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.

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.