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:

JSegel:




Cuts into a jazzy Dark Star jam, sounds like organ chord comping with Bobby, Phil and two drummers, all quiet-like. What’s been going on? By a minute into this, a drummer starts a beat, but it breaks down soon enough. Where’s Jerry, guys? Changing strings? He eventually comes in slyly on some runs, still tuning that string, sounds like. He’s got running fingers up and down, lots of pull-offs. He’s suggesting DS themes, and still tuning. But despite suggesting a potential bright star, he’s heading for a Sputnik. TC arpeggiating widely, it builds. Drums play a stark beat underneath (JG still tuning that string in between phrases.) The jump to the higher octave drops the volume and he adds the flat 5 and plays on the groups-of-three-eighth-note things, a drummer follows him there for a second, but it’s dropping into that flatted note area with a new vibe. JG using a very bright bridge-pickup tone on crying notes over a spacey section. Crying notes over hovering band sections… eventually melodically leading to the Dark Star chords, and the band jamming out on it. At 8 minutes into this tape, it drops into a slow chugging thing that wends its way into a mellow theme jam area, and some insect tones over an arhythmic rhythm section. Phil’s bass almost sounds like an upright. Then they seem to build this up into The Other One, which then goes to St Stephen… or the tape is a bit of isolated Dark Star. Or who really knows?


Mr. Rain:


1969-07-12. Well, this here's a "Dark Star Jam," no verse in sight! I take it the whole first half of Dark Star is missing, assuming they played the opening and this isn't just a unique oddball jam. But it still has the usual Dark Star end-of-jam structure.
The sound quality is not good. I wonder if this is just one channel of what was originally a stereo recording, that might explain why it sounds so unbalanced -- I only hear one drummer. (Mickey, I believe. And congas too.) Midway through Lovelight the mix finally switches to stereo.

It starts off oddly: TC seems to be in the lead, just Bob and drums backing him up, very relaxed and puttering around like they're just filling time. Nothing to place this as a Dark Star. After 1:50 Jerry & Phil finally show up...Jerry must have been off changing a string. The jam stays quiet and subdued, with Phil playing the theme.
Sputnik arrives, but this one's really short. They don't seem really into it, it's still on the quiet end. As it's wrapping up at 4:35 the drums just start bashing as if to say "Wake up!" The aftermath is an improvement -- Jerry plays some weird spooky lines (foregoing the insect tone for now), and the mood gets dark & foreboding. It seems like the quiet approach will continue, but after 6:35 they come to life and start rockin' out a bit more. This is where they usually do Bright Star, but Jerry sort of steers around that for a different melodic approach, and there's a brief glorious moment when they're crushing the theme while he soars above.
Then it's back to spacey puttering, and they slowly meander back to the main theme, teasing it for a while. But wait, Jerry switches the insect weirdness effect on at last, as if finally finishing up the Sputnik, and for half a minute they get into a weird little creepy space. Then instead of finishing Dark Star, Jerry & Phil start up the Other One. It's short but still has both verses, then they do a rare transition to St. Stephen and complete the usual Dark Star song suite....more or less what happened on 6-22 too.

This wasn't too engaging, even as a fragment. It's very subdued and rarely takes off, and seems kind of half-hearted.


Adamos:


We cut in with TC doing a breezy, reedy solo gently complimented by Bob, the drums and a dash of Phil. The jam builds a little momentum but is still fairly casual. They may just have been biding time for Jerry to come back in as everyone has noted. Once he joins in the groove stays relatively low key for a spell as Jerry weaves about.

They head into Sputnik around 3:25 but it doesn’t really grab the bull by the horns. Starting around 5:15 Jerry’s guitar is crying out and he works this for a little while but it’s still pretty mellow. Then suddenly at 6:38 they’re ready for action and charge forward with more gusto. Bright Star is briefly considered but doesn’t materialize and they keep the charging groove going with a bit of edge. By 7:50 they’ve brought it down again, Jerry does some jabbing and they end up in insect weirdness right at the end before heading into The Other One.

From what’s available on the recording it doesn’t seem like they were that into it on this particular night, but as always there are some things of interest.