headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

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Submissions

4
Estimated Prophet
Aug. 31, 1985
Manor Downs

Hot as the night in Texas on which it was played.
11
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.
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Comments

Greatest Story Ever Told
Sept. 28, 1972
Stanley Theatre

I posted at first that this is 2d only to 8/27 but while I still love that version, I am continually amazed by this one and actually think now that it's the greatest of all greatests. Just for the record ;-)
Candyman
Nov. 29, 1980
Alligator Alley Gym, University of Florida

Yep, this one's special. Garcia's vocals are spot-on, and as noted, there's some great guitar accenting after the "hand me my old guitar" line. My favorite is still 3-24-88 (and I urge one and all to check it out), but that's probably only getting the edge b/c I was there. This one's right up there with it. Great show overall and a sweet AUD as well.
Terrapin Station
Oct. 7, 1977
University of New Mexico

Whatever the reason, this one pays off just like the classic "Casey Jones" from 10-2-77 when we get the extended jam with some beautiful fills by Keith...same deal here, and b/c it's '77, instead of sounding like a mistake it sounds instead like the boys felt like taking the thing around the block a few extra times. (If I had to guess, I'd say Jer goes blank on the words.)
Terrapin Station
June 23, 1993
Deer Creek Music Center

If we were grading this solely on the post-lyrics jam it would earn my upvote, but taken as a whole, I just can't get past Jerry's incredibly weak vocals, lyrical miscues, and really sub-par reading of the song up until the big jam section (which, so I'm not accused of being too Scrooge-ish here) IS all it's cracked up to be...epic, intense and really superb stuff. I,d love to have just the jam section edited and standing on its own as a separate piece. It's that good. But Terrapin the song (in my view) has to be taken on its totality, and the first half of this just doesn't measure up.
Terrapin Station
April 19, 1982
Baltimore Civic Center

Don't let the Ravenspace overshadow this truly great Terrapin. There isn't much from this show they didn't hit out of the park.
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