A great mid-80s Drums

Tight rockin' Jerry Berry with excellent Weir vocals

Strong from start to finish with great Jerry vocals

got yer heartfelt Garcia vocals right here, mellow version but very emotional

Another great performance from a seriously neglected show, tight Dead w/incredible sound, great Weir vox and awesome Jerry guitar, strong all the way

@seaplant: You are blaming the victim. Your comment is a classic example of what happens when someone butts into the middle of a conversation that they did not hear the beginning of. You seem to think this exchange started with my "essay" that came out of nowhere and was just begging for flippant responses. But if you had bothered to scroll UP a few comments before weighing in with your conclusory opinion, you'd have noticed that the exchange didn't start with my "essay". It started when I simply and innocently (and very justifiably) expressed my opinion that 4-4-85 is better than 7-19-89. That’s all I said. And you know that kind of is the entire purpose of this web site: people expressing their opinions about what the best versions of Dead songs are. But then Mr. NJFunk comes along and attacks me. He starts by laughing out loud at my opinion. Then he goes with the obnoxiously dismissive “just stop” construction, basically demanding that I just shut up about my opinion. My response? I met his rudeness with rational argument. Then you come along and blame it all on me! I have an idea: why don’t people express their opinions and then back them up with reasons? Yeah? And then those who disagree can back up their disagreement with more evidence and reasons. Yeah? Sound good? That's called rationality and critical thinking and it makes this site more valuable. Life too. And by the way, providing detailed reasons and evidence does not "invite" flippant responses. That is showing others respect and it invites equally respectful responses, not flippant or non-responsive or rude ones.

#speakingoftriggered: short attention span is a real handicap in appreciating the Dead but that explains a lot. You should really try to read it anyway -- and then do the close listening you obviously haven't done. You just might learn something.

11-11-85 is better also

@NJFunk: You just need to get over yourself, bruh, and do some hard listening. Here’s what’s better about 4-4-85 than 7-19-89: Jerry’s playing is far superior in 4-4-85 – and that’s what it’s all about, bro. Now, granted he plays LONGER in 7-19-89. So if you’re a sucker for quantity over quality then there you have it. But both jams in the 4-4-85 version are better played and more interesting than the jams in 9-19-89. Here’s a pro tip for yuh, my dude: the key to a great Jerry jam on a rock and roll song like Deal is how much tight and funky embellishment does he throw in, i.e. those fully articulated, amazing swinging, syncopated Jerry bends and slides and hammer ons and pull offs and descending/ascending patterns. Because that’s exactly what Jerry does with great fluidity, excitement, confidence, and creativity throughout 4-4-85. He is far less creative and interesting in 7-19-89, basically foregoing those amazing Jerry bends and slides and hammerons and pull offs and descending/ascending patterns almost completely in favor of comparatively boring, clunky at times, straight picking and simple ascending/descending noodling. His solos are also much wider ranging in terms of pitch in 4-4-85 which makes them far more interesting and climactic, with Jerry going from the bottom strings at the top of the neck all the way down to the high notes at the bottom of the neck which he plays with piercing brilliance. He stays in a comparatively smaller box in 7-19-89. His tempo in parts of 7-19-89 also gets slow and drags at times. You called it “coked up tempo” in 4-4-85, but I say if he’s going to play that much better with the coke, then somebody should have given Jerry more coke on 7-19-89. Finally, particularly grating is the cheezy 80’s video game guitar tone he goes with in the 2nd solo in 7-19-89. The guitar tone in 4-4-85 is much better. So all-in-all the jamming is clearly superior in 4-4-85. Now, I’ll give you the vocals are a little better in 7-19-89 – but only a little and not enough to make a material difference. In 4-4-85, Jerry dropped and/or garbled a few lyrics – wow, unprecedented! -- but really for the vast majority of the singing Jerry was just fine in 4-4-85. It wasn’t one of those froggy 1985 performances at all. And Deal, you see, is much more of a JAM vehicle than a vocal showcase so the marginally better vocals are not enough to rescue the clearly inferior guitar playing of 7-19-89. Q.E.D.

truly a monster