Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Gimme Some Lovin' - Grateful Dead Song Review

Gimme Some Lovin' is a relic from an era of The Dead that I narrowly but regretfully missed.

Throughout The Grateful Dead's career they mixed in fun "party rock" songs into their set to make sure they put on a remarkable "rock n roll" show (and probably had a lot of fun themselves).  These songs provided a counterpoint to more "serious" and "though provoking" songs like China Doll, Let it Grow, Space etc.

Gimme Some Lovin' is a Spencer Davis Group song written by Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Muff Winwood.

It is a mid tempo rock song that Brent and Phil sang together. If you never noticed that Phil was singing too, you are not alone (I kind of forgot myself until I queued up the below video to get psyched to write this).  Brent really owns this song vocally and of course his screaming organ is heavily featured in it.

This song seemed to come up in the 2nd set and alleviate any tension built up by songs like Terrapin, Space, etc. I love hearing it when it comes up on tapes and can't even imagine how great it would've been to have seen it live (like at the Alpine show which there is a video for below - thanks thepitts3463 for posting). You can see in the video how much fun the band is having while playing this song.

If you'd never heard of The Grateful Dead and found yourself at a show in the mid to late 1980s because someone drug you there (most of us ended up at our first Dead show this way), you might struggle to enjoy some of the music without having heard it and developed a connection to it.  But if they played Gimme Some Lovin', then most likely you would be on the bus instantly from that point on.

Gimme Some Lovin' Song Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 8.5





Disclaimer: This is part of my blog that reviews all things Grateful Dead for fun. Music is a beautiful thing because it is so personal and subjective, so keep in mind that this is one man's opinion.

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