Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hey all,

I see that a video lesson for this solo has already been done, but oh well, here's my take on it. https://youtu.be/I392iEVwZBc

That solo on "One from the Vault" is just smokin'. I ask everyone, what are some of your favorite versions of Big River, not including the 8/13/75 version?

5/7/77 & 5/9/77 are just smokin'.

It's like Jerry was watching Jerry Reed on HeeHaw, and said..."Wow, those are awesome licks. I think I'll turn them up to 11."

Love both versions and they're entirely different.

Thanks for the lesson man! Appreciate you!

5/9/77 is my all time favorite show. It has some of the best ever versions of their songs played that night! Not a fan of Sunrise though.

Thanks mgbills and Searing75.

I liked both of those, especially 5/7/77 version. I need to go back and listen to that entire show.

I'm not sure where I remember reading this, but I recall Jerry saying something like, 'take Big River for example, I don't care if I ever play that song again.' He was lamenting the wealth of cool songs in that feel that they could be doing instead of the same ones over and over again. Though some of my favorite Jerry country playing was on that tune. He may not have been happy playing that tune but he sure did some nice playing on it

Nice job on the video btw

tcsned wrote:I'm not sure where I remember reading this, but I recall Jerry saying something like, 'take Big River for example, I don't care if I ever play that song again.' He was lamenting the wealth of cool songs in that feel that they could be doing instead of the same ones over and over again. Though some of my favorite Jerry country playing was on that tune. He may not have been happy playing that tune but he sure did some nice playing on it

Or insert:

Me and my Uncle
Minglewood
El Paso
Little Red Rooster
Mama Tried
etc.....

I'm a Big River fan myself, along with Promised Land.

TI4-1009 wrote:
I'm a Big River fan myself, along with Promised Land.

Me too

My fav Big River is the one on DP1 by a mile

But on a semi related note, I am trying to find a performance of Big River when Jerry backed up Bobby on the vocals for the last verse, the "I give up.." line. Ive heard some versions (80s I think) where Jerry will accent "give up" and "had enough" parts. Anybody got a date for one like that?

Thanks, Caspersvapors. The DP1 version is nice.

I found 2 versions I really like: 2/26/73 and 4/24/78. Jerry rips on both of them, different approach on each. And, the 4/24/78 version has some great Bobby stuff going on. You can really hear him, and he lays in the mix perfectly.