Songs Covered by The Grateful Dead
Listening to "Mama Tried" and remembering that The Dead did a pretty good version of it got me to thinking that they had damn good taste in covers. Did some pretty solid versions of some great songs.

So, it might be good/cool/stupid (take your pick) to try to gather up the Obner resources to assemble a collection of the ORIGINAL versions of some of those tunes?

I can cover Rev. Gary Davis' "Samson and Delilah" and the previously mentioned "Mama Tried".

What else we got?
•Aiko Aiko
•Well, Alright
?

Anyone interested? I just don't have the versions.

i believe "Ain't No Lie" is credited as a "traditional" folk song, but i consider Elizabeth Cotton's version to be the modern "original".

that being said i've never heard the grateful dead version, i just knew a dead fan who said that they've covered it.

Are you serious? I could probably make a ten disc set of Dead covers before lunch today.

The time is right to do this.

I gotta up that first Jerry Band record for you first (which is BTW, all covers)

Not the Dead versions... THE ORIGINALS.

I had a similar idea except it was Johnny Cash instead of the Dead. Lots of potential either way, though.

if someone wanted to up the first grateful dead album i wouldn't be against it

Why on earth would one want to do that?

<====failing reading comprehension today.



In that case, and off the top of my head:

Chuck Berry - "Around and Around"
Chuck Berry - "Johnny B. Goode"
Buddy Holly - "Not Fade Away"
Willie Dixon - "Little Red Rooster"
Traffic - "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
Kris Kristofferson - "Me And Bobby McGee"
Otis Redding - "Hard To Handle"
Wilson Pickett - "In The Midnite Hour"
The Rolling Stones - "It's All Over Now" (though they didnt write it)

Any more questions?

Bob Dylan:

"When I Paint My Masterpiece"
"She Belongs To Me"
"Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues"
"Maggie's Farm"
"Stuck Inside of Mobile"
"It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry"
"Desolation Row"
"Ballad of a Thin Man"
"All Along The Watch Tower"
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
"Man of Peace"

I'm thinking that maybe we should keep the mix to the more-obscure songs that they covered — the older folk and blues songs and some of the lesser-known Dylan and R&B songs. At least at first. Because a lot of those tunes are things that you can turn on any Classic Rock or Oldies station and hear any day, in any given hour.

But their repetoire is so vast that there are some pretty amazing gems that are lesser-known to most folks (including us).

More:

You Win Again - Hank Williams
Big River - J.R. Cash
Turn on Your Lovelight - Bobby Bland
Dancing in the Streets - Martha and the Vandellas
Who Do You Love - Bo Diddley

Well, seeing as we've heard all the originals about a billion times, I think my original question still stands. Why would you want to do that? The Dead one is better and frankly, more challenging.

I just found this insane site. It has every cover they've ever done, who wrote it first, sang it first, who in the Dead sang the cover, AND how many times they did it. This guy had some spare time:

http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/intro.htm


Just click the GD covers link on the left and then search songs with no criteria.

Fuck it, this is still weak. I'll go work on the Dead one myself.

Good lord.