headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

please login or register.

Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

+48136


Submissions

14
He's Gone
Oct. 2, 1972
Springfield Civic Center

Extra-special sauce on this one: The outro goes into a long unique jam before the gospel bit. The band is completely unified.
6
Cumberland Blues
Oct. 2, 1972
Springfield Civic Center

Tight frolic, without the verge-of-chaos coal car vibe from the era. Bobby's contrib. is spot on, and Jer drops a "Went to Toledo" quote.
5
Black Throated Wind
Oct. 2, 1972
Springfield Civic Center

A perfectly rendered, tightly orchestrated soaring arc from one of the most inexplicably underated shows of Fall '72. Listen in: Bobby's in pure form.
10
Playin' In The Band
Oct. 2, 1972
Springfield Civic Center

I have trouble understanding why this isn't already here, other than the embarrassment of riches that is Fall '72.
4
Big Railroad Blues
Oct. 2, 1972
Springfield Civic Center

One of the best I know. Hard chargin' and up tempo hot stuff.

Comments

Beat it on Down The Line
July 16, 1966
Fillmore Auditorium

Bobby's just a baby and he sounds like a demented carny. "Surf punk" doesn't even begin to describe it. I love this so much.
Dancin' in the Streets
July 3, 1966
Fillmore Auditorium

It's incorrectly listed as the first Stealin' track on this link. You can also get to it - and y'all really should - by clicking on the link, "check for other copies", then follow the white rabbit put there by the heroic Charlie Miller for a whole set of other beauties from this show.
New Minglewood Blues
May 19, 1966
Avalon Ballroom

Proof that Bobby didn't start shrieking in the '80s here. They sound so punk-rock, 10 years before that scene hit California. So cool to go all the way back to the beginning. Check out this whole show, for one of the first live recordings of a whole set out there. Thanks Archive!
Hurts Me Too
May 19, 1966
Avalon Ballroom

Pigpen was a fully formed and mature blues singer at this point. The rest of the band is still getting it together, still primal and not fully formed. But Pig... oh man. Pure Pig.
Cold Rain and Snow
March 25, 1966
Trouper's Hall

Apparently Bear was recording this to be played back on mono, so the organ jam would be featured but not so explosive. Whodathunkit? In any case, this is just so fucking brilliant that I want to jump in my time machine and zip back just to be a spectral hallucination vibrating just out of the corner of Billy's eye as he kicks the shit out of this beautiful packed-with-energy annuciato: The Dead are Coming, Here Come the Dead.