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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

+49667


Submissions

8
St. Stephen
Feb. 4, 1970
Family Dog at the Great Highway

Very cool NFA sandwich. It works well this way.
4
Dire Wolf
Feb. 1, 1970
The Warehouse

Starts with the chorus instead of the verse and a funny banter intro. Sweet version.
5
Katie Mae
Jan. 31, 1970
The Warehouse

As deep and simple a beautiful blues as they ever did. Pig's got the spirit of the Delta here alright. What a treat.
6
I've Been All Around This World
Jan. 31, 1970
The Warehouse

Simply gorgeous.
5
Little Sadie
Jan. 31, 1970
The Warehouse

Upvote for all Little Sadies, of course, but this one is special. Subtle, understated, and delicate: Jerry is barely whispering the lyrics. Beautiful.

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.