182. 1979-01-20

100025 Buffalo 9:23 (“Dark Star” 10:15 -:52)

Main theme at 4:20.
First verse at 4:50.
Goes into Not Fade Away.


The listener may want to start two tracks back with “Jam,” which is lovely, if a bit slight, or else back at the beginning of The Other One, which precedes Drums. After the short jam, Weir gives us the second verse of Other One, and to wrap it up they play a little wind-down jam followed by the intro lick to Dark Star, which comes at :52 into the track we have here.


The first thought I had about this is that these few late-70s Dark Stars, where the piece is somewhat conservative with a stiffer beat and a more coordinated attack, are really beautiful in their way. Playing Dark Star as a (relatively) more scripted piece of music takes some of the excitement out of it, but when it appears one can be struck by how downright pretty and haunting the music is. I remember how magical the first moments of Dark Star felt the times I saw them do it (in 1989-1991). Garcia doesn’t play lines quite like this on anything else, and it’s wonderful to hear them.


Lesh is more prominent in the mix here than he was at Nassau, for which we must be thankful. It has been remarked that he is mostly holding the bottom end down now, but I don’t think this is entirely accurate all the time; however, passages like 3:05—3:15 are almost shocking in comparison to the early 70s, as here we find Phil laying down a one-note bass line while Jerry flutters around. Weir and Godchaux, in turn, seem content with supporting roles, although the piano gets loud and busy here more than in our previous post-hiatus run-throughs.


At 4:20 they are all starting to kick up a fuss, finally, but it is just here that Garcia starts up the theme. This takes us pretty directly to the verse. Jerry does sound markedly older here, although he can still hit the notes more easily than he could a decade later. The backing vocals are kind of hard to discern this time, and I can’t make out Donna at all this time.


Oddly, they return to the intro lick after the verse, as they did on New Year’s Eve, and as they did not on the previous version at Nassau. They plug right away as though they’re starting again. Garcia’s guitar tone is really beautiful here—I am a big fan of the sound he got from 1968 to 1974, and particularly of the early days of the Wolf, but the latter sounds great here. In general, his sound changes can be tracked at least as well (if not better) by era rather than by guitar, and he’s already starting to get the soulfully pellucid sound he’d get out of the Tiger, and that he’d lean into more and more throughout the 80s.


At around 7:55 Garcia starts playing some off notes that clash nicely with the other instruments, and the band responds—now we’re getting some weirdness! The drummers and Lesh open up a bit here, although Godchaux and Weir keep a groove going. There’s a satisfying peak at about 9:30, and they start to break apart more; Garcia’s peak at 10:00 is followed by some rousing up-the-neck action by Phil, and this gets the crowd going. Alas, they divert to Not Fade Away rather than continue. Listen to the melody Jerry plays starting at :15 of the latter—what is that? Maybe it’s just a random melody, but it sounds like he’s quoting another song I can’t put my finger on. In any case, it doesn’t last long, as they start singing immediately after.


I really love this one. As with 1973-02-22, the only demerit is for brevity, but there is some excellent playing here, even if they don’t pursue it as far as one would like. Oddly (and lamentably), after three consecutive Dark Stars, they put it to bed for another three years after this, making this the final Dark Star with Keith Godchaux.


What was said:

181. 1979-01-10

113446 ** Nassau 18:24



Main theme at :07.
First verse at 9:09.
Goes into Drums.


Having revived Dark Star at Bill Graham’s request, they briefly kept it in the repertoire, playing it again 10 days later, then once in 1981 and another time in 1984, before finally bringing it back in the fall of 1989. They again go right into the main theme out of the intro riff, and they hammer away at the two chord pattern for a while—the beginning of Dark Star has become a more predictable groove now rather than the launching pad it once was. Garcia’s playing is starting to evidence the flurrying style that will become more prevalent—perhaps too much so—in the latter part of the year. Godchaux is much less discursive then he once was; since his playing is not quite as rote here as it was on the New Year’s version, however, the chord framework is a bit less foursquare this time. In short, the early innings see them getting into a somewhat looser groove this time, although they’re still pretty close to home.


By the five-minute mark the potential for things to get interesting is manifested. Two factors seem to keep them earthbound, however—the relentless two-drummer groove, and the relative quiescence of Lesh, who is quite low in the mix here, and seems to be playing almost like a bass player in any case. Nevertheless, Weir is throwing up some tense chords, and Jerry’s busy guitar work is never without interest. By the time we’re seven minutes deep Dark Star has evolved into a hefty and propulsive jam, compensating with forward momentum for a lack of real surprises. By 8:30, however, Jerry is broadly hinting at the theme, and it seems like we’ve traveled as far from home as we’re likely to get before the verse hits.


Once again, Garcia doesn’t actually state the theme again before singing, but we’ve never left it very far behind. Might I say that I kind of like Donna’s harmonies on the refrain? I have a feeling I’ll be in the minority on this. On the other hand, it does seem to contribute to the more “normal” feel of the whole thing in this era of the band. For whatever reason, they bring back the usual post-verse lick—maybe they discussed it after New Year’s Eve—and they crank right on into a jam that isn’t too far from where they left off.


As they go on, they allow themselves to get away from the two-chordedness of it all; they hit a remarkable peak starting at around 13:00, with Garcia blasting a tremolo and then crashing them back into the chord pattern for a bit. The drummers keep plugging away—we’ve sacrificed exploration for power. At around 14:40 the jam settles down and becomes more diffuse, and we’ve entered what will become a familiar space for the rest of their career—a liminal place between a full-blown improvisation and a drum break, with the band adding what feel like addenda to the main body of the piece, with one foot out the door.


At 15:45 Garcia gets into one of post-Sputnik rolling figures we sometimes encounter, and he stretches it out for a couple of minutes. Weir mirrors him, but Lesh is at this point inaudible, although at a few points he pops back in—I get a sense that he’s been playing a bit, but that he’s not coming through the amps, because his line is very quiet in those few spots where I can detect it. The unravelling of this pseudo-Sputnik section takes us all the way to the drum break.


There’s nowhere near enough Phil, and the drummers keep the beat nailed down in a way that’s somewhat stifling. On the other hand, we get the late-70s Dead pursuing an extended instrumental segment in a pretty satisfying way—it’s good music, man! I suppose I’m trying to say that it’s not a peak-era Dark Star, but it’s not half bad.




**Note that I've moved to Relisten. I hope this is temporary, but the Internet Archive is currently unusable, as they've removed the timer bar. For previous versions, the timings on Relisten should be the same.




What was said:

180. 1978-12-31

139554 Winterland 12:26 (1. Dark Star 11:21; 2. Dark Star Jam 1:05)

Main theme at :00
First verse at 6:48.
Verse melody at 2. :23.

Goes into Other One, then Wharf Rat.


Four years have gone by; apparently it was at the request of Bill Graham that they dusted off Dark Star for this New Year’s show after not playing it in their previous post-hiatus shows. The intro sets a quick and bouncy pace. They start with the theme, which Keith keeps tinkling away in the background. Garcia lights into some fine cascades, and Keith joins him for a bit approaching the minute mark, but the band is still cranking out the two-chord pattern.


At 1:56 Garcia plays some beautiful variations on the verse melody. It’s not an inauspicious beginning, and Garcia is outstanding, yet one wonders if they still have the wherewithal to break out of the basic theme pattern and move into some more adventurous territory, which may prove more difficult with a second drummer back in the fold. Lesh plays some intriguing little runs to mirror Garcia, for instance at 4:40. At about 5:00 Jerry’s tone rounds off into a hornlike sound; in later years, he’d have switched on the MIDI here. The band gathers intensity; at 6:00 they are peaking, and Garcia is playing something very like Bright Star; they take it back down into the theme pattern here, and move right to the verse, complete with harmonies from Donna Jean on “Shall we go…”


They play the beginning theme after the verse, and go right back to a two-chord jam. Again, most of the focus is on Jerry. At 9:30 Phil pushes them away from the chord pattern a bit, but they don’t stray very far. At 10:10 Garcia initiates a Sputnik-like pattern that seems to herald a change; the thing could really take off here, were they not almost out of it. But it doesn’t end as quickly as the tracking indicates—they’re still in no man’s land at :20 of Other One when Lesh starts pushing toward the latter-named song, and the transition is still fairly gradual until 1:20, when there can no longer be any doubt. Similarly, there is no definite return to Dark Star where it is tracked to be; at 2. :23 Jerry plays the verse melody a few times before heading into Wharf Rat.


This cannot be said to be a particularly adventurous version, and in a way it feels even shorter than it is. It wouldn’t be fair to call it perfunctory, however; it must have been wonderful to hear Garcia spinning out his lines with confidence and power, and for what it is, this is fine and dandy.


What was said:

179. 1974-10-18

110771 Winterland Jam 11:47>Dark Star 23:51

Main theme at 5:42 and 7:21.
First verse at 7:45.
Goes into Morning Dew.


This is the final version from the golden age of Dark Star, played during the legendary run at Winterland which served as a tentative farewell for the band as they were going on indefinite hiatus, perhaps never to return (as it turned out, they played their next show five months later, although they were mostly inactive as a live unit until June, 1976). Lesh and Ned Lagin start this segment of the show with a 26-minute run through Seastones, a regular feature of late 1974 Dead shows which is quite variable in quality, but which generally deserves far more attention than many Deadheads seem to be willing to give it. I recommend starting with this track, particularly since Garcia and Weir pitch in well before the break, so the developmental arc of the improvisation that will become Dark Star begins here.


This is all rather spacey stuff, as one might expect. The track titled “Jam” begins as Kreutzmann enters with some cymbal work, and then some flourishes on the skins; everyone besides Godchaux is soon in evidence. They shift into a tentative funky bit after about a minute, with Lesh playing more recognizable bass sounds now. Kreutzmann works it hard, but mostly only Phil is coming along at first. Soon it’s pared down to just the drums, but not for long…the rest can’t decide whether they’re in or out at first, until about 3:45 when Garcia and at last (I think) Godchaux start to get something going.


This is a loose and ropy jam, but we trust that it’s headed somewhere. Weir is more hesitant than usual, darting into the spaces between the other guitar and the keyboards and fading out again; he vacillates a bit between getting something funky going and answering Garcia’s line. Slowly but surely, though, it’s congealing, with almost imperceptibly gathering momentum, into a groove. By about 7:30 this diffracts into something more melodic and again more tentative, at least at first, but also somehow more interesting—the Dead are cooking something up, now.


At 9:20 Jerry starts working a melodic idea that starts to sound convincing, but they’re still in no hurry to pull it together. They keep bouncing off one another at odd angles, which is not without its appeal, interspersed with moments of concord. At 11:30 Garcia’s line takes on a Dark Star-like cadence, and the track switches, somewhat arbitrarily. By :50 into the next track Weir is suggesting the theme, Kreutzmann drops into a familiar swing, and by 1:20 this is somehow recognizably Dark Star; although they still haven’t passed the point of no return, the tracking seems justified now, anyway.


Listen to Jerry’s slide at 3:32, which he repeats several times. He doesn’t play the theme, but he doesn’t have to—that’s what he’s alluding to now, and everyone knows it: we can now infer with a fair degree of confidence that the whole band is now consciously playing Dark Star (if such a thing matters). There’s a beautifully lazy peak that begins at 5:12 when Jerry climbs to the G and hangs us up there until we’re ready for the glorious ascent to A, the expected and familiar gift of the tonic lifting us finally into unequivocal Dark Star consciousness, a resounding “yes” whose echoes tumble us down joyously toward the theme, as if we are being rewarded for the past 42 minutes with a reminder that the return home is often the most transcendent stage of a journey. The point is punctuated and then hammered home; first there is a repeated walk-up to the tonic, followed by a more emphatic return to the theme at 7:21.


They come out of the verse in much the same mood, sliding directly back into a mellow but focused Dark Star jam. Weir is particularly assertive here, at times surmounting Jerry’s line, still equivocating between a second lead and soul guitar flourishes. The band is very soon in full flight, and for the first time in what seems like forever in the post-verse section there are no gestures toward a space jam or a meltdown. Lagin and Godchaux are both very active now, without crowding the soundstage; they buoy up an ebullient Garcia, who at 11:53 starts crashing into an A power chord to punctuate his line, 1969-style. They come over the top and float down into a glimmering keyboard bed; there are hints of a shift toward a minor tonality, and the jam begins to disperse a bit, relaxing into an almost post-coital atmosphere of satisfaction.


At 15:10 we’ve crossed into a new territory, a gorgeously unhurried minor-key jam. Lagin has receded quite a bit again; Godchaux, Weir and even Lesh lay down a springy base; at first Garcia softly bounces on it like a mattress before subsiding at 16:50. Now Weir is in the lead, and Keith and Phil are getting funkier. Jerry sees something there he can work with, and he comes back with some support. Syncopated sounds are popping up everywhere, and Garcia eases his way back into the lead. Lagin comes back into the picture now with an uncharacteristically loud and basic emphasis that underlines what’s already there.


At 20:00 it sounds like it’s starting to disperse a little, and they let it start slipping away, with a few last flares as Lesh briefly takes the reins. Now at 21:30 the jam has reached a point of exhaustion; it simmers on, like water on a burner that has just been switched off. At 22:18 Jerry initiates a tentative meltdown, but we’re still going off the boil; Jerry fritters around and then gently crashes into Morning Dew.


There is a temptation to emphasize extra-musical considerations here—a kind of victory lap for the band; a farewell to the audience, and/or to Dark Star; a bittersweet finale to a glorious era of music, etc. However tempting it may be to try to ignore all this in favor of a more “pure” consideration of the music, it nevertheless seems undeniable that there is a kind of valedictory mood communicated by the music, regardless of the occasion, although I can’t deny that extrinsic factors may be influencing my judgment. It is simply staggering to consider what the Dead achieved between 1968 and 1974 with Dark Star alone, and this is by any measure a worthy addition to the canon. The arc of this sequence is best considered when we begin with Seastones, since the band gets most of the weirdness out of its system before Dark Star even begins. In another sense, the arc that begins in 1968 seems to provide the appropriate vantage; the focused and melodic jamming of this Dark Star signs us off with a sense of justice and completion. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we will ever be satisfied; fortunately, there is more to come.


What was said: