Over the years I've really come to appreciate Weir's rhythm playing. I remember back in the '70s when Jerry was on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, and in the interview he said Weir was a great rhythm player. I didn't get it at the time, but I do now.
Yessir. And it's not just his style. If you have Ladies and Gentlemen... take a listen to one of my early favorite moments (apologies for the digression, but since Dark Star is always happening, this really isn't off topic): 1:46-1:56 of Goin' Down the Road (the version that comes out of the great Alligator jam on Disc 4). Jerry rips off some really ebullient riffs and Bobby fills in the spaces in Jerry's lead with a call and response type of thing. He just had a knack for being in the right spot; at least much of the time...
warlocks-resumes-1965-pre-grateful-dead.html Garcia's principal source of income was as a music teacher at Dana Morgan Music on 536 Ramona Street in Palo Alto. Garcia gave guitar and banjo lessons to aspiring musicians, mostly teenagers, and probably taught mandolin and fiddle as well. Many people in the Palo Alto/Menlo Park area proudly recall that Garcia taught them guitar. The whole Grateful Dead saga began on New Years Eve 1963, when Bob Weir heard banjo music coming from the back of Dana Morgan's. Garcia was practicing, wondering why none of his students were showing up. Garcia told young Bobby that he was planning to form a jug band, and Weir said "I'm in," and so the story began.
I'll just add that the studio version to me is so much more intimate and concise than the later live versions (which are of course incredible) that to me it almost sounds like some mystical ancient song that people be played by a campfire late at night.
Yeah I agree. Keith Richards and Townshend (who I both love) are always cited as the kings of rock rhythm guitar however after really exploring the Dead's music the last 8 or so months it became clear pretty early that Bob IMHO is every bit as good just different. His inventive ever evolving chord voicings throughout a song is a thing of beauty.
Yeah I feel like that's at least hinted at on several VLBs. I think Dark Star distills a lot of the stuff that tended to come out of their fingers at the time.
I'll say this much: I've read ahead a bit and the studio version is worlds better than the next live version from 1/20/68. Although it did introduce a concept that seemed to get legs, at least for a bit: a call and response thing from Phil and Jerry to start it off.
The 35 minutes of music that survives from 1/20/68 is a precious jewel of acid rock. I love it. I agree though that the Dark Star at the tail end of it is the least consequential bit.
This is a great listen. First listen tonight. Those bends on New Potato Caboose that Jerry plays starting at @5:20-6:35 are avant garde-ish, with Bob getting more out there too climaxing @ 6:25 and beyond in it's weirdness. Crazy that Dark Star is the afterthought. I wonder how much longer it actually was after the fade.
They put a lot of layers on this song in the studio, and more were to come! On the first album, Golden Road was the only tune that had a lot of overdubs, but once they started Anthem they were determined to fill all the tracks. I don't remember whether Anthem was 8-track or if they were still doing 4-track, which would make all the dubbing even more complicated. 'Verse riff' may be fine, but later on this is pretty much the same riff Jerry plays at the start of the song (after the intro, although not in this version), and before the second verse he plays a kind of clipped, swingin' variation of it. I always thought of it as the Dark Star intro lick, or main theme. It just occurred to me that, even though to me it's the basic Dark Star riff, it's not in the single and doesn't lead off the song in the earliest live versions either. Funny to realize that one of the Dead's most familiar licks only gradually evolved through live improvs. Yeah, that verse-melody jam starts around 2:15 on 1/17/68, and I think it's pretty much a fixture in every Dark Star for at least another year? We'll find out I guess. But it's typical of Jerry that his concept for a solo usually starts with a reprise of the verse melody.
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) was not recorded in the famous "4 days" during which the rest of the first album was recorded. It was a later imposition they did in a SF studio, I believe in January '67, that showed they had already shifted their understanding of what studio work can accomplish.
Really glad you started this thread @bzfgt, just catching up now. I can hear the seeds of Dark Star that several of you signposted in the 9/3/67 Dancing, which is neat. And I agree that there is a little touch of it too in Viola Lee Blues, more so around 21:40 but I see what @dgwint is talking about earlier on too. The studio version is fast paced and brief but I dig it. I’d forgotten about the little bits of Indian influence and banjo as well as the additional lyrics at the end that have been pointed out. With all that and the acoustic guitar too it’s a cool blend of sounds particularly on headphones. The 11/14/67 studio outtake was nice to listen too as well; I hadn’t heard that before. 1/17/68 Carousel Ballroom moves at a quick clip and Jerry’s vocal is warbly especially at the beginning but it’s already got that magical quality to it. I also agree that it certainly sounds like it wasn’t the first ever live performance, just the first one that we have a recording for. Re: the various themes as illustrated in the Live/Dead video, I dig the Falling Star theme and I wasn’t familiar with that term until now. Bobby does add a nice contribution to the proceedings. And the Bright Star theme brings a joyous and blissful peak that I love. I was commenting on that not too long ago in relation to another Dark Star but I didn’t know how to refer to it so I just called it a “blissful surge.” And while the origin of calling the theme at 11:40 Sputnik may not be known (at least here so far) I think it suits it well.
1/20/68 Wow, I really like the call/response of the opening riff with Phil and Jerry. Not the kind of thing that was destined to last, but it made for a cool intro. I like the Pigpen ROR. In some of the D+Co Dark Stars, Chimenti plays the ROR, but on a different beat. That tends to take me out of the hypnotic feel that I get from Pig. This version is heading towards the stretched out pre-verse instrumental. In a lot of ways, that is my favorite part of Dark Star. The other composed sections and the wilder explorations could be put into (and frequently were part of) other extended songs. The meditative instrumental before the verse is really what I think about when I think about DS.
I think that's a large part of the appeal. Plus The Grateful Thread is a place where odes to the majesty of individual Dark Stars from all eras take place on a regular basis. That's the spirit! Please accept my comment in the good-natured way it is intended, and I think it's cool that you've been listening to all the pre-hiatus shows in order over a number of years. I just found it funny that you chose to tack on "I guess" to the end of that sentence.
www://archive.org/details/gd1968-01-20.sbd.miller.97340.sbeok.flac16 OK, multiple people have moved on to 1-20, so we'll make it official. Not much to this one. Note that Pigpen's ROR is taken up by Jerry (see around 1 minute in for instance). I'm not sure who composed this lick, it may or may not have been Pigpen. But notice both the ROR and the Bright Star lick have a family resemblance to the verse lick.
LIA demurred on joining the thread, as he is too busy. He posted this comment at the bottom of the Dark Star 1968 post:
More like the Repetitive Jerry Riff, for the first couple minutes! I think Pigpen just lost track of the beat for a while. I can just see the whole band glaring at him: "C'mon, man, it's not that hard!" This riff was prominent in the single as well, I'm pretty sure it was Jerry's idea. A lot of the licks played throughout Dark Star at this point are like variations on the basic melodic idea. As much as people complain about this riff in later '68 versions (we'll hear it A LOT), personally I like it, it gives kind of a comforting hypnotic background as the Dark Star explorations grow.
I had never heard of Hetty (whilst I knew some stuff about Angus) so I went down a rabbit hole and man she sounds like an amazing woman, right up my avenue!
And now, the lyrics. In the unbecoming round about the Dark star crashes pouring its light the transitive nightfall of diamonds Mirror of axis roll about the waxen flowers revolving Lady in velvet recedes in the nights of goodbye Shall stars through which the tattered tales we go, you and I While tear loose from the axis Searchlight of delusion shall we go, you Glass hand dissolving to ice petal of diamonds spinning a set the through which the stars were set reason hardly matters nor the wise we can? Wise we can? Through the transitive nightfall into ashes Reason tatters the forces casting for faults in the clouds wind of never set to motion and I While we can? While we can? Through shatters in formless reflections of matter. Reflections of matter. (Sorry, the lyrics mutated.)
Yes, the Dark Star mantra when the psychedelics are going strong. I agree that the Pig 'lick' was a Garcia creation mutated from the general theme. As far as the truncated 1-20 version, I love the crashing start out of the Caution jam. The drums are just thrashing along and then comes the shoehorned Phil/Jerry intro, a brief pause and then the nifty call and response intro done proper. As stated there is not much else here, very similar to 1/17. We have to assume a short jam follows verse 1, with verse 2 and China Cat to follow as on 1/22
