Dec 31, 2012

January 1976 Newsletter (Excerpt)

Dear Deadheads,

Here's the rundown on everything completed or sufficiently near completion to announce. This is the biggest batch of stuff we've ever got together, the fruits of incessant activity known as the Vacation. It includes four record albums, a feature length movie, and a decision that vacationing is too exhausting to continue, meaning the Grateful Dead has decided to get back into touring.

Intensive rehearsals begin this week to get the performing edge back on the band and to outfit it with new material. Rehearsals and then recording and then back on the road. The date is not yet agreed upon, or the place, but it will be somewhere around the middle of '76. Announcements will be made prior to the gigs. The hit and run method. In the words of Phil Lesh, "We're all horny to play." If you're as hot to hear us as we are to do it, we can get the mother rollin' one more time, for sure.

So, here's what we have for you in the meantime.

[ . . . . ]

When I first appeared around, the chaps known as the Grateful Dead (for some strange reason they did and still do call themselves Bozo's), I was always impressed by how hard they worked at their performances, records, and now their most interesting movie and how close they feel to you folks their "Dead Heads". It's really a source of great pride for me to have the Grateful Dead be part of my world.
Thank you.
Anton Round

P.S. Don't just sit there, popularize and proselytize!

* * *

MAY 1976

Dear Deadheads,
The Grateful Dead is planning to go out for 18 gigs starting June 9th. We don't want to pack around the equipment necessary to do ultralarge productions - in plain fact, we don't want to play giant gigs at all - so we're going to book into smaller places, keep promotion way down and give you first crack at tickets.
In our experience, the bigger the production, the bigger the expense and the overall feeling is not as satisfying as a smaller scale effort.
It will be good to be back on the road, actually trying to fulfill our fantasy of playing for a mostly deadhead audience in a comfortable environment.
The band is now into full scale rehearsal, preparing new material and re-working the familiar stuff. This tour will be strictly to satisfy us and you and to find out if such a format can work. If it does, it can point the way to future tours which are a necessity for any band which wants to stay at a dynamic level musically and serve as an energy source for itself and others.

St. Dilbert

4 comments:

  1. "Popularize and proselytize"... We've seen that note before in earlier newsletters, as the band asked their Dead Head fans to turn on all their friends to the Dead. The implication being that you'd convert people not just to this band, but to a whole new way of life...

    Ironically, the dead.net Archive seems to be missing part of this newsletter, so I can only include the first & last sections; and the announcements of new releases will have to remain blank for now! If someone could turn up the missing parts, that would be good.

    I don't think the Dead actually started rehearsing for their comeback tour until May '76. It turned out not to be the "hit and run" shows they'd promised in '75, but also not as full-scale as a regular tour (concentrating on smaller theaters in just a few cities) - deadheads on their mailing list were given first shot at the tickets.

    The four albums mentioned were by Garcia (Reflections), Kingfish, the Good Old Boys, and the Diga Rhythm Band - they were all released in early '76.
    At this point, Garcia thought the Dead Movie might be released in July '76 "if we get lucky," but his estimate was still a year early.

    David Nelson wrote a little blurb about the Good Old Boys in this newsletter:
    "When Anton Round asked me to write a few words about the Pistol Packin' Mama album, I tried to think of what to say and couldn't even come close to what a fantastic trip it was, doing that session. In two days we had 25 songs down on tape, and upon listening back, some of the tastiest, most fun, and liveliest bluegrass ever recorded! ... All I can say is that it was so much fun doing this album. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do."
    http://deaddisc.com/disc/Pistol_Packin_Mama.htm

    There is also a little history of the Diga Rhythm Band on the last page, which concludes:
    "Diga is currently recording an album for Round Records, to be distributed by United Artists, in April. The band also plans to tour maybe in the Spring of '76. DIG IT"
    http://deaddisc.com/disc/Diga.htm

    Diga turned out to be one of the straws that broke Round Records' back, though, as its completion involved a serious quarrel between Hart & Rakow; combined with the dissension between Lesh & Rakow over Steal Your Face, this led to Rakow's firing, his vengeful storming off with over $200,000, and the dissolution of the Dead's record company.

    So this newsletter, I think, marks the last appearance of the mythical "Anton Round," supposed head of Round Records.

    This is also as late, chronologically, as I will go for now. There are many interesting Dead pieces from later years, of course, but I only have so much time!
    So next month, I'll be heading back to the '60s and posting more rare interviews & articles from the early years...

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  2. "Diga turned out to be one of the straws that broke Round Records' back, though, as its completion involved a serious quarrel between Hart & Rakow"

    Is this in McNally? Otherwise, can you please tell me more? Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes, McNally goes into the gruesome details (p. 490-91).
      Steve Brown also recalled in an interview (as reported in Rock & Roll News, April '77), "The final straw was Mickey Hart and the Diga album. It was due in March, but he mixed it and then remixed it and then remixed it - and after he flew to LA to hear the final mix, he wanted to mix it again. Ron said no. Mickey felt that the company wasn't taking care of business the way he wanted it taken care of. It then became some of the band against Ron. Finally, it was decided for everyone's health to split up...
      "We tried running [Round] ourselves (without Rakow), but because we didn't have that sort of Wall Street hustle he had, the label went under."

      There will be lots more info in my eventual Round Records post, when I ever finish it...

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  3. I added the newsletter from May 1976 here - it included a ticket order form for the June '76 tour:
    http://www.gdtstoo.com/deadfile/newsletter23.html

    The Dead were clearly not anxious to get back to their '73/74 giant tour-production mode, starting with a short foot-dipping tour "for a mostly deadhead audience in a comfortable environment."
    They specify why they don't want to do another large-scale tour: "The bigger the production, the bigger the expense, and the overall feeling is not as satisfying as a smaller scale effort... We don't want to pack around the equipment necessary to do ultralarge productions - in plain fact, we don't want to play giant gigs at all - so we're going to book into smaller places [and] keep promotion way down."

    Oddly, the January '76 newsletter isn't included in the gdtstoo.com page, so I still haven't seen the missing section.

    ReplyDelete