Grateful Dead Family Discography: Standing On The Moon

Standing On The Moon

Composer: Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter

Standing On The Moon was first performed by the Grateful Dead on February 5, 1989. It was then played regularly through to the last performance of the song in June 1995. In total the song was played just over 50 times.

Robert Hunter commented on the creation of Standing On The Moon in an interview;

Standing On The Moon was one of those neat, sweet, quick things, like It Must Have Been The Roses, where the whole picture just came to me, and I grabbed a piece of paper and got it down. No changes, no nothin'. Out of the head of Zeus, full-born and clad in armor.

Jerry Garcia spoke about Standing On The Moon in an interview with Blair Jackson in 1989;

.... it's one of those thing where I don't know what it is I like about it, but there's something I like about it very much. It's an emotional reality; it isn't linguistics. It's something about that moment of the soul. To have those words coming out of my mouth puts me in a very specific place, and there's a certain authenticity there that I didn't want to disturb. By keeping it simple it allows what actually produced the song to be visible as possible to the listener, so just the song is there.

Grateful Dead recordings

Built To Last, Grateful Dead, 1989
The Arista Years, Grateful Dead, 1996
Downhill from Here (video), Grateful Dead, 1997
Dick's Picks, Vol. 9, Grateful Dead, 1997
View From The Vault, Grateful Dead, 2000
View From The Vault (DVD), Grateful Dead, 2000
Beyond Description, Grateful Dead, 2004
Grateful Dead Download Series Vol 11, 6/20/91, Grateful Dead, 2006

Robert Hunter

Morrison, CO, June 19, 2004
Sacramento, CA, June 27, 2004
Holmdel, NJ, August 10, 2004

The Dead

Vernon, NY, June 29, 2003
Somerset,WI, August 3, 2003
George, WA, September 21, 2003
San Diego, CA, June 23, 2004
Boston, MA, July 31, 2004
Wantagh, NY, August 14, 2004
Dead ’09: Charlottesville, VA, April 15, 2009
Dead ’09: Chicago, IL, May 4, 2009
Dead ’09: Mountain View, CA, May 14, 2009

Other recordings

Built To Grass (Grass Is Dead, Vol. 2), Grass Is Dead (Crazy Fingers), 2001
Jerry Jams, Jerry Cares, Various Artists, 2005
Bruce Hornsby Live: December 3, 2005, Williamsburg, VA, Bruce Hornsby, 2006

Ratdog

Cleveland OH: October 31, 2003
Pittsburgh PA: November 7, 2003
DeKalb IL: November 14, 2003
Memphis TN: November 21, 2003
San Diego CA, February 27, 2004
Spokane WA, March 9, 2004
Syracuse NY, March 20, 2004
Washington, March 31, 2004
Sausalito CA, September 4, 2004
Milwaukee WI, March 31, 2005
Verona NY, April 8, 2005
Philadelphia, PA, April 30, 2005
Terra Alta, WV, August 6, 2005
Mashantucket, CT, November 5, 2005
Atlanta, GA, November 16, 2005
Phoenix, AZ, NM, December 4, 2005
Portland, OR, December 16, 2005
Washington, DC, March 27, 2006
Providence, RI, April 3, 2006
Alpine, CA, June 26, 2006
Philadelphia, PA, July 11, 2006
Mariaville, NY, August 19, 2006
Cleveland OH, October 24, Ratdog, 2006
Westbury NY, November 1, 2006
Atlanta GA, November 13, 2006
Anaheim CA, February 13, 2007
Concord NH, March 12, 2007
Milwaukee WI, July 5, 2007
Morrison CO, July 24, 2007
Wantagh NY, August 21, 2007
Hampton Beach NH, October 26, 2007
Raleigh, NC, November 11, 2007
St. Paul, MN, March 21, 2008
Baltimore, MD, April 8, 2008
Seattle, WA, June 21, 2008
Hiram, ME, August 10, 2008
Munhall, PA, November 1, 2008
Clearwater, FL, November 18, 2008
San Francisco, CA, December 31, 2008
Negril, Jamaica, January 29, 2009
Glen Allen, VA, July 8, 2009
Denver, CO, August 31, 2009