36. 1969-02-11

Youtube Fillmore East 12:29
Comes out of Mountains of the Moon.

Main theme at 1:22, 2:11 and 2:35.

First verse at 3:12.
Verse melody at 6:11.
Sputnik at 7:20.
Bright Star at 8:59.
Main theme at 9:36 and 10:43.
Second verse at 10:57.


The Dead were opening for Janis Joplin, and perhaps trying to be concise. Nevertheless, the pace is relatively deliberate this time. This is the first time that Dark Star comes out of Mountains of the Moon, with a nice little transition in between. Garcia keeps slipping in and out of the main theme during the ~3 minute intro. Garcia’s entry after the verse, after a short interlude with tolling bell sound, is striking. Here he eschews the 1968 lick, and he sounds rather fuzzy on the low notes. At some point here TC enters the mix. There’s a nice little duet between Garcia and Lesh starting around 5:40. This time Weir seems to initiate the Sputnik while Garcia is perhaps hinting at it. Again Garcia plays with a distinctive effect after the Sputnik, though again not for long. Bright Star seems to come out of nowhere this time, without much of a build-up, and it goes right into the main theme. The band gets a round of applause when Garcia goes into the second verse.

This sounds very together but there’s really nothing new or particularly noteworthy going on.


What was said:

Dupree’s and (a haunting) Mountains of the Moon lead in here in the second set. TC has been doing his thing. Quick sleight of hand and Jerry has his electric, they start Dark Star quickly, TC comes in with the ROR! (He’s quickly mixed down and just as quickly abandons it.) Shakers only, seems like they’re testing out how far out they’re going to go, JG reels it in once at 2 minutes, then some cool crystalized theme variations with straight sides from Phil. Not much said musically before the verse at 3:10.

Some play time with cymbals and gongs and bass before a new arpeggio statement from JG. I don’t hear TC anymore…? JG is jamming out, ah, here comes Tom, noodling along. Weird bass-guitar fight/eddy/wind-up at 5:45, then coming out of it into a softly spoken verse-like section with the accompaniment rhythms and then it once again takes off on that third line and JG goes off till he and PL find another eddy into the sputnik by 7:00. TC’s playing scales up and down. Once all the dust settles we get a weirdness treat! Playing the microphonic sounds on the bridge of the guitar, but into a bright star, whoa! The whole band came along on this ride into the theme at 9:40, into a new tonal region with the cocked-wah/tone roll off solo, a little noodle from TC and into verse two, clapping from the audience on the first lines, they came along for the ride! Jerry sounds good vocally this evening, but maybe just warmed up from the first set. All in all a medium DS, some potentials to be explored but no fruition. Still, two sets and Janis.


This was nice! It's a very compact version again, not a big jump exploration-wise from the previous week, but the playing sounds more careful and deliberate somehow. I think playing in the Fillmore East was influencing them...they only had a short opening set before Janis to work their stuff, so this Dark Star wasn't gonna go out too far, but they had good theater sound and a receptive New York audience. It's nice to hear the applause in the second verse....Dark Star didn't fly over the heads of this audience, they knew they'd heard a good jam!
Excellent crystal-clear sound of course. I think this show was recorded on 8-track by Bob Matthews, and mixed for CD release by Lesh & Cutler, so it's pristine. Any strange mixing choices (like TC really low again, and disappearing for minutes at a time) were intentional...and of course Phil puts himself front and center! Some light maracas (or scratcher?) seem to be the only percussion during the jam.
The tolling-bell sound that Jerry hits after the verse, is that a new development? I think he might have done that in some version a while back, have to check... But it's very well-done here, a dramatic entry into a nice little jam! And instead of going loud & bold for the verse melody like usual, instead Jerry quiets down for this part, making it even more effective. The Sputnik's good but short, and once again Jerry makes cool weird noises after it, he's really getting into that part and it points to the Dark Stars to come. No slow build-up to the bright star this time, but I like how they just dive into it, it's very smoothly played. The jam wanders for a minute afterward like they could keep going, but....they pull it back in.
You underplay the biggest development here, which is Mountains of the Moon segueing into Dark Star for the first time. Not much of a transition jam or anything, but it may be part of why this Dark Star sounds so focused, and it sets up the great transitions soon to come!


Greater familiarity due to the official release and its accompanying sound quality influence my opinion but I dig this one. It’s compact and closer to the vest yet still compelling; both packing a punch and having a more subtle beauty at various points along the way. Jerry’s guitar sounds great and Phil is nice and present too. I prefer having the pre-Bright Star build up but I like how it emerges suddenly here.