Blasphemy!
The Grateful Dead, September 28, 1977 — and why I like the AUD more than the Betty Board
Blasphemy!
I’m changing the format a bit. Let me know what you think!
I can’t think of anything more blasphemous in the Deadhead world than to choose an audience tape over a crisp (and well known) Betty Board.
If you’re not familiar with the Betty Board phenomenon, let me summarize. Betty Cantor-Jackson was an audio engineer who made official recordings of numerous Grateful Dead shows, starting with her work on Anthem of the Sun in 1968 and continuing through some of the October 1980 shows.
Betty’s famous soundboards differ from other attempts to record the band because they were specifically mixed for the tape. Betty had a knack for separating instruments, giving the recordings a very clean and distinct sound. The best of the Betty Boards sound just as good as studio recordings, if not superior.
And it’s one of those Betty Boards that I decided to not go with here.
The latest show in my endless parade is September 28, 1977 — an overlooked show at the old Paramount Northwest Theater in Seattle. The Grateful Dead had just come off a famous show in front of over 100,000 people at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, on September 3. The band had a few weeks off to recuperate from that exhausting experience, which apparently had involved people climbing up the sound towers. Well, most of the band had time off: Jerry had the Jerry Garcia Band in the studio for the Cats Under The Stars recording sessions.
The Paramount Northwest had a capacity of a little under 3,000 at the time, and it’s clear that the arena sold out. You can hear it in the audience recording, actually. This was an odd time in the history of the Grateful Dead, a period of time in which it was surprisingly common for the band to switch from playing huge venues to playing extremely small venues from night to night. In fact, some believe that the majesty of the 1977 Dead sound comes from the more intimate settings they still tended to play in.
As for the show? Well, as usual, it depends on the tape you listen to. In my opinion, the audience tape is superior in every way, despite some of its slight flaws. The band sounds full, the mix sounds great, and the vocals come over the mix quite nicely. And, man, the crowd is really into it for this show.
Grateful Seconds reported on this show years ago, though it was pretty dismissive of the September 28 show. I’d argue that the author probably would have liked this show better if he had listened to the audience tape instead of the soundboard.
Sadly, I don’t have access to The Seattle Times from this era — but I can always steal from that blog:
MacDonald was right, by the way. This concert doesn’t drag at all. In fact, the Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World is simply fantastic, and is more than worth it.
I highly recommend this show, and can’t think of a single bad track. But, then again, you might feel differently if you stick with the soundboard. More on that below.
Date Listened
March 10, 2025. This one takes just under 2 hours 45 minutes, which is a little bit long for a 1977 show.
Sources
I’ve kind of already spilled the beans, but let’s talk about the sources anyway.
The best version of the Betty Board is SHNID 95952, which is the version of this show most of you are likely familiar with. It seems that the first reel is missing; perhaps it disintegrated during the period that the Betty Boards were being stored in some barn somewhere.
The best audience tape is SHNID 157428, a mono tape that includes the missing tracks and seems to have been recorded right at the sweet spot.
The Betty Board isn’t horrible, per say, but there are some issues with it. Keith’s keys come out in a fairly odd tone in both recordings — but they are far more prominent in the audience tape, which is, of course, a much more faithful rendering of the mix in the theater that night. The Betty Board is also missing almost all of the audience and the room ambiance, and there are some severe problems with the vocals as well.
Betty’s tape isn’t flat in any sense — but it’s also really not a great representation of what the band was like that night.
With an audience of just under 3,000, we’d be really lucky if another audience tape managed to show up. You never know, though.
Reputation
As I showed you earlier, Grateful Seconds sure didn’t like this tape. The Deadhead’s Trading Compendium all but skips over this show. The review there is mostly a rant about how this show marks the beginning of a “predictable” set list — a complaint that strikes me as quite ironic.
Heady Version seems to hate this show — again, this is probably because most people listen to the Betty Board:
In all seriousness, though, I recommend giving the audience recording a try. It just might change your mind about this show.
For me, They Love Each Other, Cassidy, Loser, Tennessee Jed, and Bertha all sound absolutely fantastic on the audience tape. Loser reminds me a lot of the Barton Hall version. Additionally, you can check out the surprisingly fast ending to Wharf Rat, which I’m guessing most Deadheads don’t know about.
Give it a try. You just might like it.
This is one of the few 77 shows I haven't heard, for the reasons you mentioned, it's quickly dismissed by others. Per your review, I will check out the Aud. Thanks.