153. 1972-12-11

153092 Winterland 34:27

Main theme at 16:47.
First verse at 17:21.
Tiger at 32:23.
Goes into Stella Blue.


The introduction section is, as it often is around this time, relaxed and quite mesmerizing. All the string players are loud here, but I don’t hear Keith at first. The other three all function as lead instruments, weaving in and out of each other’s lines in a way that pushes the attentive listener’s mind into a blissful overload. At 3:11, the piano finally joins the mix to euphonious effect. A swarm begins at 3:38, and when we come out the other end, there’s a syncopated groove working.


The jam is much the same as it was, only now it swings. This peters out by 4:55 or so, and now it feels like a transitional stage. Lesh and Weir are eager to get funky again, but Kreutzmann hangs back. They build their way back until the drums fall into a groove again at 6:02; they spin it out until hitting another transition point at 7:03. Lesh ties it through with an ostinato, and Garcia launches some rolling triplets; the jam resides in the tension between these two for quite a while from here.


At 8:41 Garcia alludes to Sputnik in a passage that lasts for 15 seconds or so. The music is getting beefier, with Godchaux quite busy now. Lesh plays a few runs through Feelin’ Groovy starting at 9:34, but they’re not going there. As he climbs into a higher register at 9:45, Garcia drops into an ostinato lower down before they again switch places.


The band is seriously cooking now, and the intensity keeps increasing. At 10:55 Garcia starts a simple pattern that they rally around. He tops it off with a screaming lead, and then from 11:32 they float back to earth. They slow the tempo a bit, and some jerky, syncopated chopping follows; Garcia strikes up a catchy riff, and then spins out some leads while the band extrapolates. By 14:25 it seems the ideas are coming thick and fast from all directions. They reach a peak around a repeated Garcia figure starting at 15:04, and as we crest Garcia starts to signal for the theme at 15:30 or so...at 15:47, and they cut the tempo down and glide into it. Garcia waits a minute to play the melody, and they slow the tempo down even more as they head for the verse. Slowly sung, the verse features Keith’s watery wah licks, much like the last one.


There’s a little crescendo after the concluding licks, and what pulse there is seems to slow even further. We find ourselves in space, with Garcia playing eerie squalls amid big tom flourishes. Doomy bass licks and feedback engulf the scene. Lesh comes to the fore, and his playing is deliberate and spacy, with no hints of Philo Stomp here. Both guitar players are layering feedback, until at 23:48 Godchaux starts playing some staccato muffled notes and it turns into a conversation between him and Lesh. (I initially thought this was Weir, and it is difficult to tell as for a long time this sounds like a guitar. Someone can correct me if I have it twisted, but after rewinding a few times I’m pretty sure it’s Keith dampening the piano strings somehow.)


Godchaux increases the pace, still muffling his notes, and Lesh responds with muffled passages of his own. At 25:45 Keith kicks on the wah, continuing in the same vein. Garcia comes back, also with the wah engaged, and throws in some eerie sounds as Kreutzmann plays a primal beat. This is absolutely unique and riveting music, and without any clear precedent, as far as I can recall.


The muffly jam is driving toward a peak, and at 27:55 Keith lets the strings ring out a little more; by 28:20 this jam finally seems to have run its course, though. They seem to consider a drum break, but then Garcia, who throughout the previous jam has been confined to a supporting role, starts to assert himself more. At 29:45 he seems to momentarily think of Bach, and then he starts to edge toward the Tiger. The band again gels, if in an oblique and eerie fashion. The lead-up to the Tiger is another astounding jam. They really pick up steam at 31:40, as they push for the finish line; Garcia finally unleashes the Tiger at 32:23, and the whole thing comes to its vicious denouement.


At 33:52 Jerry seems to remember his previous aside (29:45) and drops into Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring before starting to strum Stella Blue (which is, incidentally, one of the best versions of the year).


What can be said about this version? This is one of the greatest pieces of music the Grateful Dead ever created, an absolute masterpiece. The first half is varied, by turns soulful and driving, and does everything you want a Dark Star jam to do. After a few versions where they seemed to struggle after the verse, the unique, creative second half is utterly successful here. This is what it’s all about.


What was said:

152. 1972-11-26

9248 San Antonio 25:12

Main theme at 9:26.
First verse at 10:28.
Feelin’ Groovy at 18:37.
Tiger at 21:55.
Goes into Me and Bobby McGee.


The beginning jam here is a thing of beauty. Everyone plays off each other, and (as so often happens) Garcia’s lines prominently float along on top but are far from the only thing on which to focus. After a gorgeous series that alludes to the theme a few times, at 2:18 Garcia plays a stentorian line on the bass strings that we have heard before—the first instance I know of is at 2:40 on 1968-08-23, and this lick also appears in the intro jam on 1973-11-11. Here it is more extended than anywhere else it appears, though.


The jam opens out a bit from here—Lesh starts fishing around for funky licks. At 3:11 Jerry stretches a note which he lets ooze around for the next 30 seconds, and then the jam alternates between bouncing and elongating passages. Lesh’s ostinato from 4:05 sets off Godchaux and Garcia’s acending lines until Jerry reaches a repeating note at 4:25 and the band comes to a peak. At 4:42 he hits a higher plateau, and then they take it down and regroup.


Phil strikes up a jazzy riff at 5:17, but it doesn’t lead anywhere, as they are still coming off the peak. At 5:40 Garcia hits some tumbling triplets and Godchaux flutters around him; at 6:10 a new groove emerges, as Lesh and Kreutzmann lay down a laid back groove which Keith offsets with staccato 8th notes. This is something Garcia can work with, clearly, and he weaves in some Dark Star melodies. At 7:40 Keith starts a triplet figure and Garcia quickly picks it up, setting off a unique interlude. This is a passage that is, broadly speaking, in the Sputnik universe, although it’s not much like anything else they’ve played in this vein.


There’s a whole lot going on in this jam, and it’s difficult to narrate. It needs to be heard, in any case, as it is absolutely prime Grateful Dead.


At 8:53 Garcia starts repeating a galloping lick and Godchaux starts playing the wah. It seems like it could go somewhere new, but Garcia climbs to the A at 9:26 and comes down on the theme. Lesh doesn’t seem interested right away, but Jerry’s persistent, and they drop into it. As usually happens in this era, this takes us straight to the verse, during which Godchaux continues playing through the wah.


The aftermath is spacey, but it seems to be germinating a jam. At 12:35 Garcia plays the lick JSegal calls “It’s All the Same”; now that he’s pointed it out, it seems ubiquitous. They play for time with some volume knob twiddlery and Lesh’s searching lines; by 14:20 it goes down to nothing, and then Phil takes over; soon Kreutzmann comes back to accompany him.


Lesh seems reluctant to get the Philo Stomp going again, but what he lands on isn’t a million miles away from that, either. The band starts to trickle back in at 16:45. At first it’s all very tentative, but they seem determined to make a go of it, as they never really recovered from this section last time. Garcia’s licks are a little bolder and more committed this time; nevertheless, they seem to be in a holding pattern until Lesh starts Feelin’ Groovy at 18:37.


We’ve had a little bit of space, a Phil section, and a modular jam—the only thing left in their standard second-half bag of tricks is a meltdown, and by about 20:50 it seems clear that’s where this is now heading. They careen into a Tiger jam, which comes to fruition much sooner than usual. By 23:30 they’re already out the back end, and they lean into the atonal jamming for a while longer, until finally Weir kicks off Me and Bobby McGee.


This is another front-loaded Dark Star. The pre-verse stuff here is stellar; in fact, I want to say it’s as good as anything they ever did. The back half is far from bad; in fact, it’s a marked improvement over the previous rendition. The jamming around the Tiger portion is particularly effective. Nevertheless, there seems to be an emerging trend in the second half of Dark Star. The beginning of Dark Star gives them a chord pattern to begin to build a jam from, whereas in the second half they more or less start from nothing. And in the latter part of 1972, they seem to be losing a little bit of facility in creating jams out of nothing. The meltdowns and/or atonal jams are effective, and there are also bass solos and modular jams in their bag of tricks; however, it is becoming more uncommon for them to put together a cohesive improvisation that does not rely on any of the aforementioned strategies. There will certainly be some very notable exceptions, but I my impression is that this overall trend will continue; we'll see if the concentrated, sequential listening to come will dispel this notion.


What was said:

151: 1972-11-19

142329 Houston 31:19 (DS 25:40, WS Prelude 5:49)

Main theme at :05 and 11:25.
First verse at 11:39.
Goes into Half Step.


I have chosen to treat the debut of Weather Report Suite: Prelude here as a jam within Dark Star, as it seems to me that’s how it functions here. This is certainly debatable, though.


The main theme comes right out of the opening lick here, and this one gets off to a brisker, more thetic start than some of its peers. Lesh is very loud in the mix, and we are reminded that the melodic burden is his as much as Garcia’s much of the time. At first, they wind around on the upper and lower limits as Weir and Godchaux fill in the texture in the middle. The lines start to get a little blurred at 3:06 when Garcia plays some funky stuff on the lower strings with Lesh above him.


By 3:50 or so, Godchaux is starting to flick on the wah, as he seems wont to do lately. Listen to Lesh at 4:36 deftly pick up on some of the stuff Keith is playing, which sets up a nice moment. The music starts to unspool a little from this point as they loosen up while considering their next moves. Jerry starts to hint at Other One at around 4:45, and this inflects what follows. There’s a bit of excitement when Garcia starts a little roll at 5:43, and then Lesh starts playing an Other One-like figure which Jerry again picks up, but by 6:20 it’s all over and they’re on to something else! The lines get more drawn out here; at 6:48 Lesh starts working in a riff which we’ve heard before, one that is reminiscent of Reggie Workman’s line on Coltrane’s Greensleeves and a precursor to the Elastic Ping Pong jam.


At 8:27 Garcia starts to suggest an approach to the Dark Star theme. At 8:46 Lesh brings his riff back, though; Garcia sounds like he still wants to head for home bass, but he’s game for now; Godchaux is playing wah again. At 10:05 Lesh modulates the riff upward as Garcia plays a tremolo line, and then at 10:20 he bursts out with a high, wailing line that he draws out and twists until it resolves into a repeating two-note call at 10:52 that seems to bring everyone to attention. They pedal for a little bit until, at 11:21, Lesh finally calls for the theme; Garcia is happy to oblige, and he takes it to the verse very quickly.


The post-verse lick recedes and there is a descent into space. It gets down to almost nothing at 14:05, and it stays there for almost a minute, putting us back in 1970. Lesh oozes into the open space with an almost sub-sonic hum until bursting out at 15:01 with some ominous tones which Garcia embellishes with feedback squalls. This is some properly freaky stuff, until Phil tentatively casts about with some riffs and Kreutzmann picks up the beat, and we go from space into a bass and drum session.


This starts to feel a bit aimless to me. At 20:42 Phil seems to start thinking about how he’s going to get the band back, although he reluctant to start up Philo Stomp. At 20:55 he finally gets into something pretty close to the latter, although it’s not quite the same. At 21:23 the band starts to trickle back in, but they seem tentative. Weir wants to play Feelin’ Groovy, but nobody seems ready to commit to it, and it comes in and out at various points. Nothing is happening, and it’s a drag. By 23:00 it finally seems to be coalescing a bit, and there’s the beginnings of a nice little jam here, but it’s still slightly tentative. After about a minute they seem stuck in a rut, but not fully in a groove.


By the 26th minute they seem pretty lost; Lesh even suggests a return to Dark Star, but then Weir starts up his Weather Report riff. Jerry knows it, it seems, but Lesh and Godchaux lay out. When Keith comes in he seems at first like he’s following along. Garcia fades out, Lesh takes a few stabs. When they both start playing together they pretty quickly take it away from Weather Report, so the band may not have learned this yet. It gets back into a space kind of thing, and Garcia wants to go to a meltdown. By 3:15 or so it’s pretty much chaos, of the ramshackle rather than bludgeoning variety. When Kreutzmann finally stops pounding there’s some kind of nice spacey stuff, but they quickly conclude their work is finished and play Half Step.


The first 16 minutes of this are outstanding. Once it gets into the Lesh and Kreutzmann stuff it loses any sense of direction and turns into a dissatisfying mess. 16 great minutes are not chopped liver, by any means, but I can’t say this is a resounding success overall.


What was said:

150. 1972-11-13

105812 KC 32:16 (31:56 actual) (“Dark Star” 22:03, “Philo Stomp” 10:13)

Main theme at 11:22.
First verse at 11:44.
Tiger at 19:25 and (PS) :40.
Philo Stomp at (PS): 1:30.
Feelin’ Groovy at (PS) 7:46.
Goes into Morning Dew.


Here we have an audience recording, and it sounds pretty good in this case. Dark Star kicks off in a mournful mood, with nobody hitting it too hard. At 1:34 Garcia gets into some pinch harmonics, repeating a couple notes for about 30 seconds and then spinning out a lead from there that still sounds like a holding pattern; the task seems to be to create a mood rather than to tell a story. The skein stretches gradually, revealing little knots of intensity. The peak that begins at 3:34 is brief, leads into a lull. The band peaks vertically, so to speak—the music is at all points a tableau or cross section, rather than a progression of ideas.


Another peak comes in at 4:30 and this one empties out into a lurching backbeat from Kreutzmann and some chiming rhythm from Weir. At 5:40 is another peak, or perhaps rather a plateau. As we reach the edge, Garcia threatens a melody, and then drops into a rolling arpeggio passage instead, earning some applause. Although the sequence of notes is different, this could almost be labeled Sputnik. Garcia plays with dynamics, phasing in and out, until 7:50 brings more Dark Star notes, but before this goes too far Garcia starts in with the volume knob in order to keep the atmospheric approach alive. It gets pretty quiet here, but Kreutzmann has a new vibe brewing, and as he lightly but firmly brings the backbeat in Garcia starts flurrying at 9:15. The band is light, agile and rather quiet here.


As is sometimes the case, I am getting Weir and Godchaux mixed up here, but they both seem to have some kind of wah-wah sound going, although Keith started this one out with straight piano. Listen at 10:50 as Lesh is starting to bump up against Garcia from below, doing the funky-jazzy riffing of which he is so fond in this era. This seems to light a fire, and at 11:00 they are again driving toward a peak, this time in more frenetic fashion. As this gets going there’s a cut that plunges us into the back end of the pre-verse theme section, so I switched over to the Hanno version (10089) for this passage—not ideal, so my apologies, but this version sounds better overall. Hanno is also the Bear recording, but there’s a patch at this point, and there’s a really nice little peak there that shouldn’t be missed. The theme starts at 12:32 on the Hanno, and lasts 50 seconds, plus there’s probably another minute or so of the jam before that.


We hear how enthused the crowd is; as the Dead exit the verse there is a rousing cheer. Weir once said that by 1974 they were leaving the audience behind, implying that the long improvisations were not crowd-pleasers. I think that every audience recording we’ve listened to thus far, however, has evidenced a great deal of enthusiasm for Dark Star. Whether this had changed by 1974 is a question I can’t answer with any real confidence; it’s possible that the venues they were playing by then brought in more casual punters.


In any case, the space jam that comes together after the verse elicits more enthusiastic cheers. These are some of the most difficult passages to describe; by now the Dead were masterful at building up these ambient passages that had no real beat or time signature but still have a kind of cohesion and momentum. We get a brief return of Garcia’s tolling effect at 14:33, and everyone gets really weird here in a most pleasing way. While remaining in space, the band coheres and increases the intensity. At 17:15 Garcia starts to build up his line a bit, and one feels it will either lead us out into a jam, or else into a meltdown. This dilemma seems to be resolved in favor of a meltdown at 18:21, as Garcia starts to prefigure a Tiger jam. Lesh and Garcia push it forward while Weir and Godchaux build outward.


The Tiger arrives at 19:25. Godchaux’s piano is titanic, like a turbulent ocean, with Garcia the storm-wracked ship and Lesh the sea monster ascending from the depths. There is calm at 20:45, but they start to build it up again. As the second track (“Philo Stomp”) begins (without a Philo Stomp in sight!) the music is warped, demented; by :40 we’re back in a Tiger jam. No sooner does it peak than Lesh is shifting into Philo Stomp (PS 1:30). Coming out of the Tiger without any bass preliminaries, the effect is remarkable. Garcia, Godchaux and Weir chime right in this time; they almost sound like they know it.


At 3:50 Lesh is ready to try to build out a successor jam. Weir starts a pedalling riff at 4:33, and this turns into a holding pattern. At about 5:00 Garcia seems to be communicating his willingness to play some great leads if the rest of them will only get it together. At 5:19 Weir proposes a two-chord pattern; Lesh approves, and Jerry starts fiddling away. Weir of course abandons the chord pattern at this point, but Garcia is not to be deterred; he ups the intensity, and Kreutzmann approves of this, so he helps drag the rest of them to a howling peak starting at around 6:55. At 7:18 this settles back into another holding pattern, although we are now on a higher plateau and the intensity does not subside.


Lesh breaks us out of this one with Feelin’ Groovy at 7:46. This is a raucous affair, all jittery and cacophonous. They play it almost ridiculously fast, and it’s already over by 9:25. Garcia substitutes another descending riff, and it almost seems like a throwback to 1969, where a modular jam could result in another jam loosely based on the former. It’s not happening this time, though; instead, they go into Morning Dew.



This is a strange and magical half hour. The band at times seems to be getting a little impatient with the Dark Star format, it seems to me; although this is a subtle thing and doesn’t manifest all at once, I think there is such a trend, in any case. Here the first half is almost ambient, and it does seem to cover new ground, at least insofar as they are more committed to that approach here than we’ve heard before. The second half is dominated by space, meltdown/Tiger jamming, and Philo Stomp. The meltdown approach is increasingly becoming the primary mode of post-verse as we get closer to 1973. The two-pronged meltdown in this Dark Star is one of premier instances of the form. A classic rendition.


What was said: