The Missing Verse From The Grateful Dead’s West L.A. Fadeaway

On August 28, 1982, the Oregon Country Fair hosted a memorable event featuring the Grateful Dead. Presented by the Springfield Creamery as “The Second Decadenal Field Trip,” the festival also showcased performances by Peter Rowan, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Strangers With Candy, Robert Cray Band, and Tattoo.

In a remarkable twist of timing, this show took place exactly 10 years (and one day) after the memorable first Field Trip at the same location, albeit in a different section of the field. This earlier event is immortalized in the official release The Complete Sunshine Daydream Concert.

The 1982 performance is replete with historically significant Grateful Dead moments. The “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” encore marked its first performance by the band in over four years, and the show also saw the debut of two live compositions from the songwriting partnership of Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia: “Keep Your Day Job” and “West L.A. Fadeaway.”

Have a look at fascinating fan footage that focuses more on capturing the atmosphere than the band.

While “Day Job” would go on to be performed by the Dead a total of 57 times, “West L.A. Fadeaway” received considerably more plays, with a total of 140 performances. What is particularly intriguing about this chapter in the Grateful Dead’s history is that the initial “West L.A. Fadeaway” performed at the Oregon Country Fair in 1982, along with several early renditions that year, featured an additional verse that was subsequently dropped from the song. This extra verse preceded the repetition of the first verse and went as follows:

“Here’s what Ginger says
She walks right, she ain’t nobody’s fool
Here’s what Ginger says
She always tries to play by the golden rule
She says if you treat other people all right
Other folks probably treat you right too.”

It was not uncommon for Jerry Garcia to take liberties with the lyrics provided by Robert Hunter, whether by altering a few words or omitting entire verses, as he did with “West L.A. Fadeaway,” “Friend Of The Devil” and even “Day Job.” Almost five years passed between this initial performance and the ultimate inclusion of “West L.A. Fadeaway” on the Grateful Dead’s 12th studio album, In The Dark, released on July 6, 1987.

Listen to the full show below:

Robert Hunter included the “Here’s what Ginger says” verse at times when he performed “West L.A. Fadeaway” beginning in 1981. One such instance can be heard below via a recording of Hunter’s appearance on Halloween 1981, which featured what was one of the first, if not the first, public performances of “West L.A. Fadeaway”:

Grateful Dead August 28, 1982 Setlist (via JerryBase.com)

Set One: Bertha > Minglewood Blues, Tennessee Jed, Me And My Uncle > Big River, Althea, It’s All Over Now, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider

Set Two: Keep Your Day Job [1] > Man Smart (Woman Smarter), West L.A. Fadeaway [1], Far From Me > Playing In The Band > Drums > Space > The Wheel > The Other One > Truckin’ > Black Peter > Playing In The Band > One More Saturday Night

Encore: Dupree’s Diamond Blues [2]

Notes:

• [1] First performance
• [2] Last known performance (by GD) 1978-04-14 (344 events ago)