The Grateful Dead were pretty well known for never repeating a show twice. Although they seem to have had a very narrow repetoire (a LOT of their live albums feature the same songs) it was the order of those songs, the jams, and the seques that made each concert unique.
But what were the mechanics of it all? Was it decided before the show that they were going to do, say, “China Cat Sunflower” and then segue into “Big River” or was it all done on the fly as the show progressed? And if it was done on the fly, who was the ringleader, Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir? After all, you couldn’t very well have one segueing into “Big River” while the other was heading into “The Other One.”
I’m not much of a Deadhead, and I’m sure a bigger expert will be along soon, but:
They did have a pretty big repetoire: there was a solid core of songs that you’d expect to hear at least a couple of at every show, but a whole lot of ones that they’d play occasionally. Certainly they could play more songs than the average band.
b) There were a few segues that were standard, to the point of really being part of the song (e.g. “I Know You Rider” after “China Cat Sunflower”. Obviously they had to play one without the other in some early days, and it’s certainly possible that they played one without the other at some point after 1971, but I haven’t heard it yet.)
III) It’s too bad the Dead never wrote a song with “Opal” in the title. It would have fit, right?
iv) But big parts of the show/segues were not planned and they worked out what was happening on the fly. Which means sometimes Weir was heading one way when Garcia was going the other until they figured it out. Part of the attraction of the Dead is hearing them work it out and come to a decision about where they’re going. Of course, sometimes it ended up sounding like a clusterf*%# and sometimes it sounded like genius, but that’s the point of the Dead: when you take chances, sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.
five) I have no idea how much of a set list was written out beforehand. Maybe a real Deadhead can chime in.
They likely had a set-list that they wrote down before the show, and followed. An arrow after a song indicated a segue, the absence lets the band know to stop and go on to the next song (much like you’ll see on the backs of phish, dead, moe, umph live tapes). There are concerts on tape where you can hear (Weir, usually) changing it up in the middle of the show and directing the band a new song, that was presumably not on the set list.
There are so many ways to interperet “never repeating a show twice”. I’m guessing, of course, that they never repeated a show once either. Nevertheless, the Greatful Dead was a jam band. They improved a lot. When you improv, you aren’t likely to repeat. Changing the song order is pretty elementry. They may have been able to change the song order on the fly based on the way an improv went. Given all that, I would be suprised if they had repeeated a show. It may have been something they deliberately did early on, but as their repetoir expanded, I can’t imagine it was any effort at all not to repeat a show.
I know that in the linear notes for one of my Grateful dead Live CDs (It was for their show in the Rhinelands in Germany in the 1970s if I recall) they had printed out the Setlist- so for that one, there was a set list ahead of time, with markings of which songs would be put into a medley and all.
But I’ve also recalled reading on Fansites that they would do things like compete with each other to try to select a song to play next- I believe the best example of this is with the song “Playing in the Band” which often came at the end of their sets, and was used as a sort of jamming period, where a band member could try to steer the song away at the end into another song. Certain songs would tend to win out more than others, but there were reports of sometimes an unusual song choice winning or such and thus the fans who were in the know got a rare treat of something special. Don’t know how much of that is true, but I do enjoy listening to them live just to get a feel for that.
I finally understand a little bit the fuss about “Dark Star”- I used to wonder why is that song so long for so few lyrics??
As the 1990’s came around, the boys were fitted with those fancy earpieces that allowed them to talk with each other on stage. I’m sure they had a skeleton setlist, but nothing concrete. They liked to open with Bertha, and they liked to close with Not Fade Away. If the crowd started chanting “We want Phil”, Phil did a song.
I think the notion that they never did the same show twice is an extended way of saying that they didn’t have a set list locked in.
I miss Jerry.
Keep in mind that the Dead’s interviews were free-form as well. They said whatever popped into their heads, and they made no guarantees that they were telling the truth.
With that in mind, I’ll tell you of a Bob Weir radio interview I heard. The radio guy asked what songs we could expect to hear that night. Weir said, “We don’t really plan a set list. We all know literally thousands of songs, and something might come up spontaneously. I can say I’m pretty sure I Need A Miracle will be played.” (somewhat misquoted, from memory.)
IANAD, but Eutychus is underestimating the size of their repertoire, I think. Their releases may have included some of the same best-known songs over and over, and the concerts may sound the same to a lot of us, but there were a lot of songs in there. Some were played on only one tour, others would go out of the rotation for years at a time. When you factor in things like that, the statement “every show is unique” becomes more believable.
I ran this list through Excel and got a list of 572 “songs and named jams,” assuming I subtracted the correct number of spaces for lettering. The band is alleged to have played 2,318 shows, and even keeping in mind that some of the songs were WAY more popular than the others, it’s not impossible to make distinct setlists out of that number. “My and My Uncle” was supposed to be the most frequently played song with 616 airings, which is still barely a quarter of their concerts.
Some Dead fans are such statheads that you can learn these things from the Web and t-shirts without even liking the band very much.
In general they had a fairly short list (relatively speaking) of 1st set openers, 1st set closers, 2nd set openers, late 1st set Bobby songs, songs before drums, songs after space, late 2nd set Jerry ballads, 2nd set closers, encores, and so on. Every once in a while they’d bust out an old chestnut. They’d mix it up enough to keep it interesting.
They’d do that sometimes. Whether by mischief or whatever, they’d be at a point in a concert where they’re just floating along and you don’t know which way they’re going to go then Jerry would toy around with some Dark Star licks or some other big favorite and people would start getting psyched for Dark Star but then they’d go into something less…stellar.
I’ve been to over 100 shows of all of the various incarnations of the Dead. Nowadays they (meaning Ratdog and Phil ‘n’ Friends) have set lists which they follow to some extent or another. Back in the day the did not have set lists but they did have “rules” that they would follow:
If they were playing three days at the same place, a song would not be repeated during the three days.
Certain songs would usually go in certain places. For example, some songs were first set songs, some encores, some after drums, some set closers, etc. Certain songs would usually follow other ones. (China->Rider, Help->Slip->Franklins) Sometimes the surprise wouldn’t be that they were playing a rarely played song but that a song would go in an unusual place.
There were four types of songs: Jerry songs, Bobby songs, Phil songs and band songs. There weren’t too many Phil songs. Typically they’d trade between Jerry and Bobby songs so if it was Bobby’s turn, he’d lead the transition into whatever of his songs to do next.
They had a huge repertoire but some songs were played far more often than others. (Trivia: The song played more than any other was Me and My Uncle.)
Nevertheless, the Greatful Dead was a jam band. They improved a lot. When you improv, you aren’t likely to repeat. Changing the song order is pretty elementry. They may have been able to change the song order on the fly based on the way an improv went. Given all that, I would be suprised if they had repeeated a show. It may have been something they deliberately did early on, but as their repetoir expanded, I can’t imagine it was any effort at all not to repeat a show.