77. 1969-08-16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What was said:

76. 1969-08-03

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What was said:

75. 1969-07-12

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

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

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

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

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


What was said:

74. 1969-07-07

123468 Atlanta 26:50 (cut in middle)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


What was said:

73. 1969-07-05

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What was said:

72. 1969-06-27

20547 Santa Rosa 26:17
First verse at 7:57.
Bright Star at 18:25.
Sputnik at 20:15.
Main theme at 23:56.
Second verse at 24:41.
Goes into St. Stephen.

This one starts pretty gently, and the tempo seems a bit slow. It is a rather subdued intro tonight; they build to several little peaks, but these are all brief and somewhat restrained. At 1:12 Garcia starts playing lines around a droning open A, and at 1:40 he starts to quote the main theme as things build a bit. The music soon gets rather mellow again, though. At 2:38, Garcia begins playing a descending chordal theme that starts to get everyone a little worked up again, but they are still holding back; Garcia rather suddenly bursts into a little Bright Star run at 3:32 that brings things up again. This is again, however, a brief and fairly subdued peak.

At 4:24 Garcia initiates a sustained sequence of flurries, with lots of triplets, which winds up at about 5:10 with a repeated riff on the bass strings. There’s another little peak starting at around 6:30 that leads to another withdrawal, and by about 7:08 things start getting kind of weird for a few seconds, thanks to Lesh, before leading into a somewhat extended main theme fake-out section; at one point, Lesh breaks into his part, but Garcia never actually plays the theme, and he eventually just sings the verse.

The verse is rather oozy and filled with cymbal washes. The post-verse build-up features a very prominent Bob Weir playing clangy chords and tremolo bursts; Garcia starts playing with his volume knob, and then things descend into a rather spacey interlude beginning at 10:30 or so. At 11:29 Garcia begins what might be taken for the beginning of the middle section, but there is no clear transition this time, and things get spacey again.

At 12:32 Garcia starts repeating an ascending figure that leads to a bouncy and even childlike figure that seems to be signalling the band to pick up. They oblige, but they keep it weird for a while. By 13:40 Garcia seems ready to return to terra firma, and things are starting to coalesce. By about 14:15 it seems we are heading toward a rousing peak, and things begin to kick off for the next 45 seconds or so. Then we get the familiar rapid pattern of retreat, retrenchment, and rebuilding as another peak comes starting at about 15:22.

Soon after the 17 minute mark the band sounds ready to break into a Feelin’ Groovy jam, but this isn’t going to happen yet. Instead, Lesh starts playing Lovelight! At 17:20 it sounds like Garcia briefly considers joining him, but instead they rush to another peak and Lovelight is abandoned.

Garcia has been flashing Bright Star at various points, and at 18:25 he finally commits to it. This turns into a now-rare Falling Star for a few moments at 19:21, before going back to Bright Star again. At about 20:00, they seem ready to wind it up with the main theme, but it seems like they belatedly remember Sputnik instead. This is a really laid back, chirpy little Sputnik until it works up a head of steam for a big swell at the very end (22:42—23:02).

As this comes to a close, Garcia is playing with the drums, and somebody seems to be yelling instructions of some kind. Everyone kind of hangs fire until Garcia starts the main theme at 23:56, and soon we reach the verse.

This is an odd one. It covers a lot of ground, from moody dithering to some substantial peaks. It doesn’t ultimately seem very cohesive, for some reason, but as usual there’s a lot here to admire.


What was said:

71: 1969-06-22

8836 Central Park 11:26

Main theme at 5:49.
First verse at 7:23.
Main theme at
Second verse at
Goes into The Other One.

This is a pretty bad audience recording that cuts in to a Dark Star in progress. We can hear a conversation in progress that is almost as loud as the music, although I couldn’t make out what was being said. At 2:35 you can hear Lesh kick in with his part for the main theme, but this doesn’t last long. The jam is pretty straightforward although there are spots (such as around 3:30) when it threatens to get a little weird. At 3:54, there’s some Sputnik flashes, but they soon pass by.

At 4:39 Garcia starts playing a repeated figure and things weird out a bit for a while. Then at 5:39, everyone but TC comes to a stop—the audience applauds a bit, perhaps thinking it is over, but they come back in with the main theme. Garcia varies the theme a bit with some triplet runs this time. At 7:23, the first verse arrives.

This is a lot of stuff before the verse even with the cut. The intro seemed pretty spacey, but it’s hard to judge with the sound quality here, as the band sounds kind of distant. They go into an interesting interim jam after the verse (the jam before the jam, where they usually build tension)…at 10:22, they seem like they’re breaking out of it, and it seems there is a cut about here …but it keeps at a weird and broody thing, although the cadence of Other One starts creeping into some of the licks...on the other hand, you could argue that Dark Star continues until about :40 into the next track, when Phil starts to play The Other One.

This is another one that is difficult to evaluate, with the sound quality and the cuts. Much of it seems rather languid.




What was said:

70: 1969-06-21

16334 Fillmore East 7:21 (cut)

First verse at 2:42.
Main theme at 5:02.
Second verse at 6:41.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This one is rather severely cut in the middle. Weir is rather prominent here, slashing away and setting the pace. At around 1:25, as Garcia starts a one-note solo, Weir introduces a little half-step chord change. Garcia keeps finding little repeated motifs. Everything comes almost to a stop at 2:28; the band starts playing the main theme, but Garcia goes right to the verse without ever playing the theme.


After the verse, there is a lot of washing on the gong. Garcia starts to toll, then adds a little feedback, and TC swirls around a bit; at 4:31, Jerry begins his mid-jam lead. At 4:46 there is a cut, and we are suddenly in a calm little jam that leads almost immediately to the main theme. Soon the second verse arrives, and it’s all over.


There’s not much here to evaluate. What's here is good, though.


What was said:

69. 1969-06-14

150775 Monterey 14:37

Main theme at 4:01.
First verse at 4:25.
Sputnik at 7:10.
Bright Star at 11:52.
Main theme at 12:32.
Second verse at 13:05.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia starts in on the volume knobs almost right away here, while the band stays with the two-chord pattern until around :45, when Jerry starts playing some chordal lead stuff. Garcia sounds like he’s trying to do something different here, as the chordal stuff intensifies and then turns into a sort of Sputnik-like arpeggiated bit at about 1:30. At 1:59, Jerry changes it up with a high, sweet line which increases in intensity and gets the band pounding a little harder. At 2:45 this becomes a kind of variant of the main theme; at 3:06, Garcia does the big slide into A that often begins the theme, but instead he plays with the variant some more, increasing the frequency and bringing the band to an early peak. At 3:35, with the band on the boil, he breaks into a high lead, a stirring moment that soon leads to the main theme.


Garcia comes out of the restatement of the intro with some volume knob swoops, then at around the six minute mark there’s a little bell tolling. As the intensity increases, this turns to feedback. The band conjures up a fury of sound; at times here I almost think I hear a third guitar. In any case, Garcia is playing feedback and Weir does some tremolo stuff, and sometimes I hear him on the left, sometimes on the right, it seems like…or maybe TC is fooling me into thinking I’m hearing a guitar with some of this?


At 7:10 Sputnik emerges directly from the post-verse build-up, although it takes a little time to coalesce. The band really digs into this one, sounding dense and angry. Toward the end of the segment things have calmed down, with Jerry playing high arpeggios and Weir doing little hammer-ons in the upper register. Then at 8:45 they start driving toward a crescendo, and the music becomes darkly frantic. At 9:20, after a breath, Garcia switches on the insect weirdness. Things pick up, then calm down, then pick up again, until at 10:10 Jerry decides he’s done being a bug.


The ensuing jam begins almost conventionally as Jerry goes back to a more quotidian tone. The level of intensity is raised, but subtly (note, however, 11:02 where Garcia briefly sounds rather unhinged!). This gradual intensification is unusual for the period insofar as the band usually opts instead for a quick succession of peaks and valleys—although this is often encompassed by a more general arc, here it seems like a steadier build than usual. This comes to a head at about 11:43, after which they pause for breath, and then Jerry plunges into Bright Star. This is intense but brief, and leads directly to the main theme and the second verse (where Garcia starts to sing “Lady…”, and then manages to contort it into “Mirror…”).


This version is somewhat condensed, and very powerful—it has a kind of twisted darkness to it that feels unique. There are no wide open spaces here…this is an almost claustrophobic rendition. I’m not sure if there were external reasons to make it shorter than usual, but this is a very satisfying quarter hour.


What was said:

68:1969-06-07

132685 Fillmore West 20:57
Main theme at 4:54.
First verse at 5:25.
Sputnik at 12:41.
Bright Star at 17:26.
Main theme at 19:00.
Second verse at 19:23.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This comes out of a great Mountains of the Moon jam that pretty much comes to a stop before Dark Star begins. They abandon the two chord pattern very quickly this time, by around :45 there is a somewhat foreboding one chord vamp happening. This continues in that direction for a while, until at 2:50 there’s a little pause, and things seem a little brighter when it picks back up. At about 4:16, the music shifts into a zone of weirdness, but Garcia leads them out of it to the main theme and, promptly, to the verse.


The usual tension in the post-verse section is enhanced by Garcia repeatedly hammering on a heavily distorted B flat, suggesting A phrygian, which is something I don’t think we’ve heard before (beginning at 7:05). He spins this out into a quite evil sounding line, bringing this section to a thrilling peak before launching into a piercing takeoff at 8:00. Everything sounds a bit askew in the jam that follows, with Lesh wandering around quite madly. Garcia soon returns to a more distorted sound, and he leads them to another peak at around 9:43 which dissolves and coalesces again, so at 10:30 they’re driving toward another peak which comes to fruition at around 10:55. Again they bring it down, and again they bring it back to a peak at about 12:24, with Garcia playing distorted double stops and everyone banging away until it drops abruptly into Sputnik.


This is an unhinged rendition of Sputnik, and Weir is very assertive here. At 14:10 Garcia seems to flash the insect weirdness, but at 14:14 he’s playing a clean line and Sputnik seems to be over. There is a strange little jam here where Jerry is widdling away but everyone else seems rather restrained. At 15:35 things start to pick up as they work their way into a rocking little jam, but this has dissolved by 16:02. Jerry seems to sneak in a quick tuning at this point, and then at 16:14 Lesh swings into the main theme. Garcia starts playing leads again, and the band wanders away from the theme.


At about 17:05 Garcia starts playing a rather heavy riff, and then he climbs up and starts to play Bright Star. The end of this sequence turns into a quite thrilling jam beginning at about 18:20, which comes to a rousing peak which then lurches into the main theme, which takes us to the verse.


This is a very exciting rendition; it seems like there is always something going on here. It gets really raunchy at times.


What was said:

67. 1969-06-05

135483 Fillmore West 20:32
Main theme at 3:47 5:39, and 6:23.
First verse at 6:56.
Sputnik at 11:06.
Bright Star at 16:19.
Main theme at 17:07.
Second verse at 19:00.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This kicks off with a bright and snappy little intro; to me, Garcia on the bass strings always manages to sound like a giant bug, regardless of guitar or era. What stands out to me above all in this section is Jerry’s fluency; for instance, at 2:34 he launches into a disquisition that goes on without a breath until 3:14, at which point he begins to punctuate a bit more, but he keeps right on going and going. I’m reminded of a story about John Coltrane, who is said to have told Miles Davis “When I’m playing a solo, the ideas just keep coming, and sometimes I don’t know how to stop.” Davis famously replied, “Just take the ****ing horn out of your mouth.”


In this case, Garcia keeps rolling until he hits the main theme at 3:47. The band isn’t yet ready to hit the verse yet; instead, they bring it down and Garcia starts playing with the volume knob. Things are starting to get pretty spacey; at 5:24, with things almost at a standstill, Garcia starts hinting at the main theme, and the hints get stronger as the music starts to pick up. Garcia throws in a rake and some chordal stuff, and begins to he throw some C naturals into the mix until at 6:23 he starts playing the main theme with a decidedly bluesy flavor.


This mood carries over into the verse, which is paced slowly, and Jerry’s melismatic vocals seem sort of mournful this time. As is their wont lately, the band follows the restatement of the intro theme with a restatement of the structure for a few bars before building tension, with Garcia tolling and then laying in some feedback. Weir plays some almost Latin tremolo flourishes, and at 9:17 Garcia begins a lead line that sounds quite pensive and ominous. At 9:51, he begins a little lick that I recall from Live/Dead (1969-02-27), although it may show up elsewhere as well, and then at 10:16 he begins a more upbeat line that also harks back to the classic Fillmore version.

At 11:00, Sputnik arrives rather suddenly. This is given a chaotic reading, with TC swirling around and Jerry doubling timing the arpeggios. They almost seem a little impatient with Sputnik here, like it’s on the version of developing into something else. It winds up being a pretty short visit, as at 13:35 Garcia kicks on the insect effects. This only lasts for 30 seconds, but when he returns to a more normal tone the music remains ominous and unsettling. At 14:45, Jerry seems to be putting in a plea for normalcy, and the band responds, but the jam retains a minor feel, and no one is feeling very bouncy.


At 15:21, Garcia starts playing a repeated lick that seems like it will develop into Bright Star or the main theme. At 15:48 he plays the main theme, and the band is now building toward some sort of resolution. By the 16 mark, Garcia is beginning to work his way toward Bright Star, and we get there at 16:19. This one feels chaotic and squally thanks to Weir’s scribbling, and when the main theme returns at 17:07 he ups the ante with some deranged bluesy counterpoint.


The lead-in to the second verse is again rather unique, as Garcia begins muting his strings on the theme, the drummers responding with a lurching backbeat; Jerry likes this groove so much he starts soloing again at 18:21 with a little melody that doesn’t last long, but it fires up the band for a few moments, until everyone seems to simultaneously decide that enough is enough, and we drop into the verse (Jerry starts singing “mirror crackers” and makes himself laugh). Tonight we’re back to the classic transition into St. Stephen.


One thing that stands out to me on these latest versions is the variety, sometimes subtle, of ways they have found to present the parts of Dark Star that are in some respects the same every time. This one starts out really straightforwardly, and never quite gets back to that. On this date we find brooding intensity, bluesy riffing, and controlled chaos. The call-backs to Live/Dead were a bit surprising.


What was said:

66: 1969-05-31

76 Eugene, OR 23:53
Main theme at 6:51.
First verse at 7:29.
Sputnik at 14:24.
Bright Star at 20:09.
Main theme at 21:59.
Second verse at 22:19.
Goes into Doin’ That Rag.


The intro is rather mellifluous and straightforward tonight. Garcia plays gorgeous lines that feel timeless. At 1:50 he starts to make a fuss, and a little after two minutes there is a little peak with Garcia playing piercing tones; typically, this abates and returns a few times rather than simply building and receding.


At 3:15 Garcia has worked his way into a little groove, and this turns into a chugging rock and roll section, although this doesn’t last long. By 3:34 a new section starts with Garcia and Lesh mirroring each other, and Weir and TC adding chiming color tones. After about a minute, a minor flavored segment commences, which excites someone enough to yell “Yeah!” in the background. At 5:25 this winds up in a Sputnik tease, and then it seems like they’re working their way back around to Dark Star. This intro has covered a lot of ground, and quickly. They hit a little peak before getting to the theme, which is played emphatically this time (6:51).


After the verse, Weir starts in on the two chord pattern right away, and it seems like there will be no weirdness but, as they sometimes do these days, they take a little while to get there, starting out from the basic song framework. Some tolling and feedback commence, and by around 9:20 the song has dissolved and they are weirding out. This turns out to be a pretty deep space jam, lasting until 10:43 when Garcia comes in with a rather gentle lead until, at 11:07, Weir decides it’s time to get after it and the band kicks up again.


As usual, they build and subside and build again, with one particularly intense passage occurring at 12:44 when Garcia repeats a note for about 10 seconds. This leads to an announcement of Sputnik at 13:08, but then this is deferred for the time being. By 13:43 Garcia has worked his way around to some Sputnik-like jabs, but they still don’t go right into it, until by 14:24 it seems clear they are playing Sputnik, and unclear exactly where it started, and even here, for a while longer they seem sort of half in and half out of it.


Garcia seems to want to explore new patterns in Sputnik, and again he alternates arpeggios with jabs. At 1640 Garcia gets some ungodly sounds out of his guitar, and someone in the background has something to say about this. At 16:48 Sputnik seems to be over, and the band plays some ominous chord changes. At 17:17 the insect weirdness commences, and the band swirls around for a while. There are more vocalizations happening concurrent with this and, as JSegel suggests, I don’t think it’s a band member.

At around 17:55, Weir is playing the intro to Weather Report Suite (thanks to Adamos for noticing this).


At 17:56 Garcia switches off the insect tone and plays a little descending melody, and then at 18:05 he starts in with a choppy passage that rely sort of defies description. The band responds to this by getting suitably weird again. At 18:45 our mystery vocalizer seems overcome with excitement by all this! Then, at 18:51, Garcia begins to play in a way that seems to signal a return to relative normalcy, and a very melodic section begins.


At 19:53 Garcia begins to play a variant on Bright Star, and he works his way into it by 20:09 or so. This winds up being a rather brief peak, but scarcely has it died down then they work their way back to another, more intense peak; this culminates in a return to a Bright Star-like lick at 21:30, but this comes when the peak has passed, and eases the band back down until, at 21:59, Lesh and Weir slip into the main theme, which takes us to the second verse and the end.


Dark Star still seems like it can break out further, since they don’t seem to stay with any departure from familiar territory for very long. On the other hand, there are lots of little departures here, and the band is playing together, and listening to one another, magnificently. They have become a rather incredible improvising unit, and this one is a whirlwind tour of what they can do together in this era.


What was said:

65. 1969-05-30

87516 Portland, OR
Main theme at 4:07.
First verse at 4:34.
Sputnik at 12:00.
Goes into Cosmic Charlie.


This one comes in sounding kind of old-school to me for some reason, like a sprightly 1968 version. The tempo isn’t necessarily different, but there’s something bright and bouncy about this intro. At around 1:20 they begin to subtly migrate from the two chord pattern to a one chord vamp, as has been customary of late. At 2:00 Garcia starts playing a circular pattern while the band kicks up a bit, and the usual 1969 pattern of micro-dynamics asserts itself, where the band builds and recedes in small arcs. The tempo is flexible in a similar way; at 3:01, for instance Garcia begins a ritardando passage that culminates in a main theme fake-out at 3:07. Such feints have become a central strategic pillar of Dark Star in this era.


Garcia and Lesh are weaving in and out of each other’s wake throughout the introduction, while, as is often the case, the contributions of TC and Weir are more textural. However, Weir is subtly subversive in his way, slipping in C natural to pose a minor counterpoint to Garcia’s mixolydian leads. This, along with some keening organ, imbues the main theme with a melancholy flavor tonight (4:07), and this mood carries through into the verse, at which point this version has already traversed gradually and seamlessly from sunlight into twilight, but as we will see, it isn’t going to opt for either—here, darkness and light meet and decide they like each other. The theme of tonight’s Dark Star seems to be turning confrontations into a kind of( synthesis.


The restatement of the introductory theme after the verse ends at 5:39, and Garcia immediately begins playing a lead line, another throwback to 1968; at 5:59, however, he reverts to tolling, and it seems like things are descending even further into darkness. After a wandering bass passage, at 6:52 Garcia begins playing a hazy and somber lead. This leads to a transition that seems sudden, but at the same time it seems impossible to pinpoint exactly where it happens—I’ll put it at around 7:03—into a more upbeat passage that feels almost like a Bright Star section (the melody which Garcia feints at 7:10).


Lesh is quite active, one almost wants to say unleashed, in this improvisation. The bass and guitar continually weave around one another. The effect is like that of two people having a conversation, each so familiar with the other that neither needs to listen to the other to know what will be said next, and whose remarks harmonize perfectly at times, and at other times are divergent yet mutually relevant. This reaches a kind of peak at 7:32, where the interlocutors seem to be shouting at one another in joyous agreement. This is the first of a series of little peaks and descents where the aforementioned passage seems to recur (in more or less altered form) at 7:49, 8:17, and 8:36 before they finally pause for a breather. Each time until the last, the descent from the peak is a feint, an excuse to reaffirm their ecstatic communion.


Finally, at 9:06, they seem ready to move on to something else. One would expect Sputnik here, but at 9:19 Lesh starts to play the main theme, and Garcia begins playing with the volume knob. At 9:42 Weir throws in some feedback, and things start getting spacey. This inspires Jerry to reassert tonight’s theme of amicable confrontations, as at 9:52 his line becomes rather cheerful. This good cheer somehow has turned into tension by around 10:13, however, and the band kicks up again. Out of this morass, Garcia ascends triumphantly, igniting a flare at 10:35 that blazes across the firmament for 15 seconds or so until the next retreat into what starts to feel by 10:55 like Sputnik territory.


Weir heads off Sputnik with the main theme at 11:15. Garcia seems to be compliant at first, but he veers into some tremolo picking and then flashes Sputnik at 11:44. At 12:00 Sputnik finally arrives in earnest. This one comes in classic arpeggio form at first, but it has a kind of swing to it tonight. Garcia begins interspersing jabs with the arpeggios until the former take over entirely, and the music takes on a jerky rhythm, with both drummers banging away in a harmoniously staggered pattern. At 14:17, Garcia’s tremolo and Lesh’s impertinent flourishes lead us into an interstellar swamp, and Garcia decides the time has come for insect weirdness (15:13). Immediately, however, Lesh starts playing a deliberate, stentorian melody, trying to lead us out of the swamp while Garcia keeps buzzing in his ear. This leads to a brief argument, but at 15:55 they all decide to be friends. Finally, at 16:34, things trickle to a halt, and they start gently flashing the introduction to Cosmic Charlie. This is an unexpected development as, for the second time, they omit the second verse.


This Dark Star seems to be about juxtapositions. Every time a strong statement is made, it is met with a rejoinder, and a new synthesis emerges.


What was said:

64. 1969-05-23

Road Trips 4.1 Florida 18:55
Main theme at 6:28.
First verse at 6:48.
Sputnik at 11:52.
Bright Star at 15:56.
Main theme at 16:57.
Second verse at 17:21.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This one gets going right away; the band sounds kind of busy, and Garcia adopts an angry tone. Someone is playing a vibraslap (thanks, pbuzby!), which sounds cool. For the first few minutes there are peaks and valleys, as several times they come near to a stop, and then start banging away again. There’s a nice moment from 4:10-4:18 where Garcia starts playing a little lick and Lesh quotes it back to him.


At 4:41, Garcia pulls up hard and seems to announce the advent of the main theme, but then they take off again. Check out Garcia’s drunken licks from 5:08 until around 5:22, which elicit an appropriate response from Weir. For a relatively short Dark Star, they don’t stint on the intro this time, finally pulling up to the verse at almost 7 minutes in.


The middle jam starts at 7:54. The usual tension building gives way to some weirdness at around 8:30, and Garcia comes in very quietly with his lead line at 8:48. Things suddenly start to build at 9:45, and we come to a peak and then level off for a while, then build some more…at 10:59 Garcia again starts to stagger along drunkenly, then they feint at a peak, then start to build again, and then hit another peak at about 11:30. They pull right back from this and come down the other side, and at 11:39 Garcia starts playing a staccato repeated note, which leads soon thereafter to Sputnik.


Tonight Sputnik alternates between arpeggios and jabs, until at 13:00 Garcia brings it to a close with some percussive jabbing. The band latches on to this and starts to stagger along, but at 13:24 Garcia pushes it somewhere else with a fire alarm blast that then turns into a more usual lead line. But at 13:54, he switches on the insect weirdness, which I don’t think we’ve heard for the last little while. By 14:28 he’s done with it though, and he returns to a jabbing motif. Then, at 14:45, Garcia and Weir start blasting, with Weir playing a high droning note which Garcia plays around. Then TC gets in on the act for a little while, but it all drops back down rather soon.


At 15:40 Garcia starts to sketch in Bright Star; this comes on gradually, I’ve somewhat arbitrarily marked the beginning as 15:56. This attains a modest peak and then comes down, and soon we’re at the main theme and the second verse.


What to say about this one? It’s not one of the most momentous versions, and doesn’t stand out for intensity or weirdness. However, every version is different, and this certainly has parts that are noteworthy. They don’t seem to stick with anything for very long this time, but there are some nice moments.


What was said:

63. 1969-05-10

132812 Pasadena 20:56

Main theme at 2:29 and 4:41.
First verse at 5:04.
Sputnik at 12:55.
Bright Star at 17:38.
Main theme at 18:39.
Second verse at 19:19.
Goes into St Stephen.


Garcia jumps right in with a sprightly lead, and the initial vibe is bouncy and bright. Lately, the band starts looking for an excuse early on to get away from the two chord pattern, and Garcia starts hammering an E at 1:18 that provides the pretext this time. They have become adept at a kind of one chord (or no chord) swirl, and this will enable them to travel to some magical realms over the next few years (as will their ability to play in a kind of one-beat time signature).


At 2:27 Garcia takes an acrobatic tumble into the main theme, but it’s just a brief visit as they quickly slide into a rather majestic little jam. At 3:34, Garcia again plays the acrobat, and then he brings the jam into a higher register; this all sounds like a big wind-up for the main theme, but not before we get to a thrilling peak at 4:14. As this settles down, Weir and Lesh are pushing for the theme, and Garcia complies at 4:42, taking us to the verse.


The aftermath of the verse is very calm this time, until tension starts creeping in at about 6:38, and the at 6:43 Garcia starts tolling and raising the volume level. This section still seems a little subdued next to recent versions, but after a little feedback, TC starts playing a wild fanfare at around 7:20, and Garcia mimics him at 7:30—7:36 before launching into a solo.


The band is going full throttle right away this time. Garcia keeps repeating patterns and raising the energy level still further, culminating at 7:29 in a little Bright Star-like flourish. They do not relent here, however; they just keep pounding away until suddenly, at 9:23, there is a lull and they start to rebuild. Garcia stays quite busy, and by 9:53 the energy is surging back; another lull comes at 10:06. Most of the dynamics here are coming from the rest of the band while Garcia madly fiddles away, until he starts to rein it in at around 10:45.


At 11:06 Lesh initiates an off-kilter bounce with a cadence that is somewhat reminiscent (or rather prefigurative?) of Cumberland Blues, until he pulls it out of shape and then slides back down into some drawn out tones. At 11:30 the band seems to be pushing toward Sputnik; they come so close they’re almost playing it, but they back out again. At 12:25 Garcia starts bouncing around, and then Lesh latches on, and we get into a remarkable little squall at 12:37 that has blown over by 12:43. At 12:51, Garcia all but says “It is time for Sputnik” into his microphone, and a few seconds later it begins.


This is a very restrained Sputnik, especially compared to the last few. Again we get some jabbing from Garcia, and they start kicking up a little bit of a fuss, but it is all very civilized, and at 14:25 Jerry starts playing a new line and the Sputnik is over. Everyone else is hanging back here, and then Lesh starts laying in some counterpoint. At around the 15 minute mark, however, they seem to start thinking “Hey, that wasn’t weird enough!” Or maybe it was me that was thinking that; Phil’s line pushes into some strange tonal territory for a second or two, then he leaves Garcia alone for a moment, and then they start to duet again, and Weir comes in, and now it seems like we’re going for power rather than subtlety as Bright Star pokes its head out at 15:27. It doesn’t come out, however, and then we’re on to something else.


Weir pulls up and it gets back to Jerry and Phil at 16:03, until at 16:24 Weir starts playing a counterpoint solo. This is very interesting for a little while, and marks a departure from the Garcia/Lesh dynamic that keeps reëmerging tonight. The band starts working toward another peak that starts at 16:56, and by 17:10 they’re really banging away, but it’s just getting started here. But I have to back up for a moment: first there is another nod toward Bright Star at 16:30 or so, and then at 16:39 Garcia starts playing a repeated ascending figure which leads them to another peak which he crowns at 17:10 with a repeated, screaming high A below which, right at the apex at 17:27, Weir now plays Garcia’s ascending wind-up figure, before moving into some twanging double stops at 17:32. This all culminates in Bright Star at 17:38, each iteration of which Garcia spaces with more of his hanging A. Garcia continues to throw in the Bright Star lick as we come down the mountain, and he opts to go right to the main theme before things fizzle out. Lesh, however, has not had enough strangeness, and he subverts the theme rather than falling into line until, at 19:12, he finally succumbs and falls into line. Garcia quickly jumps in with the verse, a little off key, before Lesh can get away again.


And so we have another remarkable Dark Star. The section between Sputnik and the second verse is so rich it’s hard to do it justice. While it culminates in one of the most intense peaks we have yet heard, it is at the same time packed with moments of interest throughout. After the last few versions, it’s hard to believe that there is much more they can wring out of Dark Star, much less acknowledge that we are still at a relatively early point in its development. What a time to be alive!


What was said:

62. 1969-05-07

6028 San Francisco 22:17
Main theme at :06.
Main theme at 4:17.
First verse at 5:49.
Bright Star (more or less) at 8:48 and 10:10.
Sputnik at 15:05.
Bright Star at 18:16.
Goes into Drums>Turn on Your Lovelight.


Garcia begins by playing the main theme a few times, with the ROR providing a counterpoint. They start to drift off the two chord pattern after that, and it’s gone by about the one minute mark. Garcia hits a high note at 1:55 and stays on it until 2:08, then starts playing a descending line and winds up on the bass strings. At around two and half minutes they are pedaling on a repeated quarter note beat and, after they get away from it, this little pulse will return at times, more subtly, as an undercurrent to the opening jam. (Note that at 3:07 Garcia is playing a figure we’ve heard before and will hear again, I almost feel like it should have a name…)


Garcia slides into the main theme at 4:17; by 4:39 this has mutated into a kind of blues lick! At 4:57, however, Garcia reëstablishes the theme. In the lead up to the verse, and then during the vocals, TC plays a little legato figure that functions almost like a violin part; then he plays some more staccato bits during the build-up after the verse, which is again very unique.


At 7:52 Garcia bursts out with a line that suggests perhaps they’re going to go full tilt into the jam, but then everything quiets down. At 8:33 Garcia starts playing a hazy lead in keeping with the dynamics, but then at 8:48 he suddenly bursts into some Bright Star licks and everything changes again. At 9:47 he starts playing a figure based around some repeating bass notes, and then he soars back into the Bright Star theme at 10:10. Then things get quieter and hazier again.


Just after 11 minutes Garcia is hinting at Sputnik. Instead, they hit another bluesy groove, as the whole band starts hammering on a riff they seem to have just devised. This changes a bit, turning into a chugging, driving section shortly after 12:00. At 12:40, Lesh starts playing a jazzy line that we have not heard in Dark Star before; this is similar to the line he had sometimes played in Clementine, which others have suggested is derived from the bass line Jimmy Garrison plays in Coltrane’s Greensleeves, but it is somewhat different. There might be something this matches more closely, and I’d be happy to have it pointed out. The jam gets kind of jazzy here, in any case., and as Mr. Rain points out, it's reminiscent of Clementine.


At 14:20 Garcia repeats a high note while Lesh repeats a low one, and things get rather squally for a bit, and then they suddenly quiet down and head toward Sputnik. This is an odd one, as everyone seems to keep going off in different directions. It’s interesting to see how widely Sputniks can vary, and they are certainly not committed to nailing it down one particular way; instead, they keep pulling and prodding at it. This goes into a series of jabs again, but they’re not entirely committed to it this time. At 16:59 Phil has had enough; he starts playing the main theme, while Garcia fiddles with the volume knobs for a while.


They build on this for a bit until Garcia bursts into Bright Star at 18:16. He soon leaves this behind, continuing to drive the band to a peak but choosing other notes; at 19:11 everyone is ready to come down again, and they ooze along for a bit. Garcia drops out, and there’s a strange, ooze little jam…At 19:43 Weir gets a little showcase, and then everyone weirds out for a bit again until Weir starts up a little riff that Lesh picks up on but this doesn’t last, either. Lesh comes to the fore at 21:25. This whole section is quite odd. Perhaps Garcia broke a string…in any case, this jam trickles out into drums without the second verse ever arriving.


Dark Star has come a long way; there are more unexpected and unprecedented things happening each time, it seems. At some point in the future, it will become standard to omit the second verse; I’m not sure it was entirely intentional this time, however. But this is a fascinating version, and it opens up new horizons once again.

I can't remember the last time Dark Star didn't go into St. Stephen....


What was said:

61. 1969-04-27

Dick 26 Minneapolis 25:46

Main theme at 3:23.
Bright Star at 4:32.
Main theme at 7:53.
First verse at 9:15.
Sputnik at 15:33.
Bright Star at 21:13.
Main theme at 24:05.
Second verse at 24:55.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This sounds a little busy at the outset, with Garcia playing leads almost immediately, during the part where TC has the ROR going, as Lesh plays very melodically. They seem to realize this, and take steps to adjust a little (although it is by no means an unpleasant beginning); from around :43, everyone has pulled up, and all four non-drummers start playing sustained notes, and then at :53 things pull back together with a little more of a measured feel. Garcia lays back for a few seconds here, and then reëmerges at :56 with a rather horn-like line.


Garcia lays down his horn at 1:17, and he comes back a couple of seconds later with the verse melody, altered a bit so no one is tempted to crash into the E minor. The band seems to be casting about a little bit (not in the sense that they are lost, I should add, since that happens sometimes, too!). At 2:07 Lesh starts a descending two-note figure, and Garcia adds an ascending counterpoint that starts to gesture toward the main theme. Things come to a halt at about 2:37, and Garcia returns with strong hints of the main theme that are taken up by Lesh, who will not be caught flat-footed.


As Weir joins Lesh and begins bouncing on the familiar two chords, Garcia at 2:50 starts to spin out some piercing A mixolydian melodies that repeatedly descend to an E. These obliquely invoke Bright Star, but one feels as though an imminent big A hit will take us to the main theme. Sure enough, Jerry goes into a big wind-up, taking us up to a suitably dramatic A at the 17th fret at 3:17; again, however, this one trickles back down to E, this time alluding to the verse melody. Then Garcia slyly omits the initial A as he begins the main theme. He then plays it a few times with the A tagged on the end, rather than at the head of the figure. This allows him to pull it out of shape a little more each time through, by degrees, until he’s not recognizably playing the main theme anymore, and neither is the band.


Here we can see how the fundamental musical figures underpinning Dark Star are now as likely to appear not as foundational structures, or even as simple way stations, but rather as objects of innuendo. Maybe it is a bit less fanciful to say that these figures (the main theme, Bright Star, the verse melody, and the two-chord pattern A, Em/G) serve as building materials that are continually shaped and reshaped, keeping just enough of their texture to be recognizable within the new structures that are formed from them (although the metaphor of construction I am using is perhaps a bit too inert for its purpose here).


This turns into a jam that sounds rather bluesy, as Weir and Lesh emphasize E while Garcia plays some licks from E Dorian, hanging around the middle and lower range, until beginning at 4:28 he climbs and erupts into Bright Star (although with a swung cadence that perhaps makes this a borderline case). At 4:44, Bright Star culminates in a repeated peel-off on E D C# that, in replacing Falling Star, evokes a feeling of hanging rather than one of falling. Following this, Garcia keeps coming back to E with a secondary emphasis on G, building suspense. At 5:05, he ascends to the stratosphere, but gently; there are brief allusions to Falling Star, most markedly at 5:14, and then he starts fluttering down. When he touches down at 5:30, it is again on an E…after a breath, he at last reaches A at 5:33, which arrives in the guise of the bell toll missing from the post-verse section of the last Dark Star (04-23)!


Lesh also begins to heavily emphasize A (the tonic), but Weir seems to be playing A minor, making for a dark interlude rather than a push for the theme, at least for now. At 6:23 Garcia seems to want to slide in the theme, but they seem unsure how to get out of this minor bag; Lesh is all over the place, and in the 6:30s he starts emphasizing F# and pushing everyone into what I think is a jam in D major, although it has a minor feel. Garcia begins to play a lovely melody that descends from F# to A, until at 7:27 Lesh maneuvers him into winding this section up in a C natural (the minor third of A, thus not part of the mode they most commonly play in Dark Star, A mixolydian)…at 7:32, as Lesh and Weir start playing C minor, Garcia starts signaling for the main theme! At 7:52 Lesh comes along, and the theme has arrived at last.


By 8:40, Garcia is taking off again, but after throwing in some ascending runs he reigns it back in at 9:03, and we head to the verse. This arrives at 9:15, as this edges past 1969-04-22 for the longest intro section to date. Garcia mangles the lyrics a bit here, and we head to the middle jam.


After the restatement of the intro theme, Garcia lays out for a few seconds, then enters with some volume knob activity and then feedback as the band again makes this tension-building segment a strange one (although not as strange as 4-23). Garcia begins tolling a bit at 11:31, but in a higher register than usual, and Lesh lopes around; Garcia’s piercing lead seems to enter out of nowhere at 11:58.


The jam begins darkly but with a strong burst of energy. Kreutzmann is very active here. An early little peak is reached at 13:21 with Garcia playing a variant of Bright Star. The descent leads him to a repeating riff beginning at 13:41, as Weir chimes along, and Phil briefly joins them, until at 13:59 Garcia starts to climb out; at 14:12 and he is telegraphing Sputnik, but then he starts spiraling up again, with Lesh playing a counterpoint, and they dance around each other for a while. This begins to skirt the edge of madness beginning at 14:48. Garcia keeps finding little pockets of repetition, and then taking off again.


At 15:25 it becomes clear that Sputnik is inevitable, and at 15:33 they finally succumb. This is played in a quite variant manner this time, however; the Sputnik pattern emerges, recedes, mutates, and resolves itself into a series of soft jabs that see the band coalescing on a syncopated groove. Note Lesh from about 17:13, playing a bouncy rock and roll riff as Garcia stabs and pokes. This section extends itself further, alternating between repetitive jabs and a percussive Sputnik pattern, with the familiar series improbably reëmerging at 17:50.


Sputnik goes into a tense and frenetic little jam beginning at about 18:15. This jam winds up and then down again a few times from here to the 20 minute mark. At 20:03, Garcia starts playing an ascending pattern of the kind that often precedes a peak or a resolution. At 20:39 it starts to sound like Bright Star, but it winds down again until at 21:13, with the band at a low ebb, Garcia quietly starts to play Bright Star. Rather than bringing it back up, however, the band stays down as Garcia wanders away from the Bright Star theme. Weir drops out by about 21:24; Lesh starts to lay out at 21:38. Things seem to be hanging in the wind here, as everyone hangs back, with Garcia fiddling away over the drums, as TC pipes along. Finally, at 23:10, Lesh comes back in, and Weir joins at 23:21. They seem to be in a holding pattern, repeating two chords, and then they build a little until Garcia drops into the main theme at 24:05.


Remarkably, then, this Dark Star culminates in a kind of reverse peak; rather than coming together in a burst of energy, the post-Sputnik section climbs down into a meandering stretch where the band is oddly becalmed. Like everything else about this rendition, it is rather surprising.


This is a really amazing piece of music that sees the band reaching beyond the comfort of tried and true strategies perhaps more than any other to date. Without offering any of the truly outré space jams or quasi-meltdowns we have sometimes encountered, this manages to be perhaps the weirdest Dark Star yet. The introductory jam and the Sputnik are the obvious highlights, but there is not a dull moment to be found—even the anti-peak preceding the return of the verse section is riveting.


What was said:

JAM: 1969-04-26

97393 1:37

On this source, Charlie Miller has tracked the jam at the end of Mountains of the Moon as “Dark Star Jam.” This makes sense insofar as (as Mr. Rain points out) this is the only instance where they played Mountains of the Moon, and Garcia switched to electric and played a jam, and it did not go into Dark Star. Also, it is arguable that Live Dead is the canonical recording of Dark Star, more so than the single. On that recording, the track “Dark Star” begins before the familiar introductory riff, with the jam that comes out of “Mountains of the Moon.” The jam here, then, sounds a lot like something that is part of the track “Dark Star” in what many consider to be its definitive rendering—at least, if not the best or even most important version, perhaps something that plays a role for many Deadheads similar to that of a studio recording.

On the other hand, this is not really a "Dark Star Jam" insofar as it doesn't really resemble anything that is definitively Dark Star, and while it only appears when Mountains of the Moon is played, here it occurs in the absence of Dark Star. Upon reflection, then, I am calling this "Jam" rather than "Dark Star Jam," but including it here due to its relation to Dark Star.


The track begins shortly before Garcia begins to play electric guitar, as he always does when Mountains of the Moon goes into Dark Star. The song ends with a jam with Garcia playing acoustic, then he switches to electric, and then—every time but this—they start Dark Star (more or less) shortly thereafter.


I would say that this jam sounds like itself more than it sounds like Dark Star or Mountains of the Moon. It has a distinctive feel, and the various versions are all akin to one another. Garcia here plays some beautiful lines, with expressive rakes and emotive dynamics, and Lesh is very active. Above all, listening to this here makes me think what a beautiful jam it is, and it is sort of a shame that they never extended it much more than this. It usually moves pretty quickly into Dark Star; here, it goes into China Cat Sunflower.


In the future—particularly in 1973 and 1974—it will become a tricky question just what constitutes a Dark Star and what constitutes a Dark Star Jam. It seems clear to me here, however, that this does not count as a Dark Star, nor as a Dark Star Jam, but it’s something we should nevertheless acknowledge and address.

60. 1969-04-23

88501 Boston 20:56
Main theme at 6:08.
First verse at 6:41.
Sputnik at 14:12.
Main theme at 18:37.
Second verse at 1921.
Goes into St. Stephen.


Garcia begins with a repeated melody and then drops back; at the outset, Lesh dominates the proceedings, as Weir is playing the basic two-chord pattern, and TC begins on the ROR and then sort of hangs in the background, playing some variations on the main theme. Garcia swoops in at 1:07, then backs off again until 2:13, when he finally gets started.


At 2:59, Garcia gets into one of the repeating patterns that have been so common lately, and then starts to vary it and move about. At 3:39 he gets into a groove with the bass notes there’s a little eddy starting at 3:59, and they seem ready to break out of the theme pattern a little. They pedal along in place for about a minute, until Garcia starts flashing the theme at 5:09. He hints at it even more strongly beginning at 5:32, but they’re not ready to go there yet. At 6:08 he is flashing the theme again, and although he never quite plays it, this seems to serve as the first iteration, as the band falls into line behind him, and at 6:41 the first verse arrives.


Garcia swoops in with feedback immediately after the repetition of the opening theme, and the band descends into some weirdness right away. Suddenly this section has become something quite different here; it still establishes tension, but in a much more maximal and oddball way. In the midst of the swirl, at 8:39, Garcia begins spiraling upward, signaling the arrival of the middle jam, and things swing back toward relative normalcy.


At 9:12 Garcia plays a lick from The Eleven that we’ve heard once or twice before, but he quickly moves on from it. Lesh starts hinting at a minor chord as the jam gets moodier for a bit, until it swings back toward a brighter feel at about 10:04. A little after the 11 minute mark the jam seems to get into a holding pattern, and one wonders if Sputnik is coming. At 12:14, Garcia is flashing the insect effect, and the guiro enters rather prominently, and Sputnik seems imminent. They still hold off for a while, though, as the jam again picks up steam.


At 13:43, Garcia starts playing a percussive chugging thing as Lesh and Weir step out a bit. Sputnik finally arrives at 14:12, with Garcia alternating arpeggios with little stabbing moves. Sputnik seems to end at about 15:32, with Garcia playing some bass string licks, and getting into a bit of a duet with Lesh down there before climbing out again. The insect weirdness seems to be forgotten this time, and there’s not really a space section.


At 17:12 things start to kick up, as Garcia plays some high howling licks, and we head toward a peak, then a valley and another peak just after the 18 minute mark. Garcia seems ready to break into Bright Star, but this never comes, and we get the main theme at 18:37. In lieu of Bright Star, however, there is nevertheless a pretty satisfying post-Sputnik peak here, or really two.


All the real weirdness is packed into the build-up just after the first verse this time. Overall another fine version; Dark Star has come a long way over the past two months.


What was said:

59. 1969-04-22

88466 Boston 27:21
Main theme at 7:31.
First verse at 9:06.
Sputnik at 17:28.
Verse melody at 23:41 (beginning cut)
Bright Star at 24:21.
Falling Star at 24:58.
Main theme at 25:21.
Second verse at 25:48.
Goes into St. Stephen.


This comes out of a really beautiful Mountains of the Moon jam. It opens with Garcia flashing the main theme right out of the gate, which doesn’t seem to happen much (or really at all, I don’t think), even though it seems like an obvious thing to do. TC plays the ROR for about 30 seconds; it’s still hanging in there, at this point, but not playing a very large role. By 2:30 or so, Garcia is sounding restless, and seems to be sort of prodding the band to break the structure a little; this one starts to move out a little early. Lesh hovers around and eschews any indication of chord changes.


4:34 to 4:57 sees a convergence as Weir, Garcia and then Lesh increase the intensity while narrowing the harmonic range of the jam. This eddies into a kind of holding pattern where it seems like the main theme is on the horizon, but at 5:24 Garcia takes off again. He climbs to a new plateau and starts holding again; at around 5:40, however, things get weird as Garcia again climbs and holds, and the music stretches and quiets, then Garcia starts playing a percussive tremolo at 6:01, and we’re almost in a little space jam. He goes back to the holding pattern at 6:11, then climbs again at 6:20, and then takes a little run around the fretboard starting at 6:27.


At 6:38, Garcia asserts himself in a way that suggests they are going to reel it in, but instead they increase the intensity, and from around 7:05 there is a remarkable little flurry that leads up to the main theme at 7:31. One thing that has become remarkable by this point is the variety of ways they have to play the main theme, with little flourishes and variations, and also a difference in emphasis and feel from version to version. This one is bold and jaunty, and leads fairly promptly to the verse.


The verse comes out into a straight reading of the main theme changes before the tolling begins. This section is bright and loud tonight, in contrast to the brooding feeling of the night before, and at 11:26 Garcia fairly leaps out of a brief caesura into the middle jam. His stinging lead here is thrilling, and by 11:53 the band is fairly exploding, as everyone proceeds to play their asses off!


As the jam streams along, it hits little pools, but these are soon swept away and the momentum returns. It’s hard to disentangle what is happening at around the 15 minute mark, as TC, Garcia and Weir at times seem to be occupying similar sonic space; Garcia somehow holds a note, at times feeding back, from 15:04 to 15:14, and I think Weir starts feeding back at some point here too. The result is a rather excellent cacophony for a few moments.


At 16:35, Garcia plays some staccato lines, turning to double stops, as he and Lesh have an animated conversation. As things wind down, Garcia lays Sputnik into the next lull, at 17:28. At 17:40 he goes to the exaggeratedly retarded siren licks he sometimes places near the end of Sputnik, and Lesh responds with some equally exaggerated and lagging chordal slashes. At 17:48, Garcia returns to a more normal Sputnik pattern, and the loud guiro comes in soon after. They seem to be wringing every last drop out of Sputnik tonight.


Sputnik finally ends around 19:52, and this time there is a sort of interim jam until Garcia switches on the insect weirdness at 20:33. Lesh is playing a descending pattern reminiscent of Caution here, but this doesn’t stay long. At 21:26 Garcia returns to a more normal tone, and suddenly there is lightness and melody breaking out. At 22:35, it almost seems like they’re going to break into a thematic jam of some kind, but they’re just blowing, the ideas are coming thick and fast tonight.


At 23:19, Lesh starts the main theme pattern; Garcia keeps playing a lead line over this until he decides to lay in the verse melody; it seems like we haven’t heard this in a while, and indeed, according to my notes, the last one was April 13th. Garcia’s lightning over the E minor leads back into an astringent lead line that takes us to Bright Star and, briefly, Falling Star. From here, it all soon comes to a close, as we are returned to the main theme and the verse.


This is a stunning piece of music, played with confidence and clarity, and saturated with wild energy. It is the longest version of Dark Star to date, and not a second is wasted, as the band maintains a thrilling level of focus and intensity throughout.


What was said: