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:
Mr. Rain:
A bold assertion! The implication is that, in some ways, Dark Star is already on a downward slide in late '72 as the Dead are losing some of their improvisational ability and instead relying on the same ol' tricks in every version. I'm not sure if this is the best way to interpret how Dark Star is developing, but I'll have to mull over it as we listen further.
Yeah and maybe I overstated it. I should have said I suspect this but will learn more upon review [now edited]
JSegel:
A rip-roaring PitB starts set two, a few songs, then Dark Star. It starts with the riff, lotta Phil in this recording. It’s a beautiful rolling tempo, Jerry takes his time for some rolling peaks in the thematic jam, riding the waves. He goes to that low string riffing again after a couple minutes, I guess this guitar feels cool down there. After this they start to space the mode out a little, and Jerry goes for some feedback bending, Bobby is doing some melodic stuff, Keith keeps some thematic elements. Jerry goes off on endless 16th notes, building it, into a rhythm that Keith joins in on, Keith goes full Jarrett for a bit with chord melodies in the 16ths, they crest and continue. Quieter and more delicate, Jerry and Keith are still moving in patterns of endless short notes off and on, but at about 6 minutes Bill switches the rhythm up into straighter pattern and Keith goes into funkiness. After a minute they are finding a new song, a new melody for this feel.
Moving between two chords (or a suspension on one, really), Phil goes into a high riff, while Jerry rolls like a Sputnik but very fast and they hold it for a while. This pattern inform the whole next while, Jerry makes more Dark Star theme insinuations and then starts the actual theme much slower at 9:30, it takes the band half a minute to wind down to it, and they fall in. Cool, like overlapping realities, coalescing.
Verse 1 at 10:25, nice vocal delivery, very honest and not very dramatic but well sung. Phil maintains a rooting line, Keith does the wandering on line 3. Refrain is very ornate with the guitars and bass, and full in between all the fiddly bits.
The Nightfall section starts and they start falling, receding patterns, Phil plants a bass chord but then starts high again, Jerry adds quiet harmonics as the dust settles and they all roll around to a lull. Jerry begins the feedback and volume swells, Phil in with notes in a duet for a bit. After a couple minutes it’s just Phil and Bill, very delicate and quiet. Phil builds it to bigger chords, solo and then the suspensions heading for the Philo Stomp maybe, but taking it more slowly and exploring a bit with the sound of the chords in his multi-channel bass thing. At 16:20 he does start the strumming, Bill brings it up.
Guitars come back in, grooving out. I hear a wah on low strings low in there, and he comes out at 17:45 into higher territory. They’re heading for major key riffs, and at 18:35 it breaks the Feelin’ Groovy ground, takes a couple rounds to really settle into it and hits it more. Major key jam, Jerry on wah-mostly-backed-off tone. The jam falls apart late in the 20th minute and in the ashes, Jerry begins chromatic wah stuff, Phil comes in with high notes, it builds to the Tiger, everybody freaking out, right after that happy major key jam, man. Super loud Tiger meltdown by 22:30, then it backs off in volume but maintains intensity and atonality. Lulls for a while and then goes for it again, with wider notes patterns, then falling cries, which dies out and then Bobby f*cking starts Me and Bobby McGee, damn it.
Beautiful intro and theme jam, very fluid and melodic, in both the rhythmic areas before the verse. The verse is stated sort of matter-of-factly, no drama to the voice, but very beautifully plain. Sounds like the truth. The refrain and outro inter-line filigree from the guitars and the bass is great. Second part seemed very programmatic, though, like they knew the ideas for each section and switched between them pretty quickly. Really well played bass solo and the major key “Groovy” bit, which was nice in there, till the meltdowns come and chaos reigns again for quite a while, until structure comes again in the form of Me and Bobby McGee. (...Though I’m not really into that song much at all. I think I heard it too much when I was little. And especially not into their cover of it, so it kinda bummed me out as a sequence, but I’d bet in context—in Dec 1972—this was the height of intensity and coolness for a bunch of high kids in San Antonio. So long as they survived the meltdown.)
adamos:
Things start out in lovely fashion. Phil is prominent in the mix and you can feel the buoyancy in his notes but there's also a certain subtleness to his playing. Jerry heads out on a dreamy, floaty line accented by Keith and Bob. He starts climbing and spirals upwards, playing around the melody. The energy surges and then eases back into the flow and the collective interweaving is compelling. Around 2:20 Jerry starts working in lower territory and his deep, low notes reverberate out into the night.
As Jerry eases back Phil comes forward working some interesting notes. He picks up the pace and things get bouncier underneath. Jerry holds a long, stretchy note that sounds like a spacey howl. He then launches into some high, climbing notes while Phil continues to do his thing. Jerry comes down from his climb and then starts spinning right back up again more powerfully. By 4:25 he's hitting a high variation that screams out. They hit multiple peaks on the way up and then pull back.
They continue along interweaving nicely. Phil plays around with some variations as Jerry works his line. Bob's adding some nice textures. Keith is quieter in the mix at times but he's quite active too. Around 5:40 Jerry goes into some quiet but building repeating notes. He takes it lower and Phil rumbles along with higher accompaniment from Keith. Keith is more forward now and gets his own thing going nicely that the others seem to group around. Jerry winds a line around it and plays with high, sparkly notes.
They keep it rolling and let the momentum slowly build, dancing around in Dark Star territory. Then after briefly easing up they pivot around 7:40 with Keith and then Jerry jumping in with some fast repeating notes and Phil moving just as quickly underneath. It's slightly Sputnik-y as noted. Initially there's lighter, bouncier, happier feel and then it revs up a bit. It crests around 8:26 and then they descend and briefly consider their options.
It sounds like a thematic jam could blossom but they suddenly charge forth with some rev and Keith kicking into wah. Then before long they pull back and find their way to the theme, exploring that briefly before moving on to the verse. Keith keeps the wah going during the verse as noted by bzfgt.
After the verse they reset with Keith still in wah and slowly move in a spacier yet still melodic direction. Jerry plays high, intermittent notes while Phil brings some rumble and Bobby and Keith add color. Things start to quiet and drift out. There's some volume knob action and light feedback. Phil works some notes and they find their way to a quieter place. The others pull back further while Phil carries forth, eventually moving into Philo Stomp-like territory. He works it for a good spell with Billy adding more accompaniment and the others slowly coming back in.
As Phil continues in mellower fashion Jerry starts slowly building a low, semi-spacey line with nice textures added by Bob. Then around 17:46 they suddenly leap forward giving more oomph to the burgeoning jam. Jerry rides an ascending line and there's an uplifting vibe with a slight GSET feel to the proceedings. And then before long they transition into Feelin' Groovy which seems like a natural fit with what preceded it.
They work FG for a spell and then as it starts to run its course Jerry adds some wah'ed up fanning to give it a final surge. They stretch it out a bit further, letting it go around 20:30 and moving back into spacier territory punctuated by Jerry's wah. They wind downwards, slow up and then quickly move into a freakier place.
By 21:18 Jerry's meltdown wind-up is underway and they spin it up pretty quickly, unleashing The Tiger without much of a build up. It screams and howls with extra emphasis from Bob. Everyone rises to a freaky peak and when it seems like it's coming down they bring it right back up again. This gives way to assorted freakiness which peaks again with Jerry's guitar screaming out. As it runs its course they bring it down and quickly shift into Me & Bobby McGee.
A good performance overall. The first half is lovely and really compelling. I agree that in the second half they do seem to just work though set pieces to a degree. But there is some variance to the bass solo and I like the uplifting jam leading into Feelin’ Groovy. FG isn’t the most cohesive but it also retains some of the flavor of the preceding mini-jam. The Tiger comes quickly but the meltdown section is good on the whole.
Mr. Rain:
I went with this source (123022) which pairs two copies of the Dark Star (the second one's superior) -- 9248 has a bad skip in the Feelin' Groovy.
The recording isn't pristine, maybe because of the cassette generations, but it's still better-sounding and much better-mixed than most of the Dark Stars lately. Everybody's present (Bill kinda quiet), but Jerry's the focal point and extra-sharp in this one; he really commands attention.
Phil does a neat echo effect at the start. There's a jubilant feel to the opening, Jerry's perky & bright. He burrows into the low notes at 2:20, then rises up to a long feedbacky note at 3.10, then lifts the band in steady runs up to a staccato peak from 4:25-4:45, grazes the theme, then falls away again. Phil hints at his Marbles riff at 5:15, but quickly moves on. At 6:10 Keith changes the groove and they all slide together into this kind of lounge bossa-nova feel. Suits Jerry just fine! Some really nice jamming, then at 7:45 Jerry starts a Sputnik-type effect which goes through some changes as the rest of the band continues with the jam, then Jerry rejoins them at 8.30 -- very nifty! Then they coast for a bit; Jerry pushes briefly for a driving rock direction at 9m which stirs Keith to kick on his wah. But it's just a feint; with an elegant line Jerry glides to the main theme, lightly starting it at 9:25. The rest of the band doesn't seem to want to go there and they resist for a while, Phil really objecting, but they join him by 10m. This time they let the theme last a while in relaxed fashion before Jerry sings the verse at 10:28.
Time to get spacey! Keith stays on the wah as the music gets gooey and they melt around Phil's pulse. Jerry pinches high notes, tickles some feedback, rolls out some volume swells... Then much like 11-19, around 14m everyone falls back for Phil to do a bass solo. This one's much more melodic, though still meandering. Bill comes in with a steady rat-tat-tat. Around 16m Phil hints at the Philo Stomp; he doesn't want to commit but just plays around with the theme. Around 16:50 Bob comes back, then Jerry with some quietly funky wah. By 17:50 it sounds like a full jam is forming with a nice Jerry wah lead, they have a smooth momentum. Jerry repeats a catchy hook giving Phil a great lead-up to Feelin' Groovy, which starts at 18:35. This is a very laid-back rendition but Jerry tears it inside out with his wonderful wah tone, and they go through several rounds. Pure bliss! By 20:30 the Feelin' Groovy theme's getting deconstructed and washes away in a wah flurry.
Then they float on clouds for a bit, but after 21:15 Jerry suddenly insists on a Tiger direction. They seem to be in a hurry as they get to it really quickly, not much teasing, Jerry just rips into it at 22m. Quick frantic screeches and clawing guitars, then by 23m they're already pulling away. But calmness doesn't arrive; they soon return to frenzied freakout mode, hitting a Tiger reprise at 24.20! (Just like on 11-13.) More squawks and shrieks -- then as it dies down, it sounds like Jerry's on the verge of starting some beautiful 4/8/72-style melody jam. And then, wouldn't you know, Bob cuts him off with Bobby McGee. So much for what could have been a....but Jerry adjusts gracefully.
Very good Dark Star. I wouldn't say it stands out, except for the super Feelin' Groovy. The bass solo after the verse is getting more common, and this one's better than 11-19, but without a theme to work with still doesn't go anywhere. (Phil taking a solo spot has more of the Allmans' "taking-turns" feel than the Dead communal spirit.) The rest is good but seems really rushed for some reason -- they race through the double-Tiger and then Bob brutally pulls the plug just as Jerry's taking flight. Dammit, Weir!
I wouldn't ding this one for being split into the typical sections; it's more that it doesn't feel fully explored. It's better-played than 11-19 and as a whole I prefer this one (Jerry's much more on form here)....but the irony is that on 11-19 they were trying new things, heading different places, but the inspiration was a bit lacking, so tonight's usual "bag of tricks" works better. On the whole these Texas Dark Stars are overshadowed between the peaks of 11-13 and 12-11-72.
On a stylistic note, I've noticed that lately Jerry's using his wah more, not just in the Tiger, but to create these enticing mermaid wonderlands that are all too short-lived. 11-19 had some lovely wah moments near the end, and here he stays on the wah for the entire post-verse jam, which is unusual!
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