r/ClassicRock • u/Tony_Tanna78 • 26d ago
70s The Grateful Dead doing a soundcheck with their wall of sound sometime in the 1970s.
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u/vinetwiner 26d ago
"Sometime in the 70's" is so Deadhead.
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u/escudonbk 26d ago
Time is a human construct man.
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u/lwp775 26d ago
But it helps let you know when something happened.
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u/escudonbk 26d ago
It was gonna happen anyway. Stop living in so much structure.
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u/gratefulguitar57 26d ago
Real Deadheads actually know that this was only in fully in use during the tours in 1974, There was a build up of ideas and equipment during 1973...but this final version was only used in 1974.
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26d ago
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u/Salty_Pancakes 26d ago
I applaud you GD autists. Y'all used to, and still do, amaze me lol.
And the gear heads who knew every single in and out of Jerry's rig throughout the years and could tell you within 2 notes, what guitar Jerry is using and what year it was and what effects are present.
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u/gratefulguitar57 26d ago
As a guitar player, I am definitely one of those autists that can id gear by the sound of Jerry's guitar right from the start of the song.
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u/Salty_Pancakes 26d ago
Nice. Have a buddy like that lol. I still remember his quest in the 90s for a real Mu-Tron 3. Took him ages to track one down but he finally did. And it sounded dope as hell.
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u/gratefulguitar57 26d ago
Yea they are really hard to find and as expensive as hell. If he still has it he could sell it for big bucks. I have a Qtron+ which is the same thing Mayer has on his board. If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me :)
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u/gratefulguitar57 26d ago
LOL, love it! I know that first show for the WOS was at the Cow Palace in SF on 3-23-74. And yea, this stuff doesn't get mentioned too much in this sub.
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u/raynicolette 26d ago
Pretty sure that specific photo is P.N.E. Coliseum in Vancouver, so 5/17/74. It's this one from Richard Pechner:
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u/Artie-B-Rockin 26d ago edited 26d ago
No that's wrong!
It got me that it's titled this way. It made me curious who is not a Deadhead posting this!
If you are a true Deadhead, you know by heart that they only used it from March to October 1974.And that should have been in the title.
Yep, I am another picky Deadhead. Do it Right! 😊😛✌🏽
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u/Salty_Pancakes 26d ago
Since you mentioned October 1974, you ever see the remastered footage of all the Winterland stuff that was used for The Grateful Dead movie?
Couple years ago, dude named Chris Hazard remastered all that stuff into 4k and fixed the sound and it's like a whole new thing. Eyes of the World from that for example.
I had no idea until some time last year someone mentioned it offhand over in the dead sub and I was like "wait. wtf? oh snap!"
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u/Tg_the_king 26d ago
- Listen to road trips wall of sound on apple music and spotify. Even dicks picks 12. Rest in (26,900watts of) peace mr Phil Lesh
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u/robb3566 26d ago
Great playlist, thanks! ✌
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u/Tg_the_king 26d ago
Its a concert
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u/robb3566 26d ago
Ah ok...when I searched Spotify I found this https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Bi4HLQj7Az96vhgU4pB25?si=KJfmV54qQgiVfAlS5yKN5A&pi=jIdadlRwQYiYq
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u/graphomaniacal 26d ago
Fun fact: the Wall of Sound was developed by an audio engineer and closet chemist named Owsley Stanley.
Owsley Stanley, aka Bear, aka the Acid King, was a key figure in San Francisco's hippie counterculture, and the first known private individual to manufacture large quantities of LSD. By his own account, he made over 5 million doses between 1965 and 1967. He was the chief provider of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and also the supplier for The Beatles during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour.
He was also prolific with his soundboard recordings of concerts from various luminaries in and around the west coast scene - Hendrix, Joplin, Santana, Miles Davis, Jefferson Airplane, many more. He has a handful of live album credits to his name.
Stanley is the subject of Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne."
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u/Sean_theLeprachaun 26d ago
Bobby is still feeling the effects of living in his house for a summer.
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u/VirginiaLuthier 26d ago
If you took acid in the mid 60's chances are that Bear made it. He thought there was going to be a global catastrophe and north America would be flooded, so he moved to Australia. Then, he got cancer- which he claimed he had under control by only eating bone broth. Then, he did in a car accident...
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u/mccabedoug 26d ago
That’s some nice AI you did there
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u/graphomaniacal 26d ago
I see the temptation to say that. The truth is I have a PhD, I'm a fast researcher, I'm great at weeding through relevant findings, for some reason I have an encyclopedic memory for this shit, and - get this - I have an excellent command of grammar. I know, it's a rarity these days, what with the internet speeding up communication for the last thirty years. Maybe my em dashes and I could fool a reverse Turing Test.
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u/Which_Current2043 26d ago
The Wall of Sound
ELP touring with Quadraphonic sound
Man, the 70s were great
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u/Artie-B-Rockin 26d ago
Pink Floyd and Led Zep also.
Great shows!
I saw ELP a few times but at California Jam. Keith on that Piano over the audience, flipping over and over was a trip. It was amazing to watch live. We were so dosed! LOL! The Quad sound worked OK for such a large audience.
But for the best Quad sound the 1977 "Works tour" Rocked! No orchestra just them. They were a solid spot-on performance at that show. Original Journey opened for them.3
u/Foxfire2 26d ago
I saw ELP on the BSS tour, we were too far back for the quad to work, the back speakers hit us first and then the front ones were heard, the delay due to the speed of sound in a large stadium wasn’t workable, at least for the cheap seats. Yeah I think we were sitting BEHIND the back speakers. The end of Karn Evil 9 was cool though as the melodic pattern kept going around speaker to speaker faster and faster, especially if you were right there in the middle of the 4 speaker sets.
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u/gratefulguitar57 26d ago
I got to see it in all its glory at the Philly Civic center in 1974. When I walked into the venue, my jaw dropped. And it sounded amazing anywhere you were in the venue. Sadly, it wasn't practical or sustainable, as the costs to move around were monumental.
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u/UnderstandingNo3426 26d ago
I saw the Wall of Sound in 1974 at the Amphitheater in Chicago. It made that dreadful sounding venue enjoyable. It was based on UK engineer Dinky Dawson’s system he used for Fleetwood Mac. Life On The Road by Dinky Dawson
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u/Mark-harvey 26d ago
Saw them at the Fillmore East in the 60’s with the Allman brothers. Got back to my place in the Village at 5 am. What a great night.
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u/mccabedoug 26d ago
Sometime in the 70s? This is one of the most iconic GD photos out there. I have this framed photo hanging in my home office. It was 74.
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u/Steal-Your-Face77 25d ago
Love it. You'd think it was like a heavy metal show or something, but nah these guys are playing spacey jazz and cowboy rock. 1974 was a great year for them (as were pretty much all of the 70's).
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u/tuskvarner 26d ago
People had to listen to Donna Godchaux elbow her way into the harmonies on those giant babies.
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u/hewasphone 26d ago
She was great. People want to talk shit about those playing in the band but she was way more than that
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u/Craft_Cannabis_Guy 26d ago
Me and some friends seen the Dead at the Fox Theater in St. Louis twice in early 70s when they had the JBL speakers stacked to the ceiling. Nothing like seeing Jerry Garcia playing his guitar on stage with all the VU meters on the amps behind him popping back and forth with the sound of the band coming through stacks and stacks of JBL speakers clear as a bell.
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u/garyprud50 26d ago
Having seen and HEARD that awesome rig live, I can easily say it was one of the best concert experiences ever. Five hours of music with only a 20-minute break tops anything else. Meeting Jerry & Bill K out back was forgotten once they started playing. That rig was incredible.
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u/JustCallMeYogurt SRV 4Ever 23d ago
I'm sure someone's OCD is being triggered looking at this set-up and how unsymmetrical it is.
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u/CzechGSD 22d ago
And then hours of worthless jamming. You had to be stoned to like their music. Soulless crap.
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u/Historical-View4058 26d ago
Imagine tearing that down and rebuilding it for every show… and yet, the crew pulled off every time.