The 1/17 version and many of the renditions to follow in early 68 almost act as a prelude to the usual suite of songs to follow (at this juncture China Cat->11). It supports the fact that the band thought a lot of the song, even at this early juncture. They issued it as a single and often as the lead off for their concert experimentation. The song at this point as far as framework goes is standard and not yet earth shattering: Verse-Jam-Verse. By the Carousel shows in March much stays the same but the structure is already becoming elastic. I love Garcia's tone on the Quick and the Dead tour and the 1/17 show contains it! Great thread @bzfgt. I tried to listen to all of the Dark Stars that circulated back in the Summer of 1996. There were some moments I tell ya. My pal says it was a great Summer.
I'm also a huge fan of Jerry's tone here, has an almost dirty quality to it that appeals to me. Part of the reason I don't go beyond late '71 much (of course there are exceptions) is Jerry's tone got too clean for my taste
Barely! Hardly any discussion of the studio version, we dashed over it in our haste. I love it, it shows a very different incarnation of the song, an alternate lilting psych-pop Dead with the hazy Indian-type trimmings popular among psych bands at the time but that the Dead never used again. And, for its brevity, they sure stuff a lot in there.....it's more about mood and texture than extended solos, and it stands out among the Anthem-era recordings as being entirely a studio-made piece. The early '68 live versions are also fascinating, not only do I like the tone of the band at the time, but Dark Star starts out almost totally non-improvised, all composed parts, then little by little Garcia adds more baroque extensions and digressions to his playing. And it's so speedy....then vroom into China Cat! And, oh yeah, you should remember to add the link to each Dark Star you discuss: www.archive.org/details/gd1968-01-17.sbd.cotsman.11795.shnf
Someone probably knows, are there different mixes of the studio Dark Star? I first heard it on the "What a Long Strange Trip it's Been' comp, and it was always my favorite track on the studio disc (vs. the St. Stephen from Live/Dead on disc 2.) It's also a hidden track on the 2003(?) reissue of Live/Dead, and I know they reissued the single b/w Born Cross-Eyed, which has a few different mixes. Garcia remarked some time in the 80s that he didn't understand the affection for Dark Star, as there was so little to the song itself, and since they incorporated the kind of exploration that once occurred mainly within Dark Star into every show, but I think he was wrong on the first count. The original recording is strong evidence (the graphic in this clip certainly doesn't hurt an attempt to highlight its psychedelic potential.) A comment on this clip says 'it's like a snapshot of a painting,' which strikes near the point I'm trying to make. Even leaving aside the lyrics, there's an exploratory vibe and a general spaciness to the way the song is built, the effects etc.
Got power back at around 2pm this afternoon. Drove around a bit and did notice a lot of tree limbs in the street.
Thanks, I forgot the link. I agree about the studio version, it is totally groovy. Further discussion of it is entirely welcome.
Jerry, I love you Bro, but you were not playing half hour Dark Stars in the 80's. More on the studio version: Having been recorded in November of 1967 it demonstrates that the lessons learned in the making of the first album were applied to this little musical snapshot. Layering of ideas, instruments, and sounds, better pacing, playing a song as a studio track instead of "live in the studio"- all of these are hallmarks of a young band standing on it's feet and taking a few good steps. Plus the song is simply a natural!
Thanks for posting this, when I did all of 1969, about a third of the way through I realized that I wished I'd made some notes on that LIA post where he describes and names the jams, and then I had a hard time finding it. Some other names that I found myself using include the 'gong jam' and the 'verse jam,' both of which are very lame and prosaic, and I think Sputnik is what I referred to as the 'repeated high notes jam,' so I will have to cross reference my old notes with your post here. I'm for going through 68 at a pretty decent pace, but I would advise taking it a bit easy right at the beginning, as it seems like there's a lot of interest in this thread so far and it would be cool to sort of make sure everybody who wants to be in on it has a chance to notice it before we really start rolling. Plus I've got to get to the dollar tree and get a new composition book to take notes! Or one of us can just periodically reference this thread in the other thread. It's really the ur-text isn't it? This thread is going to be fun, I'm super excited. I feel like enough of us have been over there and he's been around long enough that if he wanted to be other places than where he was he would be. I think Corry from Lost Live Dead was a member over here for a while, but when I search for him I don't find him. Those are great GD scholars but we have a pretty good mix of luminaries and enthusiasts as it is on this board. (Not that any voices wouldn't be welcome.)
The Dark Star single mix sounds identical on every release I've heard. (Maybe barring some slightly different shading in the remasters.) There's only one mix for this, I think. What's interesting is that it's MONO. Dark Star never got mixed in stereo! (But the instrumental basic-track outtake is stereo.) If it had been included on Anthem, there would be different mixes of it, but the single was meant just for radio play and the track never got touched again.
Sounds like Garcia's playing Darkness Darkness at about 9:40 in lovelight on that 1-17-68 tape, by the way Here's a youtube link as an alternate. For me there's a surprising amount of improv in Dark Star here. It's close to the studio version, but not that close, definitely some tinkering going on, which is probably to be expected. It's almost certain this is not literally the first performance. I've come around to I Know You Rider, but could you imagine if Dark Star>China Cat>the Eleven became the standard?
It sounds to me like there are at least 4 guitar tracks on that studio instrumental (including one acoustic on the post-'shall we go' part.)
Back then they practiced often so this evolution may be from that, or gigs, or a combo. As you note this version is more "open" than the studio track yet not far away from the basic song.
The thing that strikes me most about the 1/17/68 Star is Weir's characteristically unique style of "rhythm" playing and how much it had already been developed by this point.
Yeah, definitely! I'm listening to it again now and he's skipping right along. Also note that at 3:10 or so Garcia plays the familiar passage that will generally come before the second verse, or the first verse soon...I guess we could call that the "verse riff" or "verse lick" (it's probably more a lick than a riff?) that's how I generally think of it.
Listening to the "Dark Star" single version on the San Francisco Nuggets box, sandwiched between "White Bird" and a Blue Cheer song. "Nothing less than a pop-psych gem," sez the liner notes. It just drips LSD.
That's the riff I was hearing (in an earlier form) in the 9/3/67 VLB yesterday. I called it the Dark Star Instrumental Theme, which is an option moving forward. Then again, "verse riff" might be more descriptive. Actually, it strikes me that there may be a few variants of that riff; some are more "notey" than others.
They almost always play a jam on the verse changes, including the part where it changes to Em. I seem to recall them not playing it on one from mid 69 and it was notable...
