Top 25 Grateful Dead Songs: Bobby

Five of my favorite songs sung and written by Mr. Bob Weir himself.

As I’ve talked about a few times in my Grateful Dead posts here, I’m a bit of a Bob Weir apologist. He gets a little overshadowed by everyone else in the group and, thus, doesn’t get his due.

But these songs, my five favorite Bobby tunes (save for whatever ones will appear in my final Top 5… coming soon…), are all standouts in the Dead’s discography. So there’s no reason to sleep on Mr. Bobby Weir as a great musician and member of the Dead.

“The Music Never Stopped”

This is a fun track off Blues for Allah, which captures something about the Dead itself as well as the magic and transformation that occurs when you’re listening to a great group that’s in sync.

They're a band beyond description
Like Jehovah's favorite choir.
People joinin' hand in hand
While the music plays the band.
Lord, they're setting us on fire.

It’s a kind of perfect song for Bobby. I’ve said it a few times, but what I love about Bob and why he’s my favorite member of the Dead is the… workmanlike approach he seems to take. It’s very grounded, very real, but that allows him to get into more mystical spaces. In a comparison that might make sense only to me, I think there’s a little bit of my favorite musician (Bruce Springsteen) to Bobby and it’s in that real reverence for what a great band can do. Jerry’s lead work complements the straight-ahead surge of the track, while the Phil and the Rhythm Devils keep things rolling along.

The studio version of “Music Never Stopped” is a strong one, certainly in that small batch of Dead songs where I’m inclined to start with the studio version. But there are some live versions that elevate this song, with one of them being this 2/3/78 version recorded in Madison, WI

It’s the best version of “Disco” Dead that you could ask for, with great backing vocals from Donna Jean Godchaux as well as some fascinating exploration and improvisation heading into the end of the song.

“Estimated Prophet"

California, preaching on the burning shore

California, I'll be knocking on the golden door

Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light

Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine

Another late 70s/”Disco” Dead-adjacent song, and one that it took me a while to come around to love. When I first heard it, the song’s slower tempo and the 70s-tinged electronic effects didn’t speak to me. Honestly, I think Dead and Company’s performance of the song at the show I went to in Atlanta moved this one onto the list for me.

I think when it gets out into the wild and is performed live, the excess slickness disappears and it becomes much more appealing, like you hear in this version from 1979 in Oakland, CA.

“The Other One”

I don’t pay enough attention to the 60s “Primal” Dead stuff; thus, I wanted to include this song as a gesture to that important time in the band’s development.

This song grew out of a much larger song, “That’s It For The Other One,” but the consented “The Other One” (though only relatively condensed) would become a major part of the Dead’s setlist throughout their career. But it distills that “Primal” Dead essence down into this powerful hit of psychedelia and improvisation. Phil Lesh’s bass work and the drumming by Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart always jump out to me, no matter what version or performance I’m listening to. It’s wild and wooly in the best way.

The lyrics were also written by Weir, in addition to being sung by him, and feature both this stellar exchange

But the heat came round and busted me

For smilin on a cloudy day

As well as featuring a reference to Kerouac muse/Merry Prankster bus driver Neal Cassady.

There was cowboy Neal

At the wheel

Of a bus to never-ever land

It’s also the song that provided the title for the Netflix documentary on Weir, which I would highly recommend.

“Cassidy”

Speaking of which… this is a song perhaps I’m predisposed to loving because it is, partially, inspired by Neal Cassady, the man who inspired the character of Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. The studio version appears on Weir’s solo debut, Ace (which was a de facto Grateful Dead album, as everyone save for Pigpen played on it).

While a lot of my favorite Bob Weir songs are rocking and rollicking, this is a much more lush and beautiful tune compared to those other tracks. It also has some of my favorite lyrics that Bobby beautifully sings.

Lost now on the country miles in his Cadillac.

I can tell by the way you smile he's rolling back.

Come wash the nighttime clean,

Come grow this scorched ground green,

Blow the horn, tap the tambourine

Close the gap of the dark years in between

…

Fare thee well now.

Let your life proceed by its own design.

Nothing to tell now.

Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine.

I think that lush, acoustic sound lends itself to the song being at its best when it is played in the studio. The version that appears on Ace is usually what I listen to when I want to hear “Cassidy.”

That said, the version from Reckoning (recorded in 1980 at the Warfield theater in San Francisco) is pretty good.

It’s perhaps surprising that I’ve waited this long to talk about the Day of the Dead album, but the version of “Cassidy” on there, sung by Jenny Lewis and Moses Sumney, is very good as well.

“Feel Like a Stranger”

When I think of the best parts of ‘80s Dead, “Feel Like a Stranger” immediately comes to mind. That silky, slinky, electric sound, which is a testament to Brent Mydland’s keyboard work, shines on this track, as does the groove that Phil Lesh brings through the bass part. The description of “silky” sound comes from the outro, with the “silky silky crazy crazy night” refrain.

John Perry Barlow’s lyrics make it perfect for a show opener too:

Well you know it's gonna get stranger

So let's get on with the show

The version on Go To Heaven feels a bit too bland and underdeveloped, as this is a song that took off when performed live. The best version, according to Heady Version, is the one captured on the Without a Net live album.

I’d also like to note a few honorable mentions, songs that I would like to mention but that didn’t quite make official status on my list. Those songs are: “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Looks Like Rain,” “Saint of Circumstance,” and perhaps most prominently “Weather Report Suite.”