This Will Never Happen Again David Cain
David Cain'south new book, Infinite Dead, is a groundbreaking guide to Grateful Dead concerts. Its start volume features detailed reviews of every Grateful Dead concert performed in the calendar month of October over 200 shows, including acoustic, electric performances, their v-night concluding stand up at the Winterland Ballroom, and 13 Halloween performances from their first in '66 to their last in 1991. Whether y'all're a side by side-generation Dead Caput, just discovering their music or a long-time fan with an extensive collection of recordings, Infinite Dead aims to bring the Grateful Dead concert experience live again.
Hey Listeners, my name is Drew Appelbaum and I'm excited to be here today with David Cain, author of Infinite Dead: A Daily Guide to Grateful Dead Concert Performances Volume I October. David, thank you for joining, welcome to The Author Hour Podcast.
David Cain: Good to be with you, Drew.
Drew Appelbaum: David, can yous boot us off with simply a brief rundown of your background?
David Cain: I'd exist glad to. My professional background is 12 years as a business lawyer and about 20 years in high tech startups where I did more often than not— and am continuing to— exercise sales and marketing work for those companies. That'southward my professional person groundwork. I have an unprofessional background, which consists of some nonfiction writing, creative writing on my ain of diverse subjects including a couple of pieces well-nigh music, as well as a lifelong interest and passion for music. Particularly, the music of The Grateful Dead. Somehow, all the dots ended up connecting and at present, there's a book.
Drew Appelbaum: Why was at present the time to write this book? Was there an "Aha!" moment? Something inspiring out there? Or did you have a lot of downtime and you were just listening to a lot of Expressionless and you're like, "I need to document this"?
David Cain: I've had a running email conversation with iv friends for a long time. Every time in that location's something new well-nigh the Grateful Dead, a CD comes out, or a new recording, a video, we would send an email around and talk about it briefly or just let people know. It became a forum for talking well-nigh the Grateful Dead amongst ourselves.
In 2016, the calendar month of May was coming and I thought it would exist nice to reminisce with them about Grateful Dead performances in the month of May. It was a bully month because, for united states, we were all in college in the northeast, and in May, information technology got warm— you become outside, yous open up the windows in the dorm, you'd play music. As it happened, toward the terminate of the 70s, the Dead would tour the northeast and we got to encounter them.
I thought this would exist overnice if we could talk nearly these performances and this calendar month. I put together a list, I sent them an electronic mail that said, "Hey guys, hither's your May 1 st". Possibly there were five concerts that 24-hour interval. I listed them along with links to recording this and and so some annotations here and in that location, some notes that I had made. They liked it and we did it for xxx direct days.
And then I got decorated but they said, "Hey if yous desire to do this once again, let us know?" And nosotros ended up doing it again for October 2016. Fast forward into 2017 and having then done December, January, and February with them, a hundred plus straight days of sending emails with my thoughts about the Grateful Dead's concert performances, I decided I would write a review of every Grateful Dead concert.
Apr of 2017 was the starting time month that I tried to write more of a review as supposed to these daily capsule summaries. I started working on what I idea would be a very big volume that would take quite a bit of fourth dimension. In 2020, i of my friends said, "How's the book coming, Dave? We're not getting any younger."
And I really took that to heart. He was only half-joking only I thought, "It would be nice if the book came out at a time when we were all effectually and were able to enjoy it." I decided this could be serialized and I decided I could publish at to the lowest degree ane calendar month while I'thou trying to complete the larger book. At that point, I had to figure out how to publish. Do I get an agent, exercise I find a publisher? And go through that whole process. And here we are, book 1. We're all going to be here for it, which is great.
Space Dead: A Guidebook for the Novice and the Super Fan
Drew Appelbaum: At present, a lot of times, you lot'll have the idea of the volume in your head. You want to do a volume of every show. When writers sit downwardly, sometimes they'll have major breakthroughs and learnings just by digging deeper into some of their subjects. Did you lot have whatsoever major breakthroughs or learnings merely past listening to all the October Expressionless shows? Did y'all learn anything new well-nigh the ring?
David Cain: Yes. Quite a chip. I'll merely mention one. I retrieve a lot of fans of the music tend to become locked into years or tours that they really love. Why not? If you like chocolate ice foam, yous're going to order chocolate. By doing it in this manner, past calendar dates which meant, say, Oct ane st , you could have a list that includes performances from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Doing it that way forced me to listen to the band across 4 unlike decades, which involve different band members. Many times, it took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to kind of re-examine things.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the last few years of the ring'south performances and function of that is a born bias when you offset listening to the band in 1978, past the time they get to the 90s, you found so much to enjoy, you tend to prefer where yous were. This book required me to spend a lot of time with performances in the 1990s and I found some that were quite skillful. In the book—I mentioned among others— October 1, 1994, which was a time where you wouldn't necessarily call up they were their best and they seem x years younger. It was quite a surprise to me and there's a lot of energy that night.
Yep, I found a lot of surprises. Concerts that I retrieve people wouldn't ordinarily think about which really were quite good and I try to bespeak [it] out. The book designates some concerts with a rose which is to guide people to some concerts in item that I found compelling and maybe overlooked.
Drew Appelbaum: Now, when you were writing the book, who were y'all writing this book for? Was this for you lot and your friends who are pretty deep fans? Can casual fans or new fans accept takeaways from the book too?
David Cain: That'due south the hope. That information technology could be of involvement and of use to a broad range of fans. Yeah, I mean, on one level, I meant it to be potentially a companion, a daily companion. You get to work, it's a Monday, information technology'due south 9 AM, you're non ready to start working but you got the book on your desk-bound. Peradventure you call back, I wonder what the Dead did today, you know? Where did they play and was it adept? And for v, 10 minutes, you could dive into the book then get-go your day and can do that at whatsoever bespeak during the calendar month. Kind of a nice companion and that's for anybody who's had any level of exposure to the Grateful Dead'south music.
Then I also idea, it would be good fifty-fifty for experienced listeners to have a guide. Yous may have gone to Italy before, y'all've been to Rome a couple of times and you tin can go and wander around, you're going to have a great time in Rome. Yous're going to notice the colosseum, yous're going to go to a corking restaurant and have a neat meal. But if you had a guidebook yous might finish up trying a restaurant, you passed past. Yous look at the window, didn't recall much of it. But if you had the volume that suggests that "hey, at that place's a corking restaurant here and you could consume some great food". It was meant as a guide fifty-fifty for people who have listened to hundreds of Grateful Dead concerts.
Drew Appelbaum: Permit's plough the tables and let'south just talk about you for a moment. How and when did you get a Dead fan? And if it was merely by seeing those summer shows, what was it near them or those shows that actually drew you lot in?
David Cain: Aye, actually started listening to the Grateful Expressionless quite a flake in 1978. I'd been a large fan of music: Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and even earlier that, as a kid, listening to the radio. That'due south what kids did back then before the Net.
I would become purchase singles, 45s. In college, I met people with extensive album collections and a friend turned me on to i Grateful Dead album, Steal Your Face, 1974 live recording and he thought I would like it. He knew that I similar the Allman'southward and some others and pointed out this particular Johnny Cash song, Large River, country tune and I thought I could get into country-rock, dejection rock, I already liked that stuff. And, wow, did I! I listened to that and just was floored. They did an up-tempo and Garcia had a field 24-hour interval on it. That was the first, I only dove headfirst and listened to everything I could.
People along the manner, some people had collections of bootleg recordings and were kind plenty to share them. I began to see them in concert and that was actually the starting time. Strangely enough, even after they stopped touring— because of Garcia passing in 1995— even afterwards that, I was simply as interested in their concert performances, right from the 70s or 80s. It was yet present for me and it was something I still really wanted to explore. It was still very interesting, the music they had played.
So, everything went to another level when people began to upload their recordings to annal.org and suddenly you had a Grateful Dead library. Possibly 2,000 different performances for which yous have some kind of a recording, partial or full, and at present you accept a library. I spent a lot of time there. That was kind of the journey in a nutshell.
Drew Appelbaum: Now, you do offer links to these shows you talk most in the volume. Now, practice these links, exercise they bring you to archive.org, or is there another repository where someone tin can find a lot of these older shows?
David Cain: You lot can certainly go direct to archive and wander effectually there. Y'all can choice a year and the archive volition nowadays the entire yr'due south listing of recordings. Some concerts have 20 recordings and you tin just wander effectually.
What I did for the eBook was put a link in there where if you click it, information technology volition take yous to the infinitedead.net blog and yous will have a subset of recordings on that blog. For a particular performance, let's say Oct 1, 1994, I might accept picked out iii of the recordings, maybe five, and they will be on the blog. When you click it, yes, you'll go straight to archive.org.
I also on the blog, have footnotes, annotations about the particular recordings because they're very different. Some of the recordings are audience recordings. Some are soundboard coming straight from the band's equipment. Some are called matrix recordings, in which someone has taken the time to blend audience and soundboard recording into what they call a matrix recording. I've tried to pick out the best. When you are confronted with 10 or xx recordings, it is not so obvious as to even there where you should kickoff. I've tried to help the listener a bit there by saying, "Look, I have listened to at least parts of all 10 or all 20, start with these iii. You know, here is a sample of an audience recording that'southward quite good. Here is a soundboard."
You can't do that in the impress publication and the paperback but through the eBook, you know I do offering some additional guidance.
Drew Appelbaum: At present, you exercise detail and so many shows and— as you said, it goes through October, and then every day there isn't just one prove, there could be multiple shows— and then y'all do go into detail to these shows. Can you explicate a little bit what readers can expect to notice in the details of these performances?
David Cain: Sure. Sometimes I've really extracted a quote— something i of the guys said at the performance considering they rarely spoke. They spoke more than in the early days than the later days but there is a lot of banter in these concerts and some of it was pretty entertaining. Once in a while, I throw something in that Garcia, Weir, or Lesh said. Sometimes the announcer on phase would have interesting comments, so there's some of that.
The bulk of it though really focuses on what's going on musically. Is there a particularly proficient Jerry Garcia solo and why is it good? Rather than just say, "This was actually hot," I effort to give some details to why this particular solo was quite good and mayhap compare it to some others of similar quality. I also bring in some historical research then you'll know— is this the commencement fourth dimension they played this song? Did it turn out to be the concluding time that they played it? I kind of weave different elements into it merely the bulk of it is a existent focus on what will you lot hear on this recording if yous spend some time. What are the highlights?
If there were some lowlights, I don't shy away from that either. I tried to be fair and kind, I don't consider myself a critic but I want people to know. Like, "Garcia's voice here was pretty rough." or, "They came in for a landing on the song and they missed it. They missed their mark." So I attempt to phone call it like I heard it on the recording.
October ane, 1994
Drew Appelbaum: Of all of the days in October— and if you don't know offhand that's totally fine— what would yous say was really the most special functioning for y'all and why and then?
David Cain: Yeah, I couldn't pick just one. That would be tough. I think at that place are probably twenty to 25 that were designated with roses for one reason or another. Of form, in addition to those, there are others that are quite skilful. Those are ones that I thought were special for one reason or another including that they might have been overlooked and were a surprise for me, such equally Oct 1, 1994.
Halloween as the calendar goes— this book is lucky because it includes their Halloween concerts and those are pretty fun. Over the years, they did some pretty interesting things. They got very creative on Halloween and of course, the crowd was very pumped upwardly and in total costume for these concerts. At that place were some special things. They began to play Werewolves of London, a Warren Zevon song that they covered, and it was kind of rare but they began to make it a habit to do it on Halloween and that'southward fun. It is fun to dive into October 31 st and read about the Halloween performances.
There are too great performances in the middle of the month at the State of war Field in Radio Metropolis Music Hall from 1980 where they had decided afterwards 10 years to start playing acoustic sets over again, which really was very special. Some people had been able to hear them practise that in 1970. At the time, I never imagined the Grateful Expressionless would play three sets in a concert and the first ane would be acoustic, and hither they were doing information technology. Those are also in the book and very special performances.
Drew Appelbaum: You talk virtually shows in the volume that are right around the fourth dimension or about a twelvemonth before Jerry Garcia passes away in 1995. Could you actually hear any sort of decline in the music or with him? Or was he actually rocking out upwardly to his terminal days and his expiry was kind of sudden?
David Cain: Well, his death was certainly sudden to anybody. Information technology wasn't sort of eminent exactly. He had had physical troubles for quite a long time and I think the reject was kind of gradual in terms of his playing, only there is still strong performances. But you tin can certainly notice. One thing you lot'll notice is the voice just eventually, there is a loss of speed, for example. His hands got into a condition where he just could not exercise speed and that had been one of his many hallmarks, right? How fast he could play and in an clear way where you lot could hear the notes. Then, you're non going to really hear a lot of blinding speed in the last few years.
On the other hand, he connected to be very creative where he could. He could however sing in the ballads. Some people would say it took on some extra ability. Where speed wasn't an element in the slower songs he could put a lot more into them, a lot more feeling and emotion. He began to get very artistic I felt with the style he sang words. He would begin to accent certain syllables and you could hear information technology. Bob Dylan, of course, did lots of this over the years. If you lot listen closely in the last couple of years, yous can hear Garcia spending some time playing with the words and the vocal and so at that place was that going on.
Drew Appelbaum: That's really interesting. You have clearly listened to so many shows, do you continue to encounter the Dead in their new lineup even to this day or are yous pretty much stick to Garcia and pre-'96 days?
David Cain: Well, I've go more than of a listener of recordings and listener of the live concerts. I don't nourish many live concerts these days, just by pick. I hateful, I accept honey friends who honey going to live concerts. I just don't do a lot of that anymore.
Afterwards 1995, I certainly listen to whatever the next incarnation was and I was going to come across those things, whether it was kind of this combination band that included both Bob Weir and Phil Lesh or they each went off into their own. Weir had his and Lesh had his. I saw those and enjoyed them. I connected to do a petty flake of that but I recollect most of my listening has continued to exist with the recordings. Particularly since 2016, 2017 where I decided I was going to write these daily kinds of summaries. It was really me spending most of my time hunkered down at my desk in front of the reckoner and listening to music and making notes and trying to go the words to come up outright. That's been my chief mission in the past few years.
Drew Appelbaum: Can you lot talk a little bit about what'southward contained in the appendix of the book and so further along, what resources you provide to readers towards the end of the volume?
David Cain: Sure. The appendix is basically about what I phone call methodology. You lot know, how did I think about the music as I was doing these reviews and doing the writing, and how I thought almost these things. At that place'due south a lot to think about.
I mentioned earlier your potential personal bias considering y'all started listening to the band in the 70s as opposed to a lot of people start listening in '87 or '92. It puts you lot in a different place and gives yous a different starting perspective on the music. I wanted myself to be aware of these things but I also thought readers should know, correct? How I thought about that and how I tried to business relationship for those potential biases or subjectivity. My goal was to endeavor to exist as objective as I could and I wanted to lay out my methodology for making some judgment calls most the music. That'due south really what the appendix I hope will do for readers— to explicate a bit how I came to certain conclusions about things. There are times where I signal that a concert is better than is known, right? The appendix tries to explain how I came to those conclusions more often than not.
In that location is a little scrap of a bibliography in the back, some of the sources that I consulted. One was certainly a book called DeadBase. A friend of mine gave me a copy of that, I don't know, around 1991— that's DeadBase V— and it covers the band'southward concerts through 1990. It has complete setlists, information technology's got statistics about songs, a very useful resource. Over the years I began to annotate my copy of DeadBase and make notes in there and I wanted people to know that this is a very important resources if yous want to do your own exploration. DeadBase is kind of indispensable for me and I suppose for other reporters or historians of the band'due south music.
Drew Appelbaum: Well, David, nosotros merely touched on the surface of the volume here but I just want to say that merely writing a book that's this in-depth of so many shows, it clearly took a lot of fourth dimension and endeavour to put this together— and what I consider at least a must-have for all Dead fans— is no pocket-sized feat, so congratulations on publishing the kickoff book of many for this book.
David Cain: Thanks, Drew, I appreciate it.
Drew Appelbaum: This has been a pleasure and I'm excited for people to check out the book. Everyone, the volume is called, Space Dead, and you could find it on Amazon. David, besides checking out the book, where else tin people connect with you lot?
David Cain: Well, there's a blog, infinitedead.net, and that's where readers will detect on each solar day links to recordings, which will take them to archive.org and some annotations and [e-mail protected] . I try to respond every bit best as I can.
Drew Appelbaum: Well, David, cheers so much for donating some of your time to u.s. today and best of luck with your new book. Nosotros can't await for Book 2 to XII to come up out soon.
David Cain: Thank you, Drew.
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