Gimme Some Lovin’ is pretty much one of those staple covers, at least for bands with a half-way competent keyboard player. Fortunately Brent is more than competent, and we get some tasty B3 action here.

I played this song in a couple of different bands and it’s a really fun song to play so I totally get why bands cover it. Of course, it always makes me think of The Blues Brothers even though one might assume the first association would be with Steve Winwood and the Spencer Davis Group.

I had no idea until I looked it up that the Grateful Dead started playing Gimme Some Lovin’ all the way back in 1984, airing it 87 times between November 1984 and September 1990. They only played it one time after Brent died. (They played it at Brent’s penultimate show on 7/22/90.) I haven’t heard that 9/15/90 version but I may have to track it down and give it a quick listen to see if there are any clues as to why they stopped playing it. I assume it was just too closely associated with Brent, plus Vince didn’t play B3 with the Dead so it might not have sounded right. Homework for me (at some point…)

Coming out of The Wheel, the band slams into Gimme Some Lovin’ amidst a swirl of raging B3 from Brent. Brent leads the vocal effort, but Phil steps in and doubles the vocals with him. The second verse has them in better sync, and you can just hear how much fun these guys were having with this old standard. Brent handles that main, signature riff on the B3, but both Jerry and Bobby play some wicked guitar in the instrumental break following that second chorus. The band works the song into a frenzy at the end and Brent does a bit of ad-libbing before it finally dissolves into the ether.

Complete Setlist 10/8/89