139595 Spectrum ~25:57 (I. Truckin’ jam ~22:00>II. Dark Star 3:57).
Spanish Jam at I. 22:05.
Main theme at II. :00.
First verse at II. 2:09.
Goes into Sing Me Back Home.
The Truckin’ jam shifts into a different mode around 10 minutes in, and Garcia plays the Dark Star intro lick at 10:37, so we’ll pick it up there. (Track times are for the Truckin’ which is tracked as 32:37 on this recording, so something 30 seconds from where we are starting would be at 11:07). The band downshifts from the bluesy Truckin’ outro into moody and uncertain terrain at about 10:00, and when Jerry throws out part of the Dark Star intro lick shortly thereafter, it almost a quote, and it remains ambiguous whether the band is now playing Dark Star (or if they even gave this any thought, which is questionable).
Lesh starts riffing, and Weir lays in some choppy soul rhythm licks. At 12:12 Garcia asserts himself more and a jam of the type I sometimes label “frenetic” is underway, although this remains at the same time very laid back. Phil, somewhat uncharacteristically, keeps a fairly consistent funky groove going here, and it all comes together nicely. The jam seems a bit more centered on B than we’d want if we were intent on calling it Dark Star, but in any case I doubt they were worried about how people were going to classify it 50 years later.
Garcia starts to quiet down at around 13:45, and Godchaux comes to the fore. I can still hear Jerry a little bit up until about 14:20, after which he seems to have departed the scene. Then the jam starts to wind down at 15:30, and Lesh and Kreutzmann take over. Phil keeps doing a lot of the same kind of stuff he has been doing since this jam began, now accompanied only by the drums.
The others start trickling back in a little after the 18-minute mark, and again they launch into a jam that is simultaneously laid back and frenetic. Garcia’s playing here is somewhat jazzy, and he is starting to play the kind of licks that will eventually cohere into Slipknot—for instance, see 21:47. Right around then is when Weir starts leading them into the first Spanish Jam since 1970, with Bob starting up riff at 22:05. This works up a good head of steam, although compared to the early versions it has a kind of loosely relaxed feel (but one important thing about the Dead in general is that they can generate a ton of energy regardless of how mellow or aggressive the gestalt of the era).
The riff frays and disperses, and by 27:45 there are hints of a meltdown, but soon it seems like we’re headed into a mellow space section. Weir, Lesh and Garcia wind around each other; Godchaux is absent at this point. At 29:05 Weir starts playing a lick that is like a sped-up take on the Twilight Zone theme at first, and Garcia latches on with some triplets. Kreutzmann is back by now, mostly sticking to the cymbals, but Godchaux is still absent. Soon Kreutzmann drops out again for a while, and it’s back to the three guitarists, who weave together to mesmerizing effect.
At 31:57 Garcia’s line elongates, and there are hints of a resolution, which gets a favorable crowd reaction. Finally Jerry drops into the Dark Star theme; either this comes deep into the song, or at the very beginning, depending on how you interpret what came before; I doubt the Dead troubled themselves over this question at all. Next comes the verse, and then it’s just about over. There is about 20-seconds of throat-clearing, more or less, and then Garcia takes them into Sing Me Back Home.
Although this segment isn’t uniformly focused, it’s a very nice stretch of Grateful Dead music. Perhaps it was helpful not to focus on creating a Dark Star, but rather to let the music go wherever it wanted to until it seemed like a good time to bring in the song form and the verse. In this case, there is no post-verse jamming, so we have something a bit different here.
What was said:
JSegel:
This is an odd one to assess as a version of Dark Star, it's sort of in reverse, or inside out. There’s a small bit of DS groove leading into the actual verse in there, but it immediately heads off into “Sing Me Back Home.” Before this, however, there are 20+ minutes of instrumental jamming. After an extended Truckin’ end-jam they drop into space after minute 10, there are some feints to the Dark Star intro riff played at 10:40 or so but it never really coalesces, they just keep on spacing out and then some rhythm guitar starts in a fast groove.
Fast lead playing happens. He gives way to Keith playing some riffs for a while, with several “Dark Star” indicators (Keith plays some modal licks, then even play arounds with the intro lick a bit again, in the late min 14 are with some melodic bits toward and 15:15 for the intro lick as examples) It gives way to an bass-n-drum solo that later picks up again in a sort of Dark Star mode, with fast groove playing, little tight lead licks (Slipknotty, a lot of Blue-for-Allah licks are emerging these days!), before heading into the more recognizable Spanish Jam chords after some diminished arpeggios from Jerry.
Spanish Jam moves forward and gets quite intense, even approaching Tiger for a bit late in minute 27, before it all gives way. They pulled this one out of the hat, that must have been a surprise.
From here it does go into a spacey section for several minutes that eventually emerges into the actual Dark Star groove. This section is mostly just the guitars, it has wah-flavored atonal notes moving in and out of tonal melodic fragments, quiet area and heading back to falling diminished chords and chromaticism in arpeggios from Jerry while Bob tries out several short melodic bits. After some little licks and feedback, Jerry starts the Dark Star theme. What? Oh we were here the whole time, didn’t you know?
As far as being the Dark Star song, they come into it with that opening thematic lick and move into a pleasant groove, with some melodic lead playing that spins up into small whirlpools, and comes back down to emphasize the downbeat before the verse. Grooving straight into line one, they pause on line two, Bill plays a little to keep it going, and rolls into line three with a moderate groove and a little wandering toward the end of it. Refrain is punctuated by big drum hits, and into the outro it quiets up a bit, and spaces out for only a few seconds before Sing Me back Home starts. It almost sounded like it could go into Wharf Rat instead, but no.
So that was it! Nice jam, good parts, sort of like the Dark Star sections were falling out of order (and of course the Spanish Jam ended up in there.)
adamos:
As noted the Truckin' jam pivots around 10 minutes into that track on the recording. Things slow way down and get spacier and then there's a hint of the Dark Star intro around 10:40 although it isn't fully fleshed out.
After some hovering and floating accented by shimmering cymbals a jam begins to emerge. Billy is still rocking the cymbals and Phil starts a bouncy line and Bob gets some funky rhythm going. Then Jerry steps in around 12:10 and they're off. The pace quickens and Jerry's playing lots of notes but there still something easygoing about it. They cruise along with Phil adding some buoyancy and then Jerry pulls back and Keith comes forth with some cheerful sounding piano that connects just a little with Dark Star elements.
By 15:30 or so it becomes a drum and bass duet with Phil working the groove in a casual manner and Billy pretty active on his kit. Just after 18:20 the others start coming back in and Jerry gets some winding lines going. He's playing quickly but the jam still feels more of the mellow variety. They get some momentum going with nice accents from Keith. Then then ease back with Jerry heading lower before spinning things up again with Bob's rhythm becoming more prominent. Things get a little Slipknot-y as noted and then they sort of glide into Spanish Jam around 22:08.
The Spanish Jam sounds good and gives them some more structure to coalesce around for a spell. They take it for a stroll with the intensity building nicely. It ebbs and flows with varying peaks before dissipating around 27 minutes or so. Then Jerry brings in the wah and things get edgier while still maintaining some of the previous vibe. By 27:40 he's spinning up a low-key frenzy and it feels like a meltdown is impending. However it's short-lived as they quickly shift into a spacey zone.
They drift in the ether with Jerry still working a high-pitched, semi-melodic line, accented by Bob. Phil has his own mellow thing going in the lower regions. Then Bob starts up the Twilight Zone-ish lick that bzfgt pointed out and Jerry joins in. They work it up nicely; Bill comes in with some complimentary cymbal action but then steps back again.
They work in this territory for a good while. Jerry's guitar gets more shimmery which adds to the overall effect. They rise to small peak of sorts and then let it resolve. Jerry's tone gets deeper and fuzzier and the Dark Star theme rises up out of the mist, which is a nice moment. They give it a brief but pretty workup before moving into the verse. The verse feels like a victory lap of sorts after the preceding jam. And then after a brief reset they let it go and start up Sing Me Back Home.
An interesting and engaging performance. Not everything fully comes together, seemingly by design. But they work in Dark Star adjacent territory nicely and the Spanish Jam is good. I also like how the spacey, Twilight Zone-ish passage gives way to a brief visit to Dark Star proper.
To me there should be a track break with a “>” around the 10 minute mark in Truckin’ as they were clearly pivoting at that point. Whether it was Dark Star or a Dark Star jam from that point forward doesn’t really matter but finishing with the theme and the first verse ties it all together. So I’d say it was the former but I agree that it’s not a distinction they would have put much thought into. In any event Dark Star is more a state of mind.
A rollickin' Truckin' turns into a gentle boogie after about 7m; Jerry gets into some bluesy harmonic picking after 8m (kind of Nobody's Fault But Mine territory). At 10m they leave behind the groove for spacey hovering, and they just drift in space for a while. A little Dark Star theme lick from Jerry at 10:37, ignored by the others and soon forgotten. Are they playing it now? aren't they? the Dead don't care, they're focused on the improv of the moment. My own feeling is they aren't playing Dark Star but working up a different jam, and they've decided not to interrupt the possibilities.
Anyway, the spaciness starts to dissipate after 11m: chirpy Bob chords, bass flutters, a rapid drum patter. Jerry joins in with some fast playing. Phil is playing some Marbles-like lines around 13m but doesn't go all the way there. Keith doesn't seem to be involved, until he finally steps in close to 14m. The light fast jam continues, but after Keith comes back, Jerry drops out after 14:10. (Are they taking turns?) Bill keeps up the beat, but Keith isn't a lead player and the band momentum flags. At 15:30 they drop down to just bass & drums. A pretty standard bass-drum duet ensues, with Phil maybe a little more rhythmic than usual, nothing exciting. (If he's doing quad stuff it's not apparent on the tape.)
Around 18:20 the rest of the band comes back, carrying on the fast jam pretty much where they left off. It's nice now that everyone's fully involved, the playing hits a little harder. The feel gets a little more swampy around 20m, and for a couple minutes they seem divided between the impulses to keep the groove going or dissolve it. By 22m it's dissolved, and they're getting into a new slower pattern. Bob has a lightbulb moment, and at 22:05 he starts the Spanish Jam. It's the first in three years, but the others have little trouble adapting to it (has Keith even played it before? he catches on pretty well). They switch back & forth between the usual beat and a more strident rolling stomp, loosely exploring the theme. By 26:30 it's unraveling a bit; hard to say exactly when the Spanish Jam ends, but Jerry switches to wah around 27:10, ushering in a new direction. After a bit of flailing and a Tiger hint, by 28m they drop the forward motion again and they go back to drifting in space, now wah-tinged. Now it's a spacey trio between the guitarists, which really does get a little Twilight Zone-like after 29m. (Bill joins them for a while, but mostly leaves the stage to them.) It's kind of like an '83 Space here; and there are moments (like at 31:20) when it sounds like Jerry's just about to break into a Mind Left Body descent. At 31:50, a beautiful resolution underpinned by Phil's drone; and after another half-minute of drifting, Jerry drops the wah and finally starts the Dark Star theme for good.
Lovely theme playing for a couple minutes before Jerry sings the verse at 2:08. Short as it is, this little theme jam feels more rich & full to me than the whole opening jam on 3-21 did! After a graceful verse, they dwell on the outro figure, feeling out the next step. Will it be space? No, they quickly resolve to a song....sounds like Jerry's playing Wharf Rat at first, but after 15 seconds he switches to Sing Me Back Home. In effect, after Dark Star this is like having two ballads in a row.
Taking this all as a Dark Star, it takes a long time to warm up and get around to anything interesting, but eventually pays off with a revived '60s theme jam and elegant wah trio. No noisy freakouts here, they stay on the pretty side of things. Very unusual format, with all the jamming coming before the verse -- when it's like this, the verse takes on more weight as a conclusion.
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