Brian Anderson

“thirtysomething journalist named Tom Wolfe immortalized the Muir Beach Test, and the Dead’s earliest soundsystem, in a generational and genre-defining work of immersion journalism, albeit an overwritten one filled with racist and other sketchy stereotypes.”
― Brian Anderson, Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection

“Resurfacing this seeing-sound story in interviews over the years, Bear drew a direct line from that experience to his “original vision” for the Wall, as Kurt Torell, an associate professor emeritus of philosophy at Penn State University-Greater Allegheny, noted in a 2019 essay on synesthesia published in the scholarly journal Dead Studies. “There is evidence that certain members and crew of the band were quite self-conscious about thinking of sound and music in visible, three-dimensional, and synesthetic terms,” Torell wrote, “and deliberately sought to foster that perception in the audience through the music and its amplification.” That rings clear across a patchwork of concerts and events where Bear’s innovations met the Dead’s audience head-on, laying groundwork for the technological skyrocket that was soon to launch.”
― Brian Anderson, Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection