Well this was a fine how do you do that surfaced this week. For anyone who missed the article over at Relix about the saga of the Betty Boards you can find it here.
For those who don’t know, Betty Cantor Jackson recorded a slew of Grateful Dead concerts between 1972-1980. An acrimonious split with the band left her on hard times and she had thousands of reels that ended up in a storage locker, which then ended up at auction. These reels contained some of the most coveted shows the Dead ever played.
Rob Eaton of Dark Star Orchestra has tracked down a good portion of the reels and is trying to get them preserved, and possibly even returned to the band.
As one might expect, there is a lot of hope on the part of many Deadheads. If these get returned to the vault it’s almost guaranteed that a lot of this material will be released over the course of time. It’s a pretty safe guarantee that first on the docket would be 5/7-9/77. I’m pretty sure Dave Lemieux has even alluded to that as a possibility if the tapes ever made their way home.
So everyone keep your fingers crossed!
Get ready for the flood. I’m fully prepared. Betty rules. Too bad she has been lost in the shuffle. I’d read her book if she wrote one.
A book on or by Betty would be awesome. I would definitely read that. Let’s hope that all parties involved here can reach an agreement on the future of the tapes. It’s not like a lot of the stuff doesn’t circulate, but I wouldn’t mind ponying up for an official release on a lot of these things. It seems that as good as these things sound already that Jeffery Norman can always get them sounding even better. Fingers crossed!