Cornell '77
The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall
by Peter Conners
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Apr 11 2017 | Archive Date Apr 11 2017
Description
On May 8, 1977, at Barton Hall, on the Cornell University campus, in front of 8,500 eager fans, the Grateful Dead played a show so significant that the Library of Congress inducted it into the National Recording Registry. The band had just released Terrapin Station and was still finding its feet after an extended hiatus. In 1977, the Grateful Dead reached a musical peak, and their East Coast spring tour featured an exceptional string of performances, including the one at Cornell.Many Deadheads claim that the quality of the live recording of the show made by Betty Cantor-Jackson (a member of the crew) elevated its importance. Once those recordings—referred to as "Betty Boards"—began to circulate among Deadheads, the reputation of the Cornell '77 show grew exponentially.With time the show at Barton Hall acquired legendary status in the community of Deadheads and audiophiles.Rooted in dozens of interviews—including a conversation with Betty Cantor-Jackson about her recording—and accompanied by a dazzling selection of never-before-seen concert photographs, Cornell '77 is about far more than just a single Grateful Dead concert. It is a social and cultural history of one of America's most enduring and iconic musical acts, their devoted fans, and a group of Cornell students whose passion for music drove them to bring the Dead to Barton Hall. Peter Conners has intimate knowledge of the fan culture surrounding the Dead, and his expertise brings the show to life. He leads readers through a song-by-song analysis of the performance, from "New Minglewood Blues" to "One More Saturday Night," and conveys why, forty years later, Cornell '77 is still considered a touchstone in the history of the band.As Conners notes in his Prologue: "You will hear from Deadheads who went to the show. You will hear from non-Deadhead Cornell graduates who were responsible for putting on the show in the first place. You will hear from record executives, academics, scholars, Dead family members, tapers, traders, and trolls. You will hear from those who still live the Grateful Dead every day. You will hear from those who would rather keep their Grateful Dead passions private for reasons both personal and professional. You will hear stories about the early days of being a Deadhead and what it was like to attend, and perhaps record, those early shows, including Cornell '77."
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781501704321 |
| PRICE | $21.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
January G, Reviewer
I by no means consider myself a "DeadHead," but I absolutely loved the history in this book. Wow what an amazing time. Well written, seemed factual to me. I highly recommend this book!
Reviewer 151918
Well, what can I say? This is an amazing book that will send some people into raptures and will be incomprehensible to the rest of us.
Anyone above a certain age knows the cultural and musical significance of the Grateful Dead, and anyone who knows much about the Dead know (revere, are in awe of?) the 1977 concert at Barton Hall, Cornell University. The concert is so important that in 2011 is was added to the National Registry by the US Library of Congress. You can hear it in its entirety online.
In the classic description, a single piece of a hologram, no matter how small, contains the lossless entirety of the hologram. What Peter Conners has tried to do, with some success, is to present Barton Hall 77 as the lossless entirety of the Dead experience. That is, in this one concert of thousands, and this one book, also of thousands, Mr. Conners hopes to present the entirety of Dead reality. It almost works.
The main reason it doesn't quite work is that no matter how lucidly Mr. Connors writes, the reader without at least some background and experience with the Grateful Dead, is plunged in the deep end of the pool. If you are new to the Grateful Dead, you might find some background reading helpful before you start.
I received a review copy of "Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall" by Peter Conners (Cornell University Press) through NetGalley.com.
Concert K, Reviewer
I am not much of a Grateful Dead fan but I was intrigued by the fact that one of their shows could be so amazing that it warranted having an entire book written about it. This book goes into depth about the May 8, 1977 show performed by the Grateful Dead at Barton Hall at Cornell University. Grateful Dead eventually was wore down by their fans to allow them to tape their shows. Due to the circulation of the tape of this show, it made it to the top of everyone's lists of greatest Dead shows ever. This book breaks down everything you could want to know about how the tape trading works and how they made shows more popular. I was also proud to see that one of their New Haven shows was in the Top 10! Go Connecticut! The book also has a breakdown of the setlist and what songs were performed, some photos and of course, fan interviews. Definitely an interesting read if you are a music fan and probably even moreso if you are a "DeadHead".
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
Jeffrey F, Reviewer
I received an advance electronic copy of this book in order to provide a review.
The concert played by the Grateful Dead at Barton Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, on May 8, 1977 is perhaps one of the most infamous shows, whether you love it or hate it. Is it the show itself? Was it the amazing pristine soundboard tapes made by the near-perfect ears of Betty Cantor-Jackson which were leaked out when it was difficult to get anything other than a third-generation audience recording? We may never know, but what we do know is that everyone has their opinion about this performance.
Since Mr. Conners has written this book, presumably to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the show, the tapes have been obtained by Grateful Dead, Inc., and are being released as a boxed set with the other early shows in May 1977. Destpite the price of the box at $139, it sold out in less than three days, so that should be an indicator of how important this run of shows is to the "deadicated" fan.
Although I have read many other books about the Grateful Dead, I did find much of the information in this book to be informative, insightful, and entertaining. One of the highlights for me were the song-by-song followthrough of the show, touching on a bit of the history of the song as well as notes about the performance on May 8 in particular. I learned a few new nuggets of information I hadn't before, and this section of the book makes an excellent read-along while you're listening to the show.
I also really enjoyed the section discussing Betty Cantor-Jackson, some of the processes she used, as well as some of the behind-the-scene stuff, like the fact that she often purchased her own tapes, and how she performed the mixing "on the fly" to her own ear, disregarding the PA mix as too biased toward the performance hall.
There was also an excellent "further reading" section, which was more friendly than an annotated bibliography for those who wished to explore further, and I definitely found some resources to check out there.
If you are even a casual listener of the Grateful Dead, you've heard of May 8, 1977. Learn a bit more about this infamous show and why it matters forty years later. I recommend this book highly.
catherine h, Reviewer
Ultimate Deadhead fan book. I'm not, but enjoy there music when I hear it. I am guessing this is the concert to end all concerts, according to fans.. Anyway, the book was entertaining. The Dead were the Dead and they did what they wanted to do and their fans loved them for it. Great read for them!
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