Grateful Dead: These Go To Eleven!
Picking up on a half-joking Twitter post, I decided to make a silly little mix weaving together various versions of "The Eleven" from a number of live performances circa '68-'70. An early psychedelic jam showcase during the Dead's most primal period, "The Eleven" debuted in January 1968 as a coda to "China Cat Sunflower." (It takes its name from the song's unusual 11-beat meter--i.e. 1 -2-3 1 -2-3 1 -2-3 1 -2 .) Following those early appearances, "The Eleven" was frequently played as the closing part of a "Dark Star/St. Stephen" medley, the placement heard on the band's classic Live Dead album from 1969. (And of course, by 1969, "China Cat Sunflower" became permanently joined to "I Know You Rider" instead.) As the band moved into the Americana sound found on 1970's Workingman's Dead and American Beaut y, they dropped the song from the repertoire, the sole exception being a lone performa
