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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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OrangeTangoJam

yeller dawg

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Submissions

1
Mexicali Blues
May 25, 1974
Campus Stadium, UCSB

“It’s polka time!” Shouts Bobby at the beginning of this one! Honored to submit this one. Absolute rager from an underrated show.
1
Candyman
Nov. 13, 1972
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall

Passionate and poignant. Fantastic Fall 72 version.
1
Black Peter
Oct. 18, 1980
Saenger Performing Arts Center

Stunning organ parts that take the song to a different level. Feels like I'm going down a lazy river without a care in the world.
1
Weather Report Suite
Sept. 24, 1973
Civic Arena

Horns!! Let it Grow is already on here but the Whole suite needs love. When the horns come in you can't help but smile. Pure and beautiful.
1
Friend of the Devil
Nov. 23, 1978
Capital Centre

Stunning version. Sung with lots of passion, and during the solo, Jerry lets Wolf run loose and lets her howl. Great version from a great show!

Comments

Big River
Feb. 26, 1973
Pershing Municipal Auditorium

A tornado, Im feeling Big River today and this one is up there with the best of them. Captures the jangly bluesy feel of this song so perfectly. Rootin’ tootin’ version that’ll have you two stepping in no time.
Big River
Aug. 13, 1975
Great American Music Hall

If I had a dollar for every time I played this song, I wouldn’t have a worry for the rest of my waking days. This to me is the definitive Big River, a version that melts you into a puddle while shooting you into oblivion. Jerry tears a new one into this with his clever and incredible playing. Roaring and soaring blues wailing, Jerry taught the weeping willow how to cry. Keith’s electric piano sound also goes really well with the acid cowboy exploration they got going on. Will always have a special place in my heart.
Johnny B. Goode
March 23, 1975
Kezar Stadium

Needs more votes, genuinely swinging and the purest Rock and Roll you can get around these parts.
Drums
March 23, 1975
Kezar Stadium

Nice to hear Billy and Mickey back on drums, on this one you can hear that they're not fighting each other at all. Billy throws in an idea, Mickey interprets it and responds back, classic primal drums from a later era show. Sick transition back into King Solomon's Marbles.
King Solomon's Marbles
March 23, 1975
Kezar Stadium

Holy shit. Carrion right again with the Miles influence on this one. This is one of the best jams they have ever put to tape. It's intense, full of life, a new species of animal could be born from this music it's that full of life. Total annihilation of the psyche that zaps you right in the brain and sends you down a whirlpool of magic through sound. Oh how I wish that The Dead continued to explore this side of their music. Drums/Space could be so limiting compared to the Avant Garde heights they reached in the 60s-75. I love 76 onwards but to me this is the Dead at their purest. Continuously inventive that transports you to different multiverses. This is it.