18106 NJ 30:11
Main theme at :07 and 23:51.
First verse at 24:12.
Goes into Cumberland Blues.
This one starts right off with the main theme; it begins at a deliberate pace, but moves with a confident and subtly swinging gait. It seems to gain momentum as it goes, and maybe even speeds up just a tad in the early minutes (I’m not sure of this). At 2:45 Garcia starts a rolling triplet figure which the band picks up on, and for a while they launch into moments of intensity and then pull back again, ebbing and flowing, but always moving ahead with a sense of determination.
At 4:20 Garcia plays a figure which Godchaux and Weir keep bouncing back to him, while Lesh does his own thing. The framework that has been established allows a lot of interplay and fosters a variety of ideas, while the overall feel remains much the same. Weir is particularly playful tonight, with little slashes and bursts of harmonics abounding. They hit something of a peak approaching and right after the 7 minute mark, culminating at around 7:20; there are hints of an approach to the theme, but they remain unconsummated. But this is very much a Dark Star jam in the sense that the underlying structure is never far from the surface.
At 8:00 Garcia plays a little roll, almost like Sputnik, that may signal a turn away from the main structure. They start to subside into spacier territory, and then at 9:28 Godchaux suggests something with a bouncy and jazzy feel; this is assented to, and a bubbling jam emerges. This dazzling jam is intense but light and mobile, with the instruments firing off toward all points of the compass. (After a couple of peaks, at 15:13 Garcia starts playing the descending melody I pointed out a couple of times recently; I thought maybe it came from another song, but now I think that this is where I remembered it from).
At 16:10 Jerry plays a high, soft melody that signals the end of the jam, and brings them into a minor key and a more meditative space. As they near the 18-minute mark it seems like either a space jam or a drum interlude is in the works. Kreutzmann drops out at 18:49, and they take it down to almost nothing, with Weir playing some pretty chordal stuff while Lesh plays a plodding melody, which Garcia augments with some volume swells. Weir drops out for a bit at 20:18, and the field is left to Garcia and Lesh; the latter hints at a Spanish Jam-type progression for a moment, and at 21:26 you can hear a switch, which I think is Garcia putting on the wah. This suggests that perhaps this will build to a meltdown, but there are no other indications of this as of yet.
This transitional jam extends for quite some time. It’s almost a space jam, but perhaps a little more melodic and structured than the usual space passage. In any case, it’s quite a beautiful segment. Finally, at 23:36 Garcia starts strumming the Dark Star chords to bring us to the theme, which takes us into the verse with little delay. The latter is sung slowly, seeming to derive its character from the quiet jam that immediately preceded it.
As they exit the verse section, Kreutzmann starts a popping backbeat that indicates a return to the lightly swinging mood established in the first jam tonight. This time it’s a little more heavy-footed and emphatic on the beat, but overall once again the feel is relatively light. They work on bringing the energy up without altering the feel, reaching a peak at around 28:30 or so. By 28:50 they’re coming down the other side, and the jam starts to fragment just a little, but they keep more or less the same thing going, until they reach a point where they are pretty clearly pedaling and Lesh finally starts Cumberland Blues.
This is a really fantastic piece of music. It maintains a kind of momentum throughout, and the band never seems like they’re foundering or trying to figure out what to reach for. This one feels a little whimsical at times; it’s not laying out any huge cosmic statements, but it is entirely engaging and satisfying nonetheless, and must be included in the pantheon of worthy Dark Stars.
What was said:
Mr. Rain:
Another super recording; Bear has the mix dialed in, it's the same as the previous shows. Dark Star brings a cheer from the crowd!
This seems to start more slowly than the previous Dark Stars. But any initial sluggishness is soon swept away -- Jerry's initial moves are soft & delicate, but after a couple minutes the feeling grows more firm & assured. The jam carries on, smooth, calm, unhurried. By 6m they're really getting loose, Bob pinging harmonics, drums splashing, Phil zigzagging. Jerry drives it up to further intensity around 7m with a tense repeating lick, then after a surge the intensity fades again. It feels like the main theme's ready to appear; but after some high pinched notes Jerry drops out and stays out for quite some time (from about 8:15 - 10:50 ...the broken string blues again?).
So the other guys go back to the rhythm quartet approach, this time sounding very tentative & amorphous. After a minute Keith starts getting more assertive, a groove appears, and the jam perks up to a hot rhythm. Jerry hops back in, in his bumblebee mode. The jam's fast & jagged, Bob's chopping muted chords, they're skipping through the lily fields... They keep it going for quite a while, several minutes, the jam getting more intense, Jerry attacking with zest. They stay in this fast lane longer than usual, Jerry only starting to peter out after 15m.
But at last around 16:20 Jerry slows things down gracefully, and the band pauses. Phil signals that he wants to enter a deeper space and takes the lead with loud long notes while the others drop back. Around 17:30 Bob turns on his chorus tone; Jerry sails on the volume knob; Phil responds with feedback; Bill paddles in the dark waves; Keith adds some brief wah color at 18:40. They hover on a humming drone, unusually still & serene, far out in space. The drumming stops, then it's just the three guitars (mostly Jerry/Phil with some notes from Bob), opening up a tender space. Phil picks out a slow melody with Jerry's plaintive volume swells; after 21:40 Jerry switches to wah for a sad, evocative tonal duet. Bob mostly hangs back and lets Phil & Jerry take us to some secret hidden place of dreams. Like the preceding jam, they stay in this zone for longer than you'd expect, suspending time....you could probably hear a pin drop in the audience. Then suddenly at 23:40 the theme rises beautifully like a rainbow from the silence -- big crowd reaction! Jerry promptly sings the triumphant verse.
24 minutes of jamming before the verse! Just about the longest opening stretch in any Dark Star; I think only 12-6-73 is its rival. Perhaps to balance that out, the jam after the verse is really short, less than five minutes, one of the shortest all year.
Space already out of the way, they step right into a mild jam after the verse. Bill's ready to get back into action without delay; after 26m they get into another hopping groove while Jerry plays fast runs. At 27:20 both Jerry & Bob play rhythm chords together, a rare occurrence. Then after 28m Jerry keeps those lightning fingers moving in rapid ripples for a minute while the band kicks up a gear; then he goes back to chordal playing after 29m. He seems to be impatient -- the jam's starting to feel stuck as Jerry repeats an odd chord, and things hang uncertainly, until Phil strikes up Cumberland Blues out of nowhere. It takes the band about half a minute to catch up with him -- Bill & Keith, then Bob, then finally Jerry after a minute. You can hear the crowd likes this choice. This song satisfies Jerry's need for speed, and they give it a rough ride!
Well, this was an unusual Dark Star! Very lopsided in that almost all the action comes before the verse -- and afterward, most unexpectedly, there's no Tiger! Not even a hint at a meltdown, which was the main ingredient in just about every Dark Star at this time. For much of it the Dead seem happy to stay in fast loose kinda jazzy jams. And yet, I'd disagree with bzfgt that there was no cosmic statement -- the space trio before the verse is about as cosmic as you can get. I'll quote Robert Goetz from the Taping Compendium review:
"This is probably one of the purest moments in Dead history....the band reached the nucleus of Dark Star. It has an inspiring aura while hinting at demise. It is soft and tender and at the same time sad and gloomy. Not a sound is heard from the audience. Incredibly, just as the journey reaches an emotional zenith and silence ensues, Garcia returns to the formal structure of Dark Star... One of their most special moments has transpired."
bzfgt:
Yeah, good point. I guess I was thinking of that as more intimate than "cosmic," which seems more panoramic. But not exactly a precise concept.
Mr. Rain:
Hmm, cosmic intimacy, perhaps. Inner space rather than outer space. I tend to hear these intimate moments in Dark Star as being just as cosmic as the grand feedback panoramas.
But one thing that's surprised me is that stripped-down quiet spaces like these have not been all that frequent in '72 Dark Stars. The Dead are much more likely to go into a club-jazz piano jam or yet another Tiger than an intimate space duet. Usually when they enter a quiet space lately it's just a brief stop on their way someplace else.
Dahabenzapple:
I might listen to this Star more than any other along with the magical 5/14/74 version.
JSegel:
A very slow intro this evening after Ramble on Rose. Into a relaxed groove, Bill punctuating with tom hits, the band sort of lays it down into a low energy melodic area, Jerry goes on a tangent of ‘it’s all the same’ dit-dah, dit-dah*, before building up little melodic towers, Phil starts to get into some syncopated rhythmic stuff to make it more exciting, and it works in that they speed up and build into a more solid rhythmic area after a few minutes.
These modal thematic waves bubble up and down over the course of this jam. A lull is forming after 6 minutes or so, but the band rolls on, Jerry takes the opportunity to get some more chromatic rising riffs in there, but it’s still Dark Star themed material, to what would be a normal theme statement, nobody makes it at 7:40 or so, Jerry goes into pinch harmonics. The band lies low, slightly quiet sputnik feints, to some potential drum solo… Jerry has dropped out, everybody else seems a bit lost now.
At 9 min or so, Keith starts little chromatic bits, Bob copies. They’re still not sure where to bring it off to, but they try for a quick groove bit, sounds like it could hang together by 10 minutes. Still no Jerry. Bill swingin’ it on the ride cymbal.
Finally about 11 minutes, Jerry enters and starts the fast jazzy licks. Bits of blues and country thrown in, of course. He’s sort of melding western swing with jazz rock.
At 12:40 there’s a fun bit where Jerry is riffing on the intro riff notes within the jazzy swing. He uses the figure again a few times, has a few riff-eddies, but this jam just keeps on chugging away. At 15:45, sort of a jazzy arpeggiated Bright Star maneuver, then to the 7th chord arpeggios he’s playing with.
Switch in texture at 16:30, they bring it down, Phil steps on some low chords, Bill still keeping a beat. He lands in a new minor area that Bob picks up on. Jerry frosts it with some volume swells and eventually feedback (with whammy bar again!) This dies off into noises and chromatic falling, Bob on some odd chords.
Sounds like Keith is playing the insides of the piano after 19 minutes. Interesting. The band starts to make harmonious sounds at a low and slow volume, though all still playing with quiet odd sounds. More Phil lead, but slow and scary. Jerry again with volume swelled notes. It dies off several times, with small sounds keeping the concert going. People cheer, though. They move outside of the pretty melodic area, and it’s a bit more atonal, still quiet.
Suddenly at 24:15, they have died entirely and they start the Dark Star jam up again, into the verse. Wow! We got here, although Jerry sounds a little haggard again, but does a nice dramatic reading. Nice rests on line two and back into the groove for line three. A convincing refrain, held end notes. And pretty little articulated intro to the next section, with Bill maintaining a ride cymbal slower groove, they head off to a new jam, similarly jazzy licks from Jerry, but a different feel, different chords from Bob. Jerry is still using his 7th chord arpeggios here. At 28 minutes he starts a chop rhythm on 3s against the 4 beat, then back into fast riffing and little repeated licks.
On the other side of the wave, Jerry keeps getting caught it little things until he goes with the flow of the rest of the band starting Cumberland Blues.
Cool version, some great fast jazz-rock stuff, and cool to get to the verse after 24 minutes—I thought it might never happen. Many of these are first listens for me, so I'm not as inside as many of the other writers here. Since we're going through chronologically, I think I'm missing the greatness of of some of these recent versions as isolated pieces. I have to make a new list to go back to (uh, in a few years, I suppose, when we're done...!)
*this dit-dah, dit-dah pattern, in threes, usually starting high and jumping down, then up a step or two and down again—for example, A-E, F#-D—is something he's thrown in often in the past year, usually while trying to figure out where to go next. For some reason the first time I heard it, it reminded me of some acid trip thing doing that saying 'it's all the same', so I named it that when scribbling my notes. It probably has a more sanctioned name, I'm sure.
adamos:
Things get started nice and easy; there's a smooth, gliding vibe accented by little piano fills from Keith. Phil has a bouncy, casual line going underneath while Bob adds his textures. Billy's gentle drum work comes through nicely on the recording too. It feels like taking a casual stroll on a pretty path. Around 1:07 Jerry starts heading upwards, still gently but with more sparkle, then levels out and continues with a lower line. The pace quickens a little and there's some nice interweaving taking place.
Jerry gets into a repeating thing at 2:45 that spins up the collective motor. Things rise up but they still keep it somewhat in the pocket and as bzfgt noted there is some ebb and flow as they go along. They continue to weave and wind in this territory for a good spell. Jerry spins lovely lines and Bob and Keith are active too. There's a taste of the main theme throughout as they saunter along. Around 5:20 or so the pace starts to increase again but there is still ebb and flow. Then after 6:30 Jerry gets into some sustained stretchy notes and they rise up to a nice mini peak before easing back again after 7:20.
They continue forth and Jerry adds just a hint of Sputnik sparkle but opts not to flesh it out. He then drops out and Billy comes forward more and is active on the toms and cymbals. From this the others start to bubble up again. Keith works some gentle notes and Phil seems to latch on to that which stirs something up. It gets more jazzy in this stretch which Bill adds to nicely and Bob contributes some textures as well. Things start to get cooking and then around 10:50 Jerry rejoins and weaves in a nice complimentary line.
They work this groove for a good while, moving with pace relative to earlier in the song. The intensity starts to pick up too and they take it for a good spin. Lots of building notes from Jerry. By around 15:20 it seems to be running its course. Jerry plays a repeating pattern that Bob mirrors and then things pick up again briefly before setting down.
At 16:10 Jerry plays some pretty high notes and they begin to drift into a more contemplative space with some darkness added by Phil. There's a touch of foreboding now and yet still some lightness. Keith adds some wah and Jerry has a stretchy wailing sound and Bob brings in some prominent textures too. Things start to get weirder and then they find a quiet space. It's mainly Keith and a bit of feedback for a short time and then the others add intermittent contributions. There's a drifting, spacey vibe that starts to feel pretty again.
Around 19:55 it almost feels like a ballad could emerge but they keep it slightly weird with Phil working some patient notes complimented by Jerry. Phil starts to give it a bit more rev but he's also being very patient and deliberate. Then Jerry kicks on the wah but they are really taking their time in this zone and it stretches out in deliberate fashion for some time. It's all very subtle. Then out of a pretty quiet space the theme gently emerges at 23:40 which is quite beautiful. A flower suddenly blooms they move right into the verse. Jerry sings it in a lovely, weary way that fits the vibe.
After the verse Billy gets a beat going and they start to spin up a lighter, bouncier yet still mellow jam. Jerry adds some subtle winding lines with a bit of pace and things collectively start to rise up. For a brief period Jerry plays some rhythm chords along with Bob which adds a different feel. They both do a choppy thing which ratchets it up in a repeating pattern. Then around 27:50 he slips out of that and carries forth with a sharp, quick paced line. Then Phil begins to assert himself more; they ease up a bit but keep it going. There's one more brief burst from Jerry and then he settles back. Phil comes forward again and they hover a bit before he asserts Cumberland Blues.
A really good version. I like the smooth, semi-mellow vibe of the opening portion that has a hints of the theme throughout. They really take things for a stroll with lots of collective of interweaving and things get jazzy for a spell too. There’s no meltdown or major freakout but they still find some weirdness and some quiet passages too. And the way that the theme reemerges and leads into the verse is lovely.
notesofachord:
9/27/72
Dark Star is a jazzterpiece that ends up in a mine in West Virginia.
Not to be missed.
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