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.


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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: