#158545  by ComesATimeGuy
 
Good Day Fellow Heads,

I wanted to share with you all a project I have been working on. First a quick back-story. I bought the Get Shown the Light box set earlier this year. One gem for me was the Buffalo show from 5/9/77. I had never really listened to it before. It is really great, just as good if not better than Cornell in my opinion. Anyway, while listening to this show, one thing that stood out to me was the "Comes A Time". It was hypnotizing and so full of emotion. Then a few months later, Dead and Co bust out "Comes A Time", with Otiel slaying it btw, and it triggered my fascination with the tune again.

Fast forward a couple months, this song is still bouncing around in my subconscious, I had a thought that this was one of Jerry's finest tunes. I wondered if there were any versions better than the one Buffalo from '77. That curiosity led me to wonder how many times C-A-T was played. I found that number online; there were 65 of them performed by the Dead. Then a few days later I had another thought... I could listen to them all, take notes along the way, and find the ultimate version.

So that's what I did. Over the course of a month I listened to every version of Comes A Time. It was a fascinating journey. It started in Minneapolis in '71 and traveled through space and time to Landover in '94. I experienced an uncommon journey. After finishing all the versions, looking over my notes, and chatting with a friend about it, I decided to write a blog about the project. It is at https://gotanemptycup.wordpress.com/ . Over the next few months I'm going to share some of my thoughts, observations and notes through a series of blog posts.

So if you dig the project and would like to read about some of the things I discovered, please check the blog. I'm going to attempt to add a new post every week.

Lastly, apologies to those who saw this post on Reddit. I hang out over there more often and shared on the GD reddit page earlier today.
 #158547  by ac4468
 
Searing75 wrote:Buffalo '77 is their best show ever! Minus Sunrise.
Couldn't agree more! Although every show needs a bathroom break before the set closer....
This show started my 30 year obsession with Peggy-o.
 #158819  by rugger
 
Nice concept. I've thought of doing that--minus the blog--but never got around to committing to the idea. Closest I've come is searching a year and then trying to listen to a show a day. Well, have it on in the background. Impossible for me to commit to a full attention listen.

Setlists.net is a great tool for this type of stuff. Is that what you used to track down all the versions?

Look forward to following along.

john in san diego
 #158858  by ComesATimeGuy
 
Yeah, i used setlits.net. It was pretty complete, I think it was missing two versions that someone on reddit was able to identify for me.
Fun project and the blogging has been a fun experiment too. If nothing else a new creative outlet for me.
 #158861  by TI4-1009
 
ac4468 wrote:
Searing75 wrote:Buffalo '77 is their best show ever! Minus Sunrise.
Couldn't agree more! Although every show needs a bathroom break before the set closer....
This show started my 30 year obsession with Peggy-o.
Another Peggy-o geek here! If Jer came back and could play me only one song, this would be it. Particularly if he wound the solo around four or five times. Pure Jerry.