I once read somewhere that If I Had The World To Give was Jerry’s conscious attempt to write a love song. Personally, I think it’s a pretty good one, but that’s just one man’s opinion. It seems that they never really got comfortable playing this one live because it was only played 3 times between August and November of 1978 and never again. One of these versions made it to the bonus disc of RT1.4, and I failed to see what the issue was, but again that’s just me.
This song has special significance for me on this particular day as well. Today marks my 5th wedding anniversary. When it came time to picking the music for the day’s event I had little say over what was played for the dancing portion of the evening. Apparently not everyone agrees that the Dead were a dance band! But I was given authority over the cocktail hour music (traditional Irish selections), our entrance music (Pick Up The Pieces by the Average White Band) and dinner music, which was a CD I put together of Dead tunes. Pretty much my only request to the DJ was that he could play any of the songs on the CD in whatever order, but he HAD to play “If I Had The World To Give.” I know I’m not the only ‘Head to have this played at their wedding in some capacity, and as such it seems that Mr. Garcia achieved what he set out to do with this song.
The chorus shifts to a quasi-reggae vibe. Mickey plays some cabasa to add some really great texture as well.
The bridge pulsates and drives the song forward. The sound gets really big in anticipation for the upcoming solo.
Jerry’s solo has just enough distortion on it that you think it’s about to go over the edge, but it never quite does. A careful balance. Well executed in my opinion.
This one fades out with Jerry wailing away in the upper register.
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