139. 1972-08-24

156469 BCT 27:08

Main theme at :9, 10:23.
First verse at 11:06.
Tiger at 20:10.
Goes into Morning Dew.


The second BCT Dark Star also begins with a few runs through the theme before getting down to business. At :36 Garcia asserts the high A gently but firmly, then some eerie and bendy stuff follows. The intro so far seems a bit more laidback than the one on the 24th with the band seeming at ease and in no hurry. At 3:33 they seem almost ready to stop, but it flows along at a trickle with Jerry laying out for a bit. He returns with some very quiet flurries at 4:29, and starts to ease his way back in while Weir takes advantage of the space by playing some tremolo.


At 5:17 some tacit signal seems to have them turning up the intensity again, and at 5:51 Phil starts riffing away as he often does. Weir clips along with some treble chops, Garcia throws in some pinch harmonics, and then they’re on to something else as a frenetic jam seems to be building. This gets underway in earnest at around 7:20; the band still somehow sounds relaxed as they dash through it. At 8:26 Lesh brings back a jazzy riff again and everyone else begins to draw out their lines a little more, bringing the music to a little peak before drawing back at 9:03 to bring the jam to a close.


Now there are some serious main theme vibes, and Lesh makes it explicit at 9:27, but instead of following him there they sink into a big D minor space, to which Lesh happily follows. This is short lived, and all this still seems like foreplay for the theme. Sure enough, at 10:23 Garcia brings it home. Soon after, we pull up at the verse, which is taken at a deliberate pace.


The riff issues forth into a Lesh-led segment, not quite a space nor yet quite a jam. This feels very transitional, in any case. Soon Garcia and Weir are emitting moans, and Keith I think has something electronic going again. At 14:19 Garcia starts the kind of sequences that generally seem preparatory to a meltdown or atonal jam. They keep it slow and mysterious for now, though, and this builds on what has preceded it such that it adds up to a rather remarkable segment.


At 15:59 Garcia seems to add a layer of wah, strongly hinting that he sees a meltdown in the future. This is still really spooky, but there seems to be a slow and steady ratcheting of intensity underway. At 17:09 Weir has taken the lead with some piercing notes, and Garcia starts playing some pre-Tiger stuff. Whatever Keith is doing, he is doing it sort of sparingly, but it is wild, and very effective.


At 18:12 they are driving toward some kind of peak, still atonal and wild. This seems to come to a peak at about 18:40 or so, and although I wouldn’t quite call this a Tiger it’s a similar idea. Weir is still very assertive here with the co-lead. By 19:30 they seem to have gone off the boil and the jam gets even stranger and spookier. At 20:05 it seems clear that Garcia still has a Tiger in his sights, and in fact I’ll mark the start of this one (somewhat arbitrarily, as always) at 20:10. Tiger comes to a peak by 21:02 and then we come down the other side; Garcia doesn’t stop, but rolls into a Sputnik-type segment as he clicks off the wah pedal.


The music is now rather scattered and sparse. Keith seems to have returned to a regular piano. At 22:02 Lesh starts another bouncing riff, and they seem ready to latch onto this one and ride it back to terra firma. This is the riff that is the basis of what is generally called the Elastic Ping Pong jam (thanks to Mr. Rain for noticing this for us!), about which more can be read in the Lexicon thread pinned to the top of the page. By 23:00 or so it’s bounding along very nicely, and the music is gelling. This one keeps rolling along for a while, and somehow it even seems to have some chord changes that they more or less come to an understanding about.


By 25:20 there are signs of encroaching disarray, but they hold it together a little longer until finally, at 25:40, succumbing to entropy. At 26:00 Weir is playing some kind of arpeggiated figure but this peters out, and Garcia does a little volume knob fiddle work while they all sort of wait around for a new idea. Although this doesn’t feel very stable, it’s quite beautiful nevertheless. Just after our track ends at 27:08, Phil starts Morning Dew this time, as if in recompense for the 2th (“See, Jerry? We don’t hate you!”).


What we have here is another top flight Dark Star. As with the previous one from this run, there’s a lot of weirdness and atonality after the verse. Also similarly to that one, it’s all totally engrossing. Improvised music does not get much better than this!


What was said:

adamos:


They kick things off in fairly mellow fashion, taking their time and easing along. Jerry gets into some high, bendy notes with an ethereal quality. The collective interweaving also reflects the gentle, pretty vibe. Jerry winds outward and goes lower. Nice, mellow bottom from Phil with Bob sprinkling in his textures. They start to spin something up and it sounds really nice. They ease up again after 3:30 and hover for a bit; maybe Jerry was having an issue. He gently eases back in and the interweaving picks up again.

The pace quickens and the activity level rises. Around 5:50 Phil steps forward with a bouncy line accented with sharp notes from Bob. Jerry adds some high, pinched action somewhat in the background. The energy ebbs and flows a bit and then they swirl and spin things up again, reaching a low key frenzy before leveling out. They keep moving with some pace and Phil steps forward again and Jerry and Bob play off each other nicely.

Then a little after 9:00 they bring it down and shift back into a mellow, gliding vibe. Phil starts up the theme but it is quickly absorbed back into a collective zone. It feels like they might swirl something up but they opt to stroll out of it instead and head back towards thematic territory. It is fully realized starting around 10:25 and then they ease into the verse.

After the verse they reset and briefly hover. Phil and Bob are still working some notes and things haven't fully dissolved yet. Slowly they bring it down and get into spacier territory. Jerry brings in some stretchy high notes that sound like they are coming from some form of creature. Keith adds in some growly sounds of his own like he did on 8/21. They start to spin up something more intense but then pull back and continue to explore the ooze.

Jerry comes back with some isolated high notes and then shifts into wah. Bill gets pretty active and everyone starts to build towards a frenzy although again it isn't fully unleashed. Bob comes forward around 17:10 with some sharp, recurring notes. Keith is interweaving nicely but it's somewhat in the background on the recording. Jerry seems to be spinning towards a meltdown but he doesn't bring it to the foreground yet.

There are some thundering notes from Phil starting around 18:09; the intensity builds and they work up a powerful maelstrom. They ease up around 19:30 but it still feels like something is ready to burst forth. Jerry starts to spin up the Tiger which comes roaring out with everyone in on the frenzy. It crests around 21:10 and then Jerry slips into a Sputnik-esque line with Phil adding some mellow freakiness underneath.

Things open up and get airier and they take their time deciding where to go next. Phil starts a repeating line around 22:00, gently at first and then building up. Bob and Keith accent it nicely and Jerry continues to wind around it somewhat mellow fashion. It slowly coalesces into a jam and they ride the groove for good spell. Phil remains the driving force with good collective interweaving. Bob brings in some rocking riffs as they cruise along. They ease up a bit and Jerry shifts into something that sounds a little Allman-esque.

After 25:00 things appear to be winding down; they take it up just a bit again before letting it go. They reach a hover point and it briefly sounds like Stella Blue could emerge. Bob steps forward with some pretty notes. Jerry hits a high gentle note in the background and then shifts into some volume knob action. They settle into a quiet space with some gentle beauty, taking their time before slowly starting up Morning Dew in lovely fashion.

Another really good performance. To me 8/21 has some more majesty in its vibe and its freakouts are more intense. But I like the mellow start to this one and it has some strong intensity of its own. There are some gentle, pretty moments too. It's a compelling version.


JSegel:


Out of Truckin’ again, though they end it and then start Dark Star with the normal intro. A ride cymbal keeps a pulse but it takes a while before it really becomes the groove, Jerry is slowly moving through thematic notes, getting into little eddies. Some really beautiful guitar playing, band backing it up, this guitar suggests some other notes and phrases. He brings it down and fades out with a trill at 3:30, drums keeps going, others moving around into a piano whirlpool, Jerry quietly comes back in. At 5 min he starts up some bluesy licks, though the band isn’t playing along and heads off to a different rhythm a minute later. Jerry playing heavily in the pinch harmonic high notes.

They move into a quick section with isolated bursts of energy, building it into a fast but not-extremely focused jam. Bob starts up a stabby rhythm, which narrows the focus a bit, Phil is cooking along with it. Jerry finds some common notes and tests a riff, moves up and out. He starts a slower riff after nine minutes and the band quiets down and enters a slow space that could head to Dark Star, and Jerry starts strumming it and then into a bluesy theme area with a lot of outside stretches, theme proper after 10 minutes and to a Dark Star groove. Verse 1 at 11 minutes.

Strong vocals, backing off dramatically, big fermatas on line 2. More playing between downbeats than groove for line 3, into the refrain and the outro.
Intro to the middle area and then Phil starts with some wide arpeggios, Bob on some slightly dissonant chords, the drums roll and roll. It dies off to go to space. It’s a noisescape with scraped things and screaming weird high notes and isolated low notes, developing into more note based multi-tonal and chromatic sparse falling statements. Bass bottom ends thuds against arhythmic harmonics, some feedback emerges against a rolling tom tom. Waves of sound, multi-voiced in multiple atonal areas, Bob even starts playing some single note licks as it starts to roll forward, staying non-tonally centered, Jerry is into his small chromatic groups of fast notes with wah-wah. An outside-reaching wider lick as it builds to a head and dies off to quieter rumbling quick notes, fading over time to tremolo and into a new lake of weirdness, Jerry still on his small chromatic fast things with the pedal, scrubbing it out underneath and erupting to the Tiger meltdown.

Dies off to reveal a quieter Sputnik area with moving chords, eventually moving chromatically as well. It builds up into a latin groove by 22 min, then heads for more 12/8 ish and keeps grooving along.

It winds up at about 27 min with some quiet guitar volume swells following with Bobby on some arpeggios. Sort of like the Space after El Paso on the previous Dark Star… (which would lead me to think of the previous one as part of Dark Star, with El Paso inside it) this one tonight does manage to go into Morning Dew, this time it’s Phil who makes it explicit.

And it’s a rippin’ Morning Dew!

My expectations were high for these sorta-hometown Berkeley shows, but for me neither Dark Star surpasses earlier version, say, either of the London versions, for example. There are good ideas but nothing really develops, and the scary parts aren’t even as scary. Nonetheless, the piece is still growing and changing.


Mr. Rain:


Dark Star follows Truckin' but they don't try for a segue, they just stop. Oh well!
It starts with a very light, free-flowing vibe, almost like a '73 Bird Song....you can practically hear the sunshine. What a warm, melodic opening jam, gliding over Bill's toms. Jerry lays out for a minute after 3:30, and the others keep up the very chill, relaxed playing. Then he sneaks back in; and after 5m the jam starts to get a firmer edge with Phil's insistent line, Jerry's pinch harmonics, Bob's R&B chord chops. By 6:30 they're heading into a fast swirling jam, Jerry nimbly speeding up into some trills, Bob catching up & jabbing away on his high chords. At 8:30 Jerry announces a slowdown, everyone easing down; and after 9:00 they get spacier, Phil hinting at the theme while they slip into a gooey trickle. Very nice and inviting, like a billowing golden cloud, leading up to something....yes, by 10:30 Jerry teasingly brings the main theme back (with a Bright Star-like flourish) and suddenly everyone's in the theme. This was one of the coolest lead-ups to the theme lately. The verse maintains the laid-back drifting feel.

Possibilities beckon as they do the post-verse dissolve. They quickly turn to a quietly ominous space, Jerry pealing sadly while Keith adds wah growls like some jungle creature. They're pointing in a meltdown direction but taking their time, luxuriating in this dark drift. The mood gets heavier with Bill's brisk drum patter, Jerry's wah, Keith's snarls, all getting more frantic & speeding up towards a Tiger.... But they keep it at bay, this is all about the buildup; they keep building and building with Phil's Chords of Doom & Bob's frantic flurries. Surprisingly Jerry decides not to launch the full Tiger shriek and dials it back instead after 19m....just like on 8-21, they seem to prefer staying in the hectic weird zone rather than bringing on a full meltdown. But then after 20m, the Tiger's roaring again and they bring it up to total chaos by 21m....then whoosh, like a hurricane it suddenly passes and they're left in the aftermath.

Jerry transitions into a Sputnik-type roll to open up the next phase. At 22:00 Phil starts playing a familiar bassline...developed from the Footprints/Greensleeves-type lines he was doing in Europe. I think this is the first time it appears in Dark Star; they'll play it a lot over the next year. (It's been called the elastic ping-pong jam but that name sucks and I won't use it; so I'll call it the "Marbles jam.") At any rate it's not a full-fledged composed jam yet, everyone else seems to be doing their own thing; but they group together and over the course of a few minutes it turns into a nice bopping jam with an evocative lead from Jerry and Bob playing phased chords. I can't tell if they're playing prearranged chord changes and they've worked this out before, or if it's coming together on the fly. It finally breaks up after 25:30 and they come to a stop with no new direction. They hover in a delicate liminal space, tracing some pretty guitar lines with Jerry on the volume knob. This is a nice subdued postlude and should be a great solemn transition to Morning Dew....but then thud, Phil abruptly drops Morning Dew on everyone and no one's prepared, and they stagger into it in disorganized fashion. Oh well, that almost worked!

Another superb Dark Star. I think I like this more than 8-21. It's not very intense but there's a really nice good-feeling opening jam, a great long buildup to the meltdown, and then the sparkling debut of a brand-new modular jam! This version has an unconscious floating feel like no one's guiding it, they're all drifting together on the waves. Many gorgeous spots, and it often feels like anything might happen, the band's open to suggestions and limitless possibilities are within reach, we're just seeing one glimpse of the prism.