SETLISTS FOR THE STEELHEADER
ROAD TUNES
FOR THOSE
ABOUT TO ROCK
SETLISTS FOR THE STEELHEADER
- Chris Santella
Living in Portland, Oregon, I’ m fortunate to have a number of fine rivers within a two-hour’ s drive from my house. This is especially good for a Deadhead, as some sets— even some versions of“ Lovelight” or“ Dark Star”— could you take you much of the way there. So let’ s start with the Grateful Dead. When asked about the Dead’ s appeal, Jerry Garcia once likened it to licorice: a lot of people don’ t like licorice at all, but a few like it an awful lot. But even licorice comes in different flavors. As you might know, the band( and their fans) were obsessive about capturing each and every gig on tape, so there are over 2,000 live performances to choose from … and that’ s not even counting the various spinoff groups involving various band members over the past 20 years, which would account for a thousand( give or take) more recordings.
There’ s no question that the band’ s sound evolved— and at other times, one might say, devolved— over their 30-year run. My sweet spot falls between 1972 and 1974— a time when they began to incorporate a jazzier tone, but the jams could still take you places that would seem to require pharmaceutical assistance, which I generally abstain from.( Before Garcia’ s death in 1995, I took in roughly 35 shows. I say roughly, because in my college days I was perhaps a bit less abstemious and lost count. In the later years, I would forego the passed offerings and even the over-priced concession beer, as I really wanted to focus on the music … even though, thanks to Garcia’ s heroin addiction and other factors, it was heading in a mostly downward trajectory. Still, by
being attentive— and sober— I came to understand the subtleties of each band members’ approach. As a sometime guitar player, I especially came to appreciate Bob Weir’ s esoteric rhythm guitar style, and how intrinsic it was to the band’ s sound.) But I digress.
Some of the 73 / 74 sequences of the song“ Scarlet Begonias” morphing into“ Eyes of the World” border on the ecstatic, and almost beg the question, did the Grateful Dead invent jazz fusion? Another song combination I always enjoy from this period was“ China Cat Sunflower” segueing into“ I Know You Rider,” the latter being a bluegrass standard that the Dead made their own. In 1973, the band stretched out the middle jam into a rolling, flowing meditation in the key of G, pausing occasionally, but ever moving forward— much like a river.( Deadheads refer to these breaks as the“ Feeling Groovy” jams, though I could never quite hear the Simon and Garfunkel tune therein.) One line in“ I Know You Rider” goes,“ My mind was wandering like the wild geese in the West.” For me, Garcia’ s melodic guitar lines are like those geese— soaring, spinning, and encompassing the Great American West, with its many fine trout and steelhead streams.