Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection
by Brian Anderson
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending
me an advanced copy of Brian Anderson’s insightful and comprehensive new book Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection.
I was checking out this book, but I wasn’t sure if this book was too much Grateful
Dead for me. I didn’t really get into the Grateful Dead until about 10 years
ago when a block of Dead Songs came on my local rock radio as I was scanning
the dial. “Box of Rain” started playing, and I stopped to listen during a
particularly difficult stretch of life. The song, and the one that followed, “Sugar
Magnolia”, instantly lifted me up. I was usually dismissive of the Dead, never
really appreciating the long, high-noted solos and extended jams. However, these
bright, buoyant melodies struck a chord with me and lifted my spirits. I wouldn’t
call myself a Deadhead, but I did start to explore their music and history a
lot more, eventually reading Phil Lesh’s memoir Searching for the Sound: My
Life with the Grateful Dead. It gave me more insight into the group, its
music, and the constant exploration of sonic possibilities. Phil’s memoir made
me not only realize how important the Dead are to American music, but how much
they pushed the boundaries of what was possible in music, artistically,
technically, and technologically, at the time. Brian Anderson’s comprehensive
and detailed research and analysis fits nicely into this view of the Dead as
technological innovators who were also looking to provide their audience with
the kind of immersive sensory experience that was a part of the Acid Tests the Dead
provided the soundtrack for in the burgeoning psychedelic scene that would
eventually lead to the Summer of Love and Woodstock. Loud and Clear also
goes beyond the musicians who comprised the Dead and examines the roles that engineers
and the road crew played in helping to evolve the sound system that would
eventually become known as “The Wall”, a mammoth system of speakers,
scaffolding, amplifiers, pre-amps, and other electronics that required an
18-wheeler and large crew to transport, assemble and break down for each show. As
someone who didn’t know a lot about the tangential Dead contributors, that is,
those who operated more behind the scenes, I found this to be a fascinating
look at how the band worked with others and leveraged their collective
consciousness to forge ahead in the emerging sonic landscape and advance audio
engineering to new heights.
Loud and Clear takes a chronological approach to detailing
and analyzing the evolution of the Dead’s live sound, charting the band’s
development from a bluegrass/folk outfit to an eventual electrified and amplified
rock band. Framing this history is Anderson’s own personal connection with the
Dead, and in particular the Wall of Sound, the Dead’s sound system. I liked
this framing technique since it seems like everyone has their own personal
connection to the Dead. For Anderson, part of that connection is from his
parents, who were both involved in concert productions in the early 70s in the Midwest.
Their mutual interest in the Dead enabled a young Anderson to catch some Dead
shows before Garcia’s death in 1995. In addition, he opens and ends his book detailing
a recent splurge on an auction item—a cabinet from the Wall that housed the speakers
and monitors. It’s amazing to think that there are still pieces of this one-of-a-kind
sound system available for purchase. Through Loud and Clear and its
framing technique, Anderson sets out to explore how this cabinet, “with a
patina of scuffs, dings, worn edges, adhesive residue, and frayed wiring”, was eventually
developed, implemented to produce innovative live sound, and eventually
discarded. Loud and Clear presents not just the history of an object,
but rather the evolution of live sound and how the Dead and their engineers,
roadies and audience helped to refine that live sound over time, creating one
of the most unique live musical experiences in American popular music.
Although Anderson explores the development of the Dead’s music
and sound system in a chronological order, he doesn’t excessively recast the
history of the Grateful Dead, which has been documented in many other books as
well as the memoirs of members Lesh and Kreutzmann. Rather, his exploration and
analysis are primarily focused on the Dead’s sound, narrowing the lens on the
sound system and the live concerts; however, there is some focus of the
recordings the Dead produced early in their career since the band couldn’t
quite capture the spontaneity and improvisational nature of their collective
live work in the studio until they attempted to engineer their 3rd
album, Aoxomoxoa. I noticed that Anderson used Lesh’s memoirs (and I’m
assuming Kreutzmann’s as well) to document how the Dead developed their sound,
both in studio and live in concert. However, Anderson doesn’t just rely on
these memoirs, but rather supplements these with other accounts from interviews,
concert reviews, and other Dead related resources available. I mention Aoxomoxoa
since the Dead not only had more of a hand in recording and producing the
album, but also took some inventive approaches to recording the album,
including splicing live recordings with in-studio recordings, a process that
has become rather standard in recording. I wondered if the Dead considered any
of the work that Frank Zappa was doing with the Mothers, since Freak Out,
which was produced almost 3 years prior, is one of those kinds of experimental
recordings that contain spliced pieces and other forms of tape experimentation.
Anderson documents some of the beef that the Dead and Zappa had, apparently performing
in NYC in the late 60s, where they had to stagger their performances due to
noise complaints. Regardless, Anderson’s research and reporting on the earlier
stages of the Dead’s career helps to identify their experimental nature, as
well as their desire to create not only a unique sound in rock music, but also
to include the highest quality recording sound possible for their fans. While
mixing that sound from studio recordings can be done post-production,
attempting a clear, live mix where sounds from different instruments are separated
into different channels was not yet possible or something that some sound
engineers or bands were thinking about. Rather, concerts, especially rock
concerts, seemed to focus more on volume, not the quality or distinction of the
sounds.
The issue with focusing on volume is that it can often lead
to feedback and distortion, and one of the Dead’s entourage, Augustus Owsley
Stanley III, also known as Bear, became obsessively interested in engineering
the perfect, most distinct live audio sound during Dead concerts in addition to
manufacturing much of the LSD that fueled these concerts and the improvisational
collective jamming that the band was known for. Anderson’s book isn’t a
biography of Owsley, but he does provide some relevant information, and there
is a good amount of focus on Owsley and his crew as they worked to develop The
Wall. I really appreciated this focus since I didn’t know much about Owsley, who
I found to be a really interesting and influential character in shaping the
Dead’s sound. Anderson reveals Owsley’s characteristics and personality from
different sources and interviews with those who knew him, developing a man who was
seemingly obsessed with crystalizing the sound and who developed a unique
relationship with the equipment he used to build and refine the wall of sound.
Interestingly, Anderson, through interviews with Dead crew and family members
who knew Owsley, posits the idea that Owsley, who was partially deaf in one
ear, may have been on the spectrum. This feature of Owsley’s perception may
have enhanced his sensitivities to auditory stimuli, making his ability to
shape the live sound of the Dead more acute and distinct. It’s an interesting theory,
and from Owsley’s behaviors and interest with the technical minutia of audio
engineering, it seems like a possibility. I was just amazed at how Owsley with
no real training in audio engineering (or chemistry for that matter) was able
to envision and implement such a massive system.
In addition to Owsley, we meet other important members of
the Grateful Dead crew and family who helped develop and enhance the system.
The book focuses on Courtney Pollack, who ended up producing a lot of tie dyed
materials that covered the initial sound system of the late 60s/early 70s, as
well as members of Alembic, the company that eventually developed from the Dead’s
community and provided many of the speakers and custom made instruments for the
Dead. This was another part of the book that I found fascinating to learn more
about. Lesh mentions some of these members, and the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead Podcast
has episodes devoted to some of these community members, but Anderson’s book
helps to further contextualize how they came abroad the Grateful Dead train and
how they contributed to the sound. The chapters that lead up to the Wall of
Sound’s development, from roughly ’68-’73, are incredibly detailed, focusing
not just on the build-up and testing of these sound systems, but also the logistical
requirements that a system of this size and magnitude required. Anderson hypothesizes
that this might be part of the reason why the Dead did not fare well on famous
concerts like Woodstock and The Monterrey Pop Festival. A section is also
dedicated to the notorious Altamont Festival, which the Dead did not play. These
chapters, as well as the last part of the book that details the implementation
of the Wall in 1974, and the eventual hiatus of the band in 1975 that led to
the Wall’s demise and disassembly are also a fascinating look at a fruitful period
of live and recorded output from the Dead. If you trace the studio recordings
from this period, the Dead scaled back their sound, focusing more on acoustic
music and instruments, with classic albums like Workingman’s Dead and American
Beauty. Although still a rock band, their sound moved away from the loud psychedelia,
and progressed towards rootsy, Americana music, that often included traditional
and bluesier music that had been at the heart of the band since their
inception. I also wondered if this progression and the refining of their live
sound might have also been a result of Pigpen’s lessening role in the band as
he wasted away from alcoholism. Pigpen’s organ and blues shouting was
eventually replaced by Keith Godchaux’s acoustic piano, and the more harmonious
singing of Garcia and Weir. As a result, it seemed like the sound for live
shows needed to focus on reproducing quality separation, and not increasing the
volume. Regardless, Anderson’s book recaps so many shows from this period, and
details what worked and the challenges the band faced as they implemented this
revolutionary process of live sound management. I found it interesting to learn
that the Dead were the first band to incorporate delay towers and line arrays,
parts of sound production that we probably take for granted, that help large
crowds enjoy music and sound distribution on a large scale. While I don’t attend
many large concerts, it is amazing to think that the Dead and Owsley in
particular were theorizing on audio principles and sound engineering to
implement this new approach to concerts. It was also interesting to learn that
the band also took sound measurements during sound checks to see how the sound
traveled in different venues and adjust the sound levels. Anderson careful
details the developments of this system, as well as all of the processes that
were involved in measuring, calibrating, and refining the system for one of the
most technologically advanced concert experiences of the 1960s/70s and beyond.
Anderson has written a fascinating and detailed book that
explores an important, yet underreported facet of the Dead’s iconic history.
This book is incredibly researched and reported. I found it informative and
exciting to see how the band collaborated with their greater community,
including fans and tapers, to further enhance their sound for live audiences.
Unfortunately, relying on such a large crew to engineer, transport, and set up
and break down such a complex system seemed to eventually bring about its
downfall. Anderson also uses accounting ledgers from the Dead to detail their profits
and costs for their shows. Such a massive system that towered over 30 feet and stretched
over 100 feet across required intense labor to set up, and with constant variation
in sound, often resulted in blown speakers, which constantly needed replacement.
Anderson provides both original costs and adjusted costs for inflation to better
understand the amount of money the Dead were spending on a monthly basis to
perform live. The costs and logistics (as well as the massive amounts of
cocaine and heroin that had infiltrated the band’s community) eventually led to
the hiatus and lay-offs of the crew, as the band could no longer sustain taking
them on tour. This also led the band to disassemble the Wall of Sound, which
Anderson reports on its eventual demise. Some speakers were distributed to
others, some put into storage, but he also notes that others have reported that
much of the equipment was either trashed in a dump or set on fire, which is
both sad and seemingly incongruous to a band that seemed to promote reuse and
community support. Regardless, Anderson’s reporting and research helps to shape
out not only what happened to the Dead’s massive experiment in audio engineering,
but also how this experience shaped their later attempts at concerts, as well
as how the Wall contributed to other bands’ concert sounds, noting possible
influences on Pink Floyd and Brian Eno. I really enjoyed this book and found it
fascinating to read and learn more about this aspect of the Dead’s sound.
Anderson was scrupulous in his research and reporting, and this creates a
dynamic and well-formed portrait of the Dead’s sound. There are a few elements
of the book that I felt would have enhanced this book further. For one, the
book has some technical elements to it, and while Anderson does a good job
explaining some of the technical audio elements of the book, I felt like these
descriptions along with descriptions of the Wall and its earlier incarnations
might have benefited from some kind of schematic or visual representation.
Similarly, some of the audio concepts about sound distribution, line arrays, or
delay towers might have been supplemented with renderings or images to help
other readers better understand what these elements of a sound system are and
how they function. Additionally, I was surprised that there weren’t any images of
the Wall, the Dead, or other artifacts from this era included. For one of the
most well-documented bands in American popular music, it was a little surprising
that there were no images included. However, that may have also been due to accessing
use rights. Furthermore, there are a lot of individuals involved in the
development of the Dead’s sound, so maybe providing a character list of these
individuals would help keep them straight. As someone who has some familiarity
with the Dead’s larger community, I had heard of some of these contributors,
but again, a list might help other readers understand who these individuals
were and what they contributed to the sound. Nevertheless, this is a great
book, and a definite read for those interested in music and sound engineering.
Even someone who is not a fan of the Dead would enjoy reading about how the
band experimented with various sound systems to arrive at such a massive and
clear sound system, only to eventually disassemble it after a few years of touring.
The brief, wonderous and monstrous construction of this sound system reminded
me of both a sand mandala and the kinds of Mayan pyramids in the jungle that
were eventually abandoned after some use. While sand mandala’s have a shorter
life span than the pyramids, the take time and careful consideration, with
their destruction upon creation. The Wall seemed to last a brief time,
recognizing that the system could no longer be sustained, yet eventually
leading more venues to adopt some of the technology and approaches to sound engineering
the system implemented. Similarly, the scope and size of the Mayan pyramids
like Chichen Itza where engineering marvels of a grand scale, yet abandoned
when the environment was no longer feasible to sustain it. It seemed like the
Dead’s own monolithic construction was a marvel, but was unsustainable, and
eventually abandoned. Yet artifacts and elements still remain, and fans and documentarians
like Anderson are able to obtain a part of sound history to better study and
recreate this important achievement in audio engineering. A really great read!
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