{"id":242055,"date":"2026-01-20T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242055\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:30:11","slug":"watch-15-different-versions-of-dead-perform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242055\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch 15 Different Versions of Dead Perform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen John Mayer took the stage at the recent Bob Weir memorial<\/a>, he could have picked any song in the Grateful Dead<\/a> catalog to close out the event. Unsurprisingly, he went with \u201cRipple.\u201d<\/a> The 1970 American Beauty track wasn\u2019t a single, never received much airplay, and wasn\u2019t even a staple of Grateful Dead concerts outside of tiny pockets in 1970\/71 and 1980. But it\u2019s become an anthem for generations of Deadheads that somehow grows more beloved as time goes on. That\u2019s one reason why the entire crowd at the memorial sang along, old and young, and why it\u2019s been a staple of every post-Jerry offshoot the surviving members of the band have assembled over the decades. Here\u2019s a look back at 15 different versions of \u201cRipple,\u201d played by different iterations of the Dead \u2014\u00a0from the very first live performance by the band all the way to the recent singalong for Bobby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\tGrateful Dead: Aug. 18, 1970 \u2013 San Francisco @ The Fillmore West\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWeeks before the Grateful Dead entered Wally Heider Studios to record \u201cRipple\u201d and other American Beauty songs, they debuted the song at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, on a bill with New Riders of the Purple Sage. The lucky fans that night also heard the live premieres of \u201cOperator,\u201d and \u201cBrokedown Palace,\u201d and the second \u201cTruckin’\u201d after its debut the prior night. They parted ways with keyboardist Tom Constanten earlier in the year, and wouldn\u2019t hire Keith Godchaux for another year, so this is the original incarnation of the band. There\u2019s no film footage of the show, but it was captured in pristine audio.<\/p>\n

\t\tGrateful Dead: Oct. 31, 1980 \u2013 New York @ Radio City Music Hall\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Grateful Dead dropped \u201cRipple\u201d from its live repertoire following a couple of Fillmore East shows in 1971, and wouldn\u2019t bring it back even a single time for nearly a decade. That means beloved Seventies keyboardist Keith Godchaux<\/a> didn\u2019t ever have the opportunity to perform it. When they finally revived it in 1980, Brent Mydland was at the keys. Here\u2019s a stellar version from their famous 1980 Halloween show at Radio City Music Hall. It was released in the concert film Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\tGrateful Dead: Sept. 3, 1988 \u2013 Landover, MD @ The Capitol Center\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRipple\u201d again vanished from the Dead\u2019s live repertoire after 1981, and wouldn\u2019t pop up again until a Maryland show in 1988. This was a truly stunning moment for fans since it was the first \u201cRipple\u201d in seven years, and the first electric one since 1971. (It was precipitated by Jerry breaking it out at seven Jerry Garcia Band shows in late 1987.) What nobody knew that night was that they were witnessing the final \u201cRipple\u201d that Grateful Dead would ever perform. It didn\u2019t even surface at another JGB concert. Jerry never sang it again.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Other Ones: June 28, 1998 \u2013 East Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the first couple of years after Jerry Garcia\u2019s death, Bob Weir toured hard all over the country with his new band RatDog. But they played very few Grateful Dead songs at first, relying instead on solo tunes and covers. In 1998, however, Weir, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann came together under the moniker the Other Ones. They were joined by keyboardist Bruce Hornsby, guitarist Steve Kimock, drummer John Molo, and sax player Dave Ellis. They played sets filled with Dead favorites, and brought back \u201cRipple\u201d at Jersey\u2019s Continental Airlines Arena as the last encore. It was the start of a whole new Dead era.<\/p>\n

\t\tPhil Lesh and Friends: July 3, 1999 \u2013 San Francisco @ The Warfield Theater\t<\/p>\n

\n\tLesh decided to go out on his own following the 1998 Furthur tour, and formed Phil Lesh and Friends with a rotating crew of musicians. Unlike RatDog, they embraced the Grateful Dead catalog from day one and played little outside of it. Here\u2019s a rendition of \u201cRipple\u201d from a September 1999 gig at the Warfield Theater. It\u2019s one of the only times that Kreutzmann played drums in the group. It was an early sign to fans that his Hawaiian sabbatical was over.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Other Ones: Sept. 23, 2000 \u2013 Live Oak, FL @ Suwannee Music Park\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the summer of 2000, a new incarnation of the Other Ones hit the road. They managed to pull Kreutzmann into the fold this time, but Lesh sat it out to focus on Phil and Friends. (They toured that summer with Bob Dylan). That meant the Other Ones once again had 3\/4th of the \u201cCore Four\u201d (Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart) but it was a different 3\/4th. Alphonso Johnson handled bass parts, and Hornsby was again on keyboards. But for the final encore of \u201cRipple\u201d at this show in Florida, he moved over to accordion.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Dead: July 11, 2003 \u2013 Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cCore Four\u201d of Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Hart finally came together as one in 2003. \u201cWith the greatest possible respect to our collective history, we have decided to keep the name \u2018Grateful Dead\u2019 retired in honor of Jerry\u2019s memory, and call ourselves: \u2018The Dead,’\u201d the band said in a statement. This was a gift to concert promoters who had a difficult time marketing the Other Ones. On this first tour, they split the Jerry duties between Jimmy Herring (guitar) and Joan Osborne (vocals). There\u2019s no video of this \u201cRipple,\u201d but you can hear Weir and Osborne locking in their voices. (They went back out in 2008 with Warren Haynes, but without Osborne.)<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Dead: May 7, 2009 \u2013 Denver @ Pepsi Center\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Dead took an extended hiatus following their 2004 summer, but they came back together in 2008 to play a benefit gig for Barack Obama\u2019s presidential campaign. That led to an arena tour the following year. This was a slightly slimmed-down lineup without Jimmy Herring, who was in Widespread Panic at this point. It was simply the \u201cCore Four,\u201d plus Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti. <\/p>\n

\t\tBob Weir and RatDog: April 2, 2004 \u2013 Worcester, MA @ Palladium\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBob Weir spent his entire adult life on the road. And when he wasn\u2019t playing with the Dead or the Other ones in the 2000s, he was booking clubs and theaters with RatDog. By this point, he had surrendered to market forces and was playing sets focused around Dead tunes. Here\u2019s a rendition of \u201cRipple\u201d from 2004 where he\u2019s joined by drummer Jay Lane and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. They\u2019d both go on to become crucial parts of Dead & Company. (The great Rob Wasserman is on bass. He died from cancer in 2016.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Rhythm Devils: July 17, 2010 \u2013 North Plains, OR @ Horning\u2019s Hideout\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFor reasons that have never been totally explained, the Dead\u2019s 2008-09 reunion was very short lived. In the aftermath, they split into two different camps. Kreutzmann and Hart were on one side with their project the Rhythm Devils, and Weir and Lesh were on the other.\u00a0This didn\u2019t leave Kreutzmann and Hart simply playing \u201cDrums\/Space\u201d for two hours a night: They brought in guitarists Keller Williams and Davy Knowles, bassist Andy Hess, and percussionist Sikiru Adepoju, and performed Dead songs throughout North America.<\/p>\n

\t\tFurthur: Jan. 16, 2013 \u2013 Mill Valley, CA @ Sweetwater Music Hall\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Hart and Kreutzmann were busy with the Rhythm Devils, Lesh and Weir formed Furthur with Chimenti, Dark Star Orchestra frontman John Kadlecik, and drummers Joe Russo and Jay Lane. Over six years, they played an enormous range of songs, including some surprises like the Clash\u2019s \u201cTrain in Vain\u201d and Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cEclipse.\u201d They called it a day in 2014. \u201cThe ability to play 60, 70 shows a year around the country was running its course,\u201d Kadlecik told Rolling Stone in 2022.<\/a> \u201cThey were getting to the point where Bob and Phil wanted different approaches moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tFare Thee Well: July 3, 2015 \u2013 Chicago @ Soldier Field\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the summer of 2015, the \u201cCore Four\u201d came back together for the first time in six years to celebrate the band\u2019s 50th anniversary. They were joined by Hornsby, Chimenti, and Trey Anastasio. The fusion of Phish and the Dead was a massive event in the jam band world, and five stadium shows sold out within seconds. The good people at setlist.fm<\/a> consider these the only Grateful Dead concerts after Jerry\u2019s death, but that\u2019s not really how they were billed or how we should think of them today. But they were the last time Weir, Lesh, Hart, and Kreutzmann played together, even if one more huge chapter in Dead history had yet to be written by three of them.<\/p>\n

\t\tDead & Company: Nov. 25, 2017 \u2013 Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Fare Thee Well concerts were framed as the final chapter of the Grateful Dead saga. But few people knew that John Mayer \u2014 who first came across the band\u2019s music in 2011 \u2014 was developing a tight bond with Weir after first playing with him on The Late Late Show in February 2015. By the time Fare Thee Well rolled around, plans were already in place to put Dead & Company on the road later that same year. The lineup was Mayer, Weir, Hart, Kreutzmann, Chimenti, and bassist Oteil Burbridge. They\u2019d tried out basically every jam band guitarist in the universe to fill the Jerry slot by this point in their history, and nobody would have ever guessed the answer was the guy who gave us \u201cYour Body Is a Wonderland.\u201d But with Mayer at the helm, the Dead played to their biggest crowds since Jerry died. He also brought an entirely new generation of fans into the fold.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\t\tBob Weir and Wolf Bros: Nov. 9, 2021 \u2013 Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWeir quietly retired RatDog in 2014, shortly before Fare Thee Well. And in 2018, when Dead & Company were on a break, he put together a new solo band he dubbed Bob Weir and Wolf Bros. It was a lean unit that featured Lane and Chimenti with Don Was on bass, though some tours had an expanded crew of musicians he called the Wolfpack. They toured whenever Dead & Company were inactive. Their last gig was June 21, 2025, at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall.<\/p>\n

\t\tJohn Mayer & Company: Jan. 17, 2026 \u2013 San Francisco @ Civic Center Plaza\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDead & Company didn\u2019t play \u201cRipple\u201d at their three-night 60th anniversary celebration in August 2025. But as we noted earlier, Mayer sang it at Weir\u2019s Homecoming memorial in San Francisco. (This is just a short drive from the studio where \u201cRipple\u201d was recorded, and the the theater where it was first played live.) Mayer handled the guitar and lead vocals on his own, but he was joined by Hart,\u00a0Lane, Chimenti, and Burbridge, along with Joan Baez, Weir\u2019s wife Natascha, his daughters Monet and Chloe, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie, and Nancy Pelosi. You read that last part correctly. The 85-year-old former Speaker of the House was onstage for the most recent \u201cRipple.\u201d She may have been the only person in the audience who didn\u2019t know the words, but she did her best to sing along. Somewhere up in the cosmos, Garcia, Lesh, Weir, and Pigpen surely had a nice chuckle watching this unfold.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When John Mayer took the stage at the recent Bob Weir memorial, he could have picked any song…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[138298,138299,156,22611,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-242055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bob-weir","9":"tag-dead-and-company","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-grateful-dead","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}