headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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Ernie5

No cholesterol.

+3668


Submissions

10
Jack Straw
June 10, 1973
RFK Stadium

Relaxed and joyous space-age electric guitar semi-ballad.
9
Bertha
Feb. 21, 1971
Capitol Theater

Warp speed, precise, slightly unhinged, and driving into the greenish-blue evening.
1
Jack Straw
Oct. 30, 1971
Taft Auditorium

Godchaux leads a version that seethes with the excitement of a new song.
3
Brown Eyed Women
May 20, 1973
U.C.

A giggly, slangy Garcia masterpiece (in sweet show sauce). Goes down EZ.
8
Mexicali Blues
Feb. 28, 1973
Salt Palace

So good you can practically see the border town.

Comments

Cumberland Blues
March 20, 1971
University of Iowa

DS67 - as you said elsewhere, this show is a fiery hot mess. You know a Cumberland from this show is going to have the goods.
Around and Around
March 20, 1971
University of Iowa

This version reminds me that this song wasn't always a skip - it's a ROCK song. DS67 - no doubt, this show is an atom bomb. And you know how I love '71 stuff. Garcia's digging IN.
Row Jimmy
July 25, 1974
International Amphitheater

Kreutzmann's jumpy, slithering snare makes this woozy rendition a classic. The entire band responds to the drums - just shows the kind of control he had on the dynamics when he was the sole drummer. Great stuff!
The Other One
May 10, 1972
Concertgebouw

SO good I don't even mind the Me & Bobby McGee [a song I sorta hate]. Air tight interplay, especially between Godchaux and Garcia. Gets way out past Jupiter. Roads get built, disintegrate, get re-built as something totally different, and then are absorbed back into the air/earth. Nature reclaims us all.
Sugaree
Oct. 3, 1976
Cobo Arena

I don't hear these Fall '76 Sugarees as a mere prelude or warm-up to '77. I like that these are a bit more distilled and compact - and yet plenty sprawling. Also, the sound of the band is distinct enough from the following year that I believe the '76 variety can be listened to and dug on their own merits. A Sugaree needn't be epic to be great. And this one is, in its own aw-shucks way, pretty epic.