1986-05-11 | Grateful Dead

2:20:45

Taper:

OldNeumanntapr

Transferrer:

OldNeumanntapr

SHNID:

gd1986-05-11.168552.RealisticStereoCardioidCondenser33919.ont.flac1644

Source:

OTS; Left, Realistic Stereo Cardioid Condenser 33-919 (On Stand) >Sharp Boom Box

Lineage:

XLII Master Tapes Transferred Via Denon DR-M12HR Cassette Deck >Tascam DR100mkII (24bit/48kHZ) WAV >Audacity (EQ, Amplify, Track Splits, Minor Edits, Fades, Down Sample To 16bit/44.1kHz) >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53

Taper Notes:

View NotesOldNeumanntapr Notes:
This was my fourth Grateful Dead concert, the very first successful show that I recorded, and was a few days before my 21st birthday. After incurring a dismal failure trying to record the May 3 Cal Expo show, I borrowed a Realistic stereo microphone and a microphone stand from the Cuesta College Music Department, where I was going to school and also working for the music dept. I was still using my boom box, because that was the only portable deck I had at the time, but the results were better with the better microphone. (I had tried to hand-hold two mismatched old mics from the 1960s for the Cal Expo show. I only tried recording the Saturday show and it was such a disappointment that I went up front on the Sunday May 4 show and shot photos instead.)

Because the band actually ALLOWED live recording, I really wanted to try and get a decent recording so I tried again at the Frost. My ex wife Nikki's best friend from high school was getting married in Morgan Hill just south of San Jose, on Sunday May 10, so I thought that since we were already going to the wedding we might as well go a little further and see the Dead again.

We camped up on the mountain at Henry Coe State Park in Morgan Hill in my '67 VW bus after going to the wedding, and got up the next morning and drove to Palo Alto.
I remember that we parked in the lots next to a newer VW Vanagon with some cool bumperstickers on the back window, one that said 'One Nuclear Bomb Can Ruin Your Whole Day.' I also remember 'Mr Willie', an ex-Oakland police officer that the Dead had hired for security, and Willie walking up and down the line outside the gates while telling the crowd, 'There's NO drinkin' in the line! No drinkin' in the line, so Please, ... keep it out of site!' I thought he was funny.

We set up on the left side of the tapers section, which was the closest side to the entrance gates. The Frost had tiered levels of grass with concrete 'curbs' that separated each level. I had taken my Pentax MX 35mm camera with me and took some photos of the band during the first set, including a good shot of Bobby singing 'My Brother Esau'. I also took some photos of the tapers section with all the microphones, and my ex wife took one of me as well. The whole recording phenomena really blew my mind. I had NO IDEA what I was doing, and I paused the tape between songs in the first set to conserve tape and alleviate 'dead air', but I wish now that I would have just let the tape run. I waited too long to flip the first set tape and ended up with a cut in the middle of 'Might As Well' because of the segue out of 'Cassidy'.

I was really happy to have a memento of the show to listen to afterward, but I was not happy with the sound quality of my Sharp boom box. (I can't remember the model number but it had detachable speakers that I left at home to save weight.) I was lucky to find that a friend of a friend of mine in Morro Bay had a Sony TC-153SD cassette portable and two Superscope EC7 cardioid condenser microphones that he was willing to sell me. I bought the deck and the mics for $240, which, (for me at the time), was a lot of money because I was a poor college student. Lee had worked at Pacific Stereo in San Luis Obispo in the 1970s and special ordered the Sony deck. He used it, and the microphones, mostly to record sounds of nature like ocean waves for a soundtrack to his acid trips.

This recording has never been shared, or transferred before. Though I was able to work on it in Audacity to correct some of the flaws it is still a bit rough. It was, however,  my first complete audience attempt, and is what started this 38-year odyssey of live music recording that includes over 200 total shows including 40 or more Dead shows and probably 20 or so other attempts that failed because of equipment problems. (Mostly because of my Sony D7 mis-loading, but there was a few cable-related catastrophes.)
It has seriously been 'A Long Strange Trip,' and I thank the Grateful Dead for making open live taping available for me to experience. It wouldn't be until 1990 that I would try anything other than open 'sanctioned' recording.