Go ahead and call me cliche, but I couldn’t resist opting for US Blues from a July 4th show for my July 4th post. The fact that the option even exists is enough to justify the obviousness of the pick in my mind.
This is a good pick because you have the option of video as well as the audio. I haven’t watched the full DVD in a quite a while, but revisiting this song today makes me want to bust it out.
I guess one of the advantages to having such a broad catalog of songs with such a diverse cast of characters is that as a band the Grateful Dead had the option to play songs that reflected the occasion, whether it was a sporting event (The Race is On near the Kentucky Derby), a holiday (like US Blues), or even simply the weather (a whole range of options here!).
This raises an interesting question: If, for example, it was raining and the band played Looks Like Rain, would that be a bonus or a drawback? A bonus perhaps because the song selection acknowledges something that both the band and the audience experience together, but it might also be a bummer because it could be a predictable selection and part of the fun of Grateful Dead shows is their unpredictability. So what’s better – shared experience or surprise? Or is that too reductionist? Let me know what you think.
A happy and safe 4th of July to all my readers out there!
Complete Setlist 7/4/89
Previous US Blues DFAY Selections
[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B00772M2Y6″ features=”0″ locale=”com” listprice=”0″]
Well, Lunchbox, I guess we should cut you some slack on this choice since you didn’t pick Palm Sunday on Palm Sunday. Just kidding…just because this is an obvious choice doesn’t mean it’s not a good one; how couldn’t you pick this version on this day? Plus Liberty was featured fairly recently so too soon to revisit that one.
As for other holiday songs, they played Werewolves of London at least once on Halloween. And in the last several years songs like Sampson and Saturday Night were pretty predictable.
Most of the rain songs seemed unplanned for much of the Dead’s career. There are so many references to rain in their songs it’s only natural that they would play one when it was raining. In the last few years they seemed to overdo it a bit, though, not that I really minded that much. There was a Vince interview where he was asked what songs he liked playing with the Dead and he mentioned a couple of songs with rain in the title and then said any song that has to do with rain. So I wonder if that might have been a factor late in their career. I certainly enjoyed the Beatles cover, Rain, one of my favorite late period GD songs.
I was at a Deer Creek show in 94 and it was raining as they opened the second set with Box of Rain, then Samba in the Rain, then Looks Like Rain and then…Here Comes Sunshine. We all got a kick out of that and sure enough, it stopped raining during HCS. Later I got an audience tape of the show and you can here a girl laughing out loud as they start to play HCS.
A fourth of July extravaganza would not be complete without this, even though summertime had not yet come and gone. The drummers manage to somehow blunder a bit before the first chorus. Forget the subtleties Billy could bring to this song in years past. This is a big blowout. Jerry growls the “steal your wife” line hilariously, like he might actually steal your goddamn wife. His solo is joyous and perfect. This version is really hard to beat if you are looking for an anthemic one. My oh my oh my!