175. 1974-05-14

163764 Missoula 26:40

Main theme at :00 and 12:14.
First verse at 12:56.
Tiger at 19:45.
Goes into China Doll.


A vigorous Let it Grow jam drops into a brief interstice and then they kick Dark Star off with the main theme, eschewing the opening riff. The jamming, typically for the era, is rather loose and multidirectional. Godchaux has a wah effect on the electric piano at times. At 3:05 everyone but Kreutzmann, Garcia and Weir drops out; this goes on until about the five minute mark, when Lesh and Godchaux come back.


At about the six minute mark, Kreutzmann drops back to the cymbals and the jamming gets more tentative and spacey, with Phil laying out again. The latter comes back at 6:45, and Jerry starts a Sputnik-like roll at 6:55. He stays with it, and at some point we lose Phil again. There’s a pretty long bassless jam up until 9:30. The ministrations of Weir and Godchaux on each side of the mix give this a kind of fusion feel.


Even with Phil back, the jam stays kind of diffuse; at 11:00 it starts to get heavier and at the same time spacier, but this quickly gives way to a kind of pointillist interlude until at 11:38 Jerry seems to be edging toward the theme and they pull together. The theme duly arrives about 45 seconds later, and Lesh leans into it, giving it a ponderous feel. They don’t linger over it, though, going right to the verse.


The exit from the verse is very heavy at first with loud, overdriven bass. Garcia jumps right in with some slightly distorted lead that sounds a bit different from his usual approach in this segment, and in general things take a somewhat different direction. It’s a kind of space jam with everyone playing drawn out notes, generating a dramatic, atonal, and somewhat anxious soundscape.


This shifts into a mellow variant on the Tiger by around 19:40, but by ten seconds later it is full-blown and vicious. They come down the other side, landing on a funky beat as Lesh comes out front. Jerry supplies some piercing leads as it becomes clear they’re committed, and as they come together they generate some excitement down the back stretch, getting extra weird and then coming to a rousing peak prior to the slide into China Doll.


This might be as scattered and diffuse as Dark Star gets, but it never fails to be gripping. The last few minutes are particularly stunning, and overall this is a great stretch of music.


What was said:

JSegel:


Three months later they’re on tour starting in Nevada and then two days later in Montana and they decide to go for the Dark Star again, coming out of the Weather Report Suite which was grooving along. (Note, the band is headed back west to the PacNW shows where they pull off the amazing 45-minute PitB in Seattle a week later.) They’re in a quick jazzy groove at the end of the Weather Report Suite, it goes into a lull, and Jerry comes up with with Dark Star theme, so the band changes tempo and moves into it for a few bars, and lets it hang. They come back and start a groove, though Jerry is moving in and out of key, Billy still keeping it inside so that it holds together. Keith goes for a wah-pedal for some chords, gets back into some lines, as Jerry and Phil go off onto long floating lines. Bobby starts wandering. Thematic allusions in the 3rd minute, it’s a very spacey vibe again. Jerry appears to be having some fun with his guitar, but it’s not extremely melodic, Billy and Phil sort of fade out. By the 4th minute the song is barely here, though Bill starts plugging away at a groove. It almost comes together but then Jerry takes it into some odd little double stops in a new rhythm. Bobby finds it and tries to go with it, but the rhythm section fades in and out.

Some sort of Sputnik comes in at 7 minutes, a slow fade in and out of arpeggiated chords, landing on one odd one for a while before doing the old sputnik notes, but then going into more double stops. They fall apart, Bobby resorts to harmonics, Keith sort of noodling. Bill is still going, so the guitars end up playing in his tempo, Jerry sounds like he’s in a holding pattern, sort of like the “it’s all the same” thing.

A more dissonant groove develops by the end of the 9th minute, but it doesn’t hold together for long before Phil resorts to long tones and Jerry goes back to a sort-of “PitB” rhythm of his double stops.

At 11:30, it sounds like Dark Star is going to start up out of the mists, but it doesn’t gel for a quite a while, when Jerry finally gets to a melodic variant, it’s pretty slow and takes its time to get to the groove and then the verse.

Decent verse, (last one until September!) almost everybody drops for the fermata after the downbeat of line two, then builds to a continuously moving line three, with movement and riffs from Bob and Phil. The refrain is together, building to the outro and Bobby’s lick twice introducing the new section, which has slow fuzz guitar notes coming in and low bass, rolling drums.

Drums drop out mostly, Bobby dies off to tremolo and it goes into buzzy insect-y guitar notes and string scratching bass. (Somebody yells, “yeah!” from the audience.) Volume swells on the guitar notes, though I hear doubling with the normal guitar note and the fuzz as separate channels (? Or maybe it’s Keith exactly doubling?) Punctuation from drums and bass, noisy. Into atonal scary melodics from Jerry with jazz chords punctuating from Bob, using his pickup switch toggle to tremolo the notes.

At 19 the drums and bass roll around, Jerry is playing wah-rolled-off fast trem notes, moving into the Tiger world, which starts for real with the chromatic runs building to a scream at 20 minutes, with high-frequency feedback from the bass! Atonal denouement with everybody rolling back off, then at 21 minutes, Bill comes in with a beat. It takes a bit before Phil joins in, but they move into a new funky sort of groove. Bob finds a riff. Jerry comes up and takes a relatively mellow tone while Keith plays with his wah pedal. The rhythm section is pretty fast, but the guitars are relatively slow in contrast. After a couple minutes, Jerry gets a little groovy jazziness in there and some cool bends, he keeps going back to that dit dah dit dah ‘it’s all the same’ sort of rhythm and eventually it goes modally sideways out of key for a bit, to some high struck chords building to the one (25:30), they scrape it out while Jerry finds an odd chordal area to focus on, it holds together for a little while, and Jerry starts slowly heading downwards and directly into the beginning of China Doll.

________
Sort of a spacey version again, lots of little things in a row instead of pursuing a phrase or even plugging away at the groove. Not my favorite—though I have listened to the previous one a bit more and it's growing on me more. Still though, the super spaced-out versions seem like there were not so many ideas coming forth, with lots of referring back to tripping ‘dit dah’s “it’s all the same” rhythm which is sort of a holding pattern ’til an actual idea comes, waiting for that wisp to come through the ear to chase after, and it never really arrives. When Jerry is after some melodic idea and the band continuously work toward it, it’s unparalleled. These last couple Dark Stars are more like stirring a stew where the bits float to the top for just a second and then submerge again into a cloudy morass.


adamos:


As the Let It Grow outro jam winds down they briefly collect themselves and then slip right into the Dark Star theme. Bill adds some shimmering cymbals and Jerry and Phil float along on a cloud accented nicely by Bob. It starts slow and dreamy but they find a little pace and groove fairly quickly. Jerry winds through passages and Keith brings some wah to the gathering of sounds.

By three minutes in they've eased up again and Jerry adds some thematic touches as he, Bob and Bill interweave a bit. This section stays fairly mellow although Bill starts to pep it up as it goes. After 5:00 Phil and Keith are back in the mix and things seem to be picking up a bit but it's still a casual swirl. Then around 5:45 they slip into a spacier ooze. Jerry stretches some notes accented by Keith's wah and repeating figures from Bob.

At 6:55 Jerry starts up a Sputnik-esque line. Phil plays off it initially but then fades back. Keith is pretty active and Bob does his thing too. Jerry eases up and works some delicate notes, leaving Bill to be more prominent. There's some ebb and flow to the pace and Jerry, Keith and Bob get a loose jam going while Bill maintains some forward momentum. Phil reenters again around 9:30 and the jam starts to flesh out a little more but it's still pretty loose.

Around 10:30 it feels like they're ready to spin something up. They hover and swirl and Jerry plays some notes that sound a bit like PITB. Keith's wah continues to add nicely to the overall feel. Things get spacier and slightly freakier without totally weirding out. They feel around in this zone for a brief spell and then around 11:35 start moving towards the theme but they aren't in any hurry to get there. It becomes more pronounced around 12:15 and then soon after they head into the verse. Jerry's vocal fits in well with the mellow, spaced out vibe.

After the verse they reset and Bob and Bill are quite active and then Bill pulls back and Jerry plays some feedback-y buzzing notes and they briefly quiet before starting to get weirder. There is distorted guitar and string scraping and things get spookier and more out there. The intensity slowly increases but it's still relatively mellow. Freaky things are afoot but a monster isn't being unleashed.

They explore this zone for a spell and then start slowly working towards a meltdown. Around 19:08 Jerry starts up some quick wah-ish repeating notes and things get more syncopated and then the Tiger starts spinning out, semi-mellow out first but then with increasing speed and fury. By 19:58 his guitar is screaming out into the night. The freakout crests with some screechy feedback sounds and then they ease up and drift along, soon finding their way into a funkier fusion jam.

Phil gets a bouncy, funky line going and Bob works a riff while Keith adds nice wah color. Bill's beat has some spring and Jerry works a gentle line somewhat in the background at first but slowly becoming more prominent. There's some ebb and flow and then momentum starts to kick up and suddenly they're cruising along. Then around 24:50 they start to downshift and things get freakier again. There's a touch of China Doll from Jerry at 25:15 and then the freaky jam rises to a final strong peak before relenting and creating an opening for the pistol to be shot.

Really good performance. It is indeed scattered and diffuse at various points but it's definitely engaging. It starts off lovely and dreamy and then devolves into loose jamming with spacey touches. There's sort of a casual opium den vibe in a good way. The post-verse spaciness and meltdown get spooky and freaky and then they finish with a cool funky jam.


Mr. Rain:


Dark Star comes out of the Weather Report Suite, a rare event! The Let It Grow jam is smooth and not too intense: the mood is more free-floaty jazz than driving momentum; I get the feeling Jerry's hanging back. At the end the jam sort of runs out of steam, and instead of the regular ending, Jerry slides into a deft transition to Dark Star. The opening sounds nice coming out of the ashes of a jam, rather than the usual cold start! The band picks up on it right away so this may have been planned.

Keith is quiet in the mix and very laid-back on top of that, making little 'wah' sounds on the Rhodes. The jam's very loose & relaxed, so loose that after 3m Phil & Keith just stop playing and the Dead turn into a trio, noodling away vigorously around the theme for a couple minutes until Phil & Keith return after 4:50. This is not, to my mind, a good sign, although Jerry's spaciness is as pretty as always. Even Phil sounds more restrained than usual, and drops out again for a bit after 6:15 while Jerry tries out some octaves. They seem almost to be drifting at random, waiting for something to happen.

Then at 7m, Jerry brings in a Sputnik -- and instead of getting freakier, the band gets even quieter and Phil goes away again at 7:20. Then more laid-back quartet noodling, very diffuse -- there's hardly any "there" there, just a vague mist of notes. At 9:30, aha, Phil comes back: will he restore life to this jam? He plucks away somewhat randomly, but the jam stays very airy. At 10:30 it sounds like they might be gathering up to something, Phil builds a suspenseful drone, but Jerry's determined to avoid any energy here, and just goes 'plink plink plink' for a while. At 11:40 Jerry finally sets sail for the theme, and they give it a nice pre-theme buildup before the actual theme arrives at 12:10. I like the way the theme sort of swirls out of the mist here (like in Playing in the Band), the best part of this disappointing Dark Star so far. The verse comes at 12:55; Jerry sounds a little distracted, not quite "present."

Then, a promising start to space: Phil's diving deep, Jerry has a fuzzy tone that's new to his repertoire. Phil wiggles his strings while Jerry plays long, lingering notes & Bob trills quietly. It's evocative, sounding just like a Spanish jam without the melody. Keith is absent from space, but Bill tumbles in dramatically with the toms at 17m. By 18m, with Jerry's fuzzy tone it's starting to sound more like an '80s space! Phil's getting freaky; at 18:50 Keith quietly warbles back in, and Jerry starts quick-stepping toward the Tiger. This gradually builds over the next minute, til at 20m it culminates with Jerry's screeching & Phil's howling feedback. But the din passes quickly: at 20:30 it's over, and they're back to playing quiet bits of melody under Phil's final blasts of feedback.

A kind of awkward groove slowly takes shape, Jerry hanging back at first while Bill & Phil set the pace. Jerry's playing continues to be extremely laid-back, more decorative than leading. Keith has his wah sound on, making some funny notes up to 23:30. Then Keith starts to get a little more assertive with his Rhodes chords, Jerry perks up, and after 24m it finally starts sounding more spirited. But already by 24:50 Jerry's putting on the brakes, transitioning to something else -- is a ballad on the way? -- but then at 25:20 he & Keith start jabbing chords together, and suddenly we're in a kind of freakout. Hectic confusion rises up, Phil playing backwards & everybody getting warbly like the stage is starting to bubble.... But then Jerry takes a step back and starts playing China Doll, and the band swerves into it without a hitch. It's interesting to hear Jerry go straight from chaos to a ballad; he usually didn't do it this way, preferring to lay out a softer transition, but I think the band wasn't cooperating this time.

Not one of my favorites. The theme, space & Tiger are fine; most of the rest just dribbles along without latching onto anything interesting. I thought Jerry was the main culprit, really lacking in energy; but Phil also sounds subdued & half-hearted here. I agree that it's "scattered and diffuse," but I don't find it very gripping.

Does the audience tape reveal anything different? It's very good-quality and the crowd's enthusiastic, but unfortunately the bulk of Dark Star is missing (from 4-18 minutes) -- the tape picks back up as they go into the Tiger. Keith is way up in the mix, rivaling Jerry; while the last few minutes are still rather bustling & unfocused, it hints at more power than the widely-separated sbd mix. So I recommend at least checking out the ending from this Keith-centered perspective.