66: 1969-05-31

76 Eugene, OR 23:53
Main theme at 6:51.
First verse at 7:29.
Sputnik at 14:24.
Bright Star at 20:09.
Main theme at 21:59.
Second verse at 22:19.
Goes into Doin’ That Rag.


The intro is rather mellifluous and straightforward tonight. Garcia plays gorgeous lines that feel timeless. At 1:50 he starts to make a fuss, and a little after two minutes there is a little peak with Garcia playing piercing tones; typically, this abates and returns a few times rather than simply building and receding.


At 3:15 Garcia has worked his way into a little groove, and this turns into a chugging rock and roll section, although this doesn’t last long. By 3:34 a new section starts with Garcia and Lesh mirroring each other, and Weir and TC adding chiming color tones. After about a minute, a minor flavored segment commences, which excites someone enough to yell “Yeah!” in the background. At 5:25 this winds up in a Sputnik tease, and then it seems like they’re working their way back around to Dark Star. This intro has covered a lot of ground, and quickly. They hit a little peak before getting to the theme, which is played emphatically this time (6:51).


After the verse, Weir starts in on the two chord pattern right away, and it seems like there will be no weirdness but, as they sometimes do these days, they take a little while to get there, starting out from the basic song framework. Some tolling and feedback commence, and by around 9:20 the song has dissolved and they are weirding out. This turns out to be a pretty deep space jam, lasting until 10:43 when Garcia comes in with a rather gentle lead until, at 11:07, Weir decides it’s time to get after it and the band kicks up again.


As usual, they build and subside and build again, with one particularly intense passage occurring at 12:44 when Garcia repeats a note for about 10 seconds. This leads to an announcement of Sputnik at 13:08, but then this is deferred for the time being. By 13:43 Garcia has worked his way around to some Sputnik-like jabs, but they still don’t go right into it, until by 14:24 it seems clear they are playing Sputnik, and unclear exactly where it started, and even here, for a while longer they seem sort of half in and half out of it.


Garcia seems to want to explore new patterns in Sputnik, and again he alternates arpeggios with jabs. At 1640 Garcia gets some ungodly sounds out of his guitar, and someone in the background has something to say about this. At 16:48 Sputnik seems to be over, and the band plays some ominous chord changes. At 17:17 the insect weirdness commences, and the band swirls around for a while. There are more vocalizations happening concurrent with this and, as JSegel suggests, I don’t think it’s a band member.

At around 17:55, Weir is playing the intro to Weather Report Suite (thanks to Adamos for noticing this).


At 17:56 Garcia switches off the insect tone and plays a little descending melody, and then at 18:05 he starts in with a choppy passage that rely sort of defies description. The band responds to this by getting suitably weird again. At 18:45 our mystery vocalizer seems overcome with excitement by all this! Then, at 18:51, Garcia begins to play in a way that seems to signal a return to relative normalcy, and a very melodic section begins.


At 19:53 Garcia begins to play a variant on Bright Star, and he works his way into it by 20:09 or so. This winds up being a rather brief peak, but scarcely has it died down then they work their way back to another, more intense peak; this culminates in a return to a Bright Star-like lick at 21:30, but this comes when the peak has passed, and eases the band back down until, at 21:59, Lesh and Weir slip into the main theme, which takes us to the second verse and the end.


Dark Star still seems like it can break out further, since they don’t seem to stay with any departure from familiar territory for very long. On the other hand, there are lots of little departures here, and the band is playing together, and listening to one another, magnificently. They have become a rather incredible improvising unit, and this one is a whirlwind tour of what they can do together in this era.


What was said:

65. 1969-05-30

87516 Portland, OR
Main theme at 4:07.
First verse at 4:34.
Sputnik at 12:00.
Goes into Cosmic Charlie.


This one comes in sounding kind of old-school to me for some reason, like a sprightly 1968 version. The tempo isn’t necessarily different, but there’s something bright and bouncy about this intro. At around 1:20 they begin to subtly migrate from the two chord pattern to a one chord vamp, as has been customary of late. At 2:00 Garcia starts playing a circular pattern while the band kicks up a bit, and the usual 1969 pattern of micro-dynamics asserts itself, where the band builds and recedes in small arcs. The tempo is flexible in a similar way; at 3:01, for instance Garcia begins a ritardando passage that culminates in a main theme fake-out at 3:07. Such feints have become a central strategic pillar of Dark Star in this era.


Garcia and Lesh are weaving in and out of each other’s wake throughout the introduction, while, as is often the case, the contributions of TC and Weir are more textural. However, Weir is subtly subversive in his way, slipping in C natural to pose a minor counterpoint to Garcia’s mixolydian leads. This, along with some keening organ, imbues the main theme with a melancholy flavor tonight (4:07), and this mood carries through into the verse, at which point this version has already traversed gradually and seamlessly from sunlight into twilight, but as we will see, it isn’t going to opt for either—here, darkness and light meet and decide they like each other. The theme of tonight’s Dark Star seems to be turning confrontations into a kind of( synthesis.


The restatement of the introductory theme after the verse ends at 5:39, and Garcia immediately begins playing a lead line, another throwback to 1968; at 5:59, however, he reverts to tolling, and it seems like things are descending even further into darkness. After a wandering bass passage, at 6:52 Garcia begins playing a hazy and somber lead. This leads to a transition that seems sudden, but at the same time it seems impossible to pinpoint exactly where it happens—I’ll put it at around 7:03—into a more upbeat passage that feels almost like a Bright Star section (the melody which Garcia feints at 7:10).


Lesh is quite active, one almost wants to say unleashed, in this improvisation. The bass and guitar continually weave around one another. The effect is like that of two people having a conversation, each so familiar with the other that neither needs to listen to the other to know what will be said next, and whose remarks harmonize perfectly at times, and at other times are divergent yet mutually relevant. This reaches a kind of peak at 7:32, where the interlocutors seem to be shouting at one another in joyous agreement. This is the first of a series of little peaks and descents where the aforementioned passage seems to recur (in more or less altered form) at 7:49, 8:17, and 8:36 before they finally pause for a breather. Each time until the last, the descent from the peak is a feint, an excuse to reaffirm their ecstatic communion.


Finally, at 9:06, they seem ready to move on to something else. One would expect Sputnik here, but at 9:19 Lesh starts to play the main theme, and Garcia begins playing with the volume knob. At 9:42 Weir throws in some feedback, and things start getting spacey. This inspires Jerry to reassert tonight’s theme of amicable confrontations, as at 9:52 his line becomes rather cheerful. This good cheer somehow has turned into tension by around 10:13, however, and the band kicks up again. Out of this morass, Garcia ascends triumphantly, igniting a flare at 10:35 that blazes across the firmament for 15 seconds or so until the next retreat into what starts to feel by 10:55 like Sputnik territory.


Weir heads off Sputnik with the main theme at 11:15. Garcia seems to be compliant at first, but he veers into some tremolo picking and then flashes Sputnik at 11:44. At 12:00 Sputnik finally arrives in earnest. This one comes in classic arpeggio form at first, but it has a kind of swing to it tonight. Garcia begins interspersing jabs with the arpeggios until the former take over entirely, and the music takes on a jerky rhythm, with both drummers banging away in a harmoniously staggered pattern. At 14:17, Garcia’s tremolo and Lesh’s impertinent flourishes lead us into an interstellar swamp, and Garcia decides the time has come for insect weirdness (15:13). Immediately, however, Lesh starts playing a deliberate, stentorian melody, trying to lead us out of the swamp while Garcia keeps buzzing in his ear. This leads to a brief argument, but at 15:55 they all decide to be friends. Finally, at 16:34, things trickle to a halt, and they start gently flashing the introduction to Cosmic Charlie. This is an unexpected development as, for the second time, they omit the second verse.


This Dark Star seems to be about juxtapositions. Every time a strong statement is made, it is met with a rejoinder, and a new synthesis emerges.


What was said:

64. 1969-05-23

Road Trips 4.1 Florida 18:55
Main theme at 6:28.
First verse at 6:48.
Sputnik at 11:52.
Bright Star at 15:56.
Main theme at 16:57.
Second verse at 17:21.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This one gets going right away; the band sounds kind of busy, and Garcia adopts an angry tone. Someone is playing a vibraslap (thanks, pbuzby!), which sounds cool. For the first few minutes there are peaks and valleys, as several times they come near to a stop, and then start banging away again. There’s a nice moment from 4:10-4:18 where Garcia starts playing a little lick and Lesh quotes it back to him.


At 4:41, Garcia pulls up hard and seems to announce the advent of the main theme, but then they take off again. Check out Garcia’s drunken licks from 5:08 until around 5:22, which elicit an appropriate response from Weir. For a relatively short Dark Star, they don’t stint on the intro this time, finally pulling up to the verse at almost 7 minutes in.


The middle jam starts at 7:54. The usual tension building gives way to some weirdness at around 8:30, and Garcia comes in very quietly with his lead line at 8:48. Things suddenly start to build at 9:45, and we come to a peak and then level off for a while, then build some more…at 10:59 Garcia again starts to stagger along drunkenly, then they feint at a peak, then start to build again, and then hit another peak at about 11:30. They pull right back from this and come down the other side, and at 11:39 Garcia starts playing a staccato repeated note, which leads soon thereafter to Sputnik.


Tonight Sputnik alternates between arpeggios and jabs, until at 13:00 Garcia brings it to a close with some percussive jabbing. The band latches on to this and starts to stagger along, but at 13:24 Garcia pushes it somewhere else with a fire alarm blast that then turns into a more usual lead line. But at 13:54, he switches on the insect weirdness, which I don’t think we’ve heard for the last little while. By 14:28 he’s done with it though, and he returns to a jabbing motif. Then, at 14:45, Garcia and Weir start blasting, with Weir playing a high droning note which Garcia plays around. Then TC gets in on the act for a little while, but it all drops back down rather soon.


At 15:40 Garcia starts to sketch in Bright Star; this comes on gradually, I’ve somewhat arbitrarily marked the beginning as 15:56. This attains a modest peak and then comes down, and soon we’re at the main theme and the second verse.


What to say about this one? It’s not one of the most momentous versions, and doesn’t stand out for intensity or weirdness. However, every version is different, and this certainly has parts that are noteworthy. They don’t seem to stick with anything for very long this time, but there are some nice moments.


What was said:

63. 1969-05-10

132812 Pasadena 20:56

Main theme at 2:29 and 4:41.
First verse at 5:04.
Sputnik at 12:55.
Bright Star at 17:38.
Main theme at 18:39.
Second verse at 19:19.
Goes into St Stephen.


Garcia jumps right in with a sprightly lead, and the initial vibe is bouncy and bright. Lately, the band starts looking for an excuse early on to get away from the two chord pattern, and Garcia starts hammering an E at 1:18 that provides the pretext this time. They have become adept at a kind of one chord (or no chord) swirl, and this will enable them to travel to some magical realms over the next few years (as will their ability to play in a kind of one-beat time signature).


At 2:27 Garcia takes an acrobatic tumble into the main theme, but it’s just a brief visit as they quickly slide into a rather majestic little jam. At 3:34, Garcia again plays the acrobat, and then he brings the jam into a higher register; this all sounds like a big wind-up for the main theme, but not before we get to a thrilling peak at 4:14. As this settles down, Weir and Lesh are pushing for the theme, and Garcia complies at 4:42, taking us to the verse.


The aftermath of the verse is very calm this time, until tension starts creeping in at about 6:38, and the at 6:43 Garcia starts tolling and raising the volume level. This section still seems a little subdued next to recent versions, but after a little feedback, TC starts playing a wild fanfare at around 7:20, and Garcia mimics him at 7:30—7:36 before launching into a solo.


The band is going full throttle right away this time. Garcia keeps repeating patterns and raising the energy level still further, culminating at 7:29 in a little Bright Star-like flourish. They do not relent here, however; they just keep pounding away until suddenly, at 9:23, there is a lull and they start to rebuild. Garcia stays quite busy, and by 9:53 the energy is surging back; another lull comes at 10:06. Most of the dynamics here are coming from the rest of the band while Garcia madly fiddles away, until he starts to rein it in at around 10:45.


At 11:06 Lesh initiates an off-kilter bounce with a cadence that is somewhat reminiscent (or rather prefigurative?) of Cumberland Blues, until he pulls it out of shape and then slides back down into some drawn out tones. At 11:30 the band seems to be pushing toward Sputnik; they come so close they’re almost playing it, but they back out again. At 12:25 Garcia starts bouncing around, and then Lesh latches on, and we get into a remarkable little squall at 12:37 that has blown over by 12:43. At 12:51, Garcia all but says “It is time for Sputnik” into his microphone, and a few seconds later it begins.


This is a very restrained Sputnik, especially compared to the last few. Again we get some jabbing from Garcia, and they start kicking up a little bit of a fuss, but it is all very civilized, and at 14:25 Jerry starts playing a new line and the Sputnik is over. Everyone else is hanging back here, and then Lesh starts laying in some counterpoint. At around the 15 minute mark, however, they seem to start thinking “Hey, that wasn’t weird enough!” Or maybe it was me that was thinking that; Phil’s line pushes into some strange tonal territory for a second or two, then he leaves Garcia alone for a moment, and then they start to duet again, and Weir comes in, and now it seems like we’re going for power rather than subtlety as Bright Star pokes its head out at 15:27. It doesn’t come out, however, and then we’re on to something else.


Weir pulls up and it gets back to Jerry and Phil at 16:03, until at 16:24 Weir starts playing a counterpoint solo. This is very interesting for a little while, and marks a departure from the Garcia/Lesh dynamic that keeps reëmerging tonight. The band starts working toward another peak that starts at 16:56, and by 17:10 they’re really banging away, but it’s just getting started here. But I have to back up for a moment: first there is another nod toward Bright Star at 16:30 or so, and then at 16:39 Garcia starts playing a repeated ascending figure which leads them to another peak which he crowns at 17:10 with a repeated, screaming high A below which, right at the apex at 17:27, Weir now plays Garcia’s ascending wind-up figure, before moving into some twanging double stops at 17:32. This all culminates in Bright Star at 17:38, each iteration of which Garcia spaces with more of his hanging A. Garcia continues to throw in the Bright Star lick as we come down the mountain, and he opts to go right to the main theme before things fizzle out. Lesh, however, has not had enough strangeness, and he subverts the theme rather than falling into line until, at 19:12, he finally succumbs and falls into line. Garcia quickly jumps in with the verse, a little off key, before Lesh can get away again.


And so we have another remarkable Dark Star. The section between Sputnik and the second verse is so rich it’s hard to do it justice. While it culminates in one of the most intense peaks we have yet heard, it is at the same time packed with moments of interest throughout. After the last few versions, it’s hard to believe that there is much more they can wring out of Dark Star, much less acknowledge that we are still at a relatively early point in its development. What a time to be alive!


What was said:

62. 1969-05-07

6028 San Francisco 22:17
Main theme at :06.
Main theme at 4:17.
First verse at 5:49.
Bright Star (more or less) at 8:48 and 10:10.
Sputnik at 15:05.
Bright Star at 18:16.
Goes into Drums>Turn on Your Lovelight.


Garcia begins by playing the main theme a few times, with the ROR providing a counterpoint. They start to drift off the two chord pattern after that, and it’s gone by about the one minute mark. Garcia hits a high note at 1:55 and stays on it until 2:08, then starts playing a descending line and winds up on the bass strings. At around two and half minutes they are pedaling on a repeated quarter note beat and, after they get away from it, this little pulse will return at times, more subtly, as an undercurrent to the opening jam. (Note that at 3:07 Garcia is playing a figure we’ve heard before and will hear again, I almost feel like it should have a name…)


Garcia slides into the main theme at 4:17; by 4:39 this has mutated into a kind of blues lick! At 4:57, however, Garcia reëstablishes the theme. In the lead up to the verse, and then during the vocals, TC plays a little legato figure that functions almost like a violin part; then he plays some more staccato bits during the build-up after the verse, which is again very unique.


At 7:52 Garcia bursts out with a line that suggests perhaps they’re going to go full tilt into the jam, but then everything quiets down. At 8:33 Garcia starts playing a hazy lead in keeping with the dynamics, but then at 8:48 he suddenly bursts into some Bright Star licks and everything changes again. At 9:47 he starts playing a figure based around some repeating bass notes, and then he soars back into the Bright Star theme at 10:10. Then things get quieter and hazier again.


Just after 11 minutes Garcia is hinting at Sputnik. Instead, they hit another bluesy groove, as the whole band starts hammering on a riff they seem to have just devised. This changes a bit, turning into a chugging, driving section shortly after 12:00. At 12:40, Lesh starts playing a jazzy line that we have not heard in Dark Star before; this is similar to the line he had sometimes played in Clementine, which others have suggested is derived from the bass line Jimmy Garrison plays in Coltrane’s Greensleeves, but it is somewhat different. There might be something this matches more closely, and I’d be happy to have it pointed out. The jam gets kind of jazzy here, in any case., and as Mr. Rain points out, it's reminiscent of Clementine.


At 14:20 Garcia repeats a high note while Lesh repeats a low one, and things get rather squally for a bit, and then they suddenly quiet down and head toward Sputnik. This is an odd one, as everyone seems to keep going off in different directions. It’s interesting to see how widely Sputniks can vary, and they are certainly not committed to nailing it down one particular way; instead, they keep pulling and prodding at it. This goes into a series of jabs again, but they’re not entirely committed to it this time. At 16:59 Phil has had enough; he starts playing the main theme, while Garcia fiddles with the volume knobs for a while.


They build on this for a bit until Garcia bursts into Bright Star at 18:16. He soon leaves this behind, continuing to drive the band to a peak but choosing other notes; at 19:11 everyone is ready to come down again, and they ooze along for a bit. Garcia drops out, and there’s a strange, ooze little jam…At 19:43 Weir gets a little showcase, and then everyone weirds out for a bit again until Weir starts up a little riff that Lesh picks up on but this doesn’t last, either. Lesh comes to the fore at 21:25. This whole section is quite odd. Perhaps Garcia broke a string…in any case, this jam trickles out into drums without the second verse ever arriving.


Dark Star has come a long way; there are more unexpected and unprecedented things happening each time, it seems. At some point in the future, it will become standard to omit the second verse; I’m not sure it was entirely intentional this time, however. But this is a fascinating version, and it opens up new horizons once again.

I can't remember the last time Dark Star didn't go into St. Stephen....


What was said:

61. 1969-04-27

Dick 26 Minneapolis 25:46

Main theme at 3:23.
Bright Star at 4:32.
Main theme at 7:53.
First verse at 9:15.
Sputnik at 15:33.
Bright Star at 21:13.
Main theme at 24:05.
Second verse at 24:55.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This sounds a little busy at the outset, with Garcia playing leads almost immediately, during the part where TC has the ROR going, as Lesh plays very melodically. They seem to realize this, and take steps to adjust a little (although it is by no means an unpleasant beginning); from around :43, everyone has pulled up, and all four non-drummers start playing sustained notes, and then at :53 things pull back together with a little more of a measured feel. Garcia lays back for a few seconds here, and then reëmerges at :56 with a rather horn-like line.


Garcia lays down his horn at 1:17, and he comes back a couple of seconds later with the verse melody, altered a bit so no one is tempted to crash into the E minor. The band seems to be casting about a little bit (not in the sense that they are lost, I should add, since that happens sometimes, too!). At 2:07 Lesh starts a descending two-note figure, and Garcia adds an ascending counterpoint that starts to gesture toward the main theme. Things come to a halt at about 2:37, and Garcia returns with strong hints of the main theme that are taken up by Lesh, who will not be caught flat-footed.


As Weir joins Lesh and begins bouncing on the familiar two chords, Garcia at 2:50 starts to spin out some piercing A mixolydian melodies that repeatedly descend to an E. These obliquely invoke Bright Star, but one feels as though an imminent big A hit will take us to the main theme. Sure enough, Jerry goes into a big wind-up, taking us up to a suitably dramatic A at the 17th fret at 3:17; again, however, this one trickles back down to E, this time alluding to the verse melody. Then Garcia slyly omits the initial A as he begins the main theme. He then plays it a few times with the A tagged on the end, rather than at the head of the figure. This allows him to pull it out of shape a little more each time through, by degrees, until he’s not recognizably playing the main theme anymore, and neither is the band.


Here we can see how the fundamental musical figures underpinning Dark Star are now as likely to appear not as foundational structures, or even as simple way stations, but rather as objects of innuendo. Maybe it is a bit less fanciful to say that these figures (the main theme, Bright Star, the verse melody, and the two-chord pattern A, Em/G) serve as building materials that are continually shaped and reshaped, keeping just enough of their texture to be recognizable within the new structures that are formed from them (although the metaphor of construction I am using is perhaps a bit too inert for its purpose here).


This turns into a jam that sounds rather bluesy, as Weir and Lesh emphasize E while Garcia plays some licks from E Dorian, hanging around the middle and lower range, until beginning at 4:28 he climbs and erupts into Bright Star (although with a swung cadence that perhaps makes this a borderline case). At 4:44, Bright Star culminates in a repeated peel-off on E D C# that, in replacing Falling Star, evokes a feeling of hanging rather than one of falling. Following this, Garcia keeps coming back to E with a secondary emphasis on G, building suspense. At 5:05, he ascends to the stratosphere, but gently; there are brief allusions to Falling Star, most markedly at 5:14, and then he starts fluttering down. When he touches down at 5:30, it is again on an E…after a breath, he at last reaches A at 5:33, which arrives in the guise of the bell toll missing from the post-verse section of the last Dark Star (04-23)!


Lesh also begins to heavily emphasize A (the tonic), but Weir seems to be playing A minor, making for a dark interlude rather than a push for the theme, at least for now. At 6:23 Garcia seems to want to slide in the theme, but they seem unsure how to get out of this minor bag; Lesh is all over the place, and in the 6:30s he starts emphasizing F# and pushing everyone into what I think is a jam in D major, although it has a minor feel. Garcia begins to play a lovely melody that descends from F# to A, until at 7:27 Lesh maneuvers him into winding this section up in a C natural (the minor third of A, thus not part of the mode they most commonly play in Dark Star, A mixolydian)…at 7:32, as Lesh and Weir start playing C minor, Garcia starts signaling for the main theme! At 7:52 Lesh comes along, and the theme has arrived at last.


By 8:40, Garcia is taking off again, but after throwing in some ascending runs he reigns it back in at 9:03, and we head to the verse. This arrives at 9:15, as this edges past 1969-04-22 for the longest intro section to date. Garcia mangles the lyrics a bit here, and we head to the middle jam.


After the restatement of the intro theme, Garcia lays out for a few seconds, then enters with some volume knob activity and then feedback as the band again makes this tension-building segment a strange one (although not as strange as 4-23). Garcia begins tolling a bit at 11:31, but in a higher register than usual, and Lesh lopes around; Garcia’s piercing lead seems to enter out of nowhere at 11:58.


The jam begins darkly but with a strong burst of energy. Kreutzmann is very active here. An early little peak is reached at 13:21 with Garcia playing a variant of Bright Star. The descent leads him to a repeating riff beginning at 13:41, as Weir chimes along, and Phil briefly joins them, until at 13:59 Garcia starts to climb out; at 14:12 and he is telegraphing Sputnik, but then he starts spiraling up again, with Lesh playing a counterpoint, and they dance around each other for a while. This begins to skirt the edge of madness beginning at 14:48. Garcia keeps finding little pockets of repetition, and then taking off again.


At 15:25 it becomes clear that Sputnik is inevitable, and at 15:33 they finally succumb. This is played in a quite variant manner this time, however; the Sputnik pattern emerges, recedes, mutates, and resolves itself into a series of soft jabs that see the band coalescing on a syncopated groove. Note Lesh from about 17:13, playing a bouncy rock and roll riff as Garcia stabs and pokes. This section extends itself further, alternating between repetitive jabs and a percussive Sputnik pattern, with the familiar series improbably reëmerging at 17:50.


Sputnik goes into a tense and frenetic little jam beginning at about 18:15. This jam winds up and then down again a few times from here to the 20 minute mark. At 20:03, Garcia starts playing an ascending pattern of the kind that often precedes a peak or a resolution. At 20:39 it starts to sound like Bright Star, but it winds down again until at 21:13, with the band at a low ebb, Garcia quietly starts to play Bright Star. Rather than bringing it back up, however, the band stays down as Garcia wanders away from the Bright Star theme. Weir drops out by about 21:24; Lesh starts to lay out at 21:38. Things seem to be hanging in the wind here, as everyone hangs back, with Garcia fiddling away over the drums, as TC pipes along. Finally, at 23:10, Lesh comes back in, and Weir joins at 23:21. They seem to be in a holding pattern, repeating two chords, and then they build a little until Garcia drops into the main theme at 24:05.


Remarkably, then, this Dark Star culminates in a kind of reverse peak; rather than coming together in a burst of energy, the post-Sputnik section climbs down into a meandering stretch where the band is oddly becalmed. Like everything else about this rendition, it is rather surprising.


This is a really amazing piece of music that sees the band reaching beyond the comfort of tried and true strategies perhaps more than any other to date. Without offering any of the truly outré space jams or quasi-meltdowns we have sometimes encountered, this manages to be perhaps the weirdest Dark Star yet. The introductory jam and the Sputnik are the obvious highlights, but there is not a dull moment to be found—even the anti-peak preceding the return of the verse section is riveting.


What was said:

JAM: 1969-04-26

97393 1:37

On this source, Charlie Miller has tracked the jam at the end of Mountains of the Moon as “Dark Star Jam.” This makes sense insofar as (as Mr. Rain points out) this is the only instance where they played Mountains of the Moon, and Garcia switched to electric and played a jam, and it did not go into Dark Star. Also, it is arguable that Live Dead is the canonical recording of Dark Star, more so than the single. On that recording, the track “Dark Star” begins before the familiar introductory riff, with the jam that comes out of “Mountains of the Moon.” The jam here, then, sounds a lot like something that is part of the track “Dark Star” in what many consider to be its definitive rendering—at least, if not the best or even most important version, perhaps something that plays a role for many Deadheads similar to that of a studio recording.

On the other hand, this is not really a "Dark Star Jam" insofar as it doesn't really resemble anything that is definitively Dark Star, and while it only appears when Mountains of the Moon is played, here it occurs in the absence of Dark Star. Upon reflection, then, I am calling this "Jam" rather than "Dark Star Jam," but including it here due to its relation to Dark Star.


The track begins shortly before Garcia begins to play electric guitar, as he always does when Mountains of the Moon goes into Dark Star. The song ends with a jam with Garcia playing acoustic, then he switches to electric, and then—every time but this—they start Dark Star (more or less) shortly thereafter.


I would say that this jam sounds like itself more than it sounds like Dark Star or Mountains of the Moon. It has a distinctive feel, and the various versions are all akin to one another. Garcia here plays some beautiful lines, with expressive rakes and emotive dynamics, and Lesh is very active. Above all, listening to this here makes me think what a beautiful jam it is, and it is sort of a shame that they never extended it much more than this. It usually moves pretty quickly into Dark Star; here, it goes into China Cat Sunflower.


In the future—particularly in 1973 and 1974—it will become a tricky question just what constitutes a Dark Star and what constitutes a Dark Star Jam. It seems clear to me here, however, that this does not count as a Dark Star, nor as a Dark Star Jam, but it’s something we should nevertheless acknowledge and address.

60. 1969-04-23

88501 Boston 20:56
Main theme at 6:08.
First verse at 6:41.
Sputnik at 14:12.
Main theme at 18:37.
Second verse at 1921.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia begins with a repeated melody and then drops back; at the outset, Lesh dominates the proceedings, as Weir is playing the basic two-chord pattern, and TC begins on the ROR and then sort of hangs in the background, playing some variations on the main theme. Garcia swoops in at 1:07, then backs off again until 2:13, when he finally gets started.


At 2:59, Garcia gets into one of the repeating patterns that have been so common lately, and then starts to vary it and move about. At 3:39 he gets into a groove with the bass notes there’s a little eddy starting at 3:59, and they seem ready to break out of the theme pattern a little. They pedal along in place for about a minute, until Garcia starts flashing the theme at 5:09. He hints at it even more strongly beginning at 5:32, but they’re not ready to go there yet. At 6:08 he is flashing the theme again, and although he never quite plays it, this seems to serve as the first iteration, as the band falls into line behind him, and at 6:41 the first verse arrives.


Garcia swoops in with feedback immediately after the repetition of the opening theme, and the band descends into some weirdness right away. Suddenly this section has become something quite different here; it still establishes tension, but in a much more maximal and oddball way. In the midst of the swirl, at 8:39, Garcia begins spiraling upward, signaling the arrival of the middle jam, and things swing back toward relative normalcy.


At 9:12 Garcia plays a lick from The Eleven that we’ve heard once or twice before, but he quickly moves on from it. Lesh starts hinting at a minor chord as the jam gets moodier for a bit, until it swings back toward a brighter feel at about 10:04. A little after the 11 minute mark the jam seems to get into a holding pattern, and one wonders if Sputnik is coming. At 12:14, Garcia is flashing the insect effect, and the guiro enters rather prominently, and Sputnik seems imminent. They still hold off for a while, though, as the jam again picks up steam.


At 13:43, Garcia starts playing a percussive chugging thing as Lesh and Weir step out a bit. Sputnik finally arrives at 14:12, with Garcia alternating arpeggios with little stabbing moves. Sputnik seems to end at about 15:32, with Garcia playing some bass string licks, and getting into a bit of a duet with Lesh down there before climbing out again. The insect weirdness seems to be forgotten this time, and there’s not really a space section.


At 17:12 things start to kick up, as Garcia plays some high howling licks, and we head toward a peak, then a valley and another peak just after the 18 minute mark. Garcia seems ready to break into Bright Star, but this never comes, and we get the main theme at 18:37. In lieu of Bright Star, however, there is nevertheless a pretty satisfying post-Sputnik peak here, or really two.


All the real weirdness is packed into the build-up just after the first verse this time. Overall another fine version; Dark Star has come a long way over the past two months.


What was said:

59. 1969-04-22

88466 Boston 27:21
Main theme at 7:31.
First verse at 9:06.
Sputnik at 17:28.
Verse melody at 23:41 (beginning cut)
Bright Star at 24:21.
Falling Star at 24:58.
Main theme at 25:21.
Second verse at 25:48.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This comes out of a really beautiful Mountains of the Moon jam. It opens with Garcia flashing the main theme right out of the gate, which doesn’t seem to happen much (or really at all, I don’t think), even though it seems like an obvious thing to do. TC plays the ROR for about 30 seconds; it’s still hanging in there, at this point, but not playing a very large role. By 2:30 or so, Garcia is sounding restless, and seems to be sort of prodding the band to break the structure a little; this one starts to move out a little early. Lesh hovers around and eschews any indication of chord changes.


4:34 to 4:57 sees a convergence as Weir, Garcia and then Lesh increase the intensity while narrowing the harmonic range of the jam. This eddies into a kind of holding pattern where it seems like the main theme is on the horizon, but at 5:24 Garcia takes off again. He climbs to a new plateau and starts holding again; at around 5:40, however, things get weird as Garcia again climbs and holds, and the music stretches and quiets, then Garcia starts playing a percussive tremolo at 6:01, and we’re almost in a little space jam. He goes back to the holding pattern at 6:11, then climbs again at 6:20, and then takes a little run around the fretboard starting at 6:27.


At 6:38, Garcia asserts himself in a way that suggests they are going to reel it in, but instead they increase the intensity, and from around 7:05 there is a remarkable little flurry that leads up to the main theme at 7:31. One thing that has become remarkable by this point is the variety of ways they have to play the main theme, with little flourishes and variations, and also a difference in emphasis and feel from version to version. This one is bold and jaunty, and leads fairly promptly to the verse.


The verse comes out into a straight reading of the main theme changes before the tolling begins. This section is bright and loud tonight, in contrast to the brooding feeling of the night before, and at 11:26 Garcia fairly leaps out of a brief caesura into the middle jam. His stinging lead here is thrilling, and by 11:53 the band is fairly exploding, as everyone proceeds to play their asses off!


As the jam streams along, it hits little pools, but these are soon swept away and the momentum returns. It’s hard to disentangle what is happening at around the 15 minute mark, as TC, Garcia and Weir at times seem to be occupying similar sonic space; Garcia somehow holds a note, at times feeding back, from 15:04 to 15:14, and I think Weir starts feeding back at some point here too. The result is a rather excellent cacophony for a few moments.


At 16:35, Garcia plays some staccato lines, turning to double stops, as he and Lesh have an animated conversation. As things wind down, Garcia lays Sputnik into the next lull, at 17:28. At 17:40 he goes to the exaggeratedly retarded siren licks he sometimes places near the end of Sputnik, and Lesh responds with some equally exaggerated and lagging chordal slashes. At 17:48, Garcia returns to a more normal Sputnik pattern, and the loud guiro comes in soon after. They seem to be wringing every last drop out of Sputnik tonight.


Sputnik finally ends around 19:52, and this time there is a sort of interim jam until Garcia switches on the insect weirdness at 20:33. Lesh is playing a descending pattern reminiscent of Caution here, but this doesn’t stay long. At 21:26 Garcia returns to a more normal tone, and suddenly there is lightness and melody breaking out. At 22:35, it almost seems like they’re going to break into a thematic jam of some kind, but they’re just blowing, the ideas are coming thick and fast tonight.


At 23:19, Lesh starts the main theme pattern; Garcia keeps playing a lead line over this until he decides to lay in the verse melody; it seems like we haven’t heard this in a while, and indeed, according to my notes, the last one was April 13th. Garcia’s lightning over the E minor leads back into an astringent lead line that takes us to Bright Star and, briefly, Falling Star. From here, it all soon comes to a close, as we are returned to the main theme and the verse.


This is a stunning piece of music, played with confidence and clarity, and saturated with wild energy. It is the longest version of Dark Star to date, and not a second is wasted, as the band maintains a thrilling level of focus and intensity throughout.


What was said:

58. 1969-04-21

107347 Boston 24:13 (23:43)

Main theme at 5:03 and 5:56.
First verse at 6:09.
Sputnik at 12:53.
Bright Star at 19:54.
Falling Star at 20:39.
Bright Star at 20:48.
Main theme at 22:16.
Second verse at 22:33.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This is preceded by a “Foxy Lady” jam, which is certainly unique. It starts out with some strong, clear Garcia runs (after a minor sour patch). It migrates away from a straightforward two chord approach pretty quickly; at 3:46, after a repetitive windup, Garcia ascends and the band starts hammering on a single chord; an extended run from Garcia seems like it’s headed toward the main theme, which he flashes at 4:28, but he’s not ready to go there yet, and it winds around some more. He finally hits it at 5:03, but he soon starts varying it, and the band doesn’t really drop into it yet. He gets back to it at 5:56, and the band follows, but then starts singing the first verse in short order without belaboring the theme.


The post-verse build-up is rather subdued tonight, until at 8:15 Garcia sets off; things sound a bit tentative at this point. There’s a little build-up starting at around 9:40, and things get less spacey and a bit more driving until the bottom drops out at 11:12, and Sputnik seems imminent. Here we get some foreboding E minor stuff instead, however, until Weir starts flashing A at 11:50; they seem to hover between the two until Sputnik suddenly pops out at 12:53.


This is quite a subdued Sputnik, flashing just a little intensity before getting spacey again. At 15:08 the insect weirdness begins, and it lasts for about a minute until Garcia starts another sort of subdued line with his clear tone. Things stay in a rather tentative register for a while here, and the build-up is very gradual. At about 19:10 Garcia begins to be more emphatic and the band starts to pick up behind him. At 19:54, Garcia starts to take a stab at Bright Star; this leads to Falling Star and then back to Bright Star again, or a close variant thereof. Garcia pedals a bit before the final theme, and Lesh starts to play around with various harmonic rejoinders, leading to an interesting little segment until, at 22:16, Garcia has had enough and swings into the theme. There is a smattering of applause just before the second verse starts.


This is an interesting version; it has moments of intensity, but seems mired in darkness and a kind of hesitation. The band never sounds lost, they just seem to be in a sober mood, and they’re not eager to hand out any easy thrills.


What was said:

57: 1969-04-20

1312 Worcester, MA 21:53


Main theme at 5:48.
First verse at 6:42.
Sputnik at 12:04.
Bright Star at 15:40.
Falling Star at 17:22.
Bright Star at 17:33.
Main theme at 19:02 and 19:47.
Second verse at 20:15.
Goes into St. Stephen.


The sound is a little thin on this one, but everyone is audible. Garcia noodles around a little, then swings into action at :42 with a slide that alludes to the beginning of the main theme. After some particularly beautiful lines, at 1:08 he unleashes one of the almost-Bright Stars that appear so often in the intro lately. It’s probably something we’ve heard before, but check out Garcia’s exquisite lines starting at 2:12…and the way he starts bouncing off the high A at 2:54. Everything in this intro seems to have an extra flow to it tonight.


At 4:10, Garcia fakes an entry to the main theme, but he keeps blowing instead. At 4:43 he switches to the bridge pickup and keeps going. Here we have a sort of adumbration of Sputnik before the main theme arrives at 5:48. Garcia toys with it little while, but the verse is now on the way. It sounds like “reason flatters” tonight…


The tolling and tension building starts pretty much right away this time, with Weir laying some chiming stuff in. When Garcia starts his lead line at 8:36, the mood is pensive and dark. At 9:23 he starts repeatedly playing a high, plaintive and sustained note that gradually gives way to some more ruminations. When a little peak comes at 10:15 or so, the feel is still subdued in the main, but they continue to build on it and things start picking up. A slightly higher peak comes at about 11:15, but they are still holding back, and soon they start dropping toward Sputnik.


The intensity really builds during this Sputnik, and by 12:40 they’ve reached a new peak that carries over into the beginning of the second half of this section. Sputnik then recedes, until at 13:35 we get the insect weirdness. After about a minute of spaciness Garcia comes back to his usual tone, and things start to cohere again.


At 15:30 the mood shifts, and the band is ready to start leaning in a little harder. Garcia takes it right to Bright Star at this point, and they all pound at it for a bit. Then there’s a jam that builds to a peak again, and Garcia tops it off with a Falling Star section at 17:22, which sort of morphs back into Bright Star again. Things come way down after this, as it sounds like Garcia may be having a hard time getting synced for the main theme…either that, or they just want to mess around for a little while. The second verse, when it arrives, comes in very softly.


This is a weird one that seems to maintain a kind of dark tone throughout. There is some magnificent playing here. Overall this is one of the better renditions of the month, I think.




What was said: