11/26/2024
Some insights in to the WALL OF SOUND.....
The WALL OF SOUND is an iconic and much-discussed (almost mythological Sound System.
The Wall of Sound was based on a few simple ideas. Don Pearson and I had lunch with Owsley... who was willing to talk about it on this day.... we got to the restaurant for Lunch and left after dinner was being served.....
The main ideas behind the WOS were:
1. NO MONITORS. Owsley (who felt strongly about EVERYTHING), felt monitors were UN-Natural and ruined both live sound and live recordings. By placing speakers so that each player could hear the others from the "PAs", no monitors would be needed.
2. Each instrument (and all vocals) should have its own PA System.
As I have heard it told (from others around TGOGD and UltraSound, whose time with the Dead postdates the Wall), the Beach Boys were concerned that the monitoring was set up for the Grateful Dead stage plot and would not work for them, and refused to use it (GARCIA btw, really liked the Beach Boys)
One small quirky detail of my afternoon with Owlsey is that Owsley sorta 'invented' the High Protein-Low Card diet, eating mostly very rare meat. He brought a Thermal heat sensor and a stopwatch and insisted on being in the kitchen when they 'seared' his steak, measuring the temp and timing the 'searing'. LUCKILY, Don was able to smooth-talk the restaurant's owner/manager into letting Owsley have his way.....
I will save the details of Owsley's thoughts on the interaction of room resonances and PA's for another post.... but let me just say, he had very strong & unusual ideas about system tuning and digital analysis.... (Like Smaart or SIM or other such systems, which really, really hurt me, but hey, I got to hang with Owsley)
BTW- One of the greatest afternoons I remember!!
