114. 1971-04-26

145130 Fillmore East 12:52
Main theme at :06, 1:20, 2:54, and 5:12.
First verse at 5:47.
Sputnik at 8:15.
Main theme at
Goes into Wharf Rat.

They start right off with the main theme, and the jamming when it starts stays close to home, circling back to the theme several times. There is a dark and languid sound to the playing tonight. From about 4:45 the band pedals a bit, and almost it sounds like they’re going to break into a modular jam here, but instead they return to the theme and sing the verse. There is a sudden and unexpected uptick in tempo just before they get there.

The post-verse space makes a bit of a comeback tonight. After the verse, they roll around on the Dark Star chords for a while, and then at 7:50 they crash into space ever so briefly before Garcia starts to spin out Sputnik at 8:15. This is played out by 9:14, where Garcia seems like he’s going to wind up the theme for a moment, but instead more spacey expressions are forthcoming.

At 11:22 Jerry fires up a lead line that seems like it wants to lead into the middle jam, and indeed not long ago it would have, but we’re almost out of road here. The jam seems to flounder a little before Jerry strikes up the Wharf Rat chords, and Dark Star is over.

This is a nice little piece of music, although it doesn’t particularly stand out among the Dark Stars we’ve considered thus far.


What was said:

JSegel:



Middle of the first set, nice mix with the three guitars/bass and Bill on drums ticking away at the hi-hat and cymbals, no guiro anymore. Some gentle stretching of the key ideas right off the bat as they enter the exploratory groove. Really nice together-playing. Restrained soaring lines from Jerry, nice mellow backup chords from Bob, some tremolos for an eddy in the flow after a couple minutes. Hints at the Dark Star theme, but nobody starting it on the ‘one’, it dwindles, then the gliss to the melody, slowly, and more exploration of it. Really great improvisation, Jerry stretching the mode.

Getting into a pulsed rhythmic jam at 4 minutes, it finally breaks it out to the Dark Star chords and speeds up a bit after a minute, heading to verse 1 before the 6 minute mark.

A real break in the lines for line two, nice mellow wandering on line 3, Bobby continues it into the refrain, which is a little loose. The jam begins after the counterpoint intro with Phil hitting bass bell-tolls, cymbals washing, but Bobby continues with chords for a bit which give way to scrubbing and cymbals. At 8 minutes space is achieved and people yell and clap, Jerry almost immediately brings in a high Sputnik, which speeds up and sparkles its way along for a while.

It stops and there’s a gliss as if to the melody, but it goes into atonal arhythmic weirdness leads. Horror movie soundtrack atonalism! Phil is knocking the bass around, some drum hits happen but it’s all more soundscape. Jerry emerges with some bright tone in the atonal world and into feedback by 11 minutes.

Tonal lead lines bring it out of this area with a quiet back beat. A little up and down, drums roll around, and instead of heading back to Dark Star, we enter Wharf Rat once again.

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Some nice exploratory jamming here! Wish it went on (and that they made it to verse 2.) The atonal soundscape is replacing 'space' sound-jam world lately. I'm not sure exactly how to describe this sort of thing yet, the earlier space area that were made up of not-necessarily musical sounds owed a lot to the era's exploration of tape music and the post-WWII avant-garde's development toward sound-as-sound equals music. There were several groups of musicians that veered out of the "classical" world into performing music that stretched the ideas of musicality, and this heavily affected rock music (of course Cage/Tudor/Mumma with Merce Cunningham, but also Musica Elettronica Viva [Rzewski/Curran/Teitelbaum] in Rome and AMM in London with Cornelius Cardew [etc], trying to eschew any signifiers of "genre" in what they played—note that Pink Floyd's first album's track "Flaming" was trying to recreate AMM's "Flaming Riviera Sunset", this all to say nothing of the tape-music collages on every 1968 album...) Anyway, here, by 1971, the Dead are moving away from soundscape made with sound into "outside" atonal or polytonal melodic and harmonic areas. It's sort of a "free atonalism" that ends up sounding like 1950s sci-fi soundtrack or monster movie... and I know that the doc "Long Strange Trip" really stressed some fascination Jerry Garcia had with horror movies, but I don't really know if there's a connection between that and this sort of jamming. Regardless, it's not jazz and it's not classical/post-classical, it's very free and very outside. And only getting more and more intense.


pbuzby:


While as far as I noticed Bill was on drums throughout the 4/8/71 Star, on 4/26/71 he starts on maracas while also playing the hi hat with his foot and his other hand. Puts down the maracas around 3:45, but goes back at 5:45. Tambourine at 9:20.


Although two releases used the multitrack tapes from this run, this "Dark Star" remains in the vault, but Skull captures the last three seconds before Jerry's definitive "Wharf Rat" cue.


adamos:


They get right into it, starting off at a medium tempo but then slowing down. Everyone is clear on the recording. Jerry heads out on a line with lots of Phil underneath and complimentary textures from Bob. Bill comes in and out on drums and there's plenty of shaker as well. They revisit the theme and then around 1:35 Jerry plays a high pitched line that reaches up and then winds outward. It's hard to pin down the vibe on this one; it's somewhat patient but not exactly dreamy. It's emotive but not as powerful as some. At any rate the collective sound is good.

There's another return to the theme at 2:55 and they get into a repeating groove before Jerry goes high again, almost too sharply. Bob and then Phil step forward and Jerry eases up and heads to lower regions. They continue to wind through caverns and Bob's guitar takes on a different sound around 4:15 as he plays his own thing below Jerry. At 4:45 Bill comes in more strongly and then they get into a repeating thing like they're winding up but instead of springing out from it they head back to the theme again and then on to the first verse.

As the verse ends there's a drum roll from Bill; Phil and Bob reset and they hover in a Dark Star zone perhaps unsure if they're going to dissolve it or play on. Phil rumbles and it feels like they are building up to launch into a jam but around 7:40 they ease up and let space come forth. The crowd fills the temporary void with applause and then there's some feedback and brief weirdness before Jerry shifts into Sputnik at 8:15. Jerry varies the pace as it moves along; Bob opts not to mirror his line. By 9:10 it's run its course and it sounds like they're going to hit the theme but instead they ooze back into space. Heavy guitar, scratchy sounds and other freakiness ensues.

They pull back before the point of meltdown, hover briefly and then at 11:22 Jerry starts a line to provide a way forth. It feels like a jam might coalesce around it but instead they continue to hover and then work the groove just a bit. It starts to gets a little momentum going but they let it subside and move on to Wharf Rat.

To me it sounds like they're still finding their way in this new territory but there are some good moments and it's nice to have a bit of spacey weirdness again as well.


Mr. Rain:



Some lengthy tuning is needed before Dark Star. Once again it shows up in the first set....a practice that wouldn't last much longer! (This transfer sounds better to me than the older Miller copy, another surprise.)

The Dead hadn't played a run at the Fillmore East in quite a while, and the crowd sounds pretty excited to hear Dark Star. Lots of cymbals at the start. The Dead defer the verse longer than expected, using their 1970 tactic of going back & forth from the theme. So the opening jam is lengthy but feels rather strange and unfocused. For a while after 4 minutes it sounds like they might head into another tune altogether, a dark little mini-theme that lasts a minute. It's weird that when they finally decide to do the verse, they speed up significantly -- the opposite of what usually happens! (The group mind at work.)

For some reason Jerry's singing sounds slow and lugubrious, and the verse isn't very tight. Big drumroll at the end of the verse. It sounds like they're shoving off into space with the cymbals & harmonics & flurrying....takes them a while to work up to it, but they actually get there this time by 7:45 with some feedback, hums & tinkling! (The crowd's sure happy to hear it.) But in no time, instead of the old soundscapes Jerry brings his Sputnik out and that takes the stage for a minute, bright & eerie. Then they get into some spacey atonal stuff, which around 10 minutes resolves in some volume-swelling and a rather melodramatic buildup that trails off in a drone. This may sound a little primitive compared to their later spacey-atonal playing, but it seems like a new development to me....I don't remember them doing much like this previously.

Jerry starts lightly climbing his way out of the gloom around 11:20; in 1970 this would indicate the start of the main jam. But instead they just circle around inconclusively for a minute without really going anywhere. Jerry decides to abandon Dark Star altogether, the others let it drop, and with some dramatic drumming, they start Wharf Rat. Not as satisfying as the 2-18 transition!

This Dark Star started well but ultimately flopped. Not much stands out in this version and it's not too inspiring; it's like they weren't really in the mood. 4-8 was much better. (If only Duane had joined in!) The main development to notice here is not just the introduction of more atonal space, but Bill really stepping up in his drumming -- he's a full partner in this jam.