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.

I guess we know now what Ann Coulter goes by on headyversion.

Jerry is going to steal your wife. I believe it. I like some other versions of this song, but I show this YouTube video to the aliens when they visit and I'll tell them that it's the best. They don't have any points of reference against which to evaluate the claim. (As it turns out, 10/21/78 is really the best.)

The third time's a charm. This is a big story in grateful dead history. For the next part, see the song called truckin'.

I listened to this on the strength of the last recommendation. I felt like the Stranger list is dominated right now by official releases and shows with popular sbds and I was hoping that this one would be something special. The runs that Jerry plays right before the wheels get smoking round midnight are pretty cool. The outro is good, but I listened to 3/14/81 right afterwards and I felt like I heard a version just as good - if not better. Everyone's got their go to versions for particular songs. I have my share of biases (the DP3 Eyes of 5/22/77 comes immediately to mind) that I developed when I first fell in love with particular songs. I voted for this one all the same.

This song has never really made a dent in my ear the way that it did this afternoon. I will now be listening to the others, but, to be honest, this one is good enough for me. And I will second the notion that the sequence from here through Stella is required listening for people who know what good music smells like. Maybe top 1%.