My Top 25 Grateful Dead Songs
Starting an ongoing series in which I count down my 25 favorite Dead songs, beginning with a list of honorable mentions featuring songs associated with the band but that they didn't write.
As my Grateful Dead fandom continues apace, I decided to further commemorate it in written form by identifying my Top 25 favorite Grateful Dead songs.
Before I get into my list, I’m going to offer up a few honorable mentions.
This batch are the songs that the Dead did not themselves write. Some of these are traditionals that they arranged and added to their repertoire, others are songs written by other artists but that the Dead covered so regularly the songs became closely linked to them. But these songs don’t quite fit into the celebration of both the Dead’s songwriting and performance, but I wanted to give them their due.
“Samson and Delilah”
This traditional song would become a part of the Grateful Dead’s stable of songs on June 3rd 1976 and would be played 363 times in concert as well as being immortalized with a studio version on Terrapin Station. What is going to become something of a theme with these songs, it’s one where Bob Weir sings the lead vocals. Thus, “Samson and Delilah” (along with the other songs where Bobby sang we’ll be talking about today) would become something of a live staple in the Dead’s alternating approach to setlists (with a Jerry Garcia song always followed by a Bob Weir song).
It’s also an example of something we see a lot when it comes to the Dead—a track that on the album falls somewhat flat but in concert works much better.
This performance, from the final shows at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, features some great drumming from Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, who two-pronged percussion drive this song. There’s also some stellar soloing from Garcia and a manic lyrical delivery from Weir.
“Promised Land”
One of Chuck Berry’s best songs became a staple of the Dead’s live show, and it is another one of the tracks that Weir could sing as he alternated with Garcia. There were other Berry songs, like “Little Red Rooster” and “Around and Around,” that the Dead would frequently play (I think about the complaints on 36 From the Vault about “double Berry” shows where more than one Chuck Berry cover was included on the setlist) but this is, for my money, the best one (both in terms of Chuck Berry songs and songs the Dead would cover in concert).
“El Paso”
Another of the Bob Weir “cowboy” songs that became staples of the standard Dead show. This one is a true classic from Marty Robbins.
Bob Dylan wrote wonderfully about this song (the original one by Robbins) in his Philosophy of Modern Song book. Unfortunately, I cannot excise and share here, but I wanted to point the reader in that direction.
In addition to it being a great country song, I also think it provides a moment of levity in the Dead’s set, strange as that might be for a song about murder and death. But the relative simplicity of the music, as compared with the experimental, boundary and genre pushing originals from the band itself, provides a breather of sorts for the listener in the form of this classic bit of country songwriting. There’s a great bounce to this song as the Dead perform it, one that’s in keeping with the western locale the song depicts. Again, you wouldn’t expect a song that ends in murder to have this kind of pep to it, and yet it does.
While I will always first associate the song with its composer and first popularizer in Marty Robbins, this song will also be one I link with the Dead and crystalizes what made them so special.
“Morning Dew”
While three of the songs here are Bobby tunes, this song is a Jerry one in which he takes the lead. This adaptation of a folk song by Bonnie Dobson would become another constant presence in the Dead’s live sets (played 255 times, spanning their entire career). While songs like “Samson and Delilah” and “El Paso” might appear early on in the first set, “Morning Dew” was always a heavy hitter whose time usually came towards the end of the concert in a real “prime time” spot. It’s one I so clearly associate with the Dead that I was somewhat surprised to learn this wasn’t a song they actually wrote.
Though this song appeared on their debut album, it would be one that would find its true footing in concert, with the best version (at least per headyversion.com) coming at the famous 5/8/77 Cornell show.
This fascinating balance in the lyrics between the apocalyptic “Where have all the people gone my honey? Where have all the people gone today?” and the peaceful imagery of “Walk me out in the morning dew” makes it an appropriate song for the Dead. It’s also a great vehicle for the virtuosic soloing of Garcia. Just as with “El Paso” and its combination of the light (musical sound) and the dark (subject matter), you get some of that here as well with this soft, tender ballad and then these consciousness-shaking solos.
“And We Bid You Goodnight”
This traditional became perhaps the quintessential concert closer for the Dead and an opportunity for them to harmonize vocally.
When you think about what you would hear during the rest of the Dead’s show, this simple almost lullaby makes for a fitting way to wrap things up.
This wraps up my first set of honorable mentions—songs closely associated with the Grateful Dead but ones that they did not write. The next entry will be another batch of honorable mentions, namely the songs written by the Dead that didn’t crack my Top 25 list. But let me know if I left off any songs from this batch in the comments!
Great kickoff to what I'm sure is gonna be a fun ride! I think we've talked about it before, but the Dead are a band, I didn't much like in school, but really came to love later. Turns out most of my music nerd friends did the same.