This week's addition to the Grateful Dead's "All The Years Live" video series is a choice, 13-plus minute "Bird Song" from the band's June 1993 stop in Washington D.C.
"Grateful Dead first sets were generally reserved for shorter songs, going back to 1970 or so," explains GD legacy manager/archivist David Lemieux. "There were a few very important exceptions to this rule, though, with 'Playing In The Band' being a major jamming vehicle for the Dead 1972-1974, usually as the first set closer. 'Bird Song' was played mostly in the first set 1971-1973, and provided the Dead loads of run to stretch and explore. When it returned to the repertoire in 1980, first acoustically for the Warfield-Radio City shows, and then in November electrically, it would stick around until 1995 as a first set improvisational juggernaut. This typically out-there version shows where the Dead could take off to in their later years."
Previously, All The Years Live revisited the "Feel Like A Stranger" from the same show.
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Watch the 6/26/93 "Bird Song" below:
