This week’s edition of The Grateful Dead’s recurring YouTube series “All The Years Live” features the Garcia/Hunter anthem “Eyes of the World” from the group’s June 11, 1993 concert at Buckeye Lake in central Ohio. The full video can be seen below…
Introduced at a 1973 concert, and recorded on Wake of the Flood the same year, “Eyes” immediately became a fixture in the Dead’s setlists, with 380 performances through 1995. Wordsmith Robert Hunter once commented on the lyrics’ meaning during a 1986 interview: “’Eyes of the World’ was quite mystical and, I think, a very right song for the late sixties and early seventies. Looking back on it now, it’s kind of dated…it’s a song about compassion, as I understand it. Being able to see things from someone else’s point of view. It’s always a right message, but I think it can be overdone. It can be made corny. Of course, there are eternal verities. You can’t avoid those too much if you want to say something.”
As with all late-era versions of “Eyes” this slower & jazzier version features plenty of extended melodic leads from Garcia throughout.
