Incendiary second solo becomes delicate and beautiful before they build the final refrain.

You can't compare 70s Deals w/ late 1980 onward. There's a four minute shredded 2nd solo on this one that wasn't a part of Deal in its 1st decade.

This is the first one with the second solo, revamped for the 15th anniversary.

Pre rio grandeo is good, but there are two peaks post rio grandeo, one built off the other and the latter crashes into Franklin's Tower.

A fluttery and lyrical solo after the bridge and then an autobiography of an outro. There is a video on YouTube.

A great early version and the half step is sweet too. That 11/30/79 Terrapin, Watkins Glen and that 12/31/76 Good Lovin>Samson were the highlights of an amazing day on Cape Hatteras. There’s nothing like summer and the Grateful Dead.

One of a kind with a jam that prefigures the anomalous Samson that follows. It was on Sirius today. The Samson is smoked and represents a perfect mix of 76 and 77.

Darkstar, you're right as rain, as usual. Recently I was reminded of that theory that 10,000 hours of practice can produce expert-level knowledge or virtuosity or whatever. These guys had been at it for a while at this point and so as gritty as this sounds compared to '74 or '76, the band is moving in unison in very much the same way. And some mountain jam flavors are there too - beautiful, major-scale stuff. Thanks, bro.

This is the first really good one of the golden era. The 77s that come before it aren’t as good, though they are still of the same sort. But this is right there with 5/7, 5/12, 5/17, 5/25 and 6/9.

I just listened again. This one has it all. It’s not recognizable as dancin for most of the jam. Some will say that this isn’t all dancin, but what else to call it then? There are discrete episodes in the jam, some of which reach some ethereal peaks. The jam ends with a 78-era meltdown that does not have to reach bugs crawling on skin. You can pick on the slide, but that was what he was doing at the time and some of the slide work when he first puts it on is interesting and cool anyway. And what there is of the thematic stuff early is tight (minus Bob missing the very first word of the song). Given the sound quality of the available recordings, this one should be higher up than it is right now.