Now I’m on record in these pages saying that I’m not a big fan of the Dead’s Dylan covers. Visions of Johanna does not fall into the category of covers I don’t like. It was originally released on Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde album.

The Dead only played the song 8 times – twice in 1986 and six times in 1995. This is the fifth ever performance of the song and it’s quite impressive provided how rare it was. For all of the dirt piled on the Dead’s 1995 track record, I think that this is a solid contribution to the project and shows that diamonds could be found in the rough, even when Jerry was clearly declining.

The first thing I think of when listening to this cut is: wow, this is 1995? It can hear why Phil included this version on the Phil Zone album. Vince’s keys sound great here. I don’t know if he was actually playing an acoustic piano or if it was just a very good MIDI patch (if the latter it’s a very good one). Bobby’s got some crunchy distortion on his guitar that combats the clarity of the piano here, but it’s a mix of softness and light that works, providing just a touch of edginess to a sweet song. Have I mentioned that Jerry sounds very strong here vocally. Again for 1995 this is unexpected. A diamond in the rough indeed. It’s halfway through the song before Jerry takes a solo. It’s about as laid back as the rest of the song. Suffice it to say he’s not setting off any fireworks here, but at the same time the sparseness of his playing opens up more room for the other players, especially Vince. With so many lyrics there isn’t another instrumental passage. I haven’t listened to this in a LONG time and I’m impressed with this cut, especially for 1995.

Complete Setlist 3/18/95