The latest release from The Grateful Dead’s weekly video series All The Years Live showcases the tender Garcia/Hunter composition, “Bird Song“, from the Grateful Dead’s June 26, 1993 concert at Washington D.C.’s RFK Stadium. Introduced in 1971, the song immediately became a first-set staple, with nearly 60 performances before it was dropped from the repertoire in 1973. However, much to the delight – and surprise – of Deadheads the band revived this ode to Janis Joplin as an acoustic number during their infamous 1980 run at San Fransisco’s Warfield Theater. It remained in regular rotation thereafter, with nearly 300 total performances through 1995.
Almost exclusively used as a first-set launching pad for some of the group’s finest improvisational playing, “Bird Song” was one of only a handful of songs the band chose to regularly stretch things out during their opening stanzas, along with other gems such as “Cassidy” and “Let It Grow”.
This version, another choice cut from the Vince Welnick era, features Bruce Hornsby on accordion offering some level of sustain underneath Garcia’s extended melodic leads.
