Dear Mr.Fantasy

[tigerstrat]

Loved when the Dead played this song! For another take, though, check out Crossroads from last year with Clapton and Winwood doing this song. It's rather impressive as well!

iirc, Clapton, Trucks and Bramhall all left the stage for Dear Mr. Fantasy, leaving Winwood to burn up the guitar all by his lonesome...

[Maybeck09]

My best has to be Red Rocks 9/7/85. Wow-what a day. Out of a very weird, Colorado, raining and sunshine space came single notes of Jer picking out the beginning of this song. Brent sang lead and sang his ass off. Mid song the go into Hey Jude Coda/Finale. All of them get into it with Weir squealing and Jerry sing harmony. Then Brent works them right back into the verses of Mr Fantasy' "for doing that, doing that you break out in tears". The place just rocked! Wow he was out of his seat just putting his all into this one- it lit the place on fire. And was the highlight of a very good show. I'll always remember it.

Brad

[darksun]

I dunno...

I don't think much beats Brent's raspy singing of fantasy on 07/89 at alpine... it's just fucking sweet and the crowd goes wild. That performance is actually one of my favorites by the dead.

Brent sang EVERYTHING raspy!!

Heh yeah i know... i think that's one of the things that makes him good, imo

I'm a brent fan, but i think i'm more of a Pigpen fan. did the dead perform this song at all when Pigpen was still alive?

[pappypgh]

Nope. 1st performance was w/ Brent. I'm a HUGE Brent fan. Next to Jerry (OBVIOUSLY), he was the biggest loss the band ever suffered, musically speaking, IMO.

Listen to him sing his verse - then take his solo - on "Death Don't Have No Mercy," Hampton, 10/9/89. SICKLEBERRY - and it leads right into a great Fantasy.

[Mister Charlie]

one of my best shows was 8/12/87 Red Rocks Amphitheatre with a great Dear Mr. Fantasy. I believe, and please correct me if my memory is wrong here, this is time that Brent surprised everyone by breaking into Hey Jude out of Fantasy. An awesome moment and my Red Rocks pilgrimage was one of my favorite Grateful Dead road trips.

[hotasaPistol]

Dave Mason does a smoking version on one of his live cds
FWIW

[High Peaks]

Nope. 1st performance was w/ Brent. I'm a HUGE Brent fan. Next to Jerry (OBVIOUSLY), he was the biggest loss the band ever suffered, musically speaking, IMO.

Listen to him sing his verse - then take his solo - on "Death Don't Have No Mercy," Hampton, 10/9/89. SICKLEBERRY - and it leads right into a great Fantasy.

I have to agree. Brent and Jerry really fed off of each other, and Brent really added to the vocal harmonies.

On a side note-- Traffic has some of the most finely crafted songs ever IMO. Just a really fun band to listen to driving down the road.