headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

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Submissions

37
Promised Land
Sept. 18, 1990
Madison Square Garden

New #1 version--all time best. This is a stretched-out jam-fest for a song usually given the quick-off. Killer fills from Hornsby. MUST HEAR!
6
Sugar Magnolia
Sept. 25, 1981
Stabler Arena

Incredible Sugary-Mag Club sandwich: Sugar>BlackPeter>Round&Round>SSDD. Energy off the charts, and the SSDD starts spot-on the downbeat from R&R
13
Big River
July 31, 1974
Dillon Stadium

Scorcher start to finish. Keith comes up big, and Jerry goes ballistic in the final instrumental bridge. Check it out on Dave's Pix Vol. 2
45
Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower
June 19, 1976
Capitol Theatre

Just when you think you've heard 'em all...Peppy&Zippy yet tight HELP >groovy-spacedout Slip>killer jumping-Jerry-led Franklins. Must Hear!
44
Estimated Prophet
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

From the show that never stops giving--a spacey-jazzy-goeey-Wah-Wah-chunk-fest-of-Jerry.
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Comments

Cassidy
Oct. 12, 1983
Madison Square Garden

^^^^ Makes my heart sing to read these reviews, Dude420. I was beginning to think I was hearing something no one else was. Maybe b/c the recordings available aren't 100% perfect (not that the provided sources are bad), but I seriously and honestly have never heard a better overall version than this one and I agree that if you stack it up head to head w/Frost '82 (I show I love btw) it still blows it out of the water.
Bird Song
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

Just digging everything from this show lately. Another '72 Birdsong gem here, this one especially notable for Jerry's beautiful vocal reading. Honestly, after listening to how he sings this song in this year it's painful for me to listen to early 80's or really any other year when his voice is so croaky and he just can't sustain the note. Sure, the jams are still there in many later versions, but these '72s have that lovely interplay with Keith and the loping pace that just makes the song really, well....soar. This one should be a lot higher.
Black Throated Wind
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

Easily my new favorite, Just listen to Keith, who shines on this throughout, especially in the end coda section. Bobby's lyrical reading is emotional and spot-on and he's completely in lockstep with Keith on this one. Love too the wah-wah psychedelic sound thrown in during the intro. Superior version right here.
Uncle John's Band
March 19, 1977
Winterland Arena

I've got to agree. I really love this site & all the discussions we have, but the one thing that grinds my gears is how low some truly awesome versions of songs are on the list despite the passionate pleas of knowing Heads to listen and bump, while other "leading" versions rack up superfluous votes one after another. This is one of the finest UJB's you'll hear from the band's most "just exactly perfect" year of playing (like it or not, '77 is inarguably the year of most consistently well-played--i.e. fewest mistakes--shows), and there's no way this should be sitting around in single digits.
Dark Star
Oct. 21, 1971
Auditorium Theatre

A lot of the stuff from this show is getting my upvote lately and this DS is the latest...just when you think it's going to tail off into dissonant space-waste time it turns on a dime into an outta nowhere Sittin On Top of the World & back into the DS theme after. Prior is 15 minutes of the new guy (Keith) showing he's more than up to the job of digging into the long form jams as he is the first set ditties. Good stuff.
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