I can't find it on that site. I try the link and it shows unavailable. I realize it is your option but it would be great if I could just run the video under the review and follow it. I guess I could jump back and forth between the post and the clip in a second window.
A 1970 Dark Star that is at least 90% as good as the best 1970 Dark Stars is a pretty damned good Dark Star, right? I posed this question in another thread when doubts about the merits of Dave’s Picks 19 (Hawaii 1/23&24/70) came up.
#94 1970-01-23 Honolulu, HI Contrasting most of these others, I’ve listened to this one several times as I’ve had the Dave’s Picks 19 album for a while. I got it because I was always interested in what they would play/how a show would go in Hawaii—I mean, I assumed they were pretty stoned, for example. My frame of reference was a long-standing love of the hippie/mystic Hawaii weirdness in relation to rock music that was presented in Hendrix’ Rainbow Bridge album movie, though of course that was on Maui and not Oahu. Same year though. I didn’t realize until just recently that this is the final Tom Constanten Dark Star! Oh, TC… After, what, 15 months of being in the Grateful Dead, I guess he got to be pretty good. I sort of have a divided sense of him and his playing, I want to like his playing more than I ended up doing, but there were things that I really did appreciate about his contributions. He did get more “rock band” during the run—though he never got as cool as Pigpen’s organ playing. Also, I admit I’m weirded out post-facto by the whole Scientology thing, it makes me dislike or distrust the Incredible String Band in the same way (Dr Strangely Strange were better anyway). I know, I know, you have to appreciate the art separate from the artist, the music from the musician, but… well, sorry if that offends anybody. And: I was a Mills music student too, so I always want to root for the home team and the avant-garde that they might bring, but in the end TC sounded much too “classical” in his approach. Even the cool weirdness, like the organ swells and spectral organ-stop play he brought into the space sections in late 1969, had roots in the late 50s avant-garde electronic music, it’s sort of obvious where he was coming from. I just this week started reading the book Phil wrote about his life, and learned that he and TC had been friends since the late 1950s. And they had done some serious weirdness prior to the formation of the Dead, but I guess TC eschewed that by the time he was in the band. Too bad, maybe. I sort of wish he went further out than he ever did, as well as wishing he had gotten down on the organ like a rock organist, which he almost did. He moves on to, what, a mime company doing Tarot readings? Yay. Whatever. Anyway, Dark Star. Segueing from a long Cryptical Envelopment-The Other One suite, Phil starts the Dark Star riff and Jerry comes in on part two of it, they start the song. Some out of tune guitar (during the whole show, humidity I'd guess), the the groove is there and it’s enough to contrast the clave-driven Cryptical outro and make it into Dark Star, it only takes a minute before a new motif is stated that precedes the Dark Star theme then continuing extemporizing on it over the groove, now with guiro. Some really nice guitar work. It dies down to enable some sly tuning. Instead of heading to the verse, it has an area of volume swell notes and organ chords and then heads off again in multi-headed full-band improvisation, albeit relaxedly. Theme comes in again, with weird guiro, and the feints toward a verse, but again swerves to avoid it for a bit. Verse 1 at 4:30. Steady delivery, classic arrangement. Classic, like, the verse grows organically from the theme, but then takes a turn at line 2 for the e minor and offbeat rhythm, and then moves on. Here, line 3 again has hammer-on wandering from Bobby. The jam starts as normal, as if they’re going to just continue straight ahead, but as it has been lately, it starts to break up, though this time it’s like each individual’s line fall apart until they reach a silence. (And more tuning.) The percussion enters with a bunch of weird sounds, the guitars make small physical strikes on the strings (somebody yells “wooo” from the audience.) Very sparse space of isolated sounds. The cymbal washes get going for a while with the percussion shaking some shells or something. Isolated small sounds from guitars and organ, feedback long tones, but quiet and controlled. Phil sounds like he’s got a ring modulator or something, modulating his notes. His notes are shaking oddly from interference from other notes or a pedal. Feedback builds against the cymbals and plays against it until it fades and a sputnik is rising very quietly out of the silence late in the 9th minute. It takes root a minute or so later, Bob has a counter-arpeggio, Jerry starts playing melodically again. In and out of the mode, Bob playing with a G7 with flatted 7 for a bit, both of them making little jabs out out of key chords, and it builds up with the chords for a bit, but doesn’t gel really, and TC is still using the Dark Star chords, so it’s sort of an amalgam of that and the newer jam with the Maj7 chord, but this time mostly only on the regular G7 and leaving the A chord alone, then they sort of go to more Dark Star after 13 minutes, making it decisive with some strong downbeats on the A. The full drum set is in, but still maintaining a pretty mellow groove. Long build up towards a Bright Star, coming at 15:30. It stretches out into a long brighter jam, coming to thematic statements at almost a minute later and reeling it back in toward verse 2. As it comes down in volume, Jerry takes it down in tempo right afterwards and starts verse 2 at 17 minutes in. Nicely orchestrated verse line, interesting upward lines on line 3, funny country lick into “Shall we go” and out of tune vocals coming in for the chorus (it’s the humidity.) Nice outro, a little clumsy, and it goes into the static chords that lead to St Stephen. I like this sort of jam where it segues more easily between section instead of straight transitions, and this time it kept more in the Dark Star modal world even when having the G7 chord in the “major key part” that had been the Feeling Groovy/Soulful Strut jams. Nobody really ever went for those exact chords. This version has a lot of long periods of extended Jerry lead jam, really nice, where the band is following in the flow in really responsive ways, both in the beginning and the post-space.
This is a really good Dark Star. I don't know what the percentages are. It is a little short, and feels short, but it's still really good.....it has nothing to be ashamed of.
1970-01-23. This Archive copy still works and sounds just fine, for those who don't have the Dave's Pick. Dark Star follows the Other One-Cryptical suite, an uncommon pairing! This Cryptical outro was kind of flat & tepid....the Dead seem to be in a more laid-back mood tonight. So Dark Star starts off very relaxed, finding its footing. TC's pretty faint in the back again, and Mickey's doing a little percussion, which soon reveals itself to be the inevitable guiro. They hit the theme a few times and don't wander far from it, but there is a cool part after 2:45 where Jerry's doing some volume-knob twirling over the theme...not for long though. He retreats to the theme again, stays there, and delivers the verse at 4:30. Not the most exploratory opening, but okay. It seems like all the opening jams lately have been kept short; they used to stretch out more than they're doing lately. Good-sounding gong in the verse. There's some chord excitement from the band after the verse, before they drop to silence, as if to say "get ready!" Space is kind of muted & minimalist: Jerry tolls his bell, the gong & cymbals splash like waves on the shore, a little organ swelling, then some nice feedback, Phil becomes active & the band gets freaky. Then as usual, they quiet down again and Jerry ever-so-quietly starts Sputnik by 9:40. (The space trip is getting downright predictable!) Sputnik only lasts a minute; by 10:40 it's already turned into a normal jam as Jerry's anxious to move along. The jam has a good momentum to start with; there's a very small tape cut at 11:30 that doesn't break the flow, except that Bill's drumming afterwards. It sounds like they might be heading for a Soulful Strut, it has that kind of feel. But they resist falling into a definite pattern; instead Jerry takes an interesting melodic detour at 12:30. It almost sounds like 1971 for a moment...but Bob seems to have some tuning problems and bows out after 13:10 to take care of it. This doesn't impede the others, they continue with Jerry & Phil & percussion (and TC playing some chords in the back), floating a light Dark Star groove. At 14:40 Bob finds his way back in, and Jerry immediately gets serious and strikes a heavy note. Things get exciting and before we know it, we're in a Bright Star. Nice hot one; they climb up to a crescendo and come back hard on the theme. Then, as always, they have to quiet down and slow down to get back to the verse -- it's kind of funny to hear, especially with Mickey back on the guiro sounding like he's winding down the band, creak creak! They're kind of clumsy in the verse. This was nice. Not outstanding; the first half is kind of subdued and they don't really warm up until after space, but I like the closing jam. Compared to the other Dark Stars of 1970? Well, I wouldn't say it's 90% as good....this might be one of the 2 or 3 weakest of the year....but on its own it's just dandy.
It's an interesting conceptual question....if, say, 2/13/70 is the peak, is this one 75% as good? 60%? Kind of unanswerable. Fact is they were very consistent with these Dark Stars, and if this one's as bad as a 1970 version gets, it's still pretty good! I have to agree with that. Ironically TC's not very conspicuous in these last couple of Stars of his, you have to back up to 1970-01-02 to hear a good example of TC's endpoint in the Dead. But he wasn't really a rock organist, and he was just slowly getting to be one in these last few months (more chords, a more simplified approach and so on). And it's surprising how much weirdness he DIDN'T add to these Dark Stars....on the Anthem album he contributed some wild noise (on piano, I think), and in these Dark Star spaces he can add some creepy sounds, but he doesn't go very far in that direction. I like him more than a Howard Wales with the Dead, I'll say that, but TC can't deliver that Wales funkiness, or even that Pigpen rock-steady rhythm, he's more into the quirky tootling. He may have been better as just a piano player with the Dead, especially doubling with Pigpen on organ like Keith did for a while, but I guess that wasn't possible. Considering the Dead didn't bother to get another organ player after he left, they seem to have felt they could get along fine without one (or didn't want to audition anyone), so Dark Star would remain keyboard-free for quite some time to come.
I find TC didn't detract from the Dark Stars but never added something essential - my guess is that the band felt similarly and so they didn't find it urgent to add keyboards back to the piece.
#94 1970-01-23 Starts off relaxed and mellow like taking a casual stroll. Jerry has a nice tone and the collective textures sound good too. TC is faint in the background. After a minute or so they hit the main theme emphatically and then ease up again. Jerry heads out working some high notes and Bob’s rhythm gets more prominent for a bit. Around 2:30 they slow up again and return to the theme, the guiro gets more prominent and then Jerry hits the volume knobs which gives it a different and cool feel. They work around that space for just a bit, come back to the main theme again and then there’s another minute or so of nice playing before they hit the first verse. After the verse Phil does his thing and Bob comes in more strongly and they swell and swirl a bit before dropping off. Out of the brief quiet comes jangling chimes and some bell tolling. The gong is subtle at first but then steps in powerfully. There’s a little string scraping and some feedback and TC swells and a fluttering guitar sound that adds to the freakiness. And then around 9:30 Sputnik starts gently rising up. It builds and eases and then transforms into the start of a jam. Jerry plays a winding line with Phil playing off him and prominent rhythm from Bob. It’s simple but has a nice feel. After the brief tape cut it picks up a little speed and gets deeper and louder and they’ve got a nice groove going. Around 12:30 Jerry pivots a little and works a new line that’s pretty and a little twangy. It feels like they could shift into one of the established thematic jams at any moment but it doesn’t materialize. Instead they carry on in this space which is a nice little jam of its own. It reminds me of something but I’m not sure what. Around 13:15 Phil starts to come in more strongly; at 13:30 it’s just him and the percussion for a few seconds before Jerry comes winding back in. Nice passage with Jerry and Phil playing off of each other; the momentum builds and Bob comes back in and they’re revving up and suddenly they’re ascending into Bright Star which bursts forth at 15:20. They ride the peak for a spell and then shift into the main theme before taking it down and on to the second verse. It’s a good performance. The opening segment is brief but has a nice feel. The spacey section has some uniqueness, the middle jams have their own thing going and there’s a good Bright Star to finish. There’s nothing to particularly criticize about it; it just doesn’t stand out as a top-tier version among its peers.
The Lovelight that follows though is quite something. It is perhaps best example of Jerry playing a greasy, bluesy Duane Allman-style slide guitar that I’ve heard.
Bobby's brutally flat very at the beginning of the 1/23/70 Star, but he recognizes this in short order and rectifies the situation. I see from the liner notes that Pig doesn't play any keys on this, so the organ is all Constanten. Honestly, it sounded very much like Pig, which is a bit surprising. Anyway, I don't think this version provides any indication of what was to come just three weeks later...
I was just thinking it’s been quite a while since I played this Pick so I’m looking forward to getting it in the queue sometime soon.
You guys are about to hit the Dark Star from The Fox Theatre St Louis 2/2/70 soon. I’m super excited to read your reviews of that one.
I thought we were going to skip that one? To wrap up the thread quickly, we're just doing Every Other Dark Star now.
95. 1970-02-02 121042 St. Louis 21:52 Main theme at 1:13, 1:47, 4:10 and 5:10. First verse at 5:22. Feelin’ Groovy at 12:48. Main theme at 18:57. Second verse at 20:09. Goes into St. Stephen. The first Dark Star without TC starts rather smoothly, with Weir playing some chiming chords while Lesh asserts himself. Garcia comes in with some lovely lines to get the whole ensemble going, quoting the theme at 1:13 and 1:47, which continues the trend lately of building the intro jam around the theme. A little after two minutes sees the band changing the tonality, as they go into a jam that seems to have a major 7 feel. Garcia is magisterial here, playing with a lot of authority, although it may have been Weir who was responsible for determining this jam’s direction. Garcia revisits the theme at the end of this section, then they briefly set off again before returning to the theme and the verse. After a brief flourish, they take the customary journey to space to follow the verse. Once again they bring the music down to almost nothing, and start to build from there. At 9:02, the sound of an organ emerges, as it seems that Pigpen has reclaimed his seat. Space seems an odd place for him to assert himself, given all that’s been said about his aversion to free form stuff. At 10:24 Garcia starts fiddling away on a line that seems to be leading out of space. Here is where we would have had Sputnik lately, but he adopts a different strategy this time. The jam takes on a hovering, ostinato quality that sometimes presages the appearance of a modular jam (usually Feelin’ Groovy), but then they start to build it up, and at 12:45 Garcia starts flashing Sputnik; shortly thereafter, they start up Feelin’ Groovy after all. As is often the case, they don’t hew too closely to the structure, so that it’s not entirely clear at what point they leave the jam behind, but in all it’s relatively brief, and we wind up in a wonderful polyphonic jam of utter Grateful Deadness. At 15:23 Sputnik again seems to loom on the horizon for a few moments; then at 15:45 Garcia goes into something quite like Sputnik, but it’s going somewhere else. Pigpen again is piping in at about 16:15…he’s not a huge factor, but he’s making sure to get his 2 cents in. The band sounds patient but fully engaged, as the playing is dynamic and creative. The jam starts to build from about 18:00, and soon Garcia is strongly hinting at Bright Star, but he’s got too much to say to go there, and at 18:57 he kicks off a series that plays off the theme with lots of variations along the way. When he finally commits to the theme, the band drives to a peak which barely starts to settle down when Garcia drops in the verse. This could have gone on longer, but every moment is magic. In my estimation, this is absolutely a top drawer Dark Star of this era. The band really has it here.
#95 1970-02-02 Fox Theatre, St Louis Nice recording. Directly into a rolling jam right after the intro riff, Jerry and Phil cruising over a sharp chordal set from Bobby. Leisurely entry into the theme and after-theme jamming and back to it stronger to crest the wave and get somewhere else, landing on a new chord area after a couple minutes, coming back with some open strings to emphasize the A again. At 3 min, some bright tone, Stratocaster lead pickup. You can hear bleed from the amps into the vocal mics, like a reverb. I hear the organ! Gotta be Pigpen again now? He’s playing some long tones. Nice little tidepools before getting to the theme again and lining it up for the verse. But a little waterfall pool gets in the way before the long slide up to the A and theme and into the verse Verse 1 at about 5:30, beautiful rendering. It gets very delicate over lines two and three, minor noodling on line three. Counterpoint outro, then a climb to outside notes, the cymbals and Bob’s chords come in and fade into a cymbal bell tolling and soft feedbacks and hits begin. Space is vast. Phil has some odd struck notes, the feedback is atonal. An organ riff into a brief note! Rubbing strings with things, rocking something on the strings, probably a slide. Pedal tones from the bass. Jerry comes in with some lead playing instead of a sputnik plucking, delicately at first, with no steady rhythm section, they start to build it up from nothing, eventually side stick drums come in to give it a pulse. Bob is playing around with the F# and how it fits in the chords, and then changing that to an F natural before hitting the Feeling Groovy chord progression at 13 minutes, but they have a very relaxed groove for it this evening. It only last a minute or so, then breaks down and out of the break Phil starts a slow Dark Star groove area. This goes on toward a new minor key sounding area that has some arpeggiating similar to sputnik but not quite. Relaxed jamming follows with occasional references to the theme starts. Jerry is playing some nice runs this evening and the band has their ears on doing some on-the-spot creative improvising. Brand new music creation. By the time it builds to a Bright Star-like area at 18:30, the groove is very different than normal, and slowed down, almost latin-groove, the actual Bright Star theme statement at 19 is really drawn out, and then when that wave breaks and they get back to the theme it’s really slowly stated but with an underlying intensity, then suddenly an immediate verse 2, with the side stick drums still playing for the first line, dropping to cymbals for a stately Line 2, drums come back in for line three at this tempo, it’s very sort of “swingin’” in a mellow sort of way. The chorus comes in with not the greatest harmonies, outro counterpoint goes on to the chords before St Stephen and people clap at its first notes. Nice playing all around, I (still) like Pigpen on organ! The Soulful Strut groove it gets into in the second half is funny, it always reminds me of swingin’ 60s bachelor pad Latin music with the sidestick drums and especially with this evening’s rather slower pulse. It’s almost the same groove as the really early iterations, when it was almost proto-Eyes of the World, but it seems like lately he’s only using one Maj7 chord instead of two.
One of my all-time favorite Stars - and the whole show (albeit very short as for a number of reasons the boys didn’t start until well after 10:00) is incredible. Found on Dave’s 6.
96. 1970-02-08 19152 Fillmore West 26:13 Bright Star at :48. Main theme at 2:49, 3:32, and 6:07. First verse at 6:25. Bright Star at 21:10. Main theme at 21:59. Feelin’ Groovy/UJB at 22:40. Main theme at 24:00/24:18. Second verse at 24:30. Goes into St. Stephen. The recording here sounds kind of rough, but we can hear everything that’s going on. Garcia plucks around a little and almost immediately goes into a Bright Star variation, which seems close enough to the real thing to mark above. He then repeats the pattern on the bass strings, and then gets into some chordal lead stuff. There seems to be a clear trend lately of building the intro more explicitly around theme-like stuff, which can at times make the identification of waypoints a bit difficult. This one hews pretty closely to the basic song pattern until about 5 minutes in, when it starts to wander a little, but as usually happens lately, it’s reined in pretty quickly again. When the band hits the theme again at 6:07, they take it almost immediately to the verse. This is a gong-heavy affair this time. Afterward, they seem to take a little longer than usual getting to space, but that’s where it heads, of course. Space is a rather percussive, noisy thing tonight, with lots of feedback. They forgo the descent into silence that often begins this section, making a lot of noise throughout. At 13:18, Garcia seems ready to start his line, and this time there is no hint of Sputnik. By 14:00, he is asserting himself more strongly, and the band starts coming out of it. A moody, broody jam comes together, with hints at the Dark Star theme in the guitar throughout. We find ourselves at a bit after 16 minutes in a rather rocking jam that has at some point coalesced; again, there is no modular jam here, but a quite structured thing nonetheless. At around 17:45 there is a bit of pedaling which often suggests the advent of a module, but they continue on with a kind of boogie thing that seems to have no recognizable pedigree. At 18:45 it starts to sound like Dark Star again; recent history would suggest we are heading toward the denouement, but here we have 7 minute to go. Garcia starts winding up Bright Star and the band kicks up behind him. Instead of Bright Star, though, a little after 20 minutes the band sounds like its firing up The Other One. This continues until 21:10, when they swing back into an obvious Dark Star groove, with Garcia again suggesting Bright Star, which this time he follows through on, until it takes us into the main theme. The band gets funkier with this and then, unexpectedly, they swing into a Feelin’ Groovy jam that this time starts to sound more like Uncle John’s Band before Garcia starts to superpose the main theme on it, to which the band soon acquiesces. This brings us to the second verse, and the end of the song. This is a really interesting version. The jamming here is fluid, and the band seems locked in and capable of unexpected permutations. A lot happens in this one.
1970-02-02. www.archive.org/details/gd1970-02-02.121042.sbd.miller.gans.flac24 Gets off to a light & limber start. Just the guitars & guiro...I wonder if they felt more freedom without TC chirping around on the organ. But wait...there is an organ here! Pigpen's playing faint drones in the back.... I suppose the Dead didn't even bother recording the organ at this show, so Pigpen usually only shows up in quiet moments in this Dark Star; it would be nice to hear what he's doing. Anyway, they're digging into this opening jam, great trance-Dead. They're doing their normal opening pattern of theme > drift away > theme > etc. At 4:10 they fake us into thinking the verse is coming, but Jerry wants to float around a little more before he commits to it a minute later. Space opens up with the rumbling bass, and the customary journey through silence & emptiness. Little noises become big noises; there's a lot of feedback presence but it doesn't get very loud, just droney. Pigpen's doing his best creepy-TC imitation. Phil seems maybe a little impatient to get going, boom-BOOM! Jerry introduces the jam with a new line....usually he's been doing Sputnik in this spot, but not here. Phil & Bob join him but they're keeping it loose & wide-open, not heading in a specific direction. Bill adds a beat and Bob's chords get more firm as the jam builds up and gets more rhythmic. A surprising moment at 12:40 when Jerry teases Sputnik on top of an organ drone, but it passes immediately when Bob pushes Feelin' Groovy instead. So they do a nice, groovy version, which doesn't last long, they end it pretty clearly after 13:50. The next 30 seconds remind me strongly of 2/18/71's Beautiful Jam, but Jerry takes them through some other twists & turns. Quite a winding journey follows, not really heading anywhere, kind of mellow & intense at the same time. Around 18:10 Jerry starts keening for Bright Star but they're already at full peak; it kind of arrives at 18:40 but quickly switches to a very intense playing of the theme. (A last flash of the organ at 19:15.) Then they quiet down and boom, a beautiful performance of the theme which shades briefly into Bright Star and a final run that Jerry uses as a runway to a quick final theme & verse. Very smooth timing! It sounds like Pigpen's trying to play along with the climbing outro. Big cheer for St. Stephen; by now audiences were familiar with the Live/Dead album. A good one, friendly and fast-moving -- they're flowing together & in the zone.
#95 1970-02-02 Nice vibe right from the start. Phil is prominent and going to work; Jerry’s tone has a bit of edge and Bob is strumming some jangly chords. Jerry heads out on a dreamy line and there’s a floating feel to the collective playing. They get some momentum going into the theme but then ease up right after which sounds really nice. They’re cruising along again and there’s a certain beauty to the jam. Jerry’s varying between edgier and dreamier lines. There’s sharpness and rev and yet also delicateness. It’s really a lovely opening. Parts of it feel a little Beautiful Jam-ish and I see that Mr. Rain mentioned that about a later moment. They return to the theme at 4:10 and slow it down again and the dreamy quality is back. After a minute they come back to it again and then move on to the first verse. After the verse there’s a bit of a flourish and then they dissolve it into space. A little feedback, some jangly chimes and subtle bell tolls and general weirdness. Things get pretty quiet which allows for some freaky sounds to rise up. Some vibrating guitar, a touch of organ (hello Pig!) and scraping and other insect-y stuff. Phil hits some low vibrating notes. It quiets down again and Jerry starts a pretty line out, initially accompanied by a cricket-like keyboard sound that fades away. Jerry works the wandering line and a collective jam starts to form; it’s loose and noncommittal but with a pretty feel. It starts to gently build and works into a more energetic groove with forceful rhythm from Bob. There are touches of Sputnik but they opt to shift into Feelin’ Groovy instead. It is indeed groovy and melodic and a little ragged and raspy too. It’s also fairly brief as they transition back into a more open jam before too long. The jam has a pretty feel and starts to get a bit more Dark Star-ish but still its own thing. Some Sputnik-esque sounds enter the picture again but it too is its own thing, becoming lower and deeper and revving and then higher and biting and also kind of dreamy. Really nice passage. The jam continues on, taking its time. Bill is adding some nice subtle work in the background. Jerry winds through corridors with Phil and Bob interweaving and by 17:50 things are building and it feels like Bright Star is imminent. But the ascent goes another way and it’s sort of Bright Star-ish but not exactly and then they burst forth into variations of the main theme, screaming out into the night with fuzz and ferocity. Powerful stuff! They ease up and work around the theme a bit more with some nice climbing flourishes before quickly shifting into the second verse. A wonderful Dark Star with some uniqueness in places.
#96 1970-02-08 Fillmore West Audience “yeahs!” from the introductory riff, into a ponderous intro jam. Shaker is taking the rhythm. Jerry is hypnotic on a few note clusters, moving slowly. When he hits a thematic statement, Phil wanders away and then Bobby goes into weird substitution chords, like a long drawn out dissonance (based on G, the “other” chord, away from the root of the A mixolydian) so that when the tonic A comes back, it’s strong. All of them are throwing in more country-music chromaticism and Jerry uses a bunch of chordal 6ths in the jams. Long build with many scalar bits back to the thematic world, great full-band, forward-moving togetherness, with a nice return to the theme at 6 minutes and the verse thirty seconds later. It’s a very moderate tempo, the verse is strong in that tempo right up until the cymbals crash on line 2 where the rhythm breaks. Phil does the wandering on line 3, can’t hear any keyboards… wait, there’s a tiny note of the bedoop bedoop after the Shall We Go lines maybe? Way low in the mix. It’s not a great tape. Classic counterpoint intro to the jam, heavy cymbals, they break it up and break it down. I do hear some held organ chords in the background. Into volume swells and sparse note space, cymbals heavy. The percussion comes out, you can hear him picking it up and shaking a bell tree. Feedbacks, a rolling low end tremolo. Waves of different sounds crash out at 10:30, then the slide-bouncing on strings and feedbacks, interspersed with muted-cymbal hits. String scraping taking over, slowing it down, some sort of ratcheting sound? Isolated notes start coming in at 12:30 or so, atonal space notes, building in intensity, and more waves of cymbals. I think these sorts of space jams would make nice pictures, if you tried to describe it by drawing it. JG starts some short phrase playing, eventually making a more definite statement at 14 minutes, melancholy melodies, the drum set starts a little groove and the bass comes in, but JG stretches out of the path a few times, though they are alluding to the theme after a while and it gets grooving with the claves and drum set, they start in on full band jam at 16 or so, with some 6/8 stuff as if they might go into TOO again, but it’s still in Dark Star territory. At 18 minutes the tape quality changes and there’s more bass and he’s essentially walking the 6/8 into a swung 4/4. Continuing the jam with the Dark Star chords and some feints toward a bright star, sort of spread out a bit, and they play back and forth with the swung versus 6/8 "The Other One" rhythm. They hold onto this for a long time, and the theme comes in strong at 21:15, slow against the walking-style bass. Ok weird, at 22:30 it cuts to the soundboard tape and directly after this they start a slow Feeling Groovy area. It only lasts a minute and a half or so before it’s back in Dark Star chords. Verse 2 at 24:30, sort of abruptly. Delivery is similar to verse 1, same arrangement but a little more from Bob on line three. Backing vocals are rough on the outro, the counterpoint outro is slightly off rhythmically, and they take it through the chords to St Stephen, which gets some yells from the audience as they start it—and it goes into Not Fade Away for a while in the middle! This is actually a really good version, nice space and return to reality, really excellent 6/8 (or swung) Dark Star jam. Too bad about the tape quality.
97. 1970-02-11 99154 Fillmore East 25:59 (Dark Star 16:19>Spanish Jam 9:40) Main theme at 7:05. Goes into Turn On Your Lovelight. Peter Green and Duane Allman reportedly sat in here. Garcia sounds different at the beginning here, with a new, very forward bright and trebly sound to his playing. Weir is very active in the early going, and Lesh is likewise aggressive—the band is bubbling like crazy. At 2:20 it sounds like at least one other guitar starts to join in, which I am guessing is Duane Allman, although it’s hard to tell for sure. This doesn’t go entirely smoothly, so Lesh soon adverts to the main theme, and they start to get it together. A little while after the 4 minute mark it seems like there’s another guitarist getting involved, although three is probably the maximum number of guitarists I can keep track of, so it’s hard to say for sure. By 5:30 things come down to almost nothing, and again Phil starts playing the theme to bring everyone back together. At 6:25 someone (Peter Green?) is playing a haunting, bluesy lead while the rest of the band runs though the theme. At about 6:47 the source switches to an audience recording, which doesn’t sound nearly as good as the soundboard, but the latter is back by 7:52. Between 8 and 9 minutes the music eases into a kind of slow shuffle. It doesn’t seem like it’s really going anywhere in particular, everyone just grooves along. A new pattern emerges at about 9:30, as Lesh starts playing a bluesy thing on the bass and the band responds. As this subsides, all the guitar players seem tentative, as if feeling each other out. Garcia plays a lot of high chordal stuff, leaving room for others to assert themselves, but they don’t really do so until at about 12:15 another pattern starts to emerge which sounds like a stereotypically 1960s blues-rock jam. This builds in intensity, as everyone seems focused on building grooves rather than the kind of exploration we might encounter if this were just the usual lineup. This part gets really good, though; one of the guitar players, who seems not to be adequately amplified, starts trading fours with Garcia, and seems to be doing a rather good, if insufficiently audible, job. Pigpen starts to lay on some really nice organ, and the whole thing really gets pumping, at which point Weir steps out a bit, as this sort of groove music is certainly his forte. Spanish Jam, led by Weir, comes in so suddenly that it seems there might be a cut. The extra hands are an asset in this bit, as they get the idea and put their shoulders to the wheel. Much of the lead playing, apart from Garcia, seems mostly ornamental. Again, the latter trades lines with someone who should be louder, and the band kicks up a fuss. At about 3:20 things are really pumping along, and everyone is being rather assertive. As we approach the four minute mark, Lesh starts to get fancy, and then Weir takes the lead, with one of the guests doubling him. Garcia is not really audible here, so it gives us a chance to hear some of the other stuff that’s going on. Then there’s a pretty extended stretch with this other guitarist in the lead. At 6:58 Pigpen takes over for a little while, and once again it is nice to hear him back in the organ seat. Then at about 7:40 Garcia gets back in the driver’s seat and they build toward a peak. At about 8:30, someone in the left channel who is not Garcia takes the lead, and this is rather loud and effective. After about a minute the band starts to fall apart around him, though, and then they go into Lovelight. All of this is very enjoyable, although the addition of guests is less than revelatory. Although the comparison is not really fair here, since they don’t have a lot of Dark Star experience under their belt, the other guitarists are notably reliant on grooves—in contrast to Garcia, their playing doesn’t really tell a story, and that is dispositive in the way this Dark Star plays out. It is a fun jam, but not essential, I don’t think.
#97 1970-02-11 Fillmore East Plucky start to Dark Star, at a good tempo. Soundboard has a 4 minute gap in the middle. Apparently extra guitarists are involved, though the soundboard tape has no mics on their instruments, so the mix is sort of a Bob-and-Phil perspective with an intermittent Jerry and occasional hints of Peter Green coming in with the blues scales over Dark Star’s mixolydian setup. Later, the song veers off into a Spanish Jam, highlighting Peter Green and Duane Allman. So, I’m switching to the audience tape. Ok. Sounds like it begins into a jaunty jam with the band, Jerry and Phil playing co-lead for a while (and some Allman-y licks in there, like when they come back to a theme area at 1:50 it’s in major-key runs…) Slightly before 3 minutes in a second guitar (Green, I believe) is figuring out some notes, and they drop it down a bit to let the two lead players find their spaces. By 5 minutes it sounds like superimposition of multiple lead guitars— sort of like Greyfolded! I think it’s Jerry doing more sputnik style chord things, and Green still working on scale notes. A minute later it’s quieter and Green is more in sync there, they go back to the Dark Star theme area (or at least Bob and Phil do) and Jerry heads to the melody, it’s slowed a bunch now. They find a new groove at 8 minutes in, now it sounds like 3 lead guitars, this is nuts. Bob and Phil are grinding it out to keep a steady base. Lots of rolling melodic bits from the lead players. Phil sticks on a riff for a while. Some guitars are playing the classic rock pentatonic in here, but by 11 minutes somebody has discovered a nice G-F#-G-A riff to land it into the mixolydian world again. It’s not a loud jam, for having three lead players, they’re all sort of deferential to each other. At 12 minutes I hear organ coming in, building to some chordal stabs from guitars also, entering a sort of "Batman" groove! Some classic country rock licks, sort of hard to tell who’s who. I think Peter Green has the brightest tone of the guitars. It develops into a trading 4s set of licks before 16 minutes, sounds like Green and Allman, though I think it’s actually Garcia on one of those side, because I doubt he’s the guy stabbing the 7th-#9th "Hendrix" chords. Nice segue into Spanish Jam, the rhythm section leading it there. They bring it down after a few minutes and the guitars continue playing around, building it back up slowly with all guitars screaming and crying and then organ and bass soloing. Amazing. And still with only one drum set plus the claves. Jerry starts ripping it up at 8 minutes into the Spanish Jam while the others are stretching their wailing notes. As far as being a version of Dark Star, the song itself is minimally there, no verses and only minor hints at themes though a lot of plugging away at the chord progression ideas. Exciting jam to attend, I’d bet, sort of confusing to listen to after the fact. It goes on jamming into a gigantic 34-minute version of Lovelight coming directly out of the last note of the Spanish Jam.
#96 1970-02-08 Full, deep bass sound as they get started despite the poor recording. Jerry begins slowly, playing some sporadic notes and then starting a gentle line. Bob's rhythm is fairly delicate too. The guiro is prominent. They're creating a nice vibe. It's dream-like but in a different way than the previous performance. It also sort of feels like they're playing in the great hall of a castle many moons ago. The slow, delicate Bright Star variation fits in with that theme well. They start to get a little momentum going, still fairly low key but building and there is a bit more edge to Jerry's tone. That eases up and they continue to wander gently through this space, returning to the theme at various points. There's some nice interwoven flourishes with Jerry, Bob and Phil after 5:00. They rev it up a little before shifting back to the theme again and on to the first verse. Jerry's vocal seems a little shouty at first and not fully aligned with the mood of the opening segment but he settles in and the gong washes bring some mysticism back in. After the verse there's a nice swell with Bob adding some texture. Things start to go lower and the dissolution into space is upon us. It starts off with a brooding feel, briefly coming to a quiet before the jangly chimes and various feedback-y sounds come in. Things get nice and weird and kind of bangy. String scraping adds its usual creepiness. Around 12:26 they hit some low notes and something starts to rise up. It sounds like a jam is beginning but space swallows it up again. Then at 14:00 Jerry breaks out with a gentle line and things slowly start to coalesce. They are patient with it, letting it slowly build and then by 16:00 it's picking up. To this point it's had a Dark Star feel but it starts to sound Other One-ish for a bit. They keep things rolling and have some pace now. The intensity has grown but it's still more of a rocking groove than something fierce. Eventually they find their way back to a more Dark Star-ish zone. Jerry goes high and it feels like they're starting an ascent to Bright Star. Phil's got his own complimentary thing going though and they stay in the foothills for a spell which sounds nice. Around 20:08 it really sounds like they might start up The Other One but they shift back into an intermediary space and then by 21:10 they slip back into Dark Star and bring on a brief, understated Bright Star before returning to the main theme. Then all of sudden around 22:30 they shift into Feelin' Groovy which is accentuated by a change in the tape source. As bzfgt noted it has some UJB flavor as well and then before too long they transition it back in the main theme and start the second verse. I liked this one. The opening segment has a nice feel and there's a lot going on.
It was such a mess and I'm not sure who was aware of "sitting in" planning if any. Bob Weir was visibly angry.
