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:
Adamos:
There’s a cut right as it starts but when it comes back it sounds like they are still close to the beginning. They’re cruising along with a little pace and everyone is pretty clear in the mix so there is a nice collective sound. Jerry is weaving some lines with nice accents from Bob and Phil is working underneath. TC’s accompaniment is fairly prominent and he doesn’t let up much either. Jerry really sounds good and he goes into a winding ascent that comes out into the main theme around 4:30 followed by the first verse.
After the verse Phil and Bob start out slowly and there’s some bell tolling and it quickly shifts into a spacey zone. They hover for a spell; there’s some volume knob action and TC goes for some wild fills and things are swirling like a witch’s brew. After 9:00 a guitar line emerges that shifts into something patient and contemplative and the others work around it. Then around 10:00 a gentle jam starts to come together and they get some forward momentum and things start to move with pace. Again there’s a nice collective sound with everyone working it. They hit some rolling peaks and there are hints of Sputnik but they cruise right past it and then ascend into Bright Star which is relatively brief but powerful. From there they downshift into the main theme, jam out a bit with some gusto and then take it to the second verse.
I agree that this is a fairly straightforward version but it’s well played and has a good feel.
JSegel:
This Dark Star is a shift in the set, where the first half was all the country stuff, then a “yellow dog story”. Then they start the suite, the tape has some weirdness at the beginning in the intro, but the song itself goes smoothly into the initial improv section, it’s pretty relaxed. Takes Jerry a while to get up into the upper registers, TC toodling along with him. Interesting takes on the thematic idea and improvising with it, caught in the first of several eddies in the flow by a minute and half, then back to thematic improv. After the first few minutes, the wave dies down, but TC goes on and then Jerry catches up and takes over this time. They’re playing really nicely, Phil’s tone is subdued, not aggressive and he and Bobby find a very jazzy backdrop to the JG leads. By 3:30, JG takes his neck-pickup tone into a nice rolling area and the band rolls along with it over the hump and toward the intro theme heading toward a verse at 4:45.
Strong vocals, with organ chord accompaniment, the line two rhythm is still hinging on that last offbeat chord, very small 'casting about' in line 3, all with cymbal splashing and congas.
Ornate outro from verse1 and I hear somebody laugh as they go through it and start the ‘transitive nightfall’, which is slow in starting with cymbals, small feedback, organ tinkling, it’s going outside, kids. Very delicate space, small sounds and some volume-knob notes and spectral clusters from the organ, very “electronic music”-ish. There is no real lead sound, though the volume swell notes seem to be taking it somewhere. Everybody is producing odd noises, and slowly building the tension. Some string taps, rubbing the strings takes on a chord, similar to the Sputnik em chord… and Jerry starts playing notes, slowly, like they are dripping from an icicle. Some trills and double stops from the bass and rhythm guitar, starting up some chords, JG starts with some melodic lines at about 10 minutes, though it takes a while for the band to follow into any actual rhythm. The hand drums are joined by drum set and at 10:50 it sounds like they are jumping in to the Dark Star music again, the chords are there, but some nice extensions from Bobby, lots of chord play from TC, building the volume and the lead is getting higher and more intense, and almost into a Sputnik, but it dies off and Jerry goes into fast runs with a nasal tone over a static band quietly moving slowly underneath. Then out of this mire, a Bright Star begins strongly at 13:40, land-ho! And to the theme, heading to verse two with syncopated chop-chords from TC, a little thematic jam first, with some strong riff-like bits, before it backs off for the verse at 15:50.
Strong vocals, very dramatic verse 2 reading, the song form has morphed into a new style these days. All vocals for the outro, though a clicky-syncopated bit before the outro chord stuff that heads off into St Stephen.
Sept 1 1969 is now almost exactly two years since those first melodic Dark Star drippings into 9/3/67's Dancin’ in the Streets.
This Dark Star has an assured start...none of the quiet tentative feel that was in some of the August versions. TC's clear in the mix again, off to the side....boy, he sounds really Leslie'd on this one, almost like he's off-speed; it's kind of a strange tone. Then again, maybe it's part of his quest to become a more "normal" rock organist! It sounds like Mickey's got the guiro going as usual; the congas slip in later on.
Even though this opening jam is more abbreviated than usual it still feels dense....they have that conversational chamber-music quality, and it's easy to drift off in these billowing clouds of Dark Star... They find a natural place to fit in the main theme & verse, and it sounds like things are flowing nicely.
Jerry introduces the post-verse space with some muted bell-tolling and feedback, and it's time to bring things to a halt with a trip to deep space! TC plays a big part in this, egging on the weirdness. Jerry goes for the slow volume twirls...after being rarely used in Dark Star for so long, these seem to be a growing part of the space repertoire now. But the congas are kind of an odd part of the mix in this part. The space is kept shorter than the previous outings, and feels restrained...they won't go TOO far out.
Jerry flashes Sputnik for a moment....but doesn't go there. Have we heard the last of Sputnik? But he uses the moment to slide into a lovely little jam with Phil & Bob, the music slowly dripping out....the part from 9:00-10:10 is really great, it could almost be a tune in itself. There's a pause and then they start picking up the tempo...Bill's on drums, Mickey gets off the gong, and after 12 minutes Mickey's drumming too. They do this so well it's almost unnoticeable, the way they pick up speed and power like they're rolling down the tracks. Another Sputnik flash leads to another short lull, and for a minute Bob stops playing and it's almost Hartbeats-like, Phil & Jerry deep in a duet...then after 13:50 Jerry hits the Bright Star and they nail an easy peak.
They don't quite want it to end, and they keep the main theme going with some extra jamming for another 90 seconds! A very nice finish with some heavy drumming and extra rock & roll feel...they're getting better at fitting groovy rock jams inside Dark Star and making it sound not just natural but inevitable. And also check out TC in these last few minutes -- he's playing almost entirely chords like a regular rock organist would do; it sounds more like what Pigpen might play.
I agree totally with your assessment of this one. It's almost like a model Dark Star...no blazing peaks, the jams kept on a tight leash, but everything played just right.
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