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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

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Submissions

24
Franklin's Tower
May 1, 1981
Hampton Coliseum

One of the best played versions from one of the best played shows in the Brent era---ever.
16
Shakedown Street
March 24, 1981
Rainbow Theater

15+ minutes of funk w/extended overlapping vocal rounds of "just gotta poke around", etc. before jam Brent adds cool "fuzzy" SFX
1
Big Railroad Blues
Oct. 30, 1971
Taft Auditorium

Check out Keith on this one! He's never been so up front before & right outta the gate!!
21
Cream Puff War
July 3, 1966
Fillmore Auditorium

Peppy early version w/Jer belting out lyrics & Pig doin' some nice work on organ. No archive copy exists; got this off 30 Days of Dead-worth the DL!
9
Passenger
May 7, 1979
Allan Kirby Field House

Super-charged EARLY Brent version rips and tears and shreds. Final jam before the coda is the best they ever did in this tune. Goes to 11.

Comments

Big River
July 7, 1978
Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Bobby needs more credit for his work on this song and especially this version, which is A+ on all cylinders. But Bobby outshines even Jerry on this version with some incredibly fluid and amazing rhythm playing throughout, most notably before the final verse. Just outstanding Weir Work from an awesome show.
Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower
Aug. 13, 1975
Great American Music Hall

@Muffinman49 Just wanted to say I love your list of favorite shows in your comments here, especially listing 10/29/77 which is my #1 fave all time. The rest of your list is damn impressive as well.
Dark Star
Aug. 1, 1973
Roosevelt Stadium

Struggled with this as a potential upvote, but decided "yes" because my only complaint is with the final 3-4 minutes of cacophony that I so despise in Dark Stars of this era. But everything that precedes it is just too damn good not to push this up the ladder. And really, the 3-4 minute section of breakdown-screechy stuff can't nullify the amazing jamming previous, Plus, it does segue seamlessly into El Paso (which, you know, isn't necessarily a good thing; never really understood why such diametrically opposing tunes would be melded to each other, but perhaps that's part of the point with a song as mysterious and open to all possibilities of the universe as Dark Star.). Overall, though, this rendition stands out for its propulsive and confident jamming prior to the first verse, and following that is a truly one-of-a-kind-haven't-heard-in-other-versions Jerry-led section in which he sustains long, twanging notes on the guitar that never dissolve into dissonance but rather create a kind of quasi-psychedelic, classic rock, controlled and somehow beautiful portion of instrumental landscape that only this band could truly claim as its own. I am grateful to those who upvoted and commented on this version because I was unaware of it before and am pleased beyond measure to have discovered it now. More listenings will follow and maybe I'll be less peeved by the final few minutes of break-down disturbance that I wish a magical musical editor had convinced the band to excise.
To Lay Me Down
Sept. 18, 1990
Madison Square Garden

Klausmith called it: chills.
Bertha
May 5, 1978
Thompson Arena - Dartmouth College

Find the best sounding version of the show you can (MIller version the best; edits in others shorten Eyes and Sugar Mag; Miller patches in what's missing and you don't want to cheat yourself especially on the Eyes. 10/29/77 is my favorite show of all time.) IMHO best ever versions of Bertha, Eyes, Might as Well, St. Stephen, Black Peter, Sugar Mag and Top 5 versions of almost everything else, Can't say enough about that show.