This collection consists of an unpublished draft of a memoir by a Deadhead who toured and taped for ten years. Fan-recorded tapes were a significant part of the Deadhead subculture, and those who taped at shows were often highly professional about their efforts. Daley's memoir recounts his own experiences as a taper and as a touring Deadhead, casting light on the scene and many aspects of Deadhead life.

Jim Daley was born Nov. 26, 1961. He attended Catholic schools and was a Boy Scout until the age of 18. His first concert was the famed Grateful Dead performance at Englishtown, NJ, in 1977, and he began taping shows in 1979. He worked in retail through high school and was earning enough to support himself by age 22. As he recalled in 2011, "I was so caught up in the Dead scene that I didn't go to college but kept my job through years of touring, taking my time off exclusively for Dead tours for 10 years, until I met my wife, married and had a child. The idea for the book came about when, after my divorce and my mother's death, I was going through some old storage and found my ticket stubs in a photo album, neatly catagorized, and began remembering the good times. Every ticket told me a new story so I started putting them down on paper."

0.25 Linear feet (1) quarter-document box

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creator of the records and his heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

The collection is open for research.