Mark A. Rodriguez Interview
Mark A. Rodriguez is the author of After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965–1995. The publisher, Anthology Editions, describes it as a book “featuring dozens of interviews with tape enthusiasts and members of the Grateful Dead organization as well as hundreds of cassette covers… [it’s a] saga of homegrown psychedelia, anarchic graphic styles, and black market fandom as written in magnetic tape.”
Can you please briefly describe the book?
The book is called After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead 1965 - 1995, published by Anthology Editions, and is a book about a few things: the art project I have been involved with for 12 years, a book showcasing the folk art of deadheads via colorful and uniquely designed tape covers, as well as a history through interviews and archived documents of the conversations and decision-making process that led to the officiating of a tapers section within the architecture of the Grateful Dead’s live concert environment.
The art project I mentioned is where I am trying to collect every Grateful Dead live performance that was recorded on audiocassette and was distributed by deadheads through their tape trading network from 1965 to 1995. This particular collecting effort was—and is—the basis for a series of sculptures of which 9 have been completed.