Several relentless guitar passages throughout.

Hard to believe this is an AUD. 8:00-8:40 is a good example - crystal clear and tight.

Not too fast and not too slow with some nice double time at the end.

Jerry has laryngitis, so only Bobby tunes set 2 this day, and Keith Godchaux takes over the 2nd half of this PITB, especially the last 5 minutes.

This is an eleven minute Deal with a bunch of ebbs, flows and peaks.

This has been my go-to Bird Song for years. It's good, but it can't be the best. I'm going to have a look around here - I see that this one has not really caught fire heady version style.

I hadn't heard this before. Of course this should be here. The previous two are top 5s (11/5 & 11/6). This is top 10. For real.

Stellar outro.

I just read Grendel's comment here. I could have said the same thing. 89-90 is not the time when Deal reached full maturation. To me the date is 5/1/81 (though I can see a case for the Fox on 11/30/80). The 5/1 AUD from Hampton is A+ and the LIG just before the Deal is also torched. I'm not saying Deal wasn't something the old guy didn't tear up (w/ or w/o the jgb). But they add the 2nd solo in late September 1980, it becomes a better song and it takes a bit of time before Jerry figures out what to with the new solo. If anything - and this may sound like blasphemy to some - the later versions are derivative of all the original creativity in the fox and Hampton versions.

This is quite strong, closely related to the top 5 deal two days later at the fox. Cornell and the Field Trip (which round out the top 5 after 11/30) are, as is their habit with other songs, unjustifiably out in front of this deal, though I'd say this one is more like top 20.