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:
Mr. Rain:
Comes out of Sittin' on Top of the World!? I bet we're not going to hear that happen very often.
The opening jam's kinda typical, nice and relaxing....nothing spectacular to start with, but they've got it down. Pigpen on congas again; there's some shaker. TC's pretty clear in the mix, doin' his ROR at the start before he veers away. He seems to do a nice job in this one -- laying out a lot, then coming in with just the right swirls or chords. Mickey, from what I could hear, does very little in this Dark Star except for the gong & some drums at the end.
Things get interesting after 4 minutes -- when Jerry introduces the theme and the band settles down for the verse, he instead takes a different course with the volume knob as Phil lays down a lovely line. They get into a sparse little creepy twisting passage, then drift quietly back into the theme again, a really satisfying reprise. (Bill comes in on drums here. Pigpen's been tapping away on congas through this, incongruously, and he stays busy on them through the rest.)
It's funny that, as you noticed, the Dead are currently picking up the theme again right after the verse (Jerry almost reprises his '68 lick here), and then within a few seconds it drips into space like a Dali painting. Tonight's space is warm & enveloping...a little tolling, a little feedback, a lot of gong. After a minute Jerry starts a fragile-sounding jam which almost seems like it's going to tip right back into space around 10 minutes, but restores itself and plunges ahead. But it doesn't get far before Jerry switches to a Sputnik!
This Sputnik is thick and gooey as everyone gets all swirly. This first part subsides soon and there's over a minute of spiky jabs and half-arpeggios and creepiness. Then it concludes with part three, the insect weirdness, more like a brief burst of strange alien music. (This seems to be the classic three-part Sputnik structure lately.)
Jerry breaks out of it abruptly with an almost Bach-like figure. The band still sounds very unsettled....there's a haunted feeling in the air. (Bob is dedicated to keeping the mood uncertain, and finds a funny repeated note.) After 15 minutes Jerry tries working his way back to more solid ground, but the music's still a little scattered and it takes a minute for the Dark Star theme to emerge.
Once they're there, they quickly pick up speed and hit a Bright Star, which lasts for a minute, getting thicker & sloppier as it goes. Mickey finally enters on drums here. (Bob's hanging onto his new favorite note for dear life, adding a very strange counterpoint.) Jerry returns to the theme, but wait, things aren't normal here -- Bob's still playing some other line completely, and as Jerry keeps repeating the theme, Bob grabs the lead and launches into his own little high-pitched solo! Wow, this is unusual, a stirring moment. It wraps up at 18 minutes, and Jerry re-starts the theme for good -- but, oh wait, it's still not back on track, the band's getting into this Caribbean kind of counter-rhythm like they're opening up a whole new jam! But this is short-lived...instead of going on, they decide that's that, and drop right into the verse. (Maybe too quickly for Jerry: "Mirror crackers!" He also totally messes up the time of the "glass hand dissolving" line, a very rare occurrence on his part, which confuses the rest of the band but they quickly recover.)
Hard to pin this one down. It's pretty typical for the time, subdued really without a lot of noise & feedback or standout peaks, but at the same time they're embracing strangeness in more subtle ways. While following the usual steps in the structure, some of the little bypaths they take are very different and unexpected, and they keep getting better at playing "weird" -- especially after the Sputnik here. Bob's sudden takeover of the jam right when everyone else thinks they're finishing is great, and the last thing you'd expect from him at this point.
Adamos:
The beginning has a bit of a throwback feel with plenty of ROR and moving along amiably. Jerry works familiar lines; after 1:10 he slows up and it gets a little dreamier and then he starts working the low notes. It proceeds in familiar territory; nice rhythm from Bobby, plenty of shaker, a touch of congas and TC adding some color. The energy slowly builds and Jerry gets some extended leads going that just sound good before spilling into the main theme. Around 4:15 he starts playing with the volume knob and things get spacey. Phil is now more prominent as well. There’s some brief loveliness before it gets weirder and a little spooky. Around 5:30 Jerry starts working back towards the main theme which fully emerges at 5:39 and sounds lovely in juxtaposition. Things start to slowly pick up again; drums are more prevalent and they come around to the main theme again and then the first verse.
After the verse they briefly work the intro theme; in come the gong washes, things start to swell, bell tolling and it gets spookier. There’s some feedback, quick rhythm flourishes from Bob, TC’s in on the action. Then around 9:12 Jerry starts heading out; it’s subtle and contemplative and a little ominous. Bob adds more rhythm, the energy starts to build and there’s a swelling peak culminating around 10:12 from which they launch out again.
A driving groove gets going but in less than a minute they’re suddenly in Sputnik. It builds nicely, lots of TC swirls, the pace quickens, jabbing guitar, it’s really going fast. Jerry shifts upwards at 11:57 and keeps it going in that range until around 12:15 when it seems to have run its course but instead Jerry keeps going with a repeating sequence of notes that are kind of like a partially deconstructed Sputnik. It starts to build up and take greater form but then he slows it down and it’s more like a fragment again before they shift into insect weirdness at 13:49.
At 14:18 they come out of the weirdness into some emotive and foreboding playing. Then at 15:00 they start trying to work back into familiar territory but take a scenic route. There’s some variations on the main theme that become more pronounced around 15:45 and then they start ascending to Bright Star which seems to come in stages before fully blooming after 16:25 and lasting for a good bit compared to some recent versions. It’s a little all over the place but the triumphant vibe is still there in spades.
At 17:15 they hit the main theme and groove on that energetically with Bob going for it a bit which is kind of neat. They keep the jam going for a couple minutes before slipping into the second verse and wrapping it up.
I agree that this one starts out straightforward but they end up going to a variety of interesting places even if it’s a little rough around the edges at times.
JSegel:
Second set, China Cat leads with the acid spaciness and a nice jam at the end and then right back down to earth with Sittin’ on Top o’ the World, then some chomping at the bit to start Dark Star, the guys sort of running over themselves to play the intro lick. Song starts and the ROR is signifyin’, boys and girls. Jerry comes in with a strong tone and full of melody dripping out of the guitar. The recording is really clear and it seems obvious that the players can hear each other really well, and are very carefully playing off each other. It’s like the coffeehouse vibe with the hand drums and percussion again, but the electric players are volume-adjusted really well. They are really taking this opening jam into some new form of Dark Star, it’s so casual and yet intimate. The eddies and little knots that the band gets caught in in the jams have a really wide dynamic available. By 3 minutes they’ve taken it up, but it’s not *loud*, it’s strong. Like bzfgt said, Jerry holding forth. They come back down, and at 3:50, Jerry states the theme, almost out of “nowhere”, but we’ve been in the DS chords off and on. TC comes in on chords and it’s a feint to the verse, and instead, JG goes for small feedbacks and volume swells, precipitating an arhythmic area leading to chromaticism and cymbal swells and hits, really off into space for this early in the song! A little hint from Jerry as to ‘hey what song are we playing?’ and they move slowly back into a DS mode jam, with Bill on drums now (pre-v1), quietly. Some chromatic stabs at the theme take it to the theme and they may actually get to the verse, at almost 7 minutes.
Strong vocal recording, he’s playing with the emotions of the words, the band does the classic three part form on the lines, but TC’s ‘casting searchlight’ is restrained, slower, it’s very nice. I like him more lately in general, better sound and better ideas for fitting in the sound. (I should try to find his book, did someone say he'd got a new organ?)
I love Jerry’s accent on “while we Cäääään”, I guess I miss Northern California.
Into the transitive nightfall, they’re already taking it down low, the bell(s) tolling, cymbals and gongs, blowing away the fabric of reality at the Fillmore and bringing us into the new fairyland. Lots of little chromatic/noise statements from everybody, Bobby hinting at chords, eventually Jerry comes in, some strong tone from that SG (right? sounds like a new amp though, much clearer at the level's they're playing at) he’s playing with building feedback at medium volume levels, the band follows it up and then the wave breaks and they launch into a classic DS jam, it’s all systems go. Everybody is sounding great, right in the groove with the sounds at the right time and place. This builds and falls to start a Sputnik at 11 minutes, TC going wild as they build it up, Phil reaching higher. Then suddenly Jerry going hyperspeed with the banjo-style picking on the Sputnik arpeggios! Playing with volume swells, Bill is still in a groove though, carrying, while everybody considers (banjo style, like Sitting on Top of the World after China Cat, should be a grounding in reality, right?) and Jerry goes off on this new way of dealing with the Sputnik, the bass is tentative while it goes up and down, TC still arpeggiating.
And then moving into the insect weirdness! Bobby and Phil are taking this more minor-key than usual. Breakout at 14:15, new mode, very stately lines from Jerry, some static chord playing from the band. Right before 15’ there’s an amazing odd counterpoint section, everybody on lines moving forward at similar speeds, Jerry eventually takes it down and hints at the DS theme, by 16’ they’re on it, but it’s mirror world version number n+1. Bobby’s got some weird chords to play with it, stretching it up, by the Bright Star, he’s rocking out under the high melody statements from Jerry.
Even when Jerry lands on the theme proper at 17 minutes, there’s more guitar jamming going on still. Is that Bobby or someone else on stage now, hey now? I thought Elvin Bishop played the next night’s show…
Phil sticks to roots for a while, eventually more to that, but after the new dude’s (Bob's) soloing, we’re back in a sort of rhythm comp jam. New guy has some non-Dorian ideas for the mood it seems. At 19’ they all decide on verse 2. Interesting slight variations in the rhythmic progress of the lines from Phil, nice bounciness below line 3.
This was a really nice and intimate version, and I'd say a new level of inter-band communication and playing. I’d say we just leveled up, actually! It’s great when the band can obviously hear themselves and each other really well, well enough to play quietly or loudly and have everybody be able to be there.
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