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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

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.

Comments

Row Jimmy
April 21, 1978
Rupp Arena

Always on the lookout for great versions of this song, one of my all time favorite Jerry tunes and I think a bit underappreciated, so thanks for pointing me to this show, which I was only vaguely aware of and will check out more. If I can be a bit nit-picky about this one, it's that Jerry's old nemesis, the blown lyric, pops up at an especially bad time. After kinda flubbing the "here's a half a dollar" line the first time around, he brings it back when it's time for "broken heart don't feel so bad" after the second jam break. Again, a small thing in the overall scheme, but I like this song so much I get protective of it ;-) Still, lot to like here. This one strikes me as that rare version in which Garcia's first instrumental break may outshine his second. This one's just country-beautiful, flowing and gentle and a joy to the ear. The final repeated choruses are also better done than many, with a picked-up gait and noticeable reggae infusion. This won't crack my top 5 list (3/20/77, 4/12/78, 2/28/73, 9/18/74, 2/4/78), but it's worthy of upvote and further listening.
Playin' In The Band
April 2, 1973
Boston Garden

Wow. Getting called out by not one, but 2 of my favorite posters! Tough crowd, but you gotta love Deadheads being honest. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, fellas. I listened again recently and enjoyed this PITB thoroughly top to finish. And deadprof you're right that Keith is a great presence here, I just think Billy really drives this one along. Still will campaign for this one to go higher, though, despite yours and cgarces' objections ;-)
Dark Star
June 24, 1973
Memorial Coliseum

Really like most of this, including the brief drum solo by Billy that doesn't go on too long and then leads right into the main theme and then the first sung verse. Unfortunately after that it degrades into a meandering Phil solo followed by just uninteresting noise + some feedback and it goes on entirely too long until seguing into a really pretty Eyes, which is very very good. Can't vote for this one, even though everything pre-verse is as advertised...jazzy, mellow, some nice Phil-led bass jazz exploration.
Might As Well
Nov. 2, 1977
Field House - Seneca College

Rollicking good version. Takes the silver to 10/29/77's gold but it's almost a photo finish. Fantasmagoric Scarlet>Fire at this show, too.
Samson and Delilah
Nov. 4, 1977
Cotterell Gym - Colgate University

They did this song so well this year in so many different shows it's hard to remember to give the ones with a little extra mustard some props. This is one of them.