Dead & Company continues to build momentum ahead of their upcoming summer tour by gradually sharing official audio and video footage from the band’s 2017 fall and 2018 winter tours. So far, the band has released pro-shot videos of “Deep Elem Blues”, “If I Had The World to Give“, “Eyes Of The World“, “Iko Iko“, “Greatest Story Ever Told“, and “Shakedown Street“.
Dead & Company’s latest release from their video vault rollout shared on Thursday features the band’s performance of King Radio‘s “Man Smart, Women Smarter”, played during the second show of their fall 2017 tour at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on November 14th, 2017.
The performance of the King Radio tune that evening was, at that point, just the band’s second time ever playing the song live, and acted as the closing song of the first set following “Tennessee Jed” and “Bird Song”. The 7:35-minute performance of the lively song featured Bob Weir on lead vocal duties, and was highlighted by some wonderful solo interplay between guitarist John Mayer and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Fans can watch the video below to hear/see the 2017 performance in full.
Dead & Company – “Man Smart, Women Smarter” – 11/14/2017
[Video: Dead & Company]
As per custom with the rollout of live video and audio, Tales From The Golden Road co-host Gary Lambert added his thoughts on the performance with liner notes which read:
This battle-of-the-sexes tale, written by the Trinidadian singer/songwriter Norman Span (aka “King Radio”), first reached a larger audience courtesy of Harry Belafonte, whose crossover success launched a Calypso craze in the U.S. in the 1950s (others may remember the song as rendered by the Ricardos and Mertzes on an episode of “I Love Lucy” not long after the Belafonte record hit it big). The Grateful Dead started performing the tune in the early 80s, transporting it stylistically from the Caribbean to the Crescent City by infusing it with that distinctive Mardi Gras mambo feel.
The band’s 2019 summer tour is scheduled to start with a pair of shows in Mountain View, CA on May 31st & June 1st. Fans can click here for ticket info.