The Grateful Dead had a lot of people sit in with them over the years. Many of these people have been musical icons in their own right. I can just imagine how pumped the band was at this run of shows, getting ready to head to Europe for a major tour and sharing the stage with Bo Diddley.

Now the song they opened the show with was Hey Bo Diddley. Much of what the band does in this number is establish the groove and get used to playing with Bo. But, it’s just such a cool combination of musical forces that I felt like it needed to be included here.

Of course, the band was used to the “Bo Diddley” beat, pretty much all musicians are it seems. Not Fade Away is an example of another song with that beat that the Dead played regularly (for those unaware!).

But the band back Bo for the opening set on this evening (the entirety of which was released on Dick’s Picks, Vol. 30). It’s worth checking out.

Bo Diddley himself kicks this off, making sure everyone in attendance is indeed prepared for the show. Billy just sounds phenomenal here. The rest of the band seems to get turned up on the recording a bit by the second verse, but you can hear that Billy was playing like a “young god” even before they crossed The Pond. For the most part the song is just a vamp and while the band has a solid groove going it seems as though no one wants to get in the way of Bo and there aren’t any guitar pyrotechnics. But it must have been really awesome to play with Bo Diddley!

Complete Setlist 3/25/72