THE GRATEFUL DEAD
INSIDE THE DEAD VAULT
NO other group has been collated quite like the Dead, largely thanks to the efforts of a fiercely devoted community of Deadheads who’ve been trading live tapes and bootlegs since the late ’60s. The band’s decision to record most of their shows, employing influential fans as curators, has been a smart move too, resulting in live recordings series like Dick’s Picks, Road Trips and Dave’s Picks.
The ‘Dave’ in question is the Dead’s legacy manager and audiovisual archivist, David Lemieux. He has the enviable job of overseeing the band’s entire tape stash, housed in a climate-controlled facility within a larger Warner Music Group building in greater LA. “The Dead did a little over 2,300 concerts, and 75 per cent or more of those were recorded,” he explains. “There are certain gaps in the early years, but from 1971-’95 virtually every single Grateful Dead performance was recorded, with a few exceptions. Close to 1,800 shows, in very good quality, reside in the Dead vault.”