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find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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parrott56

millennial head

+4803


Submissions

9
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
June 9, 1973
RFK Stadium

Controlled yet passionate. Almost Mozartean.
5
Dark Star
Feb. 8, 1970
Fillmore West

Spacey and relaxed, but maintains a gentle simmer throughout.
10
Me and Bobby McGee
May 25, 1972
Strand Lyceum

Crisp and sweet as always, but it's Jerry's fills that really make this version.
10
Truckin'
May 24, 1972
Strand Lyceum

*Yet another* stellar Truckin' from Europe '72. It would be unconscionable not to acknowledge its greatness here.
6
Jack Straw
May 24, 1972
Strand Lyceum

Very sweetly played and sung. Could easily have been the version picked for "Europe '72."

Comments

Spanish Jam
Sept. 13, 1983
Manor Downs

Delirious, just nuts. Mickey (I’d guess) is on castanets, Phil’s on a Seastones wavelength, Brent and Jerry and Bobby send this into deep space. Then the haunted house organ, Brent? This needs a shit-ton more votes. The Senn 441 Miller upload sounds alive and crystal clear.
Playin' In The Band
Aug. 4, 1979
Oakland Auditorium

Very odd and out there. Little of this sounds at all like PITB. There’s what sounds like a brief callback to Shakedown, then Jerry turns on the overdrive and solos quite freely. Only toward the end does it enter that electronic meltdown space familiar from other ’79 PITBs, and of course that’s well done here.
China Doll
July 15, 1984
Greek Theatre - University of California

A wonderfully twisted D>S collapsing into *this* China Doll is the sort of magic that keeps us coming back to grimy, improbably transcendent ’84. Don’t miss it.
Franklin's Tower
April 5, 1989
Crisler Arena

No sign of the early spring magic letting up here in Ann Arbor. A great example of how tight and confident the band sounded in early ’89.
Me and Bobby McGee
July 27, 1974
Civic Center

So many of the “short” songs seemingly reached their apotheosis in 1974, and this is a great example of that.