The Grateful Dead covered dozens of songs written or first recorded by black artists. The original artists include highly recognizable musicians like Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters and Otis Redding and songs like Dancing in the Street, Good Lovin', Johnny B. Goode, Little Red Rooster, In the Midnight Hour and Turn on Your Lovelight.
But there's also Lemme B. Good, Noah Lewis, James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
The Dead played some of these songs in this special just once, others hundreds of times. I hope you'll hear and learn something new by listening to these shows - I sure did.
All installments of this special will feature the original version of these songs followed by a representative cover version by the Grateful Dead (sometimes more than one - listen to find out why).
Playlist for part 1
- KBOO