GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

Episode Title: Long Strange Tech, Part 1
Date: November 10, 2022
Hosts: Rich Mahan & Jesse Jarnow

Overview: Exploring the Grateful Dead’s Entanglement with California Tech and Internet Culture

This episode of the Deadcast dives deep into the unique, intertwined history between the Grateful Dead, the Bay Area technology boom, and the very architecture of the modern Internet. Tracing roots from the acid tests and sound innovation of the 1960s through to the earliest days of Silicon Valley, hosts Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow are joined by musicians, engineers, and technologists—including Ned Lagin, Daniel Kotke, Andy Moorer, Ron Wickersham, and more—to recount how Deadhead imagination and technological invention fueled one another for decades. It’s a story about obsession, community, feedback loops, and the drive for “just exactly perfect sound,” with the Dead always at the bleeding edge.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Grateful Dead and the Digital Record (04:13–05:57)

• The hosts open with a participatory exercise: if you Google a Grateful Dead show date, the top results are usually about that show—demonstrating the Dead’s deep digital footprint.
• The origins of this phenomenon extend from the Dead community’s long-time obsession with dates and archiving, shaping the structure of online music fandom.

2. Psychedelia Meets Technology in 1960s California (05:57–11:39)

• Steve Silberman discusses how much of the Bay Area’s counterculture was sci-fi-obsessed, with direct links between musicians like Paul Kantner and Phil Lesh and the earliest tech innovators.
  • “Phil Lesh...convinced Owsley or Bear to get into being a sound man. Phil encouraged Bear to take up sound technology, and that came from Phil's feeling that being with Bear was like being in a science fiction story.” (06:29)
• Owsley “Bear” Stanley, LSD chemist and sound pioneer, describes building primitive early sound systems and the drive for better technology.
  • “The guitars in 1966 were identical...basically the guitars, they still had magnet with a coil of wire around it, six screws in the top of the magnet... It seemed like it was holding the music back that we could go to another level if we had better instruments.” (09:16–10:34)
• Bear’s synesthetic (sound-visual blending) experiences at acid tests prompted a new approach to audio that would define Dead concerts for years to come.
  • “I actually saw sound coming out of the speakers.” (10:39)

3. The LSD–Tech Industry Feedback Loop (11:39–16:34)

• Bay Area psychology and tech (Frank Barron, Myron Stolaroff) had psychedelic roots; engineers and future counterculture heroes participated in LSD sessions designed to spark creativity.
• The Whole Earth Catalog and foundational cybernetic ideas emerged, fostering a spirit where “media and particularly layering, infusing different elements of media, is a way of organizing human collectivity.”

4. The Feedback Loop as a Countercultural and Technical Principle (16:34–19:50)

• Eric Davis and John Markoff explain how cybernetics—a science born partly from WWII technology—suffused both the counterculture and the mainstream, providing theoretical grounding for psychedelic feedback loops at the Dead’s acid tests.

5. Sound and Recording Innovation: Alembic, Live Dead, and More (19:50–24:43)

• Ron Wickersham (Alembic founder): Born out of TV engineering, he was pulled into the Dead’s circle and, with his wife Susan, helped design the band’s legendary live and studio gear.
  • “At Ampex, they pretty much didn't hire anybody with a degree. They hired people from the field. So if you wanted to be an engineer there, you came from broadcasting.” (21:28)
• Contemporary comparison: The Beatles’ Magic Alex vs. the Dead—where Apple Electronics failed, Alembic flourished.

6. Silicon Valley and Deadheads: Tech as “Fantasy Amplifiers” (24:43–28:10)

• John Markoff: Early computer hobbyists on the peninsula saw computers as “fantasy amplifiers,” akin to LSD as mind expansion tools.
  • “There were a whole set of different paths to augmenting the human mind...All of that was swirling right at the same time.” (25:19)

7. Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog, and Utopian Tech Community (27:39–29:36)

• Stewart Brand bridges counterculture and high tech, inspiring both commune-living hippies and future tech moguls.
• Proximity between the Whole Earth Access store and pioneering sound designers like John and Helen Meyer led to innovations later key to the Dead's live sound.

8. Stanford AI Lab and the First Grateful Dead Tech Community (32:58–36:48)

• Paul Martin (Stanford AI grad): The Dead's '73 show at Stanford turned many at the AI Lab into Deadheads.
  • “It was just amazing, amazing transition. The big switch in my brain flipped.” (31:10)
• At the “Sail” AI Lab, people had their own computers and formed the first digital Deadhead community, complete with mailing lists (“Deadis”), lyric collaborations, and the invention of “Finger”—the first online status update.

Notable Quote

“It was the invention of the status update, the world’s first digital away messages, and now the basic unit of social media in daily life around the planet.”
— Narrator/Host (36:48)

9. Early Computer Music and Biotech Fusion: Ned Lagin and “Seastones” (46:58–55:32)

• Ned Lagin became the Dead’s deepest link to computer music, combining computers, biofeedback, and improvisation.
  • “One of the key things in Seastones was that you could extract signals from one musician...and then use them to modulate or affect other musicians’ sound...it changed the hearability...of musicians from their personality being directly identified by their musical or vocal sound into their idiosyncratic personalities independent of their musical instruments.” (53:26)
• Lagin and Phil Lesh visited the AI Lab, tried out quadraphonic sound, and experimented with controlling sound in space—decades ahead of their time.

10. Garage Startups, Homebrew Computing, and Open Source Deadheads (58:30–61:47)

• Daniel Kotke, Apple employee #12: Recounts meeting Steve Jobs, Jobs’ obsession with reel-to-reel taping and Dylan bootlegs—tracing a straight line from Deadhead tape culture to the ethos of open source computing.
  • “He was so proud of his hours and hours and hours of bootleg [Dylan].” (58:30)
• Kotke, Jobs, and Wozniak’s early hacking (via the Homebrew Computer Club) closely overlapped with Deadhead circles.

Notable Quote

“Was he was completely in favor of open... The schematic for the Apple 1 was freely given away, the code for the Apple 1 was freely given away. The Apple II was not secret...Woz was and still is in favor of open source.”
— Daniel Kotke (63:30)

11. Digital Archiving and Spreading the Dead’s Gospel Online (64:05–69:21)

• Daniel Kotke describes the conversion of the Dead’s lyric files from Usenet to Apple floppies, then into the hands of lyricist John Perry Barlow—a proto-Internet moment for the community.
  • “Barlow was a very smart guy, very inquiring mind, very interested in all aspects of technology.” (69:21)

12. The Dead as Sound Tech R&D Lab in the ’80s (69:21–70:13)

• The Dead’s live shows became testing grounds for new PA systems and digital sound—Meyer Sound’s involvement provided demo opportunities for top engineers worldwide.
  • “We turned on the whole [Meyer] system and did this amazing demo...we went from this very, very low level sound to shaking Madison Square Garden at full power.” (69:48)

13. The Digital Echo: The Deep Note & Next Episode Teaser (71:18–END)

• The show closes with mention of Andy Moorer’s “Deep Note”—a signature digital sound later used by THX—tying the Dead’s influence into modern digital pop culture and movie sound.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Owsley Stanley on early instruments:
  “I knew we had to do something because the technology was so primitive. It seemed like it was holding the music back…” (09:16)

• Paul Martin after discovering the Dead at Stanford:
  “It was just amazing, amazing transition. The big switch in my brain flipped.” (31:10)

• On ‘Finger’ and status updates:
  “It was the invention of the status update, the world’s first digital away messages, and now the basic unit of social media…” (36:48)

• Ned Lagin on digital music collaboration:
  “You could have the personality imprinted by one or more parameters...it changed the hearability of musicians from their personality being directly identified by their sound into their idiosyncratic personalities independent of their musical instruments.” (53:26)

• Daniel Kotke on open source at Apple:
  “Was he was completely in favor of open... Woz was and still is in favor of open source.” (63:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Grateful Dead’s digital dominance: 04:13
• Owsley, LSD, and early tech: 06:29–11:08
• Cybernetics and counterculture: 14:30–19:01
• Alembic and Bay Area sound engineers: 19:50–23:32
• Whole Earth Catalog and community: 27:39–29:36
• Stanford AI Lab Deadheads: 32:58–36:48
• First Deadhead mailing lists/status updates: 36:10–41:11
• Grateful Dead lyric file origins: 42:05–44:49
• Ned Lagin’s Seastones & quadraphonic innovation: 46:58–55:32
• Early Apple/Deadhead crossover (Kotke/Jobs/Woz): 58:30–64:01
• Lyric files meet John Perry Barlow: 67:59–69:21
• Meyer Sound at Madison Square Garden: 69:48–70:13

Conclusion & Tone

This dense, lively episode is a testament to the Grateful Dead’s central (and surprising) role in the history of music technology and internet culture. The tone is a mix of reverent geek-out, wry historical reflection, and the beloved Deadcast flavor: accessible for newcomers, rich for lifers. With firsthand stories from both legendary techies and Dead insiders, it’s a journey across decades and disciplines, tracing how the feedback loops between art, engineering, mind expansion, and community built our digital future.
Stay tuned for Part 2!

For full interviews, audio, and links—visit the show notes at dead.net.