103. 1970-05-15

youtube Fillmore East 19:40
Main theme at :05 and 2:46.
First verse at 3:05.
Feelin’ Groovy at 15:14.
Bright Star at 17:13.
Main theme at 17:45.
Second verse at 17:58.
Goes into St. Stephen.

The obvious step finally taken, this Dark Star begins with the main theme straight off. It has been interesting to watch the development of the intro jam—after the very early versions, it seemed to be straying farther out for a while; lately, however, it’s been increasingly pegged to the theme. This isn’t to say that it has gone back to basics; rather, I am tempted to say that the theme has returned in sublated form, as in the third stage of a Hegelian dialectic. I shall resist this temptation, however—while it would be an illuminating remark, all it would really bring to light is the fact that I have at least skimmed the Wikipedia entry on Hegel. What I really mean to say is that the intro has not been stripped back, but it seems to have been decided that the theme will serve as both the backbone and as a constant touchstone that keeps the band closer to home in the early going. They have not abandoned all exploration, but they don’t stray too far from home ground in most of the recent renditions.

The band sounds confident, and they are mostly content with the two-chord pattern here. This lovely intro is entirely a rumination on the song structure, and Garcia touches on the verse melody at :40, 1:57, and 2:30. Although they do not crash into the E minor, they strongly suggest it after the second of these. They go to the verse rather early here, without ever really wandering out, and yet if this jam is in a way basic, it is nevertheless masterful—sometimes it is sufficient to play beautifully and well (is it always sufficient? Maybe not, but it would be difficult to think of a counter-example!).

They have gotten extremely good at subtracting most of the music as they initiate the space section. Although they do not even keep a pulse going, they still manage to maintain an almost uncanny momentum during these quiet sections. Tonight, as more sounds start to enter space it feels like an organic progression. This segment is brief tonight, however; at 8:34, Garcia starts a rolling lead that serves as a de facto Sputnik, although this time what he plays is not the Sputnik pattern.

At 9:24 Garcia strongly asserts the A as though they’re going to the main theme, but he soon adverts to a more Sputnik-like series, although this also doesn’t last long, with the guitar moving back to a more classic Dark Star lead. Weir starts up a chunky but gentle palm muted rhythm that pushes into the middle jam. The drummers back this with insistent percussion at first, but they avoid the kits as the band chimes and bounces without quite breaking out.

At 12:34 Garcia lays in some Sputnik-y rolls; the theme of this jam seems to be a blend of Sputnik and a straightforward Dark Star jam. At 13:00 Jerry breaks out a double time Sputnik, but he then moves almost immediately to the stabbing that sometimes comes at the end of this section. Weir joins in, but they calm down again quickly; at 13:49 Garcia quotes the main theme, reminding us of the other pole of this jam. The drums start to assert themselves and the jam picks up steam, but as the music intensifies the light and airy mood is somehow maintained. At 15:14 Weir—taking a hint, I think, from Garcia—seamlessly moves them into Feelin’ Groovy.

Like last time (04-24), this starts to sound more like an UJB jam than Feelin’ Groovy—enough so that I am not sure how to tag it, since the band sidesteps out of it almost immediately thereafter. There is a moment of hovering, and then—beautifully, inevitably—Garcia climbs, and a Bright Star is born. The band sounds great throughout, and the ensuing tempo reduction seems to be a matter of consensus. Garcia sings wonderfully, and Dark Star comes to a close again.

Although in some ways this could be considered a conservative rendition, it is nevertheless a tour de force; to some extent, the impression of conservatism can be attributed to how skillfully they navigate the transitions, and to how seamlessly the parts fit together. Ideas don’t seem to be lacking, even if not many new ones are proposed; the band sounds inspired, reveling in the structures that at other times they take pleasure in subverting. The clarity of the recording certainly doesn’t hurt, as the splendor of the playing and singing is rendered in full color here. All in all, this is a beautiful Dark Star.


What was said:

JSegel:


Super long evenings at the Fillmore East, acoustic sets, New Riders’ set, Dead electric set. This Dark Star is after “Next Time You See Me”, a classic 12 bar blues, toward the end of the electric set. Joking about the alligator in the audience…a couple of intro teases, then they stick the intro riff and head into the track, at a decent tempo, not too slow, nice and relaxed. It only takes a few seconds and Jerry heads off into melody land. It’s a good mix, shakers control the pulse and the guitars seem to be working together moving forward, into a few small whirlpools that build up and down into big Dark Star thematic areas, the gliss to the A starts the riff to the verse at 3 minutes. Sort of a rough vocal intro (long night!) with mild accompaniment for the verse, but nicely orchestrated. JG’s guitar sounds like a banjo on the chords in there on the “Shall we go”!

Jam starts, the band goes in and backs away leaving the space to change as the cymbals blow it away and the guitars become bells. Space has small sounds in it, mostly little feedbacks and swells. Some odd percussion come in. It’s an extended area of stasis, with notes only coming in with volume swells, even bass swells. Using the odd metal scrubbing sounds to build clouds of frequencies.

At 8:40 or so Jerry is coming in with a melodic idea, backed for a while by feedback swirls, it develops into a Sputnik-like arpeggio, but he breaks out of the arpeggio into slow lead playing and the band starts to come in by about 10:30 with a groove on A to G. Claves and eventually a drum set join, Bobby starts playing with the 7ths on the chords, going for that G7 again. It’s a relatively mellow latin-type jam on this progression for quite a while. JG sputniks again at 13 minutes and goes into double time banjo picking, then into three-against-two chordal stabs. By 14:30 there’s hints of the Dark Star theme. They bring it down a bit, but it’s fluidly moving forward still and it heads to the Feeling Groovy feel and chords a half minute later. It breaks away at 17 min or so, and hits the Bright Star theme at 17:15, a relatively slow and solid statement, still in the old groove. The bring it down in tempo with the theme and head toward verse 2 at 18 min.

Classic verse treatment, some nice wandering on the third line after a strong rhythmic second line. Good outro and outro vocals, into scrubbing the static chords instead of just hitting them one by one, with cymbals, and into a short St Stephen, Not Fade Away and Lovelight.


Nice but ultimately fairly mellow version. Great space section.


adamos:


And off they go into the main theme. It feels luxurious and symphonic to be back in a good quality recording again. There is a buoyancy to the bass line and a light and dreamy feel to the early proceedings. Bob and some percussion provide the textures while Jerry gently wanders out on a high line and Phil interweaves the low end. Around 2:05 things start to rev up a little via a repeating pattern and Jerry spirals upwards into the verse melody before returning to the main theme. A brief but lovely opening.

After the verse Bob and Phil do their thing and the gong comes in followed by some subtle bell tolling and percussion. Things quickly fall to near silence accented by just a hint of gong and occasional pings from the guitar. Slowly more sounds start to enter but everyone is taking their time and what's not played is as impactful as what is. There are some spacey, swirly sounds and chimes and things start to build a little through feedback, volume knobs and other instrumentation. Then at 8:34 Jerry breaks out with a gentle, delicate line that slowly builds as the others play off it and the percussion gives it a bit of a Spanish feel.

After 9:20 it sounds like it's heading back into Dark Star but this recedes into a gentle Sputnik-like repeating line that is quite pretty. By 10:00 they're shifting back towards Dark Star again; Jerry works a wandering line and Bob asserts a rhythmic pattern and things start to coalesce into a jam. The pace starts to quicken and there's some raspiness to Bob's guitar and Jerry and Phil are interweaving lines high and low. There's a certain gentleness and simplicity to the jam but it has a pretty feel.

Around 12:35 Jerry goes higher and it sounds Sputnik-esque but stays rooted within the jam. Bob's rhythm continues to be prominent which helps with that rooting. After 13:00 Jerry starts playing the Sputnik-ish line much more quickly which spills out into some stop and start notes that Bob joins in on as well. Phil sounds really good underneath it all too. Before long things shift back closer to feel of the ongoing jam and there's a brief hint of the main theme at 13:50 but they keep rolling.

Things are building again and it sounds lovely and then they downshift a little opening up a space for a seamless transition into Feelin' Groovy. I agree that it's very UJB-ish again at various points but I would still call this FG. They are soaring now and it sounds wonderful. After 16:30 they start bringing it down and by 16:45 they enter this swirling zone creating a base camp for Jerry to suddenly ascend into Bright Star. It's brief and stays within the overall vibe of the performance but still brings that triumphant feeling. And then before long they take it down into the main theme and on to the second verse.

It's a really nice, pretty version. It doesn't get crazy out there or intense but the overall feel is lovely.

Mr. Rain:


Nice mix, emphasizing Bob's guitar. (I can hardly hear any guiro, but don't really miss it.) Really short opening jam...it's a surprise to hear Jerry already singing the verse at 3:05. But it's very laid-back to start with, and Jerry doesn't sound on top of his game here....kind of holding back, there isn't much wandering, and he seems to take a couple minutes to really warm up.

The little breakdown to space is mild; space itself puts me in mind of an evening on the beach with the waves and wind, the occasional call of a gull. Not much noise at all, it's a very mild-mannered space. I hear Bob doing his own version of the bell-tolling! Gradually it gets more guitary and musical....Phil's grumbling, Jerry's a whistling ghost, Bob's being a seagull, lots of tinkling cymbals.

Jerry starts a pretty line around 8:30 which combines nicely with the ongoing space. The others don't really join him until 9:30 when it gets more Sputniky, but Jerry doesn't go in that direction, he's ready to start the main jam, and after 10 Weir starts patting some chords. Phil stops being weird and puts down a musical beat...this sounds familiar, they frequently seem to go into some simple two-chord variation after space. A little light percussion, a relaxed lead from Jerry with a nice tone. It stays laid-back though and doesn't really build up momentum like usual. Instead Jerry goes the other way and gets into that little double-time Sputnik at 12:50 with the chord jabs, but instead of liftoff they just calm down again. Back to the pretty jam, which gets prettier as the beat gets stronger.

At 15 minutes Phil tugs them toward Feelin' Groovy, which sounds like a natural destination. Jerry gets a little sting in his playing at last! Nice warm version (that never sounds like UJB to me), but by 16:30 it peters out; they get all quiet and Jerry breaks out his shivery sound, and shoots straight for Bright Star at 17:09. This one's very short, kind of half-hearted before Jerry drops it and they jerk back to the main theme and the verse without any more ado. I think JSegel's right that Jerry's singing is kind of rough in this Dark Star, and the others don't seem to be singing in this verse? Have they dropped that part before? The audience is very excited as it ends and the gong goes wild. Are they happy to hear St. Stephen? You bet!

This one was super-mellow for sure. I'd say they never got any fire going at all, and this is about as lazy, uninspired and by-the-numbers as a 1970 Dark Star gets. It's still nicely played, but I think the beautiful sound quality maybe causes people to overrate it.