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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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grendel

Books and Music

+23519


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

Dupree's Diamond Blues
April 19, 1983
Alfond Arena, U of Maine

Underrated version notable for Brent paying homage to the calliope days of late 60's yore... and while Jerry's vocal is typical early-80s-strained he doesn't botch the lyrics & is clearly into the saga, driving the narrative along & with a nice wah wah solo 3/4 of the way through. Version was featured on 30 Days of Dead a few years back & is well worthy of upvote
Greatest Story Ever Told
May 10, 1972
Concertgebouw

wah wah heaven
Shakedown Street
April 6, 1982
The Spectrum

I always come back to this one. The Jerry//Brent conversation is gold and so is the rest
Bertha
May 12, 1977
Auditorium Theatre

Patient, beautiful, mellow version with a lengthy bridge jam as is the norm for this year with this song...but this version stands out for Jerry's confident, easy vocal reading, and Bobby's numerous China Cat licks all over the early portions. Real nice Bertha here that could probably use some more vote-up
Bird Song
Sept. 16, 1972
Boston Music Hall

Yes new SBD source is the winner here..excellent Birdsong (was there not such an animal in ‘72?) but this whole show is a gem. Check out the DarkStar>BrokedownPalace too