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I was recently revisiting this kick-ass '83 show from Providence. I love the second set, in particular the Esau, Maybe You Know, Bertha punch out of the gate.

https://archive.org/details/gd1983-04-20.aud.wise.92322.sbeok.flac16/gd1983-04-20d1t01.flac

 Looks Like Rain from 4-20-83 is Article H in my ongoing case for Garcia being able to solo his ass off on songs in which he didn't have to sing lead.

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 Looks Like Rain from 4-20-83 is Article H in my ongoing case for Garcia being able to solo his ass off on songs in which he didn't have to sing lead.

yep. Plus, I love LLR (not so much the first 2/3 of the tune, but the final 1/3).

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Is the opposite a real notion held by serious people?

No, its my response to people who think Bobby's songs are just time-killers until the next Jerry song.  I've never been of the mind that Jerry was the prime artist in the band, more important than the others.  I see the Dead as a collective in which the sum is all the more interesting because of the disparate elements that make it up.  I think Bobby's contributions to the Dead's music is huge and I think there would be huge hole in all Dead shows if you cut out all the Bobby songs.  There are actually people who seem to think that it'd be better without Bobby songs, which is astounding to me.  So I was making the point to all the Jerry-o-philes that Garcia did some of his best soloing when he didn't have to sing, many times better than the solos he took in his own songs, IMO.  Lazy Lighting, Saint Of Circumstance, Let It Grow, etc. as examples.

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I hear ya, but then I think the  assumption from Shug's post (at least what I took from it) was that Garcia didn't solo as well on tunes where he had lead vocals. Then I think of tunes like Deal, Franklin's, Scarlet, etc. where the soloing , typically, shredded just as hard or harder than when on songs without his key vocals.

 

Then there's JGB material, with (besides the instrumental tunes played heavily in the 70s) Garcia has lead vocals on all of the tunes and the guitar playing, imo, overall does not lack.

 

I don't make the distinction between how well his overall playing was on non-lead vocal tunes compared to tunes he sang vocals on, I guess.

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I think he could play good faster when he wasn't singing lead. Think of the blazing speed he could get into on Saint of Circumstance and Let It Grow and Lazy Lightning.  I might be over-stating it, or maybe its my imagination, because he certainly solo'd great on plenty of his own songs, but I hear something different when he didn't have to pay attention to when he had to step back up to the mic after a hot solo when it was a Bobby song.

 

Plus those odd chords and time signatures of Bobby's songs gave him a very interesting and very different foil to solo against compared to the Hunter Garcia songs, I think, and I really like listening to him play guitar on Bob's songs.

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I think he could play good faster when he wasn't singing lead. Think of the blazing speed he could get into on Saint of Circumstance and Let It Grow and Lazy Lightning.  I might be over-stating it, or maybe its my imagination, because he certainly solo'd great on plenty of his own songs, but I hear something different when he didn't have to pay attention to when he had to step back up to the mic after a hot solo when it was a Bobby song.

 

Plus those odd chords and time signatures of Bobby's songs gave him a very interesting and very different foil to solo against compared to the Hunter Garcia songs, I think, and I really like listening to him play guitar on Bob's songs.

 

This is it for me -- Garcia wrote pretty straight forward songs - chord wise and, to a point, rhythm.

It was always interesting to hear what Garcia would do in those funky/odd chords/rhythm of Weir's. 

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Been enjoying Garcia's playing on Estimated a lot lately, though it certainly isn't fast. Does provide him a dark, weird context to solo in.

 

My favorite part of many Weir tunes is Garcia's contribution. Like in the Dylan covers, Masterpiece, Desolation Row, etc., when Garcia kicks in with the backing vocals, that space right there is heaven, takes it to the next level. "You can hear them blow..."

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My favorite is Promised Land -- Garcia always seems to rip it behind Weir vocals and rhythm - I never tire of that tune.

 

The whole below verse gets me every time. Garcia is always great.

 

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia,

Tidewater four ten O nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin'
And the poor boy's on the line.


 

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Old Bob did not write that though (just for the kids out there.)

 

Looks Like Rain is a great song - particularity with the pedal steel parts.

 

Yeah I know that - it's the whole Garcia in the support role was what I was getting at --- It's 'an ol Chuck song', as Keith would say.

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Does anybody have Dave's Picks Vol 2 from 7-31-74 Dillon Stadium Hartford, CT?

 

Is the beginning of Scarlet Begonias clipped like it is on all the SBDs on archive.org?

 

And ditto about Garcia's high harmony backing vocals on Promised Land and the Dylan tunes and others, those could be such choice little moments of fantasticness to my ears, too!

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Plus those odd chords and time signatures of Bobby's songs gave him a very interesting and very different foil to solo against compared to the Hunter Garcia songs, I think, and I really like listening to him play guitar on Bob's songs.

THIS

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