headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

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Submissions

28
Playin' In The Band
May 11, 1972
Rotterdam Civic Hall

Sometimes shorter is better. At around 10 mins. this beauty from E'72 packs the jazz, jam, passion. Like a more intense version of the one on ACE!
26
Scarlet Begonias
Oct. 3, 1976
Cobo Arena

No clean SBD on archive but at official Dead site a pristine version was on 30 days of Dead for DL. 2d best stand-alone I've heard next to 3-20-77
66
Pretty Peggy O
May 19, 1977
Fox Theatre

DP Vol. 29...Each time I think I've heard the best (i.e. 12/27/77) I hear one better. This is it. Flowing, gorgeous Jerry bridge jam. Perfection.
4
Don't Ease Me In
June 20, 1980
West High Auditorium

Proves the boys could really swing when they wanted to. Hear Jerry on "The Girl I Love" line; like 'Gator Alley--1980 a good year for this tune
32
Not Fade Away
May 26, 1977
Baltimore Civic Center

Insane. Ridiculous. Drummers locked in, Garcia in take-no-prisoners mode. 16+ minutes of full-bore Rock to the G-D Roll.
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Comments

Greatest Story Ever Told
Sept. 28, 1972
Stanley Theatre

I posted at first that this is 2d only to 8/27 but while I still love that version, I am continually amazed by this one and actually think now that it's the greatest of all greatests. Just for the record ;-)
Candyman
Nov. 29, 1980
Alligator Alley Gym, University of Florida

Yep, this one's special. Garcia's vocals are spot-on, and as noted, there's some great guitar accenting after the "hand me my old guitar" line. My favorite is still 3-24-88 (and I urge one and all to check it out), but that's probably only getting the edge b/c I was there. This one's right up there with it. Great show overall and a sweet AUD as well.
Terrapin Station
Oct. 7, 1977
University of New Mexico

Whatever the reason, this one pays off just like the classic "Casey Jones" from 10-2-77 when we get the extended jam with some beautiful fills by Keith...same deal here, and b/c it's '77, instead of sounding like a mistake it sounds instead like the boys felt like taking the thing around the block a few extra times. (If I had to guess, I'd say Jer goes blank on the words.)
Terrapin Station
June 23, 1993
Deer Creek Music Center

If we were grading this solely on the post-lyrics jam it would earn my upvote, but taken as a whole, I just can't get past Jerry's incredibly weak vocals, lyrical miscues, and really sub-par reading of the song up until the big jam section (which, so I'm not accused of being too Scrooge-ish here) IS all it's cracked up to be...epic, intense and really superb stuff. I,d love to have just the jam section edited and standing on its own as a separate piece. It's that good. But Terrapin the song (in my view) has to be taken on its totality, and the first half of this just doesn't measure up.
Terrapin Station
April 19, 1982
Baltimore Civic Center

Don't let the Ravenspace overshadow this truly great Terrapin. There isn't much from this show they didn't hit out of the park.
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