Grateful Dead Music Forum

Its funny how there has been some songs that were only in rotation for 2,3-4 years and then were shit canned for ever. What, did Bob or Jerry wake up one day and say "that song sucks, why did we ever start playing it in the first place", or what?
Sure, some songs got tired, but always eventually reappeared. Others, flat out shit canned.

For instance, these were shit canned:

Brother ESAU - (which I loved, it should have been on In the Dark CD)
Day Job

Can you think of others, and why?

Day Job - I've always felt was something they played when they were messing up. Also it seems their are a decent amount of "flubby" Day Jobs.
Lazy Lightning - Great tune. Where did it go and why ?Thought this great song needed to be played more.
Passenger - sooo rocking! Why this one got the can is beyond me.
Sunrise - What gives? A classic for sure.Should have made Brent sing it.
Far from Me and other Brent tunes....

Born Cross Eyed, Mason's Children, New Potato, Cream Puff War, Doin That Rag, Cardboard Cowboy, Mountains of the Moon, Sittin on Top of the World, Golden Road, Can't Come Down, You Don't Have To Ask, Till the Morning Comes, Operator, whew!...and there are many more for sure.

This link is helpful.
http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/intro.htm

You can drill into how many times played!

Here are some more:
Money Money
Salt Lake City
Full Terrapin (w. Alahambra)

There are songs that were played only a few times and never really established, and then there are the songs that were major live staples for a good long time, say about a year or more, played pretty frequently and then suddenly disappeared- these are the true Shitcanned.

Brother Esau qualifies! So does Tons of Steel, from the same era. Both were played a LOT in 85-87, and then never again. I really liked both those tunes.

Hard To Handle was a major one for Pigpen, played 27 times in 71, NONE in 72 (although it could be blamed on his illness.)

I think some of the canned songs were just too complicated or difficult to play without rehearsal. When the Dead were more copesetic with each other, more quality time was spent as a band (practice).

when push comes to shove

I recently acquired an affinity for Brother Esau. The lyrics are great and the movement from G>Bm>Em>C>A is just so nice!

I learned the song and then went and listened to live versions from a few different years. It seems they could never really settle on a definitive way to play the song. There were at least 2-3 different arrangements for the tune.

It also seemed as if the boys were never really on the same page for this song. Anybody have a favorite version?

I personally believe that if Garcia had stayed off of Heroin we would have been getting stellar performances of classic tunes right up till the end. I can just imagine a healthy Jer Bear doing all kinds of new combos and perpetuating songs like Dark Star in ever new forms. Seriously... imagine a healthy garcia doing DS>Morning Dew in 1990. It makes me sad to think about what "could have been".

+1 on Salt Lake City and Golden Road.

Thank god they finally stopped playing Day Job. What a bummer to end a show on that sour note. Work's the last thing I wanted to think about at a show.
The only encore more disliked (by me) was I Fought the Law. It was funny when they did it the first time at Richfield---and it fit the occasion, given the cancelled show--but after that, they beat it to death.

As for Esau, I never understood why they canned it.

Lost Sailor is another, my understanding was that Bob was never fully happy with the way the drummers played it....I believe that's in an interview somewhere.

I would think they stopped playing a lot of the early, primal dead 60s material simply because they had evolved to the point where it just didn't "fit" anymore or make sense like it did before. During the 80s, I was always hoping for a DarkStar---I could never understand why they stopped playing it for so long.

the eleven

Viola Lee Blues

They canned it not for 6 months, or even 1 solid, but a lifetime.

I always thought Day Job would be better as a set I song than closer.

Believe it or not

What a good song, that cold have been great. He had a hand full of these though... Comes a time.... If I had the World to give... When Push Comes to Shove

And why did they never play France?