Songs Not Of Their Own: Pick The Best Song Covered By The Grateful Dead

• Original Artist/Songwriter: John Philips
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 638
• Lead Singer: Bob Weir
• First Time Played: November 29, 1966
• Last Time Played: July 6, 1995

Notes: Sung by Bob Weir, “Me And My Uncle” was the song covered most frequently by the Grateful Dead. Written by the notorious John Philips of The Mamas & The Papas, the mythology around the song is that he spontaneously wrote it during a drunken jam session and only realized he was its composer when Judy Collins, who heard the original drunken performance, included it on a 1964 live album. The mythology surrounding the genesis of the song has been disputed over the years, with contradictory details about when and where it might have happened.

Collins recently recalled the circumstances of her learning the song from Philips in New York City during her first acid trip in an interview with Jesse Jarnow for the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast podcast. Jarnow also investigated Bob Weir’s claim that “he learned the song from ‘a hippie named Curly Jim.’” Weir was referring to Curly Jim Stalarow, who was close with the Grateful Dead and their extended family and claimed to have been taught the song directly by Philips (learn more about Curly Jim from Jarnow here).

Weir brought it to the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire in November 1966. They played it three times in 1967 but then not at all in 1968. Once it came back in 1969, mostly remained in regular rotation — it was not played in 1976 — while becoming the most-played cover song in the band’s canon. The recording above comes from the Dead’s April 24, 1978 concert in Bloomington, Illinois, which was preceded by a brief “Stayin’ Alive” tease.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: The Who / The Beatles
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 12
• Lead Singer: Vince Welnick
• First Time Played: May 19, 1992
• Last Time Played: November 29, 1994

Notes: Among the few songs keyboardist Vince Welnick sang lead on during his tenure as the Grateful Dead’s final keyboardist were these two songs by The Who and The Beatles. Always performed together, the sing-alongs almost always occurred during encores. One of The Who’s best-known songs, “Baba O’Riley” was the lead track on the legendary English rockers’ 1971 album, Who’s Next. “Tomorrow Never Knows” was the final track on The Beatles’ 1966 album, Revolver, and helped open the door to the legendary English rockers’ psychedelic era.

The lone non-encore instance the Dead covered the two songs was also the final time they were played, during the second set of the show on November 29, 1994, which can be heard above.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Traditional
• Lead Singer: Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 567
• First Time Played: January 28, 1966
• Last Time Played: July 8, 1995

Notes: The traditional “I Know You Rider” was played by the Grateful Dead when they were still called The Warlocks — Phil Lesh believes it was the first song he rehearsed after joining the band. The second most frequently covered song in the band’s live repertoire, “Rider” found a partner in “China Cat Sunflower,” consistently following the Grateful Dead original once they were paired together in late-1969.

The roots of “I Know You Rider” are likely tied to a song called “Woman Blue” that musicologists Alan Lomax and John Lomax included in their anthology of traditional folk songs. Bob Coltman championed the song in the late 1950s and over the subsequent decade, it was recorded and performed with various variations by many prominent folk musicians such as Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, Judy Roderick and Tossi Aaron. In addition to the Grateful Dead making it their own, “Rider” — under a variety of titles and arrangments — was covered by The Byrds, James Taylor, Hot Tuna, Janis Joplin and dozens of others.

Above is a standalone, acoustic version harkening back to their pre-Dead days from their May 2, 1970 show at Harpur college, and for a sense of its electric improvisation-driving pairing with “China Cat Sunflower” is a sequence of “Jam” > “China Cat Sunflower” > “Mind Left Body Jam” > “I Know You Rider” from the start of their show on June 26, 1974, at the Providence Civic Center.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Loretta Lynn
• Lead Singer: Donna Jean Godchaux
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 17
• First Time Played: February 15, 1973
• Last Time Played: October 21, 1973

Notes: A showcase for vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux and her husband Keith Godchaux’s piano playing, “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” was one of country music icon Loretta Lynn’s signature songs. Lynn, who died last year at age 90, recorded the song with acclaimed producer Owen Bradley and it became a hit on the country charts in 1966.

In addition to the handful of times Donna Jean Godchaux sang “You Ain’t Woman Enough” with the Dead in 1973, that same year she sang it a few times with the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. The recording above comes from the Dead’s June 24, 1973 show in Portland.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Buddy Holly / Traditional
• Lead Singer: All / Jerry Garcia
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 550 / 301
• First Time Played: February 19, 1969 / October 11, 1970
• Last Time Played: July 5, 1995 / July 5, 1995

Notes: The familiar Bo Diddley beat that anchors Buddy Holly & The Crickets’ proto-rock song “Not Fade Away” can still be heard in the parking lots at concerts held by Dead & Company, Phil & Friends and other Dead-adjacent bands. The song’s “You know our love will not fade away” refrain became a way for the band and its devoted audience to share the mutually appreciative experience together. Its frequent encore/end of the second set appearance often led to the audience continuing to sing well after the band left the stage. The traditional “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” was regularly the meat of an “NFA” sandwich as there were 120 instances of “NFA” > “GDTRFB” between 1970 and 1983. “Not Fade Away” was released in 1957 as the B-side of Holly’s single “Oh, Boy!” and appeared on the album The “Chirping” Crickets, which came that same year. The Rolling Stones’ 1964 cover of “Not Fade Away” was the band’s first single in the United States and among their earliest hit records.

Much like the traditional “I Know You Rider,” the traditional “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” has a rich history and has been performed under different titles and with different lyrics by numerous musicians over the past 100+ years. A 1923 recording of “Lonesome Road Blues” by Appalachian musician Henry Whitter is believed to be the earliest known recording of what is now commonly called “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad.”

Above is the final track on the Dead’s 1971 live album, Skull & Roses, featuring “NFA” > “GDTRFB” from their show at New York City’s Manhattan Center on April 5, 1971.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Robbie Robertson
• Lead Singer: Phil Lesh
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 35
• First Time Played: February 23, 1993
• Last Time Played: July 2, 1995

Notes: In the 1980s, Deadheads began shouting “Let Phil sing!” encouraging the Grateful Dead’s bass player to front the band. Lesh, who barely sang at all between 1976 and 1985 due to vocal chord damage from improper singing technique, would often respond by playing his original composition “Box Of Rain.” Other times the Dead “Let Phil sing” was when the bassist led covers of Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow.” The song appeared on The Band guitarist’s 1987 solo album and was covered by Rod Stewart in 1991.

The Dead brought it into their live repertoire in 1993 and the version above was recorded that year on March 27 at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York and was included on 30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story compilation.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: The Young Rascals (Artie Resnick, Rudy Clark)
• Lead Singer: Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (1966-1972), Jerry Garcia (1969), Bob Weir (1970-1995)
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 443
• First Time Played: May 19, 1965
• Last Time Played: June 28, 1995

Notes: Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was the defacto frontman of the Dead from its founding in 1965 through his untimely death in 1973. Pigpen had a handful of covers in his wheelhouse that showed off his prowess as band leader, commanding covers such as “Hard To Handle,” “Turn On Your Lovelight” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” and originals “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks),” among others. “Good Lovin’,” was another of Pigpen’s signature workups, regularly enhanced with one of his frenzied, stream-of-consciousness raps that could elevate any listener (check out the notorious “Brooklyn Bridge Rap” from April 17, 1971 above).

Written by Artie Resnick and Rudy Clark and first recorded in 1965, The Young Rascals had a hit with their February 1966 single. In May 1966, the Dead’s first known attempt at the song featured Pigpen singing lead. Jerry Garcia would sing lead a few times when it returned to the band’s setlists in 1969, before handing duties back to Pigpen. Bob Weir took over singing lead in 1974 and continued through 1995. Weir sang the version that appeared on the band’s 1978 album, Shakedown Street.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Traffic
• Lead Singer: Brent Mydland
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 60
• First Time Played: June 14, 1984
• Last Time Played: July 21, 1990

Notes: Brent Mydland was the Grateful Dead’s longest-tenured keyboardist, whose contributions included not just an ever-growing array of keyboards that incorporated new sounds but also a distinct and soulful singing voice. Mydland’s harmonizing with Garcia and Weir enhanced many of the band’s classic songs. Mydland also wrote and sang lead on several original songs, many of which were co-written with Weir’s longtime lyrical writing partner John Perry Barlow. Along with harmonizing and singing lead on his originals, Mydland was the primary singer of just a few covers, including “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” which appeared on Traffic’s 1967 album, Mr. Fantasy. Written by Traffic’s Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood and Chris Wood, a nearly 11-minute version was recorded by the British psychedelic rockers for their 1971 live album, Welcome To The Canteen.

“In June 1984, the Grateful Dead performed ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ for the first time, at Red Rocks,” Dead archivist David Lemieux explained. “A year later, also at Red Rocks, they added Dear Mr. Fantasy by including the Hey Jude coda to the Traffic classic. And then we waited. Finally, in winter 1988, the Dead brought back Hey Jude, again attached to Fantasy, and it would remain this way for a couple of years, until Brent left the building in July 1990.” Though the Dead stopped playing “Dear Mr. Fantasy” after Mydland’s untimely death, Garcia sat-in on performances of “Dear Mr. Fantasy” when Traffic opened for the Dead in 1994. The above video comes from the Grateful Dead’s July 2, 1989 concert at Foxboro Stadium.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Chuck Berry
• Lead Singer: Bob Weir
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 434
• First Time Played: May 21, 1971
• Last Time Played: July 9, 1995

Notes:Pioneering rock ‘n’ roll guitarist Chuck Berry was the author of two songs that the Grateful Dead covered more than 400 times, “Around And Around” and “Promised Land” (the band also played Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” just shy of 300 times). There were at least 136 instances of “Around And Around” and “Promised Land,” both sung by Weir, being performed at the same Grateful Dead show (and 34 with “Johnny B. Goode” making it a Chuck Berry trifecta). Berry, whose complicated legacy is marred by allegations of abuse and sexual assault, released “Promised Land” in 1964, making it the first single following his stint in prison serving a sentence for violating the Mann Act.

In early 1966, the Dead recorded “Promised Land” during a studio session that featured Garcia on lead vocals. When the Dead played it live for the first time in 1971, Weir was in charge of lead vocals, and he helmed the 430+ other performances including when it closed the first set of the band’s final show on July 9, 1995, at Soldier Field in Chicago. Above is the version of “Promised Land” from the August 27, 1972 concert at the Old Renaissance Faire Grounds in Veneta, Oregon.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Bob Dylan
• Lead Singer: Jerry Garcia
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 146
• First Time Played: January 7, 1966
• Last Time Played: February 19, 1995

Notes: Bob Dylan wrote more songs covered by the Grateful Dead than any other songwriter. According to the endlessly valuable data compiled by JerryBase, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” is the Dylan song played most by the Dead, eking out “When I Paint My Masterpiece” by a single performance. Dylan’s songs were sung by Weir, Lesh and Garcia, the last of whom sang lead on “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.” Recorded on January 15, 1965, and released in April of that year on Dylan’s album, Bringing It All Back Home, “Baby Blue,” was played live for the first time by the Grateful Dead on January 7, 1966.

Sporadically played over subsequent years — at times going years between performances — “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” came into its own as a go-to encore song starting in 1981 and continuing through its final appearance. The recording above is of the bust-out “Baby Blue” from the encore on February 24, 1974, which was its first appearance since 1972 and only until it returned to regular rotation in 1981.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Johnny Cash
• Lead Singer: Bob Weir
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 399
• First Time Played: December 31, 1971
• Last Time Played: July 6, 1995

Notes: Within the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire was a subset of songs commonly referred to as Bob Weir’s “cowboy songs.” Weir’s admiration for country-tinged Americana can be heard within originals such as “Black Throated Wind” and “Mexicali Blues.” Bobby also sang lead on a number of country-leaning covers during the Dead’s long-running career. Weir fronted the band on Marty Robbins’ “El Paso,” Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and John Phillips’ “Me and My Uncle.” On New Year’s Eve 1971, Johnny Cash’s “Big River” joined Weir’s cache of cowboy tunes.

The song tracing the path of the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota all the way down to New Orleans, was released by Cash in 1958, quickly becoming a hit for the Man In Black. After its December 31, 1971 debut, Garcia sang lead on “Big River,” during a soundcheck on the Dead’s Europe ’72 Tour. Lead vocals were handed back to Weir on subsequent performances including the blistering version from May 9, 1977, in Buffalo, New York.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Traditional
• Lead Singer: Jerry Garcia
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 255
• First Time Played: March 25, 1966
• Last Time Played: June 19, 1995

Notes: “Rain And Snow,” as performed in 1916 by Mrs. Tom Rice in Big Laurel, North Carolina, appeared in the 1917 compendium, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians that was compiled by folklorists Cecil Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell. Identified as “Cold Rain And Snow,” the Grateful Dead played it live in concert for the first time in March 1966, one year before it was included on their 1967 self-titled debut album and miscredited to the band’s all-encompassing pseudonym “McGannahan Skjellyfetti” (later editions corrected the credit to “Traditional”). “Cold Rain And Snow” was brought to the band by lead singer Jerry Garcia. In March 1967, Garcia was interviewed by radio DJ Larry Miller, and detailed his history with “Cold Rain And Snow”:

“Yeah, the song is a traditional song…it’s a [framework] ballad taken from Obray Ramsey, and earlier from Rufus Crisp I think. Like I say, it’s only a frame, it’s not a complete ballad. A lot of our material is traditional because we use the words as a format, is all, and the words are nice, those traditional lines are really nice; and we just do the arrangement and the melody and so forth. Also we haven’t copywritten any of the words in these things – the things that are traditional, we’ve left them traditional. Things that were authored previously, even if our version is somewhat different, we give credit to the people who were doing it.”

“Cold Rain And Snow” was frequently selected to open Dead concerts, as it was in the version above from February 4, 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Bobby “Blue” Bland
• Lead Singer: Ron “Pigpen” McKernan / Bob Weir
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 369
• First Time Played: July 18, 1967
• Last Time Played: June 19, 1995

Notes: If Ron “Pigpen” McKernan had a signature song during his time as a member of the Dead, Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Turn On Your Lovelight” was essentially it. Pigpen’s love of the blues and R&B was likely seeded by his father Phil McKernan, a radio DJ who championed the music that was popularized by Black musicians. Bland’s recording of “Lovelight” came out in 1961. Like “Good Lovin’,” Pigpen-led Dead performances of “Lovelight” were often wild, blues-infused, psychedelic explosions of improvisation that would stretch on and on while he leaned into his hardened bluesman persona and unleashed sinister and sensous free-form raps. Pigpen’s last performance of “Lovelight” came on May 24, 1972 at the Lyceum in London, England, while on the band’s Europe ’72 Tour.

Nine years later, “Lovelight” resurfaced with Bob Weir singing lead during their show on October 16, 1981. Weir-led takes on “Lovelight” occurred twice more in 1982, but then not at all in 1983. A full-fledged return to the Dead’s live repertoire began in 1984 when Weir-sung performances of “Lovelight” became a second set staple. Clocking in at 30-minutes, the above recording from February 1970 at the Fillmore East is a prime example of Pigpen putting his signature stamp on “Turn On Your Lovelight.”

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Bonnie Dobson
• Lead Singer: Jerry Garcia
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 278
• First Time Played: March 18, 1967
• Last Time Played: June 21, 1995

Notes: Toronto native Bonnie Dobson wrote “Morning Dew” and recorded it for her 1962 album, At Folk City. Folk singer Fred Neil recorded the song with Vince Martin for their 1964 album, Tear Down The Walls. In 1966, Neil was performing with members of The Buzzy Linhart Trio and participating in regular jam sessions at the loft of the group’s drummer Serge Katzan on the Lower East Side of New York City. Among the others believed to have attended the loft jam sessions include Mississippi John Hurt, Donovan, David Crosby, Gram Parsons and Jerry Garcia.

According to longtime Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally in his book, Long Strange Trip, it was Laird Grant — Garcia’s childhood friend and an among the earliest members of the band’s crew — who in 1966 introduced Garcia to Neil’s version of “Morning Dew.” Soon after Garcia and the Dead were mesmerizing audiences with powerful performances of the poignant song. Above is another stellar version of “Morning Dew” from the highly regarded May 8, 1977, Dead show at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Traditional
• Lead Singer: Bob Weir
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 364
• First Time Played: June 3, 1976
• Last Time Played: July 9, 1995

Notes:

“He was my main guitar influence, really, and if you listen to his stuff you’ll see that he took it all from piano, too — all of his parts are stride piano playing adapted to guitar. It’s amazing stuff. He had a Bachian sense of music, which transcended any common notion of a bluesman.“ – Bob Weir regarding the Rev. Gary Davis.

“There was maybe one person, two people, in a hundred that knew they were listening to a Gary Davis tune,” Weir said in 2015 regarding “Samson” and Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” which the Dead also covered. “Probably half of them thought that we had written it.”

Weir was one of many noted guitarists to not only be influenced by the Rev. Gary Davis but to take lessons from the renowned blues musician. Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen helped facilitate Weir’s meeting with Davis in Queens, New York prior to the latter’s death in 1972. Though Weir was only able to participate in three or four sessions with Davis, the blind finger-picker forever impacted Bobby’s career. The origin of the song “Samson And Delilah” dates back a late-1920s recording of “If I Had My Way, I Would Tear This Building Down” by Blind Willie Johnson, which strongly resembles the arrangement Davis likely taught Weir.

• Original Artist/Songwriter: Traditional
• Lead Singer: Jerry Garcia
• Grateful Dead Live Performances: 321
• First Time Played: July 16, 1966
• Last Time Played: July 8, 1995

Notes: “Don’t Ease Me In,” was played live by the Grateful Dead twice in July 1966, one month after their studio recording was released as one of the sides of their debut single, “Stealin’.” Both of the traditional jug band songs were part of the repertoire of the Dead-precursor Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. “Don’t Ease Me In” was first recorded by Texas-born bluesman Henry Thomas in 1928. Also known as “Ragtime Texas,” Thomas also wrote songs that were recorded or reinterpreted by Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Lovin Spoonful, Canned Heat and others.

The Dead played “Don’t Ease Me In” once in 1967, but then not again until 1970. Though constantly played by the Dead through their penultimate show in Chicago on July 8, 1995, “Don’t Ease Me In” got shelved for all of 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978. There were no more lapses following its return in 1979. Functioning with both electric and acoustic arrangments depending on the era, “Don’t Ease Me In” was recorded in the studio another time when it appeared on the band’s 1980 album, Go To Heaven. The performance of “Don’t Ease Me In” above comes from the Dead’s cross-Canadian tour by train in 1970 with The Band, Janis Joplin and others that was the basis of the documentary film, Festival Express.