149. 1972-10-28

20405 Cleveland 27:46

Main theme at :06, 9:31 and 10:51.
First verse at 11:27.
Philo Stomp at 16:50.
Tiger at 25:23.
Goes into Sugar Magnolia.


A little bit of the main theme leads into some volume swells by Garcia, and the Dark Star starts clopping along. Godchaux and Weir open up a bubbly jam space while Lesh and Garcia wander a bit. Kreutzmann is pushing them along (check out his runs at 1:51, 2:16 and 2:33, and 2:47, etc.); he keeps goosing the band, creating forward momentum. In this case, he seems to be leading the jam as much as anyone, and perhaps he inspires the tumbling riff that Garcia unleashes at 4:05, which Keith picks up on, one of many such bursts that drive the jam forward tonight.


From about 4:20 Kreutzmann starts to play a more lurching beat, and again there is a reponse as at 4:43 Lesh puts forth a funky riff, and again Godchaux is right there, embellishing it and pushing it further. At 5:05 Garcia’s chords start to swell up and they all come together with a thrusting beat that raises the pressure again. At 5:55 the band is steaming along and Garcia starts spinning some frenetic lines that turn into another hammering motif at 6:08; Godchaux locks on, and they take it to a sort of peak, and it seems the general trajectory is ever upwards.

The music gets denser and busier. Now Lesh starts a double time pulse at 7:55. They all seem to pull back a little at the same time, and at 8:11Garcia starts a driving chord pattern. This seems to bring everything up another notch, as they alternate between a driving sway and dot-dash pounding until Garcia begins an ascent at 9:21 that leads to high A at 9:23; he tumbles off it into a kind of main theme/Bright Star hybrid. They start to settle into the theme, but there’s a detour at 10:05, a misty little grotto that has hints of a rolling Sputnik jam. This leads us back to the theme, which brings us to a dark and lurching verse. (In a throwback to the ‘60s, Jerry gives a little vibrato shake to “Shall we go…”).


Out the other side, Garcia immediately puts out some spooky vibes with a watery wah effect. While Kreutzmann starts up a deliberate beat, and Lesh adds a deliberate riff, Garcia considers some weird directions. The band swirls down the drain until, at 14:35, Lesh barks out his intentions. Garcia echoes him for a little while, and then Lesh drops out for a bit, leaving Bill and Jerry. As Phil returns, there’s a little bit of space, and everything seems uncertain.


At 16:50, Lesh takes charge and launches Philo Stomp. This proceeds with bass and drums for awhile, but the others trickle back in. When Garcia lays in a distorted lead at around 18:30, Lesh pulls back the riff and reduces it to a thudding fundament, and the jam develops. The Philo Stomp bass riff might be too dominant to leave much room for a band jam, and Lesh’s solution to this seems to work this time—they’re flying along, they don’t seem to want to keep it going for too long. and it already starts to unravel at 20:10.


The jam is sprouting frayed ends all over the place now. At 21:30, Garcia gets ahold of something, and a kind of abstract and choppy funk seems about to emerge, and almost does. Instead, there is more unravelling, until Garcia’s wah at 22:22 unmistakably ratifies what seems to be the only possible direction this can go in, toward a meltdown. Lo and behold, the madness does indeed seem a bit more methodical now that we can identify it with a recognized move, and we arrive at a brief Tiger before everything unravels a little further into an abstract space from which there will be no returning. At the utmost extremity, Weir finally kicks off Sugar Magnolia.


This is one of those Dark Stars where the first and second halves seem to have little to do with one another. Unless, that is, the second half is a kind of riposte to the first—whereas the intro jam kept exploring new ways to push forward, the back 40 is filled with weeds; with the exception of Philo Stomp and the short jam that it catalyzed, there is not much in the way of momentum in the second half of this Dark Star. We find instead a wonderful sprawl, a space where it seems almost gauche to develop one’s ideas overmuch. This is not intended as a knock, though, as this is a powerful rendition.


What was said:

JSegel:


(From Bear’s tape, drums a tad loud…)

Starts with the intro, settles and then Jerry moves into the plaintive bends. Some triplet rolling underneath from Keith and Bobby. Nice mellow jamming with little takeoffs in the rhythm from Bill and Keith. Keith is really rolling along on this one. Jerry backs off and then goes for some fast little jazzy riffs, while again Keith has some upwardly rolling triplets. More plaintive stretches in there, they get caught in little eddies of the triplet rolls. A lull in this long slow build before the five minute mark, and they start to build again in a minor area. Jerry takes them on a striking upward set of chords and it breaks into more Dark Star mode again. Jerry gets into some fast repetitive riffing at 6 minutes, Keith comes along.

The whole tempo moves up, the band gets excited. Bill is into some dit-dah, dit-dah kick pattern, mirroring the “it’s all the same” thing that Jerry often plays with around it (does that pattern have an accepted name that I don't know? I do tend to make up my own names for things.)

They move into more fast playing, building it up in pitch and then down again before sort of settling into a pedal tone suspension on a strong rhythm, really jamming hard. A set of fast bits crest the wave, with big country licks from Jerry coming in at 9 minutes, still playing on the suspended chord. It finally breaks at 9:30 and the Dark Star theme emerges and the tempo slows. Really nice transition, great playing and great musicality.

They enter a quieter area, with some thematic entrances again at 10:45, heading toward a verse. Verse 1 at 11:24, strong vocals, very feeling. Audience claps and yells! A big fermata on line two, building it back on line 3 with a more grounded bass, Keith wandering in clouds on line 3, spotlight-casting. Refrain with monster movie vocals back again! And an outro leading to a weird watery tremolo sound in reverb from a melodic instrument (? Bobby?) bringing us into the Transitive Nightfall. Rhythm attempts to pick up but the guitars go into soundscape, so Bill goes into rolls. The band dives deep into the sea and there are monsters, big bass dissonances strike at 14:40, drum hits play around them, guitars stretch odd double stops. Some feedback in the background as Bill rolls on for a bit, drum solo accompanied by feedback and occasional bass notes.

By 16 minutes we are entering an area with volume swelled notes and feedbacks, big deep minor isolated bass chords. At 16:50, Phil starts his rhythmic strumming on major chords, Bill joins in. Instant song, though only bass and drums really. It’s a very poppy song, this Philo Stomp thing, actually. The guitars start to figure it out. Keith is fully in by 18:20. Jerry starts lead playing a little later. He settles into some high rock riffing with the wah wah on.

At 20:20 or so, Jerry starts playing with some extra-modal riff, heading somewhere else, but it doesn’t really get there and winds itself up into high stretched cries. This moves into the jazzy fast jamming, which breaks down with weird stretched chords. By 22 minutes it’s falling into atonal chromatic little licks, Bill rolls in and out. Jerry is insinuating getting to the Tiger meltdown, but it’s never coalescing, he stays outside tonally, with wah wah tone. He’s nearer to it at 24:40, actually playing the chromatic Tiger riff finally, moving harder and higher. Meltdown! They hold the high point for a good while until it breaks at 25:40, and it’s back to smaller sounds and isolated double stops moving away from the center accompanied by string scratches and small drum hits and rolls. They settle on a dissonant bit, Bill is playing a drum while changing its pitch like a talking drum. It dies out and Bobby starts Sugar Magnolia.

Quite a nice version, in the end. Goes through some interesting changes.


bzfgt:


Could you time stamp an example of "it's all the same"?


JSegel:


Here's some recent examples:
5-7-72 @ 10:55
this little lick that Jerry has played several times in the past, it is a repeated “dit-dah dit-dah” nursery rhyme rhythm against the beat of whatever is going on, with descending intervals. This evening it’s D-C#, D-B, a couple nights ago he used it on a major third, G#-F#, G#-E. Not structurally important, but I always hear it when it happens. Just so you know.)

7-18-72 "It’s all the same" lick @ 10:18

8-21-72 @ 5:58 min the ‘all the same’ a g a e—these same notes have been used in this pattern often since the previous winter or maybe earlier.

9/27/72
Jerry goes on a tangent of ‘it’s all the same’ dit-dah, dit-dah at about 1:10 in.

10-18-72 after the intro to post-verse jam space—> a Dark Star-ish melodic area, slow and delicate, though building in intensity on the simple (“it’s all the same”) lick, stretched-out, from Jerry developing into feedback, starts around 14:30


bzfgt:


Thank you, I got it now. It is a familiar thing, I wonder how many things could be singled out depending on where we focus our attention.


KeithGodchaux:


I think that lick is a queue to the band: "guys I'm high as **** right now, just give me a minute to get my head together"


adamos:


Things get started smooth and mellow. Big kicks from Bill as they get underway; he's prominent in the mix. Some stretchy, sliding runs from Jerry with nice accompaniment from Bob and then Keith. Phil is doing is thing too, also in no particular hurry. Bill's pace seems quicker than the others but some of that could be his forward presence on the recording. Jerry heads out and they stroll amiably through the early proceedings.

At Jerry 4:05 starts up a quick repeating pattern that Keith jumps in on and it seems to propel them forward. But they quickly settle back in and continue winding and weaving. Around 4:45 Phil asserts himself which Keith gets in as well and they work that for a bit, changing the feel and picking up some momentum along that way. Things spin upward. Starting around 5:20 Jerry launches further up before shifting into a bubbling, forward driving line that gets everyone cooking. There's a nice jazzy feel now and they're moving along nicely.

There's a bit of ebb and flow and they start pushing it forward again with good collective interweaving. The groove shifts again starting around 7:55 and after a brief pooling Jerry pushes out again with a touch of rev in his tone. They climb upwards and then maintain a driving plateau with nice interplay between Jerry and Keith. Then around 9:03 Jerry kicks it it up again with a raspy, almost country-twinged charge. He bursts out of that and into a Bright Star-esque peak that transforms into the theme, as noted by bzfgt. The others pull back briefly and then join in on theme.

They find a calmer space within the theme with some nice piano from Keith. Then Jerry shifts into mellow Sputnik-esque variations while the overall vibe is still thematic. It's a pretty passage and you could almost imagine a female vocal suddenly coming forth with some kind of poetic verse. They move back into the theme proper and then continue on to the first verse, which includes just a touch of warble!

After the verse they briefly reset and Jerry dives into some watery wah which sounds cool. They hover briefly and appear to be revving up the engine. Bill and Phil start something up but instead of launching into it they pull back into some weirdness with Jerry still working the wah. They pool in this zone and Phil seems to be offering suggestions. Phil then pulls back while Bill asserts himself before bursting back with some strong strums. He eases off again and there's a brief semi-drum break accompanied by freaky sounds.

Things get spacier and more ominous. As it quiets Phil starts ramping up and then shifts into a Philo Stomp which the crowd responds to well. Phil and Bill do their thing and rock it up for a spell. Jerry and Bob start slowly coming back in after 18:00 followed by Keith. Then Jerry starts up a line with some kind of effect and this coalesces into a jam and they take it for a ride. Around 19:20 Jerry shifts into a faster, edgier, repeating thing that takes it up. He eases up but they keep cooking along until 20:10 or so.

At that point they downshift a bit while Billy keeps it going, and then he shifts the beat around 20:35 and they start picking up momentum again. Phil works underneath while Jerry dabbles in some progressively freakier sounds that intermittently call out into the night. Around 21:30 Jerry starts a new line with a stuttered feel and they work around that as he takes it deeper and weirder. Jerry shifts to wah and Bill eases up for a moment and they step clearly on the path to meltdown territory.

They slowly wind their way there with Bill quite active again and Bob adding sparkly textures to Jerry's freaky lead. Things start spinning more quickly and starting around 25:10 or so the Tiger is unleased. It screams out for a bit and then around 25:40 Jerry pulls back and they shift into spacey weirdness. There's some string scraping, tribal drumming and other assorted sounds. Jerry works a deep, freaky line for a good spell accompanied by Bob. Slowly they begin to ease up and out of the resulting quiet Bob starts up Sugar Magnolia.

It's a really good performance. There is a lot happening in the first half which at times has a more sophisticated feel. In the second half not all of the jams fully materialize but there's lots of general freakiness and I liked the watery wah effect right after the verse. We also get a Philo Stomp and a meltdown and some spacey weirdness in the outro.


Mr. Rain:


The mix balance is slightly better than 10-26, but still very narrow, almost mono except the drums which are louder than everything else.

After the count-in, it starts off nice and sweet. The opening is dense & bubbly; Bill seems to be kicking everyone ahead but that's probably due to his volume. The energy subsides after 3m and they seem to coast for awhile; around 5m Jerry lays back and Keith comes more to the fore. But at 5:30 Jerry surges back, and more energy sweeps in like a fresh wind. Keith & Jerry seem to be in the lead here, Keith following Jerry's every move (sometimes rather imitatively)....Bob & Phil are less conspicuous in the mix. The jam gets more stingin', and Jerry leads another charge at 8:15 which loops around some country rolls and swings up to a nice high Bright Star-styled theme at 9:20 -- home run! This being all too straightforward, the Dead drop the main theme at 10m for an unexpected swim in a foggy bay, then sneak back to the theme at 10:50. Very nicely done; the verse follows at 11:28. Jerry's vocal is quite loud.

Jerry steps on the wah right away coming out of the verse, whew! An unexpected touch: the band swirls spacily, making clouds. Jerry's in the mood for some odd shimmery sounds; I think Bob turns his chorus effect on around 14m. Phil putters around, then turns up the bass around 14:40, and the guitars step back except for bits of feedback. Bill keeps rattling the drums, and the band seems to be pausing for a drum solo. But then around 15:50 Bill backs off a bit, and they change course and go into a nice little volume-swell space. Phil's in a melodic mood and starts strumming chords, ushering in the Philo Stomp at 16:50. Bill's ready with a hard-charging drum accompaniment this time, and at 18m the rest of the band chimes in with cool accents, emphasizing the beat. As everyone else comes up, by 18:50 Phil drops the theme for a basic line and Jerry takes the lead -- and boy, Jerry starts flying with some great hummingbird wah as Keith hammers the chords! The peak of this Dark Star.

They start to trickle off after 20m, just Bill keeping up a beat; Bob & Keith seemingly drop out. Jerry feels around and it seems to be just Jerry/Phil/Bill doing a quirky agitated jam for a while....some little chirps from Bob, but mostly Jerry being weird. Then around 22:30, Jerry's wah starts leading to a Tiger. Bob quietly pitches in with nervous notes; Phil bubbles & pops; Keith can't be heard (where'd he go? haven't heard him since the Philo Stomp). This mix emphasizes Jerry & Bill up-front, with Phil & Bob quietly behind them, so the balance is awkward. The final Tiger spiral starts around 24:45 and reaches a fierce shrieking peak at 25:40; oddly Phil doesn't seem to be playing at all in this part, no chords of doom. Then for the last two minutes they warble and float on Jerry's wah tides, Phil scritching his strings, Bill making odd bubbly taps, the guitars sparkling like moonbeams. (But no melodic statement like on 10-23, the playing stays busily confused & abstract.)

They reach a halt, Jerry touches a resolving chord, a drum-roll...in the pause, Bob whips out a crackin' Sugar Magnolia. Bill misplaces the beat to begin with, and has to start over. Now Keith finally shows up again, after sitting out the last 8 minutes!

I had some mixed feelings. Maybe my mood's off....it has nice moments, I particularly like the Philo Stomp and the spacey stretches; Jerry gets some lovely sounds. On one listen it felt like they were trying to get something going and not quite reaching it. But then on another listen it felt like they were hittin' it, I was just getting distracted by the off-kilter drum-thumpin' mix as players seem to come and go. I liked the opening jam more on each listen (as usual). But in the final stretch it sounds like only half the band's really participating. I bet an audience tape would portray this differently, but Keith plays for like two minutes after the verse and Phil doesn't always seem quite present. Bill's always loud & clear though, making this a drum-centered Star. Maybe partly because of that, it also sounds rather hard-edged and jittery; even the spacey parts are kinda spiky....this isn't a very melodic or relaxing Dark Star, it's more restless & abstract.