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:
acetboy:
bzfgt said: ↑
Except it’s freaking Woodstock!
notesofachord:
My main issue with this one is that after the first ten minutes or so, Weir’s guitar goes horribly out of tune. Hard not to notice it once you’ve noticed it. Plus, they start to run out of stream in the last several minutes.
JSegel:
Well, this is reportedly a disaster show for these guys, as we have probably all heard, ...musta been some strong stuff! There’s 11 minutes of nothing but tech issues before Dark Star, then they start. They sound like they’re attempting to play the song, the ROR is there for a sec, then some wandering ensues using a very round organ tone. Jerry seems out of time in some spots, as he was in earlier songs in the set. By about a minute in, it’s actually sounding nice. Bobby plays with the song form a bit and goes out, doing some arpeggios. The hand percussion seems to be all mic’ed at this point, they actually got the sound together. Man. That must have been some tough rigging.
TC with some cool shimmering organ swells in the 2-3 minute area, before the 4 minute mark they hit the theme fairly noticeably, but loud organ stuff until he grooves back into it and changes his stops back to the flute tones. Jerry seems to like this and continues exploring. It drops in intensity for a little tidepool and some outside stretches from JG. Another little ebb before 6 minutes and then back to the Dark Star where JG seems to get involved in the groups-of-three-eighth note rhythm that he’d been playing with in sputniks recently, but doesn’t stick with it. Somebody yells something about strings? Or Rain? They continue. This is actually a nice mellow version so far! They’re playing around the song themes.
At 8 minutes they enter the verse, a nice calm version, JG sounds a bit scary on some of the lines, TC has the flute stops, they do the accent on the last chord of each line thing. And then they enter the Transitive Nightfall.
People clap. Drums enter. Lots of cymbals, extended chords. No real bell tolling, but repetitive extended chord playing. Eventually JG climbs in with some lead lines! Bringing it up, Bobby is still stuck on some chord. JG gets into a fuzzier tone, I guess overloading what amps they had there. Phil seems to be sticking with a semblance of the chord progression, the drums are cycling in song-form lines for a while, eventually Phil breaks out and TC has some louder chordal ideas. Once it comes back down they play in key still but lower, JG plays out some fast licks at lower volumes. It’s still sort of holding “in song” for a while, but at 13 minutes something new happens, a minor pull off set from Bobby and dissolving of the “song” into spacey hovering. TC flits about. The drums come in with a beat after a while and they are sort of back in a pre-Sputnik, and JG goes for a rhythmic version, sort of the sets-of-3/8ths for a bit, with drums alongside. At 15 it’s *similar* to a bright star idea but not there really. Bobby on some cool weird (out of tune, his hand has become a bird's claw) chord changes, then they come back to the intro theme by 16 minutes, but Jerry takes it to country licks after a minute! They do some chromatic bits and continue in this country/chromatic area passing by any opportunities to get to verse 2. At least on this tape. It falls off and heads toward High Time…!
Weird. Not really a bad rendition of Dark Star, though, all things considered. Most of the show is, well, not very good. Jerry is famously quoted as saying "nice to know you can blow the most important show of your career and it doesn't really matter." Other apocrypha notes that Bear had marked their gear with a "new logo" to find it in the aftermath, which was the skull with lightning bolt. Also, as I understand, the Airplane were hanging around at this set and they played later that "night", essentially the following morning, then managed to get up and drive to NYC and be on TV and ****...(they seemed pretty together!) I guess some people could withstand the powerful effects of the brown and/or green acid. Well, what can you say. It all must have been a pretty weird experience.
Adamos:
A bit of ROR out of the gate and the percussion is prominent in the mix. Plenty of crowd noise too; I think someone shouts “sit down!” Phil is laying it down and they slip into the main theme rather quickly. They’re kind of cruising along somewhat casually. Jerry spikes a little sharply every now and then but generally he’s working some established paths. TC is active.
The groove ebbs and they hover for a bit, getting a little spacey although the maraca is so strong on the recording that it sounds like a rattlesnake. TC steps forward and then Jerry starts slowly playing some notes and it feels like they’re floating on a cloud. He and Phil play off each other in subtle fashion. Eventually they return to the main theme and proceed to the first verse.
No bell tolling after the verse but there’s some cymbal washes and they swirl a bit building up some momentum. Bob is working some chords and then Jerry jumps in and takes off. He’s giving it more gusto now with some hints of Bright Star and the jam feels more happening. Eventually they ease up and are kind of drifting along. I agree this feels like a good place for Sputnik but it’s not to be.
It feels a little disorganized at this point like they’re not sure what they want to do. The drums come in more perhaps to fill the void and then Jerry starts up again and does some jabs. This resolves and they drift again before starting to work up a groove that starts to get going but quickly recedes. Phil signals the main theme but it takes them a bit to come together. Then as it begins to coalesce Jerry brings out the country licks which is something different and kind of cool. Things start to build again although not too far and then they slowly work their way to High Time.
It’s a pleasant enough version but they never really conjure up the magic. Probably too many distractions with all the surrounding craziness to really get into the zone.
Mr. Rain:
The groove ebbs and they hover for a bit, getting a little spacey although the maraca is so strong on the recording that it sounds like a rattlesnake. TC steps forward and then Jerry starts slowly playing some notes and it feels like they’re floating on a cloud. He and Phil play off each other in subtle fashion. Eventually they return to the main theme and proceed to the first verse.
No bell tolling after the verse but there’s some cymbal washes and they swirl a bit building up some momentum. Bob is working some chords and then Jerry jumps in and takes off. He’s giving it more gusto now with some hints of Bright Star and the jam feels more happening. Eventually they ease up and are kind of drifting along. I agree this feels like a good place for Sputnik but it’s not to be.
It feels a little disorganized at this point like they’re not sure what they want to do. The drums come in more perhaps to fill the void and then Jerry starts up again and does some jabs. This resolves and they drift again before starting to work up a groove that starts to get going but quickly recedes. Phil signals the main theme but it takes them a bit to come together. Then as it begins to coalesce Jerry brings out the country licks which is something different and kind of cool. Things start to build again although not too far and then they slowly work their way to High Time.
It’s a pleasant enough version but they never really conjure up the magic. Probably too many distractions with all the surrounding craziness to really get into the zone.
Mr. Rain:
I started listening to the 139807 version you linked, but within seconds it was obvious something was seriously wrong with the sound on this file, it has severe bass dropouts, so I switched to the better 95917.
It doesn't get off to a great start when Jerry screws up the first notes, but they soon recover. Nice guitar tones on this recording. It's immediately striking how loud TC's organ is (with a little of that ol' ROR), and naturally the guiro is front & center. (But no congas on this tape.)
You're right that the theme keeps coming back; Jerry is uncharacteristically attached to it in this opening jam, never stretching out for long before he clings to the theme again for safety. Perhaps reflecting his nervousness, he even retreats and lets TC solo for a minute around 3:50...not that TC really wants to step up either. It seems like with each passing minute they're getting quieter and less confident, as if trying to shrink onstage! (Even the guiro goes away.) After 6 minutes they're pretty much adrift, sounding like they might just stop at any moment and are barely carrying on. After 7 minutes Bob actually does stop playing and it's just Jerry & Phil (and some TC gurgles) for a while. They're not even at the verse yet and they're already at the edge of disaster!
But at 8 minutes they muster up enough strength for the verse and get through it credibly. Afterwards they forego any bell-tolling or spaciness and go right into an upbeat jam. Mickey tries to kick up their spirits on drums...weirdly, Jerry doesn't play lead for some time; instead he strums chords for a minute along with Bob, maybe trying to get in the groove. When he does start the lead, things seem to have improved; they're more together and there's more life in the playing. Bill joins in for some double-drumming, and Jerry even flirts with a Bright Star.
It doesn't last. After 12:30 the energy subsides again -- when you think he's about to soar, Jerry slinks back to the theme again, and once again they're quietly adrift. The drums clatter, TC tinkles, but Jerry's momentum is gone. Some jabbing here, a false start there, some country licks, nothing is sustained, wherever he turns there's a dead end. And yep, here's the theme again...the band plods along, trying to keep it alive in case Jerry recovers.
This is going nowhere. Jerry makes a last half-hearted attempt at 18 minutes, but it goes sour and soon dribbles away. Mickey's back on guiro for some reason, and Phil hints at the theme yet again, but Jerry's had it and scurries straight to High Time. It's almost sad to hear people clapping when this starts.
This Dark Star was a mistake from start to finish! But it's interesting to hear how well the Dead can do when they're at their worst. This is tepid at best but they almost manage to pull it off. If it were 1995, the rest of the band would be better able to cover for a failing Jerry.
It doesn't get off to a great start when Jerry screws up the first notes, but they soon recover. Nice guitar tones on this recording. It's immediately striking how loud TC's organ is (with a little of that ol' ROR), and naturally the guiro is front & center. (But no congas on this tape.)
You're right that the theme keeps coming back; Jerry is uncharacteristically attached to it in this opening jam, never stretching out for long before he clings to the theme again for safety. Perhaps reflecting his nervousness, he even retreats and lets TC solo for a minute around 3:50...not that TC really wants to step up either. It seems like with each passing minute they're getting quieter and less confident, as if trying to shrink onstage! (Even the guiro goes away.) After 6 minutes they're pretty much adrift, sounding like they might just stop at any moment and are barely carrying on. After 7 minutes Bob actually does stop playing and it's just Jerry & Phil (and some TC gurgles) for a while. They're not even at the verse yet and they're already at the edge of disaster!
But at 8 minutes they muster up enough strength for the verse and get through it credibly. Afterwards they forego any bell-tolling or spaciness and go right into an upbeat jam. Mickey tries to kick up their spirits on drums...weirdly, Jerry doesn't play lead for some time; instead he strums chords for a minute along with Bob, maybe trying to get in the groove. When he does start the lead, things seem to have improved; they're more together and there's more life in the playing. Bill joins in for some double-drumming, and Jerry even flirts with a Bright Star.
It doesn't last. After 12:30 the energy subsides again -- when you think he's about to soar, Jerry slinks back to the theme again, and once again they're quietly adrift. The drums clatter, TC tinkles, but Jerry's momentum is gone. Some jabbing here, a false start there, some country licks, nothing is sustained, wherever he turns there's a dead end. And yep, here's the theme again...the band plods along, trying to keep it alive in case Jerry recovers.
This is going nowhere. Jerry makes a last half-hearted attempt at 18 minutes, but it goes sour and soon dribbles away. Mickey's back on guiro for some reason, and Phil hints at the theme yet again, but Jerry's had it and scurries straight to High Time. It's almost sad to hear people clapping when this starts.
This Dark Star was a mistake from start to finish! But it's interesting to hear how well the Dead can do when they're at their worst. This is tepid at best but they almost manage to pull it off. If it were 1995, the rest of the band would be better able to cover for a failing Jerry.
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