The latest installment of the Grateful Dead’s weekly video series “All The Years Live” features the band’s most signature number, “Truckin’”, from the October 30, 1980 concert at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. Culled from a legendary run that resulted in the dichotomous live releases “Reckoning” and “Dead Set” the following year, the group was reinvigorated by the presence of new keyboardist Brent Mydland as was evident by their remarkably crisp playing throughout the entire Fall tour.
Debuted in 1970, “Truckin’” went on to be one the band’s most regularly played songs, with over 500 live performances through 1995. While often used as a show opener in the early years of 1970-71, this popular testament to life on the road eventually found its place as a reliable second-set jam vehicle towards the back-nine of the Dead’s career.
This version, which features some lush vocal harmonies from Mydland, dissolves into a spacey blues-centric jam before segueing into Messrs. Hart’s & Kreutzmann’s iconic “Rhythm Devils” segment that often marked the halfway point of the band’s closing stanzas.
