122. 1971-12-05

131532 20:17 (DS 8:01>MAMU>DS 12:16).
Goes into Me & My Uncle and Sittin’ on Top of the World.

The sound starts out a little boomy on this Charlie Miller transfer, but it seems to get a bit better almost immediately. Either they’re taking it slightly faster than they have been, or I’ve gotten used to the slower tempo—mine is not a scientific approach, I recognize. Garcia and Lesh are very prominent, with Jerry playing beautiful runs with pinch harmonics and little flurries. We can hear Keith, but he’s a little reticent.

The intro starts to get a little weirder at around 2:35, and soon Lesh is playing a morse code pattern of the type they’ve been fooling with lately. This leads to a burst of vigorous jamming, but it doesn’t last long, as they seem to be a little restless here. Eventually, at 3:55, a kind of bouncy thing emerges and gathers force. There’s a nice peak beginning at about 4:20 leading the jam into a sort of behind the beat swing.

At 5:10 this is all coming together, and the band is going like gangbusters. 5:35 sees Feelin’ Groovy hints come and then go, and everything falls apart a little and by 6:37 is heading into weirdness. A small meltdown follows and builds in intensity, then recedes, until at 8:00 the band sort of magically drops into a nice version of Me & My Uncle.

The last chord of MAMU drops almost immediately into a jam that is recognizably some form of Dark Star. After about 25 seconds the band backs way off into a drumless contemplative space. Garcia plays some rolls, and Godchaux asserts himself a little more here. Jerry’s line starting at 2. 1:49 is particularly beautiful. This leads him into some volume knob stuff, and Phil echoes him with some plaintive notes while Weir and Godchaux provide more active counterpoint. At 3:20 the music becomes more insistent and we seem to be heading for a meltdown.

It proves to be an intense one, and has many of the characteristics of what is usually called a Tiger jam, although Garcia does not hammer the wah pedal. It recedes and then comes roaring back, and by 5:10 Weir is furiously scritching, then Garcia starts some tremolo stuff, but the band has backed way off. They proceed to weird out for a while.

By around 7:00 this seems to be heading into a more structured jam, although they seem reluctant to regularize it too much at first. Keith starts playing a riff that holds it together, while Garcia and Lesh pipe along with one-note patterns as it migrates into a rock thing. But then by 8:30 it is all coming to an end again, and the band descends into a kind of oasis of weirdness again. At 8:54 Garcia starts another morse code line, but he quickly abandons it in favor of some noodling. At 9:22 Garcia starts a Sputnik line while Lesh begins the main theme. Garcia wins out this time, and a sort of Sputnik-like part comes here.

By 10:45 there is a beautiful little jam underway, and this picks up cohesion briefly, and then falls apart again, with Lesh again trying to assert the theme to bring them back together. Jerry briefly considers joining him, but instead he starts Sitting on Top of the World, and we’re out.

Although there is no main theme and no verses, this clearly seems to be a Dark Star. As I said earlier, however, I am unscientific; it may help to have clear criteria to distinguish a Dark Star from a Dark Star jam. There is a lot to enjoy here, but one thing that sets the Dead apart as improvisors is how they pull it all together for cohesive and tonal jams, and these are in short supply here, at least if we’re talking about jams of any length. There is a lot of great music in these 20 minutes, though.


What was said:

pbuzby:


Interesting strange version. They seem excited to hit all of the different territories they can access from the Dark Star base, but have trouble agreeing on what to do within Dark Star. A bit similar to 11/7/71 in that regard, but this is a more energetic performance.

I mentioned recently on the other thread that I couldn't remember Lesh guiding the band back to Dark Star, but he does so towards the end here, or tries to, before Garcia finally decides he isn't having it and makes a decisive mood towards Top of the World (which ends up being a sloppy version as Weir and Lesh can't remember the weird key changes from the band's arrangement of that song).


Reading the Deadessays writeup reminds me that Bill is more involved in this version than the last few (where if I recall correctly he keeps time nicely but doesn't do a lot else). He's on drums throughout, no maracas (not sure there will be any more versions starting with maracas). Pigpen is also back with the band and it sounds like he *might* play the organ for a few seconds in this Dark Star sequence, although maybe only in the country/blues songs.


adamos:


The crowd is psyched! As noted the recording gets better by the 20 second mark and they're off. There's a nice winding, bouncy vibe initially and they're moving with decent pace. Jerry reaches high with some bending notes and then they start to slow it up a little. There's more of a drifting feel but the current has pull so they're still moving along.

Things get oozier around 2:30 but instead of heading into the void they hop on a quick-paced repeating thing starting at 2:50. They get a nice collective groove going but by 3:30 they're already switching it up with a revving ebb. They move out again and starting at 3:45 there's the bouncy line from Phil that bzfgt pointed out. The others play off it, gently at first but they quickly get some momentum going. Jerry goes lower for a spell with driving energy. I haven't mentioned Bob yet but his textures are adding to the fabric nicely along with Keith. Billy is pretty active throughout and he sounds really good.

They ease up again and then after 5:00 they ratchet it back up. Bob is more prominent now with Jerry reaching high. Feelin' Groovy is considered but passed by and then around 5:40 they let the groove subside and swirl around a bit. At 6:02 Phil starts another bass line with some nice compliments from Bob. The collective feel becomes gentler and pretty but Jerry seems to have something stronger in mind and he takes it in a spacier direction. Everyone follows and things get freakier and more intense and the fabric is tearing but they stop short of a full meltdown and start gliding out into what soon becomes Me & My Uncle. The collective sound prior to the start of the vocals sounds great because they're still riding the preceding wave.

As MAMU ends there's some guitar shimmering and they slip right back into a Dark Star groove. It's got some momentum but after 20 seconds they opt to pull up and drift into space. It's got a gentle, pretty feel with a lot of openness as the players slowly blend things in. There's some volume knob action and things start to get weirder with Phil coming in more strongly. They dance around it for a spell and then at 3:20 Jerry starts a fast repeating line with Keith in tow. They spiral downwards and then unleash a meltdown. It eases up at 4:35 but they aren't done with it yet; Billy steps forward and the weirdness builds and swirls and the monster is there again, reaching forth. After 5:30 they pivot again into more industrial, feedback-y freakiness and things stay mellower but with a creepy vibe. It picks up again around 6:08 with Bob adding some scraping sounds and Jerry continuing with the quick, high strumming.

They stay in this zone for a spell and then after 7:00 start revving it up and reaching higher. They build towards a peak but at 7:18 opt to move towards a groove instead. It has a bit of MAMU feel initially but the jam is relatively mellow with nothing being strongly asserted. Around 7:55 they pivot led by Phil and move into a new groove. It doesn't last long though; by 8:30 they give up on it and drift back into the ooze. Billy asserts himself while the others weird out in low-key fashion.

At 9:20 Jerry gently starts up Sputnik; a few seconds later Phil turns to the theme and the two co-occur in subtle fashion. Jerry asserts his line more strongly and Phil eases up but he still plays off the theme less distinctly; it pokes out again briefly at 10:00. Jerry continues with the gentle, Sputnik-ish line and adds an ascending feel that Phil plays off of. Billy comes in more prominently and a nice, gentle jam starts to take shape. It begins to ramp up but then they quickly let it go. Phil starts playing around the theme again at 11:18 and after a spacier line from Jerry everyone starts to fall in. They work around the theme for just a bit before Jerry starts to push it into Sitting On The World instead. There's a brief spell where both are still happening which sounds cool but by 15 seconds into the SOTOTW track they've fully committed.

It's a really good and well-loved sequence that I always enjoy listening to. I will say though that in listening to it the context of this exercise it does feel like they dance around a variety of things without fully committing to many of them, at least with regards to the jams. But as discussed that may just be part of the transitional process as they were figuring out where they wanted to take Dark Star next.


JSegel:



A rolling jam that just continues on for a few minutes before taking a breather, then Phil comes in with a different riff idea, and they move into a new area, Bill is really rocking out. When it comes back to a potential Dark Star theme area at 5 minutes it’s still got forward momentum. Great playing from all the musicians. Sort of moves toward a descending bass chord progression bit for a sec, then away again. Bill starts a side stick groove, but they don’t stick with it, and it devolves into bass chords and rolling drums. As it moves into atonalism, they crest a wave and then come back down to start Me and My Uncle, another ballad in the middle, it takes a bit to settle into it with Jerry still playing lead until Bob starts singing. It’s a fast and strong version of the song.

From the last hit of the song it starts wandering off toward Dark Star territory and quiets down into a spacey section. At a minute into this section there are hints of the Star theme, but it maintains no tonal center and all lines wander out of the mode, and again at 2 minutes in, it’s like atonal variations of bits of the theme. This is the new style of space section, it’s got more “notes” and less “sounds” and the notes are not tied to any center. Keith is doing some very outside piano bits, they build it into a tense trilling area, Jerry spikes some non-tonal lead playing and string stretching as the band builds up tension. Some string scrubbing with picks or other implements, bass feedback, it maintains a tense level for quite a while. Jerry sticks on some high notes, with noisy accompaniment. Nice jam! Some shouts from the audience. A little dip in volume and back up with everybody making noise. They are really holding a level of tension here. Jerry starts some lead lines at 7:30 into this part, Keith is playing triplets against any pulse established by that, Phil and Bill pick up the pulse, the band drops in and starts a fast jam for a minute, then it dies off with some more non-tonal melodies accompanying it. At 9:30, Phil comes in with the Dark Star theme and Jerry does some slow Sputnik, neither coalesces, but it does place the jam in the Dark Star world and it slows down the tempo. At 11 minutes into this section, it feints a jam, but it falls apart as Bob continues scrubbing strings, then Phil comes back to the Dark Star riff and they move forward. Toward… not Dark Star, but where they might have actually gone to a verse (that never happens) Jerry is playing the intro to Sittin’ on Top of the World as a collage right over the Dark Star theme area, and sure enough, they play that instead. Wow, man. Trippy! It never got to a Dark Star verse, but definitely had elements of the song in the jam themes and the riff poking its head through. A couple side trips to space while landing back on earth and hopping off again a couple times. The set continues with regular old songs, ya know.

Space, as such, is now a multi-headed free-for-all combining polytonal or atonal melodic and harmonic components with noise/sound-qua-sound components. Free jazz-y. It’s a very rootless area (well, space) with hints at normalcy (short runs of tonal figures) presented in collage, like superimposed realities.


Mr. Rain:


Another long tuning break before Dark Star, while the crowd waits impatiently...
It starts with some bouncy drummy New York energy, Bill adding a lot to the groove. No need to warm up, they get straight into a nice jam right away. At the start Keith seems to be undermixed yet again, so he's present but doesn't stand out at first. (It could be he's playing more of a background role than he was in October, but I haven't directly compared. Here he kind of blends into Bob's rhythm playing rather than vying with Jerry.) The jam wanders here and there on paths of beauty without really settling down...a little Dark Star hint around 5:00, Phil teasing Feelin' Groovy at 5:20....Keith's getting louder and more assertive. In a way this opening jam is like extended foreplay that keeps backing off before it hits a peak. I like Phil's chords at 6:00 but they don't develop into anything; instead the band sort of dissolves into spaciness. By 7:00 they're getting frantic and scratchy, dissonant insanity beckons....but they don't get full noisy, it's more of a meltdown tease. By 7:50 a solid melodic center is found, and it sounds like a pretty jam is starting. But wait, what's this....all of a sudden it's Me & My Uncle. Must be '71!

Bill swings right back into the Dark Star beat once Me & My Uncle finishes. At first they're back to the swingin' jam they started with, but by :25 Bill drops out and the others sink into a quietly tranquil passage. A peaceful meditation ensues, guided by Phil with a firm hand. But the intensity rises after Jerry starts volume-twirling, Phil turns doomy, and Keith steps up with off-kilter tinklings. Around 3:15 they spiral into another early Tiger (missing only the wah screeches), back off, and plunge into it again, climaxing with some scrubs by 4:30. (Keith plays a big part in this, happily banging away with nutty chords.) But they don't have the weirdness out of their system and they keep going with scratchy dissonance, Bob scrubbing and Phil rumbling, threatening another round of the Tiger. The tense freakiness continues for some time, getting more subdued then ratcheting up again. Things are quite demented by 7:00 when Keith starts repeating a line and doesn't let go of it for 50 seconds. The storm-clouds clear and the band turns back to regular playing, although they seem to have trouble settling on anything until Keith finally quits. Once he does, a nice snappy little jam starts -- and almost as soon dies, the band hitting a full stop at 8:30.

Then there's a spell of ominous spaciness with tumbling drums & bass chords. After 9:20 Phil starts the Dark Star line, a soothing tune after all the gloom, but Jerry's fixated on a sparkly arpeggio instead and the music dissolves again. The band seems uncertain about where to take this (Bob dropping out altogether), and a mildly jazzy jam heats up by 11:00 but then quickly falls apart again. After 11:15 Phil keeps trying to start Dark Star and pull the scattered band back together; Bill & Keith join him while Bob sputters. Jerry finally goes along with them with some Dark Star-type runs, Bob starts strumming again, and it sounds like the theme is finally (after 20 minutes) going to lead to a verse...
But no! Jerry starts Sittin' on Top of the World instead, repeating the opening hook while the others are playing Dark Star, a very odd-sounding combination, but after 15 seconds they figure out what he's doing and join him. So much for Dark Star!

A strange version. (Although strangeness is a virtue in the Dark Star realm!) It's certainly more than a Dark Star Jam, but Dark Star itself is only implied through most of it. They're so carried away with the Spacy Meltdown / Country Ditty contrast they've been milking through late '71, they kind of skip over the actual song. This is very much in the same vein as 11-7 & 11-15-71 (minus the verse). It starts out really promising and then sort of....scatters and dribbles away. The opening part is the nicest, and the extended dissonant space is a neat indication of where they're heading in '72, but they never quite pull together in a cohesive jam. Bill has a strong role in this Dark Star, as does Phil, although Phil's plans are often frustrated when his suggestions fall on deaf ears. (Actually Jerry doesn't seem to dominate as much as usual in this one either, it's a group-mind effort.) And once again, Keith is really eager to push the band into atonal outside madness, which is developing a life of its own.

It's been mentioned that Dark Star still wasn't been played all that often in fall '71 (only 7 versions out of 29 shows, compared to 16 Other Ones). Lately it sounds like the Dead are kind of struggling with Dark Star; either they're not able to sustain a unified mood for long, or they keep striking out in all different directions and lose the thread. The little mini-jams that comprise Dark Star can be quite fleeting as the band hurries on. As a result fall '71 sounds like a very "transitional" period for Dark Star as Keith settles in, but it's also an exciting time for the band as they discover all kinds of new possibilities and they're impatient to play them all at once. So we get both the lack of full commitment and the "collage" effect that have been mentioned.