98. 1970-02-13

youtube Fillmore East 29:31
Main theme at 3:40 and 8:38.
First verse at 9:00.
Feelin’ Groovy at 18:19.
Bright Star at 24:15 and 25:08.
Main theme at 27:08.
Second verse at 27:48.

The trend of playing an introduction rather closely based on the Dark Star theme continues. Garcia scatters allusions to the main theme and Bright Star throughout the early going. Every time the music strays away, it comes back in a way that seems to refer to the theme. The brighter, snappy tone is back from last time. Everything seems to pop tonight, and Garcia is particularly inspired, with a broader than usual palette.

At 5:54 Garcia bends a major 7th and launches into the verse melody—sort of. The main ingredients of Dark Star are alluded to, more than stated, until finally at 8:38 Garcia launches the theme. This is rightly treated as a denouement of sorts, as the first verse follows right on its heels. The verse is delivered very gently tonight, and we still have not heard very much in the way of drumming.

There is a nice little flourish after the verse that starts to veer into E minor, which sends us into space. This time the band exploits to the fullest their ability to take it down to almost nothing without destroying the consistency of the piece. As it builds back up, it gets melodic almost immediately this time, then decoheres into another minimalist backwater. Then at 14:52, Garcia starts spinning the line that will lead them into the middle jam, and Lesh and Weir soon join him. Now there are drums. Weir starts playing a funky rhythm and the jam emerges.

By around 17:00 another pattern has emerged, something vaguely Latin, and maybe a little menacing. Unexpectedly, Lesh lays in a bouncy line as Garcia and Weir turn up the intensity. Jerry’s line starting at 18:03 is harsh and keening…but suddenly Feelin’ Groovy is in the offing, and Weir officially starts it at 18:19. At 19:30 this gets oozy and hazy, and the Feelin’ Groovy pattern is lost as another distinctive jam takes its place, with Garcia as the instigator this time. This is one of the greatest instances of a thematic jam that is not (apparently) based on a pre-given theme, and they hang on to it until it’s no longer needed.

A little after the 22 minute line we find the band seemingly driving back toward Dark Star, with Weir trilling along beside Garcia as it comes to a peak. Then at 22:29, they step back and Garcia starts playing a Sputnik-type pattern, although it is sufficiently altered that I haven’t listed it as Sputnik. This comes to a head at 23:27 when Garcia starts pushing in the direction of Bright Star, bringing the band back into a Dark Star pattern. The music marches triumphantly toward its conclusion, and there is a little peak, then a retrenchment, a little more Bright Star, and a theme section where Garcia plays an ever intensifying pattern and we are brought to another peak. At 26:35, Garcia flips to the bridge pickup and spins some astonishing lines as the band takes it over the top. When the theme comes at 27:08 it is played ferociously a few times, then they bring it down and head to the verse.

It is not hard to understand why this is seen as a career highlight. The band is completely masterful here, without a wrong or even tentative step to be found at any point. As Dark Star develops, it (perhaps necessarily) goes through periods of exploration where the execution is not always entirely convincing. This is not one of those—everything they’ve learned to do is on full display, and executed with confident abandon. Certainly a watershed Dark Star.


What was said:

adamos:


“Alligator?” It starts crisp and lively out of the gate. Phil, Jerry and Bob weave familiar patterns and the guiro is prominent. I agree on the brighter tone which stands out more when Jerry goes high. They move with decent pace yet patient enough to give everything space to come through. Jerry shifts lower and then higher again and the beautiful wandering continues. It’s a lovely, symphonic opening. At times his guitar is gently crying into the night, complimented well by Bobby’s rhythm. When they hit the theme at 3:40 it feels majestic. Some spiraling, climbing lines follow and they continue forth with moving, dynamic interplay. Around eight minutes Jerry’s guitar almost sounds like a violin. They return to the main theme and quickly move on to the first verse. The gentle vocal effectively conveys the feeling of what proceeded it.

After the verse Phil and Bob come in with vigor setting up a powerful transition into space. Gong, cymbal washes and some brief bell tolling set the landscape and then they drift into near quiet, save the gong. Various freaky sounds emerge; a subtle, melodic line plays underneath as they find their way through the void. Some insect-y fluttering sounds step forth and then Jerry returns to a crisper line which signals the way out. The others follow and a jam starts to emerge.

It’s a nice repeating groove with some bite from Weir. They work it for a spell then briefly ease up and keep building. The jam morphs somewhat and gets stronger with Jerry, Bob and Phil all bringing it; percussion as well. By 17:30 they are rising to a peak and the music swells and Phil is swinging and then at 18:03 Jerry bursts out with a high, sharp line and then they move into Feelin’ Groovy. After a couple of minutes FG evolves into another jam that feels like a natural continuation but has more rev. Phil is swinging again and Jerry and Bob weave together nicely. This builds until around 21:20 when they ease up and briefly regroup and start heading back to Dark Star territory, maybe with just a touch of TOO along the way.

After 22:00 they ascend to a brief but really nice peak and then ease up, out of which comes the Sputnik line. It starts to build and Phil is bouncing around it with the drums accenting and Bob comes in too. However it doesn’t continue to rise up; instead they keep it in a lower range and it becomes its own variation. This continues on for a bit and then around 23:35 it shifts back into a Dark Star groove and by 24:15 Jerry hits Bright Star without much of an ascension prior.

They stay up in this space for a bit, speeding up with some repeating patterns then downshifting towards the theme before Jerry decides to take it back to Bright Star again. It’s more of a swinging groove than a spectacular peak but it’s done to good effect. They slip back into the Dark Star groove and then start building that up, coming back around and revving it up and Jerry bursts out with a strong line and everyone unleashes for a powerful finish. They downshift into the main theme but are still moving with pace and edge, after which they slow it down further and proceed to the second verse.

A wonderful Dark Star with a reputation that is warranted.




Mr. Rain:



Jerry feels like stretching out in this one! The opening jam has the normal theme>digression>theme>etc. cycle, but this time Jerry explores little side-paths at length, making this an unusually long opening for the year (when they were usually keeping this part concise). They keep getting quieter as it goes, until it almost drops into space before the verse....and, probably not intentionally, the speed gets slower too....at the start they're at 77 beats per minute, but by the verse they're at 64 bpm. In a way it's like they're receding deeper into a meditation state, with the verse a final Zen recitation before they become one with the universe.

Nice slide into space as the music lets go. Not much happens in space, it's very minimal...some solar winds, a little percussion. (Is this Pigpen returning on congas, in the most unexpected spot?) Jerry might not be feeling like sound effects tonight since he already starts a nice melodic bit at 12:50, which blends well with the strokes of weirdness from the others. This fades away, but before long they're entering the real jam, which comes together really quickly: at 14:30 there's nothing, 30 seconds later they've found a group rhythm.
After a while some claves come in and I can sense a little flamenco feel in here. Will they return to the Spanish Jam again? But then after 17:10 Jerry rings out some mighty chords, and starts wailing away in a piercing tone....for 10 seconds! Then cools off again...and like a plunge into the water, they enter Feelin' Groovy, which is very mellow and happy-sounding. (It's been pointed out that Jerry actually plays the melody line of the original Feelin' Groovy...for a few bars, anyway.) At 19:20 Jerry starts what seems at first like a casual little hook, but then keeps repeating it over and over, developing it with elaborations until 21:15 (by then it starts sounding like Cosmic Charlie!).

It seems like they've reached a grand conclusion, but they start anew, fluttering up to a little mini-peak at 22 minutes. Dark Star's creeping back in, and our friend Sputnik returns. (I'd call this a minor Sputnik even if it's not quite the same notes as the classic versions -- this is one of the Sons of Sputnik they've been doing lately -- the band gets a little wacky which is a sign of a true Sputnik.) Doesn't last long though...they slide into the theme, Jerry at his prettiest, taking us to a laid-back Bright Star.
The band's in the Dark Star theme, bringing us home, but Jerry's in no hurry....he casually starts Bright Star again! At 25:30 he introduces what seems like a little filler lick, but, once again, plays it over and over until 26:30 as the band builds up with him. Then boom, he's wailing again....til he cuts it short and plops into the main theme again after 27:05. Time to quiet down for the verse.
This was mainly a calm, quiet, dignified Dark Star, more into soft relaxation than the hard-edged rock & roll jams they get into in other Dark Stars around this time. More than he usually does, Jerry indulges in repeating little earworm melodies multiple times. Also Jerry's mostly very restrained here, so the moments when he does turn it up stand out more.

JSegel:


After an electric and then a really nice acoustic set with mostly just the guitarists, they do Uncle John’s Band with Phil and some claves, then let Pigpen do a solo of Katie Mae. In the minute or so changeover from this, Phil already hints at the Dark Star intro, they eventually start it, with a nice feeling to the groove, (loud guiro, though. Very ’68.) Jerry is into some new ideas right at the intro. He’s got a nice control of the Stratocaster tone gamut now, it seems, which is great. This is nicely recorded (Bear) with all parts audible and the jam is relaxed but creative, a great combo. Waves of intensity come and go, volume is up and down with all players in the flow. Bobby tries out some nice ‘second chords’ before it comes to the theme before the 4 minute mark, and they go off again with some chromatic and then modal areas, long fluid runs from Jerry. Phil comes along after a while too. They are able to hear each other well even in the lower volume areas, so this goes on, a few eddies in the flow, netted notes that build and let go. At 6 minutes some stretching notes into quiet pools, brought down so low that we can hear some tapping on the strings.

Phil comes up a bit with the theme, while there are rubbed strings from Jerry, and some volume swells. Very delicate. At 8:20 they start to build it up again, to the theme and then on to a delicate verse at almost 9 minutes in.

Nice verse delivery, the cymbals crash the second line, lead guitar doubling the vocal melody. A relatively sedate reading, but beautiful.

And the drums signal the counterpoint and they start the Transitive Nightfall, the bell-toll string is picked up and the cymbals crash, the groove falls away with some bell-tolling, crying notes, into space space space.

Everything dies away, leaving some metal percussion noises and small feedbacky notes, cymbals rolling up and down quietly. Then we have a section of shorter sounds from percussion and bass strings, some hand drums even (Pigpen? He wasn’t on organ.) Some notes come in from a tone-rolled-off guitar, odd sounds from bass strings and feedback bits from Bob. JG starts some modal notes, interspersed with Bobby rocking a slide or the whammy bar on the strings. A melody slowly emerges with side stick drums in a groove at 15 minutes or so and it builds to a groove, Bobby playing with a G7 as the second/other chord after the A, so an F natural in there. Nonetheless, with that odd modal element it’s very much using the Dark Star groove and hinting at Spanish Jam simultaneously. Jerry builds it to a chordal plateau of sound before coming in strong with lead stuff, whereupon it suddenly changes to the Feeling Groovy riff/progression. Or a type of it, the chords come at wider rhythmic intervals. Plus they’re using the swing to move toward emphasizing the 6/8 feel at times. Building this to a funny chord progression for a while, sort of like the Stones “Last Time” before settling more into a heavy Dark Star, which breaks off into more noodles from JG and PL, that almost head toward The Other One.

At 22:30 Jerry starts a Sputnik! Phil is totally jamming on it, even with Jerry’s volume ups and downs. A minute later it lands back on Dark Star, to a slow Bright Star.

We *could* of course enter verse 2 territory now, but it goes on to a quieter thematic jam, with both drum sets but mid-tempo and volume. This wave builds slowly to an incredible peak at a newer Brighter Star with long runs up to it, back down and we’re finally getting set up for verse 2 at 27:40.

Nicely and perfectly pitched vocal lines from Jerry, with strong and feeling delivery.

Outro vocals are decent, all present with elongated notes, and a perfect counterpoint outro into the static chords, which land on the Cryptical introduction.


A really great version, a half-hour long and followed by a half-hour That’s It For the Other One (with all condiments), then a half-hour Lovelight. Dang. I (also) think this is one of the best recent Dark Star versions, the modal shifts in the central jam are cool, and not really the same ones used before. The band is playing together and seem to all be there, firing on all cylinders, good sounds coming out. The exploration and discovery in the improvisation is obviously piquing the players’ interest as they play it and they have the energy to keep it up. This weekend must have been fun for everyone involved.

Archtop:


I'm a bit behind all of a sudden. 2/13/70 has hit and now I'm in. This was on one of my very first tapes in January 1982 in snowy, cold Worcester, MA over holiday break. The tracks that got me on the bus were from 4/29/71 (especially the Alligator Jam --> Road) and the second set from 12/1/79. My friend (Curtis, if you are out there, thank you 1,000,000 x over) said, regarding 2/13/70: "You need this. You're still digesting, but you'll need it sooner or later."

Needless to say, I put this on at once back in my dorm room. A nearly empty building, snow coming down like a banshee and nothing to do for 10 days. This ripped my brain from my skull. I was a Yes, ELP and Rush fan, and I thought I knew progressive music, but this was a whole different kettle of fish. I couldn't completely comprehend it, but I loved it. What I find fascinating about the 2/13/70 Star is that it's a perfect companion to the 9/19/70 Star, but the versions in betwixt don't really have that glue thing. Maybe I need to relisten, as it were.

9/19/70 takes this Star to another level. But the 2/13 version is one of their best. I promise to be more analytical moving forward, but this visceral memory is really my input for now.