The most obsessively documented band in rock history uncorks yet another piece of live testimony from its 1972 European tour, already the subject of the definitive Europe '72 and the tightly edited Hundred Year Hall. A little editing would've helped Rockin' the Rhein, a nearly-four-hour performance from Dusseldorf, Germany, that doesn't merit the every-note-counts treatment. In Dead lore, it's notable primarily for a forty-four-minute "Dark Star" suite, a difficult birth for a show that finally squirms to life riding Jerry Garcia's guitar roller coaster, tumbles from space into a galloping "Me and My Uncle," then melts into one final noodle-down before slinking home with "Wharf Rat." Otherwise the one notable performance is Pigpen McKernan's badass rap on "Good Lovin'," his gruff pleas sounding increasingly desperate as the band spirals away from the song's R&B moorings. It marks a poignant last call for the keyboardist, who would die less than a year later.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.