GRATEFUL DEAD / 1965–1995

The First. The Last. The Best.

Find a song’s first, last and best live versions, or look up any show.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

Desolation Row

The first, last and best live versions of Desolation Row by the Grateful Dead, with free recordings from the Internet Archive. It appears in 58 concert listings in The SetList Program, 1986 to 1995.

Who wrote it

Desolation Row was written by Bob Dylan. It was first released on Postcards Of The Hanging, 2002.

First time played

The Grateful Dead first played Desolation Row live on March 25, 1986 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA.

Last time played

The last time they played it was July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Amphitheater in Noblesville, IN.

Best version

The top-voted version on HeadyVersion is July 19, 1990 at Deer Creek Amphitheater in Noblesville, IN, with 46 votes (as of November 2026). Next in the voting: 7/19/89 (44 votes) and 3/24/90 (30 votes).

Lyrics

Read the lyrics to Desolation Row on dead.net, the band’s official site.

Every time they played it

In the setlists on this site, the Grateful Dead played Desolation Row 58 times, from 1986 to 1995. They played it most in 1987 (14 times).

1986 (10): 3/25/86, 3/31/86, 4/13/86, 4/21/86, 5/10/86, 6/21/86, 7/2/86, 7/7/86, 12/17/86, 12/31/86

1987 (14): 3/26/87, 3/31/87, 4/11/87, 4/17/87, 5/10/87, 6/12/87, 6/19/87, 7/6/87, 8/15/87, 9/11/87, 9/20/87, 9/23/87, 10/4/87, 12/27/87

1988 (3): 2/17/88, 9/6/88, 9/15/88

1989 (3): 2/5/89, 4/9/89, 7/19/89

1990 (7): 3/24/90, 6/15/90, 7/6/90, 7/19/90, 9/18/90, 10/22/90, 12/8/90

1991 (6): 3/24/91, 5/10/91, 6/12/91, 8/16/91, 9/14/91, 9/24/91

1992 (5): 3/8/92, 5/20/92, 6/14/92, 6/29/92, 12/12/92

1993 (6): 1/26/93, 3/17/93, 4/1/93, 6/15/93, 9/12/93, 12/17/93

1994 (3): 3/31/94, 7/2/94, 10/10/94

1995 (1): 7/2/95

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About the picks

A NOTE FROM THE TAPE ROOM

What this site is

Pick a song and hear three tapes: its first known performance, its last, and the fan favorite.

Which songs are here

Over 200 songs, plus classic live sequences: the list started from Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Grateful Dead Songs playlist and now has nearly every song the band played at least 10 times. Only performances by the original Grateful Dead are included. If one you love is missing, request it and it can be added.

First, Last, and Best (or Longest)

First and Last are the earliest and latest concerts where the song appears in The SetList Program. Early histories can be incomplete or disputed, so these are documented dates, not a guarantee of the true debut or final performance. A few entries rely on other references, such as JerryBase, Dead.net and a Dead Essays article, and each links to its source. A few entries have no verified date and are marked.

Best is the highest-voted version on that song’s HeadyVersion ranking. The card shows the vote count and the date we checked. It’s one community’s opinion, not the final word, and votes change over time, so this is a snapshot. If versions tie, the card says so and shows the first one listed. The live sequences use HeadyVersion’s separate sequence rankings.

Some songs don’t have enough HeadyVersion votes yet to name a fan favorite. For those, the third tape is The Longest: the longest single-song track on tape, and the card says so. Track times include any tuning or crowd on the tape.

Credits (who wrote it, and the first release) come from the Grateful Dead Family Discography. Lyrics links go to the song’s page on dead.net, the band’s official site, and only appear when that page has the lyrics.

Sorting

A–Z is alphabetical. Rolling Stone Top 101 follows that playlist’s order; its numbers are playlist positions, not fan votes, and songs and sequences that aren’t on that playlist come after them. Debut Date lists songs by when they were first played, earliest first.

The tapes

Audio streams from the Internet Archive. Some shows have no surviving tape, and some recordings are missing tracks, mislabeled, or temporarily unavailable. “No matched tape” means we couldn’t find a usable recording for that date. Play sequence plays a whole sequence from the same show, with a brief gap between files.

Spot a mistake?

Dates and tape matches can be wrong. Every song page has a “Report a mistake” link at the bottom, and corrections get made.

Each Best card shows the date its votes were checked. Independent fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stone, The SetList Program, HeadyVersion, the Grateful Dead Family Discography, or Internet Archive. All names belong to their owners.

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