Song
St. Stephen
157 plays · 1968 – 1983
Stats
Peak year
1969
64 plays
Peak era
Primal
84 plays
Years in rotation
9
avg 19.9/yr
Usually
Set 1
74% of plays
Set 2 opener
9%
4 of 47
By decade
60s
84
70s
92
80s
3
90s
0
Often comes in from
- 45%Dark Star(77×)
- 8%Not Fade Away(14×)
- 3%The Other One(6×)
Often leads into
- 35%The Eleven(63×)
- 25%Not Fade Away(44×)
- 4%Turn On Your Love Light(8×)
Garcia/Lesh/Hunter. Late-60s psychedelic centerpiece, often segued into The Eleven (and later Not Fade Away). Retired late 1971, revived in 1976 with a new arrangement, played its final three shows October 1983.
Best versions · Curator's picks
More high-scoring versions
By Curator Score across all shows that played St. Stephen.
Every time Curator has written about it
16 mentions across the listening journal.
Numbers show each show's Curator Score · how it works
Very good quality. Nice Lazy Lightning and a surprisingly cool jam on Dancin in the Streets (because I don't usually like that tune to be honest.) Pretty sweet Scarlet-St. Stephen-Not Fade Away-Drums-St. Stephen mega jam. Especially tight going back into St. Stephen from Drums. Looks like it is Dick's Picks Vol. 20.
2nd set. Quality okay. Smoking St. Stephen into Not Fade Away and back into St. Stephen. Dick's Picks Vol. 33. All around pretty damn awesome show.
Quality good. Awesome St. Stephen solo.
Another great show start to finish. Mission in the Rain!!!! One of the best slow St. Stephen's I have ever heard. I went back and listened to this show many times. A favorite of mine now.
Pigpen is indeed hard to handle! Saint Stephen into I Know It's A Sin (really cool) and back into St. Stephen. Then a huge Lovelight and then huge Other One. Good show.
Very nice Peggy-O. Holy smokes at the Mississippi Half Step. Great jam on Scarlet. St. Stephen into Not Fade Away into Stella Blue and then back to St. Stephen. Whew. Terrapin encore. Just an astounding show leading into that beautiful summer of 77.
Family Dog show. Tight St. Stephen into Fade Away back into Stephen.
Last show we needed to complete this amazing five night run. We get The Rub and an early Bird Song which are both nice. The electric Ripple is absolutely beautiful. They end the first set with Bertha which shows they had not made it the opener yet which is cool. Mean intro riff to Hard to Handle. Awesome Other One into Wharf Rat which is cool they were feeling that out considering the song was still pretty new at this point (it debuted that February). Perfect Dark Star into St. Stephen which was pretty typical for the time but man the boys were on top of this jam this evening!
Soundboard. Normal killer 77 setlist. One of the funkiest Tennessee Jed's I have ever heard. Nice Friend of the Devil. Good Ole Dupree. Absolutely smoking Passenger! Awesome Music Never Stopped to finish second set. We get Sunrise which is right. Beautiful soloing on Scarlet. Awesome slow St. Stephen. EPIC ending to Wharf Rat before going back into St. Stephen four songs later! Smoking Trucking to end the second set!
Soundboard. Probably the perfect early Bertha to start. Jerry is smoking on solos right from the bat. Then they roll right into a down and dirty Truckin. I have a feeling this show is going to be a monster! Jerry's vocals don't sound “bad" but he sounds a little rough. Sounds like Bob says “Moses came riding up on a guitar." Haha. A very down and dirty Hard to Handle as well in the first set. Good second set with great St. Stephen into Not Fade Away. Uncle John to finish.
Soundboard. 200th show!!! Wooo! Show starts with the first ever Dire Wolf. Acoustic and beautiful. Smoking show once they gear up with Dark Star into St. Stephen. If you are looking for a b**** out rocking Stephen this is the one! Jerry's fingers must hurt after the Eleven. Very upbeat early Cold Rain. Killer Doin that Rag!!! Janis sings on 20 minute Lovelight with Pigpen and it sounds like they were close to actually f****** on the stage.
Soundboard. Last night of a Winterland run. Uptime as the opening is killer. Sunrise. Awesome solo on Loser. Huge block of awesomeness (Help-Slipknot-Franklin's-Estimated-St. Stephen-Not Fade Away-drums-Stephen-Terrapin-Sugar) nonstop!!! A must listen!!!
Boston Music Hall. Archive. First night of a four night Boston run. Archive. Soundboard. A little quiet but overall good quality. Jerry's solo on Scarlet is on point for sure. All over the freight board. A very pretty solo on Crazy Fingers. Short but smoking Big River. Bob gives the ending of “Feels Like Rain" everything he's got. Haha. Jerry does a good job on the vocals for Ship of Fools. Sweet sprawling jam at the end of St. Stephen. Solid Eyes clocking in at about 17 minutes. I think I like drums within Let it Grow. Never taken notice but it kind of fits organically. Super solid Dancing in the Streets into Wharf Rat. Killer to hear a night Franklin's Tower as the last song. You don't get that much.
Dick's Picks 29 includes this entire show and one from Fox Theatre in Atlanta. May 77 doesn't miss. Smoking keys on They Love Each Other. Awesome Cassidy with the band super locked in throughout. They were doing something so funky with Jack-a-Roe in 77. This one is stellar. Nasty solo on Tennessee Jed with the mutron! Passenger always gets me pumped and this one is particularly fiery. The Scarlet-Fire to end the first set is damn near perfect. That transition from Estimated Prophet to He's Gone is SMOOTH. I think this is my favorite Comes a Time. It's always a treat to hear but Jerry's vocals are warm and clean and the solo with effects is impeccable. Plus it's just short of 12 minutes! So awesome and it flows into St. Stephen. This show is really unstoppable. Not a surprise for May 77 but it's a barn burner start to finish.
Soundboard. Huge half hour Lovelight to start the set and it’s raucous. Love that we get Doin that Rag. Always one of my favs off of AOX and they only played it live in 69. He Was a Friend of Mine is so tight with really strong soloing by Jerry slamming right into China Cat. Bob tells a joke and then they launch into a tasty Alligator to drums to blistering St. Stephen start with drums still GOING OFF. Strong show overall.
A 20 minute Turn On Your Lovelight to start the "short" set. Young Bobby putting in work vocally on Me and My Uncle. A lovely 25+ minute Dark Star into St. Stephen, followed by a killer Eleven back into Turn On Your Lovelight for 15 minutes!
Listen to St. Stephen from 1977-05-08 — official release