Grateful Dead covered quite a few songs throughout their long career, including tracks from greats like Bob Dylan, The Who, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. They also covered the Fab Four quite a few times as well. Let’s take a look at four Beatles covers, in particular, that Grateful Dead performed with flying colors!
1. “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
No strangers to stoner rock and psychedelic tunes, Grateful Dead covered “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” a few times through the years. The hit song, which comes from The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was one of a few covers Grateful Dead performed in 1993 at Dean Dome. This is really an excellent cover, and Jerry Garcia puts his whole heart into it.
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2. “Tomorrow Never Knows”
“Tomorrow Never Knows” is one of the best tracks from Revolver, and it also happens to be one of The Beatles’ most psychedelic songs. Grateful Dead performed their own rendition of the Fab Four tune as part of a back-to-back cover performance that also included The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” back in 1992 at Buckeye Lake. It was a perfectly-curated set, and a perfectly-performed cover that was notably different from the original, but totally and sonically Grateful Dead.
3. “Get Back”
“Get Back” is a fan-favorite from Let It Be, so it only makes sense that Grateful Dead would try their hand at the 1969 tune. One notable performance of the song by Grateful Dead took place at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium in early 1987, and it’s quite impressive. Part of what made Grateful Dead so likable was their ability to take a song completely out of their wheelhouse and make it sound like an original. They definitely did this with “Get Back”, at least for this particular performance.
4. “Come Together”
Grateful Dead performed this cover for years, and the remaining members continued to perform it after Gerry Garcia’s passing in 1995 and the band’s official breakup. In a way, it’s the perfect Beatles song for the band to cover. The instrumentation, the funky bassline, the groove of it all. It’s a very Grateful Dead-esque song, and it’s almost more fun to hear them play it live than old recordings of The Beatles performing the song.
Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives
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