118. 1971-10-24

125887 Detroit 20:49
Main theme at 5:45 and 6:48.
First verse at 7:17.
Feelin’ Groovy at 13:10.
Main theme at 17:59.
Second verse at 19:05.
Goes into Me and Bobby McGee.

The second Dark Star with Keith Godchaux begins with a similar feel as the last, slow and spacey. Keith isn’t really very noticeable at first this time, but after about a minute he begins to make himself heard. The main theme is not in evidence this time; maybe they started that way last time for the benefit of the new guy. In any case, this is a lovely intro, with dark eddies and swirls everywhere.

A little after the three minute point Keith starts to originate a more rhythmic jam. This doesn’t catch on at first, or anyway they let it go by. At 3:20 Garcia plays a high A, hinting at the theme, and then Keith latches onto him and the intensity rises. By 4:05 this has played itself out, and they seem to be faced with a choice between the main theme and dissolution. They choose the latter, getting into a little space jam. Garcia and Lesh consider some strategies for getting out of this, and at 4:58 the latter briefly starts a funky riff, which is a move he will soon be making with regularity as the “elastic ping pong jam” develops.

Nothing catches on, however; at 5:45, Garcia states the theme, but they’re not ready for that yet. Instead, they start to coalesce with a loping jam into which Garcia inserts hints of the theme from time to time. The rest of the band sets up the two-chord foundation, and at 6:48 the theme arrives. This leads to a relaxed reading of the verse, although Garcia’s vocals sound a bit strained.

Lesh seems to speed it up a little coming out of the verse, and the jam that starts here has a bit more pep than we’ve seen so far; then, at 9:25, it suddenly calms down. From here it again gathers momentum, and by 10:00 they are in a frenetic jam again. Keith really pounds on the keys here, getting a rocking thing going that the band is happy to jump into.

At 11:45 they mellow out a bit, but not for long as they soon are driving toward a peak. This seems to culminate around 12:15, but then it keeps going, and at 12:47 Lesh starts pushing toward Feelin’ Groovy, but instead the whole thing flames out in the strangest way—this might not hold together, in fact, so at 13:10 Lesh now insists on Feelin’ Groovy, and they follow him in. This is a very fast reading of this jam, and the band seems to be on the edge of chaos, which Keith seems happy to promote with some rather unorthodox accompaniment.

By 14:00 they are seemingly losing the thread again, although in a very interesting way. They come out of the pedal point here and dive back into Feelin’ Groovy, or almost in any case. It’s really hard to describe exactly what is happening here. Garcia has an idea he’s been trying to promote, and at 15:00 it becomes a rolling figure that will in the future generally herald the MLB jam or one of its permutations. It’s not yet time for that, though, so they gleefully go on skating at the edge of chaos and dissolution.

They get it together in a big way by about 16:45, when they seem to be driving for a peak, and Garcia is soon doing something in the neighborhood of Bright Star. This decisively ends at 17:08, and the band downshifts and seems ready for the main theme. Perhaps for the sake of prolonging things, at 17:27 Garcia throws Sputnik into the mix, although this doesn’t quite materialize, and at 17:59 it’s the main theme after all. This time we will get the second verse—enjoy it while you can.

I could understand if someone were to say that this one doesn’t quite work—at times they barely have it together, and they probably cross the line a couple times into simply not having it together. I think this is a wonderful version, though—it’s full of the spirit of discovery, and the band is willing to take chances exploring their new piano-infused powers. I think they really enjoyed themselves here, and they pushed it a bit. Some times Dark Star is a tour de force, and sometimes it’s an excursion…an expedition, even. This one bursts with life and joy, and it ought to make you happy, too.


What was said:

Mr. Rain:



This one starts slowly, with a careful feel, but soon weaves its web of enchantment. Keith seems to be lower in the mix, or laying back more at the start than he did on 10-21. His chord playing overlaps Bob's, so it's a little harder to distinguish Bob. Bill starts drumming after a couple minutes as Jerry seems to briefly consider a Sputnik, and the jamming heats up after that. After 4 minutes they go "outside" for a bit, threatening to wander into atonal spaciness. But things are held in check, and after 5:45 they slowly work their way into the theme, a nice progression into solid chords after the earlier meanderings, building up to the verse at 7:15. Jerry's pretty hoarse!

Far from getting spacey after the verse, they go right into upbeat jamming. (No trip to space tonight.) After a while this speeds up like a locomotive rollin' down the tracks, and at 10:45 they're unmistakably headed for Soulful Strut...but they swerve past it into more loose fast jamming. Jerry seems to be going for a peak around 12 minutes, pushing the band upwards to the heights. (Check out his perfect "wrong" note at 12:17.) But just as things are getting furious, somehow they falter at 12:55, stumbling back down (intentionally?); so Phil brings in Feelin' Groovy to keep the momentum going. This is more of a light scattershot Feelin' Groovy than on 10-21, and it sputters out quickly; I'd say it ends by 13:45.
But the jam goes on, and it keeps shifting as they search around for new ideas -- an ascending progression at 14:10 leading to a nice little mini-jam, Jerry's up & down rolls after 15:00 that he develops into a cool repeating lick, a choppier jam after 16:15 which rises to a little frenzy and subsides at 17:15. There's a big drumroll as they coast down, Jerry flirts with Sputnik again & Phil teases the outro, then a lovely transition to the theme at 18:00. (Check out Jerry's subtle feedback!) Like in the first half, they linger awhile in the theme before Jerry sings the verse.
The outro brings us to....Me & Bobby McGee again, which is threatening to replace St. Stephen in this slot.

A nice version, not super-satisfying since they never seem to lock together on anything for long. Once they do get going, they go in all different directions, kind of jerking from one step to the next, not developing anything for long. But that may be looking at it on the micro-level; stepping farther back, you can see it as more assured (and certainly less spacey) than 10-21. There, the hot rockin' portion had lasted all of about three minutes, but tonight they sustain a fast jam for closer to 10 minutes, maybe with a few ebbs & restarts but they keep it rolling along with the old Dead skill. Keith already sounds even more integrated into the band; that is, he didn't stand out as much in this one.






adamos:


Slow and dreamy vibe out of the gate like gently floating in the clouds. Jerry wanders out complimented by nice textures from Bob. Patient and lovely comes to mind. By 1:30 Jerry's going deeper and Phil stands out nicely as they wind and swirl through lower passages. Starting at 2:06 there's some Sputnik-esque sparkle from which Jerry pivots higher and sharper again. They get a bit of momentum going and Keith becomes more prominent. Around 3:20 he and Jerry start spiraling around each other complimented by the others which sounds cool.

By 4:00 things seem to have run their course and they hover briefly and then shift into a spacier zone with a descending feel. After some bouncy notes from Phil they change it up a bit but stay in semi-space with Jerry, Phil and Keith all playing off each other. There's a hint of the theme at 5:45 after which they move into back into the lower atmosphere and glide along again in lovely fashion. They keep a theme-adjacent groove going that then fully arrives at 6:48, after which they make their way to the first verse. Jerry starts to lose his voice part way through.

After the verse they reset and then move right into a low-key but quick moving jam, rising to a mini-peak after 9:10 and then suddenly pulling back. But they keep it going and start to pick up the pace again with things getting more intense after 10:00. They are zooming along now in a very active, rocking groove; everyone is going for it. By 11:30 or it seems like it's running it course and they slow up a bit at 11:45 but never fully take it down and by 12:00 they are on the way up again. From 12:15-12:20 Jerry's guitar screams out and then gets absorbed back into the collective frenzy. This jam reminds me of how Viola Lee Blues would rise to a frenetic peak before releasing. However in this case instead of a coordinated return it seems to suddenly fall apart at 12:55.

They recover from this with some falling, spacey notes that then create an opening for Phil to assert the Feelin' Groovy line. There's some pace spillover from the preceding jam that keeps its moving faster than usual and it falls apart by 13:45. But instead of fully transitioning to something else they keep the jam rolling, playing off some of the sounds that got them there and it becomes its own thing. There's a bit of guitar rev starting at 14:10 and then they're cruising along again.

Around 14:50 they downshift but then immediately start revving it up again. Jerry reaches upwards with a repeating thing (rolling is a good word for it) and then after a brief ebb they keep charging forward in a lower region. By 16:40 they are ascending again and push into a Bright Star-like peak but they zoom right past the Bright Star before taking things down at 17:10. It sounds like they are heading to the main theme but they take their time and Jerry briefly brings in another Sputnik-esque line before they commit to the theme at 17:59. They're back to loveliness and ease their way into the second verse (in which some of the later harmonies are not exactly smooth) and then on to Me & Bobby McGee.

It’s an interesting version. It’s not always fully together and at times they are all over the place. But there is also a sense of reckless abandon that is appealing and there are plenty of good parts within the whole, as always. It seems like they’re trying new things, putting a new spin on some old ones and getting a sense of what this unit can do and where they want to take it.


JSegel:


Here we find Dark Star sandwiched between Mexicali Blues and Me & Bobby McGee, like an uncomfortable side trip to space between very normal country-blues in a down-to-earthy set overall.

They start at a staid tempo, and get in the mood pretty quickly, sparse lead notes and line, (people clapped at the start). It sort of dies down after the start, to get to a “from nothing” build up. Jerry is way into his pull-off lines. Man, this Strat sounds good, I can see why he used it for a long time. Swirls, a lot of eddying (even sputnik-y arpeggios) and not a lot of forward movement in the first few minutes. It’s nice, very spacey, everybody sort of of exploring in their own directions.

The multi-headed hydra is searching in multiple directions. But relaxedly. It dies down to pinch harmonics again at 4 minutes and Phil takes it with some pulsing bass line, but then it goes atonally off the rails into space. Phil comes back in with some riff ideas, they are still not settling into a mode area. Then a theme statement at 5:45, but running away from it as soon as it’s stated, the band falls into a groove, and some nice lead stuff follows, getting back to a slow version of the theme material. Verse 1 at 7:15. Slow and stately, with a chugging drum beat. The line two offbeats are sort of skewed by the riffy bass line and drums, not much wandering on line three with the drums like that. The refrain brings it around and back to the jam intro, which starts as if in a normal Dark Star jam, Jerry is moving a lot with his lead lines, the drums are grooving still… for a bit, it turns into full-band waterfalls a couple times, then back to a slow groove. Jerry is still working on some fast riff ideas, Phil also has some fast bits he’s working with, and the tempo builds for a while, by 10 minutes we’re into a rocking groove that rockets onwards. Jerry is rocking out. Then slightly before 12 minutes, JG slows himself down and reflects, the band steps back for a sec, then they head back to the fast forward momentum, Keith plowing on some chord over and over.

An almost Bright Star and Jerry reels it in again with some weird bends, then Phil brings up the descending bass line for the Strut but it doesn’t quite take. They go into a holding pattern for a while, high bass notes, Jerry getting back into the major key groove. It sounds a bit like it might head to another song, and at 15 min there’s some sixths/chordal lead parts that could be heading elsewhere, but come to mark the Dark Star chords a bit more, a new sort of finger pick pattern that’s not Sputnik. Still moving forward quickly, it builds to a wave crest again with more Bright Star insinuation, then breaks down back to the slow tempo at about 17 minutes. A slow Sputnik is underneath this area. At 18 minutes, the theme emerges again, and they band settles back into Dark Star. Verse 2 happens at 19 minutes. With the slow groove drums, they break it up a bit more on line two this time. Also more filigree from Bob on line three.

All vocal parts for the outro, not exactly in tune, yikes. The land in a heap at the end, the lines head upward to the static chords, but not to St Stephen this time, instead they sort of cede to Bobby strumming the intro to Bobby McGee. (and then Cumberland Blues, and then they do eventually get to St Stephen.)

Interesting version, very wandering. These early Keith versions don’t have much direction, but there is some speed to this one in the latter half. Keith seems to take “space” to mean heading out of the key or mode, and the band hears that and goes with it, so we’re getting more atonal or polytonal areas erupting out of the jam. No “sea of holes” type space lately. Some nice playing from Jerry in bits and pieces, the Nash-gift Strat sounds really good though.