Search Grateful Dead Setlists:

Set 1:
Wang Dang Doodle
My Brother Esau
Peggy-O
Little Red Rooster
Brown-Eyed Women
Lost Sailor
Saint Of Circumstance
Deal

Set 2:
Help On The Way
Slipknot!
Franklin's Tower
Estimated Prophet
Eyes Of The World
Drums
St. Stephen
Throwin' Stones
Not Fade Away

Encore:
Revolution

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Comments:

last Stephen ever played by the Dead
-Anonymous

WHY IN THE FUCKIN WORLD DID THE DEAD STOP PLAYIN ST. STEPHEN? THAT'S LIKE A DEAD STAPLE
-Anonymous

I think the loss of Donna and Keith, put a hault to the stephens. I don't think Mydlands voice would have suited it very well, but he plays some nice keyboards on this one, it's good and long too.
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This Sailor > Circumstance is quite fucked too.
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wrong
the departure of keith and donna had nothing to do with the dead's decison to stop playing st. stehpen. it was because Jerry got sick of playin it. nothing more, nothing less
-Anonymous

do not listen to Devin's comments concerning st. stephen and the lost sailor - saint.
jerry just got tired of playing st. stephen. the lost sailor - saint is great as well.
-Anonymous

no doubt -
you want a perfect setlist everytime? the dead aint your thang

-Anonymous

I can't stand Donna's voice on St. Stephen ... that's why I love listening to the ones before 1972 because it's just Jerry, Bobby, and Phil singing.
-Anonymous

I am St Stephen and I guess they just stopped wanting to think about me cuz i wasnt listening to enough shows. The first show I ever listened to was carousel ballroom valentines 68 just now and we all met jerrys elder spirit was there and made sure to alert him and me and the band that this was the first appearance of st stephen. so they premiered it at carousel a few months later. This final stephen set list tells the story of the end of the world. Read Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke. St Stephen is also Pink Floyd. Phish created him as Wilson and now Trey is in a lot of trouble that is why I am trying to get Phish to come back by 08 so they can see us through 2012 with the dead in some hybrid form. Its 06 now and St Stephen is prospering in his time.
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Yeah Huh?
-Anonymous

they stopped playing St. Stephen because JERRY FELT THAT IF IT WAS NOT PLAYED PERFECTLY IT DID NOT SOUND RIGHT. NO ROOM FOR ERROR. I SAY SO WHAT ITS STILL ST. STEPHEN
-AS (08/01/2008)

And Happy birthday Jerry
-AS (08/01/2008)

not that he got sick of it, he couldnt play it anymore, like lost sailor amongst others...
-steve (08/08/2008)

Yup, when Jerry was asked in an interview why they didn't play Stephen anymore, he said (paraphrasing here) "We played the hell out of it for years. Then when Donna was in the band we re-arranged it and put in different harmonies and played it a lot more, and after that I was just done with it." Later in the same interview he says, "I'd rather do new songs than old songs any day."
- (12/20/2009)

Was not at this show but is one of the best second sets I've ever heard. its as close to perfectly played as you will find. I had listened to this set so many times that i could replay it note for note in my mind. The jam into St Stephen is from drums space is classic. My tape finally died after 4 resurrections and thought I would never hear it again. Thank you for giving me a second chance to here this
- (12/28/2010)

As others stated Jerry could not perform St. Stephen to his/bands liking anymore, once he started to get into the heroin that just complicated things more. I have an interview on tape from 1981 and Jerry says that it was a hard tune to play properly, so eventually they just stopped playing it. As a musician that is the correct move to make, if you cant play a tune anymore drop it from the rotation. All the other dead offshoot bands play it because they can.
- (01/04/2011)

To some degree I suppose it's just semantics but I think it's important to note that Jerry most certainly COULD play the tune and play it well. That said he felt that it had been played out and didn't want to rearrange it again.
I guess I'm just trying to refute the claim that Jerry was UNABLE to play it. Bottom line is some of his very best guitar work came in the late 80's and early 90's. He could play St. Stephen until the end but he was tired of it and obviously also not happy with the way it sounded after being rearranged a 2nd time.
For an interesting listen check out 12/8/93. Not everyone is in agreement but listen to the jam prior to The Last Time and you'll hear a nice long Stephen tease. It's just my opinion (and I was at the show) but I think they came VERY close to dusting it off that day but like Cosmic Charlie in '94 it was not meant to be.
-gdjake (04/13/2011)

Thank goodness they did not play it in '93...or Cosmic Charlie in '94. Besides the "wow" factor for fans in attendance, both would most likely been musical disasters...aka Unbroken Chain. Jerry made the right call, as usual.
-Bossgobbler (06/01/2012)

Bobby clearly planned on opening with Esau for this show, but Jerry plucked out Wang Dang and away we goooooo
-Anonymous (10/14/2012)

Dennis McNally said something along the lines of...
--St. Stephen was one of their more difficult songs to play and if they didn't take the time to rehearse it and play it often enough it was difficult to play it well, and I think they had other things they wanted to focus on.--
I personally think it was a simple combo of things (Keith leaving MUST be one of the factors because when he left the band the song stopped for nearly 5 years. It was also a very early Dead tune and they changed as a band so much, if you think about it, not many songs-some did-lasted consistently from the 60's to the 90's. If more band members than not lost interest in the song, no matter how 'staple' it was, true artists know when to lay it down. Just seems to me that the song died a natural death.
- (11/16/2012)

Sure, Jerry misses about 3/4 of the words on Help, and jumbles the verses in Franklin's as if at random, but this show really does have a nice list. It's a bit sloppy here and there, but it has that great "Hey, we do this every night" feel to it.

Far better than the Stephen is the jam which precedes it, coming out of a strong space and gathering around a few themes that for a few bars sounds like they're going back into Eyes.
-GC (12/10/2012)

Bossgobbler is 100% right.
- (01/07/2013)

Re, the boys dropping "St. Stephen" from the lineup after 1983 ...
Phil wrote in his book, "Jerry was never happy with the fact that the bridge had to be played and sung in a slower tempo than the rest of the song. He felt that it lost momentum...[but] that's the aspect of the song that I liked best."
Weir admitted in later years that they'd stopped doing the song because Garcia didn't like the bridge.
Garcia himself said in '88, "It's a piece of material that is unnecessarily difficult. It's been made tricky; it's got a bridge in the middle that doesn't really fit in. It's interesting...because it has a couple of things that work real good. But finally, the stuff that doesn't work overpowers the stuff that does work... 'Let's see, what verse is this?' They're not interchangeable, you have to do them in order. So in that sense, a song like St Stephen is a cop. It's our musical policeman: if we don't do it the way it wants to go it doesn't work at all. That means it's inflexible."
I think that this should put to rest, once & for all, all of the surmisings on why it was dropped from their playlists.
- (06/21/2013)

Only show i could find where both Saint of Circumstance and St. Stephen were played. Coincidence this was the final St. Stephen ever?
- (11/05/2013)

To those who noticed and accepted that St. Stephen just didn't fit with the bands new found 80's sound. Saint stephen also just sounds better in the 60's and early 70's. The Saint Stephen off od Dick's picks 2 is probably the best and tightest one i've heard yet. the 77 Stephens are chill but it never hit that same wierdness that was achieved in the 60's. not to mention, the three times they played it in '83 all sound like the band was just playing them cause the crowd wouldn't stop screaming for it. People have quoted jerry in saying that he didn't wanna play it anymore and would rather play new material, that's most respectable musicians, the ones who play the same shit night after night get old FAST!!!! thats why most bands only last 5 - 10 years, cause they're a one trick pony, but St. Stephen is one trick that went bye bye. The three versions from '83 weren't on point, weren't as tight as the rest of the show and above all else, jerry just sounds like he doesn't really care that the crowd is going nuts all three times. If a crowd reaction like that couldn't give Jerry a woody, then the song ain't worth playin.

But puting the St. Stephen discussion aside, this was a really good show. The help->frank set 2 intro was just stellar and the musical debate between bobby and jerry over how to start the show was hilarious. Cleary Jerry won with Wang Dang, but Bobby put up a good fight. the Lost sailor and his holy friend returning to help close the first is a great addition to this show. Some people on here give shit to Lost Sailor and Saint, but i love how mellow they are. put's me into a trance that deal shocked me out of.

The estimated -> Eyes was standard, good jaming and some crazy interludes by Bobby and Brent, bobby's new wah wah toy sounds like fun. The St. Stephen, like i said, was just nostalgia, the jam outta Stephen into Throwing stones was pretty heady and then the NFA fade out ending is always great, especially with the crowd getting so into it. Don't know why of all the Beatle songs to cover, they chose Revolution, but it works well as an encore, really jammed out, it's nice to hear jerry playin some beatles again.

JGB did a 15 minute Dear Prudence at the Cleavland Music hall almost a month after this show and it had some beautiful Revolution licks hidden within. Get this show, but not for the St. Stephen.
-Murphy (11/08/2013)

Also, am i the only one who nitced that besied throwing stones, Wang Dang Doodle was also played in the first set every time
-Murphy (11/08/2013)

Last performance of St. Stephen's is a good one, and of course begs the question: never again, GD?! It's a complex song, to be sure, but a fun one.
-Anonymous (02/22/2016)

There is a very clear theme with 1983 St Stephen...

St Stephen would remain in the repertoire for most of the late-60s into the late 70s.

Played 1.10.79 then never again until fall of 83 at MSG...played two (2) more times until HALLOWEEN 1983. Total of three (3) times in 1983.

Each of these three shows featured WANG DANG DOODLE. Two (2) of the three (3) 1983 St Stephen Shows come with WANG DANG DOODLE in the opening song slot.

COSMIC COINCIDENCE HOW DO YOU DO?
-Lornz Rommel Vern Einschladt (09/14/2022)

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