The last halfstep of '76. After Rio Grandeo everyone including the crowd gets into it. The source is a B+ AUD.

Topical

Timely

Different types of solos at each turn: straightaway, Listen-to-the-music-play, spacey, bluegrassy

This one is fiery, especially the solo, in the vein of 8/24/80, including a hint of a Delilah Jones growl.

This was a nice rec, darkstar67. This has some nice thematic episodes - the kind of playing that was perhaps more planned earlier, but which emerges very naturally here and with subtlety. I think 6:45-8:00 is the highlight of this version. Jerry's playing is beautiful and the rhythm, while clearly intimately related to that of NFA, is still of its own sort.

This has been my go-to Bird Song for years. It's good, but it can't be the best. I'm going to have a look around here - I see that this one has not really caught fire heady version style.

I hadn't heard this before. Of course this should be here. The previous two are top 5s (11/5 & 11/6). This is top 10. For real.

Stellar outro.

I just read Grendel's comment here. I could have said the same thing. 89-90 is not the time when Deal reached full maturation. To me the date is 5/1/81 (though I can see a case for the Fox on 11/30/80). The 5/1 AUD from Hampton is A+ and the LIG just before the Deal is also torched. I'm not saying Deal wasn't something the old guy didn't tear up (w/ or w/o the jgb). But they add the 2nd solo in late September 1980, it becomes a better song and it takes a bit of time before Jerry figures out what to with the new solo. If anything - and this may sound like blasphemy to some - the later versions are derivative of all the original creativity in the fox and Hampton versions.