23: 1968-11-01

9965 Chico, CA 12:23 (actual time 12:10)

Main theme at 2:39.
First verse at 3:08.
Verse melody at 6:18.
Bright Star at 7:51, 9:32 (feint) and 10:02.
Main theme at 10:27.
Second verse at 10:51.
Goes into The Other One.

This one seems a bit slower than most versions to date. The sound is a little muddy, with Garcia coming through most clearly, but it clears up a bit a couple minutes in so that Lesh comes through more; however, the rest of the band stays back in the mix. Garcia begins with a winding, vaguely Eastern-flavored solo. Lesh plays some bouncy lines under the verse…from 5:28 to about 6:05, Garcia plays a repetitive line and Lesh winds around it with some variations. Coming out of the verse melody at 6:38 Garcia plays a very fluid, longish passage and then reverts to repetition at 6:55, a particularly effective combination. At various points he throws in some bluesy bends. At 7:35 he begins a repetitive passage and then lets it unwind—kind of the reverse of the strategy mentioned just above—until it becomes Bright Star at 7:51. At 7:59 there is a kind of variation on Falling Star, which has become more rare (although Garcia is not done with it yet). Bright Star briefly returns at 9:32, with variations, until it bursts out in earnest at 10:02, an effective exercise in delayed gratification. Overall, the variety and fluency of both Garcia’s and Lesh’s lines is remarkable here; this has come a long way in just under a year.


What was said:

The opening portion leading up to the first verse has a bit of a different feel and the overall pace of the song does seem slower than usual. In the first verse Jerry’s voice sounds a little warbly again so maybe the elixir was strong that night. It also seems a little rough around the edges at points but it still packs a punch and it’s an interesting version.


He’s really stretching notes off the bat, sort of a more aggressive tone for the start, but it’s “the Dead’s last set” so “do what you want” as the announcer says. What was in the first set? And this is the SG now? His tone is great throughout this tape. But yes, maybe the tempo is slowing a little, and a good level for Pigpen’s ‘tape loop’. Last version with that? Bummer! (I’m like the only person who likes it.) This recording goes suddenly stereo from mono at 2:30.
It’s cool to hear Jerry playing the melody while singing, so very clearly in the first verse with the stereo separation and levels, JG and PL guitar and bass on the right, everybody’s vocals plus Bobby’s guitar, Pigpen, and whomever actually plays any percussion on the left—both drums on the left? It’s interesting to think of the audience sound versus what’s put into the PA from the soundboard or what’s recorded onto a reel from which outputs from the board at what levels. Like, you'd put less drums in the mix from the board to the PA because they're already acoustically loud in the space, but on this tape the lead guitar is so clear, he's obviously in the board mix pretty high even with his amps on stage.
Nice mix, actually, if right heavy due to the channel separation, but JG’s guitar is loud enough again to get into the vocal mics which spreads it a bit, in space and time. I’m not just being trippy, I mean the vocal mics add a bit of reverb/tail to the notes. Love that cross-spectrum time-spread.
Interplay is great from JG and PL, BW is understated. The almost-Bright-Star to the theme is an amazing jam, starts in the brighter world falling, but then when it gets to the bottom at around 9:00, he switches to the tone-rolled-off thing, or maybe it’s wah-wah on but with the pedal up until 9:30, back to bright-star/bright tone to build to the theme at 10:45 into the second verse with the melody played and sung. Beautiful. Also that Phil vocal flourish on “Transitive Nightfall” is really good…unlike most times where it’s bizarre. It’s a great idea, but I think Phil was having a hard time hitting the right pitch while playing bass most of the early years.
This is in Chico! Party college. At a fair! Personally I’d think it’s pretty ballsy even playing Dark Star at a fair. But maybe they attracted some passers by and then after this they go for Cryptical, The Other One, back to Cryptical and then jams with like a minute of New Potato and then the reel runs out, next reel starts with jams and it all falls apart into more jams until feedback and bid you goodnight. I do notice in the end sections of this that drums are also put into the right channel, things must have been getting loud. Great subtle feedback spaceout composition at the end of the show. I just picture some Fair organizer running around going “wtf!? Get these freaks off the stage!”


Ok, I am just being trippy: With Roger Penrose winning the Nobel Prize in physics (ok, with Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez proving it) I’ve been reading a lot about black holes/watching PBS SpaceTime. They all mention that that the first person to theorize their existence, John Michell, a weird old educated clergyman in 1783, called them “Dark Stars.” He was the first to apply the math as an idea that the heaviness of the star could be so great that its gravity/escape velocity could exceed the speed of light, hence no light emitted could escape.


Starts out in mono, fortunately switches to stereo at 2:30. You're right, it is slower than previous Dark Stars....actually I think this version is pretty sluggish in general, a tepid low-key Dark Star. Jerry & Phil stand out, the rest of the band is like a muffled indistinct background, so it's like a cross between a laid-back Hartbeats and a more energetic Dead version. Bobby doesn't really emerge on this one! Jerry sounds...not tired exactly, just not very inspired either, not as hot & fluid as he was in the October versions, lots of pauses and backtracking. That said, the baseline for Dark Star is pretty high by now, and "average" can still be entrancing.
It's funny when Jerry hits the Bright Star theme first after 7 minutes, realizes it's too soon, and immediately backs off with some high-pitched squiggling, then noodles around for a couple more minutes while he teases at it, until he and Phil find a better way to slide into it. (And he forgets to play the Sputnik in this version!)
The drums pop out briefly during the Bright Star...I didn't notice percussion earlier in the jam, just some tapping, it's low in the mix. The Dead hit the Bright Star theme hard, it's become the regular structural climax of the jam, the ending highpoint they aim for before the second verse. But here, not much happens on the way there.