20: 1968-10-12

86759 Avalon 14:52

Main theme at 3:45.
First verse at 4:17.
Verse melody at 8:09.
Bright Star at 10:29.
Falling Star at 11:00.
Sputnik at 11:44.
Main theme at 12:43.
Second verse at 13:23.
Goes into St. Stephen.

No Pigpen this night. Jerry takes his time after the intro, playing moody, spooky lines and again varying his voice effectively. Lesh is fully unleashed here as well, with a seemingly endless supply of contrapuntal ideas. Garcia comes out of the first verse with the familiar pattern from earlier in the year, and launches into a remarkable series of melodies, double stops, bends, a little feedback, and repeated motifs with Lesh providing the perfect counterpoint at every step. Weir is less clearly audible much of the time but his presence is very much felt, and we know how crucial it is, especially after reviewing the Hartbeats versions. He’s more prominent when things quiet down between around 9:45 and when Bright Star begins at 10:29. During Bright Star you can hear him playing some melodic lines. We finally get an unmistakable Sputnik at 11:44. This is still relatively compact, and stays inside compared, of course, to what’s still to come, but it’s nevertheless a masterful version, and very satisfying.




What was said:

A favorite from way back in cassette days, near on 40 years ago. One of the lowest pH ratings of any concert for which a recording exists.




Masterful is definitely the word for this one. It feels like they've mastered what's available in this approach now. There's more expressive control of the things they discovered they could do back on 8/23/68. A lot of creative fire within the form they've worked out, too, and lovely, deliberate use of those three themes (Bright Star, Falling Star, and Sputnik) before the final sequence and out. I guess now that they're solidifying things, they're also putting themselves in a position to blow it all up.




You didn't mention one of the most important things about this Dark Star: no Pigpen! [edited!] Coming after the Hartbeats this doesn't sound so different, but it changes the feel from the earlier Dark Stars....this sounds more free-floating now that it's not tethered to Pigpen's ROR. To make up for that, the scratcher comes in very loud in the mix after 6 minutes, insistently keeping the rhythm. (There's a bit of drums after 7:15 too). Strangely at one point the scratcher keeps flipping left & right in stereo, which isn't typical of a Dead mix, so I guess Bear was going nutty with the mix there.
Otherwise, aside from the lack of organ the playing isn't that different from the August '68 Dark Stars, it's not like a dramatic shift here....the changes in Dark Star may be more incremental from month to month now. Jerry has a lovely tone, with a touch of reverb, on the edge of feedback. The accompaniment by Phil and Bob is almost too perfect to mention -- it's a divine guitar trio here, always anticipating each other's moves. (Phil makes a rare slip after 3:50.) This Dark Star gets especially nice in the second half; my favorite part is after 9 minutes when they get into a droney stretch, then quiet down for some intimate, expressive playing.




Such a mellow intro. Listening to how the show develops after is intense, they really took the audience on a trip. 6:00 jam stretches out in a nice way. I like the shaker better than the guiro/scratcher which starts at 7:15, thankfully not as loud after 10:00. Oh well, you got two drummers, might as well use them.
The 8:30-> biz with the panning of the guiro is distracting, it’s damn loud too. I would have guessed that it was Mickey changing the scratcher from mic to mic if it were a later era show with all drums mic’ed up, but I’m assuming this is that man at the board?
13:36 “gla-a-a-ss hand” tremolo voice!




general personal notes:
Dark Star is quite nice, though, as the opening number, for them to test stuff out, stretch their hands and check the gear, make sure they can hear everybody, etc. And interesting set-wise to open with the drummers playing hand percussion also, to allow a slow build. I haven’t read any of the Dead history or gear books (due to the fact that I moved from California to Sweden before I really got into the Dead heavily enough to want to listen to every Dark Star (!) and it’s pretty tough finding random material like this in English here unfortunately. And the post is ****ty and expensive. Note, I am old enough to have seen them live several times, but I don’t think I appreciated it as much at the time…) but I did watch the Long Strange Trip movie and have some idea of the potential headspaces these guys may have found themselves in prior to having to go onstage and play, so I can see that this would be a great piece to sort of smoothly adjust to rocking out! note 2: that little tag at the end after verse two, the rising triplets (at 14:22 on 10/12 for example, before the planing tritone chords that go into St Stephen) keeps reminding me of something, and I finally figured it out, it's on Yes' "Tales from Topographic Oceans" (1974) side 2, at around 4:20, he does a similar figure into a change. Wonder if there was some unconscious copping of the riff going on or, uh, parallel evolution.





Beautiful and thoughtful while still having a raw edge. I like the buildup leading into the first verse which sets a certain mood. Really good stuff between the first verse and the verse melody, at which point things get more powerful and intense for a bit before easing off and being more introspective again. More peaks and variation through Bright Star and Sputnik and as we get to the second verse we realize we’ve been transported somewhere else. Nice journey and great start to a classic show.
While I can’t say Pigpen’s ROR is missed I wouldn’t necessarily say this version is better specifically due to its absence.




No Pigpen means no annoying organ in the intro, much more like later 1969 versions. It takes Jerry relatively long to get to the main theme and then verse 1. The jamming that follows the first verse is excellent, despite the scratcher being very loud in the mix. Phil and Bob provide an excellent backing and it gets really intense, though never really heavy. Things almost stop several times, first around 9 minutes, then again before Jerry hits the Sputnik theme (shorter than usual) and then a beautiful return to the main theme and then the 2nd verse. Transition into St. Stephen is a bit weird, but it still beats every earlier Dark Star I've heard.




I just realized that these Matrix shows 1968-10-10 t0 12 was the weekend that Jimi Hendrix was at Winterland (where Jack Casady sat in on bass for a bit), and I was just listening to those shows recently too. I guess I'm channeling somewhere 52 years ago.