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:

Mr. Rain:


Famous show, but fortunately (or unfortunately) Janis doesn't do her screeching in Dark Star.

I think this is the last time Mountains of the Moon went into Dark Star...it's been a rare pairing lately. Mountains sets up a tranquil, enchanted mood, and Jerry plays a long acoustic solo, but then when he switches guitars they decide to start Dark Star right away without the electric prelude. Kind of disappointing, but it's still a nice transition.
The opening jam continues the calm magical feeling...no high peaks, just a warm flow. Jerry takes a minute to settle in at first. Very clear percussion: shaker & guiro, some congas. TC's barely audible to me at the start, but later on he gets louder and there are moments when he rises up from the depths with some runs & swirls. (Most of the time in this Dark Star he'll blend in nicely.)
After 4:20 it sounds like they're going sideways into a spacy passage, but Jerry soon returns to the theme, and sings the verse right away rather than lingering.

The post-verse section takes an unusual turn -- the other guys are doing their thing, but instead of bell-tolling or feedback, Jerry keeps hammering this strange chord that sounds a bit out of place, and turns it into kind of a demented Wes Montgomery line. This reaches a tense climax and sets up the start of a more typical blazing Jerry solo. Bill's drumming now, but instead of riding the surge to a peak, Jerry puts on the brakes and gets more quiet & restrained. There's a neat passage after 9 minutes where Jerry & Bob are both playing chords, until Jerry spins out in a lovely sputnik-like arpeggio. Then he enters some fast runs, the jam heats up, and this time he rides the surge (more Doin' That Rag-type chords again). As it calms down, he almost sounds like he's teasing Cosmic Charlie after 12 minutes, and carries on with more choppy chords. He's really in an aggressive rock & roll mood tonight.
Suddenly at 13 minutes Jerry starts Sputnik, a very fast-paced version, kind of the speed tour -- Jerry fades into his broken bits of arpeggios over the drumbeats (kind of like an '80s pre-Drums fadeout), and seems about to break into the insect tone but skips it. Instead they move to a quieter jam (Bob flashing Dark Star chords), Jerry noodling around while the others recede. Around 15 minutes Phil clearly plays the Feelin' Groovy line at length while Jerry's off in his solo. Is this the first time we've heard this? It's not really an FG jam, the others only tentatively join Phil and it soon scatters....but it's a tease for the future.
They try establishing a faster-paced jam, but it sounds to me like they're having trouble cohering on a single groove (Bob sounds like he's aiming for the Other One) and the attempt soon breaks up. Around 16:30 Phil gets everyone on the same page by playing the theme, and they all gather round that, using it to launch ahead in a punchy jam. Jerry builds up to a peak around 17:30 and takes off into a Bright Star. This one's roughly played, more ragged than smooth, but very extended -- when it seems to end around 18:20 Bob's going back to the main theme, but Jerry keeps plowing ahead, taking Bright Star ever higher until the band joins forces with him in a pulverizing steamroller that blasts through a breathtaking climax. (Phil especially shines here.) And just like that, they jauntily pop back to the theme and the second verse. Jerry sounds giddy.
Parenthetically, other than the gong I'm not sure Mickey touched his drumset in this version; Bill & congas handle most of the percussion.

Quite a version. Very restless, hard-edged & energetic. A lot of it's pretty rough in the second half, when they can't sustain any ideas for long and it sounds like they're trying to strike a spark by brute force. But when they hit it, it's amazing. And there's quite a contrast in mood between the gentle relaxing start and the all-guns-blazing finish.


JSegel:


After 6/6/69-night’s show without Jerry (mostly) they open this one with the acoustic set, so Dark Star is after the Mountains of the Moon + extended jam in d minor/dorian. Phil wanders a bit before they settle to start the intro. Guiro and congas are the vibe. The ROR, etc, all as if normal. But Phil is rolling some low end this evening, covering it. Nice full-band playing to build it up, ideas passed back and forth, both JG and BW doing multiple pull-offs, then when it crests it all becomes a bit iffy, not as forward moving. Everybody is zoning into their own little whirlpools more, a beautiful crest of this wave with Bobby on wide chord, Jerry spills downward and then Tom. Then they start over again in Dark Star territory, everybody on really odd statements complimenting one another. This also is really new level improvising though much of it is ‘when in doubt, hover’.

TC switched to a reedier tone, JG gets into one of the old riff, the AG, AE, thing. Eventually to the theme by 5 minutes. Verse is coming.

TC on new chord statements in line 1. Phil makes the Spy Theme rock, he bounces it more for line 3. All cymbal and organ swells on the “through”s.

And into the nightfall.

Odd hints at bells, but it takes a while to get a solid low one from Jerry and then somebody is going off on a minor second up, entering a new mode, lots of cymbals and gongs, this wizard is taking us to another land and I don’t know if I like it!

JG comes out of the crescendo with a bright tone, he and Phil start tearing it up to head to some melody hints. Now all the drum sets are jazzing it up, Bobby gets into some comping on the chords. JG responds with licks. It falls into an arpeggio scrub like sputnik style, but then breaks into fast riffing!

Super jazz rock jam. Some little whirlpools still, JG manages to catch everybody in some of them.

After 11 minutes, JG gets into some chordal stuff while Bobby jams out a bit. They break it down into a pulsing thing, JG and TC on it and it builds to a big rhythmic jam, which breaks directly to a quiet Sputnik! Nice.

Sputnik goes on with Phil playing odd melodic and sometimes chromatic lines against it. Bringing it way down at 13:30 and then back up again. Then down to nearly solo guitar and bass with occasional drums, building back in, a slow descending line from Phil and TC, followed by a series of upward spirals from Jerry, bringing it back to the jazz-rock style jam. Very chromatic playing from everybody, in and out of the normal mode. Is this the Feelin' Groovy bit? Then at 16', Phil is the one to bring it back to Dark Star! He makes the call on the bass line building it up. So we get back to the song by way of traversing several jams, Bobby really getting caught up on his tremolos and chord building, and they break into the Bright Star at about 17:30, it jams out with a very throbbing pulse afterwards. Nice gestural following, rhythms passed back and forth between them, and it comes back to the theme, and back to verse 2.

Jerry with the emotional vocal delivery again, but a strong and clear “lady in velvet”.

Cymbal splashes accompany through the outro and St Stephen intro, but it takes a while to get to St Stephen this evening. Another gem.


Adamos:


Oh Mountains of the Moon, how we missed you. Phil lays down a subtle runway and after a brief a pause they're underway in the same tranquil vein. Jerry and Phil are playing off each other; subtle Bob and TC; some shaker and congas. It all sounds mellow and beautiful and they're floating along. The pace picks up a just a little, they get louder, they ease off again a bit, Jerry's playing is simple but compelling. It starts to build again still somewhat gently but rising. After 3 minutes or so Jerry is reaching out higher with a little more force but still mellow overall. Things get a bit weird starting at 4:20 then they work to the main theme and first verse. An emotive opening segment.

Post verse Jerry is playing something different, repeating a chord with some building roughness and Bobby and Phil are coloring in between. They've left the enchanted forest and are somewhere much different now! The energy builds strongly; it's kind of scary and then at 8:00 Jerry takes off. They're in more familiar territory now but then around 8:30 they suddenly pull back and take a different tack. The jam continues, TC's got some repeating fills going, after 9:00 it surges and then Jerry shifts into something with a little more distortion; they're all interweaving and it peaks nicely at 9:44 before they come down. Jerry's riffing a bit and doing spirals and it builds up again, they're charging into it, the motor is revving starting around 10:38; they surge upwards gloriously at 10:55 before easing back again. After 12:00 they starting rising to another peak which gets pretty intense and then suddenly Sputnik is upon us. Compelling section!

Sputnik moves quickly, surges starting around 13:00 and then comes down and hovers for a bit. There's a touch of weirdness at 14:10 but it doesn't come forth; instead Jerry shifts into a melodic line with Bob adding some recognizable Dark Star rhythm. Then around 14:27 Jerry is almost in isolation for a spell playing some lines that start deep and then shift upwards. There's some drums and Phil in the mix as well but they are subtle. TC pops in, you can hear Bob again, Jerry's still weaving about. After 15:30 or so they get a little jam going which eases up by 16:00 and then they start going into the main theme but head back out on the trail instead.

Things start to build around 16:50; Jerry's playing some strong lines, there's some revving up and then they quickly ascend to Bright Star at 17:28 which continues until about 18:12. After briefly collecting themselves they launch into a powerful, ascending jam that still sounds Bright Star-ish, reaching a peak and then spilling into an edgy main theme around 18:55 after which they bring it down for the second verse.

There's quite a bit going on in this version. It some ways it's all over the place but I found myself really getting into it.


ianuaditis:


I listened to this one recently, I decided to take Sunday as the occasion to finally get into this project, so I did a handful of 68s, one from 70, and this one.

This was a long-time favorite of mine, I burned a bunch from the Archive before Weir got it shut down, including 5-31 and this one. When we had our third kid via caesarian, it fell to me to get his older brother out of the house, and most of the time we'd take a ride somewhere, and if he fell asleep, I'd just drive around, and the CD of this was on the playlist

I usually refer to this as an example of how Dark Star was changing over the course of 1969, it's stark in comparison to Live/Dead, less 'composed' and more chaotic.


I thought I remembered more of a 'feedback' style space post verse, but this is just heavy noise with that repeated chord and dissonance by Garcia, followed by his heavy metal licks. I was going to ask if the gong was broken, but there it is...JG pulls out of that with his 'post-gong' melody, but this is different, more of a spang-a-lang jazzy kind of feeling, with Garcia toying around with double stops and chords at first. The jazz vibe continues as he switches to soloing. A few times in the 12th minute you can hear Phil messing around with descending runs, I'm always tempted to hear the 'Feeling Groovy' jam when he does that, it won't be long until they start doing that all the time within Dark Star.

Interesting how Garcia breaks up the hard-charging character a bit around 14:00 and starts playing more abstract. Phil repeats a slow descending line ~14:50 before they pick up the speed again.

Harmonically this seems to be all within the general parameters of Dark Star, mainly variations on the theme, and by 16:00 we are comfortably back within the structure, even if they take 3 minutes to get it out of their system before verse 2. Also now I guess I know what Bright Star is...