41. 1969-02-22

112691 Vallejo 22:19
Main theme at 4:42 and 6:43.
First verse at 6:54.
Verse melody at 10:06.
Sputnik at 14:05.
Bright Star at 18:57.
Main theme at 20:15.
Second verse at 20:41.
Goes into The Other One (Cryptical Envelopment).


This is preceded by a stupendous version of Mountains of the Moon and, unusually, goes into The Other One. The little jam after MOTM is a bit longer this time. Dark Star seems maybe a tad slower than usual, it has a stately feel to it. Garcia’s opening lead gradually intensifies into an authoritative groove, and TC seems a little more textural in the early going, as opposed to the noodly swirling he often purveys. This results in a relatively thicker sound, and things come to a sort of miasmic head at around 2:12—2:20 where everything seems to condense for a little while. The cohesiveness of the day before is in evidence as the band again sounds very much together, able to converge and bring things to a peak at will. An early highlight is the somewhat Sputnik-y series Garcia initiates at 3:36, which goes from descending arpeggios to double stops before bursting into a sunlit clearing at around 3:11. After the main theme a minute or so later, Garcia unleashes a wonderful little series of leads before heading to the verse, and just after the 6 minute mark the band sounds like they’re ready to explore a bit before they reel it in. At 6:30 this has become a little segment that is obviously pregnant with the main theme, which returns at 6:43 and quickly goes to the verse. They’ve taken their time with all this, but it all feels preparatory; as good as it is, the main effect is an adumbration of possibilities, as they seem a little restrained throughout the introductory part. Weir follows the verse with a bright, bouncing series of double-stopped lines in his usual inimitable fashion, and Garcia plays what sounds like a variation on the 1968 lick out of the verse at 8:13, and then launches into a lead that picks up in the same vein as it was left before the verse. When he turns up the heat a little at about 9:27, the others are in lockstep with him, and Garcia takes the power fed back to him and leads them to an emphatic statement of the verse melody. This keeps things simmering, as it seems like there are potencies here that are at the ready, but have not yet been tapped. After the verse interlude the band’s intensity has increased, but in a rather controlled, incremental way, as Garcia plays repetitious figures and then sets off on an ascending run at 10:57 which seems to point the way to a freer space just ahead. At 11:14 he is toying with the main theme but, perhaps realizing that it is early yet, he sets off for other climes. Garcia’s rolling lines from around 11:37, and particularly at 11:54, sound like something rehearsed or familiar, yet I don’t think we’ve heard it before, and he quickly moves on to other things. It’s probably happened very gradually, but Weir sounds utterly at home here…his playing is vital and creative, and he manages to vary his parts to suit the required intensities of the moment without ever sounding forced or out of place. This may be the biggest factor in the way that Dark Star sounds so cohesively mobile at this point; again, though, there is the sense that it has not yet gone everywhere it is capable, just now, of going. At 12:39 Garcia sounds like he’s going to head toward Sputnik, and again the band picks up on it immediately. But instead of Sputnik, there is a sparkling, twinkling peak, and it’s just a beautiful moment. The band then takes it down, and Jerry takes another run in the general direction of Sputnik, which finally comes in for real at 14:05. Garcia goes to the tolling bell sound at the tail end of Sputnik, and then Lesh suddenly sounds like he means business, firing off some darkly melodic runs as Garcia puts on the weird post-Sputnik effect, and we are almost in a little Space interlude. Garcia plays a melody with this that sounds like what he does on Live/Dead, but Lesh keeps thing spacy and Jerry starts playing with his volume knob. Immediately after, the counterpoint between Lesh and Garcia is magnificent, as Weir wisely keeps things simple with a binding chordal part in the middle of it all, until he begins to syncopate a little—this sets Jerry off, as the band goes into a variation of the main theme with offset rhythms that is one of the most sophisticated things we have heard in a Dark Star, if somewhat brief. This seems like it’s heading toward a Bright Star, which is one way to get everyone back on the straight and narrow without a mishap, and that is exactly what happens at 18:57, although the Bright Star theme is only briefly stated. And, soon enough, we have arrived at the verse.


The highlight tonight is, I think, the pre-Sputnik section.


The name of the Dark Star game, these nights in Vallejo, is cohesion and controlled experimentation. There is intensity here, but not in the form of explosive peaks; the band sounds very much in control of things and capable of peaking, should they choose, but they forgo such theatrics and keep things simmering; or, perhaps its more accurate to say that when the intensity increases it does so continuously, rather than breaking out as a sudden cloudburst. In this sense there is still something propaedeutic about these Dark Stars, yet they are very satisfying in their own right, and even exciting insofar as they show us a band and a song that now seem capable of feats that would not have been possible months, or even weeks, before. If the band was wiped out in a bus crash after the Vallejo shows, I think that the discerning listener may have surmised that the world had been deprived of future Dark Stars that would have reached new heights, and feel this as a loss for humanity. Fortunately, no such thing happened; my point, however, is that there is both palpable development here, and at the same time attainment, as the Dream Bowl both points to what is yet to happen, while at the same time displaying a power of execution that had not hitherto been reached.


What was said:

40. 1969-02-21

111780 Vallejo 20:38
Main theme at 6:44.
First verse at 7:34.
Verse melody at 13:11.
Sputnik at 14:14.
Bright Star at 18:12.
Main theme at 18:35.
Second verse at 19:05.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia begins right away with a serious lead, playing vigorous trebly lines and hitting some variations on Bright Star and the main theme. There’s a nice TC moment from 3:00 to around 3:09 where he comes bubbling up in a way that nicely buoys Garcia’s lead. The latter is again using repetition to good effect here. At 5:05 things almost come to a halt as the band pauses to take stock of the situation. When they come back they are hinting at a minor key before things suddenly pick up again, but a little weirder this time. They finally arrive at the verse at 7:34, which makes this the longest intro to date (1-24 was at 7:30). Garcia comes out quietly after the verse, neither playing the 68 lick nor bell tolling, but by 9:30 he’s ready to take things up a notch. This time Weir is pushing right behind him, bolstering Garcia’s lead much like TC did earlier. Beginning at 10:41 Garcia plays a repetitive line that sends the band into a weird little groove; the extent to which they all seem to be listening to each other is remarkable here. This descends into quietness again; everyone seems concerned with dynamics this time out. Weir and Lesh play a slow groove as Garcia spins out some quietly stinging lines. After the verse melody, it seems like things are heading for a peak as Garcia plays a repetitive ascending lick (which I think we’ve heard before) but instead they go to Sputnik. Garcia again puts on the post-Sputnik effect, and this time he plays around with it for a little while as things pick up steam again briefly, before again simmering down and getting weird. This culminates in Garcia’s statement of the main theme in his lead at about 16:59. This functions almost like Bright Star insofar as it seems about to bring the band to a peak, but this does not happen; they circle around some more, and suddenly it seems like a Bright Star is absolutely necessary. That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s coming, but this time they take the obvious course and unleash Bright Star at 18:12. But, yet again, the band pulls back from the peak rather quickly!

This may be the most sophisticated Dark Star to date. It feels truly collaborative, as the band interacts closely throughout. In its dynamic mobility, it almost seems above such vulgarities as an ensemble peak of any real duration, but it keeps the listener on her toes all the more for that. This proves to be an engaging, even gripping, rendition.


What was said:

39. 1969-02-15

2175 Philadelphia 23:00 (actually 22:00)
Main theme at 3:54.

First verse at 4:53.
Verse melody at 12:40.
Sputnik at 16:18.
Bright Star at 19:37.
Second verse at 21:25.
Goes into St. Stephen.
Main theme at 20:40.



This is the second one we have that emerges from “Mountains of the Moon.” This has a nice jam in between, although once Garcia switches to electric it moves almost immediately to “Dark Star.” This one feels lighter than the day before. Garcia plays some of his tolling bell licks in the beginning, before launching into a hazy lead. After a repetitive series of ascending notes anchored by a repeated low tone that sounds like it’s heading for the main theme, Garcia first temporizes with another lead and some pseudo-Sputnik licks. After the verse, he goes back to the bell tone very briefly, but maybe he feels like he’s done it already since he quickly moves on. Weir and Lesh play it pretty close to the vest right after the verse, providing a light cushion for Jerry’s ruminations. Things almost come to a stop at 7:27, but the band relaunches right away with a weirder ensemble vibe, as Lesh in particular starts to wander a bit more. At about 8:53 TC and Weir step out front for a spell, as Garcia lays out. The playing here is quite textural, and no one seems to be advancing things much until Weir starts playing single notes at around 10:56, and the band slides into some evil circus music with TC swirling away. Weir goes back to comping, then back to a sort of lead at 11:50 or so. We can finally hear Garcia again at 12:08 but he’s hanging way back. Finally he breaks back in with the verse melody at 12:40. For some reason this doesn’t crash into the e minor but unwinds with some lead guitar with Lesh playing some fuzzy weird tones. Things shift a bit at the 15 minute mark with a mild increase of intensity, which is nevertheless short-lived. At around 16 minutes Garcia switches to the bridge pickup and begins gearing up for the coming Sputnik. Garcia again comes out of the Sputnik with a weird effect on his guitar, and he keeps it going a little bit longer this time, going back into a roll pattern. There is a scratcher or something scratching away in the left channel as Jerry kicks back into a more ordinary guitar sound and spins out more lead lines. The band hits a nice little bounce shortly after 19 minutes which takes them into Bright Star. This issues forth into a repetitive interlude that serves as a little windup for the main theme, which Garcia attacks with gusto.


There are nice moments here, but this one feels a bit like they are treading water for much of it. It burbles along without anything too momentous happening at any point.


What was said:

38. 1969-02-14

141006 Philadelphia 19:03.
Main theme at 4:23.
First verse at 5:38.
Verse melody at 9:37.
Sputnik at 11:36.
Bright Star at 15:21.
Main theme at 16:44.
Second verse at 17:22.

Goes into St. Stephen.


The intro is cut. This has a pretty slow tempo [it seems that this source runs slow!], and the stretch it out more than they have been doing recently. Garcia plays a unique chiming drone around 3:52 that touches on Sputnik before heading into the main theme. Instead of going to the verse, Weir starts playing a high chime as Garcia pokes around on the bass notes, and then it sort of abruptly goes to the verse. At the conclusion of the first verse, Garcia again plays tolling bell tones rather than the 1968 lick. At around 7:50 he gets a striking tone on the bass notes, and begins a hazy ascent to the heavens that culminates around 8:20 or so with some repeated higher figures, then begins to wind its way upward some more until it discharges into a high sustained note at 9:31, before heading into the verse melody. The E minor section after the verse melody is rather dark and dramatic this time. Garcia is playing long, fluid lines throughout this jam, and dipping into little pockets of repetition along the way, which give the band a chance to kick up behind him. The Sputnik appears rather abruptly at 11:36, and again Garcia plays with that distinct trebly, distorted tone at the end of it; as usual, this doesn’t last very long. There is a beautiful passage of distorted guitar, and then Bright Star seems to appear out of nowhere, before it turns into a kind of bluesy variation of the main theme which builds to a little peak at around 16:30.


This one is a little slower, and the overall effect is dark and sort of menacing at times. The themes sort of ooze to the surface rather than appearing in a discernible sequence. The result is aesthetically quite satisfying, as if we are being shown a particular tract of psychic space that Dark Star has thrown open to us.


What was said:

37. 1969-02-12

6285 Fillmore East 4:59 (cut)
Bright Star at 0:00.
Main theme at 2:02 and 3:03.
Second verse at 3:23.

Goes into St. Stephen.


This is a fragment only, presumably cutting in late in the between verse jam, but what’s here is pretty nice. It is kind of tantalizing, but there’s not much to go on.




What was said:

36. 1969-02-11

Youtube Fillmore East 12:29
Comes out of Mountains of the Moon.

Main theme at 1:22, 2:11 and 2:35.

First verse at 3:12.
Verse melody at 6:11.
Sputnik at 7:20.
Bright Star at 8:59.
Main theme at 9:36 and 10:43.
Second verse at 10:57.


The Dead were opening for Janis Joplin, and perhaps trying to be concise. Nevertheless, the pace is relatively deliberate this time. This is the first time that Dark Star comes out of Mountains of the Moon, with a nice little transition in between. Garcia keeps slipping in and out of the main theme during the ~3 minute intro. Garcia’s entry after the verse, after a short interlude with tolling bell sound, is striking. Here he eschews the 1968 lick, and he sounds rather fuzzy on the low notes. At some point here TC enters the mix. There’s a nice little duet between Garcia and Lesh starting around 5:40. This time Weir seems to initiate the Sputnik while Garcia is perhaps hinting at it. Again Garcia plays with a distinctive effect after the Sputnik, though again not for long. Bright Star seems to come out of nowhere this time, without much of a build-up, and it goes right into the main theme. The band gets a round of applause when Garcia goes into the second verse.

This sounds very together but there’s really nothing new or particularly noteworthy going on.


What was said:

35. 1969-02-07

137392 Pittsburgh, PA 14:07


Begins with an emcee saying he wants to thank the crowd “for all the solar system people,” which I got a kick out of (was that the name of a production company? otherwise, it seems kind of presumptuous! [pbuzby: Most depressed sounding emcee in history. "Solar System Light and Power Company" produced this show])

Main theme at 2:13 and 3:24.
First verse at 4:30.
Verse melody at 7:50.
Sputnik at 9:07.
Bright Star at 11:01.
Main Theme at 11:55.
Second verse at 12:34.
Goes into St. Stephen.


TC seems a little more at home at this point, I think…and we can hear him, which is always nice. Garcia sounds loaded and ready, he goes to the main theme rather quickly but then takes off again for a while. He briefly plays a wrong note (a major 7, I think) at 2:28 before bending up to the right one. I am sure he sometimes does this entirely by accident, but it sounds in a way fitting here, and I wonder if sometimes he is trying to push against the bars of tonality a little and taking a chance on purpose. This is far from unusual over the years, and I might even venture to say he plays more clams than most similarly accomplished players, although when I say that I also immediately recall that there is no one I am aware of whose work has been so extensively documented, so he may not stand out in that regard after all. In any case, listen to the continuously fluid outpouring of notes from 6:49 to 7:43; it doesn’t seem like the work of a guy who will accidentally land on the major 7th. With the verse melody in between, this passage is offset by Garcia’s increasingly choppy approach from 8:15 until the Sputnik at 9:07. Listen to how Lesh drones for the first part of the Sputnik, and then starts mixing it up; coming out of this section Garcia adopts a guitar sound we’ll hear again on the 27th (and I can’t swear we haven’t heard it before). The Bright Star at 11:01 begins very delicately, and although it builds, it’s not an occasion for the band to peak this time.

This one is pretty but seems sort of uneventful. It’s hard not to see all these February Dark Stars as stops along the way to 2-27 (and, to a lesser extent, 2-21 and 2-22, although saying that sort of vitiates the point), but of course they couldn’t have been thinking of it this way. But they are gathering ideas and building their capabilities, and this will come to fruition in a big way later in the month.




What was said:

34. 1969-02-06

 

137394 St. Louis 14:02 (cut at 8:49 of unknown duration)

Main theme at 2:39.
Main theme at 4:10.
First verse at 4:32.
Verse melody at 8:08.
Sputnik at 9:08.
Bright Star at 11:06.
Falling Star at 11:34.
Main theme at 11:52.
Second verse at 12:33.
Goes into St. Stephen.

Again TC seems reasonably audible, until Garcia comes in…it’s a good mix overall, though. Garcia is in fine form from the outset, and from about 3:14 he plays some of his best guitar, fluid and dynamic, before starting a little repeating motif at 3:38 that ends up at a little peak which he takes advantage of by plowing into the main theme. After the verse, Garcia states the 1968 outro briefly, and rather quietly, and the band plays in a subdued manner for a good couple minutes after the verse. Jerry is again using different voices and pickup positions to good effect; there is a cut at 8:49 that doesn’t seem like it is probably too long, but it’s hard to tell for sure (and note that my fellows seem to think it more significant than I did--it seems to me like they may have built it up pretty quickly, but there is a shift in intensity at the cut). At 10:35 Garcia starts toying with Bright Star, and the band hits a peak around the 11 minute mark before he finally breaks into it in earnest. This leads to the return of Falling Star, last heard (or at least last documented) in the fall of ’68. This is a kind of low-key version, and much of it is pretty mellow, even though it gets off to a typically bold start. If the cut is brief, then this is also another pretty short version, although to me it didn’t seem rushed the way the last one did. These are all pretty great to one extent or another, it bears repeating.


What was said:

33. 1969-02-05

8993 Kansas City, KS 11:40Intro is cut.
Main theme at 1:36.
First verse at 2:12.
Verse melody at 7:22.
Bright Star at 8:36.
Main theme at 9:28.
Second verse at 10:07.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This cuts in on an audible TC playing the ROR; however, Garcia is extremely loud here, and he quickly drowns out TC when he comes in. At 1:15, Garcia begins a sequence that has a Sputnik feel, and I was almost tempted to call it a Sputnik, but it’s only Jerry’s part, and it’s pretty brief. I’m not sure what the circumstances were here, but the band seems almost to be in a hurry, as this moves to the theme and the verse very quickly. After the verse Jerry again takes it out with the 1968 lick, and I sort of regret not naming it and marking it down when it happens, as it is more common than I realized. Garcia seems to be on the bridge pickup in the early going, as he swoops from brassy bass string licks to piercing high notes, and after the verse everything still seems to be moving rather quickly. At about 4:58 Garcia drops out and TC, again distinctly audible in the absence of Jerry’s loud guitar, takes the lead for a while. It’s possible Jerry broke a string, or else he just wants to give TC space for a change; in any case, the band rises to the occasion, and this lasts until, at 7:03, Garcia comes in with some Sputnik licks and a little chording, which he quickly abandons in favor of the verse melody section. At 7:56 Garcia plays a lead melody which we will hear again but I don’t think we’ve heard before, and which will feature in the famous 1969-02-27 Dark Star; I’m not sure if we should name this, or how often it will happen. It’s kind of a variant of Bright Star, in any case, which Garcia adumbrates left and right until finally it breaks out at 8:36, which basically shows how arbitrary some of these timings from the list up top are getting to be.
This feels rushed in a way, although not necessarily in the details of the playing in any given section, but just the overall trajectory. They don’t really do anything new here, with the exception (I think) of Jerry’s lead from 7:56. This is far from a bad version, and I would hesitate to call any Dark Star from this period mediocre, even, but neither does it stand out much.




What was said:

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: 

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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: 

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:

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:

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:

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: