headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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sylvanriv

90s expert

+1282


Submissions

6
Days Between
May 21, 1995
Sam Boyd Silver Bowl

Jerry doesn’t miss a beat. Video shows him deeply into this version onstage and you can hear it in his vocals. This one can stand with the greatest.
1
Eternity
Sept. 29, 1993
Boston Garden

Spacey and well played. Vince has some sick fills and Jerry plays very strongly. Better than 4/2/95
2
Bertha
Sept. 28, 1994
Boston Garden

Very hot version, Jerry’s on fire in the solo and his vocals are perfect. This show is massively underrated vs much of the rest of this fall tour.
1
Not Fade Away
May 25, 1992
Shoreline Amphitheatre

Great Vince version. Super hot. Follows the first west coast Attics. Jerry was really feeling it.
3
Turn On Your Love Light
July 7, 1984
Alpine Valley Music Theatre

Glorious return of lovelight to regular rotation. Phil leads with the riff out of NFA. Can’t imagine what this was like

Comments

Uncle John's Band
July 17, 1989
Alpine Valley Music Theatre

Fine version, but nothing special. The mid solo is uninspired and short, and the outro is well-played but not unique. Any 8 minute version of UJB is generally too short. This whole show is overrated, imo. Well played versions and Jerry's clearly having a lot of fun, but I think it gets too high of a ranking due to its availability, it being on video (and released decades ago), and of course the fact that it's from an era during which a lot of users on this site were touring. I'd love to hear some of yalls opinions about this because I know a lot of people are willing to call out other overrated shows, but never seen anyone say much about this one.
Cumberland Blues
July 17, 1989
Alpine Valley Music Theatre

Decent, no, good version. I don't put a lot of stock in the idea that Jerry never played the same after the coma (i.e. he "lost something"), but I will say Cumberland was never the same after the coma. Give me any version from summer 86 or earlier before this one.
Cassidy
Oct. 12, 1983
Madison Square Garden

Not sure if there's a Cassidy out there that can compete with this one. Certainly no 70s version stands up...possibly a super jammed version from the 90s like 5/16/93, or one of the really spacey long ones like 6/25/94 or 3/29/95, but those are almost a different thing entirely. This one is extremely powerful throughout.
Pretty Peggy O
March 27, 1993
Knickerbocker Arena

Only okay, IMO. nice competent soloing and definitely pretty vocals, but there's a lot of versions from the Vince era that are better and ranked much lower, such as 3/21/94, 6/26/94 (GOAT 90s version), 9/29/94, and 5/28/95.
Bertha
Oct. 19, 1994
Madison Square Garden

Super hot and long. Don’t know how they kept it together for the last night of a grueling and lengthy fall tour with shows nearly every night but this is fantastic