132378 St. Louis 28:22
Main theme at 9:58.
First verse at 11:31.
Philo Stomp at 22:41.
Feelin’ Groovy at 25:22.
Goes into Morning Dew.
Nestled in the middle of an incredible Playing in the Band>Dark Star>Morning Dew>Playing in the Band sequence that anticipates the setlist shenanigans of the next couple of years, this also works quite well as a standalone. The tempo of these Dark Stars seems to be getting more deliberate as we get toward the end of 1972. In the initial phase, the band seems to set up an environment as much as anything; one can feel oneself entering a forested landscape or some such thing, if that’s not too fanciful. Garcia cries from the trees with some volume swells, while Godchaux releases rivulets that cascade down the jagged cliff face of Weir’s distorted chording, while Lesh prowls in the underbrush. OK, that is too fanciful! Sue me.
If the music is slow and encompassing, as the intensity increases the effect is massive. By the time we’re four minutes in, it feels like a lot has happened, even though they have not yet forsaken the basic Dark Star pattern. At 4:55 they start to slide down into a little gap, with Garcia playing Dark Star melodies to remind us of the overall concept. Godchaux is using an effect (or an electronic keyboard?) now, and they land on a minor chord at about 5:19, with Lesh seemingly leading the way. A groove bubbles forth, but it subsides by 5:45, where there’s a more pronounced hiatus.
This issues forth in some warblings that seem to portend space. These are drawn out so that, rather than a hiatus, this seems to be the next section of the jam—a meditative series of statements without an underlying groove, but with a cohesive feel nevertheless. All four string players are crafting beautiful melodies here, and this draws up into a kind of peak at about 8:45, then stretches and yawns, and then at 9:12 Lesh suggests the main theme.
There are no takers yet; instead, Garcia and Godchaux start rolling and trilling, almost like the end of a Sputnik; Weir joins with a tremolo, and Lesh succumbs as this reaches a crescendo at 9:21, subsides, crescendos again at 9:32, subsides again, and crescendos again at 9:47. As this last peak tails off, Phil again calls them back at 9:52, and they all slide into the main theme. This is rendered triumphantly, with the band kicking up behind Garcia’s elaborations. They bring it to a peak and let it come down again, keeping this powerful section fairly compact. Garcia is a bit off-pitch on the verse at times, but that doesn’t matter too much, does it? I hope not…
Coming off the verse, they hit the little turnaround and start to build on it, with Kreutzmann providing a forward-leaning beat. Garcia immediately kicks on the wah and start futzing around like he wants to go to a meltdown, but the rest of the band settles into a relaxed groove. Garcia complies by playing some melodic stuff, and they start to build a focused jam with more drawn out statements. Once this gets going, at about 15:25, Garcia starts to lean toward a meltdown again, and Weir seems eager to go along this time. But they aren’t falling back on any formulas, they’re taking their time and maintaining a groove.
Lesh starts double timing at 16:30, but rather than picking up things seem to be coming apart a little, which could portend a meltdown after all. They content themselves for now with a less harmonious jam that again builds in intensity, until at 18:15 Garcia starts a Tiger motif, but this does not last for very long, and he soon shifts to the kind of the kind of thing we’d get in the aftermath of a Tiger. It seems, then, that we’re heading somewhere else.
Even though there was never really a meltdown, the Dead are more or less in “We just played a meltdown” territory as we reach the 20 minute mark. One might expect them to come together for a more mundane jam at this point, then. This doesn’t seem to be happening, however, as Lesh starts booming out chords of doom at 20:50. He’s on his own by 21:10, aside from Weir who stays in for a little while longer, and Kreutzmann who is doing some rather minimal work.
Lesh rather dramatically takes a long breath, and then breaks into the first Philo Stomp at 22:41. Kreutzmann immediately picks it up, and they rock it out. I’ve sometimes wondered why the band doesn’t come together on this more, and this time they do provide some accompaniment, starting at around 23:53. Garcia gets some soulful licks in; by the time Godchaux pitches in at about 24:35, Weir seems to have given up.
Phil finally lets the riff go at 24:55, and they hover around for a bit. Not wanting to let it all just peter out, Lesh kicks up Feelin’ Groovy at 25:22, and the band all comes together again at last. They give it a rather subdued but pretty reading tonight, without trying to drive it over the top. The mood is light; their work on Dark Star is done, and everything feels very relaxed. This plays out by 28:05, and I think it’s Lesh who suggests Morning Dew.
This is part of a classic sequence, and it’s a classic Dark Star. The first section is a real tour de force, with the band weaving a polyphonic spell that nicely showcases the unique power of their playing in this era. The second half is restrained, with neither the meltdown nor the Feelin’ Groovy segment reaching for the kind of intensity that they sometimes achieve. Nevertheless, it’s a very satisfying and engaging piece of music, all in all.
What was said:
JSegel:
Well well, enclosing Dark Star (and Morning Dew) *within* Playin’ in the Band. That’s meta! Second set opens with PitB, nicely upbeat. Even Donna sounds relatively in tune even on her ‘yeah-yeaaahs’. Bob really starts the improvs here, moving around with chord playing, Jerry takes his time and tone starts in the wah-rolled-off area before he starts to explore, using more jazzy bits already, arpeggiated runs, little riffs. They are really rocking it out together, all cylinders firing, Bill is really pumping away (it’s sort of no wonder this 12+ minutes of PitB jam leads to a drum solo.) Nice sections of Keith and Jerry mirroring each other too, great stuff from Phil and Bob. Really strong music already…
Interestingly, Jerry starts to signal the “back in” to PitB at 15:30 into this, but the string players instead beg off and leave Bill to a 3 minute drum solo. He starts small, with hi-hat and a few toms, smaller sounds, leading into the rolling waves of percussion. Out into the hi-hat again, Phil starts Dark Star.
He starts it relatively slowly, but it moves into a stately swing, not quite the tropical-breeze feel of earlier this year but more a walking pace. Along the boardwalk. Everybody is “on” but not overstating anything.
Jerry has some plaintive cries again at 2:30, after finding those notes by stretching to Keith’s top notes. Tripping little rhythmic bits from Bill and Phil. Stretched pinch-harmonics creating an ethereal top end to this.
Cool interplay from the guitars and bass, still in the Dark Star groove. It moves into a minor area after 5 minutes, a little quieter, lending opportunities for drop outs, and then a minute later hardly anyone is there, little sounds and trills in this deeper hole. Isolated chords or notes, mostly rubato. Bill leads some rolls so it dives even deeper into nothingness at 7:30, it becomes more chromatic and distant. Another false ending a minute later, sort of a coda, then Phil lands on a note at 8:45, to settle it for a second before it continues sinking.
Jerry starts a Sputnik-y arpeggio, everybody else tremolos in waves with it. At 10, a drum roll, then Phil leads it back to the theme groove! Nice one, they sound strong, really stating some forward motion, though the theme is mostly staying on the low end at this point. Jerry is seeming to head upwards to a brighter star, but it’s mostly in allusions to it.
Verse 1 at 11:40, sort of ragged vocals to start, but he holds it together. Line 2 really has a nice landing on the fermata, with drums rolling onwards. Wide open chords form Bob on line 3. Jerry holds out the last vocal notes of the refrain lines.
Outro perfectly stated and into the Transitive Nightfall, a kick drum is insistent, though no actual rhythm is implied, Jerry starts a wah-wah arpeggio. It eventually lands in a Dark Star-ish melodic area, slow and delicate, though building in intensity on simple (“it’s all the same”) stretched-out licks from Jerry developing into feedback. Then they dive in and head to the jazzy stuff, a new phrygian mode almost immediately emerges. They continue driving forward getting more and more chromatic. Avant garde, even. (I'm guessing a bunch of the Blues for Allah stuff was developing from these parts of their jams at this point.)
At 17 min, we have a short Jerry and Phil jazz set, wah stuff coming in after a bit, very Miles-sounding. Bill is super plugging away. (I think Keith has dropped out.) Jerry starts the Tiger licks, but they don’t develop yet, instead going to diminished chord bits. At 19:20 or so, the rhythm section has backed off leaving a spatial hole for odd melodic notes. Phil starts emphasizing some notes looking for feedback (I think), he heads to big bass chords in the 21st minute. Everybody else eventually leaves him to it. Bass solo!
His bass solo is mostly big evil sounding chords, though right before 23 minutes he starts a major-ish chord riff. Bill comes in to help it out with a beat. in the 24th minute the other guys are finding their way in with little additions to his new pop song. I almost hear a little allusion to bring it back to PitB at 25 minute, but instead it dies out by 25:30, Phil comes in with the Feeling Groovy bass line! Ok, then! Band hops on board that train. (Keith is back in too.) But it doesn’t seem like they really want to develop it much, they just jam on it for a bit, Jerry going a little sideways after a minute, but back to the major-key grooviness, it rolls on until some cadential phrases from Jerry, and then he changes it to minor notes and it breaks, and Jerry starts Morning Dew, Phil in after one note, Bob after two. Bob, by the way, has been playing with some sort of chewy phase shifter or vibe pedal in this show.
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Nice one. Beautiful playing. Not super developmental, a lot of deep diving and holes—a nebula stellar nursery, if you will— especially compared to the PitB before it, but a great companion to that, and to the music that is still going as it moves into Morning Dew and then finally (seamlessly, on the very last note) back to PitB, which jams in the jazzy world for only really a couple more minutes before insinuating the song again and coming back to the outro riffs and Donna screaming and to the chorus. Overall, a fantastic concert sequence. Dark Star on its own has elements of the versions before it, the jazzy riffing and chromatic deep dives, but none were taken to any extreme depth nor length. Plus a bit of Feelin Groovy. Still, it clocked in at 28 minutes, pretty good for an enclosed version exemplifying the very essence of “Playing in the Band” within itself. It takes the band a few minutes to start the next section of the concert.
adamos:
We enter the excellent, well-known sequence in progress....PITB has given way to a drum break and as that runs it course there's a brief lull and then Phil kicks it off to the delight of the crowd. There's a mellow, patient vibe at the onset. Jerry heads out on a gentle line while Phil works it underneath. Some raspy complimentary textures from Bob and Keith is interweaving nicely too, somewhat quietly at times but then he gets into some more pronounced, staggered action. Jerry moves into some stretchy, pinched sounds and then heads upwards in slightly stronger fashion. The momentum builds; Jerry is crying out and Phil plays a sort of walking line. Bob continues to stand out in the mix and he's revving it up.
By 5 minutes in things have crested and they gather a bit and move forth into minor territory. There's a nice feel to this passage that is enhanced by Keith's electronic contributions. By 6:00 they've settled into a quiet zone with a touch of spaciness. There's some subtle interplay that has a contemplative yet melodic feel.
Around 8:30 they start to rise up with prominent rhythm from Bob but then settle back in. Phil touches on the theme around 9:15 but Jerry opts to launch into a Sputnik-esque roll that Keith and Bob jump in on too. They take it up and then back down again and then give it another push. It winds down in lovely fashion and then Phil reasserts the theme and they all latch on and take it for a stroll. Triumphant is a good descriptor for the vibe at this point. They keep it going until around 11:30 and then head into the verse. There's some nice complimentary work from Bob during it.
After the verse they reset and hover briefly and it feels like something is being spun up. Jerry shifts into wah which sounds Sputnik-y at first and then gets more stretched out. But rather than getting weird they slip into a mellow, pretty, wandering groove. It quickly starts to build though and the energy rises up, relatively speaking. Jerry plays a sustained high note and Bob revs it up and they hit a small peak before carrying forth.
Around 15:13 Jerry shifts back into wah sounds and the melody transforms and suddenly it feels more foreboding like a meltdown could be on the horizon. The intensity builds but they keep a groove going and opt not to let it fully come apart. They work this for a good while with Phil stepping forward more after 16:30. They play off this for a spell and things continue to feel melt-adjacent but more of a jazzy jam. Around 18:15 Jerrys starts spinning up the runway to Tiger but doesn't let it rip. Instead he pulls back and absorbs into the ooze.
They continue working in this zone in a subtle manner. Things get somewhat quiet but not still and it begins to feel melt-ish again. Phil is quite prominent now and by 20:50 he unleashes some thundering, revving chords. The others mostly drop back as Phil lays it down in a powerful and compelling manner. He briefly pauses and then launches into the first Philo Stomp, as noted by bzfgt. Bill jumps in and they work it for a good stretch. Jerry rejoins around 23:55 and slowly adds some complimentary lines with Keith following a bit later.
It feels like this will morph into an extended collective jam but before long they ease up and linger in a quiet space. Out of this Phil asserts Feelin' Groovy and they spin up a pretty, relatively mellow telling of it. It bounces along nicely, perhaps with a couple bumps early on, and serves as the outro for this Dark Star. It peaks nicely right near the end and then they let it go and I agree that Phil seems to be the one that hits on Morning Dew and then Jerry strums the opening notes and off they go.
A lovely performance. Not as fully fleshed out in all its phases but it works well as part of this excellent sequence and it has some good interplay and compelling moments.
This Dark Star's unique for 1972 in falling in the middle of a Playing in the Band suite! Which works so well, it's a wonder they didn't pursue the idea of a Playing palindrome until fall '73. Jerry is a bit too quiet in the mix, so Bob gets to stand out more; his chords are prominent in this version.
It's rare to have a Playing and a Dark Star side by side, and easy to hear the contrast here. The Playing jam doesn't have a structure, it just keeps going on its one track until they decide to end it -- you can't map it out like you can a Dark Star. At this stage Playing was still in its aggressive slashing tumblewheel phase; not a whole lot of shades of variety. When you think they're about to wrap it up, here they randomly stop for a not-very-interesting drum solo. And out of that, Dark Star.
The start is rough, with Jerry & Bob sounding not quite ready -- Bob's out of tune and at :25 has to stop for some tuning! But Bill's all warmed-up, propelling things along, and Keith tinkles prettily in the back. After about a minute, they've gotten things together in a rather moody jam. Some nice plaintive volume swells from Jerry at 2:30, leading up to some of his characteristic high pinched notes at 3:20 which he sustains for a whole minute. At 5 minutes the mood gets calmer, and they seem to coast; some light wah touches from Keith; at six minutes, a hint of space. They're in the mood for some spacey meandering; Bill mostly drops out aside from some quiet drum-rolls and the other instruments drip delicate notes. Around 7-8 minutes it reminds me of the Europe '72 grandness (it sounds a bit like "Prelude"). Very melodic structure, like a song slowly being formed (check out Phil & Bob after 8:20). Phil suggests the main theme at 9:15 but the others don't want to go there yet, instead Jerry urges them to let loose a little wave of sound; then as the tide subsides, Phil brings up the theme again at 9:55 and this time it takes and everyone kicks in. Very strong, swinging main theme here -- usually in this period they play it only briefly before the verse as a quick intro, but now they really rock out on it! Then they bring it down again at 11:30 for the verse. Jerry's singing is really shaky, but the playing in the verse is strong.
Where next? Another nice unified surge after the verse; Jerry has some sparkly wah going, Bill's insisting on a beat, Phil's wading ahead... Then comes a memorable melody from Jerry at 14:00 that he repeats (Keith copying him), then dramatically ties up at 14:30, repeating two notes into feedback that trails out at 15:05. Just lovely. Then, we're back in the Playing jam! (Same territory, anyway.) Bob's fierce, Jerry's getting scrungy on the wah, the rhythm section's jumpin', it sounds like they're heading for a meltdown. By 16:40 the playing's getting more scattered and random, and it breaks down to just Phil, Jerry & Bill for a while, all a-frazzle. Bob comes back in an atonal mood after 17:25; Phil starts his blippity-bloop scramble; Jerry's trilling and starts a Tiger at 18:15...and then suddenly at 18:30 it just fizzles out. The Tiger is averted! Phil rumbles threateningly like a dark stormcloud while Bob & Jerry keep a lonely conversation going; then Phil & Jerry have a little duet while the drums rumble. Bob comes back again for more angular oddness, but Keith seems to be sitting out this whole episode. They sound on the tip of a breakdown, everything's weird & askew, and they linger in this strange tense spot rather than going in any particular direction.
Then Phil makes a decision and delivers some big loud bass chords at 20:50. Everyone else shuts up at 21m and makes room for a Phil solo! It's one of his coolest so far. He plays around with the chords of doom for a minute, with dramatic pauses; and as the bass buzzes, he launches into the Philo Stomp at 22:40. Bill gamely tries finding a beat for it; Jerry strays in after 24m with a nice spontaneous accompaniment, then Keith; Bob never quite finds a way in and doesn't contribute. (To be fair, isn't this the first full Philo Stomp? They'd improve on it later.) Phil sort of trickles out after 24:45, not having a way to end it; but Jerry helps give it a natural-sounding sendoff.
Then they hit a pause and everyone just comes to a dead stop at 25:15 -- what next? Bob strikes a Morning Dew chord & Jerry responds, but Phil has other ideas and lightly starts up Feelin' Groovy at 25:25. This one's a warm, low-key rendition with tinkling piano. (China Cat tease from Bob at 27:30!) It starts tentatively but as usual, they build up more intensity as they repeat it a few times, reaching a peak at 28m; but then it suddenly disintegrates. Phil & Bob quickly suggest Morning Dew, and Jerry agrees.
On its own, this isn't really one of the standout Dark Stars of fall '72. Once again the first half is probably the best playing, very nicely done. The second half kind of breaks down into sections as they lurch from one idea to the next. With many melodic moments, just a few minutes of weirdness, no Tiger, a Philo Stomp and a Feelin' Groovy, it's almost a feel-good Dark Star ("even grandma can tap her toes to this!"). Its main strength may come from being part of a unique suite; they usually weren't this daring with jam combinations in 1972.
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