The May version in Paris, the one that appears in Europe '72, is also a marvel.ĭark Star is the song that best defines the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia. 19 are the two years preferred by the Deadheads when choosing the best performances of the band, so I have chosen the concert of April 17th '72 in Copenhagen, where Garcia is able to get the sweetest sounds from his Stratocaster, but we shouldn't forget the wonderful chords weave that Bob Weir used to put on it so Jerry could fly. The two songs first appeared together on Europe '72, which was the album that chronicled their extensive European tour that year. With this medley the Dead linked their psychedelic past with their new direction, more anchored in the roots, which began in 1970 with the appearance of the two best albums by the band, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. The Dead used to play it live with The Eleven, as you can hear in the legendary Live/Dead, although in the video we have chosen it is played a month before their performance at the Fillmore West, in the Playboy mansion itself in January 1969.Ĭhina Cat Sunflower was the song that opened the B side of Aoxomoxoa but live it found its best moments when, from 1972, it sat perfectly next to a version of the traditional song I Know You Rider. It's one of the best examples of the more acid Dead, with a brilliant guitar line by Garcia on which the song is composed, Weir harmonizes his 335 with Garcia's SG, similarly to Duane Allman and Dickey Betts in the Allman Brothers, and it is here that Garcia delivers some of his most psychedelic moments.

Stephen, composed by the usual pair: with Garcia playing the music and Robert Hunter the lyrics, with a little help from bassist Phil Lesh. On YouTube there is a great version on the 1974 Winterland that is over 16 minutes long and has Garcia demonstrating his class with the slide.Īoxomoxoa, released in June 1969, is the best studio album of the Dead’s psychedelic era and it opened with one of its best songs, St. In the original version, Jerry Garcia performs a solo that is one of the heaviest heard up to that point, but it is in the later versions where you can most clearly appreciate his style, mixing rock and jazz, which will have a great influence on groups like the Allman Brothers. However the part that remained forever in the band's repertoire was that written by Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann, in which the former sings about his mentor, Neal Cassidy, the legendary Dean Moriarty of the Beat generation. Released on the band's second album, Anthem Of The Sun, in July '68, The Other One was part of an extensive medley of songs called That's It For The Other One that stretched to 7 minutes and 40 seconds and had parts by Jerry Garcia and Tom Constanten. So I have taken 10 great songs and included a number of live versions, in addition to the original in the studio. It is impossible to talk about Garcia's best solos without his live shows, because that was where he found his favorite means of expression.

It was above a stage where Garcia began to fly with his guitar and the rest of the band began to orbit around him, achieving the mystique that made them the cult group par excellence. Garcia didn't mind making mistakes, his thing was a tireless search for ecstasy and trance, to enter a terrain ‘where notes would appear to him’, so his favorite terrain was live, far above the studio.

Although his roots are in blues, country and bluegrass, Garcia was a guitar visionary, someone who sought out notes from the air, and taking risks that most instrumentalists avoid. Jerry Garcia is one of the most original guitarists in the history of rock.

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