I've heard more than one person say they enjoyed JGB shows more than Dead shows. Songs like this support this line of thinking. Even Donna sounds good:
I'm going to digress unnecessarily here and hypothesize that the era that I saw the dead (mid 1990s) was probably the time that you could best make the argument that JGB was a better show. FIrst of all, JGB was sick at this time. Secondly, the Grateful Dead started struggling in the mid 1990s, especially in 1994 and 1995.
I think Jerry seemed very happy playing in JGB. Bill Kreutzmann has controversially stated that Jerry did not enjoy playing with The Grateful Dead during the bands' swan song.
(thanks Jimmi B for posting this on Youtube)
Grateful Dead in New England 1970-72 (New England I)
3 months ago