From: pmc@world.std.com (Patrick M Chase)
Subject: Re: Questions about Deadbase...
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:34:28 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.231113.19478@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU> ibmsupt!ibmpa!jannette.aix.kingston.ibm.com!jannette@uunet.uu.net writes:
>
>zack fali writes:
>| While flipping through a friend's Deadbase II, I had a question that 
>| someone with a newer edition may be able to answer. About how many set
>| lists are recovered/reconstructed and added each year? Have we hit a wall 
>| in that we know just about as much as we ever will when it comes to set lists? 
>
>I'm also curious.  I received a few old tapes from a deadhead
>friend of mine who's got a very extensive collection and has been
>a deadhead much longer than myself.  I didn't find these shows in
>Deadbase, and couldn't find other shows which looked like the same
>setlists.  Some of these songs don't have cuts between them, so
>I would think it's not a compilation of songs from other shows.
>So, I'm led to believe that Deadbase doesn't have all the shows
>in there, or all the setlists.

In general, I've found that most tapes that are not found in DeadBase are
not there because they're labeled incorrectly. Sometimes they are compilations,
or have the right city but the wrong date, or the right date and city but 
another show. You gotta listen to the tape, and make your own list, and then
dig from there. I came across one tape in a friend's collection once that was
labeled "Live Dead - Florida 1976". Pig's vocals indicated a problem and after
a little research, I discovered it was simply 7/2/71 with the songs mixed up
funny and the intros and stage banter cut out.

Of course there are shows that don't appear in DeadBase, or are incorrect.
I've got filler that's like one tune  - say, Mason's Children - and that's all
that DeadBase lists for that night. Now we all know that the Dead didn't just
walk out on stage and do a Mason's, and then leave. It's just that Deadbase
only prints what it has researched to be correct. They leave out (or clarify)
material that is questionable.

>Also, every tape I've seen of 5/2/70 has certain songs in a different
>order than Deadbase lists them.  Who is right?

DeadBase is probably right. Squeezing the Dead into 45 minute segements without
any cuts often requires a bit of creative editing. From reels->cassette is
where the order gets scrambled. Especially when you're looking at a 90 minute
chunk of one of those really long '73 or '74 shows. Someone picked the best
chunks, edited as best they could, and put it on cassette. Years later, with
filler mis-labeled, the tapes take on a whole new flavor.

I've got some 1968 material that's labeled as one show, but it's really 3
different shows from 1968-1969 all mixed together. I've got one tape that
matches DeadBase perfectly, except for a New Potatoe stuck in the middle
with no audible cuts before and after.

In general, use DeadBase as your guide to the truth, the music as a second
guide, and the actual tape label last. It's all you can do.
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