Amazing...

I've always like the Internet archive in principle. The notion of archiving the Internet has long struck me as a great ideal-- both noble and impossible, as are many ideals. But now I love them. They've built up an incredible audio collection, featuring thousands of live concert recordings, by hundreds of artists.

There are 2534 (at last count) Grateful Dead concerts. Just to give you a sense of how big that is, there are 366 recordings of "Friend of the Devil," 471 of "Estimated Prophet," 250 of "Touch of Grey," and 87 of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

And a recording of my first Dead show.

I can hardly believe it. And since I was too stoned to actually get out of the parking lot, I finally get to hear the music. (No, no, that's not true.)

The concept of archiving everything has always appealed to me on an intellectual level, but translating that into finding a recording of something personally meaningful-- that brings it home.

[To the tune of Grateful Dead, "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)," from The Spectrum, Philadelphia PA (March 29th, 1987).]