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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

49
Jack Straw
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

There are longer versions, but none has a better bridge jam than this one. My favorite version ever--must listen!
88
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
Feb. 24, 1974
Winterland Arena

Hard-charging drumming from Billy leads the way. Best MLB jam in this pairing I've ever heard. Hard to believe it wasn't listed yet.
37
Cassidy
Oct. 12, 1983
Madison Square Garden

Intense build-up jam, perfect touch-down. Weir absolutely nails it. My favorite version all-time
21
Shakedown Street
Jan. 10, 1979
Nassau Coliseum

Laser-focused, perfect rendition, start to finish. Super-funky with awesome Jerry fuzz-guitar, rock-blues jamming post-vocals
12
Candyman
March 24, 1988
Omni Coliseum

Lucky enough to be at this show. Candyman blew everyone away--best song played that night. Awesome trippy guitar jam &Jer belts out vocals

Comments

Ship of Fools
Dec. 5, 1979
Uptown Theater

More than very nice. This underrated SOF contains a quadruple shot of Jerry in the instrumental break section, and it's phenomenal....spectral, piercing, crying notes into several bridges before landing dew-drop perfect into the reprise chorus. Much longer than almost any other version. 5/9/77 cannot be topped but this is easily THE best Brent-era version ever performed and may be #2 all-time.
The Other One
July 25, 1972
Paramount Theater

Nice St. Stephen teasing within the odd jam section as well. Most '72 versions of this song are a little too "out there" for my taste i.e. lots of feedback/noodling/weirdness for the sake of...) but this one's got more thoughtfulness to it. There's a good CM upgrade currently circulating on the archive...worth seeking out.
Not Fade Away
June 4, 1977
The Forum

True, true, true. This version suffers from one thing and one thing only: Lack of a damn SBD. Every time I hear this show I put it on mental wish list of shows that somehow turn up somewhere w/a long lost SBD so we can hear it as it was meant to be heard. Bloody shame, but no fault of the performance itself. If you can listen thru the AUD limitations you'll see how good it is. Plus the set list may be the most eclectic and interesting of the entire year, which only makes it that much more cruel that no SBD exists.
Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
Oct. 1, 1994
Boston Garden

Some of the nicest jamming of the year, but much as I'd like to for sentimental reasons, I can't give this one an upvote. Vocals are just too weak, and the jams, while nice for '94 like I said, just can't bear up i comparison to so many other years and versions on this site. it would cheapen the upvote process to give it a bump. But that said, it's a version that bears listening to (and obviously others will disagree and find it worthy), if only b/c by this year it was really hard to find any show that wasn't on some level sad for Jerry's overall decline. This Scarlet>Fire is mostly an exception to that and sweet in its way for at least hinting at the more beautiful years.
Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
May 17, 1977
Memorial Coliseum

Agree with Corals. This one is so good it absolutely deserves an upvote, but 5/21/77 remains the gold standard for 1977...this one might be right on its heels, which says a lot.