99154 Fillmore East 25:59 (Dark Star 16:19>Spanish Jam 9:40)
Main theme at 7:05.
Goes into Turn On Your Lovelight.
Peter Green and Duane Allman reportedly sat in here. Garcia sounds different at the beginning here, with a new, very forward bright and trebly sound to his playing. Weir is very active in the early going, and Lesh is likewise aggressive—the band is bubbling like crazy. At 2:20 it sounds like at least one other guitar starts to join in, which I am guessing is Duane Allman, although it’s hard to tell for sure. This doesn’t go entirely smoothly, so Lesh soon adverts to the main theme, and they start to get it together.
A little while after the 4 minute mark it seems like there’s another guitarist getting involved, although three is probably the maximum number of guitarists I can keep track of, so it’s hard to say for sure. By 5:30 things come down to almost nothing, and again Phil starts playing the theme to bring everyone back together. At 6:25 someone (Peter Green?) is playing a haunting, bluesy lead while the rest of the band runs though the theme. At about 6:47 the source switches to an audience recording, which doesn’t sound nearly as good as the soundboard, but the latter is back by 7:52.
Between 8 and 9 minutes the music eases into a kind of slow shuffle. It doesn’t seem like it’s really going anywhere in particular, everyone just grooves along. A new pattern emerges at about 9:30, as Lesh starts playing a bluesy thing on the bass and the band responds. As this subsides, all the guitar players seem tentative, as if feeling each other out. Garcia plays a lot of high chordal stuff, leaving room for others to assert themselves, but they don’t really do so until at about 12:15 another pattern starts to emerge which sounds like a stereotypically 1960s blues-rock jam. This builds in intensity, as everyone seems focused on building grooves rather than the kind of exploration we might encounter if this were just the usual lineup.
This part gets really good, though; one of the guitar players, who seems not to be adequately amplified, starts trading fours with Garcia, and seems to be doing a rather good, if insufficiently audible, job. Pigpen starts to lay on some really nice organ, and the whole thing really gets pumping, at which point Weir steps out a bit, as this sort of groove music is certainly his forte.
Spanish Jam, led by Weir, comes in so suddenly that it seems there might be a cut. The extra hands are an asset in this bit, as they get the idea and put their shoulders to the wheel. Much of the lead playing, apart from Garcia, seems mostly ornamental. Again, the latter trades lines with someone who should be louder, and the band kicks up a fuss. At about 3:20 things are really pumping along, and everyone is being rather assertive.
As we approach the four minute mark, Lesh starts to get fancy, and then Weir takes the lead, with one of the guests doubling him. Garcia is not really audible here, so it gives us a chance to hear some of the other stuff that’s going on. Then there’s a pretty extended stretch with this other guitarist in the lead. At 6:58 Pigpen takes over for a little while, and once again it is nice to hear him back in the organ seat. Then at about 7:40 Garcia gets back in the driver’s seat and they build toward a peak. At about 8:30, someone in the left channel who is not Garcia takes the lead, and this is rather loud and effective. After about a minute the band starts to fall apart around him, though, and then they go into Lovelight.
All of this is very enjoyable, although the addition of guests is less than revelatory. Although the comparison is not really fair here, since they don’t have a lot of Dark Star experience under their belts, the other guitarists are notably reliant on grooves—in contrast to Garcia, their playing doesn’t really tell a story, and that is dispositive in the way this Dark Star plays out. It is a fun jam, but not essential, I don’t think.
What was said:
JSegel:
Plucky start to Dark Star, at a good tempo. Soundboard has a 4 minute gap in the middle. Apparently extra guitarists are involved, though the soundboard tape has no mics on their instruments, so the mix is sort of a Bob-and-Phil perspective with an intermittent Jerry and occasional hints of Peter Green coming in with the blues scales over Dark Star’s mixolydian setup. Later, the song veers off into a Spanish Jam, highlighting Peter Green and Duane Allman.
So, I’m switching to the audience tape.
Ok. Sounds like it begins into a jaunty jam with the band, Jerry and Phil playing co-lead for a while (and some Allman-y licks in there, like when they come back to a theme area at 1:50 it’s in major-key runs…)
Slightly before 3 minutes in a second guitar (Green, I believe) is figuring out some notes, and they drop it down a bit to let the two lead players find their spaces. By 5 minutes it sounds like superimposition of multiple lead guitars— sort of like Greyfolded! I think it’s Jerry doing more sputnik style chord things, and Green still working on scale notes. A minute later it’s quieter and Green is more in sync there, they go back to the Dark Star theme area (or at least Bob and Phil do) and Jerry heads to the melody, it’s slowed a bunch now.
They find a new groove at 8 minutes in, now it sounds like 3 lead guitars, this is nuts. Bob and Phil are grinding it out to keep a steady base. Lots of rolling melodic bits from the lead players. Phil sticks on a riff for a while. Some guitars are playing the classic rock pentatonic in here, but by 11 minutes somebody has discovered a nice G-F#-G-A riff to land it into the mixolydian world again. It’s not a loud jam, for having three lead players, they’re all sort of deferential to each other. At 12 minutes I hear organ coming in, building to some chordal stabs from guitars also, entering a sort of "Batman" groove! Some classic country rock licks, sort of hard to tell who’s who. I think Peter Green has the brightest tone of the guitars. It develops into a trading 4s set of licks before 16 minutes, sounds like Green and Allman, though I think it’s actually Garcia on one of those side, because I doubt he’s the guy stabbing the 7th-#9th "Hendrix" chords.
Nice segue into Spanish Jam, the rhythm section leading it there. They bring it down after a few minutes and the guitars continue playing around, building it back up slowly with all guitars screaming and crying and then organ and bass soloing. Amazing. And still with only one drum set plus the claves. Jerry starts ripping it up at 8 minutes into the Spanish Jam while the others are stretching their wailing notes.
As far as being a version of Dark Star, the song itself is minimally there, no verses and only minor hints at themes though a lot of plugging away at the chord progression ideas. Exciting jam to attend, I’d bet, sort of confusing to listen to after the fact. It goes on jamming into a gigantic 34-minute version of Lovelight coming directly out of the last note of the Spanish Jam.
Mr Bass:
It was such a mess and I'm not sure who was aware of "sitting in" planning if any. Bob Weir was visibly angry.
notesofachord:
Oh my, would I love to see 2/11/70 get cleaned up and released…
If the musicians involved expect royalties, it’ll never happen, but what a classic set!
Mr Bass:
Hmm I was there and thought along with the rest of the audience it was not good at all.
notesofachord:
It sounds great to me on the tape. I’m sorry that you did not have a good time.
Or, apparently, the entirety of the rest of the audience.
Mr Bass:
I think there was confusion on the part of the audience not so much from Duane Allman sitting in (and I think the other musician was Dickie Betts. I don't remember Peter Green being there but he may well have been. I was not close to the stage.) but the specific circumstances of sitting in on Dead psychedelia. If Duane and Dickie had backed Pigpen on Lovelight or something like that I think the audience reaction would have been positive and possibly greatly so. As I mentioned Weir in particular was visibly upset and IIRC sort of brought the whole thing to a conclusion by motioning. The concerts on the weekend by contrast featured zero fooling around. The Allman Brothers did their sets and that was that.
Mr. Rain:
An interesting take!
Peter Green was one of the players; Betts sat this one out apparently.
They did all back Pigpen on Lovelight, by the way; that was the big conclusion. The audience reaction sounds very positive on tape; after Lovelight they don't want it to end. "More! More!" and all that. No way to tell on tape how upset Weir might have been, but he's the player who starts the Spanish jam and Lovelight, perhaps wise choices on his part.
Mr Bass:
The audience members were yelling things at the stage towards the end of the concert but most of it wasn't cheers. I remember someone yelling out "That wasn't the Dead " towards the end of the concert. My memory is that the concert started normally but when the extra guitarists came out it progressively got more chaotic. I did recognize Duane. Is there independent confirmation that Betts was not at the concert? I suppose it is possible I mistook Green for Betts. I did think there were three extra musicians at one point. All I can say is that it was very messy as the extra guitarists were not mic'ed the same way. As for Lovelight maybe that was I vaguely misremembered that the concert veered off from Dark Star and just got noisier. I was not enjoying it that much and neither were friends with me or people around me.
Mr Rain:
I don't hear Betts' style in any of the guitar players, either.
Lovelight is messy & noisy, yeah....but at the same time I think it has more going on than most other half-hour Lovelights. And not as chaotic as you might expect.
Overall I think the big multi-group jam was a grand way to end the show and it's a trip to hear that people in the audience were upset and complaining about it.
Mr Bass:
I guess the upshot is that SHF is always right and the audience hearing it is wrong.
Mr. Rain:
The upshot's just that different listeners have different opinions. This happens to be one of the most classic & beloved tapes of 1970....Phil even wrote a lengthy account of the show in his book as apparently one of the highlights of his life. So it's just a surprise to hear about such an unhappy response from that night...kinda like hearing that people booed at 2/13/70. Five guitar players onstage may have resulted in messy confusion and a poor sound balance, but I'd recommend taking a listen to see if the show still sucks as much as you remember.
Anyway, in the spirit of things, this is the only other remotely negative review I could find from an audience member, written on the Archive:
"I watched this from the front row of the mezzanine (my ticket was for the upper deck but the Fillmore was only about 1/3 full, so I was able to go down to the front of the mezzanine, on the right)...
The jam was incredible, with the guitarists trading licks the way (I later learned) jazz musicians do -- each replaying part of the previous musician's improv and then adding his own extension to it and passing it along. But even so, it seemed to me then, and it seems to me now, that the musicians, because they were not as familiar with each other as the Dead themselves were, played a much simpler kind of riff for each other.
It was great -- incredible -- that they invented music on the fly the way they did. But they did not have the telepathic understanding of each other that the Grateful Dead musicians did, so the music itself was less interesting, less exploratory, than "regular" Dead music.
I was and am completely happy to have been present at this historic concert. But my sense of the Dead having to "play down to" a collection of good, but unfamiliar, musicians was borne out on Friday the 13th, when the Dead followed an unbelievable Allman Brothers set -- which had me thinking that there was no way the Dead could top that, in terms of improvisation and sheer musical chops -- and then they did their Dark Star/ Other One/ Lovelight sequence and just redefined the range of possibilities for improvisational rock music. They took a great, great ABB set and turned it into the motivation to create a transcendent Grateful Dead set that no one but the Dead could ever come close to... Or so it seemed to me at the time."
Mr Bass:
I don't want to derail this thread but again this is kind of a classic SHF attitude that the recording (catch as catch can to the max in this case ) is the testament and all the evidence one needs to make a judgment about how the show actually sounded as opposed to how it sounded in the hall where they were performing. I stated that the audience was the most negative that I have ever experienced at a GD concert. That's not me - that's the audience and it was more than 1/3 filled. I get it that musicians, all zonked out on drugs of one kind or another up on the stage having a good old time together might think it wonderful. I do think the quoted comments are perceptive. But Weir's anger also indicated something went wrong. (But since that is not on the tape it never happened.) We are left with speculation on what it might have been. Perhaps the musicians came out too early and they were supposed to come out later when the material was more suited to them. But then Garcia Lesh and Weir should have sat out and let Duane and Peter Green (and Oakley - the picture jogged my memory) play some numbers backing Pigpen or maybe even a suitable Weir cover or tune. That material doesn't require wild jamming and in fact works best with quite the opposite, something the extra musicians could have done well.
Yes we are all GD fans but it is entirely a different thing to listen to 50 year old house tapes or covert audience tapes to the concert experience. In addition the incense and perfume of fandom invests every little grace note and flub with cosmic artistic importance. When you are dealing with a band at a time that you can actually buy tickets for on the day of the concert by standing in line for 30 minutes, then the hagiography is a bit more limited and you are evaluating the performance in the hall vs the money and time.
Mr. Rain:
Not a thread derail (I don't think), but a pertinent discussion. If you felt the guests ruined the show, that's fine. How many others felt that way, no one except the other people who were there would know. But I think it ties into the general DS discussion precisely because of the difference between the tapes & the experience of being there. I'm sure there are any number of classic Dark Stars where people at the show thought, "oh what a drag, when will this be over?" A valid viewpoint, sure. But a little difficult to incorporate into discussions of the tapes 50 years later. Memories and tapes are often at odds, just like here.
Anyway, I'd just point out that the guests did back Weir's Spanish jam and Pigpen's Lovelight; and for much of Lovelight, Phil did sit out and Jerry stayed in the background and let the guests take over. (And to my recollection, this is a sequence where Weir stands out, even if he was upset...I'd guess the guests made him up his game.) You've said that the audience reaction would have been more positive if they had done Lovelight, and I think this was actually the case. Due to Weir's initiative, they dropped Dark Star pretty quickly and moved on to more guest-suitable jamming.
Now if the sound was bad in the Fillmore or you thought the guests were doing a lousy job mixing it up with the Dead, and couldn't even play a decent Lovelight, there's no changing that, it is what it is. A tape won't make your disappointing experience better. The tapes, as you say, do get privileged in the SHF discussion since they're all current listeners have to go by. But I suppose that by the time this thread gets to the '80s/90s there will be more people who attended those shows who can speak up about those Dark Star experiences in person.
JSegel:
OK, well, Danny Kirwan too. I didn't know that. Was he in before Lovelight? Mick Fleetwood high as a goon. Awesome.
It's a definite moment in time. Regardless of how it sounded/sounds to us now, it happened and was significant as a music-history event, that's for sure.
I just found the Allman's sets from this weekend run are out on Bear's Sonic Journals, listened to a bunch of it. Pretty amazing.
BlueTrane:
From Bill Graham’s memoir:
ALAN ARKUSH: The crew all voted to have the Allmans back. We just requested it so they brought them back six weeks later to play with the Grateful Dead. It was Love, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead. The Allman Brothers were still unheard and unknown. But these were legendary shows. After that weekend, the Allman Brothers were never the same again. Owsley dosed everyone that weekend. That was the night that Fleetwood Mac came down and got dosed.
I have a cassette somewhere of Duane Allman, Peter Green, and Jerry Garcia jamming together. They played "Dark Star" and the Donovan song, "There Is a Mountain." Which the Allmans turned into "Mountain Jam" because of that night. Mick Fleetwood was so heavily dosed that he was sitting on the stage as the audience was filing out with the microphone in his hand. He kept going, "The fu-kin Grateful Dead. The fu-kin' Grateful Dead." We didn't have the heart to turn off the mike. He was saying it like a mantra. "The fu-kin' Grateful Dead!"
MICK FLEETWOOD: I remember playing at Fillmore East, not officially, with the Grateful Dead. On acid. They had the two drummers and I didn't actually drum. I had a tom-tom and a snare drum and I was gooning around on the stage. Peter Green and Danny Kirwan were playing as well. That was one of the crazed nights there.
adamos:
(Audience recording 99152). They kick it off at a pretty good pace. Phil’s bass is booming. Jerry’s tone does sound a little sharper and there’s some jangly rhythm from Bob. There’s a brief swell and then Jerry heads out on a line that’s sharp but has some swing to it too. After two minutes some of (or one of) the other guitars become more noticeable. I’m not sure I’d be able to figure out exactly who’s doing what so I’ll just describe the general feel. It’s like Dark Star is happening and there’s some extra bluesy-ness to the collective accompaniment. As the additional sounds rise up it starts to become more of its own jam although they periodically return to threads of Dark Star to try to give it some direction. The early going sounds pretty good to me; it’s just it’s own thing.
At times the collective sound almost feels like there’s a glow emanating from the stage. They continue to feel things out and and it remains relatively mellow. After five minutes or so there are some cool guitar sounds that rise up in quick spurts and add to the vibe. By six minutes it’s sounding a bit more Dark Star-ish again primarily thanks to Phil and then after 6:30 it becomes like a bluesy variation of the main theme. Bob’s rhythm is also helping to connect it to the known. By 7:20 the Dark Star line is asserted more strongly and they work this a bit while other guitarists layer in their own thing.
After 8 minutes or so the groove transforms and picks up and it’s bluesy Dark Star in a different way. They keep this going for a while and it builds and the Dark Star thread becomes fainter and there’s quite a bit going on, perhaps not fully harmoniously. Maybe they realize this too because things ease up and one of the guest guitars steps more forward for a bit.
After 12 minutes another bluesy groove with some repeating patterns starts to emerge and they rev it up and run with it. Now it’s more of down home rootsy jam; you could sort of equate it to shifting into a thematic jam but there hasn’t been enough Dark Star “proper” for that to really apply. So it’s just a blues jam that evolves from the uncertainty and they latch on to it with gusto, building up a head of steam and rocking it out nice and good.
And then suddenly they pivot into Spanish Jam, almost pausing for a beat or two while the ensemble quickly adjusts, and then they proceed to rock it out nicely. It too is both Spanish jam and it’s own bluesy thing but it’s perhaps something that everyone can adhere to more easily. After a couple of minutes they bring it down for just a bit and then they head right back out with it. It’s a cool jam that eventually gives way to Lovelight.
This one is more of a Dark Star jam that becomes something else but it’s an interesting and enjoyable listen. And even if it doesn’t totally work in all places it still has some good things to offer.
Mr. Rain:
This should probably be called a Dark Star Jam rather than Dark Star, since there are no verses.
The Dead had a mixed record with guests sitting in....the guys on 1969-08-03 knew Dark Star well and fit in naturally. Howard Wales on 1969-08-28, on the other hand, wasn't interested in the Dead's style and stepped all over them. How do tonight's guests fare?
0:00 - Dark Star gets off to a peppy start, with a little guiro. They sound pretty excited -- right away the audience tape strikes me a lot more powerfully, with booming bass. The jam doesn't seem like it's going in a different direction than usual, until...
2:20 - Just as they're about to go into the theme, Peter Green shows up (far left) and takes a lead. On the soundboard he's just twanging off in the distance, but on the audience tape he's right up there with Jerry. He doesn't do too much just yet, just settling in, and trades lines with Jerry in a little back-and-forth. At 3:50 Phil gestures at the theme and they enter a more quiet trance zone with Green blending in. He actually fits in really well, getting quiet & spacey along with them. At 5:40 Phil brings up the theme again, but the others are content to drift quietly along.
6:25 - The Dead commit to the theme while Green takes a mellow lead, adding a little Fleetwood Mac style to the blend. (There's an audience patch starting at 6:54.) At 7:05 Jerry plays the theme fully, which would normally be his signal for the verse, but the jam continues over the Dark Star pattern. (Audience patch ends at 7:50.)
7:50 - Dark Star's turned into a loping groove; percussion's coming in, and there's some crackling. Green starts to sound more assertive; Jerry's just backing him with little fills; but no one's in charge, it's just a group groove. After 9:20 Jerry's playing a slinky lick that Bob responds to. But then they back off, making room for...
10:10 - Duane Allman comes in around this point, but quietly at first. He seems unsure of himself and doesn't add much yet. The music gets quieter while Mickey goes clickety-clack. Someone, probably Gregg, also mans the organ (hard to hear until after 10:40), feeling his way around with a few chords. The drumming starts, but they're adrift now, loose of any structure. The whole affair has been very cautious so far. Jerry & Phil try injecting a little more excitement into it...
12:20 - Bob starts a bold Hendrix-style two-chord pattern, and they organize around that. No other guitarist really takes the lead; Jerry stops playing altogether for a minute while Duane & Peter mingle together; sometimes one or the other will rise above the din but I'm not sure who's who. After 14:20 Jerry starts trading licks with Peter (I think), an effect which doesn't really come off when the other guy's so low in the mix. After 15:30 they're bubbling over, Bob really slashing out the chords while Peter wails away.
16:20/0:00 - Bob brings up the Spanish Jam out of nowhere. The others have no trouble changing pace; the guitarists & the organ easily make the switch and it soon becomes a stomping rock jam. At 1:00 Jerry starts a tentative lead for a minute, which is more of a basic guideline. From 2:00-2:55 they quiet down and drift melodically (there's some cheering on the audience tape), then they bring it back up with some big bass chords. They coast in the groove and Jerry makes himself scarce. At 4:05 Bob starts a line (go, Bob)...
4:20 - Duane takes the lead with a high-pitched solo -- but it's a dual lead with Bob! (Didn't expect Bob to play Dickey Betts' role, did ya?) But Bob soon steps back into chords while Duane wails away, verging on feedback.
5:30 - Duane turns it over to Peter Green who takes a more choppy, stop-and-start solo that kind of goes nowhere and wanders off. At 6:50 the organ swells up and sounds ready to take the lead, but just putters around. The music's going adrift again, so Phil starts a fast bass stomp. Jerry, who's hardly played anything these last few minutes, steps in and whips out some runs. The organ gets swirly, the energy's rising, the Spanish Jam returns...
8:25 - Duane takes another wailing lead -- he's louder & on the right -- bringing the Spanish Jam to a wild close. The others fall away, leaving him hanging out there by himself for a moment, before Bob turns on Lovelight at 9:40.
Things get higher from there, they're still just warming up! But anyway, as a Dark Star, there's not much Dark Star here; after Duane comes on they take a more rockin' groove-oriented direction. As a jam in general, it actually reminds me of the 6/23/74 Dark Star>Spanish Jam, which also starts slowly then gets hotter and blasts off. It would've been nice to hear a full Dark Star with Peter Green, he could easily have handled it. Duane really takes over this Spanish Jam. (I couldn't tell if Kirwan was playing anything before Lovelight.) But it sounds like everyone's careful not to step on each other's toes. Jerry really backs off and just supports the guests, playing much less and mainly giving them the spotlight. Bob Weir's the real MVP here, setting the structure and calling the directions; whenever he stops, the others start flailing.
Archtop:
notesofachord:
Oh my, would I love to see 2/11/70 get cleaned up and released…
If the musicians involved expect royalties, it’ll never happen, but what a classic set!
Mr Bass:
Hmm I was there and thought along with the rest of the audience it was not good at all.
notesofachord:
It sounds great to me on the tape. I’m sorry that you did not have a good time.
Or, apparently, the entirety of the rest of the audience.
Mr Bass:
I think there was confusion on the part of the audience not so much from Duane Allman sitting in (and I think the other musician was Dickie Betts. I don't remember Peter Green being there but he may well have been. I was not close to the stage.) but the specific circumstances of sitting in on Dead psychedelia. If Duane and Dickie had backed Pigpen on Lovelight or something like that I think the audience reaction would have been positive and possibly greatly so. As I mentioned Weir in particular was visibly upset and IIRC sort of brought the whole thing to a conclusion by motioning. The concerts on the weekend by contrast featured zero fooling around. The Allman Brothers did their sets and that was that.
Mr. Rain:
An interesting take!
Peter Green was one of the players; Betts sat this one out apparently.
They did all back Pigpen on Lovelight, by the way; that was the big conclusion. The audience reaction sounds very positive on tape; after Lovelight they don't want it to end. "More! More!" and all that. No way to tell on tape how upset Weir might have been, but he's the player who starts the Spanish jam and Lovelight, perhaps wise choices on his part.
Mr Bass:
The audience members were yelling things at the stage towards the end of the concert but most of it wasn't cheers. I remember someone yelling out "That wasn't the Dead " towards the end of the concert. My memory is that the concert started normally but when the extra guitarists came out it progressively got more chaotic. I did recognize Duane. Is there independent confirmation that Betts was not at the concert? I suppose it is possible I mistook Green for Betts. I did think there were three extra musicians at one point. All I can say is that it was very messy as the extra guitarists were not mic'ed the same way. As for Lovelight maybe that was I vaguely misremembered that the concert veered off from Dark Star and just got noisier. I was not enjoying it that much and neither were friends with me or people around me.
Mr Rain:
I don't hear Betts' style in any of the guitar players, either.
Lovelight is messy & noisy, yeah....but at the same time I think it has more going on than most other half-hour Lovelights. And not as chaotic as you might expect.
Overall I think the big multi-group jam was a grand way to end the show and it's a trip to hear that people in the audience were upset and complaining about it.
Mr Bass:
I guess the upshot is that SHF is always right and the audience hearing it is wrong.
Mr. Rain:
The upshot's just that different listeners have different opinions. This happens to be one of the most classic & beloved tapes of 1970....Phil even wrote a lengthy account of the show in his book as apparently one of the highlights of his life. So it's just a surprise to hear about such an unhappy response from that night...kinda like hearing that people booed at 2/13/70. Five guitar players onstage may have resulted in messy confusion and a poor sound balance, but I'd recommend taking a listen to see if the show still sucks as much as you remember.
Anyway, in the spirit of things, this is the only other remotely negative review I could find from an audience member, written on the Archive:
"I watched this from the front row of the mezzanine (my ticket was for the upper deck but the Fillmore was only about 1/3 full, so I was able to go down to the front of the mezzanine, on the right)...
The jam was incredible, with the guitarists trading licks the way (I later learned) jazz musicians do -- each replaying part of the previous musician's improv and then adding his own extension to it and passing it along. But even so, it seemed to me then, and it seems to me now, that the musicians, because they were not as familiar with each other as the Dead themselves were, played a much simpler kind of riff for each other.
It was great -- incredible -- that they invented music on the fly the way they did. But they did not have the telepathic understanding of each other that the Grateful Dead musicians did, so the music itself was less interesting, less exploratory, than "regular" Dead music.
I was and am completely happy to have been present at this historic concert. But my sense of the Dead having to "play down to" a collection of good, but unfamiliar, musicians was borne out on Friday the 13th, when the Dead followed an unbelievable Allman Brothers set -- which had me thinking that there was no way the Dead could top that, in terms of improvisation and sheer musical chops -- and then they did their Dark Star/ Other One/ Lovelight sequence and just redefined the range of possibilities for improvisational rock music. They took a great, great ABB set and turned it into the motivation to create a transcendent Grateful Dead set that no one but the Dead could ever come close to... Or so it seemed to me at the time."
Mr Bass:
I don't want to derail this thread but again this is kind of a classic SHF attitude that the recording (catch as catch can to the max in this case ) is the testament and all the evidence one needs to make a judgment about how the show actually sounded as opposed to how it sounded in the hall where they were performing. I stated that the audience was the most negative that I have ever experienced at a GD concert. That's not me - that's the audience and it was more than 1/3 filled. I get it that musicians, all zonked out on drugs of one kind or another up on the stage having a good old time together might think it wonderful. I do think the quoted comments are perceptive. But Weir's anger also indicated something went wrong. (But since that is not on the tape it never happened.) We are left with speculation on what it might have been. Perhaps the musicians came out too early and they were supposed to come out later when the material was more suited to them. But then Garcia Lesh and Weir should have sat out and let Duane and Peter Green (and Oakley - the picture jogged my memory) play some numbers backing Pigpen or maybe even a suitable Weir cover or tune. That material doesn't require wild jamming and in fact works best with quite the opposite, something the extra musicians could have done well.
Yes we are all GD fans but it is entirely a different thing to listen to 50 year old house tapes or covert audience tapes to the concert experience. In addition the incense and perfume of fandom invests every little grace note and flub with cosmic artistic importance. When you are dealing with a band at a time that you can actually buy tickets for on the day of the concert by standing in line for 30 minutes, then the hagiography is a bit more limited and you are evaluating the performance in the hall vs the money and time.
Mr. Rain:
Not a thread derail (I don't think), but a pertinent discussion. If you felt the guests ruined the show, that's fine. How many others felt that way, no one except the other people who were there would know. But I think it ties into the general DS discussion precisely because of the difference between the tapes & the experience of being there. I'm sure there are any number of classic Dark Stars where people at the show thought, "oh what a drag, when will this be over?" A valid viewpoint, sure. But a little difficult to incorporate into discussions of the tapes 50 years later. Memories and tapes are often at odds, just like here.
Anyway, I'd just point out that the guests did back Weir's Spanish jam and Pigpen's Lovelight; and for much of Lovelight, Phil did sit out and Jerry stayed in the background and let the guests take over. (And to my recollection, this is a sequence where Weir stands out, even if he was upset...I'd guess the guests made him up his game.) You've said that the audience reaction would have been more positive if they had done Lovelight, and I think this was actually the case. Due to Weir's initiative, they dropped Dark Star pretty quickly and moved on to more guest-suitable jamming.
Now if the sound was bad in the Fillmore or you thought the guests were doing a lousy job mixing it up with the Dead, and couldn't even play a decent Lovelight, there's no changing that, it is what it is. A tape won't make your disappointing experience better. The tapes, as you say, do get privileged in the SHF discussion since they're all current listeners have to go by. But I suppose that by the time this thread gets to the '80s/90s there will be more people who attended those shows who can speak up about those Dark Star experiences in person.
JSegel:
OK, well, Danny Kirwan too. I didn't know that. Was he in before Lovelight? Mick Fleetwood high as a goon. Awesome.
It's a definite moment in time. Regardless of how it sounded/sounds to us now, it happened and was significant as a music-history event, that's for sure.
I just found the Allman's sets from this weekend run are out on Bear's Sonic Journals, listened to a bunch of it. Pretty amazing.
BlueTrane:
From Bill Graham’s memoir:
ALAN ARKUSH: The crew all voted to have the Allmans back. We just requested it so they brought them back six weeks later to play with the Grateful Dead. It was Love, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead. The Allman Brothers were still unheard and unknown. But these were legendary shows. After that weekend, the Allman Brothers were never the same again. Owsley dosed everyone that weekend. That was the night that Fleetwood Mac came down and got dosed.
I have a cassette somewhere of Duane Allman, Peter Green, and Jerry Garcia jamming together. They played "Dark Star" and the Donovan song, "There Is a Mountain." Which the Allmans turned into "Mountain Jam" because of that night. Mick Fleetwood was so heavily dosed that he was sitting on the stage as the audience was filing out with the microphone in his hand. He kept going, "The fu-kin Grateful Dead. The fu-kin' Grateful Dead." We didn't have the heart to turn off the mike. He was saying it like a mantra. "The fu-kin' Grateful Dead!"
MICK FLEETWOOD: I remember playing at Fillmore East, not officially, with the Grateful Dead. On acid. They had the two drummers and I didn't actually drum. I had a tom-tom and a snare drum and I was gooning around on the stage. Peter Green and Danny Kirwan were playing as well. That was one of the crazed nights there.
adamos:
(Audience recording 99152). They kick it off at a pretty good pace. Phil’s bass is booming. Jerry’s tone does sound a little sharper and there’s some jangly rhythm from Bob. There’s a brief swell and then Jerry heads out on a line that’s sharp but has some swing to it too. After two minutes some of (or one of) the other guitars become more noticeable. I’m not sure I’d be able to figure out exactly who’s doing what so I’ll just describe the general feel. It’s like Dark Star is happening and there’s some extra bluesy-ness to the collective accompaniment. As the additional sounds rise up it starts to become more of its own jam although they periodically return to threads of Dark Star to try to give it some direction. The early going sounds pretty good to me; it’s just it’s own thing.
At times the collective sound almost feels like there’s a glow emanating from the stage. They continue to feel things out and and it remains relatively mellow. After five minutes or so there are some cool guitar sounds that rise up in quick spurts and add to the vibe. By six minutes it’s sounding a bit more Dark Star-ish again primarily thanks to Phil and then after 6:30 it becomes like a bluesy variation of the main theme. Bob’s rhythm is also helping to connect it to the known. By 7:20 the Dark Star line is asserted more strongly and they work this a bit while other guitarists layer in their own thing.
After 8 minutes or so the groove transforms and picks up and it’s bluesy Dark Star in a different way. They keep this going for a while and it builds and the Dark Star thread becomes fainter and there’s quite a bit going on, perhaps not fully harmoniously. Maybe they realize this too because things ease up and one of the guest guitars steps more forward for a bit.
After 12 minutes another bluesy groove with some repeating patterns starts to emerge and they rev it up and run with it. Now it’s more of down home rootsy jam; you could sort of equate it to shifting into a thematic jam but there hasn’t been enough Dark Star “proper” for that to really apply. So it’s just a blues jam that evolves from the uncertainty and they latch on to it with gusto, building up a head of steam and rocking it out nice and good.
And then suddenly they pivot into Spanish Jam, almost pausing for a beat or two while the ensemble quickly adjusts, and then they proceed to rock it out nicely. It too is both Spanish jam and it’s own bluesy thing but it’s perhaps something that everyone can adhere to more easily. After a couple of minutes they bring it down for just a bit and then they head right back out with it. It’s a cool jam that eventually gives way to Lovelight.
This one is more of a Dark Star jam that becomes something else but it’s an interesting and enjoyable listen. And even if it doesn’t totally work in all places it still has some good things to offer.
Mr. Rain:
This should probably be called a Dark Star Jam rather than Dark Star, since there are no verses.
The Dead had a mixed record with guests sitting in....the guys on 1969-08-03 knew Dark Star well and fit in naturally. Howard Wales on 1969-08-28, on the other hand, wasn't interested in the Dead's style and stepped all over them. How do tonight's guests fare?
0:00 - Dark Star gets off to a peppy start, with a little guiro. They sound pretty excited -- right away the audience tape strikes me a lot more powerfully, with booming bass. The jam doesn't seem like it's going in a different direction than usual, until...
2:20 - Just as they're about to go into the theme, Peter Green shows up (far left) and takes a lead. On the soundboard he's just twanging off in the distance, but on the audience tape he's right up there with Jerry. He doesn't do too much just yet, just settling in, and trades lines with Jerry in a little back-and-forth. At 3:50 Phil gestures at the theme and they enter a more quiet trance zone with Green blending in. He actually fits in really well, getting quiet & spacey along with them. At 5:40 Phil brings up the theme again, but the others are content to drift quietly along.
6:25 - The Dead commit to the theme while Green takes a mellow lead, adding a little Fleetwood Mac style to the blend. (There's an audience patch starting at 6:54.) At 7:05 Jerry plays the theme fully, which would normally be his signal for the verse, but the jam continues over the Dark Star pattern. (Audience patch ends at 7:50.)
7:50 - Dark Star's turned into a loping groove; percussion's coming in, and there's some crackling. Green starts to sound more assertive; Jerry's just backing him with little fills; but no one's in charge, it's just a group groove. After 9:20 Jerry's playing a slinky lick that Bob responds to. But then they back off, making room for...
10:10 - Duane Allman comes in around this point, but quietly at first. He seems unsure of himself and doesn't add much yet. The music gets quieter while Mickey goes clickety-clack. Someone, probably Gregg, also mans the organ (hard to hear until after 10:40), feeling his way around with a few chords. The drumming starts, but they're adrift now, loose of any structure. The whole affair has been very cautious so far. Jerry & Phil try injecting a little more excitement into it...
12:20 - Bob starts a bold Hendrix-style two-chord pattern, and they organize around that. No other guitarist really takes the lead; Jerry stops playing altogether for a minute while Duane & Peter mingle together; sometimes one or the other will rise above the din but I'm not sure who's who. After 14:20 Jerry starts trading licks with Peter (I think), an effect which doesn't really come off when the other guy's so low in the mix. After 15:30 they're bubbling over, Bob really slashing out the chords while Peter wails away.
16:20/0:00 - Bob brings up the Spanish Jam out of nowhere. The others have no trouble changing pace; the guitarists & the organ easily make the switch and it soon becomes a stomping rock jam. At 1:00 Jerry starts a tentative lead for a minute, which is more of a basic guideline. From 2:00-2:55 they quiet down and drift melodically (there's some cheering on the audience tape), then they bring it back up with some big bass chords. They coast in the groove and Jerry makes himself scarce. At 4:05 Bob starts a line (go, Bob)...
4:20 - Duane takes the lead with a high-pitched solo -- but it's a dual lead with Bob! (Didn't expect Bob to play Dickey Betts' role, did ya?) But Bob soon steps back into chords while Duane wails away, verging on feedback.
5:30 - Duane turns it over to Peter Green who takes a more choppy, stop-and-start solo that kind of goes nowhere and wanders off. At 6:50 the organ swells up and sounds ready to take the lead, but just putters around. The music's going adrift again, so Phil starts a fast bass stomp. Jerry, who's hardly played anything these last few minutes, steps in and whips out some runs. The organ gets swirly, the energy's rising, the Spanish Jam returns...
8:25 - Duane takes another wailing lead -- he's louder & on the right -- bringing the Spanish Jam to a wild close. The others fall away, leaving him hanging out there by himself for a moment, before Bob turns on Lovelight at 9:40.
Things get higher from there, they're still just warming up! But anyway, as a Dark Star, there's not much Dark Star here; after Duane comes on they take a more rockin' groove-oriented direction. As a jam in general, it actually reminds me of the 6/23/74 Dark Star>Spanish Jam, which also starts slowly then gets hotter and blasts off. It would've been nice to hear a full Dark Star with Peter Green, he could easily have handled it. Duane really takes over this Spanish Jam. (I couldn't tell if Kirwan was playing anything before Lovelight.) But it sounds like everyone's careful not to step on each other's toes. Jerry really backs off and just supports the guests, playing much less and mainly giving them the spotlight. Bob Weir's the real MVP here, setting the structure and calling the directions; whenever he stops, the others start flailing.
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