135. 1972-05-25

87682 London 34:30.

Main theme at :00 and 15:04.
First verse at 16:40.
Feelin’ Groovy at 21:06.
Tiger at 32:35.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.


The main theme emerges out of a little jam at the end of Wharf Rat, which is such a natural transition (in either direction) it’s somewhat surprising they didn’t do it more. The opening jam has a brooding vibe. Weir plays surging strums, somewhat like the jam in Bird Song in the late 80s, and Garcia alludes to Sputnik at times (see 2:38). At about 4:02 a bluesier feel starts to come through, and there is a little momentum building. Lesh throws in some jazzy riffs (for instance from 5:10); it is difficult to keep track of all the times he does that, as he often throws them in in passing.


At 6:00 Garcia’s playing seems to take on more urgency, and the band hits an early peak culminating at 6:29—6:36. From here they pull back into some weirdness. This comes to a head at about 8:20, where we find ourselves in a space jam which deepens as it goes along. At 11:28 Weir is playing some shimmering tremolo guitar, and Garcia has kicked on the wah and seems to be hinting at a meltdown. They keep the energy tamped down, though, and the music gets even more sparse. By 14:30 it starts to sound a bit like an old school Feedback. Finally at 15:04 Garcia starts playing the theme and they pull it together and head toward the verse.


The front four come out of the verse seemingly ready to space out, but Kreutzmann

has other ideas, laying down a bouncy beat that Lesh and Godchaux bop along to for a while. Weir is still getting into the tremolo effect, and he lays on texture here and lets the other two carry the rhythm. Lesh shifts them into Feelin’ Groovy at 21:06, with Weir still using the tremolo, and at 21:14 Garcia, quietly at first, finally joins them. They pick up steam, but overall they keep it light this time. By around 24:40 they seem to be making a transition to something else.


This winds up being a remarkable little jam that takes its impetus from the preceding Feelin’ Groovy jam and heads into less charted territory. By 26:30 this starts to come apart and they seem to be gesturing toward a meltdown, which seems inevitable in the second half at this point. As they did in the first half, they bring it way down at this point. The build-up from here is gradual and subtle; they come to a little peak at 30:14 and then bring it down again, dispersing into maximum weirdness. Finally Garcia goes for the Tiger, and as they come down from this Weir starts signaling their next destination, Sugar Magnolia.


The last Dark Star of the European tour is neither the best nor the worst one they played there. After and in contrast to Rotterdam, the next two had a lot of very focused jamming. This one is sort of all over the place again. However, it is not an unworthy finale to the tour, as there are numerous excellent passages.


What was said:

134. 1972-05-23

16089 London 29:59 (29:32)

Main theme at 1:31 and 17:20.
Feelin’ Groovy (feint) at 15:48.
First verse at 17:54.
Tiger at 24:11.
Goes into Morning Dew.


We start off with a little fanfare before the main theme, hence the two times listed above. Some nice playing with everyone involved leads to an early but brief landing in the theme. At 2:10 Garcia seems set to kick off a frenetic jam; Godchaux takes up his line as something rather marvelous starts happening, but it cools off quickly and gets back to a gentler vibe. They build on this, picking up steam.


Garcia keeps returning to the repeating note gambit which seems to progressively inject more energy each time it comes around. Lesh tosses in a few of his jazzy runs, and everything is bubbling along. Jerry gets into a repeated note with pinch harmonics, stretching it from 4:36 to 5:05 when it turns melodic with a hint of Bright Star. At 5:53 Garcia goes into a Sputnik roll and things quiet down. By 7:00 they have almost ground to a halt, and as is typical recently, although this seems like an obvious place for the theme, they hold off. Jerry sustains some floaty notes, and then he kicks on some sort of effect at 8:36, with Lesh playing distorted double stops. At this point we enter a full-blown space section.


Space gives way to a drum break at 10:45, but Phil keeps futzing around throughout. At 13:25 the others start to trickle back in. The makings of a poignant jam quickly start coming together, with all four lead players spinning contrapuntal lines. This gains momentum, and by 15:00 or so they’re going along really nicely. Garcia wails and howls his way into a Bright Star quote at 15:38, and suddenly it seems like a Feelin’ Groovy jam is in the works. They hit it at 15:48, but quickly pull back, exploiting the ambiguity as they come to a peak. At 17:15 as they’re coming to a halt Lesh signals the main theme, Garcia takes him up on it, and at long last they arrive at the verse.


The next segment is gentle and mysterious, as they eschew the heavy weirdness in favor of a contemplative sojourn in quasi-space. There is a fascinating interlude from 21:42 where Garcia, Lesh and Weir seem to lock in on a sequence of notes. Jerry quotes Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring at 21:52, and then slips on the wah, seemingly signaling a meltdown, which seems to be looming ever larger as a second half strategy. Things get gradually stranger from here, but they’re not in a hurry until they suddenly plunge into a Tiger at around 24:11. From here they edge into an energetic and dissonant jam that peaks and subsides a couple times until it starts to pull together into something bouncier at about 28:25. At 28:59 Jerry tosses in some Sputnik-like rolls, and then they all pull together at 29:30, sounding like they’re heading into the main theme, until Jerry starts strumming Morning Dew, and the rest is history.


This is a really good Dark Star. At times they seem to be losing the plot, particularly around the drum break, but they always pull it back together into something memorable. Some of these jams are downright magical.


What was said:

133. 1972-05-18

79057 Munich 26:29

Main theme at 1:21, 10:51, and 12:39 .
First verse at 12:48.
Tiger at 22:26.
Goes into Morning Dew.


This, somehow, is the first time that Dark Star went into Morning Dew. Before that, though, they play the introductory lick and then the usual sort of thing follows. There is some lovely interplay between Garcia and Godchaux in the first couple minutes, with the latter gliding around the keyboard with great agility, and Garcia really tears into the main theme at 1:21 before taking off again. The jam here is built around the theme much more than we’ve heard it recently. The band really leans into the two-chord pattern; they’re all playing hard, and it’s particularly noteworthy how aggressive Keith is here.


At 4:55 it sounds like they’re ready to quiet down a bit. The music gets more contemplative, but it’s still delivered forcefully; they sound really on top of it so far. At 6:50 Garcia initiates a somewhat Sputnik-like roll. He pops in a harmonically interesting double stop blues lick at 7:26, and then a fast and light jam emerges with Weir playing some funky rhythm. Keith is all over this again as get bouncing and percolating along. This picks up steam, and at 9:07 Garcia even quotes Bright Star as the band rumbles along.


At 9:46 Garcia unleashes some ferocious licks, with another nod to Bright Star, and then finally at around 10:00 it starts to wind down with Jerry putting in some volume swoops and then fluttering down through the theme melody. At 10:36 the theme all but arrives, but instead Jerry unleashes a series of triplets as Godchaux stabs along before they finally land on the theme at 10:51. After a few times around Jerry takes off again and they come to a little peak before returning to the theme and then heading to the verse, bringing this outstanding introductory segment to a close at last.


As the post-verse licks die down, Phil and Jerry hammer on the E a little in a way that brings to mind the bell tolling Garcia used to do here. Lesh keeps it going as Garcia plays a somewhat distorted lead with some feedback and pinch harmonics, and a heavy space jam takes shape. The bass emits monstrously distorted groans that turn to feedback as Garcia begins to guide them toward a meltdown. (At times it sounds like someone is vocalizing in the background, but I can’t really make it out.)


By 19:00 it has gotten really quiet, but Garcia is still playing lines that seem to be preliminary to a Tiger. From 20:19 the guitar sounds like it’s got a new effect on it; I’m not sure what it is…it seems to combine the wah with a temolo effect. Weir and Godchaux seem to have some kind of tremolo going too, and the music starts to sound really weird here! Finally, at 22:23 Jerry goes into Tiger mode, accompanied by offbeat stabs from Weir and glissando runs on the keyboard, as Lesh plays some fast muffled runs. (The Tiger kind of waxes and wanes from here, so the timing above is approximate). This very intense meltdown continues for a few minutes until some rolling lines bring us to D, and it almost sounds like Playing in the Band here for a few seconds until Garcia starts strumming Morning Dew.


This is a very different rendition from the previous one. The first half is a masterful jam, and the band sounds cohesive and pointed in a way they did not in Rotterdam. The second half anticipates late 1972 and particularly 1973 in being entirely occupied by what is, I think, the most intense freakout we’ve yet heard in a Dark Star. The pairing with Morning Dew is epoch-making, and will be repeated often from now on. A monumental, classic Dark Star.


What was said:

132. 1972-05-11

9357 Rotterdam 47:11

Main theme at 22:38.
First verse at 23:01.
Tiger at 31:00.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.


The longest Dark Star to date begins at a leisurely pace. This feels like the slowest beginning tempo yet for a Dark Star, although I haven’t checked to see if that is true. In any case, the introductory section has a majestic feel to it. Godchaux is nice and loud on this board, playing a strong counterpoint to Garcia at times (for instance, see 1:41—2:00; you can hear that on the box set version, but he’s not turned up as much).


At 2:06 Garcia starts an extended run of triplets that subsides and leads the band into a peaceful little grotto about 40 seconds later. Lesh, Garcia and Godchaux spin little runs around each other for a while as the mood turns spacey. Listen to Weir’s descending runs from about 4:17…Lesh then starts up a rocky little riff that gets everyone moving into a bouncey jam. This in turn has subsided by 5:30 and it gets kind of spacey again, and then at 5:40 Lesh starts up one of the jazzy licks he likes to throw in, but this is brief and by around 6:00 the band seems to be sinking back into space.


At 6:28 Garcia starts playing with a chugging two-chord (D to A) pattern that sounds a bit like a song. At 7:30 he plays a beautiful little chordal lead. The music seems about to coalesce into a minor jam here, but still they keep it loose and non-committal. Garcia returns to a strumming A from time to time to help things along. At 8:53 he’s off into a searching lead, and we get some hints of Let it Grow from Weir (note the suspended chord at 9:01). As the band kicks up a little toward the 10 minute mark, Godchaux keeps throwing a little dissonance into the mix, but he falls into line at 10:17 with a jazzy pattern as Garcia repeats a descending lick. It’s not clear when it happened, but this has turned into a fairly cohesive jam.


By around 12:00 it’s even starting to get a little bit exciting. I can’t think of another band that could or would play music like this; it’s intensely chaotic, but there is a kind of logic to it, and every musician has to listen intently to keep from crashing. Garcia’s tremolo at 12:21 brings it to a close, and one suspects that the main theme is nearing. They take a while getting out of it, but after a pause, at 13:37 Lesh indeed signals the theme…it’s a fake-out, though, as instead we get a drum solo.


Phil starts to sneak back in at around 17:01 (I think, he’s hard to hear at first), and when he more audibly surfaces at 17:48 there’s a round of applause. He meanders about with the drum for a while, playing a rocking riff for a little while that begs for accompaniment, which is of course not forthcoming. Then Jerry pipes in at 19:26, and Weir is close behind, but he has a hard time gaining purchase so there’s a Garcia/Lesh duet for a while. Bobby tries again at 20:57, and then again he ducks out. At 21:24 Godchaux emerges, but tentatively, and Weir is still AWOL. At 22:04 Garcia lands on a high E and hangs there, and the band comes tumbling in behind him as he takes us to the theme at last. The verse is close behind.


The middle section section gets underway after the 25 minute mark with a strong e minor flavor. This is more a jam than a space segment, but once again it’s on the edge of chaos. At 26:47 Lesh briefly plays what sounds like the bass line from Coltrane’s Greensleeves again (see 1972-04-08) but this winds up being brief. Garcia is very persistent throughout this, playing a continual line with a strong rhythmic basis, and his playing starts to take on the urgent character it has when he’s leading them to a meltdown.


At 28:44, however, things more or less come to a halt, and we are seemingly at a crossroads; then at 29:32 there is a snap as Jerry clicks on the wah, and they lurch into a Tiger jam. The meltdown gets ferocious for a bit, and then just really spacey and weird. At 34:10 Lesh breaks into a riff that kicks Kreutzmann into gear, and the playing gets really intense, but it stays very chaotic. By 36:00 it finally seems to be heading into a more normal sounding jam, with Garcia still weirding out a little over the top.


The three string players seem really tuned into each other hear, and know what they have in mind. As is often the case, Godchaux is sprinkling some more dissonant stuff in as they edge toward a jam. Some time around 36:30 it becomes evident that Pigpen is creeping in with some organ swells, and it seems like they mean business about pulling a jam together here, but it’s not together yet. At 37:41 Jerry starts playing his chunky Caution rhythm. Godchaux is uncharacteristically blunt with a two-chord pattern that seems to further foster an atmosphere of almost semi-normal rock music…it simmers down quite a bit as we approach the 39 minute mark, and then a bit after 40:00 Garcia lays in some Caution-type leads.


As we get to 42:00 the intensity is building in a broody way, and then Jerry goes back to Caution, and this time he takes everyone with him for a few moments. As they drift away, he hits Caution again. Weir chunks away at 42: 50 as Lesh, Godchaux and Garcia turn up the heat, and the music drives toward a peak. By 43:27 it’s coming apart again, and they weird out for a few moments. They gesture toward another rock jam a few times, but by 45:00 it seems like they’re going in another direction, with melodic asides and volume swells punctuating a quiet interlude. Pigpen gets in some pretty bits here, which wouldn’t be audible were it not for the quiescence of the rest of them at this point. At 43:42 Garcia mirrors Pigpens rolls, which is an intriguing development, but a few seconds later we wind up in Sugar Magnolia.


This is a big, long, and somewhat messy Dark Star. The playing here is almost baffling at times, but not in a bad way—perhaps more than anything else we’ve heard, this rendition really foregrounds the uniqueness of this band. They are almost stubborn in their refusal to lapse into conventional ensemble moves, and their empathic intercommunication is in evidence to a high degree. It takes skill and confidence to be as oblique as this gets at times. An indispensable rendition.


What was said: