Grateful Dead Performs ‘Bird Song’ In 1990: Pro-Shot Video

The Grateful Dead shared pro-shot video of “Bird Song” for this week’s installment in their All The Years Live video series. The footage comes from the band’s July 10, 1990 concert at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina.

GD debuted “Bird Song” — a tribute to Janis Joplin — in late 1970, as per The Setlist Program. The band played the Hunter/Garcia composition regularly until 1973 when it saw a seven year hiatus ahead of a renaissance in 1980, after which it would remain a live staple for the rest of the band’s tenure.

While “Bird Song” never graced a Grateful Dead studio album, Jerry Garcia included it on his 1972 solo debut, Garcia, as Dead archivist David Lemieux attest to in his notes accompanying the video.

“‘Bird Song’ was the one song that could consistently be relied upon to provide some first-set deep space in the 1980-1995 period,” Lemieux wrote. “It was always wonderful to hear where the Dead would take this classic Garcia-Hunter song from Jerry’s first solo record.”

Watch the Grateful Dead perform “Bird Song” from Raleigh in 1990 below: