Guess the Year is a Grateful Dead game show released as a podcast. In the game, five contestants Zooming in from around the country listen to a short clip from a Grateful Dead live track then guess what year the performance took place based on vocals, instrumentals, and song choice, each of which constantly evolved over the band’s thirty-year run. The contestant who’s is furthest off is eliminated. The last contestant standing wins a prize pack of Dead inspired merch and is invited back the following week to defend their title. While the competition is fierce, and the expertise uncanny, the soul of the show is Deadheads of all demographics connecting over their shared… “passion” isn’t a strong enough word.
For what it’s worth for the mid-80s converts: I was touring all through the 80s, and there were always new / younger people coming into the scene. Nobody in my circles looked down on the 86-87 heads as “Touch-Heads”. That sort of cynicism wasn’t really the inclusive vibe. Did it suck a LOT more trying to get into shows on tour after 85? Yep, but most of those ”check me out I bought a tie-dye” people were temporary, and the ones who stayed were just as legit as those from any period. Except the Aoxomo-Heads. We hate those newbs! :-D
Yes- Bird Song was the Dark Star of the early- mid 80s. (I was there.) You could play the 1st 20-30 seconds of that ‘83 version from today’s show and tell a knowledgeable Head that was the New Year’s ’81 Dark Star, and they’d believe you. I also had friends in the mid 80s point out that the previous night’s Bird Song jam was very Dark Star sounding. Check out 10/20/ 1984 Syracuse.
I guessed the eyes jam right off the bat and even knew it was 6-18-74 and when the guy said don't forget the C diminished I knew I was in the company of real nerds.
Yeah I ended up in rehab in 87 … started doing shows in 84… went full on 85-86… got sort of bumped off tour late 86 … ended dumping tons of sheets on Creek tour of all things in the northeast for a time which put a lot of money in my pockets which led to a lot of poor recreational choices in 87 which led to rehab and sobriety … I gotta tell ya, and this is nothing against anyone else’s experience, but I hated sobriety, every minute of it … I put together 3 years and then 4 years and I finally finished school in my late 20s but I hated being sober and everything that went with it… I went back to full on partying in my mid to late 30s, all through my 40s and now into my 50s… I still do tons of shows and I have enjoyed the hell out of these last couple of decades … I’m successful in what I do, I’ve raised a family and have a good wife and a house but I had to learn to be responsible for myself first and party second or I never would have accomplished any of it … that being said, as I push on 60 ( this April I celebrate 40 years of seeing the Dead) it is starting to wear on me a bit, and i may need to slow it down … good luck to u brother
Brett- The improvement of Jerry’s voice in later ‘85 was (probably) due to rehab earlier in the year (the one he was practically on his way to when he got busted in Golden Gate Park in Jan). Check the switch to the “rehab-red” t-shirt after a decade of black. That fall ‘85 tour was epic~
