Alabama Getaway | 1986-12-17 | Grateful Dead

2:55:34
Taper:
OldNeumanntapr
Transferrer:
OldNeumanntapr
SHNID:
gd1986-12-17.168571.superscopeEC-7.v2.ont.flac1644
Source:
OTS (Risers); Superscope EC-7 Cardioids (Near Coincident) >Sony TC-153SD [XLIIS]
Lineage:
Cassette Masters Transferred Via Denon DR-M12HR >Tascam DR100mkII (24bit/48kHz) WAV >Audacity (Amplify, Track Splits, Down Sample To 16bit/44.1kHz, Minor Edits & Fades) >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53
Taper Notes:
View NotesThis is "v2" which differs from "v1" on tracks d1t02, d1t03
OldNeumanntapr Notes;
This was my 5th Dead show, and the 2nd that I recorded. It was also my first time being in the Oakland Coliseum. I had recently purchased a pair of Marantz Superscope EC-7 cardioid microphones and a Sony TC-153SD cassette recorder and this was the 1st show that I recorded with that combo. I thought that the cardioids reproduced the vocals well, but they did allow a lot more room noise so they could sound boomy in large rooms like the Coliseum. I guess it's a trade off, because years later when I started using CM-300 shotguns I felt that though they did a good job of limiting the reverberant room noise, they also had lower vocal response. I almost didn't make it to this show, because I was having mechanical problems with my old '67 VW bus. It had a couple of interesting problems. One was that the accelerator pedal would stick wide open if you pushed it to the floor. I had to stop the bus on an off ramp in San Jose because it stuck, and the only way to get it unstuck was to throw it into neutral, shut the engine off, coast to a stop and pull the counterweights down on the carburetor. Because I had stopped on a banked off ramp, the bus was leaning to the right, and gas was leaking out of the gas tank because the gas cap had a bad seal. The other problem that the bus had was that the electrical system would build up resistance once the motor got hot and the starter wouldn't work unless you took a screw driver and shorted across the terminals on the starter motor. Well, the bus wouldn't start and there was gas leaking out of the tank, so I was worried that a spark would cause an explosion. I told my ex wife to get way back out of the way and I crawled under, held my breath, and shorted the starter, which broke the resistance. Luckily the bus didn't catch fire and we were able to make it to the show OK. I forgot to bring in my new AA batteries for the microphones and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting a signal when I hooked my recording equipment together! I ran up the aisle in the taper section with a $5 bill and bought two batteries from another taper. To whomever that was that night, a big THANK YOU!!! The taper section was on the risers for that series of shows and I remember the mic stands all swaying when the crowd got going. I don't remember the risers ever being used again at the Oakland Coliseum for the tapers. In later years Bill Graham had his pre-show volleyball games there, right behind the board. I was really happy at that show because, 1. I made it there alive, and 2., Jerry was playing again! These were the first shows after his diabetic coma. We had driven down to the Ventura Fairgrounds earlier in the summer only to find that those shows had been cancelled because Jerry had gone into the hospital. We stayed over after the Oakland show that night in the bus in the parking lot of the Coliseum, (remember when they let you do that?) and drove home the following morning. This was a good show for me, because it was the 1st time that I had seen an 'Alabama Getaway' opener, and I wouldn't see another one until the June 1995 shows at Shoreline. I always enjoyed hearing Bobby do 'Desolation Row', and the 'Music' 1st set closer was really nice too. In retrospect I wish I had not paused the tape between songs in the first set, but I was still learning and didn't really know what I was doing. At least this recording sounded better with the addition of a decent recorder like the 153, as compared to my old Sharp boom box with auto levels, which is what I recorded the May 11 1986 Frost show with. Sadly the end of the Brokedown Palace encore is cut because I ran out of tape. For some reason I would start the second set at the end of the first set tape when I first started taping, which was dumb because it would give me one extra tape flip to deal with. Again, I was green but I got better.

This was the first 'Not Fade Away' since Jerry's coma, and the 'Not Fade Away Fadeaway' went on FOREVER! I think the whole track was over 11 minutes long! You could really feel the love in the crowd for Jerry's return because, at least for me, there was a time when I wasn't sure that he was Coming back.