that a song, like a life, can morph and evolve and wind up as something unexpected
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
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.
It almost seems as if they were collecting ideas for the right time to unleash them in more complete form. Does anyone know when the E'72 tour was set up and "a known future event"? There would only be one more performance of DS prior to the E'72 tour (on 3/23/72) and one could argue that there's more "closure" to the improv in that version than there is in late '71. So, they trotted out one more version, took it to a logical conclusion and decided, "See? We can do this they way it needs to be done." Then again, I have a tough time believing that it was that well thought out.
Mr. Rain:
I doubt it was that thought-out at all. If they were thinking, "let's work out the material we're going to record in Europe for the album," this seems to have extended to songs only. They played nine shows in 1972 before the Europe tour, and Dark Star got played just once....the lowest Dark Star ratio since August '71. Baffling. I don't know if that means they were a little timid of Dark Star at that point (as in "we're not doing it right" or "we're not feelin' it"), or if they were confident that they'd be able to pull it together in Europe despite almost no performances in the previous four months. Either way, probably not safe to think Dead decision-making ever came to "a logical conclusion!"
Archtop:
Well, I agree with most of that, especially anything regarding being overly thought out or logical, but I don't agree that they felt that they weren't feeling Dark Star. How it evolved in late '71 and that one version they played on 3/23/72 (which is one of my favorites, by the way, although some folks poo poo it) shows that they were gearing it up and that they only did it once at the NYAoM suggests, at the very least, that once they did know E'72 was happening, they were ready to roll with it and didn't want to drain any more ammo stateside. And roll with it they most certainly did. Perhaps it was simple happenstance that the E'72 tour arrived when it did.
I also don't think that their recording of the tour had anything to do with their perception of Dark Star. As far as they were concerned, Dark Star had already been released on a successful album. The E'72 recording project was an animal that had nothing to do with Dark Star. Dark Star was a side project to present them as something that couldn't be readily defined. A rock improv band that sounded like no one else. But again, I don't think that this was a scripted thought.
pbuzby:
Seems true. (Dick said that when he brought up a new Europe '72 release with Phil in the 90's, Phil's first response was, "we already released that.")
However, they apparently recognized 4/8/72 was special, as they (or just Jerry?) mixed it during the tour for the Glastonbury Fayre record. But we'll talk about that more a few weeks from now.
Archtop:
It blows my mind that someone as perceptive as Phil would ever say such a thing. To suggest that the 4/8/72 or 4/24/72 Dark Stars, or pick another one from that tour if you're @ianuaditis; (I think it's 5/23, but it might be 5/25), hadn't evolved by light years relative to the 2/27/69 version on Live/Dead (which is really good but hardly definitive, except possibly for that brief era) almost suggests that Phil had no idea that their music had progressed so very much from '69-'72. It's almost as if he weren't even there. However, I have a strong suspicion that he was.
(I kinda got my points scrambled in my previous post. Of course they had released an album called Europe '72, but it was hardly representative of the most substantive content of that tour. Dark Star/TOO and the newly-minted Playin' jams being among the most important content. I guess Phil underestimated the market, which is still mind-blowing to me.)
Mr. Rain:
But, to Phil's credit, once he listened back to some tapes he realized the error of his ways and put out Hundred Year Hall.
pbuzby:
This reminds me of the tape floating around of David Gans playing the 2/18/71 "Beautiful Jam" for Phil who says "was there more of that?"
JSegel:
Nice strong steady and relaxed groove right off the bat, drums joining in during the intro riff, rolling into a groove. Bobby has a little turnaround riff back to the A that’s cool, winding around—sort of like the later Terrapin Station riff… Jerry’s going for some chromatic bits in between the melodic runs. It runs strong for only a couple minutes then hits a lull like where it hits the second line of the verse, in the following space they explore, Jerry even references the climbing triplets of the outro. It slowly moves into a new rhythm, rolling on the A and coming to rest on the E, then goes outside tonally. It enters a quieter space with individual little sounds and riffs, some tremolo, it moves into a descending chromatic area that builds into free atonalism, a little chaos. Free jazz. Moving into ascending chromaticism chaos, sustaining the tension at a high plateau for quite a while, at 7 minutes Jerry breaks out into lead playing again, fast this time. They suggest the 6/8 of TOO but holding mostly on the A root. An A drone starts and the rhythm moves out of the 6/8 proper and into a more pulse-oriented area, which crests and then suddenly out of the ashes the Dark Star theme comes out and verse 1 at 10 minutes. Wow!
Sort of a groovy jumpy rhythm for line 2’s offbeats, with rolling tom toms. Back to the groove for line 3, Bill is really into his drum rolls these days. The outro is offset between the guitars, they are sort of echoing each other, and it moves into a fading Dark Star groove for the Transitive Nightfall.
It fades to Phil strumming big bass chords, the guitars making small noises. Then volume swells and plinky noises, when it fades into quieter space it sounds like Jerry has a slide scrubbing on the strings. A very sparse area, small occasional sounds, sliding notes, trilling piano keys. Bobby on some weird stretches. At 14:30, JG starts melodies again, rising from the ashes slowly and quietly, bit by bit, still very quiet and sparse. Bob plays the G7 to am thing and it goes into a jam on this progression. Jerry plays more with his pinch harmonics. As it builds in intensity, it seems to be moving toward a new song, sounds like Keith is trying all sorts of chord progressions. They even get something like the descending feelin’ groovy chords one time at 18 minutes. It devolves into little riffs from Phil, no real chord progression sticking for very long. Sort of hovering, sounds like they’re trying to figure out where to go. Nice build at the end in this modal area, but it heads off to somewhere else, and on the tape Jerry starts “Deal” and they go there. There could be something missing on the tape…
A nice start, it sort of dissolves into the end. Deal might have been the window in the middle, but it never gets back to Dark Star. Dark Star is just opening a door to somewhere else these days.
adamos:
Smooth and assured out of the gate and moving at a decent pace. Jerry, Phil and Bill are all prominent initially with Bob's textures shortly becoming more noticeable. They're cruising along and Jerry is winding lines beautifully. Around 1:50 they bring it down; Phil steps forth initially accented by Bill and then Jerry and Bob come in with trebly sparkle. Things quiet down and Jerry starts a gentle winding line with subtle accompaniment from the ensemble and Keith becomes easier to pick out.
It feels like they might drift out into the ether but it's more of a transitional zone while they consider new directions. Around 3:06 Phil starts a repeating pattern that Keith plays off of nicely and the others join in as well. By 3:30 they're ramping up and seemingly ready to take it for a ride but before long they pull back again. Keith sounds nice kind of like a harp. By 4:00 they're back in a subtle, spacier zone but also sort of hovering. Jerry plays the Morse code line that bzfgt pointed out with gentle accompaniment from Keith and then Phil. Things start to get stronger and weirder and suddenly they're careening towards a meltdown. They ride it for a good spell and it sounds compelling.
Around 7:10 they pull back and it sounds like one of the cowboy sounds could emerge but they take it into a jam of sorts. By 7:40 it sounds like they are heading back to chaos but they keep riding the groove with a lot of activity from Keith. He, Jerry and Phil are working off a repeating pattern with further textures from Bob. Around 8:45 they transition into a new zone and ramp it up, climbing towards a peak with some nice rhythm from Bob. By 9:10 they reach a plateau but keep cruising along and then at 9:30 they pull back and Jerry inserts the theme and they take it to the verse.
After the verse they briefly reset and glide into a Dark Star flavored groove. It feels like it's starting to dissolve and Phil comes in with some strong strumming with little accents from Bob. By 12:15 this has opened a portal to a gentle, spacey passage. At 12:20 Phil seems to be considering something but he doesn't take it further and they let things quiet down. Jerry comes in with spacey slide sounds and they all gently dance around the edges of space. Things slowly get a little weirder with some twangy sounds from Bob and they consider bringing up the intensity but then quickly ease back again. Then at 14:23 Jerry starts a gentle, melodic line that offers a way back to Dark Star with subtle accents from Bob that sound a little Sputnik-y.
By 15:00 they've quieted down again. Bob is gently putting something forth while Jerry is still a bit more spacey; Keith jumps in and then Phil and a jam starts to coalesce. At 15:40 Jerry brings in a lead line and they take it forth into a really nice groove. I like the flavor of it quite a bit; it's beautiful with just a touch of down home funkiness too. By 17:10 it seems to have run its course and they pivot into something quicker paced that sounds great too. It starts to lose coherence after 17:50 and it sounds like they might transition into something else but they sort of hover in an adjacent zone.
Around 18:05 the others have pulled back and Phil asserts a line that Keith plays off and then Jerry joins in as well. By 18:30 they let that go and Jerry does a wandering line while Phil continues to work it underneath. Jerry gets into a repeating thing and things build and get a little freakier and they're rising to a peak but then opt to let it go and move on to Deal.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The pre-verse segment has good things to offer and the second half was really coming together but unfortunately they decided not to flesh it out further.
Mr. Rain:
This Dark Star apparently opened a short second set. It gets off to a nice sprightly start. The drums are up-front; Bill seems to be more of a key player in setting the pace than he was a year ago, and this is one of those tom-heavy Stars. Keith on the other hand is still down in the mix, adding background texture; he's very responsive to the others, but has definitely backed off since October. They slow down after 2 minutes and get spacey; after 3:10 Phil nudges them into a bouncy upbeat passage; but within a minute they retreat back to spaciness, and soon they're drifting in the gloom. This slowly develops into another little pre-Tigerish meltdown after 5:45 which gets pretty grand (they're getting good at these!). Coming out of this at 7:00, Jerry spins a loose jam which seems like it's tending toward the Other One (especially after 8 minutes), but by 8:40 they've conjured up a lovely rushing E72-type passage. It only lasts a minute, though; after 9:30 Jerry brings in the theme, kind of incongruously, and they settle firmly on that. Jerry's not in good voice for the verse, and they screw up the timing on the outro figure.
Rather than an immediate space, they go into a mellow Dark Star jam which dissolves nicely into an eloquent space at 11:50, Phil taking the lead. Space is more dark & lonesome than it used to be; after some volume twirls Jerry breaks out a slide, a rarity in Dark Star, for an extra poignant feel. (Notice: from about 12:50-14:20, the strings of Phil's bass are in STEREO! I didn't think he was doing that for another year, but here it is.) A sad & melancholy space which could come from a '73 jam rather than '71; but by 14:25 Jerry's breaking out a more cheerful "here we go" line. Bob quietly starts his old Dark Star Strut chords, thinking maybe they'll go that way. But as Bill & Phil come in, they get into a slow & slinky groove by 15:30 -- you're right about the vague Latin feel it takes on (this part wouldn't be out of place in a Santana piece). The off-kilter feel is unusual for a Dark Star; this doesn't remind me of anything they've done before, and it seems to inspire Jerry to new heights. But after 17:05 it changes direction a bit; Keith seems to be suggesting a new line, and it seems like they'll keep going.... But the band sort of falls apart around 18 minutes and the momentum goes astray; though Phil's trying to keep it together, they're losing their grip. Around 19:00 they gather round a more straightahead slashing jam, which heads to a peak and seems like it's going to take off....but then Jerry suddenly wraps it up and starts Deal. The rest of the band catches on faster than you'd expect, so this may have been a planned segue.
Good, not great, though it's great in parts. They just kind of float here & there, and it all sounds good but nothing sticks for long, it keeps getting unfocused and there's little intensity. It's not so much that they can't unite forces and create a heavenly passage, it's that they don't sustain it for long before wandering off somewhere else, skittering from one idea to the next, and there's often an air of "where are we going?" uncertainty, and it gets unceremoniously dropped at the end after they lose the thread. But then, at its best it flows into surprising places, and the good parts are "whoa!"....if you were to excerpt 10 or 15 minutes of the highlights, it would sound like one of the best of the year. As it is, it really looks forward to how they'll sound in the next year.
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