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:
JSegel:
Now we’ve got the whole Grateful Dead band at the Fam Dog. Musta been a cool scene out there!
Intro then some plateaus immediately, JG just sits on one note for a while! The band rhythm ebbs and takes a while to come back. No ROR, just jamming, with a drum set (or cymbals with sticks anyway) in there already. Nice organ playing happening. Takes a while to settle into any sort of groove, JG playing with chromatics, swung like Dark Star is, Phil seems to be the keystone of rhythm and he takes it in and out. They are really taking their time settling into anything, it goes up and down. Some tuning in between lead areas. At 3 min it enters a new sort of space. Bobby is there but barely playing, it seems, he’s on some weird idea of the song this evening. TC rolls on with his vibrato-roller-rink sound, not all the high stops in yet though, still a bit flutey. They are very spacious. By 5 minutes it’s in a chromatic hovering cloud, coming out to intimate Dark Star, but still very chromatically. Phil is not moving with straightforward momentum, and the whole thing ebbs and flows, lots of quieter mellower passages losing the motile rhythm. Spanish Jam (phrygian) hints even. Jerry starts a set of longer runs up and down, mellow tone, Phil follows a bit, but they then take it to the theme at 7 minutes, and verse 1.
Nice easy vocal delivery, no warbling, quiet and delicate. Line 2 only with the last chord emphasized, line three with minimal “casting” about. Slow treatment of the “chorus”. Intro to the transitive nightfall is tentative. Organ building with cymbal splashes. Phil leads with solemn chords, similar to bell tolls but fading out. At 9:30, it’s space! tinkling hand percussion, little noises from the electric instruments, cymbal splashes, very quiet. String scraping and stroking slowly, small sounds, tinkling. Organ mischief comes in, atonal statements and then swipes. String swipes and hits from the guitars, a serious jam of “sound”, some higher note-like sounds from the insect weirdness variety, maybe with a slide sliding around on the strings. This is nice ‘outside’ improv, atonal and sound-based. Some odd feedbacky elements coming in, building the noise level up from all parties involved. Rumbling bass hits, occasional notes.
The bell is coming. At 13:30 it’s tolling in a sea of noise. But the noise overtakes it. Bass feedback. Eventually some small intimations of tonal notes are forming, with volume knob swells and some struck guitar “bell” tolling. The bass starts some notes, back and forth, while some high notes are swelling in. The percussion is still swelling around. Volume knob swells of slow arpeggios in the 15 minute area, percussion still arhythmic.
A guitar note! Suggesting thematic material slowly, the bass bringing up from slow walk to a bit more ‘a tempo’ over the next couple minutes, at 16:45 they settle into a new groove/chord progression, a slow minor key one. Jerry starts some actual lead runs, Phil is still plugging around with slow motion. A very slow build up, though a drummer is in there. Bob has some minor key choice going on, not quite chordal, more like an alto line. Phil speeds up in the 18 minute area though it hasn’t hit Dark Star groove still. Taking its time to get there, building and building very slowly faster and louder, Bob starts hitting *some of* the actual chords, the drummers are hyping it up. At 20 minutes, JG steps aside, TC takes a long (and bluesy) organ solo over a loud bass and drums, Phil hyping it up with bass chords in a new progression, which Bobby picks up on and it’s a jam (with that maj7 chord)! What! To be honest, this thing sounds more like “Grazing in the Grass” to me than "Soulful Strut" or "Feelin' Groovy". Especially when they do those jams later in the coming versions. "Grazing" was a huge Hugh Masekela instrumental hit in '68, and then the ubiquitous vocal version in '69, ...
Something weird goes on at 22min, sounds like Jerry tuning up a new string in the background, they keep the maj7 chord groove going, he joins in and plays some licks. At 24 min we have a IV-V-I chord progression going on here, with some Santana inspired rhythms. Sort of flailing jamming happening with this progression, and some tuning still happening in between licks. Some stabs at a Dark Star theme in there, but it’s clearly not ready, even by 26 minutes in. The rhythm is just wrong. How are they going to get back? JG forces the theme like a slow bright star, but Phil does not get to Dark Star until almost 27 min. Sounds like the band reluctantly follows Jerry to the theme and they start verse 2 with a weird off-beat rhythm to it, which dies off for line two, leaving an odd em-A presentation. Almost no wandering on line 3, just playing the notes. Crashing into the chorus, angry sounding hits to punctuate, but a nice-enough vocal exit, and instrumental outro, slowly taken, to the chords into St Stephen.
Weird one, guys! Nice exploration in the middle, but weird jam rhythms afterwards. And a pretty unnatural return to the song, I’d say.
After the familiar opening notes there's a touch of feedback that sounds cool. Phil is prominent while Jerry works a slow repetitive thing for a bit before they burst out onto the trail. Bob and TC are adding accents and they get a nice little jam going although it slows down fairly quickly. Around 2 minutes in Jerry is most forward with Phil playing off him and the others stepping back a bit. They get a little momentum going before shifting to something more gentle and understated again after 3 minutes. Jerry is slowing weaving about with a contemplative vibe. Nice swirls from TC in the background. It gets to a quiet space around 6 minutes before Jerry picks up the pace a little and then they shift into the main theme and first verse.
Post verse there's some jingling and cymbal action and then they hover for a bit almost coming to a stop. Things stay quiet and then slowly more sounds arise as they get spacey and weird while keeping it fairly low key. Some insect weirdness comes in and then they start to ratchet it up with louder gong and various freaky sounds. From there it recedes back into a quiet zone from which some bell tolling gently emerges. Still plenty of gong or cymbal. Volume knob action from Jerry. They are really in a weird, quiet space that I'm digging.
Around 16 minutes or so Jerry starts working some lines and Phil joins in and they slowly work up a jam with a really nice vibe. It takes its time, slowly building, then after a few minutes it shifts into something more energetic and uplifting. They take it to a nice peak and then there's a hint of Soulful Strut as bzfgt pointed out. TC steps forward with some soloing buttressed by Phil and then they work up a more pronounced Soulful Strut. Around 22 minutes it seems to hiccup for a moment and then they spring into another jam with a bit more edge to Jerry's playing. It collectively blooms with some nice soloing from Jerry. After it looses steam they take it down before ascending to Bright Star which has a bit of a different feel like another jam is also happening at the same time. As this winds down they proceed to the second verse.
Not a top-tier performance and the ending was a bit odd as JSegel outlined. But I liked it overall and to me they seemed more engaged again compared to some of the recent versions.
I love Jerry's feedback swell at the start: a nice opening! Then he sticks to one note until 1:00, an interesting choice...when he does that other times, it works better when the band changes the setting around him; but it's still a neat variation.
Mickey's drums kick in after a minute, then he drops out again, very restrained. The shaker's still going...I don't hear congas in this one, but in the back you can hear someone thumping the beat on something, an odd metronomic touch.
I find this opening jam very rewarding...it has such a mellow feel. Jerry's playing is delightful; TC stays busy; and the landing on the main theme at 6:40 is very well-done.
Mickey's gong is mixed loudly during the verse, a nice touch. Then they sail away to space! This is a great space, a full-on cosmic journey...very quiet, full of strange sounds, a descent into a cavern of weirdness. Here Jerry's insect tone is just one little touch in a demented orchestra. Cool feedback peak at 12:20, then another quiet stretch. After 13:15 Jerry does some bell-tolling, but very quietly along with Mickey's gong....a strong post-apocalyptic mood here.
At 14:10 Jerry starts his volume twirls and goes for quite some time; this is still part of space, the gong's still rattling. But slowly he turns it into a melody, and 15:50 he's back to his happy tone. Incredible melodic jam in this part, starting out slow and gathering speed. Mickey gives a final blast of the gong and Bill enters, and imperceptibly the Dead turn it into a bright groovy jam that sounds like it's heading for Bright Star.
But alas, they get derailed right at a peak at 19:52 when Jerry's string breaks and he has to go change it. The band continues without him, TC doing kind of a little solo. At 20:30 a Soulful Strut jam gets started (by Bob & Phil together) but it's still embryonic without Jerry. They do a good job of keeping up interest while their lead guitarist is out! After 21:55 Jerry's back, but out of tune, so we get a quick tuneup inside Dark Star. They continue with the Soulful Strut idea though it does sound a little discordant. At 23:30 Weir comes up with a 3-chord hook that they latch onto. (I don't remember it from anywhere in particular but they may have played it elsewhere. Phil was hinting at it before the Soulful Strut started, so it fits in.) Mickey adds cowbell, and this new jam hook works nicely as Jerry sails into feedback and a strong run.
Around 25:00 Jerry turns back toward Dark Star. (Now it sounds like Mickey's doing wood-tapping.) They have to do a little shift here and Bob drops out for a little bit before they wrestle the direction into Bright Star, which might sound a little ragged...but I appreciate that they're playing it differently here, kind of blending it with the feel of the earlier jam. (Like adamos said, it's almost like they're playing two jams at the same time, but for a spontaneous creation they're pulling it off pretty well.) Then at 26:15 Jerry heads back to the main theme & 2nd verse, although the others seem a little reluctant to let go.
Once again, I had a more positive response than you! I think most of this Dark Star is not just successful but spectacular. The space & following jam are certainly among the highlights of any Dark Star recently. They almost hit a half-hour here, the longest Dark Star yet, and they still don't have room for a Sputnik; instead they head in a new direction. Jerry's string incident gets them offtrack but they recover. The end seems controversial....JSegel calls it wrong & unnatural! No it ain't perfect, but I think it's great for two reasons: 1) they're figuring out on the fly how to shift gears between two different jams; this could be done more smoothly but the strangeness of how they work it out is appealing on its own, the way the others are kind of fighting against Jerry....this is a change from the standard ol' Bright Star>DS Theme they've perfected.....but also 2) they're doing a brand-new theme jam and haven't yet worked out the best way to fit it in Dark Star, and it's cool to see this moment at its birth, still bloody and bawling.
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