Friday, January 29, 2021

32. 1969-02-04



7294 Omaha, NE 13:13

Main theme at 1:54, 2:33 and 3:06.
First verse at 3:38.
Verse melody at 7:17.
Sputnik at 7:53.
Bright Star at 10:07.
Main theme at 11:05.
Second verse at 11:45.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Weir seems a little louder than usual this time, which gives us a chance to examine his contributions a little more closely. There’s a nice bit from about 1:25 where all the instrumentalists are weaving together in a way that is quite busy but very euphonious, and what strikes me is how rapidly sections like this can come on, as the band is very mobile and light on their feet at this point. At 1:34 Garcia starts playing some licks that will appear again in future renditions, but for which we have no name. The first time the band hits the main theme, they play it for about 30 seconds and then Garcia spins off into something else; then they resume it at 2:33, and this time Garcia begins varying the theme itself before again taking off again; he then returns to the theme a third time before the verse. Garcia again follows the verse with the familiar lick from 1968. There follows a nice bit where Jerry is playing on the bass strings, and Weir’s chiming rhythm part is floating above him. For a good stretch Weir seems to be playing in a higher register than usual, although it’s possible he has been doing this more than I have noticed, as his guitar is notably audible and distinct on this recording. After the Sputnik, beginning at around 9:28, Weir joins Lesh, who has been flashing the main theme, in a percussive jam which gives this section a unique flavor, and this carries over into the bouncy Bright Star that follows. At 10:53 Garcia starts what will soon be indisputably the main theme; I’ve logged it as 11:05 above, but at times it’s ambiguous where the theme begins or ends, as their treatment of it is increasingly loose and discursive at the edges.

This feels like a fragment; at this point, they can really cram a 13 minute Dark Star full of ideas, and this one feels like it never fully develops into what it wants to be. Nevertheless, Dark Star is consistently engaging, and this is no exception.


What was said

Friday, January 22, 2021

31: 1969-02-02



123283 Minneapolis 15:38
Main theme at 2:03 and 3:10.
First verse at 4:44.
Verse melody at 9:05.
Sputnik at 10:06.
Bright Star (sort of) at 12:35.
Main theme at 13:02.
Second verse at 14:09.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia again has a very bright tone and a pretty aggressive approach. Starting at :48 he ends a sequence of runs with a note that he holds for 16 seconds, letting it feed back. Weir and Lesh start the main theme at 2:01, and Garcia plays around with it a little. At 2:38 Garcia and Weir drop out briefly, and Lesh plays some legato lines before Garcia comes in and builds back up to the main theme. Instead of going to the verse they play around some more after this, and a nice crescendo is reached with a sort-of Bright Star theme at 4:02. At 4:13 Garcia drops the verse melody in (unofficially, as it were, as they don’t go to the E minor). After the verse, Garcia plays, once, the familiar verse outro from 1968. There’s an interesting bit at 6:09 where Garcia hangs on the minor third (C), before sliding up to the major third at 6:18 (C#, which is more usual here since Dark Star is most often based on A Mixolydian). At 7:09 Garcia plays a repeated figure on the bass strings that goes on for about 20 seconds before it starts spiraling upward; at 7:24 Weir starts trickling in with a co-lead, then at 7:40 he drops out as Garcia shoots up into a higher register. Things get pleasingly strange at 8:17 when everything grinds almost ot a halt, and then Garcia starts playing a repeated A that is like a bell tolling while Lesh plays lead for a while. The tension is discharged at 9:05 when Garcia plays the verse melody, this time with the familiar E minor payoff. They then build to a rousing crescendo, and you’d be forgiven for expecting Bright Star at 9:55, but instead they head into a Sputnik. TC seems to be on top of this, or maybe even an instigator, although it’s hard to tell as he is very low in the mix here. At 12:22 Lesh and Garcia are inverted for a moment, with the bass soaring above the guitar, and then at 12:35 there is a passage that’s about halfway between the main theme and Bright Star, and the main theme likewise arrives in a somewhat distorted form at 13:02 before settling in at 13:13. After this they start chugging away at the verse. But instead Garcia starts playing some chiming harmonics, very gently and beautifully, although it cannot be said that everyone is perfectly in tune at this point.


This is a fantastic rendition, and it seems to me to cover a lot of untrodden ground, although I suppose that is not entirely unusual at this point (and, as you will see, we don't have consensus about this!).




What was said:

Friday, January 15, 2021

30. 1969-01-26

109642 Avalon 9:38 (cut in the middle)

Main theme at 2:10.
Main theme at 3:15.
First verse at 4:03.
Second verse at 8:10.
Goes into St. Stephen.


The mix is more balanced this time, with TC more audible than usual, but not overbearing. Although he begins with the ROR, he’s not as wedded to it as Pigpen was, and again here he moves on from it after a few times through. Garcia comes out of the gate with some caffeinated, trebly lead work, and the band is very brisk and on top of the beat. Note from around 2:50, and again at 6:55 or so, how Weir mirrors and supports Garcia’s lead, as his playing continues to grow more imaginative and flexible, and this expands Dark Star’s horizon of possibilities dramatically. There is a nice peak at around 7:15, after a nimble build-up by Garcia, and note how from about 7:23 Garcia, Lesh, Weir and TC are all locked in together as they weave their way to another little peak, with some pleasingly off-key notes from Garcia to cap it off. There is a cut just before the second verse, but it seems like they were headed toward the verse already when it cuts. This one is very short, and probably not all that noteworthy overall, although there are certainly points of interest.


What was said:

Friday, January 8, 2021

29. 1969-01-25

109641 Avalon 14:06


Bright Star at 2:09.
Main theme at 3:00.
First verse at 3:35.
Verse melody at 6:32.
Sputnik at 7:42.
Main theme at 12:05.
Second verse at 12:38.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This one cuts in, it seems, shortly after the intro. Garcia has a particularly bright tone here. TC plays the ROR for a short while, and at :09 you can hear him suddenly cut through the mix for a second, which will happen for real two minutes later. Weir is playing a bouncy chord part that is fairly typical of what he played on this in 1968, but note how quickly he adjusts to Garcia’s shift at around 2:01. Shortly afterward, at 2:09, TC gets very loud, and this will continue, for the most part, for the rest of the show. It’s almost shocking how different his role seems at this volume, as we hear him blasting out the Bright Star theme that Garcia picks up at 2:16. TC also blasts a little Bright Star melody behind the verse at one point, and then spins out some loud lines that have the whole thing sounding a bit proggy. In the middle jam, the sound is dominated by a rich blend of guitar and keyboard, and at times it seems like Garcia is holding back a little for TC, but this seems likely to be an illusion, as it’s not clear that the sound in the monitors would have reflected the balance we find here. In any case, at times here Lesh seems to be a dominant factor, if not in volume, in the overall feel of the improvisation, as at 5:39 when he switches to a more legato approach and brings the song to a kind of oasis, with Garcia briefly laying out and TC’s keyboard swirling all over the mix. After the minor bit consequent to the verse melody, listen from about 7:04 to how locked together Lesh and Garcia are as they go into a rhythmic vamp with Garcia hammering on the high E, until he builds it up to the tonic just as TC takes it over the top, right before they lurch into a kind of askew Sputnik section. At 8:57, in a quiet passage, Garcia gently plays a variant of the main theme on the high strings, then shoots up and hovers on a B before ceding the field to TC for a moment, and then they lock together, Lesh in tow, and play through a remarkable busy but quiet passage that swells and then abates before everything comes apart a bit and then converges again as we head, at 11:55, into the first stirrings of the main theme that will coalesce at 12:05. During the second verse, TC revives the ROR for a couple of bars. At one point, after leaving the band, TC remarked that Garcia didn’t leave him much room to play, and it is interesting to hear how things would sound if he were given equal (or greater!) emphasis in the mix. Dark Star is pretty reliably magical at this point, and this one has some spellbinding passages of collective improvisation.


What was said
:

Friday, January 1, 2021

28. 1969-01-24

110304 Avalon 19:53 (actual 19:38)


Main theme at 6:36.
First verse at 7:30.
Bright Star at 13:29.
Main theme at 16:17.
Second verse at 16:46 (muffed) and then at 17:45 (almost muffed again!).
Comes to a full stop before Turn on Your Lovelight.

TC is much louder this time, although he’s still pretty far back relative to the rest of the band (but wait until next time!). Weir is louder than he’s been lately, and we can hear that his playing has gotten more varied. As usual, Garcia and Lesh snake around each other throughout, and they both seem to have no end of ideas at this point. Starting at 4:00 Garcia plays a spectacular run, and then at 4:10 there’s a kind of quasi-Bright Star. Beginning at 4:26 there’s a little section we haven’t heard before, although it sounds kind of modular, where Garcia and Lesh play a repetitive thing for a while. Another rather modular sounding section, which hints at the advent of the main theme, begins at about 5:14. In fact, little sections that sound like they could be planned or relocated spontaneously pop up all over here. After the first verse, the little lick from 1968 returns instead of a spacey section, although it’s fairly subdued for a while. Listen to Weir’s little figure starting at 10:13, and at 10:30 Garcia is playing some remarkable double stop stuff as the band starts to kick up behind him, led by Lesh (who lets himself get fairly massive here), but TC puts it over the top; the section from 10:30 until 12:00, in fact, is utterly remarkable. By 12:45 Garcia starts hinting at Bright Star, and then Falling Star at 12:57…this all discharges in a series of licks not found in our lexicon, which finally turns into Bright Star at 13:29. Again Weir is key between 14:00 and 16:00, playing churning chords and then dropping way down as the band again shifts gears, then playing chiming triads; his role has certainly expanded on this number.

Another remarkable version, with engaging group interplay throughout. This one is very powerful and even a bit unruly at times, not in a sloppy way, but insofar as there is such a strong polyphonic attack.


What was said:

Sunday, December 27, 2020

27: 1969-01-17

89798 Santa Barbara, CA 13:09

Main theme at 1:53.
Bright Star at 3:24.
Main theme at 3:55.
First verse at 4:35.
Verse melody at 6:44.
Sputnik at 8:40.
Bright Star at 9:08 (begins as main theme, more or less).
Main theme at 9:46.
Main theme at 11:13.
Second verse at 11:35.
Goes into St. Stephen.

It’s 1969! Does it sound different? For one thing, TC is a bit louder this time out, although he’s still a bit too low in the mix (spoiler alert: this will change in a big way, albeit temporarily, on the 25th!). This is another mix dominated by Garcia, to the extent that even when he’s barely hitting the strings you can hear him quite clearly, and his playing is pretty aggressive. There is an uncharacteristic pre-verse Bright Star this time, and Jerry plays with the timing of the ensuing main theme which starts at 3:55. Again the exit from the first verse is calmer and more meditative than it had been for most of 1968, and of course in the future this will be a place where the band often breaks it down into a space jam. This passage winds up with a statement of the verse melody, and note Garcia’s forceful runs over the following minor chord from about 6:55; at 7:10, he winds up big but then pulls way back, and the band responds, opening up a space into which Garcia starts dropping Sputnik-like lines (with Garcia and Lesh in lockstep as they manipulate the tempo and the rate of notes), which become even more Sputnik-like at 7:55, until we get the real McCoy at 8:40; throughout this section, the drums trickle in, and gradually they become more forceful. In general, we have more feints, adumbrations and variations of the various themes, so that labelling them is at times more difficult. The Bright Star I’ve tagged at 9:08 begins more as a statement of the main theme in a high register, until it stretches itself around into the more syncopated Bright Star theme. Lesh takes his time locking in, playing a pretty descending run under Jerry before dropping to lay a foundation under the theme. The following main theme I have logged as beginning at 9:46, but a case could be made that it starts at 9:43, where Garcia lands on the tonic and pauses; he hints at the tonic again without really playing it before starting the main theme, so that the mind reaches back and places it where it would be expected; this phantom note could also mark the start of the theme, and that’s where I’ve placed it, at 9:46. Notes that are lightly and almost inaudibly played will increasingly become part of Garcia’s style, and these are not always just grace notes but, as here, sometimes the foundational tones of a theme. At around 10:46 Garcia starts spinning out a high rolling figure that discharges itself into a near-Bright Star at 11:00, after which he tumbles into another statement of the main theme at 11:13 that is syncopated and sufficiently oblique that I hesitated over the attribution above (during this passage Weir does a lot to stir up excitement by bubbling along under the lead without directly calling attention to himself). This does not resolve into a more straightforward rendering of the theme, but leads directly to the second verse at 11:35. In general this write-up is doubtlessly too Garcia-centric, but he is the dominant force here, and the mix makes it at times difficult to sufficiently concentrate on the rest of the ensemble, but the entire band is playing very dynamically and responsively. Nothing happens that seems unprecedented, exactly; rather, Dark Star seems to be developing and becoming more subtle and assured, so that if we were to go back to one of the last few renditions we might not notice a stark difference, but compared with early versions this is a much richer, more varied and narratively gripping experience.


What was said:

Friday, December 18, 2020

26. 1968-12-29



80197 Gulfstream Park, Florida 10:25
Main theme at 2:14, and again at 2:44.
First verse at 3:00.
Verse melody at 6:31.
Main theme at 7:21 (Jerry), 7:40.
Sputnik at 7:49.
Main theme at 8:46
Second verse at 8:56

Goes into St. Stephen.


TC is again pretty faint, as he cranks out the ROR right after the intro. Garcia is aggressive and masterful, employing a rough-edged sound and some feedback in his introductory leads. The little figure coming out of the verse is gone at this point, it seems. After the verse, TC plays some good stuff; it would be nice if he were louder, but Garcia really dominates the mix here. Jerry weaves hints of the verse melody and the main theme into his soloing and at 7:21 he plays something with the feel of a Bright Star which is really more of a forceful statement of the main theme. Lesh is active but stays pretty close to home for most of this. The Sputnik at 7:49 comes abruptly, and in general this version feels sort of rushed, as though it isn’t given a chance to unfold at an organic rate…


What was said

Sunday, December 13, 2020

25. 1968-12-07



88674 Louisville, KY 13:26

TC’s first Dark Star, although he’s hard to hear.
Main theme at :019, 0:46 (briefly), and 2:52.
First verse at 3:20.
Verse melody at 6:32.
Sputnik at 8:55.
Main theme at 11:06 (briefly) and 11:26.
Second verse at 11:55.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This cuts in after the intro. Garcia covers a lot of ground in the first section, and seems to employ a wider array of strategies than usual. There are some beautiful melodic passages here. After the first verse, Garcia eschews the usual figure and plays some gentle spacey lines instead, allowing us to hear TC a little. At 5:18 he starts playing with the volume knob, and things get even spacier. Then at 5:41 Garcia hints at Bright Star as he swings into action. The melody at 7:49 seems like something we hear again, maybe it should have a name…it gets very intense, and hints at Bright Star a few times before becoming Sputnik at 8:55. There’s a big buildup after Sputnik, with Garcia playing a series of chiming tones and then harmonics as Phil patters around until it swings around to the main theme. This seems a little anti-climactic at this point, as a Bright Star or something more dramatic would have really brought it all home. Nevertheless, even though this first Dark Star with TC is at times a little tentative, overall it is a really excellent rendition, as they all seem to be at this point.


What was said:

Sunday, December 6, 2020

REHEARSAL WITH TC (1968-11-06?)



82393 Pacific High Recording 14:38

Main theme variations at 5:28, 6:18, and 7:08. First verse at 7:27. Main theme (a bit) at 10:01. Bright Star (a bit) at 10:46. Verse melody at 10:56. Sputnik at 11:35. Bright Star at 12:14. Main theme at 12:37. Second verse at 13:10. Goes into St. Stephen.


This seems to be a rehearsal where they are teaching TC some of the material. You can hear someone telling him the chord changes from around 1:35. They start playing at around 2:18; Garcia repeatedly plays the ROR, trying to teach it to TC. By 3:25 Jerry feels he’s got it (although he sounds very stiff!), and starts noodling around. TC steps out a little at the end of the first verse, adding a few flourishes. He moves away from the ROR at times after the verse, and things seem to pick up a bit. At around 11:25 there’s a nice little passage with Jerry and Phil. TC starts playing something Sputnik like around 11:35, and it goes into a small Sputnik from there. TC gets better as it goes, although he is a bit stiff throughout.


What was said:

Saturday, November 28, 2020

24. 1968-11-22



21933 Columbus, OH 11:52

Last Dark Star with Pigpen on keys for a good while (He added some organ on some 1972 versions, at least, but this is the end of him playing the ROR—though not the end of the ROR, as TC will take it over, although he’s less relentless with it than Pigpen) and Hart is the only drummer (Kreutzmann was sick, according to LIA).
Main theme at 2:08.
First verse at 2:32.
Sputnik begins (more or less) at 6:43.
Bright Star at 9:12.
Main theme at 10:02.
Second verse at 10:30.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This is a bad-sounding AUD, but at least Garcia is loud…his guitar really flows on the (short) intro, as his increasing mastery of the instrument is really evident here. We’re almost to the end of 1968, and Garcia is still coming out of the verse with the same little figure. It sounds like a cliché—or I guess it is one—but from the moment he begins the break proper on some particularly assertive low notes at 3:55, his playing is especially lyrical here. At times it’s almost as if he’s saying something with determinate semantic content, and if you strain you can catch his point…at least, we can almost identify a kind of syntax, as there’s a series of commas and then, at 4:17, an ellipsis opens; he gives us a second to let this secondary point sink in, and then rephrases it, after which he returns to his primary thesis with some emphatic low phrases at 4:25, then soars back up into a higher register to expound the finer points… at 4:45, he is suddenly confident he’s won our assent, and you can almost see him excitedly nodding as he works out some of the implications of the thesis to which we’ve now all agreed. Then at 5:06 he lurches into a series of funky rhythmic double stops, and again the music just seems like music…or maybe that was the thesis all along: it’s just music, so stop trying to impute some sort of message to it! At 5:37, his repetitious phrase descends into dissonance and feedback, intensifying at 5:47, as if to underscore the point, or lack thereof…which have somehow become the same thing in my interpretation, which is probably a good indication that it has run its course! But Garcia’s solo has not, in fact it takes off into a blistering series of peaks which reaches its apex around 6:42, at which point a transition into Sputnik begins. Although Weir is lost in the mix for much of this, we can hear him contributing to the Sputnik as it nears its peak, which increases the excitement considerably. Then by 8:05 we briefly enter one of the spaciest segments we’ve had in a Dark Star thus far, which culminates with a quick reiteration of Sputnik at 8:44. The Bright Star that follows (it’s hard to identify the exact beginning of this one) is one of the most thrilling iterations of this theme to date, although there’s already been so much excitement that it seems almost superfluous! Although the sound is not good, this is a very worthy addition to our stock of Dark Stars…and it might be even better than I think it is, since we can’t hear a lot of what is happening.


What was said
:

Friday, November 20, 2020

23: 1968-11-01



9965 Chico, CA 12:23 (actual time 12:10)

Main theme at 2:39.
First verse at 3:08.
Verse melody at 6:18.
Bright Star at 7:51, 9:32 (feint) and 10:02.
Main theme at 10:27.
Second verse at 10:51.
Goes into The Other One.

This one seems a bit slower than most versions to date. The sound is a little muddy, with Garcia coming through most clearly, but it clears up a bit a couple minutes in so that Lesh comes through more; however, the rest of the band stays back in the mix. Garcia begins with a winding, vaguely Eastern-flavored solo. Lesh plays some bouncy lines under the verse…from 5:28 to about 6:05, Garcia plays a repetitive line and Lesh winds around it with some variations. Coming out of the verse melody at 6:38 Garcia plays a very fluid, longish passage and then reverts to repetition at 6:55, a particularly effective combination. At various points he throws in some bluesy bends. At 7:35 he begins a repetitive passage and then lets it unwind—kind of the reverse of the strategy mentioned just above—until it becomes Bright Star at 7:51. At 7:59 there is a kind of variation on Falling Star, which has become more rare (although Garcia is not done with it yet). Bright Star briefly returns at 9:32, with variations, until it bursts out in earnest at 10:02, an effective exercise in delayed gratification. Overall, the variety and fluency of both Garcia’s and Lesh’s lines is remarkable here; this has come a long way in just under a year.


What was said:

Friday, November 13, 2020

HARTBEATS D: 1968-10-30? (2)



1205 MATRIX 19:47

Probably not from this date, but this is how it circulates.

Main theme at 1:59.
Sputnik (pretty much, anyway) at 9:42.
Main theme at 13:14.
Main theme at 15:16.
Bright Star at 15:40.
Main theme variation at 19:00.

Garcia comes in at :47 with what is essentially a statement of the verse melody, and sort of noodles it out from there. Phil is very active again here (this is sometimes said to be Jack Casady, but I think this is definitely Phil; the bass sounds the same as it does on the first version listed on this date, and it sounds like Phil’s playing). Garcia sounds like he’s trying to change things up a bit, as with the other Hartbeats versions I suppose. There’s a bit of the verse melody again around 5:30, and elsewhere it’s woven into Garcia’s leads as he spins some variations; as ever, his playing is often very melodic here, and usually seems rooted in the basic melodies of the song in one way or another, even as he investigates other avenues. At 8:05 Jerry and Phil start doing some heavy riffing, with Phil playing chords on the bass. Garcia comes out of this with some striking runs; he’s developing a sense for drama in his playing that will perhaps see its most striking, and anyway its most well-known, formulations on 1969-02-27. At around 9:40 Phil starts pushing the tempo just before Garcia begins playing what is more or less Sputnik. Garcia varies Sputnik a bit here; at around 10:07 it starts to transform into something else which is a kind of variation on Sputnik that we don’t, I don’t think, hear elsewhere. Phil plays a sort of high, peppy line around 10:17 but soon abandons it and starts playing chords again, and then he and Garcia start playing more deliberate lines, as the tempo seems to vary a bit again. At 11:38 Phil begins a rolling, bluesy figure that gets things moving again, but he doesn’t stay with this long either, and at 12:20 Jerry hints at Bright Star and then the main theme. Kreutzmann comes in with the full kit at 12:48, which is a welcome change; up until this point, it’s essentially a guitar/bass duet with a little percussion. Phil signals for the main theme at 13:08, and Garcia takes him up on it at 13:14. Garcia’s tonal palette seems narrower on these Hartbeats versions, but he switches to a rounder tone at around 13:20. At 14:06 Garcia seems to put on a little tremolo, and he sounds like an organ; he repeatedly plays 4 notes for over a minute and lets Phil blow before stating the theme, and then Bright Star. It gets rather spirited at this point, and then the energy starts to dissipate, with some Sputnik-like runs and a few partial stabs at the main theme popping in before the end, and the recording fades out just as they seem to be returning in earnest to the main theme. Once again, although the full band is missed, this is a kind of low-key pleasure nonetheless…


What was said:

Friday, November 6, 2020

HARTBEATS C: 1968-10-30 (1)




1205 MATRIX 17:24

Main theme at 3:34 and 13:10.
Verse melody at 13:20.
Goes into Death Letter Blues.

Loose and relaxed, with Garcia playing free and easy. Lesh's tone sounds different to me, but apparently it is he…there’s a feint at the main theme at 2:56. Garcia and Lesh bounce off each other throughout. While Weir is still missed, this seems a bit more successful than the previous Hartbeats renditions due to the interplay between the two of them, which seems closer and tighter than the last two. Garcia seems to employ a lot of double stops and/or triads here, more than usual anyway. Lesh goes high around 8:09—the bottom drops out, I suppose, but it’s a striking passage—he seems to be mixing it up here more than on the previous Grateful Dead version (10-20); around 8:49 he starts playing chords, another notable passage. Some bashing on the drum kit beginning at around 10:50, but oddly it doesn’t change the feel very much. There’s a bit of a peak around 12:25; Garcia has been playing some rolling chordal passages and then Lesh again plays some chord stuff. Check out Garcia’s rake at 13:38…Garcia begins a new theme around 14:10, pushing at the tonality, but in short order, he reels it back in. Lesh tries an ascending riff around 14:50 that (pleasingly) sends it off track again for a little while. There is some delicate interplay toward the end, with a rather subdued Bright Star coming in at 16:28, with Lesh playing up the neck. Overall, an interesting version.


What was said
:

Thursday, October 29, 2020

22. 1968-10-20




9071 (also on 30 Trips) UC Berkeley 10:17

Main theme at 1:41, and a variant thereof at 2:35.
First verse at 2:59.
Verse melody at 5:42.
Sputnik at 7:18.
Bright Star at 8:11.
Main theme at 8:37.
Second verse at 8:55.
Goes into St. Stephen.


The very beginning is cut. Pigpen is back, but he’s not too far forward on this one. This is the advent of the SG and Garcia’s tone really cuts here! He sounds particularly nimble and avid on the pre-verse stuff. Garcia throughout his career has had a truly distinctive tone on the bass notes, and see 4:09 here for a great early example (he managed a similar effect when he began to play Fenders and then his custom guitars, although of course it’s somewhat different—later on, his low notes at times remind me of a giant insect!). Here he switches pickups at times almost mid-phrase, for instance compare just before and after 5:20; the effect is almost as if he’s having a conversation with himself, as has been remarked several times here (but it always seems noteworthy). Check out the variant of the verse melody at 6:55; at this stage, he is very adept at threading hints and quotes of the song’s themes throughout his improvisations. The transition to the following Sputnik is seamlessly sudden. Light Into Ashes considers the Bright Star here an “Amazing Climax” (“Dark Star 1968”) but the band as a whole keeps a pretty even keel throughout this one, to my ears. Some versions are exploratory, and some are kind of tours de force (a preeminent example of the latter, I think, is 1969-02-27), and the difference by the two seems to me to be determined by what Garcia does. That’s not to say that he always leads the jams, although at this point that is the most common scenario. This one is a tour de force, and Garcia held my attention throughout; I had to listen to it again to pay closer attention to Lesh and Weir. The latter is a little quiet in this mix. Phil is fairly subtle for much of this one, gradually introducing variations and most often keeping to a pretty straightforward approach. In any case, this is a wonderful rendition, although we still seem to be in a consolidation phase rather than a period of revolution…


What was said
:

Friday, October 23, 2020

21: 1968-10-13

 

115606 Avalon 13:08


Main theme at 1:28.
First verse at 2:12.
Verse theme at 6:45.
Bright Star at 8:25.
Falling Star at 9:12.
Sputnik at 9:45.
Main theme at 11:02.
Second verse at 11:42.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Pigpen is again missing. Very driving introduction up to where the main theme comes in, then it almost falls apart and comes back with a more laid-back mien. Weir is rather loud on this one, and you can hear how integral he is to the whole thing, playing triads in ascending bursts between 5 and 6, and when he finds himself alone right before Garcia’s statement of the verse melody at 6:45 he starts playing something that sounds a bit like Sputnik. The mix makes Garcia blend in a bit more on this one, but he is again brilliant, playing flowing, wide-ranging lines and employing an array of voices, and again some feedback. The run up to Bright Star is particularly thrilling, and Garcia comes out of this with some staccato bursts leading to a playful run at Falling Star. Lesh is almost constantly in motion here, and seems to be leading the way at times. Overall this is an energetic version, filled with ideas. They seem to be mostly consolidating their hold on the song at this point, although Sputnik has just been added, and this is a great expression of what they can do with it at this point.


What was said:

Saturday, October 17, 2020

20: 1968-10-12



86759 Avalon 14:52

Main theme at 3:45.
First verse at 4:17.
Verse melody at 8:09.
Bright Star at 10:29.
Falling Star at 11:00.
Sputnik at 11:44.
Main theme at 12:43.
Second verse at 13:23.
Goes into St. Stephen.

No Pigpen this night. Jerry takes his time after the intro, playing moody, spooky lines and again varying his voice effectively. Lesh is fully unleashed here as well, with a seemingly endless supply of contrapuntal ideas. Garcia comes out of the first verse with the familiar pattern from earlier in the year, and launches into a remarkable series of melodies, double stops, bends, a little feedback, and repeated motifs with Lesh providing the perfect counterpoint at every step. Weir is less clearly audible much of the time but his presence is very much felt, and we know how crucial it is, especially after reviewing the Hartbeats versions. He’s more prominent when things quiet down between around 9:45 and when Bright Star begins at 10:29. During Bright Star you can hear him playing some melodic lines. We finally get an unmistakable Sputnik at 11:44. This is still relatively compact, and stays inside compared, of course, to what’s still to come, but it’s nevertheless a masterful version, and very satisfying.




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Saturday, October 10, 2020

HARTBEATS B: 1968-10-10



Matrix 4513




15:29

There’s some tuning, accompanied by a chiming bell, at the beginning. Intro starts at 2:18, so this is really about 13:10 in length. No verses. Main theme at 7:22. Main theme at 10:02. Goes into 11 jam. Very relaxed version, dancing around some of the themes without really stating them for the most part. Garcia seems to be playing more double stops and partial chords than usual. Gets Sputnik-y around 5:46 for a brief spell; interesting oblique initial pass at the main theme, including a (possibly intentional?) wrong note, around 7:05. Sort of a mini-Sputnik at 7:58, and again around 8:27. A feint at the main theme at 9:48 leads to an interesting run from Garcia, then the main theme comes in at 10:02. At 11:36 Phil briefly plays something that sounds like some of the stuff he’d play in the “Philo Stomp” in 1972. He gets some similar stuff going again toward the end, which makes for an interesting way for this to wind up, and there finally seems to be a bit of energy (although again I can’t help but imagine Weir playing along).







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Saturday, October 3, 2020

Hartbeats A: 1968-10-08



HARTBEATS A: 1968-10-08 25757 

Sometime around this point Weir and Pigpen were supposedly fired from the band, although the exact dates, and how serious the firing was, are unclear (the Dead would play with Weir a few days after this, and although Pigpen was absent, this is said to be because his girlfriend was ill). At the time, this show seems to have been billed as both “Jerry Garrceeah and his Friends” and “The Grateful Dead with Elvin Bishop,” depending on the listing (1968-10-08 The Matrix, San Francisco, CA, USA - Jerry Garcia ). ). It seems that there are no shows that were billed as Mickey and The Hartbeats until the next year, although Garcia calls them that at one point during this set. In any case, the personnel on this Dark Star seems to be Garcia, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Hart.




12:55 (track time on the above source; there’s space at the beginning, this really lasts about 12 minutes). No verses. Sputnik (maybe, there is some controversy still!) at 6:28. Main theme at 7:11. Verse melody at 9:59. Goes into Cosmic Charlie.




This starts with the familiar intro lick. It’s very laid-back and noodly, and lacks the drive of the Dead versions of the time. It’s striking, in fact, how little seems to be happening at times with just two non-drummers playing (and the drummers aren't doing much). Garcia fiddles around a bit and then at 2:39 he starts a chordal vamp much like Weir would have played; this briefly mutates into a three-chord figure that sounds a little different than the usual part, which Lesh only loosely follows. Garcia plays something like the main theme starting at 5:14. Beginning at 6:28 Garcia plays what I think we can maybe call the first Sputnik, although it will subsequently pick up a few more notes. At 7:11 Garcia briefly plays the main theme, and since there are no verses starts playing around with it a bit. Starting at 8:19 Garcia starts fooling around with a little rolling figure that starts to sound a little like Sputnik. Around 10:30 Garcia begins to whip up some excitement, but I find myself thinking of a Weir part building underneath it, and how much better it would be…at around 11:40 Garcia gets a sweet tone that sounds almost Fender-like, probably something that’s more noticeable without another guitar in the mix (this is near the end of the tenure of the black Les Paul, although it’s possible he played a different guitar for this gig…I can’t tell that just by listening, but I am pretty sure he is still playing a Gibson here, in any case). This lacks the usual ending, as Garcia plays a harsh swell in prelude to the intro to Cosmic Charlie, which does not yet have the Chuck Berry-like double stop intro, but starts with the main riff. Overall this is certainly of interest, but it’s not terribly exciting. Goes into the first known “Cosmic Charlie,” which lacks the chorus (“Say you’ll come back…”) lyrics at this point. I put on the last Dark Star to check @Mr. Rain 's timing corrections (thank you very much for that!) after listening to this. For all our lukewarm reaction to that one, it seemed absolutely sizzling with molten energy after listening to this one!




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Saturday, September 26, 2020

19: 1968-09-02

14:06 115592


Sultan, WA


Main theme at 2:05, and again at 3:46. First verse at 4:49. Verse melody at 8:13. Sort of a flash of Bright Star>Falling Star beginning at 10:38; Main theme at 11:05, which mutates into Bright Star, and back into the main theme by 12:05, although at times the distinction between Bright Star and the main theme is blurred here. Second verse at 12:40.


Weir is rather loud on this source, and Garcia switches channels a lot early on. Garcia again plays the old lick out of the verse. Proto-Sputnik at 10:08. Garcia again is masterful here, and there is a lot of momentum to this and some dynamics, although it doesn’t seem to push things forward much. This is a solid version, but in the grand scheme of things not a particularly significant one.


Despite what Light Into Ashes says, we do not really get a Sputnik until 1968-10-08 (which is the next one we will consider).




What was said:

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

18: 1968-08-28



10:49 133762
Avalon Ballroom

Intro is very slightly cut. Main theme at 1:36. First verse at 2:03. Main theme, sort of hinted, at 4:59 before verse melody at 5:04. Main theme at 8:57. Second verse at 9:20. Goes into St. Stephen.


Even more compact than the last one, but this is full of riches for those willing to peer through the murk! LIA is fairly dismissive of this one, but I think that the poor sound quality is, as it must, influencing him; I wasn't that impressed with it either when I listened to it a few weeks ago making my way through 1968, but doing this project forces me to listen really closely every time, which if nothing else is ample justification for doing this! I wouldn't call this a standout version, but if we had a really clear recording I think we'd all agree it's worthy. Dark Star has come a long way since January, and even though this one isn't really a step forward, it's not a step back either--like 8-24, it's a somewhat compressed version (now that 8-21 and 8-23 have flashed what a little stretching can do) but it has some power.

LIA identifies an "early version [of Sputnik]" here, which is ambiguous, because by "early version" he could mean a proto-Sputnik, and that's indeed what I would call this (6:23).

Some nice soloing by Garcia prior to the verse, with a beautiful run beginning at around 1:20 that winds up alluding to both the Bright Star theme and the verse melody. After the verse, Garcia begins with the figure that was standard in early 1968 (I think @Mr. Rain pointed this out on the last one, too?). From around 4:40 listen to Phil ascend and slow his line down, which makes a very effective foil for the busier stuff Garcia is doing. Really elegant fast descending run by Garcia around 5:27. Proto-Sputnik at 6:23. At 7:38 Garcia starts playing some low, angry licks, and then he drags the tempo a little for emphasis; meanwhile, the band seems to darken and intensify the music. This effect could be heightened by the poor sound quality; on the other hand, AUDs can sometimes be revealing of effects that are more subtle on a SBD. The crowd whoops in appreciation at the end of this sequence, in any case, so it seems like a genuinely powerful moment.


What was said:

Reference

Lexicon: Themes and Modular Jams

Here is a key to some of the terminology we will be using in our exploration of Dark Star. There are several themes that reappear in various...