"Playing in the Band" is a Grateful Dead song. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir composed the music, with some assistance from percussionist Mickey Hart. The song first emerged in embryonic form on the self-titled 1971 live album '' Grateful Dead''. It then appeared in a more polished form on ''

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

'', Bob Weir's first solo album (which included every Grateful Dead member except

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Ronald Charles McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972. McKernan grew up he ...

). It has since become one of the best-known Grateful Dead numbers and a standard part of their repertoire. According to ''Deadbase X'', it ranks fourth on the list of songs played most often in concert by the band with 581 performances. In the Grateful Dead's live repertoire, all songs featured musical improvisation and many featured extended instrumental solos; but certain key songs were used as starting points for serious collective musical improvisation--the entire band creating spontaneously, all at once. In this regard "Playing in the Band" was of major importance, second only to "Dark Star". During "Playing in the Band" the Grateful Dead would play the planned verses and choruses of the song itself; then they would improvise and explore brand new musical territory, sometimes for twenty minutes or more; and then the chorus would usually be reprised, to bring the song to its end. Sometimes during these extended "jams", the band would even perform other entire songs, before at last coming back around to the final chorus from "Playing in the Band". Its performance on 21 May, 1974 at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle has been cited as the longest uninterrupted performance of a single song in the Grateful Dead's history, clocking in at 46 minutes and 32 seconds. It was released in 2018 on the boxset Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings and as its own LP.

Origins

The instrumental break of "Playing in the Band" was introduced as early as the February 19, 1969 "Celestial Synapse" show at the

Fillmore West The Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California, US which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968 to 1971. Named after The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Str ...

, in which it appears somewhat indistinct from the preceding and following jams. The completed song debuted (along with five others) on February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popu ...

. It was also included on Mickey Hart's 1972 solo album '' Rolling Thunder'' within "The Main Ten", making reference to the song's

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

of . "The Main Ten" appears on '' Dick's Picks Volume 16'', from their performance at the Fillmore West on November 8, 1969. On that set, it appears in the middle of "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)". During a Bob Weir and Wolf Bros concert livestream on February 12, 2021, Weir credited

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...

with the composition of the main riff. Weir stated, "David Crosby came up with the seminal lick... and then he left. We were out at Mickey's barn. So Mickey said, 'Make a song out of that'. Next day, I had it".

References

External links

The Annotated "Playing In The Band"
lyrics and commentary {{DEFAULTSORT:Playing in the Band 1971 songs Grateful Dead songs Songs with lyrics by Robert Hunter (lyricist) Songs written by Bob Weir