The Grateful Dead FAQ by Tony Sclafani

Author:Tony Sclafani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: music, rock, music history & criticism
Publisher: Backbeat
Published: 2013-10-27T16:00:00+00:00

With Dave’s Picks, the Dead’s audio and video archivist, David Lemieux, was given free reign to select his favorite concerts for release. The third volume, released in August 2012, featured a show performed on October 22, 1971, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

Author’s collection

Managing a Legacy

All of that is really just the tip of the iceberg of what I do. I do so much more outside of just listening to shows for Dave’s Picks and other releases. I was made the band’s legacy manager about a year and a half ago. What that means is I oversee Rhino’s activities on the non-music stuff. I make sure the band is aware of all activities and make sure the band has the ability to comment on, approve, or deny the use of things. So I’m the liaison and the conduit between Rhino and the band members. It keeps it busy and interesting. I also have a one-hour radio show on SiriusXM seven days a week.

But you know, Rhino is really helming all the activity now, so they’re the ones who come up with these great ideas. And then it’s really just a matter of making sure the band is onboard with things. And generally Rhino and Mark have a very good sense of the Dead’s legacy.

We don’t have a Vault anymore. Grateful Dead Productions shut down in 2006. The physical tapes went to the Warner Music Group, and the merchandising was outsourced, although the merch development and licensing stayed in the house. By 2006, we were down to about eight to ten people. And then, although Grateful Dead Productions closed as an entity, there still obviously is a Grateful Dead production company. It’s the business arm of the Dead, so I still do work for them, but I don’t work in the Vault anymore. I work from home. When we need music, if I don’t already have a reference copy of it, or if it’s not obtainable, it’s a very simple call to the archives down at Warner Bros., and we get a transfer made.

The archives, from which we used to draw a lot of our newspaper clippings and photos, have all gone to the University of California at Santa Cruz, so we work very closely with [Dead archivist] Nicholas Meriwether there. When we’re picking a show for release, we’ll call up Nick and say, “OK, here’s the show date, pull everything you can.” Within a couple of weeks, Nick will send us loads of scans of newspaper clippings, gig contracts, photos, and other memorabilia from that show or that tour that we can then put in our CD booklet. So not a lot has changed in terms of the process. We’re still doing four releases a year, and we still do one big box set a year.

Friends ask, “How many versions of ‘Sugar Magnolia’ can you listen to?” And I say, “All of ’em, man!”

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