Set 1



Bertha

Beat It On Down The Line

Brown Eyed Women

Mexicali Blues

Box Of Rain

Here Comes Sunshine

Looks Like Rain

Row Jimmy

Jack Straw

Deal

Playing In The Band



Set 2



Around And Around

Loose Lucy

Big River

He's Gone ->

Truckin' ->

Nobody's Fault But Mine Jam ->

El Paso

China Cat Sunflower ->

I Know You Rider

Stella Blue

Eyes Of The World

Sugar Magnolia



Encore

Sing Me Back Home

Not Fade Away

Mountain Jam

Johnny B. Goode

Notes

Here's the story of the road to the Digital Watkins Glen Tree.







This was supposed to happen two years ago in conjunction with the



25th Anniversary Watkins Glen Analog Tree. I won't bore you with the



details, but the digital end never happened. A few months ago, I



had decided that I would finally have my AUD Analog seeds from the



Analog Tree transferred to DAT so that the digital world could



finally get it's hands on the tree that was run back in 1998. In a



wonderful cosmic twist of fate, on the very day that I put my



precious seed tapes in the mail to go to a trusted A>D person, I got



word that the a digital copy of the Master Soundboard Reels from



7/28/73 was going to be headed in my direction. Wow!







I had a few conversations with Dick Latvala when I was organizing the



25th Anniversary Tree and he had told me that the SBDMR was filled



with gremlins and glitches, and would never be suitable for official



release, but it did exist and he had listened to it. Most of his



friends had told him the show sucked (FOOLS!) so he didn't pay much



attention when he did listen to it. It seemed that the SBD was



destined to gather dust in the Vault for good. So be it. As it was,



we had put together a very enjoyable copy of the complete show from



AUD and FM sources and treed out what went on to change people's



minds about a show that was always thought to be a true low point in



1973. All the folklore-ish rumors about how bad they played, and how



without life the show was were put to rest. I still believe that the



bad rap given to 7/28/73 in the past stemmed from the atrocious



partial AUD that had circulated for years.







The SBD arrived and blew my mind. The main problem was that a few



songs were missing entirely from the copy. But that would be



overcome by the sources I used for the first Watkins Tree (more in a



moment). The gremlins and glitches consist mainly of occasional pops



or clicks over both dates and a static noise over much of the



recording on 7/28. It is at times a slight distraction, while at



other times barely audible. It really isn't that distracting from



the music at all. Just a little crackling here and there. However,



there is a portion of glitching that does get a bit rough. The worst



of it comes during the He's Gone>Truckin' where there are some severe



buzzes and grounding noises. These get pretty bad for sure. It



sounds like some cables are loose and a soundman is trying to rectify



the problem time and time again. But when you compare these SBD



problems during the He's Gone>Truckin' to the AUD used on the first



tree where we get to listen to the taper's buddy ponder his need to



go to the bathroom against never finding his way back to his spot in



the crowd during the same stretch of songs, I'd say it becomes a bit



of a toss up. The severe glitches clear up at about the six minute



mark of Truckin' and it's relatively smooth sailing thereafter.



This, coupled with a few cuts here and there within a few songs (like



a small chunk of vocals missing from Eyes Of The World), rounds out



most all that is wrong with the SBD. Also worth noting is that you



will discern some recording level discrepancies from tape source to



tape source. This was confirmed with the person that I had create



the complete show seeds as unavoidable when he compiled the masters.



He dealt with them as best he could (Soundforge, etc..)







As for the songs that were missing entirely from the copy I received,



I will give you all the information I have. I contacted the person



who "held" the SBD out of the Vault to find out why these songs were



missing. He informed me that they were indeed on the MR, but



suffered from tremendous tape speed problem. So bad in fact, that he



opted not to transfer them to the copy that made its way into



circulation. This lead me to uncover and at the same time solve a



real mystery. The facts now seem to indicate that what was used on



the first tree as SBD, was in fact from the fabled FM broadcast of



the whole show.







As any of you who have copies of the show treed in 1998 know, the



first 40 minutes of the show came from a SBD/5 seed. Within this



first 40 minutes are two of the songs that could not be transferred



from the SBDMR due to speed troubles: Here Comes Sunshine and Looks



Like Rain. Neither of these songs exhibit any pitch problems at all,



and further, they exhibit none of the static noise that prevails over



what we have from the SBDMR. Thus, I can only surmise that this



chunk that was used on the first tree actually emanated from the



allusive FM broadcast made on 7/28/73; the tape for which we scoured



many a local radio station in search of, all in vain.







When I had in my hands all five of the different source tapes for the



first tree back in the summer of 1998, I transferred each one to DAT



with the help of a DAT taper buddy of mine. We made two complete DAT



copies of everything involved. One set was sent to the person who



was to assemble and edit together the Digital Tree, the other was



just packed away at my DAT friend's house. It was this second set of



DATs that I was able to pull out for use on this tree. Since no



fancy splicing and editing was going to be needed for this new tree,



we were able to go right to these DATs to fill the gaps in the SBDMR.



So everything used here that did not come from the SBDMR is actually



one generation cleaner that even the Seed tapes I made to run the old



tree. It should be noted that the Encores were not to be found on



the MR at all. In fact, E2 occurred some nine hours after the Dead's



show that day, so it makes sense that the Reels were not still



sitting there ready to roll.







The job of editing all of this together fell to a person who shall



remain nameless, but he needs to be thanked none the less. He shares



my incredibly overbearing sense of detail when it comes to doing this



sort of thing, and since I personally am not set up to do anything



digitally myself, I needed someone like that in my camp. First off,



his cross fade addition of the Bill Graham intro into Bertha sounds



even better than the one I did on the Analog Tree. I almost wept



tears of joy when I first got the discs back from him, and that was



just in the first thirty seconds of the show. I didn't even think



he'd go that extra mile with the discs, but he did. Every track ID



is pure perfection. This guy is nothing short of the best DAT>CD



person I've ever encountered. You will all be very pleased.







That pretty well rounds out the story of how this tree came to be.



If I think of more tidbits I'll toss them out to you all. Thanks for



listening.







Noah







--



Subject: Watkins Story pt2



Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 23:34:57 EDT



From: Nbw000@aol.com



To: dankstar@mediaone.net







Here is another post I made that gave the history of the first tree, and all



that went into the birth of this idea...







Noah







-------------------------------------------------------------







From: Noah Weiner



Date: Thu Mar 9, 2000 11:58pm



Subject: More of the Watkins Tree Story







I went looking through old e-mails and I found a copy of a post I



sent to the Compendium mail list after being approached for more info



on the tapes used for the first tree.







I just copied the whole thing. I didn't feel like editing or



updating any of it. This will confirm that I am all and more of the



overly compulsive taper freak that many of you know me to be. After



reading it, I can honestly say I sound a bit "obsessed."







This comes from around August 1998:







------------------------------------------------







A member or two of the Compendium Mail List expressed some interest



in just how Gordon Gullahorn and I managed to get the tapes together



for the recent Watkins 25th Anniversary Tree. So, if you'll pardon a



bit of rambling on, here it is.







As many of you know, this show has only circulated in really bad Aud



quality. The tapes are always incomplete, and of unknown generation.



They have this horrendous wow and flutter all over the best parts of



set two, and really leave the listener saying "Is that a good show



under there? Well, I'll never know because I can't bear to listen to



it again!" If you have a copy, you know what I mean. If you don't



have a copy, you don't want one. Anyway, there was this discussion



going on at rmgd about this "rare gem" of a show back in February, I



think (I guess some people *had* listened again). I piped in because



I had just come across this show on some one's list who had the Aud



listed as a 2nd gen. I had NEVER seen a known gen at all, let alone



2nd. So having set up the trade, I told the folks in the thread at



rmgd that I'd be happy to spin it for anyone if it was any good once



I got it. Another person in the thread, Gordon Gullahorn, and I



started talking about doing a tree if it was really good. After all,



the 25th Anniversary was coming up, and the show hardly circulated.



It would be fun if the tapes merited doing a tree.







A little time passed and the tapes came and, yes, they were good.



Let's put a few qualifiers on this "good" here. The taper, at that



time still a mystery, was certainly near the stage, lending a nice



presence to the music. It wasn't the best 1973 Aud I had ever



gotten, but I was perfectly happy to give these tapes a fair amount



of latitude given the circumstances surrounding the recording



conditions, size of the crowd, and what else there was circulating on



tape from the show. Even with the various audience nuances -- every



kind you can think of from the guy yelling HELLO into the mic at the



start of Eyes, to the off time clapper and the off key singer -- the



tapes still left my jaw on the floor because the show was so



terrific, and when the band was jamming the crowd into silence, the



sound quality was truly quite fine. Gordon and I set about trying to



track up the gen line to the original taper, as well as dig up the



rest of the show. The Aud/3 I had was not the whole show, only the



end of set one, and most of set two. The first problem was that Andy



(the guy with the Aud/2) couldn't remember who he got the show from.



Gordon and I started posting around, but it felt like looking for a



needle in a haystack. After many fruitless posts at rmgd, DNC, etc.,



I was prodding Andy's memory some more and he said that he remembered



getting the show from the taper himself and that he thinks he met



this guy in one of the AOL Dead chat rooms. He said the guy was very



friendly and would probably come right out of the wood work for us if



we asked around. Well, the thought of sticking my head in AOL's 710



Ashbury chat room like some private detective held little charm for



me. For every good soul in there you have fifteen or twenty people



that make the experience more like drinking a warm beer at a high



school party. We seemed to be destined to come up empty. We also



found that more often than not, any time we thought we had a good



lead, it would fizzle away, or get off track. Gordon and I agreed



that there was some strange mystique shrouding this show.







I can't really recall just how the idea struck me, but I started



putting 2 and 2 and probably 7 together and thought it could be this



guy Bill Degen who I have been trading with for well over a year. He



was an East Coast taper at the time, and I had gotten a few of his



shows in the past. he did have an AOL address and the friendly



personality. He fit the bill (no pun intended). Bill couldn't



remember this Andy guy, but he identified all the unique crowd noises



on the tape as coming from the tapes he made at the show. Bingo!



And once I got his personal tapes (his original masters burned in a



house fire back in the 80's so these are copies he personally made



some time back, bless him!), the stuff sounded even better than my



copy that was 2 gens removed. So everything that goes MC>R>seed and



MC>C>seed is from him. he also provided the Mountain Jam and JBG



encore (unknown, low gen SBD).







Now Gordon and I were cooking. But because Bills tape recorder



suffered from a faulty battery cable, we were still short most all of



set one. Sure we had the crappy Audience that goes around, but that



wasn't worthy of comprising almost 40% or the treed tapes. We



thought maybe we'd just tree the stuff from Bill and leave it at



that. Then Gordon uncovered a SBD/6 copy of the first 40mins of the



show. Thanks to some still functioning brain cells, or at least good



note taking on Jeff Tiedrich's part, we were able to track another



generation off that tape. Eric Doherty happily sent me his SBD/5



copy for use on the tree. That was as far up the generational line



we could climb before the source of the next gen up had been



forgotten. We think this might be a bit of the fabled FM broadcast



that, despite many an e-mail and inquiry on Gordon's part to East



Coast radio stations, never surfaced for us. On the subject of the



SBD, I've had a few e-mail exchanges with Dick Latvala on the subject



of the tapes of 7/28/73 in the Vault since starting the tree last



week. He said he pulled out the reels some six months back, and due



to some technical problems with the tapes, they left him with a less



than glorious impression of the show itself. Though he said he's



willing to give them another listen, I wouldn't think they'd be



making it out of the Vault any time soon. The tunes that were not



seeded from Bill's or Eric's tapes come from the three or so copies



of the show Gordon and I kept trading for while looking for a good



copy. But having listened to them all to find the best one, I can



say for sure that all of these come from the same original, crappy



tapes.







The assembly of the seeds was a bear. And I don't envy Gordon's task



of doing it all over with his DATs. As it happened we decided to do



an Analog Only and a DAT Only tree for the show. Work, life and the



like kept us from meeting the actual anniversary of the show with



both trees. Since I had all the masters here, I thought it would be



nice to do a large tree that had no DATing in the generational line.



Kind of unique these days. Gordon's DAT tree will get rolling soon.



There are some half a dozen or more spots where Bills tapes were



missing things (the start of Big River, end of IKYR, the second verse



of Playin' etc, etc...). So I did a LOT of editing and pitch



adjustment. It took about three full days worth of time to get them



just right. I've got an old Nak deck that makes completely



undetectable splices, so it became a challenge to do it all well,



since no one would hear the edits, just the quality *of* the edits.



Now I didn't kill myself doing it. Some of the cuts are not



perfection on earth, but I'm just crazy enough to have done them over



and over enough to get everyone who listens to say "Ahhhhh...." And



when you start to think that each edit represents a point on the



originals where there was a bummer of a cut, you can't help but



smile. The Analog tree ended up with over 180 people on it, and most



of the ten first gen from seed tapes have been sent off already. So



if your on the tree, the show's a-comin'. And if you're not, it



shouldn't be too hard to track down in a few weeks time. Once the



DAT tree happens, it will spread all the more.







Here is how the show went down onto the seed tapes. The gens listed



are that of the seeds themselves:







Tape One:



Bertha thru LL Rain - sbd/6



Jack Straw, Deal - unknown aud



Row Jimmy, Playin' - master cassette>reel>cassette







Side A:



Bill Graham intro



Bertha



Beat It On Down The Line



Brown Eyed Women



Mexicali Blues



Box of Rain



Here Comes Sunshine



Looks Like Rain







(Bill Graham intro and start of Bertha



spliced from aud/?)







Side B:



Row Jimmy



Jack Straw



Deal



Playin' in the Band







(splice in Row Jimmy after



opening bars. First verse is missing.



Second verse thru third chorus of Playin'



spliced from aud/?.)







Tape Two:



Around, Lucy - unknown aud



Big River thru Sugar Mag - aud master cassette>cassette2







Side A:



Around and Around



Loose Lucy



Big River



He's Gone>



Truckin'>



Nobody's Jam>



El Paso







(start of Big River spliced



from aud/?)







Side B:



China Cat Sunflower>



I Know You Rider



Stella Blue



Eyes of the World>



Sugar Magnolia







(end of IKYR spliced



from aud/?)







Tape Three:



Encore One - aud master cassette>cassette2



Encore Two - unknown sbd



07/27/73 - aud master cassette>reel>cassette







Side A:



Encore One:



Sing Me Back Home(cut)



Encore Two:



Not Fade Away



Mountain Jam



Johnny Be Goode







(Encore Two with Allman Brothers Band



and The Band)







Side B:



Filler: 07/27/73 Aud



Watkins Glen Sound Check



Jam>



Wharf Rat



Me and My Uncle







(Jam is cut when taper is busted by



a roadie. Aud picks up again at the



start at Wharf Rat. The missing portion



is supplied by SBD>D>cass>seed)







Thanks for listening,







Noah Weiner (nbw000@a...)