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:

JSegel:


Contrasting most of these others, I’ve listened to this one several times as I’ve had the Dave’s Picks 19 album for a while. I got it because I was always interested in what they would play/how a show would go in Hawaii—I mean, I assumed they were pretty stoned, for example. My frame of reference was a long-standing love of the hippie/mystic Hawaii weirdness in relation to rock music that was presented in Hendrix’ Rainbow Bridge album movie, though of course that was on Maui and not Oahu. Same year though.

I didn’t realize until just recently that this is the final Tom Constanten Dark Star!

Oh, TC… After, what, 15 months of being in the Grateful Dead, I guess he got to be pretty good. I sort of have a divided sense of him and his playing, I want to like his playing more than I ended up doing, but there were things that I really did appreciate about his contributions. He did get more “rock band” during the run—though he never got as cool as Pigpen’s organ playing. Also, I admit I’m weirded out post-facto by the whole Scientology thing, it makes me dislike or distrust the Incredible String Band in the same way (Dr Strangely Strange were better anyway). I know, I know, you have to appreciate the art separate from the artist, the music from the musician, but… well, sorry if that offends anybody.

And: I was a Mills music student too, so I always want to root for the home team and the avant-garde that they might bring, but in the end TC sounded much too “classical” in his approach. Even the cool weirdness, like the organ swells and spectral organ-stop play he brought into the space sections in late 1969, had roots in the late 50s avant-garde electronic music, it’s sort of obvious where he was coming from.

I just this week started reading the book Phil wrote about his life, and learned that he and TC had been friends since the late 1950s. And they had done some serious weirdness prior to the formation of the Dead, but I guess TC eschewed that by the time he was in the band. Too bad, maybe. I sort of wish he went further out than he ever did, as well as wishing he had gotten down on the organ like a rock organist, which he almost did. He moves on to, what, a mime company doing Tarot readings? Yay. Whatever.


Anyway, Dark Star. Segueing from a long Cryptical Envelopment-The Other One suite, Phil starts the Dark Star riff and Jerry comes in on part two of it, they start the song. Some out of tune guitar (during the whole show, humidity I'd guess), the the groove is there and it’s enough to contrast the clave-driven Cryptical outro and make it into Dark Star, it only takes a minute before a new motif is stated that precedes the Dark Star theme then continuing extemporizing on it over the groove, now with guiro. Some really nice guitar work. It dies down to enable some sly tuning.

Instead of heading to the verse, it has an area of volume swell notes and organ chords and then heads off again in multi-headed full-band improvisation, albeit relaxedly. Theme comes in again, with weird guiro, and the feints toward a verse, but again swerves to avoid it for a bit. Verse 1 at 4:30. Steady delivery, classic arrangement. Classic, like, the verse grows organically from the theme, but then takes a turn at line 2 for the e minor and offbeat rhythm, and then moves on. Here, line 3 again has hammer-on wandering from Bobby.

The jam starts as normal, as if they’re going to just continue straight ahead, but as it has been lately, it starts to break up, though this time it’s like each individual’s line fall apart until they reach a silence. (And more tuning.) The percussion enters with a bunch of weird sounds, the guitars make small physical strikes on the strings (somebody yells “wooo” from the audience.) Very sparse space of isolated sounds. The cymbal washes get going for a while with the percussion shaking some shells or something. Isolated small sounds from guitars and organ, feedback long tones, but quiet and controlled. Phil sounds like he’s got a ring modulator or something, modulating his notes. His notes are shaking oddly from interference from other notes or a pedal. Feedback builds against the cymbals and plays against it until it fades and a sputnik is rising very quietly out of the silence late in the 9th minute. It takes root a minute or so later, Bob has a counter-arpeggio, Jerry starts playing melodically again. In and out of the mode, Bob playing with a G7 with flatted 7 for a bit, both of them making little jabs out out of key chords, and it builds up with the chords for a bit, but doesn’t gel really, and TC is still using the Dark Star chords, so it’s sort of an amalgam of that and the newer jam with the Maj7 chord, but this time mostly only on the regular G7 and leaving the A chord alone, then they sort of go to more Dark Star after 13 minutes, making it decisive with some strong downbeats on the A. The full drum set is in, but still maintaining a pretty mellow groove. Long build up towards a Bright Star, coming at 15:30. It stretches out into a long brighter jam, coming to thematic statements at almost a minute later and reeling it back in toward verse 2.

As it comes down in volume, Jerry takes it down in tempo right afterwards and starts verse 2 at 17 minutes in. Nicely orchestrated verse line, interesting upward lines on line 3, funny country lick into “Shall we go” and out of tune vocals coming in for the chorus (it’s the humidity.) Nice outro, a little clumsy, and it goes into the static chords that lead to St Stephen.

I like this sort of jam where it segues more easily between section instead of straight transitions, and this time it kept more in the Dark Star modal world even when having the G7 chord in the “major key part” that had been the Feeling Groovy/Soulful Strut jams. Nobody really ever went for those exact chords. This version has a lot of long periods of extended Jerry lead jam, really nice, where the band is following in the flow in really responsive ways, both in the beginning and the post-space.


Mr. Rain:


This Archive copy still works and sounds just fine, for those who don't have the Dave's Pick.
Dark Star follows the Other One-Cryptical suite, an uncommon pairing! This Cryptical outro was kind of flat & tepid....the Dead seem to be in a more laid-back mood tonight. So Dark Star starts off very relaxed, finding its footing. TC's pretty faint in the back again, and Mickey's doing a little percussion, which soon reveals itself to be the inevitable guiro. They hit the theme a few times and don't wander far from it, but there is a cool part after 2:45 where Jerry's doing some volume-knob twirling over the theme...not for long though. He retreats to the theme again, stays there, and delivers the verse at 4:30. Not the most exploratory opening, but okay. It seems like all the opening jams lately have been kept short; they used to stretch out more than they're doing lately.

Good-sounding gong in the verse. There's some chord excitement from the band after the verse, before they drop to silence, as if to say "get ready!" Space is kind of muted & minimalist: Jerry tolls his bell, the gong & cymbals splash like waves on the shore, a little organ swelling, then some nice feedback, Phil becomes active & the band gets freaky. Then as usual, they quiet down again and Jerry ever-so-quietly starts Sputnik by 9:40. (The space trip is getting downright predictable!) Sputnik only lasts a minute; by 10:40 it's already turned into a normal jam as Jerry's anxious to move along.

The jam has a good momentum to start with; there's a very small tape cut at 11:30 that doesn't break the flow, except that Bill's drumming afterwards. It sounds like they might be heading for a Soulful Strut, it has that kind of feel. But they resist falling into a definite pattern; instead Jerry takes an interesting melodic detour at 12:30. It almost sounds like 1971 for a moment...but Bob seems to have some tuning problems and bows out after 13:10 to take care of it. This doesn't impede the others, they continue with Jerry & Phil & percussion (and TC playing some chords in the back), floating a light Dark Star groove. At 14:40 Bob finds his way back in, and Jerry immediately gets serious and strikes a heavy note. Things get exciting and before we know it, we're in a Bright Star. Nice hot one; they climb up to a crescendo and come back hard on the theme. Then, as always, they have to quiet down and slow down to get back to the verse -- it's kind of funny to hear, especially with Mickey back on the guiro sounding like he's winding down the band, creak creak! They're kind of clumsy in the verse.

This was nice. Not outstanding; the first half is kind of subdued and they don't really warm up until after space, but I like the closing jam. Compared to the other Dark Stars of 1970? Well, I wouldn't say it's 90% as good....this might be one of the 2 or 3 weakest of the year....but on its own it's just dandy.


Ironically TC's not very conspicuous in these last couple of Stars of his, you have to back up to 1970-01-02 to hear a good example of TC's endpoint in the Dead. But he wasn't really a rock organist, and he was just slowly getting to be one in these last few months (more chords, a more simplified approach and so on). And it's surprising how much weirdness he DIDN'T add to these Dark Stars....on the Anthem album he contributed some wild noise (on piano, I think), and in these Dark Star spaces he can add some creepy sounds, but he doesn't go very far in that direction. I like him more than a Howard Wales with the Dead, I'll say that, but TC can't deliver that Wales funkiness, or even that Pigpen rock-steady rhythm, he's more into the quirky tootling. He may have been better as just a piano player with the Dead, especially doubling with Pigpen on organ like Keith did for a while, but I guess that wasn't possible. Considering the Dead didn't bother to get another organ player after he left, they seem to have felt they could get along fine without one (or didn't want to audition anyone), so Dark Star would remain keyboard-free for quite some time to come.


pbuzby:


I find TC didn't detract from the Dark Stars but never added something essential - my guess is that the band felt similarly and so they didn't find it urgent to add keyboards back to the piece.


adamos:


Starts off relaxed and mellow like taking a casual stroll. Jerry has a nice tone and the collective textures sound good too. TC is faint in the background. After a minute or so they hit the main theme emphatically and then ease up again. Jerry heads out working some high notes and Bob’s rhythm gets more prominent for a bit. Around 2:30 they slow up again and return to the theme, the guiro gets more prominent and then Jerry hits the volume knobs which gives it a different and cool feel. They work around that space for just a bit, come back to the main theme again and then there’s another minute or so of nice playing before they hit the first verse.

After the verse Phil does his thing and Bob comes in more strongly and they swell and swirl a bit before dropping off. Out of the brief quiet comes jangling chimes and some bell tolling. The gong is subtle at first but then steps in powerfully. There’s a little string scraping and some feedback and TC swells and a fluttering guitar sound that adds to the freakiness. And then around 9:30 Sputnik starts gently rising up.

It builds and eases and then transforms into the start of a jam. Jerry plays a winding line with Phil playing off him and prominent rhythm from Bob. It’s simple but has a nice feel. After the brief tape cut it picks up a little speed and gets deeper and louder and they’ve got a nice groove going. Around 12:30 Jerry pivots a little and works a new line that’s pretty and a little twangy. It feels like they could shift into one of the established thematic jams at any moment but it doesn’t materialize. Instead they carry on in this space which is a nice little jam of its own. It reminds me of something but I’m not sure what.

Around 13:15 Phil starts to come in more strongly; at 13:30 it’s just him and the percussion for a few seconds before Jerry comes winding back in. Nice passage with Jerry and Phil playing off of each other; the momentum builds and Bob comes back in and they’re revving up and suddenly they’re ascending into Bright Star which bursts forth at 15:20. They ride the peak for a spell and then shift into the main theme before taking it down and on to the second verse.

It’s a good performance. The opening segment is brief but has a nice feel. The spacey section has some uniqueness, the middle jams have their own thing going and there’s a good Bright Star to finish. There’s nothing to particularly criticize about it; it just doesn’t stand out as a top-tier version among its peers.


Archtop:


Bobby's brutally flat very at the beginning of the 1/23/70 Star, but he recognizes this in short order and rectifies the situation. I see from the liner notes that Pig doesn't play any keys on this, so the organ is all Constanten. Honestly, it sounded very much like Pig, which is a bit surprising. Anyway, I don't think this version provides any indication of what was to come just three weeks later...