141099 Boston 14:35
Main theme at 4:01.
First verse at 4:27.
Sputnik at 7:25.
Main theme at 12:44.
Second verse at 13:19.
Goes into St. Stephen.
Ned Lagin sits in, although I didn't really notice him until others pointed it out. This is the first Dark Star with one drummer, as Mickey Hart left the band after 1971-02-18.
Phil Lesh is quite loud here, and sounds somewhat different. They start out with a statement of the main theme pattern, and this provides the foundation of introduction. The band comes to a peak rather early, with some classically transcendent Garcia notes resounding, and then they regroup and reach it again. Things finally begin to shift as they approach the four minute mark, but this proves to be a brief respite before the main theme. The theme then takes them on to the verse without much ado.
I thought I detected a very short cut after the verse, of maybe a second or less. The post-verse space seems to have been abandoned; instead, they enter a kind of spacey jam. At 7:25 they grind almost to a halt, and Garcia assays some Sputnik-like runs. These are eventually absorbed back into the jam, which has a minor feel. At about 8:55 Garcia seems to want to shift it back to a major thing, but Weir is not eager to oblige. By 10:00 the three string players are locked in and playing some polyphonic madness that seems to be heading for a peak, which Garcia helps along with some near-Bright Star gleanings from about 10:38.
This all comes down again at around 11:10, where the band seems ready to make some kind of transition. A descending four-chord pattern emerges, but it does not stay for long. They instead bring it to a two-chord bit that stays for a little while until Garcia brings back the main theme, and they then go to the second verse, which contains a very short cut.
A short version this is, certainly, but it is nevertheless packed with wonderful playing. Dark Star seems to be receding in importance, judging by the amount of plays it gets, and perhaps they felt like they’d given it all they had in under 15 minutes this time. Nevertheless, though it doesn’t range far, the band sounds fantastic here.
What was said:
pbuzby:
Although 4/8/71 is one of those Betty tapes that has been around for a long time, I never listened to it until today. Some notes from my first two listens:
- In older Archive sources Star runs about a minute longer, because these sources include tuning (some of which is pretty) and dead air before the piece as part of the track.
- Good news, Ned Lagin on keys. Not-so-good news, tuning problems in the guitars (mainly Weir) up until the first verse.
- Yes, there is a small cut at the end of the first verse (in other sources the recording just fades out and back up at this point) and a more noticeable one in the second verse.
- Garcia makes a mistake in the lyrics for the first time I've noticed in a while, singing the "mirror shatters" line in the first verse.
- A short, scrappy, but at times quite high-energy version.
Unless I forgot something, the first single drummer Dark Star is also the first with only drums, although lightly played by Bill. No more guiro, shaker, congas or gongs (other than some occasional percussion from Pig in the E72 versions).
adamos:
Agreed that Phil is very prominent in the mix; buoyant too. Subtle sounds from Ned in the background. Jerry starts a gentle, winding line complimented by nice textures from Bob. There's a dreamy vibe to the proceedings. Jerry plays some quick climbing notes and the collective energy surges upwards before easing off again. It begins to build again with nice interweaving from the players; Bill is working the cymbals as well. They are soaring; around 2:50 Jerry's guitar screams out before they pivot and wind through some lower regions. Ned becomes more present again. At 4:01 they return to the theme and move on to the first verse. Lyric mistake in the verse as pbuzby pointed out.
After the verse they reset and it feels like things might dissolve into space but they forgo it again and move into a floaty jam. Phil rumbles and Jerry adds a little fuzz to his tone before cutting a sharp line. I like Ned's accents although he remains relatively faint in the background. They work in this area for a spell and then around 7:22 Jerry starts a Sputnik line. They keep it quiet and gentle and there's a harp-like quality to the sound. By 8:20 it has run its course and they drift back into the spacey-ish jam.
It starts to pick up momentum with both Jerry and Bob prominent in the mix. Around 9:30 they briefly reset and keep it rolling in a lower zone. By 10:00 they're rising up again and interweaving and driving towards a sharp peak that gets Bright Star-ish as noted by bzfgt, but with its own feel. They keep collectively jamming in the heights with Phil working a line and then around 11:00 they pivot and you'd almost think The Wheel was about to emerge.
They quiet down and hover for a bit, playing off one another in slower fashion which has a nice feel. Around 12:00 they start to switch it up and get a little more momentum going before giving way to the main theme and on to the second verse. Seems like they could have got another jam going there but they were ready to move on.
A short version that lacks some of the grandeur of classic performances but I still liked it quite a bit and there's some nice collective playing.
JSegel:
Top of the second set. Numerous riff teases from Phil, so we know where we’re going.
It starts with a strong riff and into the groove, nice noodles on keys from Ned. Bob drops out a bit to tune more, then it settles into the groove, which immediately builds with full drums in to a 2 minute peak, then back down a bit, lots of tom rolling, bass grooving. New direction! By 3 minutes in they’re really moving! Jerry is striking high, the whole band is playing to his lead, when he dips a bit, they dip, he switches to the tone-rolled-off sound, and the bring it to a plateau a bit afterwards, then the theme comes in. (Bobby is still out of tune.) Verse 1 at 5:25. Weakly recorded vocals, but you can really hear the guitar line playing the melody.
Bell tolls as the “Transitive Nightfall” starts, though Phil and Bobby keep a groove for a little longer. Jerry starts an arpeggio thing, it’s remaining melodic and not immediately moving into space, some echoey bits, a sparser jam area. Nice little key touches. At 8:30, it dies out and a quiet Sputnik is in there, though it doesn’t move much and develops toward single note playing. Drums are still in, some snare hits seem to be pushing toward establishing a pulse again.
Phil wants to get into the groove, Bobby is playing with pulling the Dark Star chords around. (He’s loud in this mix.) After a couple minutes of rolling downwards, some new modalities are coming out, Bob has some screaming dissonant chords, Jerry builds it up to a sustained peak from 11:30-12 minutes.
When they reel it in, you can hear audience clapping. They drop back into a descending line area, Bob has some chord ideas with the descending bass line, but it comes to a plateau again, arpeggios, then from the breakdown, Jerry glisses up to the A for the Dark Star theme at 13:40. Some beautiful runs surrounding it in this area before verse 2 at 14:30 (with a minor third clam from JG backing himself).
Mellow verse, interrupted by a tape problem, back into the outro riff and climbing notes, to the chords which head once again into St Stephen, amidst a lot of cymbal swishing. Sort of a short-but-sweet Dark Star, no real spacy space, and the jams are mild except for right at the beginning.
Mr. Rain:
Very nice-sounding tape, kind of a shock after being immersed in 1970 audience tapes for so long! (That said, the loud hum on this tape is also very distracting. Another copy reduces the hum.)
Ned Lagin's electric piano is very low volume, but he gives this Dark Star a different feel, kind of a preview of Keith's Fender Rhodes presence. He seems to be playing off Jerry in particular...or they're playing off each other. Jerry's got his Peanut tone.
The opening jam starts quiet & uncertain, but they quickly find their footing. Bill's on drums from the start. The opening jam feels like a little journey in itself with its own peaks and back-roads; I like how they've returned to stillness when Jerry resumes the theme at 4:00.
You can tell we're in 1971 when there's no gong at all in the verse, just Bill's drums. Jerry's singing is weak.
A bit of bell-tolling from Jerry after the verse! But they seem to have regressed to early '69 at this stage, when there wasn't a space-out after the verse, more of a dramatic flurry. My 1970 ears are accustomed to them going to space at this point, but no, they head to a new kind of jam starting at 6:05. VERY new. The whole post-verse jam is fascinating, and really pretty....it's only been a few months since the last 1970 Dark Stars, but this is a whole new-sounding Dead here, more organically loose & spacey. Even the Sputnik-like part has transformed into quiet chimes bending with the flow. They gradually build from quiet meanderings to an intense forceful high-pitched crescendo....then at 11:10, bring it down again. They tease at the theme, seeming like they might either play it differently or go into a new 1970-style descending chord progression, and they wander into a hypnotic Wharf Rat-type spiral....but all too soon, at 12:45 Jerry brings back the theme, and they settle in for the verse. (We're lucky the tape cut was in the verse!)
You might think, from its few short early-1971 performances, that Dark Star was in the doldrums at this point; but this version is a huge jump forward. Almost everything they've been doing in Dark Star before has been dropped; their style has changed dramatically; and it points to new directions ahead. The seeds of the 1972 style start growing here.
Listening again to the wonderful 4-8-71 Dark Star....it works on a different level than the 1970 versions. I think this should be emphasized, how drastic the change is. Their playing in 1970 was more "constructed," I guess you could call it -- Dark Star had two poles, the far-out space & the familiar themes, and for the most part the Dead stayed within a tight framework. The playing in this Dark Star, I couldn't think of any moment in 1970 that really resembled it....for much of the time, you could be listening to an E72 Star. The playing is a lot more loose & slippery, any "theme" quickly evaporates as it keeps changing like a kaleidoscope.
So I have to wonder.....how? In just a few months, hardly playing any live Dark Stars at all, they shed their old skin and emerged with a new style. Were they practicing this in rehearsals? Was this a byproduct of other changes they were going through? Did something influence their new jamming direction? I know no one can answer this, but it's something to ponder.
adamos:
To me it seems reflective of the overall changes that they were going through that year. Maybe the impulse to scale back some of the structured aspects of Dark Star is similar to the one that made them want to go back and remix Anthem and Aoxomoxoa. Maybe they also felt they’d done as much as they could in that format and/or felt that they’d worn out some of the grooves and needed to mix it up to keep it fresh.
pbuzby:
I guess some factors were:
- Garcia playing with Howard Wales and Merl Saunders and bringing that style back to the Dead
- more flexibility with only Bill on drums
And just that they were getting more experienced and better.
notesofachord:
The single drummer thing is the main reason.
adamos:
It’s also interesting that the last time they did a full space section, 11/8/70, the crowd was charged up and someone made the bird sound and Weir jokingly admonished the crowd that this was serious, etc. So maybe at that point they thought it was time to scale back on that for a while. They skipped it on 2/18 even with Mickey, and then maybe without him and the gong, glockenspiel and other percussive sounds they were less inclined to do something elaborate in that segment, at least for a while. Things do get spacey on 4/26 though even though that’s a short version. So maybe not, or maybe 5+ months was long enough.
JSegel:
There's also some changing idea of where to bring "reality". They already really sank their teeth into this Americana reality as a new band/music identity growing out of and somewhat away from their acid head reality of the years previous. But for instance, I always associate the musical entry into the "Transitive Nightfall" as illustrating movement into a different world, especially when they started blowing away reality with cymbals and bell-tolls and entering this "Space" where they play, um, space. They did start inserting other songs, and during 1971, more and more, they are bringing a new, more "human" tableaus in like a window to another place and time (rather than just space), entering other whole songs in this area, especially ballads—story songs—of other realities... and then sometimes returning us to the Dark Star frame (or The Other One frame, or whatever song allows a transition to another world within it). Later in the year it happens more often even. In a way, it's sort of weird to read the setlists and see how they sort of stick in the previous acid-identity songs in the midst of the more recent Americana, but doing these transitions sort of brings it home in a way, grounding both ends of the spectrum.
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