headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

+24543


Submissions

37
Promised Land
Sept. 18, 1990
Madison Square Garden

New #1 version--all time best. This is a stretched-out jam-fest for a song usually given the quick-off. Killer fills from Hornsby. MUST HEAR!
6
Sugar Magnolia
Sept. 25, 1981
Stabler Arena

Incredible Sugary-Mag Club sandwich: Sugar>BlackPeter>Round&Round>SSDD. Energy off the charts, and the SSDD starts spot-on the downbeat from R&R
13
Big River
July 31, 1974
Dillon Stadium

Scorcher start to finish. Keith comes up big, and Jerry goes ballistic in the final instrumental bridge. Check it out on Dave's Pix Vol. 2
45
Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower
June 19, 1976
Capitol Theatre

Just when you think you've heard 'em all...Peppy&Zippy yet tight HELP >groovy-spacedout Slip>killer jumping-Jerry-led Franklins. Must Hear!
44
Estimated Prophet
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

From the show that never stops giving--a spacey-jazzy-goeey-Wah-Wah-chunk-fest-of-Jerry.
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Comments

Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
May 26, 1977
Baltimore Civic Center

Barn burner for sure. Best of the year is still 6/8/77 but this one comes close.
Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
May 26, 1977
Baltimore Civic Center

Barn burner for sure. Best of the year is still 6/8/77 but this one comes close.
Shakedown Street
Aug. 31, 1978
Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Sounds almost like the album version but indeed very tight, short, and sweet. Not up voting only b/c I don't think being first necessarily means "heady", but for sheer historical interest this is fun to hear.
Shakedown Street
Jan. 10, 1979
Nassau Coliseum

One of the better AUDs you'll ever hear is available for this killer '79 that I can't in good faith let linger at 2 measly votes. Don't tell me this one ain't got no heart, you just gotta poke around. Trust.
Dark Star
March 23, 1972
Academy of Music

Struggled with whether to upvote this given a fairly heavy section devoted to dissonance but it's not as annoying as most and actually maintains a forward progression rather than slowing down the proceedings and the jams that emerge, as many have pointed out already are spectacular and unique among Dark Stars of this or any era. Ultimately it's an underrated version with a closing section just before the 2d verse that needs to be heard to be believed. +1
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