(instrumental) 124131 Boston 9:37
Main theme at :00.
Goes into Eyes of the World.
The jam at the end of Let it Grow increasingly veers away from the form of that song; Garcia is playing what JSegel calls the “it’s all the same” lick, and then Lesh picks it up before they drop into the Dark Star theme at the track break. Garcia fritters around pleasingly, then tosses in Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring at :58 before briefly returning to the theme. They head into a rather dense jam from there.
Jerry starts playing a repeated figure with a strongly emphasized plucking note at the end, beginning at 2:46. There seems to be a cut at 3:46, although it’s unclear how much is missing. There are a couple other little fades over the next minute or so, although there doesn’t seem to be anything missing at these spots. The jamming retains a distinctly Dark Star flavor throughout, with hints of the theme in various places. By 7:20, they seem ready to head into or out of Dark Star, as they wind down and take stock of things, and the verdict turns out to be “out.” The last minute or so is some interstitial throat-clearing before they strike up Eyes of the World.
Because they begin with the theme, and because they hew so closely to the basic Dark Star structure and vibe, I will (perhaps somewhat arbitrarily) count this as a Dark Star. This is a very nice little jam in the midst of a typically great late-1973 set.
What was said:
JSegel:
Well this is another weird one. The mix is odd, for one thing, Keith is loud and Jerry sounds very thin and distant.
It drops straight from the end of the Weather Report Suite, hovering on the holding pattern of “it’s all the same” then moving into the Dark Star theme, no intro, though it is extremely dissipated even as Phil and Jerry send that theme out there a little bit—it never sticks, really. They just move right into oddness. The ensuing 9 minutes are like a mellow collage of the players going through little runs and noises that don’t really coalesce or meld, more like they are all happening simultaneously in their own little spaces. It reminds me more of the sort of space that they would get into 20 years later, and oddly (for me), even though it’s all separate worlds juxtaposed (and not sounding “together”), I liked it quite a bit. It doesn’t feel much like any other jam that they’ve done where they sort of tried to hold it together into the Dark Star groove, it’s very much allowed to be just a series of individual bits and pieces superimposed.
Jerry alternates fast runs and slower melodic bits, throwing in Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring even. Phil slows down right after the intro and goes off on his own. Bill eventually decides to have some sort of rhythmic pulse, but it doesn’t sound much like anyone else is exactly with it in their little worlds, so he wanders off too. It sort of sounds like the Dead had gone to a music store and everyone was trying out different instruments. Everybody gets caught up in little figures that they repeat a few times and then abandon, sometimes these things have something to do with one another, more often not.
Eventually, realizing that Dark Star may never actually solidify, they start Eyes of the World.
Mr. Rain:
Listening to the Vernon 8099 SBD. Jerry's centered in the mix again, Keith is turned up more than usual on piano, and Phil's bass is very deep & pushy. I didn't hear any cuts.
The Dead have a busy jam going in the closing minutes in Let It Grow, barely keeping it in control. They sound ready to spiral off to other dimensions. In the last 30 seconds Jerry starts spacing out while Phil does a bouncy mini-solo. Then Phil hits a deep note and joins Jerry in the Dark Star theme. The other guys sound prepared for it, making me wonder if this was entirely spontaneous. But this Dark Star opening is very spacey and unfocused. Doesn't sound like they're all too committed, so it's more like a loose Dark Star-adjacent jam. A theme feint at 1:10 doesn't take hold, and by 3 minutes in, this is barely Dark Star at all. Phil's all over the place, in a very plucky mood. Jerry's just kind of floating in the clouds, tinkling randomly. Keith & Bob realize there's no groove to maintain, and meander along without direction. Bill doesn't offer any help, and Phil comes & goes. A bit of momentum rises after 5 minutes, but dissipates again. Keith gamely tries bringing up the main theme again at 5:45, but no one wants to take it up, and they just drift for a while in a laid-back fog. Another vague Dark Star tease at 7:05 goes nowhere, then they all get super-quiet, just Jerry & Bob quietly picking a delicate duet. All energy seems to have left the stage, so it's a bit of a relief when Jerry starts Eyes of the World.
Well, this was the lamest Dark Star jam in a long time. I've never liked this one much and didn't like it now. It's just lifeless noodling, the band puttering around for ten minutes unable to put anything together. I felt cheated of a Dark Star!
The audience tape offers a very different perspective: dynamically more energetic, with Jerry not sounding as subdued & recessed as he is on the SBD. While the jam doesn't sound much more focused, the band sounds a lot more energized & purposeful (and loud), and the music achieves a sort of limpid opiated loveliness, especially toward the end when Jerry & Bob enter their trance duet. The crowd is VERY excited to hear Eyes of the World. Excellent stereo AUD, so despite some small dropouts this is the way to hear it; don't bother with the SBD.
I agree with JSegel's take, though I liked it less than he did: on the SBD it does sound like everyone's off on their own, not really working together, and Jerry sounding thin & distant doesn't help.
But I'd reiterate that it comes off much better on the audience source, where Jerry's boosted (and Keith's quieter) and an extra dimension appears that isn't apparent on the SBD. The jam actually becomes compelling: hypnotic space jazz for the astral traveller!
www.archive.org/details/gd73-11-30.aud.vernon.17277.sbeok.shnf
adamos:
As the Let It Grow outro jam winds down it loosens up and ventures out a bit creating space for a smooth transition into the Dark Star theme. With a new framework set Jerry heads out on a pretty winding line while Phil adds some gentle but full low end. With Jerry more distant in the mix it almost sounds like he wandering up into the ether. He slips in the Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring quote at :58 as noted.
From there Jerry heads lower and intertwines with the theme again before moving into some gentle meandering. Phil works his own mellow line and Keith is pretty active intermittently. Bill maintains a simple, sparse beat in the background. Around 2:00 Keith and Jerry play off of each other with a quicker, repeating thing and it feels like the momentum might pick up but they opt to let that go. Around 2:30 there's some hover and swirl and then Jerry briefly touches on semi-thematic territory before starting into a repeating pattern.
They continue to ebb and flow, floating along in a somewhat Dark Star-ish way. Jerry varies his line over time but tends to stick closer to the gentle ether. Bob blends in this textures and Keith adds in various fills and runs as they go. After 5:00 it sounds like they might ratchet up the momentum and they swirl upwards a bit. But this soon levels off and they continue to wander forth. Around 5:50 Bob starts asserting a pattern that he works for a bit while Jerry continues to glide along in the clouds, complimented by Keith.
Things continue to sound Dark Star-ish as they wind on. By 7:00 or so it seems like they are considering a pivot. They connect more to the theme around 7:08 but then quickly let it go and drift along further. Things move lower and get a little more open and spacier, but this proves to mainly be a transitional zone from which they move into Eyes Of The World.
It's a nice Dark Star-ish interlude. Not the most cohesive or fleshed out jam but that seems to have been by design.
JSegel:
Wow, that makes for a completely different understanding of this one! It does sound much more together, somehow....
pbuzby:
I tend to agree with Mr. Rain's comments that the SBD reels from this era often make each band member sound like he is in his own corner. That works for some of them (and it's certainly nice for shows where there is no AUD available or only poor/mediocre AUD sources) but it can make them less powerful.
Mr. Rain:
I know, right? On the SBD it sounded like a sleepy band doing random noodling in this Dark Star jam. And then the AUD is completely different, a more swirling unified blend with hotter tones, it's way more effective. (I thought the matrix didn't really capture this.)
From being totally turned off by this jam, I went back to listen to the AUD several times, captivated by its hallucinatory mystery.
Like pbuzby suggested, I think the super-clear SBD tapes can be really misleading because they make you think that's what people were hearing. No, not always: they can totally misrepresent what was being played, the energy levels & how the band was fitting together.
From being totally turned off by this jam, I went back to listen to the AUD several times, captivated by its hallucinatory mystery.
Like pbuzby suggested, I think the super-clear SBD tapes can be really misleading because they make you think that's what people were hearing. No, not always: they can totally misrepresent what was being played, the energy levels & how the band was fitting together.
The 11/30/73 AUD continued:
ReplyDeletebzfgt is skeptical: "1973-11-30 again...hmm, I'm not sure they sound more together on the aud, to me...but maybe I don't remember very well how it sounded last week. The last three minutes or so are where they sound particularly compelling there, though....I dunno."
Mr. Rain insists: "Gee, listening back-to-back the difference was huge to me. Maybe it's a speakers vs. headphones thing. Jerry rings out so much stronger on the AUD than his thin little sound on the SBD, it changes the focus completely: what seemed like disjointed ramblings from the other players fit together & made sense when the instruments were balanced right. And what seemed like really quiet low-volume passages turned out to be booming loudly in the theater."