headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

+23534


Submissions

9
One More Saturday Night
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

Like every other song from this, my favorite all-time show, it's a best-of candidate. Just rocks hard.
2
Alabama Getaway
Dec. 5, 1979
Uptown Theater

Come for the 'Bama but stay for the rest of the show. This rocker 'Bama is Jerry and Brent at their very best. This entire show, tho', is a monster.
13
Stagger Lee
June 27, 1985
SPAC

Right after Phil tells a guy to get off the blacony cuz 50,000 people are waiting for him to, and Bob does the dog nose joke, Jer rips into a fine SL!
8
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
Oct. 18, 1989
The Spectrum

Pretty good China followed by the best 80's OR 90's RIDER I've ever heard. Check Jer's run going into "sun gonna shine" verse. 5 stars fo RIDER alone.
2
Brown Eyed Women
Aug. 4, 1982
Kiel Auditorium

Fast-picking goodness. Jerry's bridge solo is long and lightning quick and awesome. 1 point off for lyric flub on re-entry, but the rest is gold.
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Comments

I Know You Rider
May 1, 1970
Alfred College

"I'd rather drink muddy water...sleep in a hollow log..." Jerry just crushes this version vocally. So nice to have a slower, acoustic, true blue blues version to dip into. This is my fave, even a notch better than Harpur.
Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
Dec. 3, 1979
Uptown Theatre

Garcia gets the "scarlet begonias tucked into her shoes" in this one, but it sounds perfectly natural. Really nice, relaxed cadence to this one--not too fast & not too slow--to steal a different line to make a point. The transition is patient, not especially earth shattering, but the Fire gets aggressive in a number of spots. It's also interesting as one of the earlier Brent versions & I upvoted partly for that reason. Wouldn't mind seeing it get into double digits, but wouldn't complain too loudly if it stayed a sleeper pick, either.
It Must Have Been The Roses
May 17, 1974
P.N.E. Coliseum

Agree on both counts ^^^^
Estimated Prophet
March 30, 1980
Capitol Theatre

Better recording of this one would have it near the top. Insane ripping middle jam as Jerry was prone to this year, this song. 1980 Estimateds are overlooked and this one especially.
Dark Star
June 24, 1973
Memorial Coliseum

I used some music editing software to remove the last ten minutes of crap and now this version is perfect. +1 with an admittedly big asterisk.
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