77294 Paris 39:25 (DS 19:22, Drums 2:31, DS 17:32)
Main theme at :05 and 11:38.
First verse at 12:10.
Bright Star at 8:03.
Feelin’ Groovy at 9:52.
Main theme at 15:24.
Second verse at 15:53.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.
After a single statement of the theme line by Garcia, we have a rather euphonious introductory section here, with Jerry melodically musing and Lesh rising up to gently weave in his lines. At 1:15, with Garcia repeating a note for the nonce and Lesh providing melodic counterpoint, the bass hits a strange off-note that somehow works perfectly and serves to draw the ear away from Jerry for a moment, where we find melodies sprouting everywhere.
At 1:48 there is a little eddy of sound where it sounds like they’re about to get strange with it, and then it gently snaps back into the main pattern again at 2:05. The band is rather elastic here, eddying again at 2:15; this sort of playing I particularly associate with the Europe tour. This time they don’t snap back into shape quite so tightly, and there seems to be a more longitudinal tendency toward the weird. At around 3:30 it starts to head out a little farther, with swirling piano melodies mirroring the guitar. Lesh hints at the jazzy riffs he is fond of in this era, but they’re going in a different direction, toward something spacey. By around 4:45 this tendency has become pronounced.
At about 5:20 Garcia starts gesturing toward a frenetic jam. The band obliges, but kind of gently. At 5:58 Lesh starts pushing a little with a bluesy pattern. Weir and Godchaux seem willing to get funky here, and with everyone getting into it they start rocking a bit (still kind of gently, but gathering momentum). By 8:25 Weir is playing some sort of dissonant chords, and Godchaux picks it up—depending on the mix, I sometimes get the two of them muddled in this era, as they are often on a similar wavelength both tonally and rhythmically. The music is sliding toward D major; Lesh emphasizes the D at 9:19 and Weir and Garcia feed into it.
At 10:05 Garcia starts a section where he hammers the C and G (the dominant 7th of D and A, respectively). This still has a D feel, and Jerry winds up on a D at 10:27 and bashes on it for a while. Godchaux and Weir provide a rhythmic and somewhat dissonant chordal accompaniment, and Keith pushes Garcia up to an E at 10:50, where the repetition continues. Now things start to fall apart, and at 11:06 Jerry lets it be known that he’s ready for the main theme; this arrives at 11:38. This leads very quickly to the verse, with our man coming in with a rather off-key wail. The accompaniment here is rather loose, in keeping with the mood throughout thus far.
After the theme has been restated, after some ponderous throat clearing, the music comes down to almost nothing for a moment as we descend into a space section à la 1970. As it gains intensity, Lesh scritches and Weir wails with some feedback and volume swells, and I think Keith is playing through a Leslie speaker or otherwise employing some manner of effects, although I think he’s still playing the piano (I’m sure someone will correct me if I have it twisted). This leads to a two and half minute drum segment.
As the Archive recording opens the third track of this Dark Star, Phil starts to flutter a little, and Garcia very quietly comes in as well. At 1:47, Lesh starts up with some chordal stuff, with Garcia quietly mirroring his line, and then Weir returns, also quietly. This is still more or less a space jam and, in fact, as far as Kreutzmann’s concerned it’s still a drum solo. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely disjointed, but it’s not very distinctive either. At 3:40 Lesh seems to want to bring the band into the action more, as he starts riffing. Weir starts to join him a few times and then thinks better of it, and Garcia gets a little louder and kicks on the wah, signaling a meltdown.
I hadn’t discerned much from Keith yet when at 5:08 he adds some chords to the mix. Again, my ear keeps getting drawn from Keith to Weir and vice versa here. By about 6:10 we seem to be veering away from a meltdown and toward a jam, and the band hovers for a bit. Jerry pokes around melodically and Keith follows (as a side note, I notice Keith shadowing Garcia’s lines way more on recordings from this era than I ever do in ones that date from after the 1975 hiatus, when Jerry cited it as an increasing factor, and indeed one of the reasons he had for concluding that Keith’s tenure in the band had run its course).
At 7:00 it sounds like Garcia and Lesh are pushing toward a jam. This starts coming together at 7:20, and at times it sounds like an off-kilter extrapolation of the main Dark Star melody. This time they come together more intensely and cohesively than they have to this point. At 8:03 Garcia uncorks Bright Star, albeit briefly, and he sort of hits it again in slow motion at 8:54 before a vicious repeated pull-off from 8:57 to 9:11 really kicks them into high gear. By 9:20 the intensity eases a little the way it does when they’re gearing up for another peak; another repeated pull-off brings them there and they back off again. There are hints of a thematic jam in the works, and at 9:52 Lesh drops Feelin’ Groovy into the breach.
They don’t swing into it right away, as it seems like they’re having a hard time getting together on it; a more concerted run-through begins at 10:41, this time with a certain bouncey delicacy, although I don’t know if I’d say this one ever fully coheres. At 11:52 they are pedaling and I have no idea if they’re still doing Feelin’ Groovy or not; it turns out that they aren’t, and Garcia again adverts to variations on Bright Star to get things moving in a different direction. At the 13 minute mark something funky is going on; Weir is playing his quasi-JBs stuff, and then at 13:15 Garcia starts a rolling Sputnik line that oozes over the top, with Keith adding a dissonant variation on Weir’s funky guitar.
Meanwhile, Phil seems to be concocting a funky bass riff of the type of which he is so fond in this era (I’ll date this from about 14:10 or so). The players return to their corners for one of the looser passages that are salted throughout this one, and Phil wanders away from his riff as the music trickles off until at 15:24 Jerry brings in the main theme. This is again brief, as we wind up with the now-rare second verse at 15:53, complete with Phil’s vocal counterpoint on the transitive nightfall. They almost seem not to know what to do after the vocals end, but Weir quickly cranks up Sugar Magnolia and the rest is history.
It's hard to know what sort of synoptic and evaluative statements to make about this one. It has a reputation as the weakest Dark Star of the tour, and that may be true, but that doesn’t make it a weak Dark Star. It is ragged at times, and it sags a bit in the middle. On the other hand, the band seems to be having fun, and they deftly, if raggedly, explore a variety of grooves, and even treat us to a space section that is reminiscent of 1970. There’s a lot of great music here, in any case, even if it’s not a very clear or coherent statement as a whole.
What was said:
JSegel:
5/4/72 Paris: 39:25 (DS 19:22 > drums 2:31 > DS 17:32) - Europe ’72 Complete Recordings
Jack Straw before it, Dark Star remains somehow embedded as an alternate reality to cowboy songs, and out into Sugar Magnolia.
Intro to the chords with isolated drum beats before settling more into a groove, Jerry has some very melodic phrases and is exploring the sound of the guitar with single notes and a few pinch-harmonics, it winds away from the theme center after a couple minutes into a swirl, careening slowly into space as the lead goes up and up and a new thing develops. They all play on little trilled sets of notes, into a small and quiet whirlpool.
More of a minor key space follows. Rolling on toms, small bursts of lead guitar in fast & jazzy runs. Drums start to kick in with that idea, they’re chasing each other around, bass come up with a riff to match. It’s a quick-paced vignette with rolling skins, very Krupa there, Mr Kreutzman. Landing on a little repetitive lick at 8:35 that Jerry’s used before, dit-dah, dit-dah on a major third and the note between (sort of like clock bells?) By 9 minutes, it settles into more of a D major area after some diminished chords. Bobby playing with chord pulls up and down. Jerry has some riff he’s figuring out, rocking out on. He keeps at this riff rhythm, but the band develops it into a more dissonant thing. So it falls apart and maybe back to Dark Star world, though it enters a delicate space first. Little octave piano tinklings lead the band back to the theme and the verse at 12:10, Jerry sound sort of ragged on the first line. The second line breaks the pulse with fermatas, third line has weird bass fiddling around in high register more than wandering, outro follows, and off they go with some big bass strums and everything else floating away.
Feedback leads the way in. A very sparse sea of sounds. Some volume swelled notes, a few isolated drum bursts. Quiet controlled feedback. All kept in a delicate space. Bass trills as sparely spoken words, string scrubs. Jerry plays a few notes at 16 minutes, but they devolve into feedback also. Non-tonal notes in melodic statements, going in and out of any key and into trills and string noises. Wah wah embellishment, some sputnik-like arpeggiating. The scary movie stuff is there but subdued. Drums come in to roll over it all, and it takes off into a drum solo section for a couple minutes. (Did anybody leave the stage to pee? Or they just stood around listening?)
(Section 2, track-wise) The drum solo is mostly rolling quickly over the toms for a while, with occasional kick or snare punctuation. It develops into more of a rhythm after a minute and a half and then dies back into isolated cymbals and tom statements. A roll starts up again and ends in cymbals, the bass comes in.
(Section 3-track-wise) Still sparse tom-tom rhythms, now with bass sounds, not really bass lines so much as isolated notes. Guitar is back in making some quiet little runs, tone rolled off. Bass chords are heading toward something. Jerry starts playing medium tempo chromatic phrases, the bass chords back off into little notes again. Drums still rolling around. Bobby is back in too, now. They’re still in soundscape world, building it toward something, though. Wahwah backed-off leads building up in chromatic phrases, back down again. They’re with Bill’s rhythm, and then he starts the side stick rhythm, Jerry still on a fast chromatic bit, piano following him. It’s very restrained still, but has an obvious latent undertow of menace, then it all sort of dissipates and moves into a quieter world.
Jerry starts modal lines, Phil following, they hint at a groove. At 7 minutes into this section it’s got a Dark Star-ish sense, but coming into it with a new and faster pulse, and even sounds like a Bright Star at 8’ in. Nice jam going on a building up to a repeating falling star pull-off area a minute later, then to more groove-based jamming and another repeating riff, over the crest and back down. At 10 minutes Jerry is doing the slide that usually goes up to the A for the theme, but Phil takes it sideways and drops the Feelin’ Groovy riff in instead. Sort of a mixed up version, it goes outside and comes back in for a bit.
The sideways again, more pull off riffs and a sudden Bright Star, but the jam following is country tinged and still has elements of the Feelin’ Groovy riff world, but it goes on to a new jazzy jam, lots of funky chord stuff from Bobby, Jerry takes a little wah wah into the mix with some odd arpeggios, and it quiets down before building back up. Jerry still has some lingering pull offs and feedbacks to express. It loosens up and they all step back, and the piano makes a very outside chordal choice for a downward arpeggio and then Jerry comes in with the theme, people clap. Verse 2 at 16 minutes!
Yay, verse two! It’s a suspended span and not just a single cantilever. Still a little ragged on the vocals. Phil really grooves it up on the Lady in Velvet line, almost a Pink Floyd-type funky groove. Nonetheless it’s only that one line and the refrain comes, to the outro with Phil’s vocals (ok, he hasn’t sung it for a while) and then the descending phrases, starting with a repeat of the refrain part, sounding very ponderous, not sure where they will lead. They start low and go a few times through, upward and to the tritone chord… once, not several lulling chords to lead to St Stephen, instead a new little melodic tidbit, to a held chord and Bobby starts Sugar Magnolia.
This was a cool version, very developmental but not stellar. Sort of latent, like it held keys to things that could become amazing but they never really sprouted. The introductory jamming is still lovely and relaxed, and they took it to a great space after the first verse, very sparse soundscapes. The latter half’s funky jamming was cool. I appreciate that they brought the whole thing back with the second verse, (and that odd outro.) The 'first-verse-only' versions that are common nowadays take the listeners into the alternate reality and abandon us there! The earlier versions encapsulated the space of other worlds and brought us home again. No more bringing us home, we're out in space! I guess there's one more version (July 26 '72) that has the second verse and then that's it till 1981. I'm sort of surprised that they never split it over several nights, like came back into the song and ended with the second verse the next day!
SJR:
I find this one a bit lacklustre (if that’s even the right word for a 1972 Dark Star), or maybe less coherent is a better description. It doesn’t really take off and lacks a bit of direction. Still, it is a 1972 Dark Star. Weakest of the tour? Maybe.
Nothing much more to add, other than this is the only Europe ‘72 version with the 2nd verse.
dgwint:
This is one I rarely listen to. It meanders around with no direction or even interesting peaks or grooves. Definitely not a clunker - is there such a thing? But it suffers coming from a time where there are so many stunning versions in the DS evolutionary path. Carry on folks. I continue to find this discussion fascinating!
adamos:
Some nice bounce from Phil as things get underway. Bob's textures almost sound like electric piano at first until his strumming becomes more pronounced. There's a gentle, floating vibe to the early proceedings. Jerry works some laid back lines although there's a still certain cutting sharpness to them. Keith comes in with some pretty accompaniment as they drift along nicely.
Things open up a little around 1:50 with Keith playing off of Jerry's line but then they quickly shift back into the groove. Jerry goes lower and Keith continues to have a nice presence in the mix. Around 2:45 they slow it down with Jerry gently working some lines and Bill's delicate cymbals adding to the feel. They pick up a little momentum again as Jerry goes lower but they are still not in any particular hurry. Then around 3:30 they catch a rhythmic wave that takes them further out but they don't fully enter the void. Keith is mirroring Jerry and the collective playing continues to have a pretty, gentle quality that I like.
After 4:45 they start to ease up and shift into weirder territory. You can feel something brewing but it's still within the tamer confines of the performance thus far. Then Bill starts working a beat and they speed up with some repeating notes that launches them into a new groove with Phil stepping forward. Bill remains active and Jerry is weaving quick, winding lines with lively accompaniment from Keith and Bob. They keep this going for a good spell as the intensity slowly picks up. By 8:30 things have gotten weirder again but they keeping working the groove.
Around 9:05 they rise up a bit and it feels like they are ready to head out in a new direction but then they pull back and let things briefly ebb. Bill continues to work the beat and they go a bit lower with Bob injecting notes and textures along the way. Things start bubbling as Jerry works a repeating pattern. Then at 10:05 he heads upwards and the groove starts cooking along nicely. Around 10:40 they get into a repeating thing that gets weirder although not ominous. This doesn't last long however and they let it go; Jerry signals the theme at 11:06 but they pull back first and drift their way into it. The lovely gentleness is back as they briefly ride it into the verse.
After the verse they briefly reset and then let things dissolve. Phil adds some strong strums and there is a bit of low-key feedback and volume knob action. There's some open space and you'd almost expect crickets or other percussive sounds from a previous era to emerge. They patiently explore this zone with semi-freaky sounds coming in at various intervals. Jerry switches into some wah-ish sounds with a touch of Sputnik-ish sparkle. Things start to rumble up and get more intense but they opt to give way to a drum break at 19:22.
As Drums winds down Phil starts to slowly come in; you almost have to strain to hear him at first. He plays some intermittent notes as Bill keeps going and then Jerry comes in faintly in the background too. It starts to get spacey and Twilight Zone-ish but it's a subtle affair. Phil and Jerry play off of each other with some subtle accents from Bob. Billy is still working the beat and Jerry starts to pick up momentum. Phil is still forward in the mix as he works a patient line. Jerry gets progressively more melty with fast repeating notes. Keith enters the fray following Jerry initially and then playing some intermittent accents. Bob picks up his activity too.
Around 5:55 (on the second Dark Star track) things shift into a prettier and more melodic direction but before long it slips back into something more spacey and meandering. Jerry starts working a line and the vibe gets a little The Other One-ish for a brief spell before a new jam starts to come together around 7:15. I agree that the groove sounds Dark Star-esque and by 7:40 they're cooking along pretty well. At 8:03 Jerry slips into a mini Bright Star but it's quickly absorbed back into the fast-paced groove. They cruise along with Jerry reaching high and then getting into some repeating notes around 9:00 as Bobby adds some prominent rhythm. It crests at 9:10 after which they start a gradual descent still working the groove and before long they're bringing right back up again.
The new ascent peaks at 9:45 as Jerry plays some bendy, stretchy notes and then Feelin' Groovy starts to come together. Phil asserts it decisively but Jerry doesn't fully latch on and there's a false start of sorts. But Phil and Bob keep at it and Jerry blends in and it takes greater shape. It does its nice, pretty thing but I agree that it's less emphatic and not as fully formed as other versions. They ride it out for bit before shifting back into other territory by 12:00.
They hover for a bit and then at 12:17 Jerry heads back to Bright Star. It's kind of a bumpy peak but he brings it up once and then comes back around for something in a similar vein. Around 12:50 he slips back into the groove that others have been working with prominent rhythm from Bob. Then at 13:15 Jerry goes back to the wah-ish Sputnik-y line that he dabbled with earlier. It sounds cool and the groove is cooking nicely and then suddenly around 13:40 they downshift considerably but still keep it moving.
Jerry starts another winding, cool sounding line that reaches upwards before fading back. Meanwhile Phil gets a bouncy line going that becomes more prominent after 14:10. They ease up further but still continue to move it forward; Jerry's line gets windy again with some edgy fuzz. Bill is working the beat with continued accents from Keith and Bob. Things ebb and flow but are generally downshifting. Around 15:10 they take it down and drift a bit until Jerry reintroduces the theme at 15:24; there's still a touch of wah in the first notes. From here they quickly glide into the second verse which is a nice surprise. As the soft and weary vocal fades they sort of play the ending that once lead to St. Stephen but it slips away and they shift into Sugar Magnolia.
The criticisms of this one are warranted but it still has some good things to offer. I like the gentle, pretty feel of the opening segment and there's some interesting stuff after the drum break. But they're not always fully dialed in and it lacks the spectacular moments that the greatest performances bring to the table. Special mention for Bill though; I was noticing his contributions throughout.
Mr. Rain:
The opening puts us in the swirling clouds of Neptune, very chill and relaxing. By 4 minutes it gets more drippy & spacey & nebulous. But after about 5:30 Jerry & Bill pick up the pace and they move toward a fast jam with tumbling drums. This stays relaxed & skitterish, kind of running in place, but the energy steadily picks up. Things gradually get kind of hectic, a little more dissonant after 8:30, an abrasive repeating note after 10:40; restlessness is creeping in. But after 11 minutes Jerry slowly signals the main theme, stopping the flow; they circle around prettily and play a nice transition to the theme, one by one falling in line, a smooth shift from disorder to melody.
Jerry sounds drunk in the verse. But then we're back in a 1970-style space! This is mostly just Phil, Bob & Bill -- just a few notes from an uncharacteristically quiet Jerry for a couple of minutes (which makes me wonder if he was changing a string or something). After Jerry comes back in, the space is very nice with evocative feedback and sound swirls; it's almost like November '70 again. Around 18 minutes Jerry moves into his Sputnik v.2 mode on the wah while the others dive into the weirdness, kind of a jungle jam, and it really feels like "this is how we would have played a space in 1970 with our '72 sound."
It sounds like they might be heading to a noisy meltdown with a big bass rumble, but instead they stop short for a drum solo from Bill. This is an odd thing to find in a Dark Star up to this point; previously there haven't been drum breaks in Dark Star unless they ran into some trouble. But this will become more common in '72....
The guitarists very quietly trickle back in, kind of continuing the space. But it's diminished now....it sounds more like Jerry & Phil just noodling for a while with Bill; it's pleasant but there's not a whole lot happening. By 3 minutes it's starting to get a little more intense, those tumbling drums again, moving toward a Tiger, Jerry turning on his wah around 3:30. But this is a very relaxed slow-motion Tiger without much involvement from Bob, who stays quiet; around 5 minutes Keith comes in, but they're still not really getting any traction for a full freakout, just sliding around anxiously. So, no meltdown: by 6 minutes they calm down again and they're back to spacey drifting again.
By 7 minutes Jerry & Phil are working toward a more structured jam, everyone feeling their way, trying to find the pieces. At 7.20 Bob adds a nice part; something's coming together; at 7:40 Jerry starts a lead, and finally they start flying. It's recognizably a Dark Star-flavored jam that quickly gets exuberant. At 9:40 Phil starts Feelin' Groovy (after an earlier hint around 9:00). This one's jaunty but low-key, more of a comedown than a liftoff, and it gets looser until around 11:30 they ease their way out of it. The jam's still in spin, Jerry dropping in Bright Star theme hints after 12:20. By 13 minutes it's turned into a kickin' choppy jam; after 13:20 Jerry drips a great Sputniky wah topping over it. By 14:20 it dissolves over a neat Phil riff, and they start getting mushy and falling into space again. But Jerry's done: he brings back the main theme at 15:25 and shortly leads them to the verse (he remembers the words!). It all but falls apart at the end as Jerry doesn't quite know where to go, but Phil brings it to a finish. Drastic mix change going into Sugar Magnolia, so there could be a cut here.
This Dark Star had its moments. But a lot of it's rather sleepy and a little TOO spacey maybe....they're just out there drifting aimlessly, and it takes them about 30 minutes to actually lock on to any memorable jam. Even the meltdown fizzles out! But the pre-drums space part is cool, and I like the final jam. Overall, nice but not great. It's really noticeable how the Dark Stars are getting more spacey & billowy & less focused as the tour goes on.
You'll have to wait until the '90s for that! I guess it hadn't occurred to them yet in the '70s.
By chance, rbbert also listened to 5/4/72 today, with a comment on the Dark Star:
Maybe Bill's drum solo saved the day?
JSegel:
Well, the next couple are (relatively) short and (very) long. I've listened to both while falling asleep, but no writing...
we may resort to dream journals.
Maybe Bill's drum solo saved the day?
JSegel:
Well, the next couple are (relatively) short and (very) long. I've listened to both while falling asleep, but no writing...
we may resort to dream journals.
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