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:

JSegel:



Foxy Lady Jam, what? Phil makes a quick stab at the DS intro but cuts it off as the tuning starts. So we’re going to get a hard start for the Star.
He makes a few post-tuning tries to start it again and then finally gets everybody’s attention.

Nice intro, TC is wandering around the ROR, which is pretty cool. Guiro accompaniment sets the vibe, very clear Bob and Phil tones, seems like the band has control of the stage volume enough to hear each other pretty well. JG runs around melodically in a floaty way, this is nice. TC follows JG to some notes as an echo and Jerry starts to take it a little sideways mode-wise. But it’s solidly Dark Star. The tempo picks up into the theme statements, and then they get into a small plateau that builds the intensity a little more before laying it down into the relaxed volume, but JG is still experimenting, some new pockets of notes to explore before bringing it down to do a little jam on that intro theme, breaking it up a bit. This pre-verse jam is stretching out these days!

Verse One is classic but TC has some interesting things to say in line 1, and a little more backed off on his 9ths-to-7ths on line two’s rhythm.

Beautiful and emotional vocal delivery brings it on to the Transitive Nightfall. JG is slow to bring the tolling bell in, so it’s a slow build here with Phil doing the em-A as chordal accompaniment to it!

Jerry comes in and is feeling each note, squeezing them gently for all they have to give before he starts to go more melodically around, at which point Bill comes in on trap set. Some quick little runs from Jerry, echoed in the organ, some choice notes for an arpeggiated section that sounds like it’s going to break out into the bright star area, but it’s a feint.

Next wave has Jerry trying out some new flourishes, with TC doing his old ones. Bob is stretching his chord tones out, how many added notes can I play! At about 10 minutes, things change and a sort of insect bell sweep of the strings (with yet another weird clackity percussion thing, goat toenails or something…) and I hear some slight acknowledgement from the audience. We’re heading toward some type of sputnik. Mickey is testing his percussion arsenal, now bells… The Sputnik arpeggio starts around 12” but it drops volume fairly quickly. Note that the volume commander is Jerry, for the most part Bob and Phil remain at the same levels. Bells from Mickey, like he’s trying to find the B-C#-D of the movement in the arpeggio.

Phil jams along, Bob becomes more sparse as Jerry goes into the Insect Weirdness. He’s testing some new “notes” in here, some flat notes and intervals. It might go fully into space. Mickey’s got some hand drums now. At 15.5” some very sparse spots, but JG is going to come out into a thematic area, the mode is set. Phil has some chords to play, and then picks up on a Jerry downward riff that leads them to the bottom of the sea from where they will build up to a “regular” modal jam, but Jerry is stretching his runs into arpeggiated leaps. (classic voice leading, kids.) Some blue notes, he plays a funny bizarro world version of a lick that commonly goes: A-GG, A-EE, but here he’s in the mode up a third, making it C#-BB, C#-GG. Cool, man. So he starts playing with that C#-G tritone like he does in the sputnik but it’s heading into the Bright Star at 19”, yes indeed! And stretching it out. The Crying Star! people, we’re stating these themes, and that means we’re almost at the far shore, doesn’t it?

Oh… but wait, a lull in the tides, tone knob is rolled off, some bell tolling, Phil taking it sideways modally! With feedback! How can we continue the journey… then suddenly at 21” JG states the intro theme and people clap! Verse two starts.

A horror-movie warble Gla-a-a-a-ss Hand, but again a very clear Lady in Velvet. Nice swells on cymbals and organ for Shall We Go. And a cool hammer on from Bob in between. Phil’s vocal is a little out, but he’s trying. And they move on out in a strangely nearly-atonal outro that heads to St Stephen

Wow. Nice recording, nice version, some really interesting exploration in the “normal” mode, some opportunities to go elsewhere that may happen in the future. Must have been a great show!


Mr. Rain:


The first of three Dark Stars at the Ark!
The MOTB copy you linked to sounds seriously slow to me, it drags... The Miller copy goes at an altogether brisker pace (Dark Star is 22:40) and sounds more like the right speed to me. So that's the one I listened to.

Great recording, everyone's clear. Pigpen's on congas again, he's louder tonight and easy to hear. His pattering's actually quite busy all throughout (in a distracting way). This is the recording I'd point to for good example of a Conga Dark Star. Bill's on maracas in the intro. TC's kinda quiet & inconspicuous as usual, but present.
Great opening jam, gentle but insistent. It's easy to drift away in the Dark Star cloud... I like how Jerry bounces around the low notes after 1:15. From about 3 minutes on he's deliciously teasing the main theme, but putting it off as the others tug him toward it, until finally he relents and settles into the theme at 5:10. The verse immediately follows, Jerry doesn't linger on the theme.

Not much bell-tolling after the verse tonight, Jerry doesn't seem to be in the mood. It's neat to hear the others doing this tense, gong-crashing bit without much Jerry. At 7:20 he exits with a very melancholy-sounding solo; you'd almost think they were doing a blues. But around 8 minutes Bill's drums come in, and the jam gets louder and busier. They're rocketing upwards, taking a more ominous-sounding turn after 9:20. Things kind of dissolve around 10 minutes as they get into this really cool space -- Jerry scraping the strings, Bob arpeggiating, Phil droning and letting loose a little feedback, Mickey coming in on guiro. Great stuff, this could go a lot longer, but they exit pretty quickly at 10:50 with a getting-happier jam. (This brings up one of my favorite moments, around 11:02 when they all simultaneously hit a well-timed moment of silence, which is pretty impressive.)

As the jam winds on, a new element enters the mix after 11:30 -- Mickey on....glockenspiel? Is that what this is? I think it's what he plays in the St. Stephen bridge, but we haven't heard it in Dark Star before. Anyway, Jerry takes the hint and heads into Sputnik at 11:45. It's a restrained Sputnik, with percussion from Bill & Pigpen, and Mickey's chimes add a nice different flavor. Jerry's insect weirdness follows at 14:00. Always cool to hear Bob & Phil's accompaniment in this part (I think Bob's playing with his volume knob), but it stays within the normal bounds & doesn't go anyplace different tonight, and Jerry moves back to his regular tone after a minute.

The following jam takes its time, kind of edging cautiously forward. At 17 minutes Mickey joins Bill on the drums (which so far has been a rare occurrence in Dark Stars). The jam stays low-key despite the extra drummer push; Jerry isn't really catching fire here. After 18:30 he seems to accidentally stumble into the bright-star theme and they tear into that for a minute; he mixes it up with a nicely-placed falling-star bit. Check out how after 19:20 Bob pulls them smoothly back to the theme with his chords. They drift quietly for a bit, a nice moment of calm -- I love Bob's simple little lick here. Now Mickey's doing clopping & cowbell. (!?) Then they take a surprising new direction after 20:20 as Jerry yanks them into a weird kind of atonal gamesmanship ("hey, guess the next chord!"), pushed along by Phil. This sounds like it could have turned into something cool if they'd stuck with it, but at 20:50 Jerry pounces on the main theme again. (I love how they're all right on top of him, as always.) Once again Jerry wastes no time before singing a verse.

Well, this wasn't a Dark Star of fiery peaks and blazing drama. It felt mostly calm and restrained...after a nice start, Jerry seems low-energy most of the time, and the usual themes sounded kind of rote. That said, it's still very good....the quiet moments stand out. They hint at new possibilities without quite exploring them, but the feeling of glimpsing something new is there. The different percussion touches also make this unusual.


Adamos:


This one feels gentle and a little slow going at the start; it slowly builds but takes its time. Pigpen's congas are also a noticeable feature as Mr. Rain pointed out. Jerry's tone gets a bit more bite around 3:03 and then starting at 3:50 he does this cool repetitive thing that takes things up a notch and leads to a nice, brief jam that works its way to the main theme and then first verse. I like how each opening segment is its own journey, often with a unique character.

Post-verse is relatively mellow; not much bell tolling but some nice gong washes and you can hear the congas fairly well underneath. Starting at 8:15 Jerry heads out in subdued fashion on a slow, winding path. Things start to build a bit and at 9:40 there's another repetitive sequence that ratchets up the intensity and they hit a peak around 10:00 before easing off again at 11:15. Phil adds nicely to this passage and as they come out of it he plays these repeating notes (doun doun doun) that sort of resets things and adds to the mood. At 11:56 Jerry steps in again and they start working their way to Sputnik. The glockenspiel (if that's what it is) adds a little something different here that I like.

Sputnik is somewhat subdued (and still glockenspiel-ly); it builds a bit and then devolves into a quieter passage with Jerry and Phil each repeating some notes. As Jerry briefly quiets Phil steps forward and then they start some insect weirdness at 15:08. Out of the weirdness we get a gentle, slow developing jam. Bill's working the cymbals and then starts coming in with more drums starting around 16:20. Jerry's playing is subdued and the whole passage has a certain beauty. At 19:05 or so things begin to build and by 19:55 they hit Bright Star - it's not quite as triumphant as some nights but still has that feel - then Falling Star before circling back to Bright Star again with greater intensity. The passage as whole ends up being pretty cool.

Things quite down again after the 21 minute mark and they kind of hover for a bit before getting into something more weird, with Jerry and Phil seemingly playing off each other. It's a good segment but fairly short-lived and by 22:16 they're suddenly back to the main theme and bringing it home.

This is definitely an interesting and somewhat unique version. Too bad there aren't any Fripp-style journals to provide insight into how they approached Dark Star on a given night and what they thought of a particular performance. But collaborative analysis 50 years after the fact is pretty fun too.