UGLY IRONY ALERT
A.P. is reporting on the law suit & other legal wrangling surrounding unreleased tapes of Jerry Garcia recordings.
I'm not even gonna try to wade into the legal issues here. Not interested. But I find it very . . . sad: Jerry was part of a group known for allowing taping & trading of all the music they ever played live. As an unapologetic Dead Head in my youth, I know this is not the sort of thing he'd have wanted. Jerry made a lot of money, and never apologized for it, this is true. But he knew that the best way to make money on one's music was to get it played & heard.
Plus, capitalist though he might have been, he cared about The Music. I'm quite certain he felt that recordings belonged in the stereo, not in a vault.
I'm not even gonna try to wade into the legal issues here. Not interested. But I find it very . . . sad: Jerry was part of a group known for allowing taping & trading of all the music they ever played live. As an unapologetic Dead Head in my youth, I know this is not the sort of thing he'd have wanted. Jerry made a lot of money, and never apologized for it, this is true. But he knew that the best way to make money on one's music was to get it played & heard.
Plus, capitalist though he might have been, he cared about The Music. I'm quite certain he felt that recordings belonged in the stereo, not in a vault.
posted by Mike at 10:25 AM
9 Comments:
You know, I just never got into the Dead. Must have been the lack of drugs.
You know what Free Wheelin' Franklin always said, "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."
I'm not familiar with Free Wheelin' Franklin (though I looked him up and realized he's a cartoon character), but I like the quotation.
People used to come up to my SO and tell him he looked just like Jerry Garcia. I don't think so, but I've seen total strangers do this. He doesn't think so, either, and wishes if he had to be mistaken for a dead rock star it could be Jim Morrison.
Who would you like to be mistaken for, if you had to be mistaken for anyone else?
Anon -
Does he at least have the shaggy beard?
I'm often mistaken for Gregory Peck, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and The Greek God, Adonis. Frustrating as hell, let me tell you. They should just start guessing Joe Blow already. That's who I wanna be -- it's not easy being every woman's fanstasy, let me tell you.
Never liked the Dead, but I respected them for letting fans tape their shows and then exchange/sell them to others. So, I think that you're right Mike.
letting fans tape their shows and then exchange/sell them to others
Not sell. Trade for other tapes yes, but selling was considered very bad form, and was probably illegal in some regard.
Really? They couldn't sell 'em? Hmmmm, I seem to recall a shop up in Syracuse that was selling them. I wonder if they ever got caught.
Believe me, there was no "getting caught," and I knew plenty of places that sold bootlegs (in fancy, pencil-drawn, dyed casette covers).
It was just, as we said at the time, "uncool."
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