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Poster:
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biginjapan
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Date:
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December 02, 2005 01:03:33am
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Forum:
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etree
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Subject: |
Re: This is NOT good news
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This is the Grateful Dead's music. They got up every morning and went to work every day for 25 years in order to to bring this music to you. This music was their JOB. It was their 24-hour concern for 25 years (and counting). They went to bed thinking about this music, they woke up thinking about this music, and they spent every second of every day thinking about this music -and they did this for 25 years (and counting). Three musicians died in the process, and the remaining four are continuing onward, driven by a force that is impossible to understand -the very same impossible force that took the lives of their friends.
Tapers, although passionate about their own craft, are NOT members of the band. They will NEVER know the amount of work it takes to keep a band, much less a successful band, together for 25 years. The Grateful Dead is a JOB. Taping is a HOBBY.
Keeping six band members employed, content, secure, and alive for 25 years is a JOB.
Tape trading is a HOBBY.
Touring the country, battling local officials over sound ordinances, and making sure promoters don't steal your money for 25 years is a JOB.
Taping a show is a HOBBY.
Writing music, setting up rehearsals, recording albums, finding producers, agents, and road managers that you can trust, battling tendonitis, driving all night to make the next gig, dealing with not getting sleep for 48 hour stretches at a time, standing for 4-hours with an ergonomically incorrect 30lb. weight on your back every day and every night for 25 years straight is a JOB.
Taping a show is a HOBBY. Get the picture?
The money in Bob Weir's pocket is HIS not YOURS. He EARNED it. He WORKED for it. The Grateful Dead is the Grateful Dead's property and no one else's. If they decided to draw some boundry lines on their property, or build a picket fence around it, then they had every right to do so.
The Grateful Dead has every right in the world to do whatever they want with these recordings. We should be thankful for having the privilege of getting this stuff for free this whole time, purely out of the band's graciousness, generosity, and patience. They could have very easily told all of you guys to go screw yourselves, but they didn't -and we should be thankful for that because we have been lucky. But luck, as you know, always runs out, and the best we can do is prepare for the worst when it is gone. If the Grateful Dead decided to one day take these recordings back, then all we could do was be thankful for basically winning the Grateful Dead lottery for the last 25 years. And THAT'S good news. |
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