Dead Movie outtakes Dick passed away. So, while I was down there for a one month contract he passed away and they just asked me to stay. So I did.
It was very sad more than anything, and it was the kind of thing where I was working with him pretty closely for four months in the spring and then a couple months in the summer and then he was gone. Dick was unlike anybody else. He was one of these guys where every exchange you have with him is completely memorable. He was larger than life, a good phrase for somebody like Dick.
LEARNING FROM DICK LATVALA, LISTENING OBJECTIVELY
JPG: What did you learn from him as far as an archivist and choosing shows?
DL: In the short time that I did work with him he taught me how to objectively listen to Grateful Dead music. And I say that because he listened to it academically. And, of course, he was the biggest Deadhead you’d ever meet so he did it certainly for pleasure. But he really knew how to listen to Grateful Dead music objectively, which is to say John you have your favorite era of Grateful Dead without a doubt. That could be the ‘80s with Brent or that could be…whatever it is that’s your favorite era. And I don’t know why, but you might not like at all the real out there “Other Ones” from ’72 and ’73. And that’s understandable. Somebody just might not like that. They like a different type of Grateful Dead but what Dick taught me is you have to step back from your personal preferences and recognize that even if you don’t like 1985, you can step back and not even in the context of 1985, see that this is good music period. And it’s different from the stuff that I, personally, Dick Latvala or John Gatta, like but this is just great Grateful Dead music and it’s outside of the context of what I would normally listen to. So, he really taught that. Dick is the kind of guy who you think this guy probably doesn’t listen to anything outside of ’69, he can listen to something like the Hartford ’83 show and not even say in the context of 1983 that this is good. He can just flat out say, ‘This is really good.’ Then, you listen to it with those objective ears, not because Dick told you to, and you say, ‘You know this is really good. It’s not Live Dead, it’s not Europe ’72, it’s something different. But for what it is, it is pretty interesting. And then when you look at it in the greater Grateful Dead context you’re like, ‘It’s just them taking another chance in a different direction, and it’s really good.’
That was the one key thing. I remember once when I was a teenager, a very similar thing happened to me where somebody had offered me, and I can’t remember what it was, it was a type of food. Let’s say that they offered me a Sprite and I said, ‘No, I only drink Pepsi.’ And it was a hippie, and he was like, ‘Hey man, variety is the spice of life.’ And I thought about it, ‘You know what? He’s right.’ Then, I drank that Sprite and said, ‘This is actually refreshing.’ It was not a soda conversation but it was something like that. And I was like, ‘You know what? You can’t be so close-minded and be, ‘Oh, no no no, I won’t buy that because I only listen to 1973.’ ‘I won’t pick something from 1978 because I only like ‘76.’ You can’t do it, especially when you get into a position where you have some modicum of influence on these kinds of things, you really got to check your subjectivity at the door because it’s not about what you like. If it was, every Dick’s Pick under Dick’s tenure would have been ’68 to ’72. And there is a certain faction that would not have complained about that, but that certainly would not have represented the Grateful Dead. I certainly do agree with people, I don’t defend it, when people say, ‘You really got to do a ’93 to ’95 Road Trips.’ And they’re right. We do. The thing is it’s just a lot more limiting to find…It’s good but we certainly do have a few things from that era we could release and probably will. Likewise, early to mid-‘80s, I’m sure you’ll see some of that stuff. There’s really good music from all the eras.
JPG: Like I said, I’m a Brent fan but I go through moods and with that hit on different years at different times.
DL: Exactly. You named it. You go through moods. I remember somebody saying to me, ‘How many versions of “Sugar Magnolia” can you listen to?’ (slight laugh) Quite honestly, all of them because they’re all so different. I could put on a ’72 or an ’81 or a ’93 and they’re all going to be so different that I can find something really interesting and enjoyable on all of them.
Checking your subjectivity at the door is really the key to this. It’s not about me and it’s not about one faction of Deadheads, it’s about representing the band and their entire legacy from 1966 all the way through 1995 which is why I really liked Fallout from the Phil Zone so much. He had tracks on it from ’67 right up to ’95. Dick had a huge role in that Fallout from the Phil Zone. Phil found good music. And you’re like, ‘Hey, this is really good music.’ The “Visions of Johanna” on there. Once you recognize that, it’s true. Certain eras, it might be a little difficult to find good music but once you find it it’s there and it’s good.
SPRING 2009 DEAD TOUR
JPG: You’re known within the Deadhead scene but you’ve been mostly in the background. On the Spring 2009 tour by The Dead you were more available, hanging out at the merch booth during shows. How did it feel to be in a more public setting?
DL: It was fine. And I think anybody who knows me, whether it’s people who have known me by the phone like you or friends, they know I’m a pretty laidback guy. If somebody thought that this was a good idea, which I think it was a good idea, to get out and meet people because people do have a lot of questions that they might not realize I have a very public email address at the website (vault@dead.net). People can ask me and I respond to everything through that. Likewise, people might have a lot questions that they have on the tip of their tongue and want to ask the guy who has some involvement, whatever that involvement is, but somebody whose favorite album might be Steppin’ Out with the Grateful Dead, the England ’72, and ask, ‘Why did you choose this version of “Good Lovin’” over that one?’ I love talking about that kind of stuff like that. I don’t know what other people thought of it but I loved it.
I communicate with dozens and dozens of people a day through that public email address, but to actually be able to meet a lot of people was a real ton of fun. And I’ve done a ton of those PBS [telethons] so I don’t mind at all.
JPG: Now, you were putting up the setlist on Twitter, right?
DL: I was doing it on the Dead’s website.
JPG: At Philadelphia you originally heard “Big River,” which I did as well, and posted that but it moved into “Cumberland Blues” instead. And, I guess, some people fried you for that.
DL: (slight laugh) Yeah, honestly I welcome that kind of discussion and I only say that because it really demonstrates that people, 14 years after the last Grateful Dead show, 30 years after they might have started listening are still this passionate about it. And I love that.
Now, I don’t think that there’s any place for mean-spiritedness but that’s very rare. I think that everybody’s point is valid. Anybody who has anything to say is certainly as valid as anything I do or you do. And I have the forums of the Taper’s Section at www.dead.net and the Sirius XM show (“Today in Grateful Dead History” at 7 a.m., 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. EST daily). Other people have website comment areas. That’s why there’s discussion forums on www.dead.net. That’s why my email address is so public. It’s completely welcome. It’s nothing without the passion of the fans, and I mean that.
You could say that they fried me, but I like to look at it a little more like they were passionate…and there are people who like to be the first one to point out that you made an error. They love it.
JPG: I just laughed about it because I still have the habit of writing down the setlist and I remember writing “Big River” then scratched it out in favor of “Cumberland.” After that it was posted “Sorry people but we do not tolerate verbal/text aggression. We are human and make mistakes. Relax…”
DL: See, those are the moderators who are sensitive about that stuff, and rightfully so because there is some mean-spiritedness attacks against other fans. You’ll see a lot of this. In the Tapers Section I’ll play something from 1987 and someone will post, ‘Oh man, get back to the good years.’ Someone will say, ‘What are you talking about? ’87 was a fine year.’ And then somebody throws something at the other one that’s not very nice and I just don’t understand. Again, it comes down to you’ve got to learn to appreciate all of this stuff. Yeah, ’87 is a lot different than ’72 but it’s pretty darn good. There’s some great stuff in there.
INVOLVEMENT WITH SIRIUS
JPG: Speaking of Sirius, I know that you do the “Today in Grateful Dead History” program, is that your only involvement?
DL: I do an hour long special that goes with every Road Trips that plays some of the music from Road Trips, some of the bonus disc material and some outtake material that didn’t make the cut, which is a lot of fun because during mastering Jeffrey [Norman] does a couple extra couple songs that, were it a four-CD set, would have made it. That airs for a week or two around the release of a Road Trips.
What happened was they worked out an arrangement where they were going to play a 24 hour Grateful Dead [channel] so they had to now fill up 24 hours a day with content. They came to David Gans, who truly is a radio expert. He and Rob Bleetstein and a couple other people and myself through a call for proposals to ask if anybody had good ideas that would be good for this kind of station. Everybody threw out a couple of ideas. This seemed like something, as a fan, I’d like to hear because it is a half-hour to 45 minute show everyday. They were very open to suggestions where you could say, ‘Do you want this five or seven days per week?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you want?’ ‘Seven days.’ ‘Well then, okay, do it.’ So, it’s a seven day a week thing. I think it’s a ton of fun. I didn’t have that much dj experience. I’ve been interviewed on the radio a lot. I’ve done all those PBS spots with the Dead movie and stuff like that, enough to know talk about what you know. As long as you come from the heart, you’re going to do fine.
JPG: My friend, Mike, mentioned that his 15-year-old daughter, Olivia, loves the program and is now catching up on the band’s history.
DL: I love hearing that. I truly love hearing that. Knowing that there are people that age that are getting on board.
MORE BACKGROUND
JPG: Speaking of the heart, when did you take the Grateful Dead to heart?
DL: It would definitely have been my first Dead show. I was in Hartford, Connecticut 1987. Certainly, I had been to a few concerts up to that point, probably 15 or 20. And they were fine. There were some good ones ’84, ’85, ’86 then in ’87.
JPG: These are all Grateful Dead shows?
DL: No, these were other bands. They were fine. The live world is pretty cool. Then I saw the Dead, and being a huge Dead fan, they played lots of songs I really liked. It did it for me. No other bands that could find room in my listening for some time, actually. I think a lot of people get to that point The Dead become an all inclusive band. That’s what happened to me. That one was a pretty big one. There was a show at the Meadowlands, March 31, 1988 that was also a really big moment. And then Kingswood [Music Theatre] in Toronto when the Dead played there, that also had a huge impact on me. So my first dozen shows, two or three in particular, really made me realize, ‘This is pretty cool. I like this.’ A couple in ’89 that really blew me away. It was certainly moments like that.
JPG: And at that point, you got on the Bus.
DL: I did, I did. March 26, 1987.
JPG: In that sense, the Dead and Jerry, for me. I really hated country music for the longest time. But then through the Dead, I came to really turn around and appreciate bluegrass and stuff like that in later years.
DL: I certainly never hated any of those genres, but I didn’t know of them. When I was 14, 15 years old and just getting into music at 13, 14. I was getting into things like Led Zeppelin, and the Dead and stuff and hearing something like Skull & Roses, hearing “Mama Tried,” “Bobby McGee” that these have little shades of country music that I heard before. So the Dead really encompass everything. Someone else turned me on to “The Other One” from fall of ’72 that had serious shades of jazz. This music’s pretty dense. I remember my mom asking, ‘Well, what is it? Is it heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll?’ It’s rock n roll, but it’s so much more that that
JPG: What other bands do you follow? Or is it exclusively Grateful Dead?
DL: No, a lot of bands. Huge Wilco fan. Bands that still do it for me in a live setting, Wilco is really one of them that I really dig seeing. I still really love going to see Bob Dylan. Big David Bowie fan. A lot of people find that a little surprising. Huge David Bowie fan, actually. That’s because that was the first music that I really became passionate about before the Dead even, like when I was 12 years old, or 13. When I was 12, the Let’s Dance album came out and I didn’t like it. Someone else said that you gotta hear some of Bowie’s other stuff and they started turning me on when I was 12, 13 years old to Hunky Dory and right on to Scary Monsters which I guess was 1980. Right up ‘til then, to me, that guy can’t do any wrong. So huge, huge fan of that. For newer bands that might come at a bit of a surprise I enjoy Blur, a British band from the ‘90’s that just got back together a month ago. There’s very few bands nowadays that I will travel to go see. Wilco is one of them. There was a Canadian band that was around for 20 years that two years ago disbanded called the Rheostatics. They were a huge passion of mine and still are, but they’re not playing anymore, unfortunately. I did go to their last ever concert in Toronto in 2007. It was a big, big moment of my life. Gosh, there’s loads and loads of other bands I’m just not thinking of right now, but you get the gist of what I listen to.
ROAD TRIPS – CAL EXPO ‘93
JPG: Several days after the first part of the interview was published, Rhino announced the next Road Trips and Pure Jerry releases
DL: They do that. They just spring those on. They, obviously, made the announcement before the albums were done, but that’s fine. I think people like pre-orders because then they know they can put their order in and three, four weeks later, whatever it is, all of sudden it shows up at your door.
JPG: Do those series have actual release dates?
DL: They’d don’t. That’s only because the moment they get to the warehouse they ship. What usually happens is, in this case, they went on sale on Aug. 1 and then very shortly after that everything got to the plant. Then, it takes a couple weeks to manufacture and ship to the shipping warehouse.
The moment it arrives they start shipping. We do this as fast as we can, while at the same time letting the orders come in over the three weeks so we have a rough idea of what the initial batch would be.
JPG: I see that the Road Trips is taken from the Cal Expo run in May 1993. I’m not surprised since we talked so much about the ‘90s not being represented in recent releases.
DL: It’s the kind of thing where I’m not at liberty to talk specifics until the announcement date. So, there’s not much more I can say except for ‘We’ll have another Road Trips soon and I think that the ‘90s are coming up.’
We don’t produce those things in a day. [Cal Expo] probably goes back three months, four months. This one went into production in May. I could probably dig a little deeper in my brain and figure out what the next Road Trips will be but I don’t know what the release date is so I don’t even want to speculate.
JPG: Now, do you present several options for the year and they’re done? So, then it’s a matter of Rhino having options and deciding what to release when?
DL: No. Absolutely not. Each one is done with complete resources put to it, which is to say Jeffrey and myself and the design team and the photo acquisition team and Blair [Jackson] doing the writing. We’re not doing four at a time and having them sitting in the can. Whether it’s a Road Trips or a Winterland ’73 box set, 100 per cent focus goes into that. Once it’s done, which in the case of this one, the Road Trips ’93, that’s when we start running into production on the next one which means a couple months of tape research, listening and sequencing and the photo acquisitions. Then, Jeffrey doing the mastering and package design on Steve Vance’s side. We do bring up a lot ideas but by the time we go into production that’s the one that’s going to be. I can’t think of any cases except for Winterland ‘73 that something sat on the shelf that was in the can. And even Winterland ’73 wasn’t in the can; the music still needed a huge amount of work. But in terms of the packaging and photo acquisition and liner notes that was done two years in advance.
JPG: Why was it put on hold?
DL: It was done right at the tail end of Grateful Dead Productions’ existence, as an entity in San Rafael, which means the summer of 2006 as a possible release. Then things transferred to Rhino and it went in a couple other directions during the transition – the Cow Palace ’76 and Three from the Vault from ’71 and the beginning of the Road Trips series. It was really just finding a release slot to put that into which became April of 2008. Basically, Grateful Dead Productions proceeding on its release schedule that wasn’t exactly as the Rhino release schedule. So late in 2007 that’s when the production started on that one in terms of the mastering, the layout and design.
JPG: We would always hear about Dick Latvala having notebooks filled with information on shows and that it was used towards choosing the Dick’s Picks. So, are you the one who starts the discussion as to what should be released next?
DL: There’s a lot of voices that have input. It’s more a case of, whether it’s me or somebody at Rhino or Blair or whoever, saying, ‘Well…maybe it’s time for a ’93.’ And then, everybody agrees that, maybe, the time is right. Then, going through ’93 and there’s the top five contenders, which are the obvious ones that pretty much everyone would agree on. From that it gets narrowed down to the one that gets picked. That’s pretty much the way any Dick’s Picks or any release is done. In terms of a master list of the next 100 releases, absolutely not, but in terms of the ability for the team to decide on what the next release era or year will be. From there it’s a lot easier than looking at 30 years and saying, ‘What’s next?’
It’s a lot easier to say, ‘Well, we haven’t done a ’93 so let’s look at that.’ Once we all agree on the top five shows or runs of shows and the Cal Expo always came at the top of that. Even a master schedule over the next three releases, we don’t have a good idea in terms of what eras will be picked. But, the team could definitely narrow that down to five shows from any given era or tour or year or whatever it is. For instance, something as broad as, ‘You know what? It might be time for a late Brent era,’ which means ’88, ’89, ’90 or ‘It might be time for a ’83, ’84.’ Then that pretty much defines what that would be. Then, it could be a matter of deciding on the top 10 candidates and looking at the tapes from those 10 and making sure that all 10 are good. There are eras for instance from April of ’84, there aren’t board tapes of them in the Vault. In those cases, that rules that out. Spring of ’87, there’s some problematic tape things. I don’t know if that would rule it out because we’ve come across some pretty good decent things, but you get my drift of how the production goes.
JPG: Now, did you ever make any of the Cal Expo shows?
DL: I did. I saw Cal Expo in August of ’89 and I saw Cal Expo in May of ’91.
JPG: In the press release, it says, ‘it was one of the cooler places the band played in the ’80s and ’90s, as special in its own way as more celebrated venues.’ For someone who never made it there, what was it about the venue and the band’s reaction to it that made it so special?
DL: It’s tough to call something that holds 12,000 people tiny, but compared to the stadiums we’re talking about on the east coast, 12,000 was very small, even compared to the Oakland Coliseum Arena, which, I think, is 16,000. The cool thing about it was you walked in and it was a field about the size of a soccer field and along the sides and the back were bleachers. And I’m talking about eight rows of bleachers, and that was it. You had perfect sound and it had great viewpoints from anywhere because it was so small. And the cool thing was that even though you weren’t in the Bay Area it had a Bay Area vibe because it was so close. So, all the Bay Area people came out. And you had Rock Med and…it was a very comfortable place to see a show. When you came out, there were hotels within walking distance. It was just an incredibly mellow place to see concerts. I loved it. I thought it sounded great, and the band really rose to the occasion, played amazing shows. Both runs I saw I thought were incredible, particularly in ’89.
There were a few things on the spring tour of ’93 that we checked out that were good, a show in Albany, a bit of Fall stuff but this was the one that really came to the top. When we talked to a lot of people who aren’t necessarily involved in the decision making process but who agreed that these are terrific shows. You don’t even want to use the phrase ‘for ‘93’. You just want to say, ‘These are good shows, period.’
JPG: Since this compiles music from several shows, are you the person who comes with the tracklist or is that done through a team effort?
DL: It’s people giving a listen and bouncing ideas back and forth, very, very respectful. I don’t want to use the word ‘arguments’, but points are made. ‘This version of this song is so great but this song is much rarer even though the performance isn’t as good.’ And then, of course, what fits is a big part of it. Certain things do get excised or maybe included on the bonus disc. We include as much as we can on an 80 minute disc.
It’s never easy but it needs to be made sometimes, the edits. And when that’s made it certainly is a very fun discussion to make those decisions. Everybody’s passionate about it. I’m sure if everything could be a nine-CD box set we wouldn’t have to make those [decisions] but we do. Road Trips is a two-CD release series [with bonus disc for pre-orders]. Under that structure there’s not going to be a lot of complete shows. There’s some, certainly, but not a lot that would fit on two CDs.
JPG: As you try to cram as much music on a disc that you possibly can, are you envisioning it in terms of the flow of a complete show or…?
DL: We’re not trying to fool anybody. What we’re trying to do is when edits do need to be made is at least make it flow that it’s an enjoyable listen. We’re not trying to create a quote unquote complete show if it’s not a complete show. All you have to do is click your mouse and you’ll see in a hundred places what the full setlist was when it’s a compilation. It’s got to be a good listening experience.
I think like any compilation, go listen to some of the classic albums that the Dead created in the early ‘70s, Europe ’72 or Skull and Roses. Those were paced with a very specific intention. I think some of the better GDP compilations like Steppin’ Out… and Ladies and Gentlemen… we certainly use those as templates. You really want to make something that flows. It could be like a dream show but in the case of a two-CD set where you’re taking a complete show or two and narrowing it down, no we’re not trying to create a fake complete show. We’re trying to make as good a listening experience as possible. You have pretty much the [5/26/93] second set intact, some choices had to be made which in this case was cutting a bit of the “Drums” and “Space.” In the case of a jam, I can’t imagine a time where we cut something up unless due to tape reasons it had to be.
PURE JERRY – BAY AREA 1978
JPG: Tell me, why another visit to 1978 for the Pure Jerry series, and why these particular shows?
DL: Great music, first of all. I’m not as involved with the Garcia material as I am with the Dead. It’s really two separate worlds, but in this case I was asked about some good music from ’78 because I think the response to the ‘78 Warner Theatre (3/18/78) was so great as was the Theatre 1839 from 1977 (July 29-30, 1977), another Pure Jerry, that I think they wanted to revisit that era again. And I had done some tape research a couple years ago on material that I amassed over the years, put it together as stuff, whether or not it’s in the Vault or had been floating around as tape trader stuff, but wasn’t complete shows. And that’s what a lot of this material is. The complete shows are either unknown as far as tapes go and just taking bits and pieces that we all accumulated over the years and putting them together into… I don’t know if you heard the Listening Party on the website, there’s a couple tunes up there, “Mystery Train” and “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” the music is phenomenal. It really is great stuff.
That was the extent of my involvement, presenting a few bits and pieces that didn’t have known complete concert recordings and putting them together. So, just putting forth some ideas and on their side they produced the album.
JPG: I know you’ve been on the credits of past Pure Jerry releases, then how are you listed for this one?
DL: I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out when it ships. Maybe there’ll be a ‘thanks,’ I don’t know. I put forth some suggestions, some sequencing ideas but I really don’t know. And I don’t really care. I’m just very happy this music is getting out. I remember hearing this “Lonesome and a Long Way From Home” years ago and being blown away by it. Just amazing. “Let Me Roll It” is just stunning. These are really choice pieces of music. It can truly be considered a great live album. You’d like to think that all the Dick’s Picks and all of the Pure Jerrys are great live albums but at the same time they’re also great historical documents, first and foremost, in a lot of cases. As a compilation, as choosing music over three or four or five shows over the course of four or five months, I think it gives you the ability to find the very best bits of music that otherwise aren’t part of a full show recording. I know these songs well. I’ve been listening to them for years. These are some great versions. It’s exciting that people are getting to hear them. It’s tough for me to suggest to friends who like the Garcia Band but might not want all the Pure Jerrys, this is the one where you can point somebody in the direction and say, ‘Yeah, this is the one you should start with. From there you should try this and then this…’
It’s one of those ones where somebody says, ‘Oh, I like the early ‘70s Dead but I don’t know where to start.’ Well, you give them Steppin’ Out… You give them Ladies and Gentleman… You give them Dick’s Picks 36. There’s a few choice bits that are the obvious ones at the top of the heap. This, I think, will prove to be one of them. The music on it’s just relentlessly good.
FUTURE
JPG: Giving it a shot here. Would you be able to give a hint as to where future releases will be going?
DL: I’ve got some good ideas what the next one or two things will be but in terms of release schedules, I’m not even in the dark. I don’t pay as much attention to them. I pay more attention to production schedules. There’s absolutely no way that this Road Trips was the end of 2009 releases. I know that for sure. As for what or when, I don’t know. I just know that we’re heading into production on a few things now. And I can also say…I can honestly say that the next two things, I think, are outstanding. (slight laugh) And I always say that and I do think that everything is really, really good, but I think the next two things and one of them, in particular, is a mindblower.
JPG: Where would you go next?
DL: I think that my picks have spoken for themselves over the last eight or nine years. It would depend on what was right for the time. The first question that we talked about in the previous interview was exactly that. I think I dropped the Lebowski quote about it, the pick that’s right for its time. If we just released three releases from ’72, ’73 and ’74, I think that would indicate where my preference might be but does that mean the next pick will be there? Almost definitely it won’t be from that era. We haven’t done a ’93. We’ve been doing all this ’77 and ’78, ’74 and ’71. The prevalence of all those releases, and Winterland ’73 and Cow Palace ’76, all those things indicate where the taste might lie but at the same time be a strong indicator of what might not be next. We can’t, we can’t just release what is from one eight or 10 year era. We do have to go around and that’s why you do see a release from 1990 with the Madison Square Garden. You see something from ’93 and I’m sure you’re bound to see some ’80s material.
I don’t think there’s any debate that the best tapes, a lot of them come from that era, which is largely what we’re working from. Also, a lot of the best shows can certainly be said to be from that quote unquote Golden Era from ‘69 to ’78. That may be the Golden Era but there’s still some amazing material from ’79, ’80 and ’81, ’82 and ’85, certainly ’87 to ’90 and ’91 and ’93 have some great stuff. I really don’t like using, ‘Oh, it’s hit-and-miss by ’93.’ You just might have to dig a little deeper or the consensus release might be a little easier to come by because the great shows from certain eras aren’t quite as common as the great shows from 1977 or 1972. You’re talking about some of the best shows the Grateful Dead ever played are from ’72, ’74 and ’69 whereas can you say that about ’94 and ’95? I don’t know. But there are certainly very good shows for ’94 and ’95 that, overall, in the Dead history certainly do hold up as good shows.
So, that’s why something from ’93 is important to get out. Aside from that, I think it’s a great album. I really do. Jeffrey and I were just commenting on this a couple of weeks ago, saying, ‘When we went into production on it we’re so used to producing ’72, ’73, ’77 and things like that you forget that there were some really great shows in ’93.’ There’s some great shows in ’90 that we heard on Road Trips. There’s some good music from all eras if you open your ears.
