Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely necessary for tape traders/Grateful Dead fans
Review: This book is easily the most comprehensive source of Grateful Dead tapes out there. Take it from a person who has over 4300 hours of Dead on tape, this book is a must have! Get it!
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable and essential reference work!
Review: This book is enlightening for its documentation of the early taping scene and the interviews with Bear, Dick, and the early tapers. It also is flavored with the insights of many people's perspectives on the music from shows and on tapes. I particularly like to read the reviews while listening to the music of a show, what a treat! It has also sent me in search of shows I don't have or upgrades of shows that I know exist in better quality. It is a nice reference *in conjunction* with Deadbase, not in place of it. However, what strikes me most about the book is that it is exactly the type of work the Deadhead community can achieve as a collective. It is a beautiful work and it is worth buying just for the stunning pictures from people's personal collections! I am looking forward to volumes II & III!
Rating:
Summary: Indespensible!
Review: This is a great reference book! Plus its great to browse and make wish lists of tapes you would like to get someday.I use it all the time to check for availability of tapes and completeness of them. There is a lot of interesting reviews, some might be construed as overblown, but usually they are very insightful. I can just sit down and read it. Don't forget the photos!!
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for new & old fans of Grateful Dead music
Review: This is an excellent reference book for beginners and experienced tape collectors alike. I particularly enjoyed the articles and interviews with the tapers. The individual tape reviews are very helpful in deciding which tapes to acquire and which ones to pull out of my collection and listen to again. There's a detailed "how to" section for those who want to take up the hobby of collecting live concert tapes. Great photos! Can't wait for Vol 2 & 3.
Rating:
Summary: A sweet read and useful too!
Review: Unlike other GD books, including old stalwarts like 'DeadBase' and 'Goin Down the Road..' as well as relative newcomers like 'Sweet Chaos' and 'Dead Reckonings', the 'Taping Compendium' is both an invaluable resource as well as great fun to read. It really does stand alone with one foot in the world of literary and historical musicology and the other in the world of beancounters and data crunchers. The data is solid since it's all based strictly on available audio tapes (and you can't get much better documentation than that!) whereas the descriptions of the shows are mostly thoughtful and interesting, providing a colorful backdrop for considering the intricate details of the bands early music. Oftentimes the reviews really do transport you back to a smokey dancehall or theater in the late 60s and damn if I didn't get patchouli oil stains on my copy! Other historical aspects of the early taping scene include interviews with some of the original taper-dudes and these are also enlightening and enjoyable to read. The real utility of the book, however, has to be the surprisingly complete (well nothing in the world is 100%!) section on tape reviews which describes all the live grateful dead concert music that circulates on tape. Even more, there are plenty of tips that allow anyone with an interest to begin their own collection of live grateful dead concert recordings. Although there is no way to avoid the occasional sideways glance from the experienced trader when one first starts out trying to build a collection, a careful read of Tiedrich's chapter on trading etiquette will at least allow you to get your foot in the door and pull it out before ALL the toes are chewed off. In the end, this book (and future books in the Taping Compendium series) will be regarded as required reading for anyone with a desire to explore fully the intriguing carnival that is grateful dead concert tapes.
Rating: 
Summary: Frequently mistaken about the basic facts of its subject.
Review: Upon inspection, the Taping Compendium frequently turns out to be wrong about the fundamental facts, and often these mistakes skew its judgments about the performances. For example, the Compendium makes no mention at all of the best show circulating from 1966, Fillmore Auditorium 11/19/66, and the author of the article on Fillmore West 8/19/70 evidentally had access only to a very poor copy of this tape, which he misreports as being available only in C quality, leading him to seriously underrate the show, one of the best of the year. Every time I've glanced at this volume in bookstores I've found similar flaws. I certainly would not waste my money on it.
Rating:
Summary: A great resource for collectors of the Dead's repertoire
Review: While there may be errors (see review above) and several missing shows, this book is a fantsastic collection! Especially for tape collectors. What is especially nice are the reviews that precede several of the legendary runs and other special shows. For example, the 4-page description of the week that led up to the last "Acid Test" at SF State was a great source of new info for me. And I wasn't even born yet (8.27.72 is another example). If anything, this book really has helped me sort out my tape collection, and has made me look for great new tapes. Some nice rare photos too! I can't wait for volume II!
Rating:
Summary: a deadhead's book of tales should be the title
Review: Will the Dead's music continue to be sought and traded a hundred years from now? Perhaps, but regardless of that possibility, this book and its two proceeding volumes will continue to stand as unique testaments to the art of the band. Currently marketed as resources for tape traders, these volumes will evolve into something much more vital as the members of the band and their fans fade into time. Never has music been more thoroughly documented and described in the context of it composers. Unprecidented! Imagine a biography about John Coltrane that included descriptions of each performance of his career! If future generations are curious about The Grateful Dead, they will be interested in the band's art, not the personal flaws or outside experiences of its individual members. I believe these volumes will outlive all the many conventional biographies about the band. They cover the things we should be allowed to know about The Grateful Dead. The rest is "better left unsung."
Rating:
Summary: The most important Dead biography!
Review: Will the Dead's music continue to be sought and traded a hundred years from now? Perhaps, but regardless of that possibility, this book and its two proceeding volumes will continue to stand as unique testaments to the art of the band. Currently marketed as resources for tape traders, these volumes will evolve into something much more vital as the members of the band and their fans fade into time. Never has music been more thoroughly documented and described in the context of it composers. Unprecidented! Imagine a biography about John Coltrane that included descriptions of each performance of his career! If future generations are curious about The Grateful Dead, they will be interested in the band's art, not the personal flaws or outside experiences of its individual members. I believe these volumes will outlive all the many conventional biographies about the band. They cover the things we should be allowed to know about The Grateful Dead. The rest is "better left unsung."
Rating:
Summary: A must for all Deadheads
Review: Wow! What a book! An absolute must for all Deadheads and not just tapers. If you are an experienced taper, then this tells you all you need to know about the history of taping of Grateful Dead shows. If you are a newbie, it tells you how to start amassing you own collection of the world's most recorded rock band. And for all those interested in the Dead, it has an excellent sequence of colour photos, stacks of relevant interviews with members of the Dead's extended family, plus reviews of every known tape throughout the period covered in this, the first volume of what promises to be a massively important series. If you've been to any of the shows reviewed here, you're in for a real treat as you take that Long Strange Trip down memory lane - the reviews are of a consistently high standard. And the book tells the reader what tapes are worth getting, how to get hold of them, and what to listen out for once you've got them. Towards the back of the Compendium, there's a list of all the tracks the Dead played with show dates for the hottest versions of each of them - so, whether your favourite Dead track is Stella Blue, the Green Green Grass of Home, or Scarlet Begonias you can easily search out the best show for adding to your collection. My wish list is just about completely satisfied with this book - the only additional thing I could ask for (and I feel almost guilty mentioning it when the book is just so good) is individual track times as well as overall show length times. Roll on volume two.
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