My last Brown Eyed Women showcased the song in its infancy. This time we’re taking a look at a much more mature song. For one, it long since acquired it’s Bigfoot County bridge. (Sidebar: There was a discussion on the Reddit Grateful Dead page about Dead t-shirts and the like. Someone posted a link to this company that has some great tees. I ordered the Brown Eyed Women one and a couple of others.)

There have only been a couple of releases from the early 80s. I’m by no means a snob when it comes to sound quality, but Dick’s Picks, Vol. 32 is lacking in that department. I think this Road Trips sounds great (I don’t have issues with DP 6 or DP13 either, making volume 32 a bit of an anomaly). It’s got a good setlist and there’s even some cool filler on the set as well.

Having never attended a Grateful Dead show I don’t know how well Brown Eyed Women was received, but it seems to me like it had the potential to be a great band-audience interactive tune. The chorus is ripe for a sing-along. I mean, I wouldn’t expect the band to turn over vocal duties to the crowd like Tom Petty did on “Breakdown” on his Live! Pack up the Plantation album, but this is the type of song where if the crowd was really into it, blending in some audience would be cool. (For a two-track tape it’d need to be matrixed, but with multi-tracks this would be much easier and has happened, e.g. Dozin at the Knick).

This one is amped up from the first beat. Not an ounce of lethargy here. Brent starts off with plinky keys but for the verse it’s a much smoother electric piano sound. Hooray! Jerry grabs Tiger and the two dosie-do around the melody for a few turns here. Both Brent and the drummers offer up a few accents throughout, just to switch things up. Things ease up a bit during the bridge, and Brent’s backing “oooh”s are on point, but it’s right back into the fire with the next verse. Listen to Weir; he’s going nuts in places – in a good way of course. The rest of the song is well played, but there isn’t anything I would call a major highlight. Just good old Grateful Dead.

Complete Setlist 4/6/82

Previous Brown Eyed Women DFAY Selections