Attics Of My Life
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/201005/grateful_dead-1.phtml
The Grateful Dead headlines at the New-York Historical Society
By Rebecca Rego Barry
May 2010
It has to be said: seeing "The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the
New-York Historical Society" (N-YHS) is a trip. The first indication
that this exhibit is going to be different from other historical
exhibit experiences is hearing the rock music pumped into the
gallery. It's very cool, and yet, one sympathizes with the guards; as
any Deadhead will tell you, one song can last as long as a shift.
A visit to this exhibit offers some expected sights, such as concert
posters, the band's first record contract from 1966, some 45s and
33s, a platinum record of American Beauty, and plenty of dancing
bears, all mounted on pink and purple wall panels that resemble
speakers. But there are some breathtaking surprises toosuch as a
diorama (ā la the Museum of Natural History) of dressed, life-size
skeletons playing on stage. The beautifully designed concert tickets
and backstage passes show us the artistic side of these musicians.
The archives related to the Dead's Wall of Sound is another
highlight. In 1974, the group devised the Wallconstructed of 604
speakers stacked 40 feet highin an effort to achieve the best sound
on stage. It cost the band $350,000 to set up, and $100,000 per month
to maintain. Someone later noted on a legal pad, "Although nearly
perfect in terms of the sound it producedsharp and clear, with very
little feedback or distortionthe logistics and costs of maintaining
and transporting it proved untenable. The Wall of Sound was retired
within the year." Debra Schmidt Bach, assistant curator of decorative
arts at the N-YHS, who co-curated the exhibit, said the thumbnail
sketches of the Wall of Sound were the most exciting and surprising
finds in the collection.
The "Now Playing" exhibit is the first large-scale exhibition of
materials from the Grateful Dead Archive, located at the University
of California at Santa Cruz. The collection contains 600,000 linear
feet of books, recordings, business correspondence, posters, tickets,
photographs, films, and props, much of which was collected by the
band's fan liaison, Eileen Law, who took over the job of preserving
the Dead's archives and "did a tremendous job," according to Bach.
The band donated the archive in 2008, and it is expected to open next year.
So how is it that the counter-cultural Dead became exhibit-worthy at
the oldest museum in New York? It was Henry Kissinger's idea. Well,
not exactly. A couple of years back, Kissinger gave a lecture at the
N-YHS during which he discussed the 1960s and its impact on American
culture. Museum curators had been devising ideas for a new exhibit,
and when one of their trustees told them about the recent Grateful
Dead gift to Santa Cruz, it all seemed to come together, Bach said.
"The archive is a great way to try to explore late twentieth-century culture."
Indeed Deadheads were a sociological phenomenon of the time period.
Between 1965 and 1995, the band performed more than 2,300 concerts
and attracted half a million faithful fans, spanning at least two
generations. One of the themes of the exhibit is the band's intense
relationship with its fans, as evidenced by fan letters, surveys, and
most intriguingly, fan art. Over the years, Dead fans have mailed in
12,000 pieces of hand-decorated ticket envelopes. They also
creatively customized audiocassette liners and sent them off to the
group. The art and the devotion is a humbling thing to see on display
only twenty and thirty years on.
The N-YHS exhibit opened in March and continues through July 4.
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