Grateful Dead
Greek Theater ’84
1. Why Don’t We Do It in the Road (1984/07/15)
2. Bertha (1984/07/13)
3. Estimated Prophet -> (1984/07/14)
4. Eyes of the World (1984/07/14)
5. Don’t Need Love (1984/07/15)
6. Dupree’s Diamond Blues (1984/07/13)
7. China Doll (1984/07/15)
8. Dancin’ in the Street (1984/07/15)
9. Dark Star (1984/07/13)
This latest sampler is from yet another woefully underrepresented year as far as official releases go! People, there is a lot of greatness beyond the ’71-’77 timeframe! Case in point, the trio of summer days at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.
The only “Dark Star” between three and five years on either side! Only stand-alone, encore version, and don’t believe the naysayers- it’s awesome. The mid eighties also threw out some loose, fun covers, such as The Beatles’ ‘Why Don’t We’. True, Garcia’s performances were sometimes ragged, but he’s definately ‘on’ here, as in the bouncy “Bertha”. Old classics remained dank, but the band also played with the sequence structure, such as bringing out “China Doll”, not as the the former partner of ‘Estimated-Eyes’, but coming out of the bent-time of ‘Space’. I’m not always a fan of Mydland’s songs, but “Don’t Need Love” is powerful when it comes up. The ‘Dancin’ is another fun blast from the past, recently remembered and to be brought out only a handful of times more throughout the remainder of the 80’s. Tasty stuff. Try a bit.
