10: 1968-03-16

 

7:25


Carousel Ballroom. First verse at 1:52. Note the figure Garcia plays right after the first verse, this seems to show up here a lot. Verse melody at 3:30, which goes to an Em as usual. At 4:35 Garcia more or less begins to play Bright Star, which becomes more distinct at 4:40. This time he plays it with dynamics, as he brings it down soft and then brings it up again. Falling Star at 5:16. Second verse at 6:02. Comes to a full stop before Morning Dew.


This opens the show (or at least the portion we have) and goes into China Cat Sunflower. At this point the introductory section has Garcia exploring a bit more. This is a very strong version, and seems to me to stand out in the era, although soon it will become longer and more exploratory.




What was said:

I love the recording mix here, Jerry's guitar sounds especially good. It's been a few weeks since the last recorded Dark Star and this one is notably more mature already. As you say, Jerry's playing more dynamically...there's more space, more sense of feeling in the notes, and this already jumps out in the opening jam. I haven't compared the tempo to earlier versions but there's more of a feeling of calmness here. Back in February '68 Dark Star kept getting more jumpy and energetic....now it's starting to head the other way and get deeper instead. The figure Jerry plays right after the verse at 2:50 has been in every Dark Star since the single, it starts out each solo....but at some point he's going to drop it! Aside from the usual themes, his solo is getting longer as he delves out a little more. At the end of the solo he returns to the main theme as always (at 5:35). Jerry sings "Dark Star flashes..." He's still singing in that early wobbly style.


Another good one, and it does seem a little more open and spread out. In addition to singing “Dark Star flashes” in the first verse it sounds like Jerry sings “Mirror shatter” (singular) in the second verse but it’s hard to tell. The gong (or is that cymbal?) during the second verse seems more prominent (starting around 6:08 and peaking between 6:25 and 6:30). But I wasn’t specifically listening for that before so maybe it just stood out in the mix on this one.

I agree with all the posts above. This one sounds great from the offset. There’s space and room to breathe here. Love the intro. Jerry is flexing a little and exploring more and more with each version. Again, it’s at a much more settled pace, which is really allowing the exploratory playing — it will only get further “out there” from here. Strong rendition.

Kicks off the show in fine form. Jerry sounds even more ready to dive right in this time, I love the figure he plays right off the bat. He's really poking around at the possibilities of the pre-verse section, which obviously will pay dividends as the years go by. I like the little oscillating thing he does about a minute and a half in before things get all quiet again - you can almost feel the air in the room before the first verse starts. In the last month this has already grown and matured, even if we don't have much recorded evidence of such. Phil is much more noticeable on this version, at least I'm paying more attention to him, especially in the between verse section. Jerry is clearly having fun playing around with the Bright Star portion here, especially in the dynamics as was noted. Again this one goes into "China Cat", but less enticingly as the last one.