“Uncle John's Band” by The Grateful Dead

"Uncle John's Band" landed on the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead in June 1970, after the band had spent the tail end of 1969 working it out onstage, and it's the Dead reined in and unplugged, gathered round the porch instead of the amps. Jerry Garcia wrote the tune and Robert Hunter the words, and the whole thing rolls along on acoustic guitars with a bluegrass-and-folk lilt, Garcia adding banjo while he, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Pigpen stack up close harmonies like a mountain choir. Hunter's lines tip their hat to the old folk and bluegrass tunes that were part of the band members' own repertoire.

Warner Bros. put it out as a single backed with "New Speedway Boogie", but it ran too long for most radio. It has lasted anyway: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts it among its 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.