Advertisement
Only the untimely death of Jerry Garcia could impede the otherwise impregnable Deadhead convoy that joined the Grateful Dead for their thirty-year-long strange trip, but it seems nothing can destroy the band's legend -- an almost spiritual foundation that band archivist Dick Latvala works overtime to help preserve. |
Beginning in 1993, two years before Garcia died and the group
disbanded, Latvala released the first of now twelve Dick's Picks
albums -- digitally re-mastered versions of hard-to-find, classic
concerts the group performed throughout their career. The shows,
including those from the Providence Civic Center and Boston Garden
on June 26 and 28, 1974, that were recently released as Dick's
Picks Volume 12, represent the Dead at some of their most
musically lucid moments.
Latvala's "career" with the Dead started in the mid-Sixties, but
the archivist didn't step into the vault, so to speak, until 1985,
when he more or less strong-armed Dead bassist Phil
Lesh into listening to tapes from some older shows.
What happened on that day?
I was in Eileen Law's [secretary who handles all communication with
Deadheads] office and I had some cassettes I'd made up from '68 and
'69. I didn't know Phil was standing in the doorway behind me. He
said, "What are you talking about Dick?" And I said, "Phil, sit
down." I sort of manhandled him . . . I can't believe I did that
really . . . I said, "sit down, you have to listen to this." He
ended up staying for three hours. Throughout the afternoon, I kept
asking if someone was taking care of the tapes, and [saying] that
it was really important. The next day I was hired.
Before you came onboard in 1985, where were the tapes and
what was being done with them?
There was no formal thing. There were three vaults when I started
at the old place in San Rafael, [Calif.] -- small rooms that were
added as tapes proliferated over the years. It was all in chaos, in
a general sense. When we moved to the new place [in Novato, Calif.]
-- right around when Jerry died -- [it] was a major thing for me. I
had to estimate the shelf space, then the room was built. I had a
team of six kids who helped me move all the tapes in about a month
and a half. It was a mind-boggling thing. I never thought I'd have
to work after that, but two days after moving all the tapes in,
Jerry died and that threw everything into a whole new level of
reality.
Speaking of Jerry's death, will there be a commemorative
Dick's Picks in his honor?
I don't see that happening.
How about a Pick for a Jerry Garcia Band
performance?
No, because Jerry Garcia Band is a province of [engineer, producer]
John Cutler. There have been some Garcia Band
releases. I just don't have any say in [releasing those shows], but
I've been lobbying for it for a long time. I don't know when or how
fast anything will come out. It surely won't be as quickly as we're
releasing Grateful Dead material.
How many Picks do you think there will be? Will you just
keep releasing shows?
Yeah, I don't see why not. We're only doing three a year, but I'm
pushing to do four a year. With four a year, you can go quite a
while. There's easily one hundred shows [from the last thirty
years] that can be released.
What is the biggest difference between shows recorded in
the early years and shows captured in the Nineties?
In the modern years, the Dead had already defined themselves by
years of playing shows with a spontaneous improvisational type of
an approach. I guess the big difference was things were taken more
for granted in the modern years. In the beginning it was just a
wild shoot 'em up show and no one had any real thought about the
recordings being done by Bear [Owsley Stanley],
who was the first one who really put any thought into taping and
keeping any order. The tapes weren't made for getting an accurate
picture of the night; they just wanted to get some semblance of
what happened.
Once Dick's Picks started coming out, did you get any
negative reaction from Deadheads in the taping
community?
Oh yeah, always. But, at our web site (www.dead.net), there's ongoing
chatter at all levels about shows from any year, and an ongoing
analysis that's very helpful for me. I need that kind of feedback.
Anyone can pick things, but I feel an obligation to listen to
others and get information from other people. I represent Deadheads
so to speak -- sometimes not so well, from others' points of view.
I hear: "That old fart Latvala, he can't even get into the Eighties
and Nineties." I've been using shows from the Seventies, and I will
get into shows from the Eighties, I just drag my feet on that one.
There are great shows from many years and our goal is to represent
all the eras. It's gonna take about thirty or forty releases before
we even get a basic foundation -- an introduction to Grateful Dead
music. Then it can get refined. We're just beginning.
ARI BENDERSKY(Dec. 8, 1998)