Dick Latvala

Dick Latvala (26 July 1943 – 6 August 1999) was an American tape archivist for the Grateful Dead. He started the CD series Dick's Picks, an ongoing series that selects live music from Grateful Dead concerts. The first volume of Dick's Picks was released in 1993. The series continued after Latvala's death in 1999 until 2005, with later volumes being selected by David Lemieux. In 2005 the series inspired a spin-off officially known as Dave's Picks.

As a senior studying psychology at San Francisco State University, Dick Latvala wrote a brief autobiography in 1965, apparently in preparation for his first time ingesting LSD. The autobiography details Latvala's basic philosophy and understanding of himself, his growing up, and his relationship with his parents and two sisters. Latvala described how he felt more comfortable having black friends rather than white friends, and became interested in the racial struggles of the United States. According to Steve Silberman, upon Latvala hearing the Grateful Dead in 1965 "it was the first music from white people he heard that approached the power of gospel." Latvala was known for his strong opinions, passionate conversations, and love of the Grateful Dead.

Jesse Jarnow's Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America details much of Dick's personal and professional life as an adult. Dick grew up in the San Francisco-Bay Area, where he lived until moving to Hilo, Hawaii in 1974. Prior to Hawaii Dick, his wife Carol, and their son Richie lived at one of Victor Baranco's Morehouse communes. Carol Latvala described Morehouse's philosophy and practices as "a combination of Sexual Freedom League material, [and] things they'd learned from witches, Scientology, and Buddhism."

In Hilo, Dick Latvala worked as a zookeeper. Hawaii is where Latvala began to collect recordings of Grateful Dead concerts, often mailing other tapers pot in exchange for tapes. Latvala would exchange long letters with tapers on the mainland and extend an invitation to visit Hawaii, to smoke pot and listen to the Grateful Dead at high volumes. Dick and Carol moved back to California in the early 1980s, and although divorced they remained friends and even next-door neighbors, both working for the Grateful Dead at their Front Street office in San Rafael. While Carol worked in the Dead's ticket office, Dick initially performed menial tasks as well as managing the band's music archives.

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