by Scott Schminky, Mechanicsburg, PA

October 17, 1994 - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. On the fifth night of a six-night run at Madison Square Garden, The Grateful Dead took the darkened stage for their encore. It was obvious that there was an additional player on the stage with them (not unusual for The Grateful Dead in NYC), but the darkened arena prohibited identification for most of us. It was only a few seconds until the band broke into what would be their encore — “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35″. The crowd went nuts as this was not a tune normally played by The Grateful Dead. But it dwarfed the riotous sound when the stage lights were bright enough to now identify the additional figure on stage. It was none other than Bob Dylan!! I can recall that Bob had mic problems for the first verse or so of the tune, but it didn’t matter. The audience knew all the words and sang right through it for him. As you might imagine, certain lines of that song were especially popular among the crowd of Deadheads. Everyone left the arena ecstatic!