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:

notesofachord:


The “drums” Star.

Very percussion-heavy. I love it. A long-time favorite of mine.

I have been calling for Santa Rosa 6/27/69 to get an official release (with bonus material from 6/28) for many years.

The Jack & Jorma set came out on Bear’s Sonic Journals recently.


pbuzby:


I listened to this one for the first time as I was wrapping up work today. Good tape and it is at correct speed or close, although Lesh is low in the mix while (as mentioned above) the drummers are very prominent.

Interesting as it is the first I've heard where they seem to be making a sustained effort to get away from the normal Dark Star groove, going into a stiffer 4/4 rhythm for a while as well as a near-Other One jam, as well as the mentioned Lovelight tease. It's awkward at times but that goes with first steps. The "instructions" near the end sound to me like Garcia, possibly trying to steer the band back to the song so he can sing the second verse.

One thing I noticed is that while in most recent versions Pig seems to be puttering around on congas when he's audible at all, in this one he might be playing other instruments in the percussion arsenal (including guiro and claves) since you can hear those instruments as well as both drummers in parts of the post-first verse improv.


Mr. Rain:


This gets off to a slow, quiet start but steadily builds up....they're doing the patient approach tonight. I like the droning theme tease Jerry does after 1:25 -- he also finds a cool descending theme after 2:30. Actually he's full of ideas in this opening jam, just wandering from one interesting melodic theme to another. After 5:20 they're in an anticipatory quiet zone that reminds me a lot of one part in 2-13-70....that same kind of feel. Like you said, after each buildup the verse keeps getting deferred and they carry on with a new theme. Finally Jerry gets to the verse....kind of abruptly, he bypasses the main theme and just drops the verse in a quiet spot.
Some maracas at the start. TC is low in the mix again, but present. The stereo gong action in the verse (both verses) is surprising -- I didn't know Bill had his own gong, but that's what it sounds like.

They start getting weird right away after the verse -- nice lead-in by Phil & Bob. Big strumming and bashing twin gongs...but Jerry keeps the feedback light and goes for some quiet volume-knob fiddling and tremolo while the rest of the band's going wild. A neat contrast! The others quiet down with him and they float in space for a bit with Jerry's wafting lead. (Pigpen taps the congas to let us know he's there.) Even when the jam proper starts it still feels very spacey....the drummers tap their cymbals while TC orbits and Jerry sounds ready to drift away.
But after 12:20 it starts getting more solid. More percussion too -- first Mickey then Bill drumming, Pigpen on congas, some wooden tapping. Now with two drummers going at it, the spaciness disappears and they're getting into more of a rock & roll jam. After 14 minutes the drummers sound like they're ready to stomp into the Other One beat. Jerry manages to quiet them down for a moment, but Bill's pounding brings them back up...this is a very rhythm-driven jam. But the rhythm keeps shifting...after 15:40 Jerry & Phil settle briefly on the Other One, but they don't want to stay there. Bill changes the rhythm to a new beat, which throws the others but they try to latch on. Then at 16:30 Bob finds the perfect grungy chord accompaniment, which doesn't last but it bumps them into a short Latin-sounding spell which Phil turns into Lovelight after 16:50. But this is short-lived too...after 17 minutes they're just flailing around trying to grab onto something.
Jerry seizes the moment and the others regroup with him as he launches toward Bright Star. (The rhythm patterns keep shifting as they settle on a beat.) He hits Bright Star at 18:20, and whoa the drummers are going nuts. This sounds like a victorious parade-ground march! They keep Bright Star going to 19:50, then they start moving back to the main theme....but Jerry has other ideas, he's starting Sputnik while the others are on the theme. Nice trick!
Pigpen's on guiro accompanying the drummers, another surprise. (It's played the same way as in previous Sputniks, so this makes me think many of the guiro appearances I thought were Mickey were actually Pigpen. But wait...at points during this Dark Star like around 12:30, I thought I heard a FOURTH percussionist along with the congas & drums, and a little later on around 23:20 it's obvious, the guiro & congas are both going at once. There seems to be a mystery percussion guest here somewhere!)
This is the short speed tour of Sputnik, not much jabbing, instead they quickly take it to a big strummed finale. Jerry doesn't bother with the insect weirdness tonight...maybe he's in a hurry to wrap it up. They drop into a calm floaty space -- I love this ending, it sounds so open and full of possibilities. When Jerry starts the main theme it sounds very happy with Mickey drumming along.

This is a big percussion Star like everyone's said. Not only is there an extra gong, I think there's an extra percussionist! It also follows a similar path to the last lengthy Dark Star we heard on 6-7, in starting off gently and coasting up to rock & roll loudness. I've felt earlier that they had some trouble adjusting the two-drummer energy to Dark Star and that's definitely the case here; the middle jam kind of falls into confusion until they hit the regular themes again. So it does lack cohesion like you said; but I agree with pbuzby that this is growing pains as they work out on the fly how to fit a two-drummer groove into Dark Star.


JSegel:


Classic intro, and a bunch of tuning going on as Jerry veers around over the percussion comparing notes against open strings. Bobby has some strong ideas, they’re sort of chugging along slowly, Phil is in a mellow groove. Jerry gets caught in a little sets of threes at about 3 minutes and it sort of sets up the roll of the swung rhythm into a 6/8, I think for the entire version of this song they’re feeling a rolling 6/8 more than the swingin’ 4/4. The leads are much more like “Cryptical” style applied to the Dark Star mode. Nice Leslie-sounding vibrato on TC’s organ there in the background. Once we’re like 6 minutes in, it’s very much “cryptical” 6/8 feel. Even when they get to JG starting to make DS type motions at 7:30, and toward the verse, it’s more rolling than swung.

Slow verse with gongs and cymbals very high in the mix, so it’s tough to discern the Phil and gang setup for the lines.

The jam center starts with disparate statements from the percussionists (three of them?) and build into a noisy sea of sounds. TC scrubs the keys chromatically, Bobby stretched the strings on his chords. It dies down into a low volume area with volume-knob note swells bringing it down before making some melodic leads. Percussion gives way to drum sets via the cymbals by 12 minutes. Some odd stretching in a harmonically and rhythmically static area, which Jerry leads out with some chromatic runs up, the drummers are still stuck on the 6/8 feel. TC gets in on the 6/8, with chords.

At 14’ some very “Other One” 6/8 stabs, both drummers and percussion building this up. It seems like there’s some confusion about what this jam may lead to, everybody is way into the 6/8 pulse, which is sort of odd for Dark Star. When Jerry starts up leads, it sounds like he really wants it to get to Dark Star but the rhythm is implying other songs. By 16:30 or so, this is almost a new jam based on the rhythm, but then Phil comes in with the Lovelight chords for a minutes. Jerry takes it away, though. Getting toward a falling star theme and then toward the Bright Star, in a very rolling 6/8 or 12/8 that Bobby is able to find the 4/4 in to do the Dark Star chord progression (I saw a short interview with Bill Kreutzman where he talked about that 4/4 swung = 12/8 and it blew his mind [groups of 3s in 4 beats!] and then everything became obvious to him.)

At 20’ a Sputnik starts but it’s very static on Jerry’s part, which leads it to be fairly quiet. Even when he jumps up an octave it’s quiet. Lot of percussive stuff and drum sets still happening. Sputnik goes on a while and builds with that guiro loud in the mix to a chaos.

Out of this they are at a crossroads, ‘when in doubt, hover’, until Jerry slowly starts up some meandering lines and eventually states the theme, whereupon everybody jumps in and we’re back in the song. Jerry sounds like his much older self singing verse 2, weirdly.

In the outro somebody yells “Hey can I have my microphone back!”

Gotta say, despite many of you guys saying how cool this one was, it was not one of my favorites. The constant rolling 6/8 sort of took me out of Dark Star world and the percussion was loud in the mix (and Mickey just bugs me with his hippie drum circle style "rhythm"). I think if I heard this out of context I would have thought it was a later version, it lacks the gusto on the part of the lead guitar and bass that has been there so far and is dominated by “rhythm devil” stuff.


Mr. Rain:


I used to like it more than I did this time around, but with my "critical-listening" ears on, I still found it fascinating, the way they're kind of fighting for control in the middle and trying to establish a new rhythm. It's not as smooth as most versions have been, but a drummer-dominated Dark Star is at least different, and it does have some really nice parts. One interesting lesson is that it shows why the Dead have been wise to keep (mostly) to one drummer in the Dark Stars so far....with two, they have a harder time turning on a dime unless they know where they're going.


Adamos:


Mellow and gentle out of the gate like going for a stroll. Lots of shaker and some guiro in the mix. Jerry’s tone starts getting pretty fuzzy complimented by Bobby’s rhythm. He’s winding down the path, almost skipping along, and then after 3:00 or so he bursts out and ascends to a nice small peak. By 3:50 things have mellowed again and they start gently cruising along. TC is adding some nice fills in the background and cymbals come in prominently too. Things are picking up a bit; Jerry’s hitting some low notes but then he eases up again and they’re floating on a cloud. Lots of chimes come in around 6:00; they’re ascending to another small peak; good interplay between Jerry and Phil after 6:30; they’re all winding around each other. By around 7:30 they seem a little unsure where they want to take it and after a brief lull Jerry starts the verse.

Post verse Bobby comes out loud and forceful. Lots of percussion in the mix. Everyone is clanging and building and swirling and getting a bit weird and there’s some volume knob action in there as well. Around 10:18 Jerry starts some gentle tremolo that is reinforced by TC but this quickly shifts back into weirdness they they wander in the void for a spell. A bit more groove starts to take shape but then they veer back into weird again.

Starting around 12:20 or so Jerry starts working some notes and it feels like they’re ready to head out on the collective trail again. The drums come forward and they start to add some pace. Around 13:30 it’s still moving but it has kind of a pretty vibe too. The jam builds and they’ve got some momentum now; by 14:30 it seems like The Other One could burst out at any moment.

Around 14:50 they ease up but still keep going and it quickly becomes driving again. There’s a flurry of notes and there’s still an Other One vibe. There’s some ebb and flow and the drums are quite prominent again as they work the groove. Some edgier rhythm from Bobby around 16:30 and then Phil is working it too. We get a touch of Lovelight as others have pointed out; still lots of drums; the velocity increases and things get a bit frenetic. They’re cruising along now working the groove and then around 18:20 after just a little build up Jerry kicks into Bright Star. The Bright Star still has some of the rhythm and vibe of the preceding jam and it’s more of an uplifting extended groove than a soaring peak but it sounds really good.

Around 20:00 they ease up and collect themselves and hint at the main theme but suddenly Sputnik emerges. Sputnik starts relatively subdued; the drums are prominent and it’s also still kind of a groove. Jerry extends it out gently repeating the pattern and then it slowly builds up. The scratching comes in loudly and it evolves into a brief rave-up. By 23:08 it’s run its course and they gently proceed to the main theme and second verse.

This certainly seems like a unique version to-date. In some ways it feels more like a Dark Star framework with other various jamming in the middle, especially since some of that jamming pulled from other songs.