126. 1972-04-14

34931 Tivoli 29:45

Main theme at 13:08 and 16:36.
First verse at 17:07.
Feelin’ Groovy at 21:54.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.


This is an action-packed intro segment, although not for the first few minutes. They play it pretty straight at first, before everything begins to constantly shift and change. This rendition begins with the band playing the intro pattern and Garcia playing a lick over it in a way that sounds very familiar, but I’m not sure if I’ve caught where this began, it just seems familiar and inevitable. This turns into a lovely jam that, however, doesn’t at first distinguish itself as unique. Garcia uncorks some plaintive leads; he alludes to Bright Star at 1:31 and then brings it down again, and when he hits the top again at 2:06 he suggests Falling Star. Neither of these are rendered exactly enough to warrant tagging them as such, but the themes are recognizable enough to identify continuity along the road we’ve traveled since 1969.


The band reaches a crossroads at around 3:05, and something is afoot. Garcia keeps outlining the chord pattern on his bass strings, and at 3:33 Lesh seems ready to break out one of his jazzy riffs, but he doesn’t do so as of yet; at 4:03 we hear him casting about in this vein again. This gives the others a peg some licks on, and a frenetic jam emerges, but it soon calms down again.


At the five minute mark we find the band in a volatile mood, and soon Garcia unleashes some uptempo rolling high licks and Kreutzmann starts galloping along. This comes back to earth pretty quickly in its turn. Then at 5:46, Garcia employs the strategy of repeating a note to get everything gathered around; he then wanders off and this is taken up by Godchaux. Here we might expect another frenetic jam to coalesce, but something moodier and weirder comes together instead.


At 7:30, Garcia starts some strumming that is reminiscent of Wharf Rat, and lopes along with a similar gait. Everyone seems willing to go along, and at 7:57 Jerry breaks into a high lead with some volume knob manipulation and pinch harmonics. The quasi-Wharf Rat jam is played out by around 8:50, and there is some hovering during which Jerry gets a little morse code going on a high note which ties this to the next section, beginning at 9:25 or so. This is a lightly tripping polyphony, into which Garcia inserts some Bright Star licks at 10:08 and 10:21. At 10:30 it starts to gather steam; Lesh feints Feelin’ Groovy at 10:45, and then things calm down again.


With the music swirling in an odd little eddies from 11:25 to 11:47, when it all goes quiet and we get a little space jam. Weir sounds like he’s thinking of something like Spanish Jam at one point, but they decide to hold the moment for a while, doing just enough to adumbrate a ghostly sort of momentum in the stuff that no one is playing. Then at 13:08, Jerry starts to play the main theme but he doesn’t commit to it, and no one seems to want to go in that direction. Instead, it stays really spacey.


The band sounds like a breathing organism at 14:50. Garcia’s swelling line stabs at the theme a few times, and the band coalesces, but not on the theme; however, it seems evident that this is where things are headed. Garcia again hits a Bright Star-like bit at 16:06 that brings a little peak with it, and when he comes down the other side into the theme at 16:36 everyone is ready to go along, and that’s how we get to the verse.


A suitably spacey section follows the verse, but by 19:15 it seems like something’s cooking. Phil feints with a jazzy line, and Keith and Jerry seem to suddenly burst out with something in the same vein. Pretty soon the music is cooking along. In contrast to the first half, they grab ahold of something and work it out together at some length here. Beginning at probably around 21:40 or so, Weir and Godchaux seem to be bringing in what sounds a lot like the Mind Left Body chord pattern, but played with the rhythm of Feelin’ Groovy. It’s subtle at first, but I think Lesh starts Feelin; Groovy at 21:54, and you can hear it snap together at 22:03.


This is a cracking version of the familiar jam, and if it seems at the edge of chaos at times, that makes it even better. Some of Garcia’s licks here are reminiscent of his playing in the late 60s in a way that is difficult to define; for instance, see the passage from 24:12 to 24:27. At 24:36 the band hits on a two-chord pattern that brings Feelin’ Groovy to a close. Then at 25:08, Garcia starts a Sputnik-like pattern and the band starts to fragment as they head toward a spacey meltdown.


Once again, this is the sort of passage that will soon lead to a Tiger jam, and once again it stops a bit short of what I’d call the Tiger proper. It’s a very fine atonal freak-out in its own right, however. Right as our track here ends at 29:45, Weir starts up Sugar Magnolia, and Garcia adapts his whacked-out wah lead in a way that blends the two songs for a particularly satisfying transition.


Some Dark Stars have recognizable movements, some seem to go along in the same vein for their duration, and some are continually changing as they go. The introduction here is of the third variety. We saw quite a bit of this in late 1971, where the band seemed reluctant to commit to a direction. At times this made for a less satisfying experience, but the way the band responds to one another and changes tack is rather enthralling here, earning them no demerits. The (shorter) post-verse material, on the other hand, seems much of a piece, so we kind of get it all with this version.


The previous Dark Star (1972-04-08) opened up a new improvisational universe, and now we’re living in it. Perhaps improbably, the Grateful Dead have become an even mightier improvisational unit than they were in 1969, 1970, or 1971. It was possible to track their progression, but of course it would be misleading to see it as a linear path of improvement. Nevertheless, Dark Star and the Grateful Dead seem somehow more Dark Star and the Grateful Dead then they ever were before. This is a magnificent version, and we are fortunate in that there are many more to come with the European tour just getting started.

What was said:

125. 1972-04-08

youtube Wembley 31:27

Main theme at 9:57.
First verse at 10:53.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.


When the Grateful Dead went to Europe for what would be the first of five tours, it wasn’t entirely clear what kind of band they were going to be in 1972. In 1971 they seemed to be moving away from long improvisations in favor of a more conventionally structured show that focused on rock songs that were relatively concise, although these were of course played unconventionally. Dark Star had become infrequent, with only 12 airings in 1971 (which means it was played at a bit less than 15% of their shows). They did play The Other One frequently, and there are several excellent Dark Stars, but it would not have been outlandish to conclude that they were gradually trending away from the long jams they had been known for in the 1960s.


Of course this is not what happened. He wasn’t always very loud and he didn’t often take the lead, but Keith Godchaux’s playing was brilliantly inventive; it seemingly inspired the others, opening new horizons for collective improvisation. At some point (presumably prior to the beginning of the tour) the band decided to heavily emphasize improvisation in Europe, with every show featuring either Dark Star or The Other One (and long jams would sometimes emerge elsewhere in the set, a phenomenon which became more common in 1973-4). Dark Star, which the band would play 35 times in 1972, was about to enter a new Golden Age.


Although the Academy of Music version (1972-03-23) is a very fine piece of music, the renaissance really begins with this version which, like the Live/Dead version, represents a great leap forward even if it does not come out of nowhere. The hesitancies and lack of commitment, still in evidence in the March rendition, seem to have vanished. This is a masterful piece of music and a landmark in improvisational music.


They begin it rather briskly, but it somehow still has a brooding feel in the early going, as the jam alternates between a kind of moody hovering and frequent returns, less explicit each time, to the theme. This begins with a pause of momentum at :32, which resolves itself with a return to the main pattern at :46. At 1:06, Garcia hangs on a B and brings them into another little holding pattern. This gradually works its way back toward another resolution at 1:46 which they start to unspool almost immediately. Then at 2:30, Garcia begins playing a sprightly line and one of their frenetic jam coalesces around him, but there is still a sort of brooding and hovering aspect to it. Garcia seems to want to drive them toward a peak, and this comes around 3:05, but again, while they sound confident and do not hesitate, there is an undertow of moodiness.


At 3:24 there is a hint again of the main pattern, but they hold back as Garcia gives us a languid and sorrowful take on Bright Star with Godchaux providing a counterpoint. They get swept away into a mournful jam, and then at 4:33 the return to the theme comes as a mere hint. Here Garcia begins a walking line that almost inaugurates a jam, but they instead subside again. At 5:24, Garcia starts to blast out one of his morse code messages, and this time everyone is ready to commit to it, as the band gathers force and we are swept into a frenetic jam. Riding the maelstrom, Jerry unleashes some howling repeated lines, as the band crests peak after peak.


It would be a major task to keep track of all the jazzy repeating licks Lesh tries on in 1972. At 8:07, he starts hammering what sounds like a take on Reggie Workman’s bass line to John Coltrane’s version of “Greensleeves.” He varies it a bit as the band sounds like it’s finally coming down the other side of the mountain. They take their time cooling off, though, and the music gets stranger, with melodic ideas flying everywhere, and somehow it all fits together. At 9:57, Garcia swings into the main theme, and we are headed for a beautiful reading of the verse. By now, we are at a decidedly slower tempo than we began with—Kreutzmann should have played to a click track, clearly (note: some of the responses to this indicate that I need to point out that this was said ironically).


The post-verse landscape is austere, as the band emerges into a kind of space. At 13:12 or so it almost sounds like a 1970-style cessation is coming, but they fill the space with eerie ponderings, orbiting around Phil’s bass. At 13:39, as Lesh slides into a feedback passage, Garcia stops scratching and assays a plaintive melody line, but no one seems inclined to come back to earth yet, and a kind of moody and atonal space jam is building. At 16:25 Phil seems inclined to start a jam; Jerry stabs out some morse code lines, and a pretty jam starts to take shape.


The playing here is urgent, but there is still a stormy sense of brooding that pervades the music. Approaching the 19 minute mark it sounds like a meltdown is coming, as things get more chaotic. Godchaux is pushing up against Garcia’s line, and at 19:03 Weir inserts himself in between with a squalling burst. The tide starts going out again, and then it starts to build again—the dynamics here are rather volatile in a way that is reminiscent of 1969. At around 20:20, Pigpen is inspired to join in on organ in the most unexpected place, although it’s hard to hear very much of what he’s doing on this recording. At 21:30 everyone is playing a melodic line but Phil is again hinting at a Greensleeves-like riff as the music builds again, and then again they start to subside. 22:20 sees us in a calm where quiet melodies swirl around, and something new seems to be on the horizon. This gentle passage continues, however, with Garcia hitting some delicate volume swells beginning at 23:09.


As beautiful as it is, by 24:25 they almost seem to be out of gas. Don’t worry, though, they’re just getting started—Garcia clicks on the wah pedal and, in what will become a familiar gambit, initiates a build-up to a meltdown. The storm reaches its full power at about 26:50, and then at 27:22, when everyone seems ready to take a breath, Garcia starts to sketch out a riff that they will ride out to the end. After a little pause, this kicks in at 27:32, and the band instantly snaps into shape. It seems like something rehearsed, but the only evidence I can cite for or against this idea is that this is the only time it is played.


The chord pattern that emerges here, however, is more or less the same one that will become known as the Mind Left Body jam, although the duration of the chords will be different when that finally appears in the Fall. It may be that Weir first pulls it together here, or maybe they had been toying with it. In any case, this is a unique jam, but they are all pulling in the same direction such that it sounds like a composed section. Whatever the case is, they have had a lot of practice playing structured jams in the middle of Dark Star over the past year or two. This finally gives way to Sugar Magnolia, and the Dark Star is over (you are to imagine Gary Cohen saying this here).


Some Dark Stars are exploratory, others are confident and cohesive pieces of music; the best ones, like this, are both. With this magnificent rendition, Dark Star has moved back to the very center of the Grateful Dead experience, and it will remain there for the remainder of 1972. Here they have put together a version that will never be surpassed, although one could argue that they went on to equal it on occasion.


This may be the best thing the Grateful Dead ever played. This may be the best thing anyone has ever played. And with that, there’s nothing more that needs to be said.


What was said:

124. 1972-03-23

136683 NYC 22:46

Main theme at :07, 1:28, 3:09, 3:50, and 4:18.
Sputnik at 2:10.
First verse at 4:45.
Feelin’ Groovy at 17:05.
Main theme at 20:52.
Second verse at 21:16.


Now it is 1972, probably the best year for Dark Star. Perhaps looking ahead to the European tour where it would be played 11 times, the band played Dark Star once during the Academy of Music run. They start right off with the theme, and at :22 Garcia announces that he’s not messing around when he plays a wrong note that he quickly bends into a right one, and his playing in the early going features numerous little bends and swoops like this. Jerry returns to the theme at 1:28, although it is blended into his line and the band doesn’t follow suit.


At 2:10 Garcia starts what is more or less a Sputnik line, although it doesn’t have all the features we heard in 1969. This comes back to the theme at 3:09. He gets into some tremolo and things go somewhere else until he brings back a disjointed iteration of the theme at 3:50. The band seems about to go into space, but at 4:18 Jerry again strikes up the theme, and this time everyone follows. This brings us to the verse (“reason shatters”), played with a laid-back swing.


Lesh seems a little out of joint tonight, although I’d have a hard time elaborating on this. The verse leads to a sort of half-hearted jam that flutters off into a kind of space segment. At 7:20 Garcia is playing one of the one-note morse code runs we have encountered so often lately, and Godchaux is noodling away. They come together for the kind of spacey run that will often build into a meltdown. The band seems reluctant to build this up, though.


At 9:30 Garcia is playing the kind of stuff that will soon lead to a Tiger jam. Keith is with him again, and Lesh and Weir are in and out. Starting at 10:30 it starts to sound like it’s finally going to build to something, and a rather remarkable little counterpoint starts with Garcia and Lesh being the main protagonists. By 11:15 this is dissipating again, and then it starts to again sound like the beginnings of a meltdown. Some pleasingly atonal wailing is underway by 12:05 or so, but again instead of building it up they pull back.


As we head to the 13 minute mark it’s building again, though, and again there is some nice noisemaking going on. By 13:35 this is just about in meltdown territory, and then at 13:47 Garcia is a hairsbreadth from a full-on Tiger. He recedes though, and Lesh gets some nice sounds in to compensate. Lots of intriguing stuff is happening, but as we have seen often lately there seems to be a reluctance to commit to anything.


Some kind of jam is afoot at 15:08, and this starts to come together into something funky, with Weir doing something that vaguely suggests Soulful Strut. Lesh gets a nice riff going to this, but then he backs off and it all seems like it’s coming apart again. Then at 16:08 Lesh starts playing what seems like a variant of Feelin’ Groovy, and the band suddenly snaps together. At 17:05 Lesh makes Feelin’ Groovy official, but they were already hitting it.


At 18:13 Lesh mutates the lick into a funky ascending thing that seems to serve them just fine here, as they keep pushing along. At 18:53 it goes back to Feelin’ Groovy, and then they start pedaling and it seems like we’re coming out of it. What happens next is remarkable….Lesh goes back to the Feelin’ Groovy lick while Garcia keeps pedaling, and then the latter bursts into some impossibly wonderful Bakersfield licks at 19:43 while the bass does what only Phil Lesh can do with it. Finally at 20:25 Weir comes to the fore with something like his China Cat licks, which Garcia quickly picks up on for a few seconds before he brings it back to the main theme at 20:52. We won’t get the second verse very often in 1972, but we get it tonight to put this to bed.


This is a really difficult version to evaluate. There are moments of startling brilliance, and once things snap together in the second half there is outright glory here. Although some of the atonal jamming is compelling, on the other hand, here again (as with several of the late 1971 versions) it is possible to feel like there is a certain amount of meandering where the band seems too hesitant to commit to any particular direction. But when it’s good, it’s really good.


What was said:

123. 1971-12-15

149966 Ann Arbor 20:16
Main theme at :04 and 9:34.
First verse at 10:02.
Goes into Deal.

The last Dark Star of 1971 kicks right off with the main theme. Garcia has a lovely tone with some bends and a beautiful little A-D-C lick at :28 that I muchly dig. He develops it as a kind of motive, weaving similar figures into his opening spiel. At around 2 minutes in, things settle down and it seems like some kind of weirdness is being considered. A softly melodic but not too together interlude ensues, with Godchaux making his present felt a bit more. At this point, he seems to have become an important presence, but he’s not as boldly assertive as he was when he first joined. Nevertheless, he often seems to push things in interesting directions.

After about a minute of casting about the band starts to congeal, with a kind of rolling section that remains on the far side of normalcy. This again settles down into what seems like it might be the beginning of a space jam at around 4:00. As happens often lately, the band keeps their distance from one another, perhaps waiting for something to happen. At 4:59 Garcia starts a little morse code line, and Keith winds around it, and then Lesh follows suit, but it’s not until Weir gets more involved that this shapes up into something that is more meltdown than jam. Once again, this is something that would develop into a Tiger were it 6 months later.

At around 7:00 Garcia’s lines turn into something that suggests rock and roll, and by 7:30 we seem to be getting more cohesion…if this doesn’t come together, it would be an obvious place for the main theme. But instead they persist and things draw together until by about 8:45 a little peak is reached and sustained until almost, 9:34 at which point Garcia finally states the theme and they fall into line. This brings us to the verse, sung off-key at what feels like a languid tempo.

I’m not sure that there is a standard way to follow the verse at this point. Here they go to a basic Dark Star jam that seems to be happening at a significantly slower pace than the intro jam. By 12:15 this seems to be turning into space, which would have been the usual routine in 1970. At 12:45 Garcia starts making noises with a slide, and then things get rather quiet, which is also reminiscent of 1970, although they don’t get quite as quiet as they often did the previous year. Instead a lugubrious brooding starts to build; at 14:24, however, Garcia pronounces in a pure tone that he is again thinking of Dark Star. Weir rolls around a bit, but then he subsides, and the future remains in doubt; at 14:45 he advances a chord pattern that suggests Let it Grow, but this goes in a slower, vaguely Latin direction as the others latch on.

A really cohesive and satisfying jam is what we get out of this. Godchaux’s understated contributions are sublime; as is typical, he subtly undermines the harmonic balance, until at 17:05 he gets a little more forceful and pushes them in an entirely new direction. Garcia briefly takes it toward something like Me & My Uncle, and then it settles down a bit, and then it sort of recedes into uncertainty. At 18:48 Garcia starts one of the morse code bits that sometimes serve to gather the troops (and sometimes don’t). A dark and bubbling coherence builds, and this threatens to become something remarkable, but as it drives toward a peak they suddenly back off again and Jerry starts Deal.

I wouldn’t call this one of the best Dark Stars of the year, but it is a fun 20 minutes that has some good moments. It doesn’t seem unusual at this point that the band seems hesitant to commit to any of their ideas; this seems to be a feature of a lot of these Dark Stars from the back half of 1971. The second half jam is really wonderful when they commit to it, although its span is relatively brief.


What was said: