Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Addendum to Yesterday's Post (in Which Bill Gets Religion)

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. Up until today I thought of even the best AUDs as second to SBDs, with very rare exceptions. While always holding a valuable place in any collection, it was clear to me that mike tapes would ever be the consolation prize, the half a loaf that was better than nothing. Then, today, while riding to Damascus, whipping my horse into a lather and breathing threats and murder (well, okay, sitting at my computer, surfing the web and breathing lethargically) I was struck to the ground by a blazing light and thundering voice - the voice of Jerry's guitar.

Specifically, it was the Glassberg recording of the Dead at Madison Square Garden on March 9, 1981, which I was streaming from archive.org. The song was the opener, Feel Like a Stranger. I instantly recognized the sound that made me a Dead convert in the early '80s, and realized I was experiencing it all over again. Not the sound that ran insulated through the wires of the PA system, but the sound as it broke free, reverberated through the hall and finally landed on the ears of the crowd as nature (and Healy) intended.

But I'm rambling. Billy Joel said "you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine", and he's right. So compare for yourself. First stream Stranger from the AUD source at

http://www.archive.org/details/gd81-03-09.glassberg.wise.7473.sbeok.shnf

and then from the SBD source at

http://www.archive.org/details/gd81-03-09.sbd.clugston.4953.sbeok.shnf

and tell me which one gives you the Jesus scare. Be honest.

Don't get me wrong; they can still only have my boards when they pry them from my cold, dead hard drives. But they'll never get my AUDs.

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