91: 1969-12-30

28469 Boston 19:23
Main theme at 6:39.
First verse at 7:04.
Sputnik at 12:40.
Main theme at
Second verse at
Tape cuts back in at Alligator.

Gong crashes send this off in a bracing manner. There is a kind of polyphonic madness that sets in early here. Garcia sounds extra trebly on the Strat, and there’s a little edge to everything. When we reach the three minute mark, there is a sudden downshift that could herald the theme, but it doesn’t this time; instead, we find ourselves on the edge of space. This is a rather nice section which never gets too far out, and it eventually congeals into a pretty jam before it finally arrives at the main theme at 6:39. This quickly goes to the verse, in which there is a small cut.

It doesn’t feel, after the preceding, like a big step into space tonight. This time there are some tinkling wind chimes, or anyway that is what they sound like, and TC swirls around a bit for good measure. This one is heavy on the weird-out factor in general, until some tendrils appear at around 11:30 that seem to herald a way out of the fog. The space intensifies, however, until Garcia starts a syncopated and delicate Sputnik at about 12:40.

Sputnik tonight builds into a bit of a clamor, and I found myself expecting the insect weirdness and verse melody to come through, but instead Jerry starts up a line that intersects with Lesh’s and leads us into the middle jam. Weir starts hinting at Feelin’ Groovy, but it is not going to happen yet; instead, there is a rather pretty and gentle jam that keeps itself fairly well reigned in. At 16:55, when things seem to be stalling, a light and lovely Feelin’ Groovy emerges. It isn’t long before this kind of disperses into a halfway state of sort-of Feelin’ Grooviness, and then they’re pushing toward some kind of transition to somewhere, but it cuts before we discover where…whether they ever sing the second verse cannot be now known. There is a pretty severe cut here which deposits us at the end of the sung part of Alligator.

This is nice, delicate, and pretty for much of its length. It’s always nice when Dark Star goes a bit off the beaten track. This is here not so much a matter of playing anything radically different; rather, it just has a kind of different feel this night. The band seems restrained, but they are playing well for the most part.


What was said:

90. 1969-12-26

28448 Dallas 24:00 (cut)
Main theme at 1:44, 4:14, and 5:51.
Verse melody at 4:56.
First verse at 6:10.
Sputnik at 10:43.
Feelin’ Groovy at 14:13.
Soulful Strut at 15:32.
Main theme at 22:00.
Second verse at 23:11.
Tape cuts back in at New Speedway Boogie.

The introduction is very pretty at the beginning here. Garcia is again hinting at a major key in tonight’s intro. There is a big windup for a while before they go to the theme at 1:44, and then they wander off again. At 3:00, Garcia, who is in top form tonight, checks in on Bright Star during a glorious passage that begins with some repetition, which he keeps returning to in between various flights of fancy. The music briefly veers toward space before we go back to the theme at 4:14. It really seems like it’s going to the verse, but instead Garcia quotes the melody while twiddling his volume knob; he kicks down to the e minor after, so I suppose it’s official. It just gets spacier from there before heading back to a very gently played theme and verse.

Lesh gets rather rambunctious coming out of the verse; he dominates the scene for a little while, but everything duly quietens into the by now expected space section. Tonight this is eerie and subdued; again, this section culminates in Sputnik. At 11:56 we’re heading out of Sputnik into the main jam, and it’s a pretty clean break, but the band is still feeling rather calm and patient.

At around 12:43 Lesh starts pedaling on one note, which sometimes means Feelin’ Groovy is coming. Instead, they increase the intensity of the jam a little and keep it going. Finally, at 14:13 Weir kicks into Feelin’ Groovy, Garcia follows, and Lesh eventually acquiesces. They return to a kind of pedaling thing intermittently throughout the jam, and it’s not clear that it has a set length; tonight, they don’t seem like they’re going back; by 14:50 there are intimations of Soulful Strut, which takes its time arriving but finally comes in at 15:32.

At 17:24 Weir takes the lead, and he really takes off! And it sounds pretty good! I don’t think Weir has ever played anything quite like this on a Dark Star. Garcia takes back over at around 18:32 with some chiming notes, and Soulful Strut putters out soon thereafter. At 19:14 Garcia starts flashing Bright Star, but this is not happening yet. They downshift, and then they are still streaming clouds of Soulful Strut after the 20 minute mark as they start to increase the intensity again. This time Garcia seems determined to take it into Bright Star or the main theme; it seems like the latter at 21:30 as he jerks back on the tempo—then, at 22:00, he fires it up again for the main theme, and then soon after the band pulls the tempo back again. Garcia throws in some flourishes here rather than going to the verse right away, but we get there.

There is a cut right at the end—it doesn’t take much off of Dark Star, but I’m not sure how quickly it returns, or if New Speedway Boogie was the next song.

Here we have a rendition that is often rather subdued, which is not a knock on it at all—it works very well. There is no really big crescendo, although they get it going a few times. The modular jams really dominate the second jam insofar as even when they’re not playing them, they seem to be heading toward or away from them in a recognizable way. All in all, a very strong outing. And, of course, I don’t mean to bury the lede: Bob Weir, Guitar Hero.


What was said:

89. 1969-12-20

Dave Six Fillmore 20:38
Main theme at 4:15.
First verse at 5:03.
Sputnik at 10:19.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:36.
Bright Star at 16:41.
Main theme at 17:52.
Second verse at 19:02.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Swells from TC breathe this into life. Garcia seems to want to get a little atonal from around 1:13 or so. I think I hear a major 7th, and I’m not sure what all he’s doing here. He gets some really stinging tones from the Stratocaster. At 2:40 he plays some chordal stuff, and then he starts a line with lots of double stops and more notes that seem to be outside the usual palette. From about 3:30 Lesh pushes them into a nice little swell, and when at 3:57 Garcia bursts into a huge windup the main theme begins to feel imminent. Sure enough, we soon get there, and this time it takes us to the verse.

At this point a trip to space is the standard itinerary after the verse; as usual, this comes after a brief touchdown on solid ground. There is some volume knob fiddling and some tolling, and TC gets a chance to be heard. This one seems a bit aimless until around 8:30, when it starts to coalesce into something unique; the music oozes and breathes as the guitarists work the volume knobs, and at 9:44 TC unleashes a huge swell, and one of the guitarists tacks on some feedback for good measure. Then at 10:19, Garcia starts quietly playing Sputnik, which has made a serious comeback as a way out of space.

By 11:13 Sputnik has turned into a vigorous little Garcia line that feels like it might be the Ariadne’s thread that leads into the main jam. He keeps playing with it, and it veers back toward Sputnik at times before turning into Feelin’ Groovy. By 14:30 it seems like Feelin’ Groovy is done, but it doesn’t end all at once. There is a lull shortly after the 15 minute mark where they seem to tread water, and a light and lovely jam emerges. This gathers steam, but they seem a bit tentative, as it’s not clear where this is going. They bring it to a big crescendo and then at 16:41 Garcia takes it over the top with a crushing Bright Star. As they come out of it I thought I heard hints of a Darkness jam at about 17:25, although this may be coincidental. This winds its way into the main theme, which takes us to the verse and out, but not before Garcia proposes a variation with a syncopated, descending line.

All in all this is a very good Dark Star.  Again, Feelin’ Groovy sort of dominates the post-space jam, insofar as what comes after seems heavily inflected by it. They find some new ground here, though, and there are some really lovely moments. The final peak is immense.


What was said:

88. 1969-12-11

109897 Los Angeles 21:05
Main theme at 2:36 and 3:58.
First verse at 4:14.
Sputnik at 10:32.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:11.
Main theme/Bright Star at 18:20.
Main theme at 18:53.
Second verse at 19:24.
Goes into St. Stephen.

The short intro jam stays pretty close to home. They visit the theme after a couple of minutes but don’t change things up much when they leave it behind. At 3:43 they are already gesturing toward the theme again, and it soon arrives. At this point they go right to the verse.

Lesh is very prominent after the verse, so that the little island of normalcy that precedes space is rather intense tonight. At 6:06 they downshift and head into space. At 6:59 Garcia’s tolling suggests E minor. Lesh starts playing with his volume knobs, and things are sort of quiet and foreboding for a while. TC gradually increases the weirdness, and at 8:58 someone starts scritching and weird noises ensue as this develops into a quite intense and far out space section.

At about 10:32 Garcia again inserts some Sputnik licks into the space segment. This plays out until at 11:42 Jerry is playing a more ordinary lead line, and again the transition out of space is subtle as the band gradually falls into line. Some of the things Garcia is playing here might have suggested Feelin’ Groovy; in any case, they break into it at 12:11. I’m not sure that the pattern is entirely set as they leave the chord pattern and then return to it without anything that I am entirely convinced is a thought out plan.

Around the 14 minute mark it seems like they might be thinking about Soulful Strut, but this does not materialize as they embark on a jam that includes Bright Star references from Garcia and a little Feelin’ Groovy backsliding from Weir. It doesn’t seem like they entirely leave Feelin’ Groovy behind until around 16:15 or so; here they start pedalling on a two chord pattern and Garcia again hints at Soulful Strut. By 17:25 they are still halfway in and halfway out of Feelin’ Groovy when Lesh states the Dark Star pattern and this instigates a slamming jam that drifts back to a similar rhythm pattern to Feelin’ Groovy again, before Garcia states a kind of main theme/Bright Star hybrid. Shortly after this, he starts the main theme for real, and they go to the second verse.

This is a an odd one, and I’m not sure if my synopsis is entirely accurate. It seems to me that they spend a lot of time playing Feelin’ Groovy-adjacent stuff. This didn’t knock me out, but it’s a pretty good time all in all.


What was said:

87. 1969-12-04

141723 Fillmore West 30:13
Main theme at 5:45 and 13:14.
First verse at 13:48.
Sputnik at 18:05.
Main theme at 26:34.
Bright Star at 27:06.
Main theme at 27:53.
Second verse at 28:36.
Goes into High Time.

This kicks off with a very active and assertive Phil Lesh dominating the proceedings. At :34 Garcia starts playing a repetitive high lick, perhaps thinking he should just allow Phil to do his thing. This leads to a little lull, and then they take off into a jam. At 1:42 Garcia starts alluding to the main theme, but not with the usual tones. There ensues a section that seems to circumspectly refer to the theme without stating it. Garcia is playing a lot of licks with double stops tonight, as though he’s trying to vary his approach, and he seems to be veering towards a major scale at times.

At about 4:10 a new thing starts: a little shuffling jam that doesn’t sound much like what usually goes on here. This seems to fizzle out before roaring back to a peak at around 5:25. This concludes with a nod to Sputnik before heading into the main theme at 5:45. This in turn becomes another jam that stops and starts a few times. This is all very interesting, and at times very effective; they keep pushing in new directions, although it all seems to break down from time to time.

A little after 7 minutes they wind up in a minor sounding lull; at 7:17 Garcia gently alludes to Bright Star and Lesh starts up the main theme, but this again seems to peter out. Then at 8:10, with TC playing an ascending figure, they start to drive toward a peak, with Garcia picking up on TC’s pattern and increasing the intensity until at 8:53 he breaks out and again plays some Bright Star-type lines. They regroup a little, and at 9:30 Garcia is again hitting the Bright Star lick; then at 9:46 he brings them back up with some barking repetition on the low strings. This gives way to a more peaceful jam, and by 10:34 it’s all about to fall apart again, but instead of pushing to the main theme they regroup again into a kind of loping jam that brings us back to another almost-Bright Star at around 11:25. At 11:42 Jerry signals that he is finally ready for the main theme, but they veer away again!

At 12:28 Garcia starts playing a finger picked line that seems to be another entirely new thing. The band follows for a bit and then seems ready to fall apart again. At 12:53 Jerry plays some slides that seem to presage the theme, and TC starts playing a heavy chop on the third beat as if to say “You’d better do it this time!” Garcia at last complies at 13:14 and we head for the verse.

After the verse we again head to space after a brief interlude on terra firma. Space tonight is a lovely, shimmering thing; after a few minutes Garcia starts playing Sputnik (18:05), but the rest of the band stays in space and they never go into a full Sputnik jam. At 19:39 Garcia starts playing some melodic lines and again there is an allusion to Bright Star at 19:57. They emerge from space and embark on a rather spirited jam, with Bright Star returning at 20:29. This comes almost to a stop, and then they pick things up again; at 21:29 Garcia seems to want to start Feelin’ Groovy, but no one follows. Another jam and then another lull bring us to 22:06 where TC and Lesh bring back the two chord theme pattern, which turns into a stop and start thing; they tread water a little and then build up a jam.

At 24:07 Garcia spits out some very high notes and embarks on a line that will again allude to Bright Star, and this seems to fire up the band who come to a vicious peak from about 25:00. They bring it down so they can build toward another peak, and by 26:20 they’re hitting it pretty hard; this time they head to the main theme, which they hit very hard tonight. Garcia wants more of this, so he finally plays Bright Star in earnest to cap it all off.

The band seems restless here, like they want to try new things. These often work, although they seem to continually rebuild and fall apart again. This isn’t an entirely successful version, but there are some magnificent segments. It seems clear they aren’t going to rest on their laurels, which bodes well for future versions.


What was said:

86: 1969-11-08

17433 Fillmore 21:06 (1. 14:43 [14:01 actual], 2. 1:05, 3. [UJB Jam] 2:34, 4. 3:24)
Main theme at 1. 5:18.
First verse at 1. 6:07.
Sputnik at 1. 9:45.
Feelin’ Groovy (sort of) at 1. 13:21.
Main theme at 2. :07.
Main theme at 4. :02 and 4. 1:04.
Second verse at 4. 1:25.
Goes into The Other One and St. Stephen.

Here they do something new, weaving Dark Star around The Other One (and another Uncle John’s Band jam, which is again tracked separately at this source). This will never be standard operating procedure, but they will sometimes do things like this in the future.

This swells into life with a slightly askew statement from Lesh and Garcia flashing his little bass string lick that reappears every so often and then taking off with a trebly lead on the Stratocaster. There is some feedback early on; I think it’s from Garcia, as it is rather loud. Several times in the early going the band sort of winds down into a kind of tentative holding pattern and then cranks it back up. Garcia states the main theme at 5:18, and this time it goes right to the verse.

The current M.O. is a soft landing out of the verse into space, and this is what they do tonight. From about 8:45 it sounds like Garcia, Lesh and Weir are all working the volume knobs, although Weir soon switches to some beautiful descending lines. At 9:45 Garcia starts softly playing Sputnik; he gradually gets louder, and after a moment where it seems like he’s heading back to space he starts playing the Sputnik lick in double time. The rest of the band is still more or less in space, or at least it’s a very spacey Sputnik, and at 11:40 Garcia starts a new line to lead the way out.

At 12:15 or so Garcia seems to be subtly hinting at The Other One. The band gains momentum; at about 13:21 Lesh starts playing Feelin’ Groovy, whereas Garcia still seems to be heading toward The Other One, and then there are hints of Uncle John’s Band. At 14:15 they seem to be finally committing to Feelin’ Groovy, but this suddenly disperses and they pedal along for a bit before Lesh decides to strongly assert The Other One and they finally make the transition.

After a twelve minute Other One, they dip back into Dark Star for a minute before going into another upbeat Uncle John’s Band jam. Once again, this begins and ends with the end riff, sandwiched around an instrumental version of the main song.

They exit into the main Dark Star theme, and slow the tempo considerably before going into a brief Dark Star jam before hitting the second verse on the way out.

This is an intriguing development insofar as they use Dark Star as a jumping off point for exploring other songs and themes. On its merits alone this is a middling version, however. Each section feels a bit short and underdeveloped; after the initial 15 minute segment, they only touch on Dark Star long enough to state the theme and get out.


What was said:

85. 1969-11-07

119628 Fillmore 26:00 (tracked as Dark Star 18:29>UJB Jam 1:26>Dark Star 5:45)

Main theme at 4:00 and 5:37.
First verse at 5:58.
Feelin’ Groovy at 16:53.
Uncle John’s Band Jam at 18:29/0:00 (2nd track).
Bright Star at :48 (2nd track).
Main theme at 3:17 (3rd track).
Second verse at 4:04 (3rd track).
Goes into The Other One.

After a typically sprightly start, things quieten down considerably about a minute in, and Garcia’s line refers to the verse melody. The music gets a bit denser and more involving. It seems to drift in and out of the two chord pattern tonight. At 2:33 Garcia repeats a high note for about 16 seconds and the music again gets quieter and stranger, and then flits back to the pattern for a little bit, etc. At 4:00 Garcia swings into the main theme and Weir goes along; Lesh doesn’t actively resist, but his line is less committed for a while yet. On the other end of this the jam again leaves the song pattern behind until at 5:37 Lesh starts up the theme again and Garcia goes along, and this quickly takes us to the verse.

The verse empties out, as usual, into a very conventional sounding passage which doesn’t last long, and again leads into space. By around 8:00 we’re in almost total silence, with Jerry quietly tolling. Weir starts playing a lick that is somewhat reminiscent of Weather Report Suite. The intensity builds until the band is blasting away, and out the other end of this comes a volume knob session and more space. Garcia switches to high, piercing tones, and TC swirls around. Lesh adds some ominous tones.

By about 12 minutes in it seems a jam is coalescing, but we’re still at least halfway in space. Finally Garcia starts playing a jaunty line, and he gets Lesh to join him, and so the jam has emerged by 13:00. This is a rather noisy and intense affair, as the band roars to a peak in the environs of 13:40, and then it all quiets down again. Garcia tries the same gambit beginning at 14:00, playing a rolling, wandering line, but this time the rest of the band is more reticent and a gentler segment emerges. Weir fills in some chords, and it begins to gather steam, with Lesh playing a riff in the upper register…Lesh and Weir come together and it turns into some heavy rock-type stuff. The riff at times takes on the aspect of a funhouse mirror rendition of the Dark Star theme, and then at 16:53 or so it starts to sound like Feelin’ Groovy.

At 18:29 the first track ends, and the band begins playing what would become the end lick of Uncle John’s Band, and then they swing into an instrumental rendition of the main melody of the song. This sounds pretty raucous and a bit sloppy, particularly when they get to the chorus; they briefly return to the end jam before spinning off into what sounds like a thematic jam but now one that isn’t identifiable. They seem to have a tendency to play these little structured jams around the thematic jams lately. At :48 of the third track Garcia seems to be touching on Bright Star, and then he commits to it at 1:04.

They wander away from this and quieten down, and then at 1:52 Garcia lays in Bright Star again. The band comes to a peak again and Garcia again gestures toward Bright Star. Out the other end of this, the band slams into the main theme, which eventually settles down and leads us to the verse.

This is a wild one. The jamming is quite energetic, even if it doesn’t always feel precise. In between the thematic jams, there is a lot of very structured jamming. Another excellent version.


What was said:

84: 1969-11-02

32350 San Francisco 30:07
Main theme at 7:13.
First verse at 9:30.
Sputnik at 15:07.
Feelin’ Groovy at 19:08.
Soulful Strut at 22:34.
Bright Star at 26:49.
Main theme at 28:08.
Second verse at 28:31.
Goes into St. Stephen.

TC is no longer playing the ROR, and others have pointed out that he seems to have a new lick he plays during the introduction. At this point the intro can veer back and forth between the two chord theme pattern and less determinate patterns so quickly that it can be hard to keep track of what’s going on, and it’s not always clear whether the band is emphasizing A or E minor. Here the lean on G a lot, which is the dominant 7th of A and also the minor 3rd of E, which contributes to the ambiguity. The emergence of Weir as a more active improvising agent has added to this uncertainty.

The intro jam is masterful tonight; it is busy and intense, but at the same time it has a kind of moody heft to it. At 6:12, Garcia launches a series of triplets that goes on and on as the band eases into a little valley of minor tones from which Jerry slides into the main theme. But they are not ready for the verse; the theme opens up a pocket of gentle sound and they play around there for a while. At 8:31 Lesh takes them into E minor again, and a spacey jam takes shape. At 8:53 Garcia starts toying with the theme again, and the band soon comes back to the familiar pattern; rather than joining with the theme, Garcia goes right to the verse.

The post-verse section begins with a soft jam that finally disintegrates into space at 11:35. This builds from some disjointed sounds into a swelling maelstrom (led by TC) at around 13:30, and then it recedes again. At 14:30 Garcia is playing a lead line that sounds like it might lead us out of space, but it does not. Then at about 15:07 Garcia starts playing Sputnik, which we haven’t heard in a while. By 17:00 Garcia has altered his Sputnik line into something else, and the band picks up on this and it becomes another little jam. Weir starts playing some stuff that sounds a bit like a Mind Left Body jam, and they all hammer on it for a while.

At 19:08 Lesh starts Feelin’ Groovy and the band joins in; they are playing it kind of slowly this time. By 20:27 Garcia is playing a lead that sounds more like what he plays over Soulful Strut as the band continues to play Feelin’ Groovy. At 22:32 they come to a stop and Garcia starts the Soulful Strut chords. At a little after the 25 minute mark they seem to have finished with this jam, but they keep the chord changes going a while longer and start a slower and more deliberate jam over the pattern. At 26:36, Garcia suddenly signals the Dark Star theme and they swing into it, and he immediately starts hinting at Bright Star, which soon appears on the scene. After a nice peak, we get back to the main theme and the verse (“Mirror crashes”).

This is another fantastic version of Dark Star. The space after the verse is deep and intense; the remainder is largely taken up with thematic jamming. The return of Sputnik was unexpected.


What was said:

83. 1969-10-25

150136  Winterland 22:02

Main theme at :29 and 2:34.
Bright Star at 2:49.
Main theme at 3:56 and 5:25.
First verse at 7:02.
Feelin’ Groovy at 12:28.
Soulful Strut at 14:50.
Main theme at 19:18.
Second verse at 20:20.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia has switched to a Stratocaster that he will play until April, 1970. The main theme comes in very early here, and this will become more common in the future. As is often the case, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the band starts to stray from the two chord pattern, but they play it pretty straight for a while here, with Garcia building his line around the theme and returning to it often. Bright Star, which is a variation of the main theme, makes an early appearance at 2:49. It’s not really what I’d consider a full Bright Star, but it’s pronounced enough that I noted it in the list above. The timings there are perhaps kind of arbitrary because of the way that the intro section sort of revolves around the theme this time.

At around 4:20, though, things start to get a little strange as the band slides toward E minor and then, less expectedly, A minor. At 5:25, Garcia starts to play the main theme over this implied A minor, and then the band sort of migrates back to the usual A mixolydian/D major but not, as far as I can tell, all at once; at least, it seems like something different is going on here for a while. Pretty soon we get to the verse.

The jam out of the verse begins very straightforwardly, but it still has a unique kind of feel—I don’t feel like we’re back in 1968 for a moment here. Lesh starts subtly emphasizing B and E, suggesting E minor and reëstablishing the unsettling tonal ambiguity that began before the verse. At 8:55 Garcia plays some high chiming double stops that point the band toward space, which we are coming to expect at this point. It doesn’t arrive, however; about a minute later, Jerry’s volume knob maneuver gives them another nudge in this direction, but they opt for a spooky jam rather than a full-fledged space excursion.

The intensity builds, and at 11:42 Garcia broadens his tone and begins an assertive lead line in A mixolydian that soon brings back the theme/Bright Star references. They start to coast, regrouping so that at 12:28 Lesh can start Feelin’ Groovy, which seems to have been anticipated here. This wraps up at 13:59, but the momentum carries through until 14:18 when Weir starts hinting at Soulful Strut. This hasn’t fully materialized at 14:41 when they slide back into Feelin’ Groovy, but then by 14:50 they are heading back into Soulful Strut! Lesh seems to look back at Feelin’ Groovy once or twice before they finally settle into it.

Only the Grateful Dead would incorporate modular sections like this, mixing and cutting them up until it’s almost impossible to determine exactly what they are playing at times. This can make the whole enterprise seem sloppy sometimes, but tonight this is all rather impressive. Finally, at 17:35 Garcia starts leaning on an A7 chord, and this takes us into a charming but short interstice that opens up into a remarkable Garcia/Lesh duet beginning at 18:13. This winds up with Garcia hammering a high G and then climbing to the A, suggesting the Bright Star that almost arrives at 19:07, but instead they crash into the main theme at 19:18 and pound on it. They slow the tempo considerably before returning to the verse.

Like any good Dark Star, this captivates while expanding our sense of the possibilities of human expression. It seems like nothing quite like this has happened before, and we are glad that it happened—what more could we ask for? There are no weak moments here, and the Feelin’ Groovy/Soulful Strut handoff is a major high point. These two jams have introduced new possibilities for structure in Dark Star, but tonight we see that it is not as simple as that, and that they have also introduced new opportunities for productive chaos in the interchange between the two. With the forces of chaos and order both thwarted, the Dead can consider this a job well done.


What was said:

82. 1969-09-26

9376 Fillmore East 16:46 (cut)
Main theme at 2:11.
First verse at 3:16.
Feelin’ Groovy at 10:35.
Bright Star at 14:10.
Main theme at 14:40.
Second verse at 15:05.
Goes into St. Stephen.

There are two transfers of this audience recording and neither sound good; the other one is noisier, but more dynamic. The beginning is cut. The band really seems to be going at it right away, and it’s possible that, as poor as it sounds, the aud gives it some life. We get to the main theme pretty quickly here, a little after two minutes in. It quickly settles down for the verse, but the verse does not at first appear, and it sounds like they’ve moved on to something else when Garcia suddenly starts singing at a place where I did not expect him to (I’m not sure if everyone thought they were on a beat where the vocal would start).

Again there is a kind of space after the verse, although they don’t take it as close to the edge of silence this time. At 7:11 Garcia starts spinning out a line that seems like it may lead us out of space, but things stay weird for a while. It’s hard to tell what exactly is happening, but between 9 and 10 minutes a more normal jam seems to form (there’s a general “whhrrrsh!” effect from the recording that makes it all seem a bit like space).

At about 10:35 or so it seems like a Feelin’ Groovy jam has started, and this would seem to be the first of those. This is followed by a rather furious jam section where Garcia intimates the main theme and Bright Star a few times, but doesn’t fully commit to either until 14:10, when Bright Star emerges. I’ve timed the main theme at 14:40, but that’s approximate—I can’t always tell what’s happening. They slow way down before the second verse, and get a round of applause.

It’s a shame there isn’t a better recording of this, as the jam between Feelin’ Groovy and the second verse seems really intense.


What was said:

81. 1969-09-01

19963 Baton Rouge 17:39
Main theme at 4:27.
First verse at 4:52.
Bright Star at 13:53.
Main theme at 14:34.
Second verse at 16:03.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia lights it up on a torrid “Easy Wind,” and then they start up Dark Star. There’s a small cut right at the beginning, but not much is missing, it seems. This gets off to a pretty smooth start. At 1:04, Lesh starts wandering the fretboard, unleashing the polyphony that is such a central feature of the Grateful Dead experience. At 1:20 Garcia starts a simple repeated lick which we’ve heard before and will hear again, I’m pretty sure, although I couldn’t tell you where, and this leads to an increase of intensity.

Themes are intimated throughout this intro jam. At 1:47 Garcia quotes the main theme, and the band falls into it for a moment but Jerry himself is not quite ready for that. At 2:15 he starts it up again, but now the band isn’t having it. At 2:53 and 3:17 Garcia almost tips into Sputnik. Garcia’s wonderful run-on sentence from 3:41 to 4:24 finally gets us to the main theme at 4:27, and this time they are all on the same page; this quickly leads to the verse.

The last two Dark Stars featured an excursion into deep space after the verse, and the trend continues tonight. The band is confident enough to bring the music almost to a halt here, and then things start to get strange. TC sounds like he’s auditioning for Hawkwind from about 8:05. Garcia seems ready to initiate Sputnik at about 8:55, but the space continues, although we soon seem to be drifting toward more solid ground.

At 10:10 or so Jerry seems to be trying to start a jam, as he coaxes the band back toward earth with a bouncy lead. The music coalesces and gradually gains intensity. At 12:50, there are again flashes of Sputnik, but again they veer away from it. The jam peaks a couple times but throughout there is a sense of restraint; at 13:53, Garcia flips on the bridge pick-up and launches into Bright Star, but even here they refrain from going too hard. They hit the main theme, jam a little more, and then head to the second verse.

This is a simple and elegant rendition; it is very well played, and not too ambitious. Everything comes off well, and there are some beautiful performances.


What was said:

HARTBEATS E: 1969-08-28

123091 Family Dog 47:33

Garcia, Lesh, Wales, Kreutzmann, Hart, unknown flute player

See Mr. Rain's comment for a play-by-play summary. Wales is too groove-oriented to get to any of the kind of group improv we hear the Dead do with this, at least for very long. His keys sound really jarring at first, but he adds some nice jazzy sounds at 1:27, then gets into some kind of funky thing. At 3:40 it sounds like Garcia’s trying to initiate something new, with a descending chord pattern, but this kind of peters out. It starts to wander for a while then, until Wales takes off around 5:30 and Mr. Rain’s play by play begins.

It hasn’t been very cohesive, although maybe the weird mix with Wales so high adds to that sense. When the drums kick in at 7:05 it comes together more. But it’s so different, it’s hard to follow the interactions here the way one would on a GD version.

Garcia takes off with a couple almost latin-y solos between 8 and 9, and scattered thereafter. There’s a lull right before Garcia inserts the theme at 11:20. Wales plays along with two rhythmic chords that transform the theme into something else, and Jerry starts soloing again. As Mr. Rain says, it starts to get kind of good here. There’s a nice peak at 13:20.

As it settles into a lull with a Garcia lead around the 15 minute mark, Wales seems impatient as he gets back to some grooving before a new direction can develop, and then he takes the lead at 15:50. The Other One-ish section beginning about 16:40 starts to get pretty exciting. Garcia alludes to Other One quite a bit in his solo that starts around 18:10. I agree with Mr. Rain that Wales seems more suited to this kind of thing.

Around 20:20 there’s a drop into three, then Garcia starts up with a Clementine-type thing at 20:37. It builds up for a little while, then drops back…then Garcia starts taking the lead more. Everything sounds much better when it kicks into stereo around 22:25, so maybe the mix was prejudicing me against this to an extent. Still, even though there are very cohesive passages, they don’t seem to be entirely working it out together this outing.

At 23:25 there is a very nice passage, with melodic Garcia. They descend into space. At 26:10 Wales starts some funky space jive and Lesh starts up the main theme underneath it, then Garcia comes in with something midway between the two, and then it migrates away from Dark Star again. About 27:40 Garcia starts playing a powerful lead that at times alludes to Dark Star, if obliquely.

Really nice section starting at 30:30, kind of a Latin flavor but slow and swinging. This doesn’t last long, but they get back into something similar again a few times. There’s some nice riffy jamming from about 33:30 or so; the call and response with Garcia and Wales beginning at around 35:00 is pretty hot.

At 36:00 Lesh starts the main theme again, and Garcia joins him briefly. Garcia seems to signal the main theme again a bit after 37:00 but it doesn’t go there. They seem to be switching grooves at lightning speed here.

There follows a couple false endings and some wandering. Finally Wales starts a groove and it gets going again a bit, at times with a three feel. At about 43:33 Garcia starts a nice solo with the band finally settling on 6/8, for now…but the time remains slippery. Finally it goes into an Eleven jam.

If the best Grateful Dead versions are a journey (as hackneyed as that sounds!), this is more a series of episodes. Several could be highly effective if dropped into a GD Dark Star, but there is no real rhyme or reason to this, they just continually cast about for a new groove. At first this made it kind of dull, but as it went on it got more successful as they started to hit it more often. So, sort of a curiosity, but a very instructive one to listen to, in the context of this project.


What was said:

80. 1969-08-30

123076 Family Dog 28:51
Main theme at 7:00.
First verse at 7:22.
Soulful Strut at 20:32.
Bright Star at 25:43.
Second verse at 27:06.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This begins with some feedback, then there is the repetition of a hovering note from Garcia as the two chords are repeated and drawn out. This resolves into a rather vigorous jam, but it keeps returning to the repetition of drawn out chords. A little after 3 minutes it modulates to a minor key jam, and they hunker down there for a while. It has dwindled to a crawl at 6:08, when Garcia starts hinting at Bright Star and the band starts to pick up a bit, until a big windup takes us to the main theme, which quickly goes to the verse.

There is a typical build right after the verse. As is often the case, it’s not clear at first where this section is going. At 9:30, they descend to a point of near-silence, with nothing but the gong sounding at times. Guitar scratching ensues as this develops into a full-blown space. At 11:11 a high, piercing tone (Garcia?) challenges the fortitude those of us with headphones, and then at 11:27 Jerry introduces the insect weirdness.

I don’t know if the band made a conscious decision to focus on having a big spacey part, but this is the second time in a row this has happened, and this is even weirder than the last one. This is really remarkable stuff, as the band takes us on a real trip here. There are little crescendos, but we keep returning to a very quiet place. At 14:12, Garcia starts working the volume knob, and it seems we may be making a transition to a somewhat more normal place. Such suspicions are not soon confirmed, but by 15:25 the music seems to be gathering itself for a move.

A very gentle jam emerges, but then they start to ratchet up the intensity. What follows is a very melodic and beautiful jam. At 18:23 Garcia initiates a bright, major key jam that sounds a bit like a Soulful Strut jam again (see 8-21), and also a bit like Feelin’ Groovy, but it never quite resolves into either of these. Garcia lays back, or at times lays out, from 20:03 to 22:04; at 20:32 Lesh finally initiates a Soulful Strut jam. There are some discordant guitar things going on, and it sounds like Jerry is tuning a little before he finally launches into a lead at 22:33. Weir initiates a chord sequence at 23:34 that turns it into another jam altogether; this sounds like one of the Dead’s modular jams, but I do not recognize it. This finally dissipates into a more nonspecific jam; the band works toward a peak, and Garcia plays some Bright Star licks, then moves on, and then returns to them again as the band winds down and goes to the second verse. As the end section winds down someone says “Alligator,” but they go into St. Stephen.

This not an entirely successful rendition, but it is nonetheless remarkable, particularly for the post-verse jam-- the 6 minutes or so of space after the verse are stunning. There is no Sputnik at all this time, but we get the first Soulful Strut jam. At times the band seems a little disjointed, but they do seem highly engaged, and hard at work looking for new possibilities for Dark Star.


What was said:

79. 1969-08-23

6639 Oregon 26:57 (cut)
Main theme at 1:29, 3:36, 5:52 8:03 and 9:34.
Sputnik (sort of) at 11:20.
Sputnik at 17:17.
Bright Star at 20:19.
Falling Star at 21:27.
Main theme at 24:02.
Second verse at 25:16.
Goes into St. Stephen

After a torrid Spring, Dark Stars have varied in quality lately. The band has seemed tentative at times, and sometimes this uncertainty has seemed to make them more conservative. This time, the intro has them staying pretty close to home, although at times it seems they are trying to break free. The main theme pops up very early (for the era); at 2:50, Lesh decides to take them to E minor for a spell, but they return to A at about 3:06. At this point, they seem restless and ready to try something else; a few moments later, however, they are returning to the main theme again.

With the band still hanging on the theme at 4:10, Garcia plays some of his foghorn bass lines, then starts twirling the volume knob; at 4:43 they all seem to finally get some traction and a nice jam begins. This doesn’t go very far for now, but it does seem to get Dark Star off the ground after an inconsequential beginning. As if they don’t want to press their luck, they soon take it back to the main theme. But 6:26 sees Garcia trying to start another jam; at first the rest of them stay with the theme, but then things ease into a dark little passage with minor overtones and a swelling gong.

They again return to the theme just after 8 minutes in, and lean into it a little. At 9:04 Garcia stirs it up with a quasi-Bright Star jam that swings back to the main theme again. Now we’ve been going for 10 minutes without a verse, and without much exploration, and I find myself wishing they’d either play the verse or move on. At 11:00 there’s a hopeful moment where they seemingly decide to pretend they’ve just passed the verse, and they briefly play some big and tense chords. Not much happens here, though, and they move on to Sputnik—or so it seems, as this stops sounding like Sputnik rather quickly, and then there is a cut at 11:53 which seems to have removed the first verse.

When we return they’re playing something rather close to the theme again, briefly, and then we again hear some Sputnik notes at 12:20 as we descend into a space jam. Now things are getting interesting—Garcia plays some mostly very quiet notes, TC swirls around, and there is some gong action, and everyone else lays out for a while. At 13:33 Garcia tolls very quietly, and there is a pregnant silence surrounding him. He lays on the volume knob, and TC and the gongster quietly accompany him. Lesh then trickles back in, but everyone is still holding back.

They are committed to the space this time—more so than on any previous occasion. As we reach the 16 minute mark we are still in the thick of it. At 16:12 Garcia seems to think of an exit strategy—he starts tolling again, at first very quietly. The band swells but they’re not leaving space, this is really weird stuff! And at about 17 minutes they settle down again, and we’re back in the weird and quiet zone we just left.

At 17:17, Garcia starts playing Sputnik after a full five minutes of space. This is a gentle and weird one, and for much of it there is only Garcia and TC. At 18:39 Garcia switches to a straighter rendition of the Sputnik arpeggios and the band joins back in, although I still don’t hear Weir at first until he starts playing arpeggios behind Garcia, and at 19:07 he plays what sounds like his China Cat intro lick.

At 19:35 Garcia gently starts Bright Star, and it seems they are going to try to get to a peak. TC is very loud now, but everyone else seems reluctant to break out at first. At 21:27 Garcia’s line is a hybrid between Bright Star and Falling Star for a bit. This gets to a nice hard jam eventually, until Garcia seems satisfied and takes it back to the main theme, which Garcia varies and turns into another peak jam.

This is an odd one. The band does not sound very confident or inspired for much of it, and they seem to lack direction. However, the space jam here is remarkable; it lasts for an unprecedented 5 minutes and shows the band starting to experiment with the idea of incorporating silence into a jam. This is definitely not one to be skipped, even if it isn’t entirely successful.


What was said:

78. 1969-08-21

13850 Seattle 6:33
First verse at :18.
Second verse at 5:08.
Goes into Cosmic Charlie.

This is like a throwback to early 1968, with the first verse coming in almost immediately. Garcia seriously flubs the third line of the verse…I couldn’t even begin to transcribe whatever he sings.

After the verse, Garcia starts playing a lead right away, but it’s kind of tentative; the rest of the band starts to build a bit of tension, as is their wont, but there’s no clear demarcation this time between post-verse build-up and middle jam. At 2:46 Garcia gets a little crazy with dissonant double stops, for a brief spell. The band sounds really uncertain here, and at 3:30 they start to clop along in a two chord pattern. Weir goes to an A Maj 7 (see pbuzby below), and at around 3:47 Garcia starts playing some major key stuff. This sounds a lot like a Soulful Strut (aka Tighten Up) jam for a little while (the first, although it doesn't quite get there); this is quickly aborted, however. At 4:28, Garcia starts to wind his way toward Bright Star. He never gets there, though; Lesh finally kicks in the main theme, and Garcia sings the second verse, and the Dark Star is over!

This is really strange. They just never seemed to get off the ground with this one; besides the almost-Soulful Strut jam, nothing much happens at all here…


What was said:

77. 1969-08-16

139807 Woodstock 19:11
Main theme at :42, 2:39, 3:37, and 7:50.
First verse at 8:07.
Sputnik at
Main theme at
Second verse at
Goes into High Time.

The ROR is back, albeit it doesn’t stick around long. Garcia goes to the main theme very quickly here at :42, which is unusual for the era. The band stays with the two chord pattern for a decent amount of time here, with Garcia playing some nice, piercing leads. At about 2:30 he gets into a nice thing with TC, who is playing some reedy swells, before going back to a variant of the main theme at 2:39. The theme keeps coming back tonight, as though they’re reluctant to get too far away from the central structure of the song.

At about 5:35 there is a lull and it seems like something may be about to happen. Lesh seems determined to bring it back to the theme, and the band swings into it at 5:55, but Garcia quickly signals that he wants to go somewhere else by playing some quasi-Sputnik leads. Everyone quiets down again, and it’s not certain what is going to happen, so at 6:36 Garcia starts playing some standard Dark Star leads, but there is no corresponding build-up as the band seems content to stay in a quiet pocket. Finally, they return to the main theme, and then the verse.

They get a nice build-up going after the verse; there’s not much weirdness, nor is there tolling, but the band comes together a bit here. At 10:20 Garcia embarks on a rather aggressive lead line. The band kicks up and brings it to a peak; at 11:16 Garcia throws in a little Bright Star, as if to emphasize that they’re really doing this now. This is a pretty sustained peak for where it’s placed (right after the verse); things finally calm down at about 12:25.

This seems like Sputnik time, doesn’t it? The band seems like they’re losing the thread a little after the 13 minute mark, but Jerry doesn’t cave in; there is no Sputnik coming. Instead they soldier on through a series of lulls where almost no one is playing. Finally, at 14:17, Garcia starts playing some Sputnik jabs, although the arpeggios never materialize and it’s brief, so I suppose it doesn’t really count as a Sputnik. At 15:12, Garcia decides to play some big leads and maybe bring us back to a peak again, but this soon fizzles out. Finally, Weir and Lesh decide it’s main theme time. Jerry doesn’t acquiesce right away though, probably thinking that it’s too soon, so the band drifts off again.

At 16:43, with the band swinging back into the main theme, Garcia plays some nice bendy country licks. At 17:45 they start to conjure a peak out of nowhere, and again there is some nice Garcia stuff. Finally it winds down into High Time, without ever returning to the theme or the verse.

This is not terrible but it’s far from a top version. The band seems tentative throughout; they are mostly either sticking close to the main theme, or else wandering somewhat aimlessly. There is a nice little peak section after the verse, but otherwise there isn’t a whole lot happening here.


What was said:

76. 1969-08-03

137365 San Francisco 23:26
Main theme at 3:50.
Sputnik at 7:44.
Main theme at 11:48.
First verse at 12:05.
Bright Star at 18:52.
Main theme at 21:25.
Second verse at 21:36.
Standalone; Alligator follows.

The Grateful Dead are joined by a tenor sax and a violin player here. The conventional credits are for Charles Lloyd and David LaFlamme, although this is not certain.

The band sounds really bubbly and perky out of the gate, and they stay with the two chord pattern for a fairly good spell here, maybe due to the presence of the guests who need to fit in. The ROR seems to be gone at this point (it was absent last time as well, I think). A little after two minutes in they seem to be heading for a one-chord vamp, but Garcia starts quoting the main theme, which keeps them grounded for a while longer.

The fiddle is scratching away in the background at times, and is at other times inaudible. At 2:04, the sax begins to assert itself. Garcia quotes the main theme at 2:10, and the sax duets with him around the theme for a while. At times, Garcia lays back and lets the sax take the lead, and at other times he comes to the fore again. They seem to be building a pretty good rapport here; at about 3:10 the band starts to move away from the two chord pattern, and Jerry starts to lead the sax away from the song structure, but then at 3:50 he swings into the main theme and brings it all back.

At 4:14, there’s a little bit of Sputnik, and another opportunity to take things out emerges from this. They build a nice little peak, and at 5:04 Jerry starts playing a some Bright Star licks. They seem to be taking baby steps away from, and back toward, the song structure. By 5:15 the fiddle player (I think) is playing a little drone, which is mirrored by the sax. Then at 5:35 the fiddle takes the lead for a bit. It’s interesting to hear Jerry play what is basically a backup part here; in any case, it is certainly different from his usual approach.

At 6:35 Jerry is working his way back into the lead, and everyone else besides the drums (Kreutzmann?) drops out for a bit. With forward momentum is halted, at 7:28 Garcia switches on the insect tone, and the sax freaks out a little. Then at 7:44, Jerry starts up Sputnik. The sax player responds to this and gets more assertive, and Sputnik turns into a nice little squall. At around 9:30 we’re out the other side of Sputnik, the two chord structure is gone, and it seems we’re finally in for some exploration.

A rather chaotic crescendo follows, with the sax really leaning into it at 10:45 and environs. This builds and crests, until at 11:35 or so everyone calms down; the band kicks into the main theme, and we go to the verse (with some botched lyrics).

The post-verse section starts out calmly, with some melancholy ruminations on the melody by the fiddle player. Garcia tolls a little and the sax joins him, as the fiddle keeps oozing melody. At 14:14 Garcia starts playing with the volume knobs, and things descend into a little pocket of calm; then at 14:30, Jerry decides to lead them out of it into the post-verse proceedings. Weir, who has been fairly quiescent for much of the time so far, lays down an E minor base for the band here; the sax and violin drop back for a bit, and a brooding jam emerges.

The sax plays a supporting role for a while as Garcia and Lesh do what they do so well. As things start to build, the horn and fiddle start to work their way to the fore again, and the band starts to swell toward a peak. At about 17:50 we get there, and things sound pretty chaotic for a bit. At 18:45 this dissipates and the band kicks up the main theme, and Garcia tops it at with 18:52 Bright Star.

This segment is a lesser peak than the one directly preceding it, but it bubbles along for a while with a good amount of energy until they wind it back down into a main theme that goes quickly to the second verse.

This is a successful, if not revelatory, collaboration with outside musicians. It winds up being a solid Dark Star. Rather than pushing them into unexplored territory, the presence of other musicians seems to have made them slightly conservative, but they pull it off.


What was said:

75. 1969-07-12

123433 10:01 (beginning is cut)
Sputnik at 3:25.
Goes into The Other One.

This cuts in on a breezy jam with a lot of TC action going on. He seems uncharacteristically assertive here, and playing different kinds of stuff than usual. This hits a nice little peak at around 2:00, with Garcia starting to ease back into the center of things. At around 2:30 there are some flashes of Sputnik. This gets diverted for a little while, with Garcia starting to hint at Bright Star beginning at 2:55, but at 3:25 it comes back to Sputnik.

It’s starting to feel like Sputnik has peaked, probably a month or two ago. They don’t seem to commit to it as much lately, in any case. At the end of this one, about 5:17, Garcia plays some squalling cries as the band drops into a little space jam. In this case, Weir seems to want to bring it back to earth, and he patiently plays little rhythm figures. Finally they all come crashing together at 6:38. Garcia starts dropping Bright Star hints at 7:10, but he brings them to a peak without going there; At 7:31 he plays some really breathtaking stuff.

They bring it back down at 7:49; at around 8:10 Garcia is stabbing around, and it sounds like he wants to head toward the main theme. Instead there’s another little jam; then at 9:14, he belatedly switches on the insect weirdness. The band duly weirds out for a little while, and then Garcia brings them into The Other One.

This is short but rather intriguing, as some unusual things are happening (and not happening—no main theme, no second verse).


What was said:

74. 1969-07-07

123468 Atlanta 26:50 (cut in middle)

Main theme at 6:59, 8:18, and 12:55.
First verse at 13:11.
Sputnik at 18:35.
Bright Star at 23:21.
Main theme at 24:34.
Second verse at 25:17.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Garcia lays back for a little, coloring in with some feedback while the band (Lesh and Weir in particular) does its thing. The feedback proves to be rather persistent, though; even once Jerry starts playing, it keeps up, and it starts to seem like it might not be intentional. But after a few minutes it seems to clear up. As we pass the three minute line Garcia is starting to generate some excitement, building up to some high repeating licks; they crest the peak here and bring it down again, and then they’re working toward the next little peak. Garcia seems to be emphasizing the G (dominant 7th) quite a bit in his licks this time.

As usual, the dynamics are very…dynamic; one of the most notable things about the Dead’s playing in this era is the way the music can get louder and softer and louder again within a minute or less of playing. Indeed, often times the level of intensity is varied within the course of a single phrase. This is seems very unusual for rock music; I’d be hard pressed to think of another band that does anything similar.

At 4:29 there begins a quite remarkable stretch of music. Garcia is again hammering on the G, and the whole band starts to hover. Garcia slowly travels around the neck, visiting various notes for a spell and then moving on—some tremolo on C#, then back down to G, then he works his way up to a high F#. As Garcia hangs on each note for a while, Lesh lays in some chordal stuff; Weir starts playing some tremolo, adding to the feeling that the band is hovering. This creates a sense of drama, and you can hear the crowd respond.

Jerry starts playing some limber runs, and things seem about to open up. At around 5:24 they sound like they’re ready to move back to more familiar territory, with everything starting to coalesce and bounce, and the main theme seems like it may be in the offing, although there are some clashing harmonics and it’s still not certain what’s happening—for a few seconds, at around 5:42, it sounds a little like they’re trying to get into a Soulful Strut (aka “Tighten Up”) jam (this will make its debut in August).

There’s so much going on during the course of this minute or so of Dark Star that it’s really difficult for me to say exactly what is happening! Everyone, it seems, is threatening to fly off in a different direction, and there is a constant sense of tension, and yet somehow it all stays together. This is the stuff that makes otherwise sane people into Deadheads.

At 5:45 Garcia starts playing with the volume knob, prolonging the interlude, and Lesh duets with him, also manipulating the volume control a bit. At 6:13 Garcia starts hammering on a high E while Lesh plays a repeated descending run. Then at 6:22 Lesh starts to vamp on an E note, and the band settles into a beautiful groove in E minor, with shades of B minor as Weir hammers a hanging D and Garcia builds his line around a B.


At 6:54, Garcia decisively affirms the A, and the main theme briefly commences. Weir doesn’t seem particularly interested in playing the theme, though, and it doesn’t last long. Weir seems determined to stay in a minor key here, and Jerry acquiesces and moves away from the theme, but he is determined to get back to it, and at 8:18 he starts it up again, in an upper register with a kind of Bright Star feel. The band is banging away here, and they never quite get into straight theme mode; at 9:02, it gets bluesy for a bit, kind of like Smokestack Lightning, and it goes through a few more permutations before we get to a rousing peak beginning at around 9:48.

The stretch from 8:18 to around 11:10 is a kind of main theme jam, as the theme is its organizing principle, although it isn’t always being played at any given time. At about 11:04, the rest of the band finally settles into the theme, although Jerry isn’t playing it now. He plays a few slides and drops hints that he’s about to start, but then at 11:10 he takes off with some high runs, and soon the theme is forgotten again. Everyone bangs away for a while, and then at around 12:02 they drop into another little pocket where everyone is hovering. At 12:32 Garcia flashes Sputnik, and one begins to wonder if they’re going to forgo the verse altogether this time. At 12:55, however, Garcia again starts the main theme, and this time they wind up at the verse. At 13:11, this is the longest Dark Star intro to date. It’s also the best one they’ve done.

After the verse Garcia does some heavy bell tolling, which we haven’t heard much of recently. The band works up a serious head of steam here, and then gradually lets the pressure escape. At 15:41 Garcia casts his first notes into the ether, and it doesn’t seem like he’s sure how this one’s going to go, but everybody seems to want to stay in a minor key and brood... however, at 16:13 Garcia starts a bouncy line, and things begin to pick up. A vigorous jam ensues, with the usual peaks and valleys coming in quick succession.

There is a cut at 17:53, although it’s hard to imagine that it’s very long, given that what we have of this Dark Star is almost 27 minutes. We reëmerge into a little lull before Sputnik, which comes at 18:35. This is an energetic but spacey segment tonight, with TC sounding like he’s auditioning for Hawkwind. As Sputnik ends at 19:46, Lesh briefly starts playing his main theme lick, and then at 20:51 Garcia puts on the insect weirdness. They build a little jam here, and as Jerry switches back to a more usual tone at about 20:37 they keep it going.

This section starts to wind down, and at 21:30 Garcia starts playing some jabbed double stops in what is almost a Sputnik reprise. Things start to build a head of steam again, and we head for Bright Star. Starting at 23:43, check out Weir doubling Garcia. This rolls right into the theme (the end of Bright Star shades into the main theme in a way that makes them hard to distinguish) and the verse.

This is an astonishing performance. It is remarkable how the band has developed to the point where each member exercises an enormous amount of freedom, yet they have the confidence and skill to meld it all together into a coherent piece of music. At times they seem almost perverse in their willingness to contradict and contravene each other; yet, remarkably, the resulting synthesis is usually successful. This Dark Star seems worthy of years of study.


What was said:

73. 1969-07-05

4282 Chicago 18:27
Main theme at 3:15.
First verse at 4:00.
Sputnik at 10:20.
Bright Star at 14:46.
Main theme at 16:24.
Second verse at 16:49.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This is the only circulating recording of this, and it doesn’t sound great, but it’s not that bad. The tempo seems to be creeping down a little lately. The short intro jam has a kind of melancholy feel at the outset, with Jerry sadly ranging over the fretboard. At around 2:40 he starts to pick it up a little, and the band kicks into gear for a brief spell before grinding to a halt again at 3:10. Garcia gently lays the main theme into the breach at 3:15, and they arrive at the verse rather early.

Lesh is rather assertive in the aftermath of the verse, and TC likewise produces a lot of sound. The swelling build-up here seems to promise an increase in the level of energy, although it’s rather short tonight. Garcia chooses contrast, as his entry to the middle jam at 6:17 is quite subdued, and the band duly quietens. The jam soon reëstablishes the ruminative mood of the intro, and there is little forward momentum at first. Then, at 7:52, Garcia announces that he is ready to move forward, and the band starts to move ahead.

The jam lightly trips forward here, but it gathers steam as it goes. TC’s optimistic flourish at 9:22 seems to herald a new plateau, but a few seconds later they bring it down again. An amp is buzzing , but the effect is not altogether unpleasant. They tread water for a little while now, and the amp starts buzzing some more. At 9:57 Garcia starts playing some exaggeratedly bouncy bends, and again the jam seems to run in place until Sputnik begins.

This is another subdued Sputnik; it’s like the last one in that respect (6-27), although that one ended with a bit more of a crescendo. This one picks up for a bit, for sure, but it seems to peter out again before Garcia switches to the insect weirdness at 13:04. He noodles around with it until 13:42, when he starts in with the volume knob. This time he tries something a little different, twirling it more rapidly and making space alien noises.

By 14:30, Jerry’s exhausted the post-Sputnik tricks, and he tentatively starts feeling around for something. At 14:45, he decides to start playing Bright Star and see what happens. The band seems reluctant at first, but things inevitably pick up, and Garcia really leans into it until we reach a peak that seems almost unexpected tonight, short as it is. We come down the other side directly into the main theme, and the verse soon follows.

This is a rather morose Dark Star. For much of it the band seems content to circle around, or to move in place. I wouldn’t call it a weak version—the band is at such a good place with Dark Star that it almost seems we’re beyond that now. On the other hand, I don’t see it as one of the strongest outings of the era.


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