Watch Jerry Garcia’s Final Performance Of Beloved Grateful Dead Song ‘Ripple’

On January 12, 1994, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia held a concert with his longtime cohort, mandolinist David Grisman. The performance was the first night of a two-show run at The Warfield in San Francisco.

Garcia and Grisman were backed by bassist Jim Kerwin and percussionist/violinist Joe Craven for the standalone two-nighter. The shows were the first publicly staged performances by Garcia and Grisman following the release of their children’s record, Not For Kids Only, which came out in the fall of 1993.

Night one’s setlist included Not For Kids Only tracks, “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” and “Jenny Jenkins,” and the next show featured “Freight Train,” “Hot Corn, Cold Corn” and “There Ain’t No Bugs On Me.” While the rare Not For Kids Only songs were notable inclusions in the setlists, the selection for the last song of the first show – which occurred 30 years ago – was Garcia’s final public performance of a beloved Grateful Dead song, “Ripple.”

Though one of the Grateful Dead’s most well-known songs, “Ripple” was played in concert by the band only 41 times. “Ripple” was also played nearly twice as many times by Garcia with his various solo endeavors.

“Ripple” was written by Robert Hunter in May 1970 during a remarkable afternoon writing session in London that also produced two additional well-known Grateful Dead songs. Hunter was fueled that fateful afternoon in England by a bottle of the intoxicating Greece wine retsina and along with “Ripple,” he also wrote the lyrics to “Brokedown Palace” and “To Lay Me Down” all in one sitting.

Here’s Hunter talking about fruitful songwriting experien in a 1978 interview with Denis McNamara for WLIR-FM:

For his part, Garcia wrote the music to “Ripple” during the Grateful Dead’s historic Festival Express train tour across Canada in the summer of 1970. Garcia utilized his Grateful Dead bandmate Bob Weir‘s acoustic guitar, later recalling the music seemingly arriving fully formed.

“Ripple” was the first song on side two of the Dead’s 1970 album American Beauty, and featured Grisman on the studio track. Presenting a poignantly memorable chorus – itself a haiku – “Ripple” made its live debut on August 18, 1970, at San Francisco’s Fillmore West.

The song was played only a few subsequent times through 1971 and then dropped out of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire.

“Ripple” became a brief setlist staple upon its return during the acoustic sets of the Dead’s historic 1980 run at The Warfield and at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Two more performances occurred in 1981 but then it was dropped from the rotation again.

A one-off, final rendition performed by Garcia with the Grateful Dead happened on September 3, 1988, at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. The unexpected appearance during the encore of that show was the last time Garcia played the song with the legendary band.

One of many songs played by Garcia with the Dead and a solo performer, “Ripple” was part of the guitarist’s setlist in April 1982 at a rare purely solo concert. Garcia kept turning to “Ripple” in a variety of configurations outside of the Grateful Dead, through his final public performance with David Grisman 30 years ago today.

Watch Jerry Garcia’s final known public performance of “Ripple” below:

Setlist (via JerryBase)

Acoustic Set One: Teddy Bear’s Picnic [1], Jack-A-Roe, Dark As A Dungeon [2], Bow Wow [2], Two Soldiers, Friend Of The Devil [3], Louis Collins, Stealin’

Acoustic Set Two: Jenny Jenkins, Walkin’ Boss, When First Unto This Country, Milestones, Sitting In Limbo , Russian Lullaby, I Ain’t Never, Bag’s Groove > Ripple [4]

Notes:

• [1] First performance (by JGDG) last known performance 1966-04-24 by GD
• [2] Only performance
• [3] Final performance (by JGDG)
• [4] Final performance