This Supplication is quite top drawer, I say. What-ho.

This "Happiness is Drumming," (Hart) is proto-Fire, i.e., FOTM (Hart-Hunter) without lyrics.

Already 324 O1s, so let me be clear about this O1. It is unspectacular, but uniquely it ends w/ Garcia playing Bach, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

This one belongs here too. This is not a stand-alone rendition, but the solo hits a mind-blowing peak. The transition is good too.

It was mother's day - that makes it even better. Thanks Mom.

I'm certainly not trying to make you "go around all day." I thought that the abbreviation STD was an unfortunate choice on your part. And the point of the blog was to demonstrate that "Stronger Than Dirt" and the Eyes Coda are entirely discrete pieces of music. Just because a mistake has become conventional doesn't mean that it is no longer a mistake. I see, however, that you are not interested in entertaining that idea or in reading what I have written. Forgive me.

I must admit that I was taken with the phrase "hot STD ending" when you posted this a month or so ago. I have written a blog post explaining the differences between, among other things, "Stronger Than Dirt" and the "Eyes of the World Coda," which I hope that you will find instructive. The turn of phrase you used was the catalyst for the work that I did. http://rannygazoodead.blogspot.com/2015/05/some-problems-with-nomenclature-1973.html

This is one of two live versions of "King Solomon's Marbles." The other one is the rendition at Lindley Park. All of the other versions on this list are of "Stronger Than Dirt" alone, except for 7/16/76, which is a jam that is distinguishable from either song. "Stronger Than Dirt" never appears in "Eyes of the World," neither as a standalone nor as a part of the suite "King Solomon's Marbles." I have explained as much here: http://rannygazoodead.blogspot.com/2015/05/some-problems-with-nomenclature-1973.html

It is likely that your reading of this song says more about you as a reader of the grateful dead than it does about this version of scarlet>fire as one of the grateful dead’s texts. This version of scarlet>fire is good – just how good it is at issue. And I say “song” and not “songs.” The marriage of these two was new, there was a minimum of deviation [254 times together, 38 times apart] in the eighteen years that followed and this was the first excellent version of scarlet>fire ("the song") for which a clear soundboard recording was widely available. That tape spread so widely that this show is now the only one of the dead’s archived at the Library of Congress. But let’s turn back to you, the “reader,” and scarlet>fire, the “text.” At some point we all discovered "the song" and became aware of the reputation of Cornell, either because Cornell was our introduction to "the song," or because we came to understand the importance of "the song" in the oeuvre and then sought out Cornell as a result. Would anyone care to say that "the song" is not an important part of being a deadhead? Does anyone not like "the song?" I am sure there are a few outliers who cannot stand to hear "the song." But what’s more likely is that as a reader, you became aware of "the song" and then it became an important part of the identity you constructed as a reader of the dead. Some construct their identity in opposition to this version - May 8, 1977 - of "the song," while others embrace Cornell to varying degrees of rapture. But scarlet>fire is as foundational a deadtext as dark star, eyes of the world or playin' in the band. The construction of an identity as a reader of the dead is, necessarily, important to all of the people who post on this website. Everyone here is actively cultivating a unique identity as a reader of the grateful dead. What makes this website compelling is that each of the dead’s songs can be a playground in which you construct your identity as a reader and furthermore, within each song, the separate versions allow each of us to further tweak and fine tune that identity. Is this the best scarlet>fire? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Is it the best grateful dead song? I pass. But if someone asked me where to start with scarlet>fire, I’d tell her to start here, and then I’d let her construct her own identity.