Episode 217: Loud and Clear with Brian Anderson

This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Brian Anderson, a Webby Award-winning senior features editor, writer, and producer at VICE. Brian was a science editor at The Atlantic, where he was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for early pandemic coverage, and was later an editor at Vox. He lives in Chicago with his partner (and a piece of the Wall of Sound). Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection is his first book, and the focus of this episode. Loud and Clear is the first book to tell the full story of the Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound,” an unprecedented and since unparalleled speaker system that was as tall as a school bus is long and more than a hundred feet wide. The band’s quest for a roaring yet crystal clear sound began after their formation in 1965, colliding with the ‘60s progressive social climate. Over the next few years, the Dead’s growing crew of sound-obsessed techies and eccentric roadies took their speaker system to new technological heights. But as the Dead’s relentless, drug-fueled touring schedule met this increasingly burdensome yet sonically perfect machine, in 1974, the Wall brought the band to its knees. The two years of “Wall shows” are legend among Deadheads, and Loud and Clear is the compelling character-driven tale about human ambition, achievement, and the limits of both on a larger-than-life scale. Brian Anderson interviewed hundreds of people associated with the band and the construction of the Wall itself, including band members, roadies, tech wizards, fans and many more. Loud and Clear is the fascinating inside story of one of the most legendary rock bands of all time.

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