Unofficial 31 Days of Dead – 2012 Edition: Day Four

Welcome back to the third installment of “The Unofficial 31 Days of Dead.” The past two years were so much fun that I decided to do it again. The idea for these compilations came about after dead.net ran its “30 Days of Dead” in November 2010. While the Deadhead community at large was no doubt thrilled to receive previously unreleased tracks from the band’s vast archives, many of us were hoping for just a bit…more.  Hey, we are Deadheads – we are always hoping for more! Therefore, I thought it might be fun to keep the music flowing by selecting my own daily picks. The month of December seemed more than appropriate since New Year’s Eve celebrations were such a big part of the Grateful Dead. Let’s think of these daily picks as an advent calendar leading up to New Year’s Eve. Unlike the “Official 30 Days of Dead,” there is no contest here. Instead, the prize is the music and the winner is the listener.

[Artwork by Brian Levine]

December 4

Bird Song
3/26/87 Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT

I have heard people complain that there were no “jams” in the comeback year of 1987. Well, that is just poppycock!  This transcendent version of Bird Song flips the bird to all of the naysayers. In fact, it might just be the jam of the year if it were not for the 15-minute Playin’ In The Band from 9/19/87. This Bird Song is quite the journey as it traverses through beautiful, quiet green valleys and then soars high above snow-capped mountains into the heavens. The band hits peak after majestic peak with crashing chords, each time taking it a notch further. The result is extremely powerful and exciting. You can feel the electricity running through the feverish East Coast crowd as they were seeing and hearing first hand that Jerry and the Grateful Dead were truly “back.”

Download Link:  http://www.mediafire.com/?i3qiib036ys2e90

LMA Link: http://archive.org/details/gd87-03-26.mixed.braverman.10923.sbeok.shnf

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3 Responses

  1. Ed, I have been looking forward to your show picks all year. The first 4 have been fantastic and will certainly keep me jonesing for more! Keep up the good work! Lord knows there is such a plethora of greatness to sift through and time makes fools of us all. Thanks for sharing your time and insight. When I listen to the Dead, all is right with the world. THX!

  2. There were actually a bunch of super strong Bird Songs in ’87, they tend to have very high energy peaks & some of them are really unique and interesting, for instance check out the version on View From the Vault 4 – this one is phenomenal though!

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