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 “Loser” at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, PA on July 7th, 1989.
Later released as the concert film and live album Crimson, White & Indigo, 7/7/89 finds the Grateful Dead in the midst of a late-career peak. With keyboardist Brent Mydland fully immersed into the group DNA—though still jokingly referred to as “the new guy”—and Jerry Garcia‘s health in a stable place, the band has a clearly established footing as it reaches the pinnacle of its commercial success. This Garcia original gets some added flair courtesy of Bob Weir‘s use of the envelope filter heard on songs like “Estimated Prophet” and “Fire On The Mountain”, giving the song an almost reggae-flair.
Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux notes in the video’s description,
When Loser was ‘on,’ the song was sung with conviction and passion, and the instrumental segment built to a massive crescendo, one of those moments that indicated the band was having a great night. In the late 1980s into the early 1990s, there were several versions of Loser that fit this bill. The Albany rendition from 3/24/90 gets a lot of the mentions, but this one from the previous summer is every bit as great.
Watch the Grateful Dead perform “Loser” at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 7th, 1989.
Grateful Dead – “Loser” – Philadelphia, PA – 7/7/89
[Video: Grateful Dead]
Previous installments of the Dead’s ongoing All The Years Live series have included: