Dan Healy messing with Bob's vocals

Thanks, Ken. 

https://archive.org/details/gd87-09-12.sbd.unk.4702.sbeok.shnf

What I heard was that Healy viewed the sound as his instrument to do with as he pleased. I'm pretty sure the effects didn't go through the band monitors, but I guess there are tapes of those now so you could hear. Personally I mostly liked it on songs like the Other One. Loved the Friday the 13th Fire on the Mountain in Hampton, but I know many people hated all the effects. I could do with out the Harley sounds on Hell in a Bucket. 

As long as we are doing Healy rumors we should cover why he was kicked out. So many rumors on that one, and to my knowledge it has never been addressed from the band members. 

I liked it when he messed with the vocals, but it was a dickish thing to do if Weir didn't want him to.

I heard he got fired for selling masters to bootleg record companies who in turn sold crappy pressings to record stores-but that's just the most plausible rumor

I always thought it was the band experimenting when he did that weird sounds. I kind of liked it as an advancement in technology and sound of the band, but then I read it was all him and the band got tired of it and he was eventually fired by the band because of it? Don't know. But I  was a fan of it. It was like the 5th member of the Beatles,

And didn't these guys do this shit at the Acid Tests?

I think it was Dennis McNally (in his book, Long Strange Trip) whom said that Weir was getting increasingly pissed off about the frequency and ways in which Healy was messing with his vocals that culminated in a final warning which was ignored and he was fired. Apparently any/all band members had veto-proof power and the act was final even after an appeal to Jerry and possibly others. Whatever happened, the sounds was definitely never as good after he was gone.

>>Whatever happened, the sounds was definitely never as good after he was gone.

I so agree with this. I can't remember who it was I think it might have been Little Feet at the Maritime Hall in SF. That place was a notorious echo chamber and no one ever sounded good in there, but Healy was on the board for some reason that night and he made it sound good. 

He did a little seminar on the history of the sound before the show at University of Vermont in the 80's. Really interesting explanation of the evolution -  from physically distancing speaker cabinets so that the long sound waves and short sound waves all reached you at the same time to it all being controlled by computers.  That and how they moved to a laser a beam to ramp up the vocal mics that got turned off during jams when they stepped to the mic to start signing instead of the old foot pedals that the band members would often miss. 

Great Stuff! I think it was also detailed in Blair Jackson's 'Garcia' about how they sent some of their crew to 'new' venues to nail down their specific set-ups and that other "worthy" bands oftentimes were granted access to their files of same. They really were innovators in that space from the beginnings and valued that communication avenue between us & them. Greatest Band To Ever Roam The Land!

I heard he got fired for letting tapers patch into the board in exchange for coke. Could be just a variation on the selling masters thing, or maybe he did both.

Yeah the band was probably pissed they weren't getting the coke.

https://jambandsonline.com/a-taper%e2%80%99s-section-night-to-remember-grateful-dead-play-chapel-hill-32493/

Thanks for posting that, Jay.  I remember those two nights at the Dean Dome well.  Traffic was a clusterfuck.   Like the writer says, better scene and shows than the Omni.  The second night was the best version of Phil's Wave To The Wind I ever saw.  Maybe it was directed to Healy?  John Cutler was his replacement.  He lacked Healy's uncanny feel for the band and each venue's dynamics.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/why-did-dan-healy-and-the-gratefu...

Personally, I don’t think Healy fucked with Weir’s voice ENOUGH. It was usually only during Other One, maybe occasionally in Estimated, but I always got a laugh out of it. Would have been great to hear it during Sunshine Daydream during Weir’s daisy-duke “Never-fade-away dream” shit. Better yet, during Victim. Imagine terrorizing all the heavily dosed heads with a crazy dark mangled sound on “Is there anybody here but me who needs to know?” Fuck Weir if he can’t take a joke. 

Here's a good example of a show with a lot of effects on Bobby's voice if anyone's interested:

https://archive.org/details/gd1987-06-30.sbd-mtx.hinko.tetzeli.34404.sbeok.shnf

The only show that I know of that he let tapers patch in was  CHapel Hill (3-23-93?)....and it supposedly pissed off members of the band.

Check out the loop effects on Estimated  11-13-87  --Long Beach. He nailed it on that one.

This Fire on Mountain

04.13.1984 Hampton, VA 

https://youtu.be/Lrt_wRYps40?t=4276

^^^ 4/14 He played around w/Garcia's voice during Dew ^^^

When I heard those tapes I thought Bob was havin' some fun.  Guess not.