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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

+23524


Submissions

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!!
20
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!
8
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.
30
Little Red Rooster
Nov. 30, 1980
Fox Theatre

All about Brent.

Comments

Dark Star
May 15, 1970
Fillmore East (Late Show)

more and more enamored of this one, a floating, dreamy gem of a version, masterfully in rhythm and w/a gorgeous return following some mellow gong-space. Excellent.
Me and My Uncle
Nov. 6, 1977
Broome County Arena

Forgot to mention in 1st comments that Jerry lays down a mean solo even while caught in the faster paced disco double time. Stellar.
Big Railroad Blues
July 31, 1971
Yale Bowl, Yale University

True grit right here. Nothing fancy or pretty but a rocked out, ragged, rip roaring good one.
Playin' In The Band
Oct. 18, 1972
Fox Theater

Jazz clinic version that sandwiches a drums>darkStar>Dew>reprise. Underrated by about 20-30 votes.
Crazy Fingers
July 13, 1976
Orpheum Theatre

May be my new personal favorite. The outro jam is legendary for good reason--as close to a Shankar-style raga as you'll ever hear them do--but even before then, the mid-song bridge jam is just a thousand different kinds of beautiful & Donna Jean just sparkles on vocals, blending rather than overtaking Jerry at key moments. Stunning, spectacular version, better perhaps by a nose than many of the other fine June/July 1976 renditions listed on the board.