30 Days of Dead
It's a Dead Head's most wonderful time of the year! Welcome to another 30 days of unreleased Grateful Dead tracks from the vault, one for every day of the month, selected by archivist and producer David Lemieux. The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed, but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.
Those of you who know what to do, feel free to skip right on ahead. For those of you who need a refresher, here's the drill:
You know your Ables from your Bakers from your C's, but can your finely tuned ears differentiate the cosmic "comeback" tour from a spacey 70s show? Each day we'll post a song from one of the Dead's coveted shows. Will it be from that magical night at Madison Square Garden in '93 or from way back when they were just starting to warm it up at Winterland? Is that Pigpen's harmonica we hear? Brent on keys? If you think you know, lob your answer in and you just might find yourself taking home our daily prize of a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar or the grand prize – a copy of limited, numbered, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL '78 boxed set!
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It's been fun listening to the song evolve over time, but I need to go to sleep. Early start tomorrow. Best of luck to y'all.
yep this one kicked my a** too! I'm cross-eyed - been trying to find this one all day. I'm sure it'll make sense tomorrow but even with the hints I've struck out. That solo is only around for a few weeks - wtf hahaha
I think that was the most brutal search in all 15 years of 30 Days of Dead. But I found it. It is not in the traditional places we look. But it is out there. And it syncs up perfectly. If you have a hunch, follow that lead and see where it takes you. I'm whipped!
I'm stumped too. Proper Deadhead deduction leads me to a specific period in time when the guitar solo hadn't quite been codified. There are a couple of close calls in the archive, but nothing that really clicks. I too will be making a guess tonight.
I have the year and the month in mind, given that this version lacks an instrument heard in versions before, and that the Jerry guitar solo at the beginning of the instrumental break disappeared by the following month. However, none of the solos are just exactly perfect (focusing on the riff when the instrumental version of the chorus starts and haven’t had that a-ha! moment).