“‘Barton Hall ‘77′ became that legendary for a number of reasons,” John Scher said. “The band was at the height of their powers. And because the band always shared their music with the fans, and always let them tape, which in those days was very, very unusual, and pretty much unheard of, when they performed a show as magical as this one was, the word spread not only by word of mouth, but also by listening.”
He added, “I’m sure the tapes were duplicated thousands – tens of thousands of times.”
“If you wanted to listen to field recordings, you either listened to somebody’s fifth- or seventh- generation copy, or you went out and made your own,” said Eddie Claridge, who was responsible for more than a few field recordings of the Dead, and whose audience tape from May 16, 1981, at Barton Hall is a phenomenal document of a completely different period for the band. (Claridge also recalled a May 7, 1980, tape he made when the Dead changed “Playing in the Band” to “Playing in the Barn” “because of the interesting acoustics.”)
“We loved the music, and this was the most effective way to do it. If you spent the time to learn what you were doing, you could make quite a good field recording,” he said. “And once you got it, it was hard not to do it at other shows. And that made some of us persona non grata at some other bands’ shows.”
“I missed Barton hall because I had a business commitment,” Claridge added. “Of course I regret I wasn’t there.”
“Just because I saw 50 shows that year doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have wanted to see more.” He continued, wistfully: “Of the whole spring ['77] tour, Barton Hall and Buffalo were the only ones I missed.”
But the show was captured by someone who was probably in Claridge’s social circle. Claridge didn’t want to speculate, but likely candidates include Jerry Moore or Steve Maizner. (Moore, who edited Dead Relix magazine from 1974-1977, and who was one of the “original tapers,” passed away on June 3, 2009; Maizner was unavailable for comment). The provenance is less important than the tape’s existence.
Between October ‘74 and June ‘76 “[t]he underground Grateful Dead tape trading network had blossomed,” Blair Jackson writes in his biography “Garcia: An American Life.” Even before the Dead’s “retirement” was better recognized as an 18-month hiatus from touring (between October 1974 until June 1976 the Dead only performed a handful of live shows), grassroots dissemination of live Dead recordings unofficially partnered with more traditional means of distribution, like the radio. (Jackson pointed out that of the four 1975 shows, one was broadcast nationally on the radio, and another was a free concert with Jefferson Starship that drew 25,000 people even though it took place the day it was announced.)
“Between audience-made concert tapes and the numerous Dead shows that had been recorded for FM radio broadcasts, there were many tapes in circulation among traders by the mid-’70s,” Jackson writes. “This encouraged more people to collect tapes and become tapers themselves.”
“There were not very many people taping in ‘75,” Claridge said. “If you were to cite a number in the double digits for the whole country you’d be pretty close.” He continued: “If I went to a show in ‘77, chances are that anyone in the room that was recording was someone I knew. And by 1980, at any given show there would be 150 guys recording.”
Though Scher seemed to be speaking of field recordings – known as audience tapes by Dead fans – the “Betty Boards” were just as important to a show’s acclaim.
“[Barton Hall '77] was the first really great tape to come out that everybody had in their collection,” Rob Eaton, Dark Star Orchestra’s founding member said. “So it became a favorite listening piece: a vehicle to listen to the Dead at all times because it was pristine quality of a really good show from a really great time period.”
According to the ticket stub, alcoholic beverages and smoking were also prohibited, though first-hand accounts suggest that these regulations, too, largely fell on deaf ears.