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:

Mr. Rain:

Aha, a brooding introspective Dark Star tonight! This one's more sulky black holes than fiery comet trails.

This one's from another cassette copy, lots of tape hiss, but I don't mind. You said the sound was thin, but I think it's a great recording, better than many others this month....deep guitar tones, & it captures everyone well. TC's more clear than usual; you can clearly hear Bill's maracas during the intro; and, what's that I hear back there? Congas! All through this Dark Star. Just when we've forgotten Pigpen, he hops back in!

Lovely opening jam. Long intros are becoming the norm now....this one's not too hopped-up with excitement, instead it flows smoothly like a stream with little eddies and flurries. Very satisfying transition to the theme just as the flow starts to get scattered. (Bob has some feedback problems heading into the verse, while Jerry plays his little bass riff.)
After the verse they drop right into the tolling-bell space, no dickering around this time. They're all super-clear in this recording; one cool part is when Bob does these kind of bell echoes on his guitar... Jerry leads the way out in a very foreboding mood, with the others keeping up the spooky feel. Bill comes in on drums after 9:20 to punctuate the gloom. After that the jam gets more active, with Jerry doing lots of repetitive licks. Instead of taking off, the mood becomes even more surly, and the transition to Sputnik feels quite natural.
Surprisingly intense Sputnik as everyone piles in, cymbals & swirls & chimes & guiro. Coming after the Sputnik fades out, the insect weirdness sounds very stark tonight....Bob's doing some flamenco strums. They don't get too far into weirdness, no wild mayhem before Jerry returns to a quiet little melody.
Things are feeling very restrained, but the percussionists are kicking up the energy (drums, congas & guiro), and the band picks up steam and raises the volume. And, whoops, Jerry goes right into a bright-star, kind of a sudden move there. They sustain it for a while, but where to go from there? Jerry's not sure, and he dives down to some low notes, tries casting his way forward, and falls into a falling-star lick.....really out of place, seems to me, and Jerry tries improvising his way to a triumphant finish line without quite repeating the bright-star theme again, but doesn't really succeed. So there's an awkward finish as the band starts transitioning to the theme (with Mickey switching to cowbell?) but Jerry's not quite ready and keeps everyone in suspense as he tries to find something new. It's fascinating to hear everyone spontaneously matching his steps as he searches around and comes up with a just lovely little melodic twist to end the jam before finally settling into the theme for good.
Like many versions lately, they get really quiet before the last verse, and it's sung very carefully, almost in a whisper.

You're right about the dark tone in this one. Maybe they were just feeling low-energy (I noticed Mickey doesn't get too involved), but it works in Dark Star, adds to the deep mysterious feel. I don't think it's a knockout performance in one sense since they're not really nailing their usual peaks & climaxes; but in another sense it's very forward-looking since Jerry is trying to do something totally new at the end there, improvising a different finale on the spot. The last minute of the jam sounded disjointed at first -- you said Jerry seemed out of sync -- but closer listening revealed how incredibly attuned they are....almost without trying, they achieve a moment of grace.




Adamos:

It feels like they’re up in the clouds right out of the gate and the somewhat distant recording adds to the dreamy vibe. Jerry gets something cool going starting around 2:10 with nice little accents from Bob. TC flourish at 3:55 adds to the vibe as well. I like the pace and flow of the opening segment; it’s enchanting.

The first verse has a subdued quality that further adds to the overall feeling and even the post-verse bell tolling is more ethereal. At 8:35 Jerry heads back out but it’s slow and melancholic and even as it builds there’s a brooding feeling. Nice repetition with just a little bite starting around 10:30; from there the momentum picks up a bit and then eases off again, from which Sputnik emerges. Their playing is beautiful.

Sputnik hits a nice peak and then slowly descends into insect weirdness. Around 14:18 Jerry starts them off again and they’re slowly on their way. By 15:30 the intensity is building and suddenly they’re in Bright Star without much lead-up which is surprising since they’d been taking their time up until this point. They jam out at this new destination for a bit then Jerry hits Falling Star which sounds really good and at 17:30 or so they end up at something Bright Star-esque again.

After that they downshift and float around for a bit before working back to the Main Theme and second verse. The vibe in the final portion is mellow again but the mood feels somewhat different from the first half, having been changed by the journey through the peaks.




JSegel:

This was scheduled for the 19th, postponed, the poster says with Roland Kirk! Did they play with Rahsaan the 20th? That’s cool as F and must have blown their minds if they attended his set.
...Ah, I read now that he closed the show, so they didn’t hear him before *they* played. Too bad. Weird stories from attendees on Archive.org about the show/scene, etc, including heckling from Weir, Rahsaan with a gun. Ok never mind, then! Several stories from people who helped schlep gear from the airport, drinking out of the lemonade jug... I can see flying out to these shows, but I can't imagine the short hops between the west/midwest shows were much better economically nor time-saving-wise than driving between. That just must have been weird, The Dead at airports all over.

Anyway....

A very understated hard intro, after Doin’ that Rag. Jerry is running with the mode, TC following. Classic shaker rhythm section, but some interesting interplay in the guitar/organ parts. It sounds like Bob’s chord are striving to hammer on upwards, and Jerry is heading toward a higher note to harmonize with them. Some nice harmonies happen and they cause some ebbs in the forward momentum, the band checking their sound out as observers. TC goes for a sweep flourish, but it just takes them to a new tidepool. JG gets caught up in some little melodic eddies, switching his tone around in them to emerge with either a nasally or later a brighter tone. This is a very “band listening to the sound” jam. Nice, I like that. Eventually before the 6 minute mark they play the DS theme, and after waiting for some mic feedback to clear as JG plays the low string, he starts the verse.

Verse One, in great form per line, with some cool noodling on the Searchlight line. The organ/cymbal swells takes us “through”, and the Transitive Nightfall starts without the counterpoint intro. JG hammers into the bells, but stops pretty quickly to get into some melodic playing. With some interesting low note bends and extra-modal activity, it’s opening up when he gets to a mid-register G and then as he starts the lead playing again, Bill comes in on trapset. Really nice mid-tempo-forward momentum, a few interval eddies, but otherwise very much band-as-a-unit togetherness, some new ideas in the 10-12 minutes area, coming out into a sputnik arpeggio section. When the wave breaks, the low tide area is revealing some odd creatures scuttling around (that guiro, for example) which JG seems to follow toward the insecty notes. It all dies off of a sudden at 14” and starts in on a theme jam which has a few plays on outside notes, but for the most part is classic DS jam, though with Bill drumming and building it to a bright star with some wide runs and that weird guiro still holding forth. Jerry goes for some blue notes before the bright theme, which never quite comes to fruition. Some crying bends, but never actually stating the Dark Star theme and instead playing around it. When it comes back down, it seems to dissipate as JG plays on some odd arpeggiations of notes in the scale before *sort of* playing the intro theme and heading to verse 2. It almost dies entirely before it gets there. Shore is in sight, but landing seems rough, or we are very tired.

Verse two comes in very quietly, everybody is very careful. JG is mirroring his vocal line, but in a tone-rolled-off sound. They have all the vocal parts and the counterpoint ending to a beautiful harmonic E from JG before the St Stephen intro.

Nice one.