106. 1970-09-17

145891 Fillmore East 26:40 (26:28)
Main theme at 3:03 and 4:01.
First verse at 4:22.
Sputnik at 10:29.
Bright Star at 16:45.
Soulful Strut at 17:42.
Main theme at 24:27.
Second verse at 25:05.
Goes into St Stephen.

A cry for Alligator is heard; many is the time that song will be mentioned prior to a Dark Star. Again we start briskly and with purpose, but the recording does not sound great at first. At 1:50 the band sidesteps into an alternate reality; they go off on a droney bit that takes the jam away down a side street. But at 2:47 Garcia starts in on a Bright Star bit that brings it around to the theme. They wander off a little but then come back to theme rather promptly, and so to the verse.

Space has been bleeding back into the bit between it and the verse lately; when they get to space proper, there are some elephant noises, then a cymbal crash, and the audience is appreciative; I’m not sure if there was a visual component to this that helped get their attention. For the most part, this space isn’t a continuous flow so much as a bunch of weirdness, it seems. But as we get to the ten minute mark it starts swelling in, with volume knob maneuvers starting to glue things together a bit more. By 10:29 Garcia’s Sputnik licks are audible and getting louder, which is a pretty standard route out of space at this point.

This time Sputnik settles into a harp-like pattern from Weir that we’ve heard before, and Garcia starts a high, piercing line that indicates the start of the middle jam. His playing gathers momentum as the band lays down a two chord pattern, and by 15:00 or so they are hitting a peak. They circle about a bit, and at 16:45 they hit again with Garcia playing Bright Star. Coming down the other side, they seem to be struggling a bit to get into Soulful Strut.

When they do hit it, the tempo is very brisk. Listen to Garcia’s licks at 20:00; he gets some good ones in. He seems to have exhausted the fund by around 20:45, though, but Weir keeps on with Soulful Strut a bit longer, and this section feels kind of aimless. Then when they seem to be getting out of it, Garcia prolongs it a little more (21:45) until they sort of crash; the audience gives them a solid cheer as they wind down into a spacey little jam that seems rather unique. By 24:00 they are pedaling and seem almost about to kick off another modular jam, but finally Garcia throws out the main theme and they latch on at a rather quick tempo with the audience clapping along. They don’t try to slow it down this time before bashing right into the verse.

The sound quality makes it difficult to evaluate this rendition, insofar as moments that seem aimless or tentative may just be partly buried. In any event, they get in lots of really good jamming along the way, and even your most discerning Head will find something to appreciate here.


What was said:

JSegel:


After a Star-less summer of almost all country music, we’re getting into some space again here at the Fillmore East on a four night run. This Dark Star is toward the end of the first evening.

Shakers for pulse, with a little settling in in the first minute or so, it gets comfortable in its seat. Sparse notes from lead guitar, accented by Bob in between phrases, with Phil bubbling underneath and sending it forward. JG finds a feedback note and holds it as an eddy in the current for a bit. A quiet brighter star area gets back to the main theme, and then off again with more conviction by the three minute area. When they bring it down and back to a thematic area before the verse, it’s a little disjunct, but verse 1 come sin and the audience claps. It’s a casual and mild delivery, leading to a slower outro. I note that nobody is ornamenting the spaces in the refrain after “Shall we go” and “through”, they are just held notes, no bedoopbedoop no nothing.

As soon as the new section starts, it falls apart and suddenly there are loud, weird screaming sounds like the bird sounds in the middle of Pink Floyd’s Echoes, and then into percussion sweeps and small noises. Some clapping, regardless. It goes into space, arhythmic and atonal. Some guitar hits, a few of those bird-like sweeps but at a more controlled volume, playing alongside some scraped strings. It’s sort of like a buzz-whistle, maybe? Still getting volume swell bass notes and then eventually volume swell guitar notes, which don’t develop but instead JG comes in again with a soft Sputnik at about 10:45, but it doesn’t hold together rhythmically and falls back into the sea of sound.

Repetitive melodic bits come out of the next rise, and they grow into a slow Dark Star jam, and people love this. It’s fairly slow and playing notes around the root chord rather than ever really staying on that A. It moves forward with repeating riffs occasionally, deliberately building slowly and Jerry takes off a couple time, but comes back to the steady upward-moving statements.

We’re maybe heading toward a slow Tighten Up, and Bob has that A7-G7 thing going on, but the tempo is still pretty slow—though the claves are trying to energize the mix. It settles into more of a Dark Star jam again. They are using those steadily climbing statement against each other to build to a Bright Star (a slow one) and coming down the other side of that wave Bob speeds it up into the actual Soulful Strut jam. Some serious riffing going on from Jerry and he gets down in this groove. The drums are in and coming along with him. In the middle of the 19th minute it sounds like he’s chasing some specific melody for a while, and that continues off and on over the next couple minutes.

They are really holding on this jam for a long time, bringing it down in the 22nd minute, to get somewhere else, and an odd and abrupt switch to sets of melodic sixths, similar to the verse outro, but then it forms a placid pond of tones, from which JG does a few of those post Sputnik stabs, but they don’t bring it out of the area the first time, and it builds again with a wave of volume up and down and then the Dark Star theme pops up and they’re back in the song. Nice! Like the opposite of how it usually blows away into the middle jam section. People clap along, verse 2 comes in at 25 minutes, more upbeat than verse 1, more action on lines two and three, especially the climbing lines under line three.

Nice vocals on the outro madrigal, and nicely played outro counterpoint, into the chords that lead to a somewhat slow and short St Stephen and into Good Lovin’ with drum jams within it.

Really decent version, interesting space (especially with that weird whistle or whatever that was) that held on for a long time. Long “Strut” jam with some ripping playing from Jerry, chasing some specific melody only he could envision.


adamos:


Nice vibe at the outset, at least as can be heard at a distance on the recording. Jangly rhythm from Bob; Phil can be partially made out underneath; Jerry's line wanders out in pretty simplicity. The interweaving gets more intricate and then after 1:50 it sounds like Jerry is holding a note for an extended period while Phil and Bob continue to work away. This shifts them into a deeper zone like they are exploring underground caverns. Jerry breaks upward with gentle touches of Bright Star and then shifts into the main theme. From there he starts spiraling outwards in emotive fashion before they ease back to the theme again and on to the first verse.

After the verse there's just a brief reset before feedback and other spacey sounds start oozing in. However the subtly is suddenly broken by loud squawking sounds that bring almost everything else to a temporary halt. There are some cymbal clashes and the crowd applauds the oddity in the subsequent silence. Gong washes come in followed by subtle guitar weirdness and faint bell tolling. They linger in this zone making various freaky sounds, subtle at first but a high, fast zingy sound catches someone's fancy. After that things build a little and there's a humming buzz underneath a volume knob soundscape and lots of gong or cymbal washes. Then around 10:25 the Sputnik line starts to slowly emerge.

Sputnik gains in volume as it picks up some momentum. They opt not to fully flesh it out but it still sounds cool and it leads the way out to the jam. They take their time filling it out and it slowly blooms. Jerry is working sharp, winding lines atop the collective textures. Phil is distant on the recording but you can still hear him interweaving nicely. They work in this space for a good spell. By 13:40 or so they rev it up by adding more edge to the repeating patterns and then suddenly shift back into a smoother approach only to start building it back up again. After 14:30 it's edgy again and then Jerry gathers for a moment before reaching upwards strongly around 15:00. From there they level out the groove for a bit before making an ascent to Bright Star. Jerry's sharp highs come across a little screechy on the recording at times but you can still feel the power as he reaches upwards.

There are hints of Soulful Strut in Bob's rhythm even during the ascension and then as they come down they slowly work their way there. Perhaps not the smoothest transition but it arrives to cheers from the crowd and moves quickly. I'd argue that the speed takes a little away from its characteristic uplifting vibe (this could also be due to the recording not capturing the full, rich sound) but it's still really nice. They keep it going and it starts to soar a bit more. Eventually it seems to run its course and they linger in a transitional zone for a bit with continued touches of Soulful Strut.

By 22:00 they bring it down further, the crowd cheers, and then they get into this nice mellow groove that sounds delicate and pretty. This is a really nice interlude. They take their time with it and then around 24:00 it feels like they are ramping up for a final push but they pull it back and then slip into the main theme and on to the second verse.

It's a good version with some interesting passages and the ending adds something unique to the ongoing story. I also agree that the recording makes it more difficult to get a full picture of the collective performance.


Mr. Rain:


Starts off heavy. It's clear right away that this recording is....not great. But it does give this Dark Star a certain atmosphere, like it's coming from some mythical druid ceremony. And the inevitable guiro is accounted for!
Very nice opening jam, dynamic & probing, which seems all too short. I'd be happy if they put off the verse for another ten minutes, but here it is already.

The little "we're going to space" flourish after the verse does seem to be getting more ostentatious lately. (Although maybe it's more of a flashback to the mid-'69 variety, which was also fairly noisy.) Space itself is very vivid and full of strange noises...they're broadening their weirdness repertoire to include all manner of honks and squeaks. The audience sure seems to dig it! I think it's a great space myself, it has a sometimes comical aspect that contrasts with the overall serious funereal mood....you've got Phil grinding his cello and Jerry tolling his bell next to some wacky whistle-blowing. The texture gets thicker by 10 minutes, and I love how Jerry's Sputnik blends in with the feedback for a really spooky stretch.

Then by 11:20 they're pointing the way out....within 30 seconds a bright new Dark Star jam has been born. The crowd is impressed! They're keeping the tempo slow...it almost sounds like a good slow-dance number (a rumba, perhaps), and they stick with it for a while. Mickey's claves are ringing out. The band's getting a lot of mileage out of this -- Jerry flips out after 14:45. They're inching their way to Soulful Strut, the drummers ready to go, but first Jerry has a Bright Star to deliver, which fits in nicely at the slow pace and serves as a fine conclusion for this section.

Now it's time to speed up for takeoff into Soulful Strut, which they take at quite a rapid trot. The recording quality seems to be diminishing, but nonetheless this sounds like a hot version, drums a-gallop. (They might be taking it too fast, but Jerry isn't fazed.) After 20:35 Jerry bows out for a little bit but the other guys keep Soulful Strut alive & kickin', not wanting to let it go; when he comes back they end it with some stirring chords. The crowd is loving this.

Then comes my favorite part, after 22:20 they get into this mysterious tranquil floaty zone, all slow & brooding again. Very unique passage....but by 24:20 it has run its course and Jerry brings up the main theme, which sounds like an old friend showing up. And of course the crowd claps at this too! -- this is sure an appreciative audience. The mood is jubilant when Jerry sings the verse, and the audience can hardly contain themselves at the end.

It's striking what a variety of moods there is, this Dark Star covers a lot of territory. Some dance-floor rhythms here, some mystical mystery there... It's nice to hear the audience constantly egging on the band too.