Yeah but Ithaca and Cornell is home of one of the top Grateful Dead concerts - so it has some merits!
There's been a lot of talk lately about the legendary fake show on 5/8/77. I've kept my silence on the subject for 22 years ... now it's finally time to come clean on the whole subject.
The whole idea began back in late 1969/early 1970. The Department of Defense and the CIA were very disappointed by the way the Vietnam War was progressing. Not only were we losing but, more importantly, the US public did not approve of the war and, worse yet, weren't believing everything the military said about what was happening. This was an unprecedented event. Every other recent war was viewed positively by the public ... or at least with apathy in the case of Korea. Something had to be done. They decided to take a page from the Soviets and experiment with mind control. Together with Disney and a fledgling computer company called Microsoft, they set out to prove that brainwashing could really work on the very people who opposed
them: the hippies.
It isn't widely known but Cornell was actually the second test of these mind control procedures. The first occurred in mid-1975 and was a dismal failure. 2 major mistakes were made. First, they picked the one time that the Dead were not touring. This created all sorts of problems with the subject audience. The more serious mistake was in not updating the criteria of the experiment. Due to typical government inefficiency, they used the 1969 version of the Dead that was playing when the program was conceived. The sudden appearance of Pigpen, who had died 2 years earlier, literally blew the minds of those in attendance. 6 months were spent erasing all traces of the "show" and carefully rebuilding as much of their minds as possible. The
subjects were eventually released and most of them became evangelists, their only lingering memory of the whole experiment being an unshakeable belief that they'd witnessed a true miracle.
Unfortunately, no tapes have been found from this first experiment. That's a real shame because the version of Dark Star->St Stephen->Eleven->Lovelight used was supposedly the best ever. After a few drinks, the original scientists still speak in awe about the music heard that day.
By Nov 1977, everyone was ready for the second test. This time, they learned from their mistakes. A small group of college students were hired to attend shows from 1976 through 1977. Our job was to collect tapes of the Dead's performances, select which tunes to use, and to
help identify subjects for the upcoming experiment. The location and date were chosen with equal care. It was a off-day during the tour and the location close enough to the real concerts to be believed. Of more
importance was the late snowfall that day. That unusual and easily confirmed event provided the glue that would hold the implanted memories together. Even now 22 years later, people "remembering" that concert use almost identical words to describe leaving the show.
Overall, the experiment was a great success. Of course, some people were given slightly different memories. Some, like Teddy Goodbear, "remember" taping the show and were even provided "Audience" tapes to further cement the hoax. Still others remember getting "horribly smashed" up front. None of this actually occurred.
A week after the "concert" experiment, a 2nd test was done on the town of Cornell itself. In order to perfect this hoax, the town itself must also be convinced that the concert took place. Disney had acquired owner- ship of all the local TV and radio stations through dummy corporations. Using special chips developed by Microsoft, they played sublimbminal messages to every man, woman and child in a 100 mile radius of Barton Hall. For the most part, this programming still holds today although some people did prove resistant to the message.
As far as the source of the music, for the most part the list posted by "brew ziggins" is correct. The only mystery remaining is the Scarlet-> Fire. That was actually performed by the Dead specifically for this experiment. Since Jerry worked for the CIA, it was easy to convince him and the rest of the band to go along. Plus he liked the idea of "pranking" a large group of people like this. The fabled 2/6/77 "take a step back" rehearsal tape is also from material taped for these experiments.
The soundboard tapes in circulation were leaked by Betty O'Connell who
edited the original tapes. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or not, but they were leaked at about the same time as the tapes recorded by Betty Cantor were found. In any event, they became part of the so-called "Betty Boards". Leaking these tapes also provided the first cracks in the hoax to appear since the tapes were distributed to people who were not in the experiment and who knew that no show was performed that day. It was necessary to obtain their silence through blackmail, bribery and in extreme cases, mind control itself. That's also how this "show" came to be listed in all the popular Dead show guides like DeadBase.
So what's happened to these mind control techniques used in this experiment? Microsoft has used this power to become one of the biggest, most influential companies in history. They sure didn't become that big by providing quality products. It was used to shape public reaction to the Gulf War. It's also clear that George Bush never understood the full power of these methods. . There are also indications that this technology might explain the otherwise unbelievable popularity of rap music.
That's the whole story.
"BARTON HALL, ITHACA, NY 5/8/77 -- The Show That Never Happened"
Track listing Actual Source
------------ ---------------
1.Minglewood Blues [4:47] Winterland 3/20/77
2.Loser [7:30] Springfield 4/23/77
3.El Paso [4:22] Chicago 5/13/77
4.They Love Each Other [6:59] Lakeland 5/21/77
5.Jack Straw [6:00] Tempe 10/6/77
6.Deal [5:43] St. Paul 5/11/77
7.Lazy Lightnin' [3:29] > St. Louis 5/15/77
8.Supplication [4:21] "
9.Brown-Eyed Women [5:12] Winterland 6/8/77
10.Mama Tried [2:37] Seattle 9/29/77
11.Row Jimmy [10:52] Fox, Atlanta 5/19/77
12.Dancin' in the Streets [15:43] Pembroke Pines 5/22/77 (DP3)
Set II:
13.Scarlet Begonias [9:14] > ???
14.Fire on the Mountain [15:21] ???
15.Estimated Prophet [8:32] Passaic NJ 4/27/77
16.St. Stephen [4:43] > Mostly Passaic NJ 6/18/76
17.Not Fade Away [16:22] > with some tricky splicing of the
18.St. Stephen [1:53] > middle of an unidentified NFA
19.Morning Dew [13:36] Cow Palace 12/31/76
Encore:
20.One More Saturday Night [4:54] Springfield 4/23/77
