‘They Made It Their Own’: Watch Grateful Dead’s Shimmering Take On Beatles’ Classic From ’93
Watch the band’s shimmering cover of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” captured at Shoreline Amphitheatre on August 25, 1993.
By Scott Bernstein Nov 14, 2024 • 1:54 pm PST
Photo by Jay Blakesberg
The Grateful Dead reached into the vault to share the first official video of the band covering The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” on YouTube. The latest installment of the All The Years Live video series was filmed at Shoreline Amphitheatre on August 25, 1993.
“The Grateful Dead’s love of the Beatles is in evidence by the number of songs by the Fab Four the Dead covered, including Hey Jude, Revolution, Rain, and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” archivist David Lemieux wrote in a note accompanying the video. “As with any song the Dead covered, they made it their own.”
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Originally released by The Beatles on their landmark 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was mainly written by John Lennon. Paul McCartney assisted and as with the other 170+ tunes the pair had a hand in writing between 1962 and 1970, the song was credited to both members of the Fab Four.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was among The Beatles songs the Grateful Dead began covering after keyboardist Vince Welnick joined the band in September 1990. “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “It’s All Too Much,” “I Want To Tell You” and “Rain” were the others.
The Grateful Dead debuted “Lucy” on March 17, 1993 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Eighteen additional performances of the song followed through June 28, 1995. Jerry Garcia struggled with the lyrics several times including at Shoreline. However, the band perservered and turned in a crowd-pleasing cover to end their first of three August 1993 concerts at the Bay Area venue.
Watch the Grateful Dead’s “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” performance from Shoreline ’93 below:
