75. 1969-07-12

123433 10:01 (beginning is cut)
Sputnik at 3:25.
Goes into The Other One.

This cuts in on a breezy jam with a lot of TC action going on. He seems uncharacteristically assertive here, and playing different kinds of stuff than usual. This hits a nice little peak at around 2:00, with Garcia starting to ease back into the center of things. At around 2:30 there are some flashes of Sputnik. This gets diverted for a little while, with Garcia starting to hint at Bright Star beginning at 2:55, but at 3:25 it comes back to Sputnik.

It’s starting to feel like Sputnik has peaked, probably a month or two ago. They don’t seem to commit to it as much lately, in any case. At the end of this one, about 5:17, Garcia plays some squalling cries as the band drops into a little space jam. In this case, Weir seems to want to bring it back to earth, and he patiently plays little rhythm figures. Finally they all come crashing together at 6:38. Garcia starts dropping Bright Star hints at 7:10, but he brings them to a peak without going there; At 7:31 he plays some really breathtaking stuff.

They bring it back down at 7:49; at around 8:10 Garcia is stabbing around, and it sounds like he wants to head toward the main theme. Instead there’s another little jam; then at 9:14, he belatedly switches on the insect weirdness. The band duly weirds out for a little while, and then Garcia brings them into The Other One.

This is short but rather intriguing, as some unusual things are happening (and not happening—no main theme, no second verse).


What was said:

74. 1969-07-07

123468 Atlanta 26:50 (cut in middle)

Main theme at 6:59, 8:18, and 12:55.
First verse at 13:11.
Sputnik at 18:35.
Bright Star at 23:21.
Main theme at 24:34.
Second verse at 25:17.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia lays back for a little, coloring in with some feedback while the band (Lesh and Weir in particular) does its thing. The feedback proves to be rather persistent, though; even once Jerry starts playing, it keeps up, and it starts to seem like it might not be intentional. But after a few minutes it seems to clear up. As we pass the three minute line Garcia is starting to generate some excitement, building up to some high repeating licks; they crest the peak here and bring it down again, and then they’re working toward the next little peak. Garcia seems to be emphasizing the G (dominant 7th) quite a bit in his licks this time.

As usual, the dynamics are very…dynamic; one of the most notable things about the Dead’s playing in this era is the way the music can get louder and softer and louder again within a minute or less of playing. Indeed, often times the level of intensity is varied within the course of a single phrase. This is seems very unusual for rock music; I’d be hard pressed to think of another band that does anything similar.

At 4:29 there begins a quite remarkable stretch of music. Garcia is again hammering on the G, and the whole band starts to hover. Garcia slowly travels around the neck, visiting various notes for a spell and then moving on—some tremolo on C#, then back down to G, then he works his way up to a high F#. As Garcia hangs on each note for a while, Lesh lays in some chordal stuff; Weir starts playing some tremolo, adding to the feeling that the band is hovering. This creates a sense of drama, and you can hear the crowd respond.

Jerry starts playing some limber runs, and things seem about to open up. At around 5:24 they sound like they’re ready to move back to more familiar territory, with everything starting to coalesce and bounce, and the main theme seems like it may be in the offing, although there are some clashing harmonics and it’s still not certain what’s happening—for a few seconds, at around 5:42, it sounds a little like they’re trying to get into a Soulful Strut (aka “Tighten Up”) jam (this will make its debut in August).

There’s so much going on during the course of this minute or so of Dark Star that it’s really difficult for me to say exactly what is happening! Everyone, it seems, is threatening to fly off in a different direction, and there is a constant sense of tension, and yet somehow it all stays together. This is the stuff that makes otherwise sane people into Deadheads.

At 5:45 Garcia starts playing with the volume knob, prolonging the interlude, and Lesh duets with him, also manipulating the volume control a bit. At 6:13 Garcia starts hammering on a high E while Lesh plays a repeated descending run. Then at 6:22 Lesh starts to vamp on an E note, and the band settles into a beautiful groove in E minor, with shades of B minor as Weir hammers a hanging D and Garcia builds his line around a B.


At 6:54, Garcia decisively affirms the A, and the main theme briefly commences. Weir doesn’t seem particularly interested in playing the theme, though, and it doesn’t last long. Weir seems determined to stay in a minor key here, and Jerry acquiesces and moves away from the theme, but he is determined to get back to it, and at 8:18 he starts it up again, in an upper register with a kind of Bright Star feel. The band is banging away here, and they never quite get into straight theme mode; at 9:02, it gets bluesy for a bit, kind of like Smokestack Lightning, and it goes through a few more permutations before we get to a rousing peak beginning at around 9:48.

The stretch from 8:18 to around 11:10 is a kind of main theme jam, as the theme is its organizing principle, although it isn’t always being played at any given time. At about 11:04, the rest of the band finally settles into the theme, although Jerry isn’t playing it now. He plays a few slides and drops hints that he’s about to start, but then at 11:10 he takes off with some high runs, and soon the theme is forgotten again. Everyone bangs away for a while, and then at around 12:02 they drop into another little pocket where everyone is hovering. At 12:32 Garcia flashes Sputnik, and one begins to wonder if they’re going to forgo the verse altogether this time. At 12:55, however, Garcia again starts the main theme, and this time they wind up at the verse. At 13:11, this is the longest Dark Star intro to date. It’s also the best one they’ve done.

After the verse Garcia does some heavy bell tolling, which we haven’t heard much of recently. The band works up a serious head of steam here, and then gradually lets the pressure escape. At 15:41 Garcia casts his first notes into the ether, and it doesn’t seem like he’s sure how this one’s going to go, but everybody seems to want to stay in a minor key and brood... however, at 16:13 Garcia starts a bouncy line, and things begin to pick up. A vigorous jam ensues, with the usual peaks and valleys coming in quick succession.

There is a cut at 17:53, although it’s hard to imagine that it’s very long, given that what we have of this Dark Star is almost 27 minutes. We reëmerge into a little lull before Sputnik, which comes at 18:35. This is an energetic but spacey segment tonight, with TC sounding like he’s auditioning for Hawkwind. As Sputnik ends at 19:46, Lesh briefly starts playing his main theme lick, and then at 20:51 Garcia puts on the insect weirdness. They build a little jam here, and as Jerry switches back to a more usual tone at about 20:37 they keep it going.

This section starts to wind down, and at 21:30 Garcia starts playing some jabbed double stops in what is almost a Sputnik reprise. Things start to build a head of steam again, and we head for Bright Star. Starting at 23:43, check out Weir doubling Garcia. This rolls right into the theme (the end of Bright Star shades into the main theme in a way that makes them hard to distinguish) and the verse.

This is an astonishing performance. It is remarkable how the band has developed to the point where each member exercises an enormous amount of freedom, yet they have the confidence and skill to meld it all together into a coherent piece of music. At times they seem almost perverse in their willingness to contradict and contravene each other; yet, remarkably, the resulting synthesis is usually successful. This Dark Star seems worthy of years of study.


What was said:

73. 1969-07-05

4282 Chicago 18:27
Main theme at 3:15.
First verse at 4:00.
Sputnik at 10:20.
Bright Star at 14:46.
Main theme at 16:24.
Second verse at 16:49.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This is the only circulating recording of this, and it doesn’t sound great, but it’s not that bad. The tempo seems to be creeping down a little lately. The short intro jam has a kind of melancholy feel at the outset, with Jerry sadly ranging over the fretboard. At around 2:40 he starts to pick it up a little, and the band kicks into gear for a brief spell before grinding to a halt again at 3:10. Garcia gently lays the main theme into the breach at 3:15, and they arrive at the verse rather early.

Lesh is rather assertive in the aftermath of the verse, and TC likewise produces a lot of sound. The swelling build-up here seems to promise an increase in the level of energy, although it’s rather short tonight. Garcia chooses contrast, as his entry to the middle jam at 6:17 is quite subdued, and the band duly quietens. The jam soon reëstablishes the ruminative mood of the intro, and there is little forward momentum at first. Then, at 7:52, Garcia announces that he is ready to move forward, and the band starts to move ahead.

The jam lightly trips forward here, but it gathers steam as it goes. TC’s optimistic flourish at 9:22 seems to herald a new plateau, but a few seconds later they bring it down again. An amp is buzzing , but the effect is not altogether unpleasant. They tread water for a little while now, and the amp starts buzzing some more. At 9:57 Garcia starts playing some exaggeratedly bouncy bends, and again the jam seems to run in place until Sputnik begins.

This is another subdued Sputnik; it’s like the last one in that respect (6-27), although that one ended with a bit more of a crescendo. This one picks up for a bit, for sure, but it seems to peter out again before Garcia switches to the insect weirdness at 13:04. He noodles around with it until 13:42, when he starts in with the volume knob. This time he tries something a little different, twirling it more rapidly and making space alien noises.

By 14:30, Jerry’s exhausted the post-Sputnik tricks, and he tentatively starts feeling around for something. At 14:45, he decides to start playing Bright Star and see what happens. The band seems reluctant at first, but things inevitably pick up, and Garcia really leans into it until we reach a peak that seems almost unexpected tonight, short as it is. We come down the other side directly into the main theme, and the verse soon follows.

This is a rather morose Dark Star. For much of it the band seems content to circle around, or to move in place. I wouldn’t call it a weak version—the band is at such a good place with Dark Star that it almost seems we’re beyond that now. On the other hand, I don’t see it as one of the strongest outings of the era.


What was said:

72. 1969-06-27

20547 Santa Rosa 26:17
First verse at 7:57.
Bright Star at 18:25.
Sputnik at 20:15.
Main theme at 23:56.
Second verse at 24:41.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This one starts pretty gently, and the tempo seems a bit slow. It is a rather subdued intro tonight; they build to several little peaks, but these are all brief and somewhat restrained. At 1:12 Garcia starts playing lines around a droning open A, and at 1:40 he starts to quote the main theme as things build a bit. The music soon gets rather mellow again, though. At 2:38, Garcia begins playing a descending chordal theme that starts to get everyone a little worked up again, but they are still holding back; Garcia rather suddenly bursts into a little Bright Star run at 3:32 that brings things up again. This is again, however, a brief and fairly subdued peak.

At 4:24 Garcia initiates a sustained sequence of flurries, with lots of triplets, which winds up at about 5:10 with a repeated riff on the bass strings. There’s another little peak starting at around 6:30 that leads to another withdrawal, and by about 7:08 things start getting kind of weird for a few seconds, thanks to Lesh, before leading into a somewhat extended main theme fake-out section; at one point, Lesh breaks into his part, but Garcia never actually plays the theme, and he eventually just sings the verse.

The verse is rather oozy and filled with cymbal washes. The post-verse build-up features a very prominent Bob Weir playing clangy chords and tremolo bursts; Garcia starts playing with his volume knob, and then things descend into a rather spacey interlude beginning at 10:30 or so. At 11:29 Garcia begins what might be taken for the beginning of the middle section, but there is no clear transition this time, and things get spacey again.

At 12:32 Garcia starts repeating an ascending figure that leads to a bouncy and even childlike figure that seems to be signalling the band to pick up. They oblige, but they keep it weird for a while. By 13:40 Garcia seems ready to return to terra firma, and things are starting to coalesce. By about 14:15 it seems we are heading toward a rousing peak, and things begin to kick off for the next 45 seconds or so. Then we get the familiar rapid pattern of retreat, retrenchment, and rebuilding as another peak comes starting at about 15:22.

Soon after the 17 minute mark the band sounds ready to break into a Feelin’ Groovy jam, but this isn’t going to happen yet. Instead, Lesh starts playing Lovelight! At 17:20 it sounds like Garcia briefly considers joining him, but instead they rush to another peak and Lovelight is abandoned.

Garcia has been flashing Bright Star at various points, and at 18:25 he finally commits to it. This turns into a now-rare Falling Star for a few moments at 19:21, before going back to Bright Star again. At about 20:00, they seem ready to wind it up with the main theme, but it seems like they belatedly remember Sputnik instead. This is a really laid back, chirpy little Sputnik until it works up a head of steam for a big swell at the very end (22:42—23:02).

As this comes to a close, Garcia is playing with the drums, and somebody seems to be yelling instructions of some kind. Everyone kind of hangs fire until Garcia starts the main theme at 23:56, and soon we reach the verse.

This is an odd one. It covers a lot of ground, from moody dithering to some substantial peaks. It doesn’t ultimately seem very cohesive, for some reason, but as usual there’s a lot here to admire.


What was said:

71: 1969-06-22

8836 Central Park 11:26

Main theme at 5:49.
First verse at 7:23.
Main theme at
Second verse at
Goes into The Other One.

This is a pretty bad audience recording that cuts in to a Dark Star in progress. We can hear a conversation in progress that is almost as loud as the music, although I couldn’t make out what was being said. At 2:35 you can hear Lesh kick in with his part for the main theme, but this doesn’t last long. The jam is pretty straightforward although there are spots (such as around 3:30) when it threatens to get a little weird. At 3:54, there’s some Sputnik flashes, but they soon pass by.

At 4:39 Garcia starts playing a repeated figure and things weird out a bit for a while. Then at 5:39, everyone but TC comes to a stop—the audience applauds a bit, perhaps thinking it is over, but they come back in with the main theme. Garcia varies the theme a bit with some triplet runs this time. At 7:23, the first verse arrives.

This is a lot of stuff before the verse even with the cut. The intro seemed pretty spacey, but it’s hard to judge with the sound quality here, as the band sounds kind of distant. They go into an interesting interim jam after the verse (the jam before the jam, where they usually build tension)…at 10:22, they seem like they’re breaking out of it, and it seems there is a cut about here …but it keeps at a weird and broody thing, although the cadence of Other One starts creeping into some of the licks...on the other hand, you could argue that Dark Star continues until about :40 into the next track, when Phil starts to play The Other One.

This is another one that is difficult to evaluate, with the sound quality and the cuts. Much of it seems rather languid.




What was said:

70: 1969-06-21

16334 Fillmore East 7:21 (cut)

First verse at 2:42.
Main theme at 5:02.
Second verse at 6:41.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This one is rather severely cut in the middle. Weir is rather prominent here, slashing away and setting the pace. At around 1:25, as Garcia starts a one-note solo, Weir introduces a little half-step chord change. Garcia keeps finding little repeated motifs. Everything comes almost to a stop at 2:28; the band starts playing the main theme, but Garcia goes right to the verse without ever playing the theme.


After the verse, there is a lot of washing on the gong. Garcia starts to toll, then adds a little feedback, and TC swirls around a bit; at 4:31, Jerry begins his mid-jam lead. At 4:46 there is a cut, and we are suddenly in a calm little jam that leads almost immediately to the main theme. Soon the second verse arrives, and it’s all over.


There’s not much here to evaluate. What's here is good, though.


What was said:

69. 1969-06-14

150775 Monterey 14:37

Main theme at 4:01.
First verse at 4:25.
Sputnik at 7:10.
Bright Star at 11:52.
Main theme at 12:32.
Second verse at 13:05.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia starts in on the volume knobs almost right away here, while the band stays with the two-chord pattern until around :45, when Jerry starts playing some chordal lead stuff. Garcia sounds like he’s trying to do something different here, as the chordal stuff intensifies and then turns into a sort of Sputnik-like arpeggiated bit at about 1:30. At 1:59, Jerry changes it up with a high, sweet line which increases in intensity and gets the band pounding a little harder. At 2:45 this becomes a kind of variant of the main theme; at 3:06, Garcia does the big slide into A that often begins the theme, but instead he plays with the variant some more, increasing the frequency and bringing the band to an early peak. At 3:35, with the band on the boil, he breaks into a high lead, a stirring moment that soon leads to the main theme.


Garcia comes out of the restatement of the intro with some volume knob swoops, then at around the six minute mark there’s a little bell tolling. As the intensity increases, this turns to feedback. The band conjures up a fury of sound; at times here I almost think I hear a third guitar. In any case, Garcia is playing feedback and Weir does some tremolo stuff, and sometimes I hear him on the left, sometimes on the right, it seems like…or maybe TC is fooling me into thinking I’m hearing a guitar with some of this?


At 7:10 Sputnik emerges directly from the post-verse build-up, although it takes a little time to coalesce. The band really digs into this one, sounding dense and angry. Toward the end of the segment things have calmed down, with Jerry playing high arpeggios and Weir doing little hammer-ons in the upper register. Then at 8:45 they start driving toward a crescendo, and the music becomes darkly frantic. At 9:20, after a breath, Garcia switches on the insect weirdness. Things pick up, then calm down, then pick up again, until at 10:10 Jerry decides he’s done being a bug.


The ensuing jam begins almost conventionally as Jerry goes back to a more quotidian tone. The level of intensity is raised, but subtly (note, however, 11:02 where Garcia briefly sounds rather unhinged!). This gradual intensification is unusual for the period insofar as the band usually opts instead for a quick succession of peaks and valleys—although this is often encompassed by a more general arc, here it seems like a steadier build than usual. This comes to a head at about 11:43, after which they pause for breath, and then Jerry plunges into Bright Star. This is intense but brief, and leads directly to the main theme and the second verse (where Garcia starts to sing “Lady…”, and then manages to contort it into “Mirror…”).


This version is somewhat condensed, and very powerful—it has a kind of twisted darkness to it that feels unique. There are no wide open spaces here…this is an almost claustrophobic rendition. I’m not sure if there were external reasons to make it shorter than usual, but this is a very satisfying quarter hour.


What was said:

68:1969-06-07

132685 Fillmore West 20:57
Main theme at 4:54.
First verse at 5:25.
Sputnik at 12:41.
Bright Star at 17:26.
Main theme at 19:00.
Second verse at 19:23.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This comes out of a great Mountains of the Moon jam that pretty much comes to a stop before Dark Star begins. They abandon the two chord pattern very quickly this time, by around :45 there is a somewhat foreboding one chord vamp happening. This continues in that direction for a while, until at 2:50 there’s a little pause, and things seem a little brighter when it picks back up. At about 4:16, the music shifts into a zone of weirdness, but Garcia leads them out of it to the main theme and, promptly, to the verse.


The usual tension in the post-verse section is enhanced by Garcia repeatedly hammering on a heavily distorted B flat, suggesting A phrygian, which is something I don’t think we’ve heard before (beginning at 7:05). He spins this out into a quite evil sounding line, bringing this section to a thrilling peak before launching into a piercing takeoff at 8:00. Everything sounds a bit askew in the jam that follows, with Lesh wandering around quite madly. Garcia soon returns to a more distorted sound, and he leads them to another peak at around 9:43 which dissolves and coalesces again, so at 10:30 they’re driving toward another peak which comes to fruition at around 10:55. Again they bring it down, and again they bring it back to a peak at about 12:24, with Garcia playing distorted double stops and everyone banging away until it drops abruptly into Sputnik.


This is an unhinged rendition of Sputnik, and Weir is very assertive here. At 14:10 Garcia seems to flash the insect weirdness, but at 14:14 he’s playing a clean line and Sputnik seems to be over. There is a strange little jam here where Jerry is widdling away but everyone else seems rather restrained. At 15:35 things start to pick up as they work their way into a rocking little jam, but this has dissolved by 16:02. Jerry seems to sneak in a quick tuning at this point, and then at 16:14 Lesh swings into the main theme. Garcia starts playing leads again, and the band wanders away from the theme.


At about 17:05 Garcia starts playing a rather heavy riff, and then he climbs up and starts to play Bright Star. The end of this sequence turns into a quite thrilling jam beginning at about 18:20, which comes to a rousing peak which then lurches into the main theme, which takes us to the verse.


This is a very exciting rendition; it seems like there is always something going on here. It gets really raunchy at times.


What was said:

67. 1969-06-05

135483 Fillmore West 20:32
Main theme at 3:47 5:39, and 6:23.
First verse at 6:56.
Sputnik at 11:06.
Bright Star at 16:19.
Main theme at 17:07.
Second verse at 19:00.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This kicks off with a bright and snappy little intro; to me, Garcia on the bass strings always manages to sound like a giant bug, regardless of guitar or era. What stands out to me above all in this section is Jerry’s fluency; for instance, at 2:34 he launches into a disquisition that goes on without a breath until 3:14, at which point he begins to punctuate a bit more, but he keeps right on going and going. I’m reminded of a story about John Coltrane, who is said to have told Miles Davis “When I’m playing a solo, the ideas just keep coming, and sometimes I don’t know how to stop.” Davis famously replied, “Just take the ****ing horn out of your mouth.”


In this case, Garcia keeps rolling until he hits the main theme at 3:47. The band isn’t yet ready to hit the verse yet; instead, they bring it down and Garcia starts playing with the volume knob. Things are starting to get pretty spacey; at 5:24, with things almost at a standstill, Garcia starts hinting at the main theme, and the hints get stronger as the music starts to pick up. Garcia throws in a rake and some chordal stuff, and begins to he throw some C naturals into the mix until at 6:23 he starts playing the main theme with a decidedly bluesy flavor.


This mood carries over into the verse, which is paced slowly, and Jerry’s melismatic vocals seem sort of mournful this time. As is their wont lately, the band follows the restatement of the intro theme with a restatement of the structure for a few bars before building tension, with Garcia tolling and then laying in some feedback. Weir plays some almost Latin tremolo flourishes, and at 9:17 Garcia begins a lead line that sounds quite pensive and ominous. At 9:51, he begins a little lick that I recall from Live/Dead (1969-02-27), although it may show up elsewhere as well, and then at 10:16 he begins a more upbeat line that also harks back to the classic Fillmore version.

At 11:00, Sputnik arrives rather suddenly. This is given a chaotic reading, with TC swirling around and Jerry doubling timing the arpeggios. They almost seem a little impatient with Sputnik here, like it’s on the version of developing into something else. It winds up being a pretty short visit, as at 13:35 Garcia kicks on the insect effects. This only lasts for 30 seconds, but when he returns to a more normal tone the music remains ominous and unsettling. At 14:45, Jerry seems to be putting in a plea for normalcy, and the band responds, but the jam retains a minor feel, and no one is feeling very bouncy.


At 15:21, Garcia starts playing a repeated lick that seems like it will develop into Bright Star or the main theme. At 15:48 he plays the main theme, and the band is now building toward some sort of resolution. By the 16 mark, Garcia is beginning to work his way toward Bright Star, and we get there at 16:19. This one feels chaotic and squally thanks to Weir’s scribbling, and when the main theme returns at 17:07 he ups the ante with some deranged bluesy counterpoint.


The lead-in to the second verse is again rather unique, as Garcia begins muting his strings on the theme, the drummers responding with a lurching backbeat; Jerry likes this groove so much he starts soloing again at 18:21 with a little melody that doesn’t last long, but it fires up the band for a few moments, until everyone seems to simultaneously decide that enough is enough, and we drop into the verse (Jerry starts singing “mirror crackers” and makes himself laugh). Tonight we’re back to the classic transition into St. Stephen.


One thing that stands out to me on these latest versions is the variety, sometimes subtle, of ways they have found to present the parts of Dark Star that are in some respects the same every time. This one starts out really straightforwardly, and never quite gets back to that. On this date we find brooding intensity, bluesy riffing, and controlled chaos. The call-backs to Live/Dead were a bit surprising.


What was said: