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:

adamos: There's a mellow, gliding feel as things get underway. A lovely base is set and Jerry begins winding through some lines, varying his pace. The collective interweaving comes through nicely on the recording. Around 1:30 Jerry adds a touch of reverberating fuzz that sounds cool and they pick up the pace shifting into a spiraling movement. It feels upwards at first then crests and falls back downward, slowing the pace again.

They find a spacey zone and wander there for a spell. Nice complimentary work from Keith as they explore the caverns. Then after 4:20 or so they get into a more spritely groove with bouncy lines from Phil that everyone joins in on. The momentum builds until around 5:16 and then they ease back into spacier territory. Keith again adds nicely to the tapestry.

Around 6:30 there's some brief volume knob action and things become more melodic. It's a delicate and pretty passage with nice textures from Bob. It feels like they might really launch into it but they opt to keep it mellow. Phil gets into a nice repeating pattern while Jerry works some gentle lines and sprinkles in some tremolo. The jam is pretty but it also feels like something is lurking beneath the surface; perhaps there is danger nearby.

At 8:50 there's some strumming and then Jerry launches into a new line and we get a touch of Let It Grow as has been pointed out. The tension builds and things start to get a little freakier but before long they glide right through that and keep working the groove. Phil is laying down a nice foundation that Jerry and Bob play off of well. They continue to work the repeating pattern with Jerry adding a bit more bite then slipping back into the groove. It's a funky jam and they take their time with it, slowly building the momentum. By 11:30 it's cooking along pretty well and Jerry is working some quick lines and the collective sound is compelling.

There's a brief lull at 12:13 and then they add one more burst before Jerry slips into tremolo and then they ease up and move into a spacey, floaty zone. They don't relax for long though as everyone starts adding some stronger accents to this transitional passage. By 13:00 there's a swell with Jerry playing an upwards reaching line. Then they pull back and hover a bit and out of the quiet Phil starts up the theme. But instead of latching on to it they give way to a drum break.

Billy works it for a few minutes (and btw it's crazy that at this point there are still 30+ minutes to go in this version!) and then eventually Phil comes back in. After 17:40 he becomes more prominent and he and Billy play a duet for a couple of minutes. Around 19:26 Jerry joins in followed by Bob, although as bzfgt noted Bob comes and goes for a while. Jerry gets a funky line going as Phil continues to be active. The two of them play off each other well with Keith eventually joining in too. Around 22:05 Jerry hooks into a high repeating note and everyone swells up and they find their way to the main theme and then on to the first verse.

After the verse they reset, there's some high feedback and revved up notes from Phil, and they hover briefly before moving into a mellow groove. There's a foreboding vibe as things begin to percolate. Jerry starts working a line and the momentum picks up and you can feel something brewing. After 26:45 it gets more melodic with little accents from Bob adding to the feel. But the foreboding vibe is still there and they start to work it up again and the intensity grows and you can feel them heading towards meltdown territory.

They don't proceed directly there however; there's a lull at 28:45 and things get quieter and spacier for a bit. However they don't fully give up the sense of forward progress and things begin to get going again and after 30:00 the meltdown seems imminent. By 31:00 the Tiger is being unleashed and they work up an intense and freaky maelstrom. Keith adds some classical-ish sounding contributions to the frenzy as he does from time to time.

Around 32:50 they briefly ease up but then head right back in. The intensity ratches up and Bob adds some screaming notes to Jerry's and by 34:10 Phil is thundering and they collectively rise up and howl into the night. This is the real deal. After 34:30 Phil adds a marching feel and they wind and swirl and continue to freak out. Around 35:30 they begin to bring it down but there's still a sense of danger and bubbling intensity. Then just after 36:00 they shift into a new jam and head back into the light.

The new groove is happy and hopping and makes you want to boogie in a GDTRFB kind of way. They ride it briefly before easing up at 36:56. Starting at 37:09 there are some Bird Song sounding notes from Phil which then get absorbed into the evolving groove. It feels like it's heading to something Caution-esque which Jerry makes more pronounced around 37:40, however it comes and goes at this juncture. Keith works some repeating notes and there are some nice textures from Bob too.

Things mellow out a bit after 38:00 with Jerry gently doing some more Caution-esque riffing. He then starts up a new winding line as Phil works a repeating pattern accented by Keith. They ease up again but keep the groove moving. Phil is prominent with punctuating accents from Bob and you can hear Pigpen on organ in the distance too. Bill is also working the cymbals quite a bit. They slow up around 40:15 and then Jerry heads out on another line.

They keep moving along at a slow boil with Phil doing his thing and then after 41:00 the pace starts to pick up again. It's a good groove and Jerry's hitting a lot of winding notes and then around 41:45 they get into a building swirl. At 42:10 they return to Caution, taking it up and letting it spill down and then going back again. Bill's beat is adding nicely to the proceedings. By 42:45 they're moving faster with a driving feeling which rises to a peak and then falls off at 43:27. Jerry inserts some Caution-esque tremolo followed by repeating notes that are accented by Phil and then they find a quieter space around 43:50.

Out of this Jerry plays some rumbling, rolling notes punctuated by Phil. By 44:10 they quiet down again and drift along a little, likely considering their options. Jerry works a mellow, winding sort of bluesy line and starting at 44:33 Phil teases Bird Song again. From there things get gentle and pretty and melodic for a spell with more Bird Song notes from Phil mixed in. There's some subtle volume knob action and then organ that adds to the pretty vibe as they explore this delicate passage. At 46:43 Jerry starts up a Sputnik-esque line that blends back into the gentle groove and then shortly after they head to Sugar Magnolia.

It's a long and wide-ranging version that is difficult to sum up. It's not always the most cohesive or grand performance but there is plenty of good stuff on offer, which is no surprise. I probably like the meltdown section the best but there are some lovely passages too. And the juxtaposition at times between the pretty and more foreboding feelings that they were conjuring up is compelling. The hopping boogie groove coming out of the meltdown had potential too but they abandoned that fairly quickly.


JSegel:


(DS 13:45 > drums 3:40 > DS 29:46) - Europe ’72 Complete Recordings

(now, why is this track-separated with drum solo separate? I mean, jazz tunes break down to drum solos all the time.)
Anyway. This show opens with a great Playin’ In the Band, Dark Star toward the end with the Caution suite and more. Pretty high energy show, altogether!

Dark Star starts with the intro, into a fluid jam with Jerry playing with upward moving modal leads. It’s very hopeful sounding, lot of melodic bass with his very midrange lead bass tone. The music has little eddies and pauses and develops out into new rhythms, Jerry starts very insistent 8th notes for a while. Really nice togetherness from the band. In the lulls it’s really beautiful, (though some odd chords from piano), in the swells, they’re really together pursuing that note. At about 4:30, Jerry starts a low riff and does not let it go, Phil playing around it rhythmically, Bob and Keith on chords, it’s a cool high-energy section. (Little tuning pause a minute later.) It finally settles a few minutes later into a very sparse area, some chordalists suggesting a d-minor section (like the initial jam in Playin, also like they did in Dark Star in London on Apr 8)
but as it builds up to a jam it’s more e minor/phrygian, and then Phil brings it back to the A with some fast riffing, and repeated riff-licks from Jerry. An A-minor fast jam for a while.
Jerry busts it apart in the 12 minute with a tremolo and it falls into strong lead bits over a space rhythm. The drums start rolling and the guitars drop out, bass has a few more notes, and then it’s all rolling drums.
Drums solos are cool, and especially in 1972. He is playing around rolling on the toms, and building up tempo, eventually some punctuation from kick and cymbals, then he even unclips the snares from the snare drum and uses it like a high tom or timbale in the middle before clipping them back on and going for the kick and snare marching band and jazz rolls. It builds with this to a crazy around-the-kit explosion, adds in more toms for the last build as the bass starts playing some notes along with. People clap, they dig a drum solo.
Bass and drums, with Phil sort of riffing alongside. It doesn’t take more than a minute or so for him to start playing with some dissonant notes. Jerry comes in (again clapping, after bass riff solo), tone rolled off into the jazz tone, he plays very melodically, it’s fairly fast and has Dark Star hints occasionally. Wah pedal on and it shifts into a new space, weird filtered guitar notes, more minor bits until he hits an A and goes back to the A mixo and a “Star” melody of some sort at 5 minutes into part 2 and they start the theme groove and head to verse 1 at 5.5min.
Really nice vocal delivery, not super ragged, but he sounds pretty old on line 2, but then holds line 3 strongly. Phil does some interesting rhythmic wandering on line 3. Refrain stated in a stately manner.
They go through the outro and into the next jam with feedback from Jerry and strummed bass chords, rolling drums. When it settles it’s in that b-min, or the B-F#-G thing. Jerry takes off in steady notes, while Bobby goes for some B riffing. Lotta of playing in this mode (same notes as the A mixo, very different contextually.) It starts to go into chromatic off-the-rails at 11 minutes or so, and I hear organ back there…! It goes spacey and arhythmic, with planing dissonant chords, strings struck with objects. Atonal dramatic leads, wah pedal goes back on for the rolled off tone at 13min, chromatic dramatic melodies, monster movie soundtrack. Chromatic build, speeding it up, bringing up the volume and tension for an entire minute to a noise break at 15 minutes, sharp rubbing from the wah pedal, guitar huge bass chords and feedback, total freakout for a long time, backing off a bit still into chromatic quick riffs. It slows and maintains tension, still with the volume and feedback from the guitars, but no drums. The guitars are screaming in the 17th minute, after a bit more, Phil starts jamming out in a pulse, Jerry is quick and dirty sounding chromatic runs, Keith and Bob with chordal strikes. It moves into waves of chromatic notes, drums establish a groove now at 19:30, and it starts bopping along in D major like it was a song the whole time, what freakout? Organ is jamming along. This becomes another d-minor section, again like 4/8 London. Jerry comes in with a strong weird melodic statement and jams on it a bit, gets to it again and drops it (21:40-) and drops out for a bit leaving a lead bass with organ and Bob accompaniment for a couple minutes. Jerry comes in at 23:40 again with the phrase, and keeps going where he left off, he gets to it again. (C A-G-F D dropping) He’s jamming out on the d minor pentatonic, ending up getting modal with the b and c and then back to the melody
They start this buildup and break down, repeated riff and then the melody, and it builds, very much a collage of parts and very exciting forward moving jam, with strong tones.
It backs off, into a room with a lot of doors out into different songs, everybody is suggesting things. At 27 min Phil suggests Truckin’ fairly intently, but it still doesn’t go there. It stays in a more arhythmic space area with major key embellishments (still the A-mixo, really) Phil starts playing little chromatic bass bits, the organ dances around in the back as Jerry starts a sputnik picking pattern on a b-minor, they let it fade off and Bobby takes the ball and runs with it, starting Sugar Magnolia.

Quite an epic, lots of energy for the jams in the whole thing. I love the whole first section vibe, and the drum solo before the verse. That jazzy part toward the end of part two is incredible, it sounds very Steve Howe in some ways with the jagged pentatonic lead in a bright tone, and the super fast riffing. (He gets caught up on one of these same riffs more later in Caution, up a step.) All that latent melodic energy that never quite got out in some of the last couple Dark Stars all got through in this one. It’s always a treat when Jerry is working on some idea, like he’s repeating the riff or melodic shred until finally he gets what he was after, and then it’s like, oh, that’s what it was, and then once he gets it, he abandons it and goes on to the next thing.

I like that it’s so long. . . It’s even an answer in some trivia games. One thing that led me to this ‘listening to all the Dark Stars’ was listening to that 45-min Playin’ in the Band from the ’74 Seattle (NW box set) and thinking how great it was that they could just do that sort of thing on stage. Incredible.
This is also sort of a mid-point pinnacle, we’re a little over half-way through all the Dark Stars and this is a big and long high point in the world of Dark Star. It’s a long tail after this.


Mr. Rain:


The Dead's longest Dark Star! A lush opening, grand and sweeping with a restless energy that keeps the jam shifting. After 6:30 they get into a quiet floaty passage that reminds me of the end of the 9-17-70 Star. This gets increasingly jazzy as the minutes pass, developing into a nice sustained jam that gradually gets more rhythmic & kickin'. They give it a stirring ending at 12:30, which is itself drawn-out for a minute. As they pause at 13:30, Phil starts the theme -- but no, false alarm, they stop for a drum solo! This sounds very intentional: 5-4, 5-7, and now 5-11 all stop for drum breaks, so this is a trend.

Bill gives an energetic solo. Phil returns around 17:30 and a bass/drum duet ensues. Not too eventful, kind of dull: after 18 minutes it starts to sound like the backing track for some song, but the rest of the band stays out. Finally Jerry shows up after 19:20 and there's a nice evocative Phil/Jerry duet (with Bob & Keith mostly laying low for a while); midway Jerry uses the wah for a thicker tone. Around 22 minutes, Jerry rallies the rest of the band to join in with a repeated note; once they're in he starts the theme at 22:40, and the verse follows shortly. Jerry seems into singing it.

Big starburst after the verse, booming bass and feedback. This doesn't go into space per se; instead Jerry & Phil noodle away ominously on the low strings, and after 25:30 they head into a dark hypnotic little jam with Bob backing them. It sounds like the lead-up to a slowed-down Other One, but after a while they don't seem to be going anywhere; by 28:30 Phil's just teasing Truckin' for the hell of it and they seem to have gone off the track. They come to a pause, drift spacily for a while and readjust -- Jerry steps on the wah at 29:30, signaling it's time to get weird & trippy. After 30 minutes they spiral into a ferocious Tiger meltdown, hitting a full-blown blast-out after 31:20, the eruption of DOOM! They come out of it dissonantly drippy, in their own parallel universe of threatening weirdness where structure has dissolved and chaos reigns. Phil keeps up the tension with thick bass slams, Jerry cries out, Keith & Bob add alarming accents, they're skidding downhill and after 34:30 we seem to be heading for a Tiger reprise! But suddenly after 35:45 the stormclouds pass and a happy lilting jam appears -- the classic Dark Star technique!

Jerry does some country rolls (kind of like GDTRFB) but no theme comes out, instead the jam seems to be breaking up quickly as Phil's pushing in a direction of his own. Ah, Phil (maybe unconsciously) quotes Bird Song at 37....but he seems to be searching for something different. Pigpen appears on organ! Jerry starts the Caution chops at 37:30, but it doesn't really catch on; they're playing a quasi-Caution jam but it feels like everyone wants to pull in a different direction. Jerry suddenly drops out around 38:30, and the others noodle around a quirky rhythm. Jerry comes back after 40 minutes, zipping at a fast pace while the others keep up their off-kilter rhythm. The intensity steadily grows in a little whirlpool jam, and Jerry goes back to Caution at 42:10. They're barrelling along now in a full Caution jam, drums a-tumblin'. Pigpen turns up the organ after 43 minutes, but just then they bring it to a halt, splashing out staccato reverberations. Phil & Jerry tease Truckin' again at 44 minutes, and they sound all but prepared to go into it (til Jerry has to tune after 44.30). But instead, they turn the other way into a pretty space, bypassing Phil's repeated Bird Song hints and floating along in a lovely interlude, Bob laying down some soft feedback and Pigpen adding organ tones. They bring it to a close with a pretty little flourish of flowerpetals; with Dark Star fully finished, they're ready when Bob starts Sugar Magnolia and it seems to have an extra sharp opening.

I had mixed feelings, this one goes all over the place. "Big, long, and messy" is right. Sometimes they're able to sustain an idea at length, other times it seems like they're just kicking the ball around aimlessly and undeveloped themes get dropped. Very nice slow-growing jam before the drum break. The meltdown's a powerful highlight, one of the best of the tour and surprisingly intense considering how tepid much of the jamming had been up to then. But then the usual happy jam after that kind of fizzles. Caution, yes, no, maybe? -- they can't decide. Nice of Pigpen to drop in during the closing stretch (though the organ's way too quiet in this mix). I like how this Dark Star ends with a couple minutes of quiet reflection.