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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

+49667


Submissions

4
The Eleven
March 30, 1968
Carousel Ballroom

The China Cat>The Eleven sequence was always very cool and this one burns hot and fast. Don't wanna just put all of 'em up here, but this is a cooker.
5
Dark Star
March 30, 1968
Carousel Ballroom

A short little gem: Nice clear solo ideas and tight ensemble playing with that bursting-at-the-seams energy from the Anthem era.
2
The Other One
March 30, 1968
Carousel Ballroom

It's '68 and the boys are on fire. This one pins you to the wall all its the sharp turns and jagged explosiveness. Hard pschedelic rock.
7
The Eleven
April 21, 1969
The Ark

So blisteringly hot. All three Ark '69 shows are brilliant, but this is the clearest example of their brilliance on Eleven.
4
Playin' In The Band
Dec. 15, 1971
Hill Auditorium

Just listened to it 4x in a row, something I never do. The whole intense Playin' universe packed into under 7min. Could be my favourite '71.

Comments

Eyes Of The World
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

Starts off slowly, but it does get hot and goes into a great freeform jam both beautiful and freaky. Then out of deep space we see the light with the prettiest post-hiatus Stephen I know. The Estimated sounds - forgive me guys - a bit phoned-in and the transition into Eyes doesn't exactly flow (this was still a relatively new fixture). Here is a perhaps the top Eyes of '77, but frankly it doesn't top the insane musicality of their best of '73/'74 for me with the speed and precision and angularity and the wildness of the outro. *no vote.
Let It Grow
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

This LIG is solid lightning: All the power and precision of '77, the melodic magic of Jerry on mission, Billy and Mickey in perfect octopus.... This was what I waited for as a baby head back in the day. it's one of the best representatives of the '77 LIG sound for sure.
El Paso
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

So brilliant. Bobby floats over a blaze of just exactly perfect guitar notes. Love the Mexican cantina trills at the end.
Looks Like Rain
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

Jerry just keeps digging in and finding more. He won't let it go and his soloing on the out-chorus finds more in this song the most of the other hot versions of it.
Dark Star
July 31, 1971
Yale Bowl, Yale University

Goddamned good Star here. This show is wrongly maligned by the audiophobes on the Archive and deserves an upgrade. All in all it's a much better show than the 02 July Fillmore closer: Tighter ensemble playing, in tune, trippy as all hell. And, well, there's a Dark Star... and it's good, and it's in the FIRST SET. Billy lays some groove voodoo down about 13 minutes in that goes fully modal and comes out Feeling Groovy. Sit back and enjoy.