Saturday Stream | Deadfluence Part Two
By Andy Kahn Jul 4, 2015 • 10:50 am PDT

Tonight marks the second of three Fare Thee Well -Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead concerts at Soldier Field in Chicago after a spectacular start on Friday. Founded in 1965, the Grateful Dead’s career spanned 30 years that saw the band perform an incredibly diverse array of covers and original songs. Our Songs Of Their Own series has spotlighted original Grateful Dead compositions, and last week we posted the first Deadfluence Spotify Playlist composed of songs covered by The Dead with a focus toward their early years. This week’s follow-up playlist –Deadfluence Part Two -is made up of another 50 songs the Grateful Dead covered throughout their career.

Once again, Pigpen’s influence on the early stages of The Dead’s development is apparent in many of the blues songs collected in the playlist, made known by legends like Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and Howlin’ Wolf. The second edition of the playlist also includes many of the Grateful Dead’s contemporaries, Traffic, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Band and others (unfortunately streaming-holdouts The Beatles are absent, but Paul McCartney makes a solo appearance). Bob Dylan’s immense influence on the band both as a collaborator and source for cover material is well represented, accounting for over one tenth of the tracklist.
Country artists Marty Robbins, George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard, R&B performers Sam Cooke, Martha Reeves and Smokey Robinson, folk performers Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Cotton and Memphis Jug Band, early rockers Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers, the genre-bending The Meters and many more account for over three hours of genre and generation crossing streaming.

Once again, Pigpen’s influence on the early stages of The Dead’s development is apparent in many of the blues songs collected in the playlist, made known by legends like Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and Howlin’ Wolf. The second edition of the playlist also includes many of the Grateful Dead’s contemporaries, Traffic, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Band and others (unfortunately streaming-holdouts The Beatles are absent, but Paul McCartney makes a solo appearance). Bob Dylan’s immense influence on the band both as a collaborator and source for cover material is well represented, accounting for over one tenth of the tracklist.
Country artists Marty Robbins, George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard, R&B performers Sam Cooke, Martha Reeves and Smokey Robinson, folk performers Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Cotton and Memphis Jug Band, early rockers Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers, the genre-bending The Meters and many more account for over three hours of genre and generation crossing streaming.