Bob Dylan Wrote More Grateful Dead Songs Than Barlow (Sort Of)
Bob Dylan forgot his own lyrics onstage in 1987 — and Jerry Garcia leaned over and whispered them into his ear. This is the strange, true history of Dylan and the Dead.
Check out our membership and get free access to the Shakedown Observatory: https://www.youtube.com/@TheShakedownArchives/join
Explore the Observatory: https://theshakedownarchives.com/observatory
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033EHpFn3v6zXoMfiJsQ9s
Here’s a claim that shouldn’t be possible: Bob Dylan wrote more songs performed by the Grateful Dead than John Perry Barlow — the band’s own lyricist, Bob Weir’s writing partner for decades. Roughly thirty-five Dylan songs against twenty-five Barlow titles. But the count only works because of six stadium nights in July 1987, when the Grateful Dead stopped being the Dead and became Bob Dylan’s backing band. Take those shows out and Dylan loses the count badly. That fragile arithmetic is the real story.
The absorption started before the band existed. In 1965, Phil Lesh pulled his mail truck over when “Subterranean Homesick Blues” came through the radio — and days later, on May 12, 1965, the Warlocks played “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” at their second-ever gig at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park. By 1986, Blair Jackson counted eight Dylan songs in Jerry Garcia’s working repertoire — more than any other major American singer. And at the Front Street rehearsals in 1987, Bill Kreutzmann says the band worked up more than fifty Dylan songs; Bob Wei
The Shakedown Archives publishes new research on Grateful Dead history each week. If you enjoyed this essay, you can subscribe to the companion YouTube channel below.
Subscribe on YouTube