There’s a certain tongue-in-cheek quality about the Grateful Dead playing US Blues in the heart of London, the former Imperial metropole.
Now I’m not saying that the Grateful Dead were Auber-patriotic yankees throwing their American rugged individualism in the face of their nation’s former overlords. No. But I can definitely see this as a gesture toward the humorous side of things. Am I reading too much into this? Probably.
Granted this was the encore of the show, but I can help but think that there’s a bit of extra gusto here, as the band knew about their upcoming hiatus, which would begin in a months time, and perhaps this song was a nod to the fact that the band wasn’t sure if they’d ever be back to Europe. As a matter of fact, this configuration never did cross the pond again (well not to Europe at least. They did go to Egypt in 1978 after all.)
