The latest installment in the Grateful Dead‘s All The Years Live archive video series is available now on the band’s YouTube page. This entry highlights the Dead’s performance of Bobby Womack‘s “It’s All Over Now” from December 31st, 1978 at Winterland Ballroom.
Beyond the closing of the year 1978, this Grateful Dead show carried added meaning as it also marked the closing of Bill Graham‘s Winterland Ballroom. From midnight to dawn, the Grateful Dead performed for nearly five hours over three sets, featuring sit-ins from fellow San Francisco rock royalty John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service) as well as actor and bluesman Dan Akroyd, amongst others.
Though the party was still rocking halfway through the first set when the Dead busted into “It’s All Over Now”, the song’s refrain carried a weight of gravity as the party at 2101 Sutter Street in San Fran was finally coming to an end.
Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux notes in the video’s description,
When the Grateful Dead started playing this song in September 1976, it instantly became a very welcome addition to Dead first sets. Made famous more than a decade earlier by the Rolling Stones, the Dead, in typical Dead fashion, made it their own, similar to what they’d do with another Rolling Stones classic track in 1990, The Last Time. The Dead had a strong talent for selecting covers songs that fit their style and musical sensibilities, and although they always stayed true to the originals, they were unmistakably the Grateful Dead.
Watch the Grateful Dead perform “It’s All Over Now” at Winterland Ballroom on New Year’s Eve 1978.
Grateful Dead – “It’s All Over Now” (Bobby Womack) – San Francisco, CA – 12/31/78
[Video: Grateful Dead]
Previous installments of the Dead’s ongoing All The Years Live series have included: