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The Deadhead's Taping Compendium
The first
three volumes of The Deadhead's Taping Compendium are available from
Amazon, by clicking the links above.
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Praise for the Deadhead's Tapers Compendiums
"The Taper's Compendium provides a valuable resource to all
Grateful Dead tape traders. The research is first-rate, and the
descriptive analysis of tapes in circulation allows tapers to
compile a wish-list of shows they can herein ascertain exist on
tape."
--DAVID LEMIEUX, Grateful Dead Vault Archivist 
"This guide ... is a wealth of information
for Deadheads. ... the interviews with fans ... are the most
interesting. The lengths these folks went to in order to record the
Dead were sometimes astonishing, and the stories surrounding these
escapades make for fascinating reading. ... The reviews included in
this book are an excellent and exhaustive exploration of the changes
the Dead's music went through over the years. ... For Deadheads ...
this book is a treasure ... an invaluable resource."
--BILLBOARD
"These books can be read on any one of
several levels: If you're a Dead fan, it's a chronicle of the band's
career. If you're not a Dead fan, it's a clear-eyed chronicle of a
band's life during the late 20th century. The reportage is
meticulous, the writing graceful. Any way you cut it, it's a
journalistic and artistic accomplishment."
--TIM KISKA, Detroit News
"Since I've been doing my Dead Air radio
program here in Eugene, OR for more than 15 years, it was a welcome
event when the Taping Compendiums were published. These Compendiums
are a great resource for me when puzzling over what show or song
might be best to play on the air. It's a thorough and comprehensive
effort. And it's fun to see what shows have 'the best' versions.
It's always good to discover (or rediscover) a great tune that may
have slipped my mind. Nice to see the lovely photos sprinkled
throughout as well. The Deadhead's Taping Compendium ... big as the
Bible and just as righteous."
--DOWNTOWN DEB TRIST, host of Dead Air in Eugene (KLCC 89.7 FM
www.klcc.org)
"The sheer enthusiasm and sense of wonderment
reflected in these reviews is enough to send any serious tape
collector on a hunting expedition pronto... All told, the enthusiasm
these tape enthusiasts bring to their reviews, along with the
occasional personal adventure tossed in for good measure, make these
shows as much fun to read about as they undoubtedly are to
hear."
--RELIX
"The Deadhead's Taping Compendium series is a
Godsend to Deadheads and anyone who loves music. Nowhere else
is the Grateful Dead's performing career meticulously documented and
critically evaluated with such car and precision. The authors and
compilers of these volumes have done a great service to the Deadhead
community and have assured us that the band's music WILL NEVER be
forgotten."
--ROBERT WEINER Editor of the Perspectives on the Grateful Dead:
Critical Writings Co-Author of The Grateful Dead and the Deadheads:
An Annotated Bibliography Founder of the Grateful Dead annual
academic mini-conference.
"The few people in the world who care about
the music of the Grateful Dead care about it very deeply and
passionately. This appreciation comes from many different angles,
musically and culturally, giving Deadheads plenty to talk about. The
recorded legacy of the Dead can be a daunting heap of CDs and tapes;
the Compendium, created by a group of articulate and committed music
lovers, will direct the new listener to the best of the best, and
give everyone more to argue about for years to come."
--DAVID GANS, host of the nationally syndicated "Grateful Dead
Hour" radio show.
"Even a casual Deadhead should get some
flashbacks thumbing through these pages."
--L.A. TIMES
" ... the Getz and Dwork volumes are
indispensable sources, being the definitive discographies-tapeographies,
actually - of the Dead's concert life. ... Reading this book, or
whatever you can do with an encyclopedia, puts us at the pulsing
microchip of Dead central. ...There is so much music to know and so
much information to compile, and Getz and Dwork are at the cutting
edge."
--BUFFALO NEWS
"The multi-volume Deadhead's Taping
Compendium is a milestone of scholarship, an intricate map of a vast
territory drawn by those who made it their home. Much of the joy in
being a Deadhead is in tipping your friends off to revelatory
moments captured somewhere in the thousands of miles of tape that is
the band's legacy. Conversations like this wove the fabric of the
Deadhead community while the band was still touring; and as a
tapestry of informed opinions, valuable historical data, amusing
gossip, and unabashed passion, the Compendium will be employed by
Deadheads long into the future to find their way through the vast
landscape the band explored, night after night, for thirty years. As
much as it's a tribute to a unique band, it's also a tribute to the
smartest, craziest, most inspired and diverse group of faces that
ever hit the American road in search of delight, interesting
surprises, and the occasional glimpse of a benevolent order in the
Universe that defies description. By recognizing that order, we open
doors in our own hearts to bringing it forth into the world. The
Compendium points the way."
--STEVE SILBERMAN, Co-Author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary For
Deadheads (with David Shenk) and Co-Producer of So Many Roads
(1965-1995) box set. 
"For anyone who has ever wondered how the
Grateful Dead bridged the generations and clumsily trucked into
mainstream popularity, The Deadhead's Taping Compendium explain it
all. ... The massive book is colorfully written ... The book does a
great job of explaining how, without Top 40 hits or platinum record
sales, the Dead has done so well for so long. ...It is an invaluable
resource for those who revere the Grateful Dead experience."
--CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
"The Taper's Compendium is the connective
tissue that holds your Grateful Dead collection together."
--DWIGHT HOLMES, Deadhead
"Noteworthy among this fine references other
contents are interviews with famous Deadheads (find out what Owsley
was really like-yow!"
--BOOKLIST
"This is an absolute treasure for
Deadheads."
-- SPRINGFIELD NEWS LEADER
"... this series is a goldmine of information
for any Grateful Dead fan."
-- LIBRARY JOURNAL
"The Deadhead's Taping Compendium is like a
lost treasure from the ancient library of Alexandria-a modern day
Rosetta Stone that provides glorious translations of the Grateful
Dead X-Factor into practical reviews that novices and seasoned
Deadheads alike will benefit from for years to come."
--GREG POULOS, Deadhead
"The Taping Compendiums have been an
invaluable resource for Dead enthusiasts everywhere. The author's
exhaustive research and objectivity with the subject matter is
exceptional, and I am thoroughly impressed wit their proficiency at
capturing the "joie de vivre" and dynamic complexities of
the Dead's music. Fortunately for all of us, a cornucopia of newly
surfaced recordings has necessitated this Addendum which brings the
reader up-to-date on all the new tapes swirling about. This
eagerly awaited new volume sustains the high standards established
by the previous three and is an essential reference for all serious
collectors."
--GREG SHAW, Rock and Roll author
"Finally, something that puts it all
together!"
--HARVEY LUBAR, member of the Hell's Honkies Tape Club
"The authors have spent years creating the
ultimate Deadhead guide to tapes. They have taken the tape
collecting idea from its earliest days in 1971 when The First
Free Underground Grateful Dead Tape Exchange was created by myself
and my friends. We had little loose-leaf books with complete
information on every tape. Who recorded it? How was it recorded?
When was it recorded? What's on it? What equipment was used? Etc.
The Tape Exchange never kept that information, but the authors here
did the ultimate job in recreating over 30 years of History. Their
work is to be commended. They definitely earned a PHD in Tapeology!"
--LESLIE D. KIPPEL
Founder, The First Free Underground GD Tape Exchange
Founder, Relix Magazine
Founder, Relix Records
"An in-depth academic/scholastic treatment to
the musical work of the Dead, with an intense passion that pours
from each review. This is serious stuff, written by serious people
just crazy enough to be way into this kind of thing. As I read more,
I can't help being caught up in that passion myself."
-- NOAH WEINER, Deadhead (and Aud fanatic)
"all the punctuation confuses me but I read
the Compendium every day cuz there is nuthin in the bathroom cept
the Compendium here at Lone Star Dead Radio."
--ERIC SCHWARTZ, host of Lone Star Dead in Dallas, TX (89.3 FM
www.knon.org)
"Be there then! The Compendium is a must for
anyone serious (or even a little interested) in Grateful Dead tape
collecting. If you don't have these books, you're not really
collecting. Now, if only someone would do the same for the Duke
Ellington Band ..."
--OLIVER TRAGER, author of The American Book of the Dead-The
Definitive Grateful Dead Encyclopedia
"Why do some people have hundreds, if not
thousands, of Grateful Dead concerts on CD? Not only is every
concert unique, but careful listening will reveal, from the best of
the best nights, amazing examples of group improvisation, as well as
a plethora of musical influences that span the history of American
music. Few people have listened more intently to more Grateful Dead
music than the band of music scholars, musicians, and merry
pranksters that form the brain trust that has produced the three
volumes of the Taper's Compendium series."
--MICHAEL PARRISH, Writer for the Chicago Tribune, Paleontologist
"The most invaluable tool for Deadheads since
the roach clip."
-STU SCHIMMEL, co-host of WBAI's Morning Dew radio show in NYC.