Bob Weir: 10 Essential Songs
The guitarist, singer and songwriter, who died at 78, cut his own path among his elders in the Grateful Dead, and beyond.
By David Browne
As the youngest member of the original Grateful Dead, Bob Weir was often branded the spacey kid trying to keep up with his more experienced elders, especially the guitarist Jerry Garcia and the bassist Phil Lesh. But as the years went on, Weir proved he was more than just the rhythm guitar player with the ponytail.
Equally devoted to cowboy story-songs as much as he was to zigzagging melodies, Weir, who died at 78, was a creatively restless soul who helped flesh out the Dead’s music in multiple ways.
Here are 10 of his most notable performances, with and without the Dead.
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Grateful Dead, ‘Sugar Magnolia’ (1970)
Weir had sung lead with the Dead before this, including on 1968’s “Born Cross-Eyed.” But this excitable ode to his partner at the time, Frankie Weir, was where he came into his own within the band. Played with a galloping energy, and sung so earnestly that it summoned an innocent, tie-dyed bliss, “Sugar Magnolia” also showcased the earthiness Weir could bring to the Dead.
Grateful Dead, ‘Estimated Prophet’ (1977)
Is the narrator of this Weir-lead song on the Dead’s “Terrapin Station” a prophet or a madman? Weir sings it in such a stern, unwavering manner that it’s hard to say, and the band’s blend of prog and reggae behind him only deepens the song’s mystery and allure. The Dead’s performance of it during their fabled show at Cornell University in 1977 is also a must-hear.
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Grateful Dead, ‘Hell in a Bucket’ (1987)
The most carousing rocker Weir ever tackled, with the Dead or anyone else, “Hell in a Bucket” is something of a hellscape in and of itself, full of bikers, breakups and resentment (“There may come a day, I will dance on your grave / If unable to dance, I will crawl across it”). Putting aside his ballad voice, Weir matched those lyrics with a delightfully indignant growl.
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‘Only a River’ (2016)
If Weir conjured young ranch-hands in some of his earlier songs, “Only a River” sounds like a lullaby to a weathered cowboy on his last cattle drive. The opening track off “Blue Mountain,” the last studio solo album he made, it remains one of his most evocative songs.
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