24. 1968-11-22

21933 Columbus, OH 11:52

Last Dark Star with Pigpen on keys for a good while (He added some organ on some 1972 versions, at least, but this is the end of him playing the ROR—though not the end of the ROR, as TC will take it over, although he’s less relentless with it than Pigpen) and Hart is the only drummer (Kreutzmann was sick, according to LIA).
Main theme at 2:08.
First verse at 2:32.
Sputnik begins (more or less) at 6:43.
Bright Star at 9:12.
Main theme at 10:02.
Second verse at 10:30.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This is a bad-sounding AUD, but at least Garcia is loud…his guitar really flows on the (short) intro, as his increasing mastery of the instrument is really evident here. We’re almost to the end of 1968, and Garcia is still coming out of the verse with the same little figure. It sounds like a cliché—or I guess it is one—but from the moment he begins the break proper on some particularly assertive low notes at 3:55, his playing is especially lyrical here. At times it’s almost as if he’s saying something with determinate semantic content, and if you strain you can catch his point…at least, we can almost identify a kind of syntax, as there’s a series of commas and then, at 4:17, an ellipsis opens; he gives us a second to let this secondary point sink in, and then rephrases it, after which he returns to his primary thesis with some emphatic low phrases at 4:25, then soars back up into a higher register to expound the finer points… at 4:45, he is suddenly confident he’s won our assent, and you can almost see him excitedly nodding as he works out some of the implications of the thesis to which we’ve now all agreed. Then at 5:06 he lurches into a series of funky rhythmic double stops, and again the music just seems like music…or maybe that was the thesis all along: it’s just music, so stop trying to impute some sort of message to it! At 5:37, his repetitious phrase descends into dissonance and feedback, intensifying at 5:47, as if to underscore the point, or lack thereof…which have somehow become the same thing in my interpretation, which is probably a good indication that it has run its course! But Garcia’s solo has not, in fact it takes off into a blistering series of peaks which reaches its apex around 6:42, at which point a transition into Sputnik begins. Although Weir is lost in the mix for much of this, we can hear him contributing to the Sputnik as it nears its peak, which increases the excitement considerably. Then by 8:05 we briefly enter one of the spaciest segments we’ve had in a Dark Star thus far, which culminates with a quick reiteration of Sputnik at 8:44. The Bright Star that follows (it’s hard to identify the exact beginning of this one) is one of the most thrilling iterations of this theme to date, although there’s already been so much excitement that it seems almost superfluous! Although the sound is not good, this is a very worthy addition to our stock of Dark Stars…and it might be even better than I think it is, since we can’t hear a lot of what is happening.


What was said:

My notes for this show (1968-11-22) just say "horrible sound, pretty much unlistenable." It is striking how having to pay close attention to the Dark Star changed my view of what happens here! The St Stephen and 11 seem really hot now, which I hadn't bothered to figure out a couple months ago when I listened to this the first time...


Audience tape with a distinct rumble and overloads. Anybody know how they recorded it, like was cassette recording a thing in 1968? (Sorry I’m so uneducated with respect to this whole Dead/taping thing.) Jerry is nice and loud in what sounds like a half-empty reverberant space, decent bass amp sound in the hall too. Drums are shakers at the start, but the guitars come out playing and warmed up by Morning Dew and GMLS, they’re already into the song and they’re going for it. Pretty quick version, like it was at Berkeley last month. Dark Star is not a set opener anymore now. Pigpen’s ROR is backgrounded, a decent continuo level.
Jerry does that tone thing again at around 4:00 where it must be the wah pedal but backed off and stuck at the top somehow (a “cocked-wah” sound the guitar nerds call it) but then comes into the bright tone again by 4:50. Into the Sputnik. Just rapidly moving through the song parts. He hits some country licks now afterwards in the bright tone, he’s really filling the hall with sound. It’s hard to hear through the overloading tape but I think the drums are coming in with this part.
The at 6:40, back to Sputnik arpeggio stuff, moving downwards in intensity, think you’re coming out of the space…? Also I’m starting to hear Bobby finding his parts in these sections too.
Nice weird cocked-wah tone feedback stuff at 8:00, the outsideness is starting to peek through. And then back to rising arpeggio by 9:00 to Bright Star. Drums are in here for sure.
The Bright Star theme itself is interesting to me as a variant of the main theme, as it reaches to the very highest notes, then falls, as it must, nowhere higher to go. The “Dark Star” theme is of course that way too (same thing, really), octave jump to start, then coming back down. That’s the lesson of Dark Star, reach up then come back down. This is sort of an intense version packed into 11 minutes!
These ’68 shows must have been mind-openers for the audience, that’s for sure. I love the whole suite, DS->St Stephen->the 11. Wow. After opening with essentially folk and blues (Morning Dew and GMLS) where a new audience might think, ok, it’s a rock band, and then they get stunned by this suite. And later the Cryptical->TOO->New Potato… Must have been fun.


This is a good version despite the poor recording. Flowing and lyrical are good words and it’s powerful too; the intensity of the peaks is palpable and the spacier portions have a dream-like quality.
It might be another one where the recording actually adds to the mysticism a bit, like we’re getting a glimpse through the fog of something magical that we can’t quite grasp.


Wow, what a Dark Star! Great version, sure had all my hairs a-tinglin'. Like JSegel said there's a lot of intensity crammed into these 11 minutes, it just zips by...one of the most energetic Stars thus far, I think. Night & day from the last version.
I agree with adamos that the crummy recording gives it a more mystical feel, kind of otherworldly like it's being beamed in from another dimension. There is a lot of tape hum (probably from the multiple cassette generations, the master was probably much nicer-sounding) but the band's audible enough. I disagree with bzfgt that Weir's lost in the mix, he's pretty clear throughout and doing fine work. (It's Phil who's kind of quiet and poky in this mix...I rarely noticed Phil, which is unusual in a Dark Star.) The audience perspective is revealing since it might show the sound balance the Dead were going for....Jerry way up-front, that shaker mixed really high, and the organ really low.
Drums start up prominently midway through the jam (one big entry around 6:15)...if Mickey was manning the drums himself this night, maybe he felt more unrestrained. A lot of energy in the jam. But Jerry's soloing is just amazing, super-psychedelic, using a lot more feedback than I remember him doing in previous versions...he keeps changing directions, before you know where you're at you're somewhere else. Early tease of Sputnik around 5:15...the whole second part of the jam is mystical and dream-like as adamos said. That little spacey part sounded like it came right out of 1970, a surprising change of direction, and was that really a Sputnik>Space>Sputnik in the middle of a '68 Dark Star? The band churns away behind Jerry and matches his changes in mood precisely...they can be kickin' up a Bright Star and then get calm & quiet & delicate on a dime. This jam's a real roller-coaster ride, worth repeated listens.
What's surprising is the setting this Dark Star came from....Phil wrote about this show in his book. "The hall is huge, cold, and hollow-sounding... I look out into the hall and see -- no one. Oh, wait, there are some people right down in front of the stage, cheering us on gamely. About 300 souls in a hall built for 6,000." But Phil remembered it as a great show -- they were "bubbling over with glee at the quality of the show, knowing we can play our best music for small crowds in big halls."
It's too bad no one taped the next night, which was TC's first show.