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:

JSegel:


Here we’re coming from a strong version of Wharf Rat, night three of the run. A slow lead on the powerful chords ending Wharf Rat, Bob starts wandering a bit before the end even and it quiets down and Jerry starts the Dark Star groove riff instead of going through the little intro bit, they fall into a quiet Dark Star groove and then Jerry devolves into a trill, so it quiets down even more. It rolls through relaxed melodic sections, waves of music up and then down again.

Bill starts a side stick rhythm a couple minutes in, Jerry is arpeggiating on suspended chords, Sputnik-like, before heading off into a lead and they move into a slightly Latin feel jam. This moves on and maintains the spritely feel for a very melodic long jam. This is great improvisation. Jerry stretches it at 6:30 and it moves into a quieter area after the wave crests. Lotta fast Phil stuff in here. At 8 they start scraping strings and going into noise space. Bob is being very chromatic, it’s very weird. It gets super weird with feedback and odd sounds at 10:30, Phil starts with the scary chords. Bob has a weird tremolo on his amp. Jerry starts some odd tonality melodies with the wah-backed-off tone a minute later. It sparses out a lot but maintains its dissonance. Lotsa feedback and big bass chords in the 14th minute.

Jerry takes it out with major key melodic runs and then at 15 minutes suddenly back to the Dark Star theme. Nice.

A slow Bright Star at 16 minutes and the verse at 16:45, not great vocal entrance, they get it together for the stops on the second line, a suspended space from the piano bits on line three also. Sounds like some odd chords on the refrain from Bob, there… he sorta ****s up the outro, but the intro to the jam is fine. Bill is rolling around as the instruments fade out, he settles into a groove with Phil and Keith. Bobby comes in with tremolo bits. Phil starts the Feelin’ Groovey descending bass line at 17:30 and Jerry comes in for a spritely major key jam. The ride it for a while and bring it down by min 25 to look for something new. It gets a little more bluesy but stays in the major key area for along time. Eventually by min 27 they go more outside and it starts to melt down. It moves into a sparse atonal space with a lot of fiddling about from Phil. This goes on and builds up with stretches from Bobby and wah weirdness from Jerry and string scraping from Phil.

To super meltdown stuff… Jerry comes out with fast little climbing bits and it builds again to a giant crescendo with lots of noise, including organ swells, then as it crashes, Bobby signals Sugar Magnolia but it doesn’t take the first time, they continue some quieter weirdness for a bit and then he starts it for real.

Nice upbeat Dark Star! Lot of melodic and mostly major key jams. A real contrast to the other recent versions, as well. These two London versions are great together...


adamos:


Nice entry from Wharf Rat although it feels more like a slowdown and signaling than a seamless transition. They slip into a mellow Dark Star groove and glide along gently. Around :34 things well up and swirl and then they glide on. There's an enchanting feel to the patient proceedings. The momentum briefly builds then ebbs again around 1:30. They drift a bit before Bob steps forward with some strumming that seems to send Jerry in a Sputnik-esque direction. The momentum picks up again and Jerry starts reaching higher as Bob keeps strumming and Phil works it underneath. Accompaniment from Keith blends in nicely too. They ease up a little after 3:30 and find a descending pattern.

Around 4:00 they shift into a new groove with a bluesy feel as bzfgt noted. There's a sort of staggered or stuttered feel at first and then they start cruising along with it. Jerry's guitar gets twangy in spots as he works his winding lines. Bob continues to add prominent textures that help to rev things up. By 6:00 the intensity is rising and Jerry heads upwards and they build to a brief peak.

They pull back at 6:36 and things start to get spacier. Jerry wanders lower and Phil and Bob play off it. Surging accents from Bill and some occasional flourishes from Keith too. After a semi-flurry of related activity they ease further into spaciness and things begin to get weird. There's some string scraping and more ominous sounds from Phil and Keith and a brewing feel as they cast about. Phil becomes more prominent as the others play off him. He shifts into more of a revving thing and Keith adds some pulsating sounds.

Now they're pretty deep into spacey weirdness and they drift through the vastness. It gets freakier and starts to sound melty but they pull back a bit and go for intermittent weird and thundering sounds instead. Feedback rings out and Jerry starts working a line that eventually leads back to the theme. They work it patiently for a spell blending in a slow moving Bright Star before heading to verse. Good passage.

After the verse they reset and hover briefly before Bill starts working a beat and Phil and Keith jump in on it. It's got a good feel and bopping along is an apt descriptor. At a certain point you could almost imagine a Slipknot bass line emerging out of it. Guitar accents from Bob come in and they flesh it out a bit more and find their way to Feelin' Groovy by 21:06. It's a light and bouncy version with some kind of effect on Bob's guitar at first. Jerry comes in too and they take it for a stroll, building up some momentum initially and then continuing with semi-mellow jauntiness.

By 24:30 it appears to have run its course and they start to shift into a new jam. It picks up momentum quickly but then they pull back before winding up and increasing the intensity again. The guitar ebbs once more while the beat continues forward and then Jerry jumps back in with a high, winding line. The collective groove builds and they cook along nicely for a brief spell.

Around 26:20 they start to let it go and slowly move towards meltdown territory. After 27:10 they bring things to a near halt and then drift in space. Bill becomes quite active and there's some freaky percussive sounds from Phil too. Everyone is working the freaky tapestry at a low boil at first but the intensity slowly rises, reaching at peak after 30:00. From there they pull back but Jerry keeps working it, calling out into the void. The others add accents and the cauldron bubbles and the intensity builds and eases and builds again and by 32:35 the Tiger is unleashed.

They reach a frenzied peak then give way around 33:50 after which Bob immediately signals Sugar Magnolia but they take another 40 seconds for easing weirdness before launching in.

Another good one for the last performance of the tour. There’s a nice feel to the opening, some interesting jams and a good amount of spacey freakiness.


Mr. Rain:


First, let me highlight the little pre-Dark Star jam in the last couple minutes of Uncle John's Band! Magical, and really unusual for 1972, a year in which there were rarely ever transition jams between songs (other than DS or the O1). They could be headed for Dark Star, but they settle deliciously on Wharf Rat.
When Wharf Rat winds down they find themselves briefly in an in-between space again, but within about 15 seconds Jerry starts Dark Star...and it's an unusual start, because he opens up with the main theme rather than the usual opening riff. (Is this the first Dark Star so far that skipped that riff?)

The opening jam's loose and sensitive, maintaining the unique floating mood from UJB>Wharf Rat. Jerry's Sputnik hint around 2:30 leads to an upbeat jam, Bob doing funky chords. It's hard to pin down the feel here, but they stay in this odd groove for a while. Jerry gets more piercing around 6 minutes and they reach a high peak by 6:40. Then they tumble down & reassemble, playing oddly like no one can find a new center, getting spacier by 8 minutes. Jerry turns into wisps of vapor while the band bubbles and splashes, and they plunge deeper into space. Phil & Jerry tug them out to infinity with long tones; Keith has an odd reverb effect on his piano (which Bob copies with his tremolo sound around 11:10). They're lost in space, getting more desolate by the minute: delicate plangent wah notes from Jerry, soft heavy chords from Phil, Bob & Jerry drifting into harmonized feedback at 14 minutes. Feedback almost prevails, but at 15:05 Jerry calmly switches back to the main theme, and they're right with him, Bill sounding happy to return. They play the theme very mildly, keeping up the gentle floaty vibe from the start. They dwell on the theme for a while before the verse at 16:45, which Jerry sings in subdued fashion.

Time for a return to space? No, Bill sounds like he's ready to start another drum solo! But this time the others don't let him carry on by himself; Keith and Phil join him in a jazz-trio interlude. (Bob comes back in with some cool tremolo shades at 19:40.) This is full Jazz Dead here, but Jerry is nowhere to be heard. By 21:10 Phil's ready to move on and starts Feelin' Groovy, Bob keeping the tremolo on in a nice touch, and Jerry comes back. This Feelin' Groovy starts out very low-key and builds up, getting sprightly & bouncy, more like a warm beam of contentment than an explosion of joy -- some sweet notes from Jerry! After 24 minutes it starts transforming into something else, keeping the feel but dropping the Feelin' Groovy outline; after 25 minutes the structure crumbles and the jam steps sideways & gets off-kilter. (It kind of reprises the odd jam from 20 minutes ago!) By 26:30 they lurch into atonal weirdness, getting quieter after a minute, Jerry & Bob quietly tip-toeing while the drums rattle & the bass burbles. They carry on in this vein for quite a while, the intensity rising & falling, Jerry getting nutty on the wah. Around 31:40 Jerry moves to the Tiger mode and they suddenly crash into a meltdown, first a small wave then a big one. After 33:20 Pigpen drops in to add some extra organ blasts to the chaos! (Just when you least expect him, and the last time he'd ever play in a Dark Star.) When the meltdown subsides, Bob gives everyone a Sugar Magnolia heads-up, but they float around on volume-knob eddies for another half-minute before he starts the song.

This was one of my favorite Dark Stars of May '72 but it's hard to explain why. Partly because it's part of the UJB>Wharf Rat>Dark Star suite which gives it more weight; it feels like the Dark Star's continuing the same story from some different place. And although it's very spacey and relaxed (most of it's pretty low-key), somehow it doesn't feel aimless or rambling to me; they're exploring a shadowy realm and finding new corners. Individual parts of this echo earlier Dark Stars on the tour, but the improv flows naturally with a loose free unhurried feeling. Bonus point for Pigpen giving his final Dark Star hurrah in the last minute.