39. 1969-02-15

2175 Philadelphia 23:00 (actually 22:00)
Main theme at 3:54.

First verse at 4:53.
Verse melody at 12:40.
Sputnik at 16:18.
Bright Star at 19:37.
Second verse at 21:25.
Goes into St. Stephen.
Main theme at 20:40.



This is the second one we have that emerges from “Mountains of the Moon.” This has a nice jam in between, although once Garcia switches to electric it moves almost immediately to “Dark Star.” This one feels lighter than the day before. Garcia plays some of his tolling bell licks in the beginning, before launching into a hazy lead. After a repetitive series of ascending notes anchored by a repeated low tone that sounds like it’s heading for the main theme, Garcia first temporizes with another lead and some pseudo-Sputnik licks. After the verse, he goes back to the bell tone very briefly, but maybe he feels like he’s done it already since he quickly moves on. Weir and Lesh play it pretty close to the vest right after the verse, providing a light cushion for Jerry’s ruminations. Things almost come to a stop at 7:27, but the band relaunches right away with a weirder ensemble vibe, as Lesh in particular starts to wander a bit more. At about 8:53 TC and Weir step out front for a spell, as Garcia lays out. The playing here is quite textural, and no one seems to be advancing things much until Weir starts playing single notes at around 10:56, and the band slides into some evil circus music with TC swirling away. Weir goes back to comping, then back to a sort of lead at 11:50 or so. We can finally hear Garcia again at 12:08 but he’s hanging way back. Finally he breaks back in with the verse melody at 12:40. For some reason this doesn’t crash into the e minor but unwinds with some lead guitar with Lesh playing some fuzzy weird tones. Things shift a bit at the 15 minute mark with a mild increase of intensity, which is nevertheless short-lived. At around 16 minutes Garcia switches to the bridge pickup and begins gearing up for the coming Sputnik. Garcia again comes out of the Sputnik with a weird effect on his guitar, and he keeps it going a little bit longer this time, going back into a roll pattern. There is a scratcher or something scratching away in the left channel as Jerry kicks back into a more ordinary guitar sound and spins out more lead lines. The band hits a nice little bounce shortly after 19 minutes which takes them into Bright Star. This issues forth into a repetitive interlude that serves as a little windup for the main theme, which Garcia attacks with gusto.


There are nice moments here, but this one feels a bit like they are treading water for much of it. It burbles along without anything too momentous happening at any point.


What was said:

Also Philadelphia. With Paul Pena band. Now we have an emerging pattern of starting the set (second set here) with Dupree’s, then Mountains, into Dark Star. The quick switch from acoustic to electric after an arhythmic instrumental area that sort of tries to hold a song together, he strums off and picks up the electric and within a few licks (or splices) JG plays the intro DS lick over and over until everybody’s on board.
Again, TC’s got the ROR, Jerry’s trying some of the struck-guitar microphonics right off the bat, before a minute in, and then to the tone-rolled-off sound. These are his points he’s trying to remember from before… a little time exploring a few notes here and there between riffs of the scale. Then an DS theme inversion with a harmonic drone, at 2:30! That’s seeing the song! He’s so thrilled he arpeggiates. And with that said, the theme coalesces with everyone at 3:30.
We gonna jam more here? Band is moving along at the song pace. Verse 1 comes in with cymbal splashes, I think it’s only Phil and Tom with the spy theme rhythm in line two. (TC crescendos on Shall we go.)
The middle section, starting with Bobby, just playing away. Sort of seems like Phil and Bob are on autopilot a little, but then everybody gets caught up in a little eddy at 6:20, they can hear each other. The band is playing. TC heard in breaks, running scales. Jerry with more variations, strong entries of variations on the theme, he’s hearing a lot tonight. Oh cool, chromatic areas! 7:45 breaks into a whirlpool that contracted chromatically. Out of it into a break with reed stops on organ and bass lead, JG sits out a bit. Bass is stereo? Is it coming from vocal mics, must be. Chromatic wand'rings from TC. Then he gives a blues lick a try, he’s not the greatest at solos. JG is obviously having some sound issues or broke a string or something?
Bobby is doing a remarkable job playing ‘a song’. Hey, man, I’m gonna solo too! 10:25 and he’s gonna play lead! TC is going chordal, way arpeggiating and Phil is going out, then bringing them all back to the song, almost! …Here comes some high E string tuning in the background, I see what happened.
Yes, he’s back, strong intro after the broken string with the Dark Star vocal theme, again, PL and TC on the line 2 rhythm, line3 breaks it out, we get more cymbal action on the left.
What’s up dudes, still in the middle of a song? Guitar still isn’t quite in tune, gotta shake it a bit. He plays a bit with the tone backed off.
By 14-15 minutes, the sort-of-structure of the song is continuing, JG is playing, heading for known bits. I had hoped for a long new thing, based on last night’s but our newness is seeing what the band can pull off without Jerry.
Then we get into a lingering section of pulloffs, in different tones 15:35, finally by the start of the sputnik he’s tuning that new E string, at 16 minutes. And we’re bringing the jam further into the feedbacky microphonic stuff! Sputnik is losing touch with OKB-1.
Oh ****, we’ve gone back in time, the guiro is back! When we exited that sputnik the “regular” jamming has a guy with a fish. Whew, he’s aware of the trauma, so he’s just using it as a woodblock till the endless bright star starting at 19:05 and really just going on. It comes down to a little fascination with a couple notes after a minute, but damn if it doesn’t come back to the theme at 20:20.
Right, verse 2. I hear the clapping and whistling from the audience after the first line, still presented with the horror movie quavering.
Nice harmonies on the end. And then a "funny" fall from Phil on the bass into the indeterminate section preceding St Stephen.
In this set overall I hear it like the music is happening and they are there to play it, sometimes somebody (JG most of the time) has to show them where it’s at when they’re lost, but ****. The Eleven, for example (in this set)...the gelatin is setting. I was a little bummed to lose what this night's Dark Star “could have been, if not for broken strings.” Admittedly, when I saw the length of the track and after the preceding night, I was hoping for deepness. What a post-modern complaint. Anyway we got to hear what Bob and Phil sound like jamming.


The longest Dark Star yet! I liked this one more than you did. From the little Mountains jam it starts off right away with a much more mystical feel than the 14th, and the magic-carpet mood sustains all the way through. (Another notch in my theory that Mountains had an immediate improving effect on Dark Star.) This one's laid-back, more about atmospheric texture than fiery comet blasts. There's kind of a warm & fuzzy feel to the sound....TC is part of the background ambience once again, more felt than heard.
Jerry's full of interesting tricks tonight. He starts right off with the tolling-bell bit as an invocation (then he has to back off from it after the verse). Great bit around 3:00 with the drone note & ascending licks, he didn't use that technique very often. Then he has an extended bass-note groove going into the first verse, a little pattern of his he'd been doing since mid-'68 I think. Feedback peppers the jam after the verse, including the funny clang where he exits the jam. Then it's time for the others to shine! They sustain a delightful groove, no doubt waiting for Jerry to come back at any minute, that gets nice and swirly, and they keep it interesting. Meanwhile Jerry's quickly trying to tune up....he comes back in with the verse melody before he's quite ready, but it's done very smoothly. Then an interesting part where Jerry's playing with a fuzzy tone over a bass drone. The section leading up to the Sputnik is getting very reminiscent of Live/Dead....the Sputnik itself is long and precise, kind of low-key, but then the squealy-guitar part afterwards really gets extended as Jerry tries out new lines. Pretty standard bright star after that, but at the end Jerry plays an interesting main-theme variation with a sliding bass note.
Interesting percussion choices....some maracas in the opening jam, then some cymbals during the middle jam, then Mickey's guiro after the Sputnik gets used mostly as a woodblock, then some gong crashes heading into the verse. But they're still keeping off the full drum sets.
Like 2/14, this is a relaxed stretched-out version, they're not in a hurry. There are a number of pauses through the jams but I think it all flows along well, more moody than aggressive. Despite Jerry's mishap and the extra leisurely length, I still felt a sense of direction, more "exploring the depths" than "treading water." I'm surprised how little Jerry repeats from night to night in his playing, I mean apart from the 'composed' licks that show up in every version. Considering how similar & unvarying the Dark Star pattern is, he's always finding something new in it. The repetitive-loop patterns that had been so prominent on 2/14? Not here tonight. The familiar Live/Dead licks that we've heard in some recent Dark Stars? They have yet to show up again.
You used the Goodbear copy to time, however it includes the little Mountains jam as part of Dark Star....the Winters copy tracks Dark Star from the actual intro, so it has a more accurate time of 22:30. (Sound quality's about the same.)


Interesting version. I like the relatively mellow pace and hazy, fuzzy tone. The performance seems a little ragged and disjointed at times (perhaps in part due to some issues Jerry may have been having) and the peaks don’t reach the majestic levels of some others but I still like the overall feel and there’s a journey to be had.