Our previous two Morning Dew selections came from the early 1970s so as a counterweight I opted for a latter day rendering of the tune.
The Cold War was unraveling at an express clip by 1990. Did that have any influence on an anti-war song? Ok, I’m grasping at straw here. We’d have to look at versions from 92-95 to really assess that question (I kid! I kid!).
Getting away from speculative geo-political influences…
Dick’s Picks, Vol. 9 has been lodged in the back of my head for a while now since my last Truckin’ posting from the Road Trips series, which covered this same MSG run. For me, Hornsby’s presence here is another big reason for the selection. By and large I think that Deadheads liked the addition of Bruce to the band because he pushed Jerry (I have heard divergent opinions, but they seem to be much less common in my experience). Morning Dew is the type of song where Bruce could really shine, and since I hadn’t listened to this in a while I figured it was as good of a candidate as any.
With the pending release of the second Spring 1990 box set with the Branford show (3/29/90) there’s been a lot of talk recently about how well Branford fit in with the Dead even though he little to no experience with them before that evening. Well, Hornsby was a big Dead fan, and I thought he similarly fit exceptionally well. Guest appearances could be really hit or miss with the Dead because of their approach to music, but Bruce was able to navigate that with aplomb, as demonstrated here. (I recognize that calling Bruce a “guest” is inaccurate, but you know what I mean.)
God help us here, after the occlusion of Garcia’s guitars by keyboard clouds in the last tune. Vince, why don’t you go take a break, eh? Of course Garcia’s hoarseness has not improved and he eeks out the words as if they will be the last he will ever sing. Every now and then, he belts out a line surprisingly solidly. The first verses build steadily and with the appropriate guitar and bass goodness. The keys have been pushed back in the mix. By the “young man” verse, Jerry is singing his head off, with some success. Phil and Jer lead the giant stomp into the guitar solo and this is just fantastic. Garcia plays it as well as he ever did and all is right with the world again. We soft-land on the final verse. The excruciating (in a great way) build from here is rife with guitar arpeggios and twisted bass expressions. The keys have been relegated throughout to their proper place. This version does not disappoint in its ending explosion and Jerry simply and perfectly yells the final words like it is THE END. And it is.