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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

+49667


Submissions

3
Cumberland Blues
Dec. 15, 1971
Hill Auditorium

Joyful chaos: A brilliant splatter. Bobby's voice never sounded so good to me as it did in '71.
5
Mister Charlie
Dec. 15, 1971
Hill Auditorium

Pigpen at his best with the band at its grit-in-the-gears crunchiest. They were on this night and this one is just full of butt.
6
Wharf Rat
Dec. 12, 1973
Omni Coliseum

Very passionate version, some distortion or tape speed issues (?) remind me of my cassette trading days and bring out the trippiness to the song.
11
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
Dec. 12, 1973
Omni Coliseum

If this hard grooving China jam and Feeling Groovy transition doesn't just get you moving, then nothing can. Just perfect.
10
Pretty Peggy O
Dec. 12, 1973
Omni Coliseum

First version ever is real nice... but listen to the soundcheck version for insight into the bands working dynamics. Cool to hear them working on it.

Comments

Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower
Aug. 13, 1975
Great American Music Hall

I've voted and commented already, but want to shout out a special for the Slipknot on its own; not only because Jerry's tone as he rips into it is like a spacetime buzz saw with the bomber force of a blazing star destroyer - that's some cool shit right there - but also because you can smell the hungry desire of the band to play this amazing composition live. Those who find this show "too short" miss the point. This was one of four show this year. I can't imagine what it felt to burn out enough after '74 to stop playing together live. This song and show shows the love, the magic, and the burning passion of a Dead Show, and the wild passionate group mind at its most musical. Any player out there can tell you: Slipknot is a hard mother fucker to play, harder to play well, harder still to play together, even harder to nail live, and just catastrophically difficult to jam out like this without sounding like a soulless chops wizard. Do they do it? Of course they do, and with a smile that makes it sound easy. Damn, it's good.
Dark Star
Nov. 8, 1969
Fillmore West

Quintuple-decker sammy here. The "uncle john's band jam" in 7/4 time may one of the coolest things I've ever heard. Hard to even imagine UJB as a primordial idea, let alone an unfinished song, but it here it is in an incomplete, elemental form. Damned good find in a fantastic DS from '69.
Brown Eyed Women
Nov. 4, 1977
Cotterell Gym - Colgate University

Burner, for certain. Hard to believe that's the same man singing and playing at the same time. Thanks archive!
Good Lovin'
Nov. 4, 1977
Cotterell Gym - Colgate University

Perfect execution across this opener duo Bertha>Good Lovin'. You just know the lucky fans thought, "oh, my, they're on, we're in for a good one...".
Dancin' in the Streets
April 12, 1970
Fillmore West

MORE COWBELL!!! Seriously top shelf Dancin'. When this gets moving you can hear just how much fun they were having. Jerry/Phil are in a pure symbiosis and they go into a unique jam for a bit around minute 9:00.