94. 1970-01-23

youtube Honolulu 18:43
Main theme at 1:02 and 3:31.
First verse at 4:31.
Sputnik at 9:27.
Bright Star at 15:20.
Main theme at 16:14.
Second verse at 17:06.
Goes into St. Stephen.

TC's final Dark Star. This sounds good, save that TC is rather low in the mix. Garcia again visits the main theme very early here, after about a minute, and once again the introductory jam seems to be organized around the theme. After around 2:30 there’s an interesting bit where the band plays the theme while Jerry hovers around with the volume knob; he then plays a few lines before joining in. This gets us to the verse.

There is a minute or two of sort of intense brooding after the verse, but by 6:29 the band brings it down to almost nothing, as is their wont of late. After a minute or so a surf of cymbals approaches high tide and then recedes. The band seems to pull some new spacey sounds out of their toolbox this time, and space gets wonderfully bizarre. At 9:27 you can hear Garcia firing up Sputnik, as is to be expected at this point. This sort of organically transforms into a jam in such a way that the boundaries of Sputnik are not entirely clear—the band winds up in a two chord pattern that is a little bit like what would become Fire on the Mountain (or see the Watkins Glen “soundcheck”). There seems to be a small cut somewhere in here, but it doesn’t seem that much is missing.

A little after the 13 minute point it seems like they might be pushing toward Feelin’ Groovy, but instead we wind up with a pretty structured jam that remains its own thing. Toward the 15 minute mark it’s turning back into something that sounds like Dark Star, and the band is driving toward a peak as Garcia breaks into Bright Star. This plays out for a while and Garcia goes right into a very emphatic iteration of the theme. They slow it down appreciably before going to the verse, complete with off-key harmonies from Weir.

Once again Dark Star feels quite brief at 20 minutes. This is a nice version; it is probably not that noteworthy in the grand scheme of things, but there are far worse ways to spend 20 minutes of your life. With this, TC goes out on a reasonably high note.


What was said:

93. 1970-01-17

19283 Oregon 20:00
Main theme at :20 and 3:06
First verse at 3:41.
Sputnik at 9:35.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:55.
Bright Star at 16:35.
Main theme at 17:50.
Second verse at 18:25.
Goes into St. Stephen.

After some brief preliminaries Garcia mentions the main theme very early here, at :20. The jamming sort of circles this for a while, in what will be a common strategy in the early part of Dark Star. Garcia’s lines seem especially classical in this introduction, and the band seems particularly mindful of the structure of the song; they take advantage of this strategy and build to a little peak at 1:59, with Garcia touching on Bright Star. From about 2:40 they depart from the structure, but this is brief and they come back to the main theme by 3:06. Surprisingly, they go right to the verse here after a relatively brief intro.

The post-verse descent into space is quite the expected thing at this point. Again tonight they take it down to almost nothing, and then weirdness starts to poke through. They fluctuate dynamically between intense swells and quieter sections. It strikes me that they are getting very good at this, and the post-verse space is often one of the most engaging parts of the performance.

The egress from space again begins when Garcia starts playing Sputnik at 9:35. Like last time, this again departs from Sputnik as we’ve known it, but it holds its structure long enough that I’ve counted it this time. It is relatively brief, however, as Garcia starts playing an insistent line that leads them into the middle jam proper. By 12:45 this seems to be angling toward Feelin’ Groovy and it gets there a few seconds later, but it doesn’t stay there long, as the band soon varies the pattern again, never fully committing to the jam this time. Instead Lesh plays a figure that at times seems more related to the Dark Star theme but also kind of seems like it’s own thing. They leave it behind and circle back to it a few times, and Garcia also occasionally alludes to the theme in the course of this section and then, at 15:42, bursts into a kind of modified Bright Star.

At about 16:10 the band hits a nice peak, and they sustain it for a while, taking it even higher when Garcia finally commits to Bright Star at 16:35. They come down the other side into the main theme, and soon they are wrapping it up with the second verse.

This feels pretty succinct; 20 minutes isn’t that short by historical or even contemporary standards, but it all seems to go by in a flash. The jamming here is excellent—there are no weak points or moments of confusion; rather, the band seems confident and in command from beginning to end. The jam after space is particularly good here; they dip their toe into Feelin’ Groovy, but for the most part this isn’t organized around a modular section, but improvised on the spot. This is also the most fully realized part of the rendition, as they explore the possibilities of this particular jam at some length. In some ways this reminds me of a version from late Spring of 1969—confident and at times aggressive playing coupled with a willingness to move on quickly to the next idea. But when the dust has settled this one has not ranged that widely, since they hunker down into the last jam and let it play out. In summation, this is perhaps not an all-timer, but it is a truly excellent version nonetheless.


What was said:

92. 1970-01-02

youtube Fillmore East 29:57 (starts at 1:51:00 at link) (cuts at end of second verse)
Main theme at 1:57:34 (6:34).
First verse at 1:57:55 (6:55).
Feelin’ Groovy at 2:10:16 (19:16).
Sugar Magnolia jam at 2:12:00 (21:00).
Soulful Strut at 2:13:42 (22:42).
Main theme at 2:19:30 (28:30).
Falling Star at 2:19:47 (28:47).
Main theme at 2:20:04 (29:04).
Second verse at 2:20:33 (29:33).
Goes into St. Stephen.

Weir introduces this with “We’ll give you some easy listening music.” TS is still playing his new riff at the beginning, and he seems to have extra tremolo in his sound tonight. All the instrumentalists sound very clear and distinct on this recording. After hovering around the edge of the main theme for a while, at 1:54:14 (3:14) Lesh and Weir weave together, producing a spellbinding section of music which is regrettably brief. At 1:55:58 (4:58) Weir mirrors Garcia’s line and gives us another thrilling moment. Throughout there are hints of the theme and, at times, Sputnik. The band starts easing into the theme at 1:56:43 (5:43), although Garcia doesn’t play the main line, instead taking off again; he gestures toward Bright Star at 1:57:28 (6:28), and then finally swoops into the theme.

The band takes it down to almost nothing after the verse this time, with the wind chimes sounding alone at times. There is a little tolling from Garcia, a few swells from Lesh, TC noodles a little…but silence mostly reigns for a while; the band shows a lot of restraint and lets the space develop out of nothingness. More intense weirdness eventually bubbles out of this pool of silence, but it subsides again. This is a strange and awesome space. At 2:04:31 (13:31) Garcia starts quietly playing Sputnik licks; this has become the standard way to end this space segment lately, but he heads off in another direction with it this time, playing Sputnik-like rolls around a drone. It ends a lot like Sputnik, with a little crescendo, but this was not really a Sputnik.

At 2:07:35 (16:35) the band seems like they’re on their way back to mundane territory, but they’re still playing gently and with a lot of mutual sensitivity. By about 2:08:20 (17:20) they’ve gone back down to almost nothing. Garcia starts riffing as Weir quietly drones, and they start to come together. At 2:09:10 (18:10) the music is almost gone again; this time Lesh enters the breach, and they start hinting at the two-chord song pattern. At 2:09:42 (18:42) Lesh starts different two-chord pattern (IV-I) which seems designed to take us to Feelin’ Groovy, and the band responds. Feelin’ Groovy pops out at 2:10:16 (19:16), and as the band leans into it the contrast with what came before is striking.

At times Weir seems ready to launch into a lead again, although he doesn’t quite get the chance. Feelin’ Groovy seems to launch into a proto-Sugar Magnolia jam at 2:12:00 (21:00) (at times this almost sounds like Run for the Roses!). This winds down and at 2:13:42 (22:42) Weir strums a major 7th chord, signaling the start of Soulful Strut. This works itself into something quite glorious. By about 2:16:45 (25:45) or so it’s clear Garcia is going to cede the lead role to Weir again (see 1969-12-26), and the latter takes off; as he reaches the climax, Garcia joins him for a double lead. This is a section that has to be heard!

At about 2:18:50 (27:50) they down shift back into Dark Star territory proper. There is a nice little jam that hints at Bright Star, visits the main theme, culminates in the rare Falling Star, and then drops into the main theme again before heading to the verse.

This is a great version, there is no doubt. At times the band seems to founder a little, but there are so many thrilling moments that it has to be ranked very highly. And, once again, Bob Weir steps out on lead guitar!


What was said:

91: 1969-12-30

28469 Boston 19:23
Main theme at 6:39.
First verse at 7:04.
Sputnik at 12:40.
Main theme at
Second verse at
Tape cuts back in at Alligator.

Gong crashes send this off in a bracing manner. There is a kind of polyphonic madness that sets in early here. Garcia sounds extra trebly on the Strat, and there’s a little edge to everything. When we reach the three minute mark, there is a sudden downshift that could herald the theme, but it doesn’t this time; instead, we find ourselves on the edge of space. This is a rather nice section which never gets too far out, and it eventually congeals into a pretty jam before it finally arrives at the main theme at 6:39. This quickly goes to the verse, in which there is a small cut.

It doesn’t feel, after the preceding, like a big step into space tonight. This time there are some tinkling wind chimes, or anyway that is what they sound like, and TC swirls around a bit for good measure. This one is heavy on the weird-out factor in general, until some tendrils appear at around 11:30 that seem to herald a way out of the fog. The space intensifies, however, until Garcia starts a syncopated and delicate Sputnik at about 12:40.

Sputnik tonight builds into a bit of a clamor, and I found myself expecting the insect weirdness and verse melody to come through, but instead Jerry starts up a line that intersects with Lesh’s and leads us into the middle jam. Weir starts hinting at Feelin’ Groovy, but it is not going to happen yet; instead, there is a rather pretty and gentle jam that keeps itself fairly well reigned in. At 16:55, when things seem to be stalling, a light and lovely Feelin’ Groovy emerges. It isn’t long before this kind of disperses into a halfway state of sort-of Feelin’ Grooviness, and then they’re pushing toward some kind of transition to somewhere, but it cuts before we discover where…whether they ever sing the second verse cannot be now known. There is a pretty severe cut here which deposits us at the end of the sung part of Alligator.

This is nice, delicate, and pretty for much of its length. It’s always nice when Dark Star goes a bit off the beaten track. This is here not so much a matter of playing anything radically different; rather, it just has a kind of different feel this night. The band seems restrained, but they are playing well for the most part.


What was said:

90. 1969-12-26

28448 Dallas 24:00 (cut)
Main theme at 1:44, 4:14, and 5:51.
Verse melody at 4:56.
First verse at 6:10.
Sputnik at 10:43.
Feelin’ Groovy at 14:13.
Soulful Strut at 15:32.
Main theme at 22:00.
Second verse at 23:11.
Tape cuts back in at New Speedway Boogie.

The introduction is very pretty at the beginning here. Garcia is again hinting at a major key in tonight’s intro. There is a big windup for a while before they go to the theme at 1:44, and then they wander off again. At 3:00, Garcia, who is in top form tonight, checks in on Bright Star during a glorious passage that begins with some repetition, which he keeps returning to in between various flights of fancy. The music briefly veers toward space before we go back to the theme at 4:14. It really seems like it’s going to the verse, but instead Garcia quotes the melody while twiddling his volume knob; he kicks down to the e minor after, so I suppose it’s official. It just gets spacier from there before heading back to a very gently played theme and verse.

Lesh gets rather rambunctious coming out of the verse; he dominates the scene for a little while, but everything duly quietens into the by now expected space section. Tonight this is eerie and subdued; again, this section culminates in Sputnik. At 11:56 we’re heading out of Sputnik into the main jam, and it’s a pretty clean break, but the band is still feeling rather calm and patient.

At around 12:43 Lesh starts pedaling on one note, which sometimes means Feelin’ Groovy is coming. Instead, they increase the intensity of the jam a little and keep it going. Finally, at 14:13 Weir kicks into Feelin’ Groovy, Garcia follows, and Lesh eventually acquiesces. They return to a kind of pedaling thing intermittently throughout the jam, and it’s not clear that it has a set length; tonight, they don’t seem like they’re going back; by 14:50 there are intimations of Soulful Strut, which takes its time arriving but finally comes in at 15:32.

At 17:24 Weir takes the lead, and he really takes off! And it sounds pretty good! I don’t think Weir has ever played anything quite like this on a Dark Star. Garcia takes back over at around 18:32 with some chiming notes, and Soulful Strut putters out soon thereafter. At 19:14 Garcia starts flashing Bright Star, but this is not happening yet. They downshift, and then they are still streaming clouds of Soulful Strut after the 20 minute mark as they start to increase the intensity again. This time Garcia seems determined to take it into Bright Star or the main theme; it seems like the latter at 21:30 as he jerks back on the tempo—then, at 22:00, he fires it up again for the main theme, and then soon after the band pulls the tempo back again. Garcia throws in some flourishes here rather than going to the verse right away, but we get there.

There is a cut right at the end—it doesn’t take much off of Dark Star, but I’m not sure how quickly it returns, or if New Speedway Boogie was the next song.

Here we have a rendition that is often rather subdued, which is not a knock on it at all—it works very well. There is no really big crescendo, although they get it going a few times. The modular jams really dominate the second jam insofar as even when they’re not playing them, they seem to be heading toward or away from them in a recognizable way. All in all, a very strong outing. And, of course, I don’t mean to bury the lede: Bob Weir, Guitar Hero.


What was said:

89. 1969-12-20

Dave Six Fillmore 20:38
Main theme at 4:15.
First verse at 5:03.
Sputnik at 10:19.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:36.
Bright Star at 16:41.
Main theme at 17:52.
Second verse at 19:02.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Swells from TC breathe this into life. Garcia seems to want to get a little atonal from around 1:13 or so. I think I hear a major 7th, and I’m not sure what all he’s doing here. He gets some really stinging tones from the Stratocaster. At 2:40 he plays some chordal stuff, and then he starts a line with lots of double stops and more notes that seem to be outside the usual palette. From about 3:30 Lesh pushes them into a nice little swell, and when at 3:57 Garcia bursts into a huge windup the main theme begins to feel imminent. Sure enough, we soon get there, and this time it takes us to the verse.

At this point a trip to space is the standard itinerary after the verse; as usual, this comes after a brief touchdown on solid ground. There is some volume knob fiddling and some tolling, and TC gets a chance to be heard. This one seems a bit aimless until around 8:30, when it starts to coalesce into something unique; the music oozes and breathes as the guitarists work the volume knobs, and at 9:44 TC unleashes a huge swell, and one of the guitarists tacks on some feedback for good measure. Then at 10:19, Garcia starts quietly playing Sputnik, which has made a serious comeback as a way out of space.

By 11:13 Sputnik has turned into a vigorous little Garcia line that feels like it might be the Ariadne’s thread that leads into the main jam. He keeps playing with it, and it veers back toward Sputnik at times before turning into Feelin’ Groovy. By 14:30 it seems like Feelin’ Groovy is done, but it doesn’t end all at once. There is a lull shortly after the 15 minute mark where they seem to tread water, and a light and lovely jam emerges. This gathers steam, but they seem a bit tentative, as it’s not clear where this is going. They bring it to a big crescendo and then at 16:41 Garcia takes it over the top with a crushing Bright Star. As they come out of it I thought I heard hints of a Darkness jam at about 17:25, although this may be coincidental. This winds its way into the main theme, which takes us to the verse and out, but not before Garcia proposes a variation with a syncopated, descending line.

All in all this is a very good Dark Star.  Again, Feelin’ Groovy sort of dominates the post-space jam, insofar as what comes after seems heavily inflected by it. They find some new ground here, though, and there are some really lovely moments. The final peak is immense.


What was said:

88. 1969-12-11

109897 Los Angeles 21:05
Main theme at 2:36 and 3:58.
First verse at 4:14.
Sputnik at 10:32.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:11.
Main theme/Bright Star at 18:20.
Main theme at 18:53.
Second verse at 19:24.
Goes into St. Stephen.

The short intro jam stays pretty close to home. They visit the theme after a couple of minutes but don’t change things up much when they leave it behind. At 3:43 they are already gesturing toward the theme again, and it soon arrives. At this point they go right to the verse.

Lesh is very prominent after the verse, so that the little island of normalcy that precedes space is rather intense tonight. At 6:06 they downshift and head into space. At 6:59 Garcia’s tolling suggests E minor. Lesh starts playing with his volume knobs, and things are sort of quiet and foreboding for a while. TC gradually increases the weirdness, and at 8:58 someone starts scritching and weird noises ensue as this develops into a quite intense and far out space section.

At about 10:32 Garcia again inserts some Sputnik licks into the space segment. This plays out until at 11:42 Jerry is playing a more ordinary lead line, and again the transition out of space is subtle as the band gradually falls into line. Some of the things Garcia is playing here might have suggested Feelin’ Groovy; in any case, they break into it at 12:11. I’m not sure that the pattern is entirely set as they leave the chord pattern and then return to it without anything that I am entirely convinced is a thought out plan.

Around the 14 minute mark it seems like they might be thinking about Soulful Strut, but this does not materialize as they embark on a jam that includes Bright Star references from Garcia and a little Feelin’ Groovy backsliding from Weir. It doesn’t seem like they entirely leave Feelin’ Groovy behind until around 16:15 or so; here they start pedalling on a two chord pattern and Garcia again hints at Soulful Strut. By 17:25 they are still halfway in and halfway out of Feelin’ Groovy when Lesh states the Dark Star pattern and this instigates a slamming jam that drifts back to a similar rhythm pattern to Feelin’ Groovy again, before Garcia states a kind of main theme/Bright Star hybrid. Shortly after this, he starts the main theme for real, and they go to the second verse.

This is a an odd one, and I’m not sure if my synopsis is entirely accurate. It seems to me that they spend a lot of time playing Feelin’ Groovy-adjacent stuff. This didn’t knock me out, but it’s a pretty good time all in all.


What was said:

87. 1969-12-04

141723 Fillmore West 30:13
Main theme at 5:45 and 13:14.
First verse at 13:48.
Sputnik at 18:05.
Main theme at 26:34.
Bright Star at 27:06.
Main theme at 27:53.
Second verse at 28:36.
Goes into High Time.

This kicks off with a very active and assertive Phil Lesh dominating the proceedings. At :34 Garcia starts playing a repetitive high lick, perhaps thinking he should just allow Phil to do his thing. This leads to a little lull, and then they take off into a jam. At 1:42 Garcia starts alluding to the main theme, but not with the usual tones. There ensues a section that seems to circumspectly refer to the theme without stating it. Garcia is playing a lot of licks with double stops tonight, as though he’s trying to vary his approach, and he seems to be veering towards a major scale at times.

At about 4:10 a new thing starts: a little shuffling jam that doesn’t sound much like what usually goes on here. This seems to fizzle out before roaring back to a peak at around 5:25. This concludes with a nod to Sputnik before heading into the main theme at 5:45. This in turn becomes another jam that stops and starts a few times. This is all very interesting, and at times very effective; they keep pushing in new directions, although it all seems to break down from time to time.

A little after 7 minutes they wind up in a minor sounding lull; at 7:17 Garcia gently alludes to Bright Star and Lesh starts up the main theme, but this again seems to peter out. Then at 8:10, with TC playing an ascending figure, they start to drive toward a peak, with Garcia picking up on TC’s pattern and increasing the intensity until at 8:53 he breaks out and again plays some Bright Star-type lines. They regroup a little, and at 9:30 Garcia is again hitting the Bright Star lick; then at 9:46 he brings them back up with some barking repetition on the low strings. This gives way to a more peaceful jam, and by 10:34 it’s all about to fall apart again, but instead of pushing to the main theme they regroup again into a kind of loping jam that brings us back to another almost-Bright Star at around 11:25. At 11:42 Jerry signals that he is finally ready for the main theme, but they veer away again!

At 12:28 Garcia starts playing a finger picked line that seems to be another entirely new thing. The band follows for a bit and then seems ready to fall apart again. At 12:53 Jerry plays some slides that seem to presage the theme, and TC starts playing a heavy chop on the third beat as if to say “You’d better do it this time!” Garcia at last complies at 13:14 and we head for the verse.

After the verse we again head to space after a brief interlude on terra firma. Space tonight is a lovely, shimmering thing; after a few minutes Garcia starts playing Sputnik (18:05), but the rest of the band stays in space and they never go into a full Sputnik jam. At 19:39 Garcia starts playing some melodic lines and again there is an allusion to Bright Star at 19:57. They emerge from space and embark on a rather spirited jam, with Bright Star returning at 20:29. This comes almost to a stop, and then they pick things up again; at 21:29 Garcia seems to want to start Feelin’ Groovy, but no one follows. Another jam and then another lull bring us to 22:06 where TC and Lesh bring back the two chord theme pattern, which turns into a stop and start thing; they tread water a little and then build up a jam.

At 24:07 Garcia spits out some very high notes and embarks on a line that will again allude to Bright Star, and this seems to fire up the band who come to a vicious peak from about 25:00. They bring it down so they can build toward another peak, and by 26:20 they’re hitting it pretty hard; this time they head to the main theme, which they hit very hard tonight. Garcia wants more of this, so he finally plays Bright Star in earnest to cap it all off.

The band seems restless here, like they want to try new things. These often work, although they seem to continually rebuild and fall apart again. This isn’t an entirely successful version, but there are some magnificent segments. It seems clear they aren’t going to rest on their laurels, which bodes well for future versions.


What was said: