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:

JSegel:


This is a historic show/run in many ways, the announcements for the show cancelled at Golden Gate Park moving to Sear’s Point, (then to Altamont) while the band plays Black Peter for the first time, with long instrumental breaks, and later Uncle John’s Band is free of Dark Star and lives on its own and with lyrics. Dark Star itself is 30 minutes long!

It starts with guitar, bass joins in, TC has his lead in lick now, Jerry is leading tone sliding into it. They get caught in a groove early on, setting a medium tempo for a long cool jam. Drums are already in, sidesticking away. Jerry does a few China Cat-type licks by 2 min and onto more groove. Jerry is testing high end on the Stratocaster a bit, resetting the amp at 3 minutes, back for more relaxed Dark Star jam. He goes outside the mode for a bit, jazzy, though it sounds like slipping up a fret and going with it, he’s getting used to this larger scale neck still and it sounds to me like this show has more ‘testing the limits’ of the Stratocaster versus the SG, possibly just due to whatever amps he’s using. There’s more groove, testing the pickups here. Really finding little eddies of quiet sets of notes or chords.

The jam builds sort of sputnik e minor shape but comes out before 6 minutes with the theme and gets to verse intro territory repeating the chords, more guitar testing, he’s being very quiet and trying out the guitar for country bending. Even a few banjo flourishes very quietly. TC is in a more mellow set of stops, sort of taking lead and JG drops out. Phil sticks to the riff area mostly. Sputnik-like build up back into the DS chords, into an ascending riff, and a sudden change of downbeat with the DS theme for two whole notes before breaking it off into a new higher energy jam, all they to a brighter star area. Drums have built to a solid groove even as the guitar fades away again. Waves of in and out, whole new riff jams, the drums go out for a while. Bobby holding it together with some slappy chord progression. Allusions to Dark Star. Phil takes the lead, Jerry comping for a while. Jerry needs to tune a bit. The theme comes in again at a slower pace at 13 min. And to the verse.

Leisurely reading of the verse, JG’s voice is strong on all notes, he sounds relaxed. Lots of cymbals on the 2nd and 3rd lines, and outro. I really love the composition and reading of these lines on every version.

Out into a sea of transitive nightfall… they hold statically for a bit and then it launches into space, a few choice notes and long chords from the organ, odd percussion, volume swell guitar space, with feedbacks and organ. A very introspective aural space, for a while, some organ trills and swells.

At 18 min Jerry is quietly doing some banjo rolls on the guitar, TC arpeggiates, he sounds like a modern sequencer, or pre-Tangerine Dream. Lotta modal organ playing, and quiet, very Pink Floyd, into a very nice theme-based counterpoint section with guitars and bass coming back in.

Now they’re getting into Uncle John’s groove territory, but it gets more groove oriented with claves and stuff. Phil jamming out on the Dark Star theme idea. Nobody is really playing lead for a while. JG comes and follows for a while, then takes it up and changes a few modal notes. They build the jam up, JG is trying out some new Strat sounds, sort of folksy-bluesy stuff, using open strings. To a rolling crescendo and over the wave to the theme statement at 26:30, brighter star area, but with a tolling open A string for a while. After a minute it’s bright star and the wave passes, they drop back into the low key groove before verse 2. Verse 2 comes in at 28:30, a little scarier delivery, telling the story. Very tender “Lady in Velvet.” The wandering in that line is limited to TCs rising keyboard.

All outro vocals flying, off to the counterpoint outro tag, but it’s a little messed up as JG pops on something, falls out and catches up, then they sort of fade out instead of going to the chords and it starts High Time.

______________
Awesome version of the song. The verses were beautifully rendered, the jams had a lot of Jerry backing off and leaving different aural areas, which is of course both cool and not (less Jerry), but offset by the neat new things he uses in the jams stretching out the Stratocaster sound with the open string Richard Thompson-y stuff and also the weird Brit-psych quiet sections with long organ chords and the bass soloing that took up the slack he left.

The singing has definitely evolved, after the first “single” version where it was sort of a psychedelic pop song, a lot of the 1968 presentations had more “scary movie”-type warbling tremolos on the long notes (possibly drug-related, who knows), but in 1969 it’s gone back and forth with many different ways of presenting the lead vocals. Some have been soft and relaxed, some with the warbles, but by June, Jerry has relaxed more with the long high notes that start the line phrases. (In ethnomusicology they talk about “expenditure of energy” melodic phrasing, really common in drum + voice musics, where the phrases start high and loud and come down from there in pitch and in volume.) But at some of the shows, (~June 1969 for example) he sounds very tired, more cigarette throated like his voice sounds later in his life. Here, Nov and Dec 1969, he’s nailing it: strong and relaxed first notes, holding the pitch well and steady, not straining. Phil and Bob almost always pull off the outro counterpoint lines pretty well, though obviously that varies with monitor presence or levels, (if you can’t hear yourself, you never know what you’re singing). Though we know that Phil, as a singer, is more an idea guy than an vocal artiste.


Adamos:


Lots of deep, bouncy Phil at the outset with TC adding his thing. Jerry starts a high line that kind of glides along the surface, almost coming to a stop and then keeping it relatively quiet for a spell. There are hints of the main theme early and they work something adjacent to it with its own feel then take it down to a quiet, mellow zone again. Swirling organ from TC in fills in the available space. Jerry and Phil are gently playing off one another and they slowly bring it up to a minor peak that leads into the main theme at 5:45. There's a cool guitar sound starting around 6:08 that sounds sort of like sliding or smearing. They keep a nice gentle groove going; it's really a delicate version so far.

They appear to be heading back to the main theme but opt to pass it by, and then start slowly bringing up the volume and activity to a nice peak with a touch of Bright Star. Out of this comes some low, repeating sounds with rough edges and then they bring it down again although with a bit more velocity than before. This transforms into a jam with a different feel; Bob's rhythm is fairly prominent, still plenty of Phil and there's kind of a low rumbling vibe that percolates. Then Jerry takes it higher and they almost hit the main theme but again pass it by. Instead they enter a different zone and Jerry plays a lower line that sounds pretty cool. Things quiet down and they decide to bring on the main theme and head into the verse. I'd have to look back but it seems like this was one of the longer and more eventful opening segments in a while.

After the verse Phil and Bob start their thing and then as has been their way it quickly dissolves into space. There's a sparkling, shimmering quality that is pretty and otherworldly; the sound almost glows. They stay in this zone for a few minutes, quieting down and getting more contemplative. Around 18:07 Jerry starts up Sputnik but keeps it fairly quiet and the others are still exploring space so it doesn't fully come together. A minute or two later he again pokes out of the void this time with a stronger ascending line that Phil responds to as well. They work up a slow building jam that rises and then eases back again almost as if it is being engulfed by cymbal washes.

From here they regroup and start up another jam with more volume but this too pulls back and Phil steps forth with a thematic repeating bass line complimented by TC. They hover in this area for a bit then start to work up another jam and Jerry thrusts up with a sharp line and they get some momentum going. The jam builds in volume and energy then briefly ebbs but keeps going with Jerry hitting some edgier notes. They're circling around and building up again and then they shift into the main theme which has rising, uplifting feel. This soon leads into Bright Star which peaks briefly then gives way for a return to main theme and then on to the second verse.

Listening sequentially to the available recordings it feels like this performance is a reaction to the previous few, in that after breaking Dark Star up into multiple thematic jams and even inserting The Other One into the proceedings they decide to switch it up and just explore Dark Star again. But this one is nearly a month after the previous recording so I'm not sure if there were more versions between them that weren't captured on tape.