Ask any casual fan about the Grateful Dead, and they’ll probably mention tie-dye, twenty-minute psychedelic jams, or "Dark Star." But if you really want to understand the DNA of the band, you have to look at the dusty, high-velocity country covers that anchored their first sets for decades. Specifically, you have to look at The Race Is On.
Written by Don Rollins and made famous by the legendary George Jones in 1964, this song is a two-minute-and-change sprint through heartbreak using horse racing metaphors. It’s cynical. It's fast. Honestly, it’s everything Bob Weir loved in a cover song.
The Grateful Dead didn’t just play this song; they lived in it during the early '70s. While Jerry Garcia was exploring the outer reaches of the galaxy, Weir was often the guy keeping the band’s boots firmly planted in the Nashville mud.
From Nashville to San Francisco
The Dead’s relationship with country music wasn't just a phase. It was a foundational element. By 1969, the band was pivoting away from the dense, heavy blues of their early years and leaning into the "Bakerfield Sound." They were hanging out with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and discovering that a Telecaster and a pedal steel could be just as trippy as a feedback loop.
The Grateful Dead first took a crack at The Race Is On on December 31, 1969, at the Boston Tea Party. It wasn't a one-off. According to setlist data, the band performed the song approximately 60 times between 1969 and 1995. That’s a relatively small number compared to a staple like "Me and My Uncle" (played over 600 times), but the impact of "The Race Is On" on the band’s "cowboy" persona was massive.
Why did they pick it? Well, Bobby loved George Jones. Most people don't realize how much the Dead revered the "Possum." Jones’s phrasing and the song’s frantic rhythm fit the Dead’s 1973-1974 aesthetic perfectly. It was the ultimate "palette cleanser" between a deep jam and a ballad.
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The Peak Years: 1973 and 1980
If you're looking for the definitive versions of The Race Is On, you basically have two windows: the experimental country-rock of 1973 and the acoustic revival of 1980.
In '73, the song was a frequent visitor to the first set. It was lean and mean. Jerry would play these biting, chicken-picking leads that proved he was just as much a student of James Burton as he was of Ornette Coleman. A standout version from this era can be found on Dave’s Picks Vol. 5, recorded at Pauley Pavilion (11/17/73). It’s tight. It’s professional. It sounds like a band that actually knows how to play a honky-tonk.
Then, the song disappeared. It basically went into the vault from late 1974 until 1980.
When the band decided to play a series of acoustic/electric residencies at the Warfield and Radio City Music Hall in 1980, they needed songs that worked without the wall of sound. The Race Is On was reborn. It became a highlight of the acoustic sets, often appearing on the live album Reckoning. In this format, the song felt more like a campfire sing-along than a barroom brawl. The harmonies—while occasionally "Dead-ish" (which is a polite way of saying "flat")—had a charm that defined that era of the band.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Lyrics
There’s a common misconception that the song is just a fun little ditty about horses. It’s not. It’s actually pretty dark.
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The lyrics describe a man watching his life fall apart as his lover leaves him. He compares the emotional wreckage to a horse race where "Heartbreak" is winning and "Honesty" is "about to go away."
"Now the race is on and here comes pride in the backstretch / Heartache is going to the inside / My loneliness is stepping up the pace."
Bob Weir always delivered these lines with a certain smirk, but the underlying desperation is what makes it a "Dead" song. The band had a knack for taking songs about losers, criminals, and the broken-hearted and making them feel like an anthem for the weirdos in the audience.
Key Performances and Statistics
If you're a data nerd or a tape trader, here's the breakdown of how The Race Is On moved through the years:
- First Performance: December 31, 1969, Boston Tea Party.
- Most Active Year: 1973 (played 25 times).
- The Big Gap: It wasn't played at all by the Grateful Dead between October 1974 and September 1980.
- The Final Sprint: The last time the Dead played it was May 20, 1995, at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, just months before Jerry passed away.
It’s worth noting that even when the main band wasn't playing it, the song lived on through side projects. Bobby played it with Kingfish. He played it with the Avett Brothers in 2014. It’s a part of his musical soul.
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Why it Still Matters
In the modern landscape of Dead & Company or the various "Philly Dead" scenes, you don't hear The Race Is On as much as you used to. That’s a shame. It represents a specific type of American music that the Dead helped preserve. They weren't just a rock band; they were a bridge between the old-school Grand Ole Opry world and the counterculture.
When they played this song, they were tipping their hats to the songwriters like Don Rollins and the performers like George Jones who built the foundation of American songwriting. It’s a reminder that beneath the layers of "Space" and "Drums," the Dead were basically just a really, really good bar band.
Actionable Next Steps for Deadheads
If you want to experience the best of The Race Is On, do this:
- Listen to Reckoning (1981): This is the gold standard for the acoustic version. It’s clean, the recording quality is top-tier, and it captures the band's "folky" side perfectly.
- Hunt down 11/17/73 (Pauley Pavilion): This is the electric peak. Jerry's tone is crystalline, and the band is playing with the kind of "on-a-dime" precision that only existed in '73.
- Compare it to the George Jones Original: To really appreciate what the Dead did, you have to hear the 1964 original. Jones is more precise, but the Dead have more swing.
- Check out the "Road Trips" series: Specifically Vol 2, No 3 (Des Moines, 6/16/74). It’s a great example of how the song acted as a transition piece during their most prolific touring years.
The race is still on, even if the horses left the track years ago. For a band that spent thirty years on the road, this song was the perfect metaphor for their career: a high-stakes, fast-moving scramble where you're never quite sure if you're going to finish in the money or end up at the back of the pack.