Book Of Rules is a cover by Bobby & The Midnites of the band The Heptones. (Check out the link above for some more information on how Bobby learned about this song, etc.)

Personally, I’m a bit torn on the Dead and reggae. On the one hand, I would have loved for them to play some straight forward roots reggae, a la Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals, etc., because it’s got such a great sound and vibe to it. On the other hand, I’d be a bit afraid to see what this would turn out because everyone in the band was so good at turning something on its head that a pure reggae vibe would not likely have materialized. Although it would be interesting to see how they improvised on a straight up reggae rhythm. I know the band did some reggae inflected stuff at times – Row Jimmy and Heaven’s Door immediately come to mind, but nothing like what Bobby does here with Book of Rules.

Feel free to talk Dead related reggae or any reggae in general in the comments.

This song has a great reggae vibe to it, slowly grooving along. The vocal arrangements have traces of rock and gospel to my ear. The B3 organ adds a ton, and the bass line breathes in an irie fashion. The Dead tinged some arrangements with a reggae feel at times, but this is pretty straight ahead reggae. It would have been awesome to hear the Dead play this one, or tackle any other reggae tunes with some regularity. I know they did Stir It Up a couple of times, but that’s pretty much it. One final a cappella take on the “pow pow”s brings this one to a close.