86: 1969-11-08

17433 Fillmore 21:06 (1. 14:43 [14:01 actual], 2. 1:05, 3. [UJB Jam] 2:34, 4. 3:24)
Main theme at 1. 5:18.
First verse at 1. 6:07.
Sputnik at 1. 9:45.
Feelin’ Groovy (sort of) at 1. 13:21.
Main theme at 2. :07.
Main theme at 4. :02 and 4. 1:04.
Second verse at 4. 1:25.
Goes into The Other One and St. Stephen.

Here they do something new, weaving Dark Star around The Other One (and another Uncle John’s Band jam, which is again tracked separately at this source). This will never be standard operating procedure, but they will sometimes do things like this in the future.

This swells into life with a slightly askew statement from Lesh and Garcia flashing his little bass string lick that reappears every so often and then taking off with a trebly lead on the Stratocaster. There is some feedback early on; I think it’s from Garcia, as it is rather loud. Several times in the early going the band sort of winds down into a kind of tentative holding pattern and then cranks it back up. Garcia states the main theme at 5:18, and this time it goes right to the verse.

The current M.O. is a soft landing out of the verse into space, and this is what they do tonight. From about 8:45 it sounds like Garcia, Lesh and Weir are all working the volume knobs, although Weir soon switches to some beautiful descending lines. At 9:45 Garcia starts softly playing Sputnik; he gradually gets louder, and after a moment where it seems like he’s heading back to space he starts playing the Sputnik lick in double time. The rest of the band is still more or less in space, or at least it’s a very spacey Sputnik, and at 11:40 Garcia starts a new line to lead the way out.

At 12:15 or so Garcia seems to be subtly hinting at The Other One. The band gains momentum; at about 13:21 Lesh starts playing Feelin’ Groovy, whereas Garcia still seems to be heading toward The Other One, and then there are hints of Uncle John’s Band. At 14:15 they seem to be finally committing to Feelin’ Groovy, but this suddenly disperses and they pedal along for a bit before Lesh decides to strongly assert The Other One and they finally make the transition.

After a twelve minute Other One, they dip back into Dark Star for a minute before going into another upbeat Uncle John’s Band jam. Once again, this begins and ends with the end riff, sandwiched around an instrumental version of the main song.

They exit into the main Dark Star theme, and slow the tempo considerably before going into a brief Dark Star jam before hitting the second verse on the way out.

This is an intriguing development insofar as they use Dark Star as a jumping off point for exploring other songs and themes. On its merits alone this is a middling version, however. Each section feels a bit short and underdeveloped; after the initial 15 minute segment, they only touch on Dark Star long enough to state the theme and get out.


What was said:

85. 1969-11-07

119628 Fillmore 26:00 (tracked as Dark Star 18:29>UJB Jam 1:26>Dark Star 5:45)

Main theme at 4:00 and 5:37.
First verse at 5:58.
Feelin’ Groovy at 16:53.
Uncle John’s Band Jam at 18:29/0:00 (2nd track).
Bright Star at :48 (2nd track).
Main theme at 3:17 (3rd track).
Second verse at 4:04 (3rd track).
Goes into The Other One.

After a typically sprightly start, things quieten down considerably about a minute in, and Garcia’s line refers to the verse melody. The music gets a bit denser and more involving. It seems to drift in and out of the two chord pattern tonight. At 2:33 Garcia repeats a high note for about 16 seconds and the music again gets quieter and stranger, and then flits back to the pattern for a little bit, etc. At 4:00 Garcia swings into the main theme and Weir goes along; Lesh doesn’t actively resist, but his line is less committed for a while yet. On the other end of this the jam again leaves the song pattern behind until at 5:37 Lesh starts up the theme again and Garcia goes along, and this quickly takes us to the verse.

The verse empties out, as usual, into a very conventional sounding passage which doesn’t last long, and again leads into space. By around 8:00 we’re in almost total silence, with Jerry quietly tolling. Weir starts playing a lick that is somewhat reminiscent of Weather Report Suite. The intensity builds until the band is blasting away, and out the other end of this comes a volume knob session and more space. Garcia switches to high, piercing tones, and TC swirls around. Lesh adds some ominous tones.

By about 12 minutes in it seems a jam is coalescing, but we’re still at least halfway in space. Finally Garcia starts playing a jaunty line, and he gets Lesh to join him, and so the jam has emerged by 13:00. This is a rather noisy and intense affair, as the band roars to a peak in the environs of 13:40, and then it all quiets down again. Garcia tries the same gambit beginning at 14:00, playing a rolling, wandering line, but this time the rest of the band is more reticent and a gentler segment emerges. Weir fills in some chords, and it begins to gather steam, with Lesh playing a riff in the upper register…Lesh and Weir come together and it turns into some heavy rock-type stuff. The riff at times takes on the aspect of a funhouse mirror rendition of the Dark Star theme, and then at 16:53 or so it starts to sound like Feelin’ Groovy.

At 18:29 the first track ends, and the band begins playing what would become the end lick of Uncle John’s Band, and then they swing into an instrumental rendition of the main melody of the song. This sounds pretty raucous and a bit sloppy, particularly when they get to the chorus; they briefly return to the end jam before spinning off into what sounds like a thematic jam but now one that isn’t identifiable. They seem to have a tendency to play these little structured jams around the thematic jams lately. At :48 of the third track Garcia seems to be touching on Bright Star, and then he commits to it at 1:04.

They wander away from this and quieten down, and then at 1:52 Garcia lays in Bright Star again. The band comes to a peak again and Garcia again gestures toward Bright Star. Out the other end of this, the band slams into the main theme, which eventually settles down and leads us to the verse.

This is a wild one. The jamming is quite energetic, even if it doesn’t always feel precise. In between the thematic jams, there is a lot of very structured jamming. Another excellent version.


What was said:

84: 1969-11-02

32350 San Francisco 30:07
Main theme at 7:13.
First verse at 9:30.
Sputnik at 15:07.
Feelin’ Groovy at 19:08.
Soulful Strut at 22:34.
Bright Star at 26:49.
Main theme at 28:08.
Second verse at 28:31.
Goes into St. Stephen.

TC is no longer playing the ROR, and others have pointed out that he seems to have a new lick he plays during the introduction. At this point the intro can veer back and forth between the two chord theme pattern and less determinate patterns so quickly that it can be hard to keep track of what’s going on, and it’s not always clear whether the band is emphasizing A or E minor. Here the lean on G a lot, which is the dominant 7th of A and also the minor 3rd of E, which contributes to the ambiguity. The emergence of Weir as a more active improvising agent has added to this uncertainty.

The intro jam is masterful tonight; it is busy and intense, but at the same time it has a kind of moody heft to it. At 6:12, Garcia launches a series of triplets that goes on and on as the band eases into a little valley of minor tones from which Jerry slides into the main theme. But they are not ready for the verse; the theme opens up a pocket of gentle sound and they play around there for a while. At 8:31 Lesh takes them into E minor again, and a spacey jam takes shape. At 8:53 Garcia starts toying with the theme again, and the band soon comes back to the familiar pattern; rather than joining with the theme, Garcia goes right to the verse.

The post-verse section begins with a soft jam that finally disintegrates into space at 11:35. This builds from some disjointed sounds into a swelling maelstrom (led by TC) at around 13:30, and then it recedes again. At 14:30 Garcia is playing a lead line that sounds like it might lead us out of space, but it does not. Then at about 15:07 Garcia starts playing Sputnik, which we haven’t heard in a while. By 17:00 Garcia has altered his Sputnik line into something else, and the band picks up on this and it becomes another little jam. Weir starts playing some stuff that sounds a bit like a Mind Left Body jam, and they all hammer on it for a while.

At 19:08 Lesh starts Feelin’ Groovy and the band joins in; they are playing it kind of slowly this time. By 20:27 Garcia is playing a lead that sounds more like what he plays over Soulful Strut as the band continues to play Feelin’ Groovy. At 22:32 they come to a stop and Garcia starts the Soulful Strut chords. At a little after the 25 minute mark they seem to have finished with this jam, but they keep the chord changes going a while longer and start a slower and more deliberate jam over the pattern. At 26:36, Garcia suddenly signals the Dark Star theme and they swing into it, and he immediately starts hinting at Bright Star, which soon appears on the scene. After a nice peak, we get back to the main theme and the verse (“Mirror crashes”).

This is another fantastic version of Dark Star. The space after the verse is deep and intense; the remainder is largely taken up with thematic jamming. The return of Sputnik was unexpected.


What was said:

83. 1969-10-25

150136  Winterland 22:02

Main theme at :29 and 2:34.
Bright Star at 2:49.
Main theme at 3:56 and 5:25.
First verse at 7:02.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:28.
Soulful Strut at 14:50.
Main theme at 19:18.
Second verse at 20:20.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia has switched to a Stratocaster that he will play until April, 1970. The main theme comes in very early here, and this will become more common in the future. As is often the case, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the band starts to stray from the two chord pattern, but they play it pretty straight for a while here, with Garcia building his line around the theme and returning to it often. Bright Star, which is a variation of the main theme, makes an early appearance at 2:49. It’s not really what I’d consider a full Bright Star, but it’s pronounced enough that I noted it in the list above. The timings there are perhaps kind of arbitrary because of the way that the intro section sort of revolves around the theme this time.

At around 4:20, though, things start to get a little strange as the band slides toward E minor and then, less expectedly, A minor. At 5:25, Garcia starts to play the main theme over this implied A minor, and then the band sort of migrates back to the usual A mixolydian/D major but not, as far as I can tell, all at once; at least, it seems like something different is going on here for a while. Pretty soon we get to the verse.

The jam out of the verse begins very straightforwardly, but it still has a unique kind of feel—I don’t feel like we’re back in 1968 for a moment here. Lesh starts subtly emphasizing B and E, suggesting E minor and reëstablishing the unsettling tonal ambiguity that began before the verse. At 8:55 Garcia plays some high chiming double stops that point the band toward space, which we are coming to expect at this point. It doesn’t arrive, however; about a minute later, Jerry’s volume knob maneuver gives them another nudge in this direction, but they opt for a spooky jam rather than a full-fledged space excursion.

The intensity builds, and at 11:42 Garcia broadens his tone and begins an assertive lead line in A mixolydian that soon brings back the theme/Bright Star references. They start to coast, regrouping so that at 12:28 Lesh can start Feelin’ Groovy, which seems to have been anticipated here. This wraps up at 13:59, but the momentum carries through until 14:18 when Weir starts hinting at Soulful Strut. This hasn’t fully materialized at 14:41 when they slide back into Feelin’ Groovy, but then by 14:50 they are heading back into Soulful Strut! Lesh seems to look back at Feelin’ Groovy once or twice before they finally settle into it.

Only the Grateful Dead would incorporate modular sections like this, mixing and cutting them up until it’s almost impossible to determine exactly what they are playing at times. This can make the whole enterprise seem sloppy sometimes, but tonight this is all rather impressive. Finally, at 17:35 Garcia starts leaning on an A7 chord, and this takes us into a charming but short interstice that opens up into a remarkable Garcia/Lesh duet beginning at 18:13. This winds up with Garcia hammering a high G and then climbing to the A, suggesting the Bright Star that almost arrives at 19:07, but instead they crash into the main theme at 19:18 and pound on it. They slow the tempo considerably before returning to the verse.

Like any good Dark Star, this captivates while expanding our sense of the possibilities of human expression. It seems like nothing quite like this has happened before, and we are glad that it happened—what more could we ask for? There are no weak moments here, and the Feelin’ Groovy/Soulful Strut handoff is a major high point. These two jams have introduced new possibilities for structure in Dark Star, but tonight we see that it is not as simple as that, and that they have also introduced new opportunities for productive chaos in the interchange between the two. With the forces of chaos and order both thwarted, the Dead can consider this a job well done.


What was said:

82. 1969-09-26

9376 Fillmore East 16:46 (cut)
Main theme at 2:11.
First verse at 3:16.
Feelin’ Groovy at 10:35.
Bright Star at 14:10.
Main theme at 14:40.
Second verse at 15:05.
Goes into St. Stephen.

There are two transfers of this audience recording and neither sound good; the other one is noisier, but more dynamic. The beginning is cut. The band really seems to be going at it right away, and it’s possible that, as poor as it sounds, the aud gives it some life. We get to the main theme pretty quickly here, a little after two minutes in. It quickly settles down for the verse, but the verse does not at first appear, and it sounds like they’ve moved on to something else when Garcia suddenly starts singing at a place where I did not expect him to (I’m not sure if everyone thought they were on a beat where the vocal would start).

Again there is a kind of space after the verse, although they don’t take it as close to the edge of silence this time. At 7:11 Garcia starts spinning out a line that seems like it may lead us out of space, but things stay weird for a while. It’s hard to tell what exactly is happening, but between 9 and 10 minutes a more normal jam seems to form (there’s a general “whhrrrsh!” effect from the recording that makes it all seem a bit like space).

At about 10:35 or so it seems like a Feelin’ Groovy jam has started, and this would seem to be the first of those. This is followed by a rather furious jam section where Garcia intimates the main theme and Bright Star a few times, but doesn’t fully commit to either until 14:10, when Bright Star emerges. I’ve timed the main theme at 14:40, but that’s approximate—I can’t always tell what’s happening. They slow way down before the second verse, and get a round of applause.

It’s a shame there isn’t a better recording of this, as the jam between Feelin’ Groovy and the second verse seems really intense.


What was said:

81. 1969-09-01

19963 Baton Rouge 17:39
Main theme at 4:27.
First verse at 4:52.
Bright Star at 13:53.
Main theme at 14:34.
Second verse at 16:03.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia lights it up on a torrid “Easy Wind,” and then they start up Dark Star. There’s a small cut right at the beginning, but not much is missing, it seems. This gets off to a pretty smooth start. At 1:04, Lesh starts wandering the fretboard, unleashing the polyphony that is such a central feature of the Grateful Dead experience. At 1:20 Garcia starts a simple repeated lick which we’ve heard before and will hear again, I’m pretty sure, although I couldn’t tell you where, and this leads to an increase of intensity.

Themes are intimated throughout this intro jam. At 1:47 Garcia quotes the main theme, and the band falls into it for a moment but Jerry himself is not quite ready for that. At 2:15 he starts it up again, but now the band isn’t having it. At 2:53 and 3:17 Garcia almost tips into Sputnik. Garcia’s wonderful run-on sentence from 3:41 to 4:24 finally gets us to the main theme at 4:27, and this time they are all on the same page; this quickly leads to the verse.

The last two Dark Stars featured an excursion into deep space after the verse, and the trend continues tonight. The band is confident enough to bring the music almost to a halt here, and then things start to get strange. TC sounds like he’s auditioning for Hawkwind from about 8:05. Garcia seems ready to initiate Sputnik at about 8:55, but the space continues, although we soon seem to be drifting toward more solid ground.

At 10:10 or so Jerry seems to be trying to start a jam, as he coaxes the band back toward earth with a bouncy lead. The music coalesces and gradually gains intensity. At 12:50, there are again flashes of Sputnik, but again they veer away from it. The jam peaks a couple times but throughout there is a sense of restraint; at 13:53, Garcia flips on the bridge pick-up and launches into Bright Star, but even here they refrain from going too hard. They hit the main theme, jam a little more, and then head to the second verse.

This is a simple and elegant rendition; it is very well played, and not too ambitious. Everything comes off well, and there are some beautiful performances.


What was said:

HARTBEATS E: 1969-08-28

123091 Family Dog 47:33

Garcia, Lesh, Wales, Kreutzmann, Hart, unknown flute player

See Mr. Rain's comment for a play-by-play summary. Wales is too groove-oriented to get to any of the kind of group improv we hear the Dead do with this, at least for very long. His keys sound really jarring at first, but he adds some nice jazzy sounds at 1:27, then gets into some kind of funky thing. At 3:40 it sounds like Garcia’s trying to initiate something new, with a descending chord pattern, but this kind of peters out. It starts to wander for a while then, until Wales takes off around 5:30 and Mr. Rain’s play by play begins.

It hasn’t been very cohesive, although maybe the weird mix with Wales so high adds to that sense. When the drums kick in at 7:05 it comes together more. But it’s so different, it’s hard to follow the interactions here the way one would on a GD version.

Garcia takes off with a couple almost latin-y solos between 8 and 9, and scattered thereafter. There’s a lull right before Garcia inserts the theme at 11:20. Wales plays along with two rhythmic chords that transform the theme into something else, and Jerry starts soloing again. As Mr. Rain says, it starts to get kind of good here. There’s a nice peak at 13:20.

As it settles into a lull with a Garcia lead around the 15 minute mark, Wales seems impatient as he gets back to some grooving before a new direction can develop, and then he takes the lead at 15:50. The Other One-ish section beginning about 16:40 starts to get pretty exciting. Garcia alludes to Other One quite a bit in his solo that starts around 18:10. I agree with Mr. Rain that Wales seems more suited to this kind of thing.

Around 20:20 there’s a drop into three, then Garcia starts up with a Clementine-type thing at 20:37. It builds up for a little while, then drops back…then Garcia starts taking the lead more. Everything sounds much better when it kicks into stereo around 22:25, so maybe the mix was prejudicing me against this to an extent. Still, even though there are very cohesive passages, they don’t seem to be entirely working it out together this outing.

At 23:25 there is a very nice passage, with melodic Garcia. They descend into space. At 26:10 Wales starts some funky space jive and Lesh starts up the main theme underneath it, then Garcia comes in with something midway between the two, and then it migrates away from Dark Star again. About 27:40 Garcia starts playing a powerful lead that at times alludes to Dark Star, if obliquely.

Really nice section starting at 30:30, kind of a Latin flavor but slow and swinging. This doesn’t last long, but they get back into something similar again a few times. There’s some nice riffy jamming from about 33:30 or so; the call and response with Garcia and Wales beginning at around 35:00 is pretty hot.

At 36:00 Lesh starts the main theme again, and Garcia joins him briefly. Garcia seems to signal the main theme again a bit after 37:00 but it doesn’t go there. They seem to be switching grooves at lightning speed here.

There follows a couple false endings and some wandering. Finally Wales starts a groove and it gets going again a bit, at times with a three feel. At about 43:33 Garcia starts a nice solo with the band finally settling on 6/8, for now…but the time remains slippery. Finally it goes into an Eleven jam.

If the best Grateful Dead versions are a journey (as hackneyed as that sounds!), this is more a series of episodes. Several could be highly effective if dropped into a GD Dark Star, but there is no real rhyme or reason to this, they just continually cast about for a new groove. At first this made it kind of dull, but as it went on it got more successful as they started to hit it more often. So, sort of a curiosity, but a very instructive one to listen to, in the context of this project.


What was said:

80. 1969-08-30

123076 Family Dog 28:51
Main theme at 7:00.
First verse at 7:22.
Soulful Strut at 20:32.
Bright Star at 25:43.
Second verse at 27:06.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This begins with some feedback, then there is the repetition of a hovering note from Garcia as the two chords are repeated and drawn out. This resolves into a rather vigorous jam, but it keeps returning to the repetition of drawn out chords. A little after 3 minutes it modulates to a minor key jam, and they hunker down there for a while. It has dwindled to a crawl at 6:08, when Garcia starts hinting at Bright Star and the band starts to pick up a bit, until a big windup takes us to the main theme, which quickly goes to the verse.

There is a typical build right after the verse. As is often the case, it’s not clear at first where this section is going. At 9:30, they descend to a point of near-silence, with nothing but the gong sounding at times. Guitar scratching ensues as this develops into a full-blown space. At 11:11 a high, piercing tone (Garcia?) challenges the fortitude those of us with headphones, and then at 11:27 Jerry introduces the insect weirdness.

I don’t know if the band made a conscious decision to focus on having a big spacey part, but this is the second time in a row this has happened, and this is even weirder than the last one. This is really remarkable stuff, as the band takes us on a real trip here. There are little crescendos, but we keep returning to a very quiet place. At 14:12, Garcia starts working the volume knob, and it seems we may be making a transition to a somewhat more normal place. Such suspicions are not soon confirmed, but by 15:25 the music seems to be gathering itself for a move.

A very gentle jam emerges, but then they start to ratchet up the intensity. What follows is a very melodic and beautiful jam. At 18:23 Garcia initiates a bright, major key jam that sounds a bit like a Soulful Strut jam again (see 8-21), and also a bit like Feelin’ Groovy, but it never quite resolves into either of these. Garcia lays back, or at times lays out, from 20:03 to 22:04; at 20:32 Lesh finally initiates a Soulful Strut jam. There are some discordant guitar things going on, and it sounds like Jerry is tuning a little before he finally launches into a lead at 22:33. Weir initiates a chord sequence at 23:34 that turns it into another jam altogether; this sounds like one of the Dead’s modular jams, but I do not recognize it. This finally dissipates into a more nonspecific jam; the band works toward a peak, and Garcia plays some Bright Star licks, then moves on, and then returns to them again as the band winds down and goes to the second verse. As the end section winds down someone says “Alligator,” but they go into St. Stephen.

This not an entirely successful rendition, but it is nonetheless remarkable, particularly for the post-verse jam-- the 6 minutes or so of space after the verse are stunning. There is no Sputnik at all this time, but we get the first Soulful Strut jam. At times the band seems a little disjointed, but they do seem highly engaged, and hard at work looking for new possibilities for Dark Star.


What was said:

79. 1969-08-23

6639 Oregon 26:57 (cut)
Main theme at 1:29, 3:36, 5:52 8:03 and 9:34.
Sputnik (sort of) at 11:20.
Sputnik at 17:17.
Bright Star at 20:19.
Falling Star at 21:27.
Main theme at 24:02.
Second verse at 25:16.
Goes into St. Stephen

After a torrid Spring, Dark Stars have varied in quality lately. The band has seemed tentative at times, and sometimes this uncertainty has seemed to make them more conservative. This time, the intro has them staying pretty close to home, although at times it seems they are trying to break free. The main theme pops up very early (for the era); at 2:50, Lesh decides to take them to E minor for a spell, but they return to A at about 3:06. At this point, they seem restless and ready to try something else; a few moments later, however, they are returning to the main theme again.

With the band still hanging on the theme at 4:10, Garcia plays some of his foghorn bass lines, then starts twirling the volume knob; at 4:43 they all seem to finally get some traction and a nice jam begins. This doesn’t go very far for now, but it does seem to get Dark Star off the ground after an inconsequential beginning. As if they don’t want to press their luck, they soon take it back to the main theme. But 6:26 sees Garcia trying to start another jam; at first the rest of them stay with the theme, but then things ease into a dark little passage with minor overtones and a swelling gong.

They again return to the theme just after 8 minutes in, and lean into it a little. At 9:04 Garcia stirs it up with a quasi-Bright Star jam that swings back to the main theme again. Now we’ve been going for 10 minutes without a verse, and without much exploration, and I find myself wishing they’d either play the verse or move on. At 11:00 there’s a hopeful moment where they seemingly decide to pretend they’ve just passed the verse, and they briefly play some big and tense chords. Not much happens here, though, and they move on to Sputnik—or so it seems, as this stops sounding like Sputnik rather quickly, and then there is a cut at 11:53 which seems to have removed the first verse.

When we return they’re playing something rather close to the theme again, briefly, and then we again hear some Sputnik notes at 12:20 as we descend into a space jam. Now things are getting interesting—Garcia plays some mostly very quiet notes, TC swirls around, and there is some gong action, and everyone else lays out for a while. At 13:33 Garcia tolls very quietly, and there is a pregnant silence surrounding him. He lays on the volume knob, and TC and the gongster quietly accompany him. Lesh then trickles back in, but everyone is still holding back.

They are committed to the space this time—more so than on any previous occasion. As we reach the 16 minute mark we are still in the thick of it. At 16:12 Garcia seems to think of an exit strategy—he starts tolling again, at first very quietly. The band swells but they’re not leaving space, this is really weird stuff! And at about 17 minutes they settle down again, and we’re back in the weird and quiet zone we just left.

At 17:17, Garcia starts playing Sputnik after a full five minutes of space. This is a gentle and weird one, and for much of it there is only Garcia and TC. At 18:39 Garcia switches to a straighter rendition of the Sputnik arpeggios and the band joins back in, although I still don’t hear Weir at first until he starts playing arpeggios behind Garcia, and at 19:07 he plays what sounds like his China Cat intro lick.

At 19:35 Garcia gently starts Bright Star, and it seems they are going to try to get to a peak. TC is very loud now, but everyone else seems reluctant to break out at first. At 21:27 Garcia’s line is a hybrid between Bright Star and Falling Star for a bit. This gets to a nice hard jam eventually, until Garcia seems satisfied and takes it back to the main theme, which Garcia varies and turns into another peak jam.

This is an odd one. The band does not sound very confident or inspired for much of it, and they seem to lack direction. However, the space jam here is remarkable; it lasts for an unprecedented 5 minutes and shows the band starting to experiment with the idea of incorporating silence into a jam. This is definitely not one to be skipped, even if it isn’t entirely successful.


What was said:

78. 1969-08-21

13850 Seattle 6:33
First verse at :18.
Second verse at 5:08.
Goes into Cosmic Charlie.

This is like a throwback to early 1968, with the first verse coming in almost immediately. Garcia seriously flubs the third line of the verse…I couldn’t even begin to transcribe whatever he sings.

After the verse, Garcia starts playing a lead right away, but it’s kind of tentative; the rest of the band starts to build a bit of tension, as is their wont, but there’s no clear demarcation this time between post-verse build-up and middle jam. At 2:46 Garcia gets a little crazy with dissonant double stops, for a brief spell. The band sounds really uncertain here, and at 3:30 they start to clop along in a two chord pattern. Weir goes to an A Maj 7 (see pbuzby below), and at around 3:47 Garcia starts playing some major key stuff. This sounds a lot like a Soulful Strut (aka Tighten Up) jam for a little while (the first, although it doesn't quite get there); this is quickly aborted, however. At 4:28, Garcia starts to wind his way toward Bright Star. He never gets there, though; Lesh finally kicks in the main theme, and Garcia sings the second verse, and the Dark Star is over!

This is really strange. They just never seemed to get off the ground with this one; besides the almost-Soulful Strut jam, nothing much happens at all here…


What was said:

77. 1969-08-16

139807 Woodstock 19:11
Main theme at :42, 2:39, 3:37, and 7:50.
First verse at 8:07.
Sputnik at
Main theme at
Second verse at
Goes into High Time.

The ROR is back, albeit it doesn’t stick around long. Garcia goes to the main theme very quickly here at :42, which is unusual for the era. The band stays with the two chord pattern for a decent amount of time here, with Garcia playing some nice, piercing leads. At about 2:30 he gets into a nice thing with TC, who is playing some reedy swells, before going back to a variant of the main theme at 2:39. The theme keeps coming back tonight, as though they’re reluctant to get too far away from the central structure of the song.

At about 5:35 there is a lull and it seems like something may be about to happen. Lesh seems determined to bring it back to the theme, and the band swings into it at 5:55, but Garcia quickly signals that he wants to go somewhere else by playing some quasi-Sputnik leads. Everyone quiets down again, and it’s not certain what is going to happen, so at 6:36 Garcia starts playing some standard Dark Star leads, but there is no corresponding build-up as the band seems content to stay in a quiet pocket. Finally, they return to the main theme, and then the verse.

They get a nice build-up going after the verse; there’s not much weirdness, nor is there tolling, but the band comes together a bit here. At 10:20 Garcia embarks on a rather aggressive lead line. The band kicks up and brings it to a peak; at 11:16 Garcia throws in a little Bright Star, as if to emphasize that they’re really doing this now. This is a pretty sustained peak for where it’s placed (right after the verse); things finally calm down at about 12:25.

This seems like Sputnik time, doesn’t it? The band seems like they’re losing the thread a little after the 13 minute mark, but Jerry doesn’t cave in; there is no Sputnik coming. Instead they soldier on through a series of lulls where almost no one is playing. Finally, at 14:17, Garcia starts playing some Sputnik jabs, although the arpeggios never materialize and it’s brief, so I suppose it doesn’t really count as a Sputnik. At 15:12, Garcia decides to play some big leads and maybe bring us back to a peak again, but this soon fizzles out. Finally, Weir and Lesh decide it’s main theme time. Jerry doesn’t acquiesce right away though, probably thinking that it’s too soon, so the band drifts off again.

At 16:43, with the band swinging back into the main theme, Garcia plays some nice bendy country licks. At 17:45 they start to conjure a peak out of nowhere, and again there is some nice Garcia stuff. Finally it winds down into High Time, without ever returning to the theme or the verse.

This is not terrible but it’s far from a top version. The band seems tentative throughout; they are mostly either sticking close to the main theme, or else wandering somewhat aimlessly. There is a nice little peak section after the verse, but otherwise there isn’t a whole lot happening here.


What was said:

76. 1969-08-03

137365 San Francisco 23:26
Main theme at 3:50.
Sputnik at 7:44.
Main theme at 11:48.
First verse at 12:05.
Bright Star at 18:52.
Main theme at 21:25.
Second verse at 21:36.
Standalone; Alligator follows.

The Grateful Dead are joined by a tenor sax and a violin player here. The conventional credits are for Charles Lloyd and David LaFlamme, although this is not certain.

The band sounds really bubbly and perky out of the gate, and they stay with the two chord pattern for a fairly good spell here, maybe due to the presence of the guests who need to fit in. The ROR seems to be gone at this point (it was absent last time as well, I think). A little after two minutes in they seem to be heading for a one-chord vamp, but Garcia starts quoting the main theme, which keeps them grounded for a while longer.

The fiddle is scratching away in the background at times, and is at other times inaudible. At 2:04, the sax begins to assert itself. Garcia quotes the main theme at 2:10, and the sax duets with him around the theme for a while. At times, Garcia lays back and lets the sax take the lead, and at other times he comes to the fore again. They seem to be building a pretty good rapport here; at about 3:10 the band starts to move away from the two chord pattern, and Jerry starts to lead the sax away from the song structure, but then at 3:50 he swings into the main theme and brings it all back.

At 4:14, there’s a little bit of Sputnik, and another opportunity to take things out emerges from this. They build a nice little peak, and at 5:04 Jerry starts playing a some Bright Star licks. They seem to be taking baby steps away from, and back toward, the song structure. By 5:15 the fiddle player (I think) is playing a little drone, which is mirrored by the sax. Then at 5:35 the fiddle takes the lead for a bit. It’s interesting to hear Jerry play what is basically a backup part here; in any case, it is certainly different from his usual approach.

At 6:35 Jerry is working his way back into the lead, and everyone else besides the drums (Kreutzmann?) drops out for a bit. With forward momentum is halted, at 7:28 Garcia switches on the insect tone, and the sax freaks out a little. Then at 7:44, Jerry starts up Sputnik. The sax player responds to this and gets more assertive, and Sputnik turns into a nice little squall. At around 9:30 we’re out the other side of Sputnik, the two chord structure is gone, and it seems we’re finally in for some exploration.

A rather chaotic crescendo follows, with the sax really leaning into it at 10:45 and environs. This builds and crests, until at 11:35 or so everyone calms down; the band kicks into the main theme, and we go to the verse (with some botched lyrics).

The post-verse section starts out calmly, with some melancholy ruminations on the melody by the fiddle player. Garcia tolls a little and the sax joins him, as the fiddle keeps oozing melody. At 14:14 Garcia starts playing with the volume knobs, and things descend into a little pocket of calm; then at 14:30, Jerry decides to lead them out of it into the post-verse proceedings. Weir, who has been fairly quiescent for much of the time so far, lays down an E minor base for the band here; the sax and violin drop back for a bit, and a brooding jam emerges.

The sax plays a supporting role for a while as Garcia and Lesh do what they do so well. As things start to build, the horn and fiddle start to work their way to the fore again, and the band starts to swell toward a peak. At about 17:50 we get there, and things sound pretty chaotic for a bit. At 18:45 this dissipates and the band kicks up the main theme, and Garcia tops it at with 18:52 Bright Star.

This segment is a lesser peak than the one directly preceding it, but it bubbles along for a while with a good amount of energy until they wind it back down into a main theme that goes quickly to the second verse.

This is a successful, if not revelatory, collaboration with outside musicians. It winds up being a solid Dark Star. Rather than pushing them into unexplored territory, the presence of other musicians seems to have made them slightly conservative, but they pull it off.


What was said: