Brown Eyed Women
Feb. 3, 1978
Dane County Coliseum
Killer, but better than Cornell? Not to these ears. A really good version, but the backlash bias against Cornell is puzzling to me. The Cornell version of this baby sounds tighter, smoother, and more dynamically interesting to me than this iteration. Not just Cornell, most Spring 77 versions. Here, the drums are already getting a bit flubby (a major difference for me between '76-early '77 and later is the increasing lack of nuance and swing in the drums). Garcia's guitar break in Cornell is lighter, more fluid, and has a beautiful elasticity missing here, although this break has more of a peak. And Godchaux on electric piano in this song just doesn't make it for me.
