April 3, 1990 – The Omni, Atlanta, GA
After 16 shows and nearly 2200 miles traveled, including a couple of harrowing Canadian border-crossings, the Grateful Dead’s celebrated 1990 Spring tour finally came to an end in the “Big Peach.” As we’ve stated ad nauseam over the past few weeks in this series of superlative-laden articles, this tour had it all. Bustouts and rarities? Check. A legendary guest appearance? Check. Incredibly focused & cohesive playing on a consistent basis? Check. Plenty of Brent Mydland? Check and check again.
Considering the Dead played thousands of shows over their 30-year history, the fact that band members still regularly look back at this era – and specifically this tour – as one of the group’s greatest speaks volumes to just how remarkably profound this run of shows was. Referring to this tour as the “high point of that era”, Bob Weir reflected on this time-period during a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone. “We were hot, feeling our oats and surprising each other on stage. The jams had personality and space. We were in good shape and had nothing better to do than get down on the music…We were real open, so it wasn’t hard to hear suggestions, either in the back of your head or in what someone else was playing, that would take us to a new place. There was a lot of jams that were on of a kind, with their own personality and space. It was a hopping era for us.”
Though, perhaps Mickey Hart summed it up best during the same Rolling Stone interview: “The Grateful Dead meant a lot to us. It was everything. And to let it go, to peter out after all we’d been through, was unthinkable. We had a burst of energy around that time, because of the hit [“Touch of Grey”]. A hit brings a whole bunch of energy, negative and positive. The kids breaking down the stadium doors – they almost killed what they loved the most. They almost put us out of business. But that created an energy that we transferred into the music. We were energized by that hit – and reacting against it. The hard thing is as [Ken] Kesey said, to stay within your own movie. We were able to do that on this tour.”
While this final show does contain some seemingly tired vocals from Garcia – completely understandable after a grueling three weeks on the road – it still features plenty of inspired playing throughout from all six members. Opening things up with an energetic combo of Garcia’s funky “Shakedown Street” and Weir’s Harley Davidson-inspired rocker “Hell in a Bucket”, the band steamrolls their way through the remainder of the first set, including strong versions of “Sugaree”, “Tennesse Jed”, and Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land.”
The spring’s closing set begins with another unusual sequence, this time consisting of “Estimated Prophet->Scarlet Begonias->Crazy Fingers”, before Weir’s exploratory “Playing in the Band” leads into the run’s final “drums & space” segment. One of the last ever performances of Mydland’s lullaby “I Will Take You Home” materializes out of “Space” before the set concludes with a murderer’s row of “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad”, “Throwing Stones” and “Not Fade Away.” The band returned for an a capella rendition of “And We Bid You Goodnight”, a fitting end to one of the most transcendent tours in Grateful Dead history.
“Hell in a Bucket”: Introduced at a 1983 concert, and later recorded on In The Dark, this Bob Weir/John Barlow rocker was played over 215 times, often as a welcome show-opening jump starter. Full of some rather risqué lyrical allusions, the 1987 studio version was accompanied by a brilliant music video featuring a duck who likely has a drinking problem along with Phil Lesh dressed like some sort of terrifying S&M magician. Tonight’s powerful rendition features driving bass lines from Lesh underneath of Weir’s apoplectic vocals.
“Sugaree”: Based off of Elizabeth Cotton’s “Shake Sugaree”, this wistful Garcia/Hunter ditty was ultimately one of Jerry’s signature songs, with just under 360 performances between 1971-1995. “Sugaree” also made several appearances in the guitarist’s solo projects as a surprise – but welcome – inclusion throughout the mid-70’s and early-80’s. This version is a typically high-energy late-era affair with some searing lines from Garcia during the instrumental passages.
“Throwing Stones” & “Not Fade Away”: This dichotomous duo, featuring a pair of songs from two entirely different generations, was ultimately performed nearly 170 times after they were first joined together in 1982.
“Not Fade Away”, written & recorded by Buddy Holly and producer Norman Petty in 1957, was never a big hit for Holly, only appearing as a B side opposite his vastly more popular “Oh Boy.” While the Dead introduced this number in 1968, it wasn’t until 1970 that the song truly came into its own when it was paired with the traditional “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad” as part of a formulaic – yet explosive – medley. The song’s format gradually tightened up throughout the 80’s, and infamously adopted a tribal call-and-response sequence with the audience which produced dozens of genuinely goose bump-inducing moments as entire arenas & stadiums would loudly affirm “You know our love will not fade away” in unison.
The overtly political Barlow-penned “Throwing Stones” was ultimately one of Weir’s more popular and enduring numbers with nearly 270 total performances through 1995. The rhythm guitarist discussed its meaning during a 1985 interview. “The world isn’t all bad. But we wanted to paint a picture of the world as we both saw it that night. It took longer than a night, of course, but we had the form of it down in a night. It’s just that sooner or later, whether they [the audience] knows it or not, that’s what they’re saying-sooner or later it’s all going to collapse. I guess the thrust of the song is what we will or won’t do in the face of that: ‘We will leave this place an empty stone / Or that shining ball of blue we can call our home.’ Sooner or later we’ll emerge triumphant as a race or we’ll make our own graves.”
“And We Bid You Goodnight”: Steeped in biblical lore, this traditional a capella number was a Grateful Dead rarity, with only 56 appearances after its 1968 debut, including an eleven-year performance gap between 1978-1989. This tender version is among the band’s last, as it was played only twice more with its final outing occurring in 1991.
Previous Spring ’90 Tour Revisits
