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:
Mr. Rain:
Jerry teases China Cat before Dark Star, but I guess the others talk him out of it. It sounds like they're in high spirits.
Very nice recording. It sounds like there's the usual percussion ensemble of shaker & congas at the start, but they're mostly drowned out by the guitars. (As is the organ.)
Dark Star gets off to a flying start...a clean intro, Jerry starts working the volume knobs right away for a searching tone with a spot of feedback. But then he switches right to playing chords instead for a more rock & roll approach (a Big Boss Man lick even gets in there after 1:25). Even a brief pause after 1:50 for more typical Dark Star beauty quickly turns back into a rock & roll jam. Bill enters on drums around 2:40, usually a sign that the band's feeling hot. (He keeps drumming throughout.) Really a hard-hitting opening here....Jerry's just soaring, the band slams out a tease at the theme and Jerry sails into a powerful high lead that you'd expect at the final climax of Dark Star, not 3 minutes in. But they manage to restrain themselves in time for the main theme. They don't stretch the theme out for long, they're in a hurry (Jerry plays a little bass riff heading into the verse)....for an opening jam of only four minutes, it's sure packed with excitement.
After the verse Phil & Bob carry on the theme to lull us into a sense of normality, but Jerry's got the volume knob turning again, and they do their Dali drip into space....Jerry does some bell-tolling, the band gets all stirred up, and bam we're in a full-blown feedback attack! This is one of the fiercest Dark Star moments yet. (Weir's doing flamenco strums and TC's doing some tremolo on the side.)
This opens up for a brief moment of calmness, but Jerry starts up the Sputnik right away....no intervening jam this time. The others are still playing weird, Mickey keeps bashing his gong, TC finds room for some squiggles: this is one hot Sputnik. When Jerry turns his arpeggios into jabbing the rest of the band's piling on and they turn it into a huge rushing crescendo....and no sooner does that peak at 9 minutes than Jerry turns on his insect weirdness, a wonderful transition. Unlike other insect-weirdness spots where the band's puttering around abstractly, here they drive ahead full-speed while Jerry whines overhead...and he keeps it up for a minute.
Jerry switches back to a plusher tone for the final round. Once again there's barely a pause for calmness before they plunge ahead in a raging jam, both drummers pounding away. Jerry prepares the way for Bright Star with a melodic passage in a more piercing tone, and they dive into it perfectly and hit it hard. Great rendition -- when they segue back to the theme they're still playing loud & aggressive and it takes some moments to quiet down. (Bill's still rattling away like he doesn't want to stop.) Again, Jerry wastes no time before the verse; he sounds pretty amped.
Incredible, breathless version -- they hardly slow down for a minute. I don't know why it's so compressed, unless they were so pumped-up at this show they were in no mood for gentle cosmic meanderings. But it's played more like a Not Fade Away than a Dark Star....perhaps the culmination of the more raw & energetic versions they've been doing lately. I couldn't wait to hear it again.
pbuzby:
I think both Archive sources of this Star are running fast although they were speed corrected. Oh well, it adds to the unusual highly caffeinated feeling of this Star.
Adamos:
As they get started Jerry plays with the volume knobs while Bob holds it down with some rhythm. Lots of shaker too. Then around 0:43 Jerry heads out; it sort of sounds like a tape splice there. Jerry’s playing has a different sound and feel; there’s some fuzz in his tone but the proceedings still have a mellow vibe overall. Things begin to build and around 1:15 or so it starts to sound Sputnik-y for a bit while they’re also doing other things. At 1:48 after a brief pause Jerry starts a nice lead with prominent rhythm from Bob; it’s got a more dreamy feel now. The energy starts to surge again, Phil gets cooking, there’s an edge to Jerry’s playing now. They’re playing variations of the theme but it’s its own thing and hard charging too. It builds to a strong peak, they are rocking, and then at 4:00 they downshift into the main theme and hit the first verse. Jerry’s singing is sprightly too.
After the verse Phil and Bob start them on the thematic trail while Jerry plays with the volume knobs again and takes it in a weirder direction. Starting around 5:45 there’s some bell tolling that goes on for a bit before erupting into feedback; they’re all getting weird now! Then around 6:52 there’s a brief lull from which Sputnik emerges.
Sputnik develops slowly but its intensity grows; the cymbal or gong washes are full on, Phil and Bob are complementing Jerry’s repetitive lead with pace. It keeps going, this thing’s got legs, they build to another intense peak. Then around 9:05 it seems to have run its course and Phil and Bob start back on the thematic trail and Jerry shifts into insect weirdness while they keep going so it’s like a somewhat melodic version on top of their groove.
This continues until about 10:10 when Jerry comes out of it and starts a new lead. From there a nice jam develops, the pace hastens, Jerry starts reaching up into the sky and they cruise at edgy altitude for a spell, ultimately ascending to Bright Star around 11:55 and then coming down to raucously hit the main theme about 12:35. After that excursion it seems to take Jerry a beat to remember what shatters in the second verse!
ianuaditis:
the boys were rushing through this one because they just couldn't wait to get Wayne the Harp back out on stage...
Seriously, though, I had a cassette of this show at one point, because I have the empty case, but I don't recall listening to it a lot, I think I'd moved out of my initial 66-70 only phase by the time I got this one, and/or it went missing before I got to sit down with it the same way as some of my other 69 tapes.
Interestingly, my most recent complete show was 7-18-72, which also features a hard-charging Dark Star that Kreutzmann insists on holding together even in the deepest meltdown segments.
I don't have a whole lot to add to this, looking over my notes I came up with pretty much the same stuff as most of you.
What's called 'insect weirdness' here seems closely related to what I usually think of as 'Roy Buchananisms,' crazy harmonics that he mostly did when they got into their country vibe, I hadn't really heard the connection until now. They are a bit different of course, but we are just a few weeks away from Garcia's switch to a stratocaster when he began to use that sound more outside the context of Dark Star.
After Dire Wolf… ok then. A few stabs at the intro licks by Bob after China Cat teases, then they start it properly all together, ROR and all. Jerry assesses the world before coming in, he’s playing with some specific notes and their resonance in the gymnasium. When he makes a melodic statement it’s in chords and pretty outside. Maybe he’s influenced by the previous songs’ 6ths in the cowboy harmonies. A Sputnik-like statement before 2 minutes, almost like “Working Man Blues”… hmm. Ok, he’s finally getting into lead playing, and it’s aggressive, they’re already building it pretty fast, and when it settles in a Dark Star type jam, BW is strumming it up, Phil is plugging away, drums are crashing. They build to great heights very quickly, and some fast playing, then it drops into the DS theme area at 4’ ready to get into the verse.
I hear Jerry playing his vocal melody on guitar again now. Strong and loud vocals. Per-line intricacies all there, I like the new “casting” about on line 3 from TC, more stately and melodic.
Jam starts with volume swells, sounds like people expect to start a bell tolling to blow us to the next world. It takes its time getting there, a slow build with various feedbacks emerging, crashing cymbals all around, feedback jam, fluttering keyboards!
A sputnik is emerging chordally from JG, drums are in some new groove, lots of congas too. Sputnik moving forward, against bass grooveout with drums, super strong jamming, organ chords.
Jerry emerges at 9:20 with the insect tones on a Dark Star mode mostly, but full on forward-momentum from drums and bass still. They crest this wave into a lighter melodic area, still the drums are jamming heavily. This is great gymnasium-as-dance-hall jamming. JG plays with modes a bit, but it’s pretty solid, and when he switched to the lead pickup, he’s heading to a strong Bright Star. TC has discovered how powerful organ chords are. They hit the Bright Star at 11:50, really strong playing. When they come down to pre-v2 sort of area, it’s still moving along at a brisk pace. Slowly coming down and Jerry jumps in on verse 2, some slides on vocal pitches. Phil and TC really go off on “Lady in Velvet”. And it all dissolves on “Shall we go…” followed by drum rolls. Outro with warbling on the backing vocals, and we head off toward St Stephen, people yell and clap as it begins.
Strong and fast version! The whole show sort of picks up again at this song after the acoustic middle and heads off toward endless jam.
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