1970-05-15. Nice mix, emphasizing Bob's guitar. (I can hardly hear any guiro, but don't really miss it.) Really short opening jam...it's a surprise to hear Jerry already singing the verse at 3:05. But it's very laid-back to start with, and Jerry doesn't sound on top of his game here....kind of holding back, there isn't much wandering, and he seems to take a couple minutes to really warm up. The little breakdown to space is mild; space itself puts me in mind of an evening on the beach with the waves and wind, the occasional call of a gull. Not much noise at all, it's a very mild-mannered space. I hear Bob doing his own version of the bell-tolling! Gradually it gets more guitary and musical....Phil's grumbling, Jerry's a whistling ghost, Bob's being a seagull, lots of tinkling cymbals. Jerry starts a pretty line around 8:30 which combines nicely with the ongoing space. The others don't really join him until 9:30 when it gets more Sputniky, but Jerry doesn't go in that direction, he's ready to start the main jam, and after 10 Weir starts patting some chords. Phil stops being weird and puts down a musical beat...this sounds familiar, they frequently seem to go into some simple two-chord variation after space. A little light percussion, a relaxed lead from Jerry with a nice tone. It stays laid-back though and doesn't really build up momentum like usual. Instead Jerry goes the other way and gets into that little double-time Sputnik at 12:50 with the chord jabs, but instead of liftoff they just calm down again. Back to the pretty jam, which gets prettier as the beat gets stronger. At 15 minutes Phil tugs them toward Feelin' Groovy, which sounds like a natural destination. Jerry gets a little sting in his playing at last! Nice warm version (that never sounds like UJB to me), but by 16:30 it peters out; they get all quiet and Jerry breaks out his shivery sound, and shoots straight for Bright Star at 17:09. This one's very short, kind of half-hearted before Jerry drops it and they jerk back to the main theme and the verse without any more ado. I think JSegel's right that Jerry's singing is kind of rough in this Dark Star, and the others don't seem to be singing in this verse? Have they dropped that part before? The audience is very excited as it ends and the gong goes wild. Are they happy to hear St. Stephen? You bet! This one was super-mellow for sure. I'd say they never got any fire going at all, and this is about as lazy, uninspired and by-the-numbers as a 1970 Dark Star gets. It's still nicely played, but I think the beautiful sound quality maybe causes people to overrate it.
1970-05-24. I thought the newer SIRMick copy of this show sounded a lot better than the old copy, the tape hum was much reduced & volume improved, although it's still pretty buzzy. A strong opening to Dark Star! They're really tackling this opening jam at full speed, this is one of the most forceful beginnings I can recall. Around 2:05 Bill catches the bug and starts drumming; it sounds more like a middle jam than an opening, and Jerry doesn't refer to the theme as much as usual. Nice peak and switch to the theme at 4:15, then they extend the theme for a minute before Jerry sings the verse. (The recording gets awful for a while.) They get noisy coming out of the verse, which opens a noisier space than usual. Not much quiet contemplation in this one: lots of banging percussion and feedback and weird noises that keep getting freakier. (At 9:30 it sounds like a tweeting bird by the mic, which must be Mickey's doing. A nod to bird-loving Brits?) By the time Jerry starts hinting at Sputnik around 10:40 it's a full-force metallic gale. I'm guessing they feel the need to push harder on an outdoor festival stage to a distracted audience -- the quiet subtle details of a Fillmore stage won't work out here. Delightful stuff! Jerry does his transition to Sputnik while Bob & Phil keep up the weirdness. (The bass & gongs get very fuzzy here.) Jerry goes through the chord stabs, Phil's starting a more normal bassline, and by 12:30 they've shifted to a pleasant bubbly jam. (It's a neat switch, obscured by an apparent hailstorm on the recording.) Bob has some nice dreamy chords going, it sounds like he's aiming firmly for Soulful Strut. But before they get there, they make another stop: at 13:30 they pause and a whole new theme comes out. It almost sounds like they're playing an actual song here, and it's quite pretty. (I agree with the Beautiful Jam similarity.) Then around 14:20 they switch over to Soulful Strut -- a good one! Jerry doubles Bob's chords for a while then gets a second wind, and they keep the theme going. At 17:40 they're ready to move on, but they don't have a destination in mind, so they try to work one up on the fly. (Jerry often seems to bring out his double-stop playing at these junctures.) Some nice meandering here while they keep the groove alive, but no new jam idea comes up. At 18:50 Bob wants to go into Dancin' like they did on 5-8, but it doesn't fly. Jerry sustains a feedback note while they all slow down, and there's some group chatter, even an organ chord, and it feels like things are collapsing. Jerry pulls them out with the main theme and the others snap right to it. Sounds like he's going to do a Bright Star but he drops it and just sings the verse instead. Very engaging version, full of strength & energy. Even the "behind-the-scenes" moment at the end is neat when they can't figure out how to end Dark Star, which is pretty funny, when introducing their signature song at a big festival....it's almost a Woodstock moment! But they pull through. It makes you realize, most of the time they're so good at making all these slick transitions within Dark Star sound easy, it makes the few fumbles all the more interesting. The buggy recording made me grit my teeth a few times though.
106. 1970-09-17 145891 Fillmore East 26:40 (26:28) Main theme at 3:03 and 4:01. First verse at 4:22. Sputnik at 10:29. Bright Star at 16:45. Soulful Strut at 17:42. Main theme at 24:27. Second verse at 25:05. Goes into St Stephen. A cry for Alligator is heard; many is the time that song will be mentioned prior to a Dark Star. Again we start briskly and with purpose, but the recording does not sound great at first. At 1:50 the band sidesteps into an alternate reality; they go off on a droney bit that takes the jam away down a side street. But at 2:47 Garcia starts in on a Bright Star bit that brings it around to the theme. They wander off a little but then come back to theme rather promptly, and so to the verse. Space has been bleeding back into the bit between it and the verse lately; when they get to space proper, there are some elephant noises, then a cymbal crash, and the audience is appreciative; I’m not sure if there was a visual component to this that helped get their attention. For the most part, this space isn’t a continuous flow so much as a bunch of weirdness, it seems. But as we get to the ten minute mark it starts swelling in, with volume knob maneuvers starting to glue things together a bit more. By 10:29 Garcia’s Sputnik licks are audible and getting louder, which is a pretty standard route out of space at this point. This time Sputnik settles into a harp-like pattern from Weir that we’ve heard before, and Garcia starts a high, piercing line that indicates the start of the middle jam. His playing gathers momentum as the band lays down a two chord pattern, and by 15:00 or so they are hitting a peak. They circle about a bit, and at 16:45 they hit again with Garcia playing Bright Star. Coming down the other side, they seem to be struggling a bit to get into Soulful Strut. When they do hit it, the tempo is very brisk. Listen to Garcia’s licks at 20:00; he gets some good ones in. He seems to have exhausted the fund by around 20:45, though, but Weir keeps on with Soulful Strut a bit longer, and this section feels kind of aimless. Then when they seem to be getting out of it, Garcia prolongs it a little more (21:45) until they sort of crash; the audience gives them a solid cheer as they wind down into a spacey little jam that seems rather unique. By 24:00 they are pedaling and seem almost about to kick off another modular jam, but finally Garcia throws out the main theme and they latch on at a rather quick tempo with the audience clapping along. They don’t try to slow it down this time before bashing right into the verse. The sound quality makes it difficult to evaluate this rendition, insofar as moments that seem aimless or tentative may just be partly buried. In any event, they get in lots of really good jamming along the way, and even your most discerning Head will find something to appreciate here.
1970-06-24. Dark Star is preceded by an introduction from Jerry, which is pretty unusual. (Like, the only time ever?) Mickey's getting his gongs, yay! After all the anticipation, Jerry screws up the opening lick....then he does one of his 20-second opening pauses to let the band establish the groove before he enters with a powerful note. The inevitable guiro is loud & clear again! Really nice brisk opening jam with everybody in top form....after their initial excitement the Capitol Theater crowd shuts up and listens. The lead-up to the theme from about 3:30-4:00 is great, pushing up the intensity just as the theme comes in. As usual the theme is just a short stop that opens up a new jamming path. This gets interesting as they get real quiet after 5 minutes and play lightly (Jerry almost sounds like a toy piano), then crank back up to the theme again. I think the verses tend to sound better on audience tapes...for instance here, Jerry sounds like he's on the seashore singing to the tide. Space is pretty tonight -- lots of gong action and harmonizing guitars. At 8:55 Phil's already teasing Attics of My Life, but they delay it another minute to let the very short space run its course. (At two minutes this must be the shortest Dark Star space of the year!) The transition to Attics is oh so great, really gorgeous coming out of space. A minute into the track, the drums fix a beat and the crowd realizes they're playing a new song. Jerry doesn't waste a second after Attics to return to the Dark Star theme, and they establish a lively jam. This could be considered the main jam; they quickly work up a good head of steam. Before long Jerry's surged into Bright Star and then Bob starts Soulful Strut right away. This band's in a hurry -- everything seems to be happening extra fast. Soulful Strut's really good, with a comfortable feeling and a neat twist at 4:30 when Bob & Jerry briefly switch roles and they all hit a cool peak for half a minute. It comes to a very satisfying ending after 5:30 too as Jerry hangs on one high note and brings them to an intense climax. Normally things would start heading back toward Dark Star at this point, but the energy's flowing hard and nobody's ready to slow down. So they take a left turn into a fast Feelin' Groovy...and then within 30 seconds Jerry's banging out the A chord to start Sugar Magnolia. The other guys catch on right away, and Sugar Magnolia gets a cool long opening where Jerry's playing the chords while Bob does lead fills. The song's not quite all there yet so it only lasts about 2 minutes. When they reach the end Jerry does a nice turn back to Dark Star. Pretty spectacular 50 seconds here as Jerry dives into a Bright Star variation, then in a flash they quiet down on the theme -- from a hot peak to a cool saunter within two seconds. Everyone's calm for the theme, and it's time for the verse. Big crowd excitement during the closing figure. Great audience tape -- the performance isn't hurt by the sound. Very unusual Dark Star, split up into little bits. It felt like a condensed double-speed Dark Star in which they cram what would normally be several-minute jams into about 30 seconds or so. You'd almost think they were racing the clock! Still a wonderful performance. (BTW, my 5-15 review isn't on the blog yet.)
#105 1970-06-24 The crowd is charged up, some banter and swearing and they're off. Jerry rides a high line buoyed by the collective rhythm and textures. It feels like they're skimming briskly through the clouds. The momentum slows a bit and Jerry, Phil and Bobby are interweaving nicely. Plenty of guiro too. Jerry eases up and Bob's rhythm becomes more prominent; nice groove. It starts to build again and you can feel it rising upwards, hitting a raspy peak before slipping into the main theme. They downshift a little out of the theme. Jerry is playing quietly at first but there's some fuzzy edge to his line as it wanders out. It gets more delicate and high pitched and then they start revving it up again before easing into the main theme again and on to the verse. After the verse Phil and Bob set it up and then things quickly dissolve into gong washes and subtle sounds. It starts to build a little but is still very low key. Of all the things we've heard in space over time I'm surprised that exact moment elicited an "Oh my God!" but I commend the sentiment regardless. They shift into a spacier yet still subtle zone, almost like someone is playing a cello, and the gong returns to wash over everything. There's a bit of feedback and some more pretty, delicate freakiness and then they gently slip into Attics of My Life. It's a lovely moment and sounds a little like Stella Blue at first. Attics finishes and they jump right back into Dark Star without laying any transitional groundwork. Things quickly pick up and they get a good jam going. They're cruising along and spiraling upwards which sets up a launch into Bright Star. They ride that peak for a brief spell and as it runs its course Bob steers them to Soulful Strut. It casts its beautiful and uplifting spell but there's also a little edge and raspiness to the playing as it builds. They keep it going and ratchet it up and you feel enveloped by its grandeur. They ease off and then bring it up for one more peak as Jerry reaches up into the sky. After 6:00 they start to pivot and rock out the transitional zone before heading towards Feelin' Groovy. However FG gets just a brief telling before becoming Sugar Magnolia instead which is declared with emphatic chords. As Sugar Magnolia ends they hover briefly in that sound and then shift back into Dark Star territory and within 30 seconds Jerry is taking it back to Bright Star. It's a brief but compelling peak and then they ease up and gently (relative to the overall performance) take it to the main theme and on to second verse. The crowd is psyched for St. Stephen that follows. It's a cool sequence with some beautiful and some rocking moments.
Surely they must’ve played Dark Star between June 24 and September 17, 1970. Lack of recorded evidence though, I suppose.
Not many tapes from July & August - a damn shame as they were never better in many respects than they were from April 1970 through the fall of 1970.
That surprised me too. Looking over the 1970 lists I find that between those shows we have: the Festival Express run from late June/early July (judging from the film it doesn't seem like the best setting for "Dark Star," but maybe they did one - no known complete setlists) and a festival in Edwardsville, IL Fillmore East July 1970 (we have seemingly complete setlists from this - looks like mostly Workingman's type stuff) a few California dates in late July and August 1970 and a Fillmore West run in August (similar to above) I see that Deadessays mentions a lost Dark Star on 7/10/70 at Fillmore East.
They didn't play all that many shows in July-August 1970, and most of them we know about....I think if Dark Star had turned up in any of those festival shows we'd have heard about it. And they did a bunch of all-acoustic shows too....pretty unlikely Dark Star would be played in those.... A lost Fillmore East Dark Star's a crying shame! Hearing about all those missing Dark Star shows from spring 1970 just makes me weep and moan... Yeah, but first we gotta write about how the unsung 9/17/70 clobbers the overrated 9/19!
Please do cut the Prozacs in half. The recordings sound as if they were captured in a dumpster on Pluto. That's not enough to render them asunder, but it's a difficult argy-bargy to claim superiority. But that is a very fine performance.
#106 1970-09-17 Fillmore East: 26:30 AUD After a Star-less summer of almost all country music, we’re getting into some space again here at the Fillmore East on a four night run. This Dark Star is toward the end of the first evening. Shakers for pulse, with a little settling in in the first minute or so, it gets comfortable in its seat. Sparse notes from lead guitar, accented by Bob in between phrases, with Phil bubbling underneath and sending it forward. JG finds a feedback note and holds it as an eddy in the current for a bit. A quiet brighter star area gets back to the main theme, and then off again with more conviction by the three minute area. When they bring it down and back to a thematic area before the verse, it’s a little disjunct, but verse 1 come sin and the audience claps. It’s a casual and mild delivery, leading to a slower outro. I note that nobody is ornamenting the spaces in the refrain after “Shall we go” and “through”, they are just held notes, no bedoopbedoop no nothing. As soon as the new section starts, it falls apart and suddenly there are loud, weird screaming sounds like the bird sounds in the middle of Pink Floyd’s Echoes, and then into percussion sweeps and small noises. Some clapping, regardless. It goes into space, arhythmic and atonal. Some guitar hits, a few of those bird-like sweeps but at a more controlled volume, playing alongside some scraped strings. It’s sort of like a buzz-whistle, maybe? Still getting volume swell bass notes and then eventually volume swell guitar notes, which don’t develop but instead JG comes in again with a soft Sputnik at about 10:45, but it doesn’t hold together rhythmically and falls back into the sea of sound. Repetitive melodic bits come out of the next rise, and they grow into a slow Dark Star jam, and people love this. It’s fairly slow and playing notes around the root chord rather than ever really staying on that A. It moves forward with repeating riffs occasionally, deliberately building slowly and Jerry takes off a couple time, but comes back to the steady upward-moving statements. We’re maybe heading toward a slow Tighten Up, and Bob has that A7-G7 thing going on, but the tempo is still pretty slow—though the claves are trying to energize the mix. It settles into more of a Dark Star jam again. They are using those steadily climbing statement against each other to build to a Bright Star (a slow one) and coming down the other side of that wave Bob speeds it up into the actual Soulful Strut jam. Some serious riffing going on from Jerry and he gets down in this groove. The drums are in and coming along with him. In the middle of the 19th minute it sounds like he’s chasing some specific melody for a while, and that continues off and on over the next couple minutes. They are really holding on this jam for a long time, bringing it down in the 22nd minute, to get somewhere else, and an odd and abrupt switch to sets of melodic sixths, similar to the verse outro, but then it forms a placid pond of tones, from which JG does a few of those post Sputnik stabs, but they don’t bring it out of the area the first time, and it builds again with a wave of volume up and down and then the Dark Star theme pops up and they’re back in the song. Nice! Like the opposite of how it usually blows away into the middle jam section. People clap along, verse 2 comes in at 25 minutes, more upbeat than verse 1, more action on lines two and three, especially the climbing lines under line three. Nice vocals on the outro madrigal, and nicely played outro counterpoint, into the chords that lead to a somewhat slow and short St Stephen and into Good Lovin’ with drum jams within it. Really decent version, interesting space (especially with that weird whistle or whatever that was) that held on for a long time. Long “Strut” jam with some ripping playing from Jerry, chasing some specific melody only he could envision.
#106 1970-09-17 Nice vibe at the outset, at least as can be heard at a distance on the recording. Jangly rhythm from Bob; Phil can be partially made out underneath; Jerry's line wanders out in pretty simplicity. The interweaving gets more intricate and then after 1:50 it sounds like Jerry is holding a note for an extended period while Phil and Bob continue to work away. This shifts them into a deeper zone like they are exploring underground caverns. Jerry breaks upward with gentle touches of Bright Star and then shifts into the main theme. From there he starts spiraling outwards in emotive fashion before they ease back to the theme again and on to the first verse. After the verse there's just a brief reset before feedback and other spacey sounds start oozing in. However the subtly is suddenly broken by loud squawking sounds that bring almost everything else to a temporary halt. There are some cymbal clashes and the crowd applauds the oddity in the subsequent silence. Gong washes come in followed by subtle guitar weirdness and faint bell tolling. They linger in this zone making various freaky sounds, subtle at first but a high, fast zingy sound catches someone's fancy. After that things build a little and there's a humming buzz underneath a volume knob soundscape and lots of gong or cymbal washes. Then around 10:25 the Sputnik line starts to slowly emerge. Sputnik gains in volume as it picks up some momentum. They opt not to fully flesh it out but it still sounds cool and it leads the way out to the jam. They take their time filling it out and it slowly blooms. Jerry is working sharp, winding lines atop the collective textures. Phil is distant on the recording but you can still hear him interweaving nicely. They work in this space for a good spell. By 13:40 or so they rev it up by adding more edge to the repeating patterns and then suddenly shift back into a smoother approach only to start building it back up again. After 14:30 it's edgy again and then Jerry gathers for a moment before reaching upwards strongly around 15:00. From there they level out the groove for a bit before making an ascent to Bright Star. Jerry's sharp highs come across a little screechy on the recording at times but you can still feel the power as he reaches upwards. There are hints of Soulful Strut in Bob's rhythm even during the ascension and then as they come down they slowly work their way there. Perhaps not the smoothest transition but it arrives to cheers from the crowd and moves quickly. I'd argue that the speed takes a little away from its characteristic uplifting vibe (this could also be due to the recording not capturing the full, rich sound) but it's still really nice. They keep it going and it starts to soar a bit more. Eventually it seems to run its course and they linger in a transitional zone for a bit with continued touches of Soulful Strut. By 22:00 they bring it down further, the crowd cheers, and then they get into this nice mellow groove that sounds delicate and pretty. This is a really nice interlude. They take their time with it and then around 24:00 it feels like they are ramping up for a final push but they pull it back and then slip into the main theme and on to the second verse. It's a good version with some interesting passages and the ending adds something unique to the ongoing story. I also agree that the recording makes it more difficult to get a full picture of the collective performance.
1970-09-17. Starts off heavy. It's clear right away that this recording is....not great. But it does give this Dark Star a certain atmosphere, like it's coming from some mythical druid ceremony. And the inevitable guiro is accounted for! Very nice opening jam, dynamic & probing, which seems all too short. I'd be happy if they put off the verse for another ten minutes, but here it is already. The little "we're going to space" flourish after the verse does seem to be getting more ostentatious lately. (Although maybe it's more of a flashback to the mid-'69 variety, which was also fairly noisy.) Space itself is very vivid and full of strange noises...they're broadening their weirdness repertoire to include all manner of honks and squeaks. The audience sure seems to dig it! I think it's a great space myself, it has a sometimes comical aspect that contrasts with the overall serious funereal mood....you've got Phil grinding his cello and Jerry tolling his bell next to some wacky whistle-blowing. The texture gets thicker by 10 minutes, and I love how Jerry's Sputnik blends in with the feedback for a really spooky stretch. Then by 11:20 they're pointing the way out....within 30 seconds a bright new Dark Star jam has been born. The crowd is impressed! They're keeping the tempo slow...it almost sounds like a good slow-dance number (a rumba, perhaps), and they stick with it for a while. Mickey's claves are ringing out. The band's getting a lot of mileage out of this -- Jerry flips out after 14:45. They're inching their way to Soulful Strut, the drummers ready to go, but first Jerry has a Bright Star to deliver, which fits in nicely at the slow pace and serves as a fine conclusion for this section. Now it's time to speed up for takeoff into Soulful Strut, which they take at quite a rapid trot. The recording quality seems to be diminishing, but nonetheless this sounds like a hot version, drums a-gallop. (They might be taking it too fast, but Jerry isn't fazed.) After 20:35 Jerry bows out for a little bit but the other guys keep Soulful Strut alive & kickin', not wanting to let it go; when he comes back they end it with some stirring chords. The crowd is loving this. Then comes my favorite part, after 22:20 they get into this mysterious tranquil floaty zone, all slow & brooding again. Very unique passage....but by 24:20 it has run its course and Jerry brings up the main theme, which sounds like an old friend showing up. And of course the crowd claps at this too! -- this is sure an appreciative audience. The mood is jubilant when Jerry sings the verse, and the audience can hardly contain themselves at the end. It's striking what a variety of moods there is, this Dark Star covers a lot of territory. Some dance-floor rhythms here, some mystical mystery there... It's nice to hear the audience constantly egging on the band too.
Talking about 5-15-70, I believe they also do this on 9-19, as those were the first two 1970 Dark Stars I heard, I have this as the '1970 Dark Star theme' in my notes. I keep dedicated notebooks for GD notes, and a couple of weeks ago I pulled out a couple of them to check something, and haven't been able to find either one since. They've got to be somewhere...
107. 1970-09-19 31510 Fillmore East 25:30 (25:23) Main theme at 1:47 and 5:06 and 6:09. First verse at 6:23. Sputnik at 13:16. Feelin’ Groovy at 16:10. Bright Star at 20:51. Main theme at 21:15. Bright Star at 22:16. Main theme at 23:27. Second verse at 23:51. Goes into St. Stephen. The feel is rather relaxed at the outset compared to recent versions. Garcia’s remarkable entrance begins with a note at :22 that comes in and out and finally swells in on a razor edge of feedback. Once he starts his line proper, it is subdued and meditative, seemingly elicited by the delicate playing of the rest of the band. They touch down on the theme early, and head back out. At 2:35 Garcia again swells in and out on an extended note, this time with a little tremolo picking a la the beginning of Foxy Lady. At 2:50 Garcia does some of the bell tolling we sometimes hear after the first verse. The ruminative playing seems to suggest E minor, then at 4:13 Jerry strongly suggests A, but no move is made toward the theme for almost a minute. When they do hit it, they use it as a springboard to a more assertive jam, although the intensification is by degree and feels organic, leading back to the theme again and the verse. This is one of the most beautiful introductions we have yet heard. Weir comes to the fore following the verse, with Lesh gently rumbling and Garcia throwing out a bell toll or two, and then there is a transition to silence to begin the space section. A few volume knob swells at an almost subliminal level keep a kind of momentum in play, and then Garcia gently tolls a bit and the cymbals swell. There is a sound like dripping water, and then some amplifier noise cuts in. At about 10:25 a transition seems to be occurring as an intense wash of sound starts bubbling up from the band. At 11:14 Garcia and then Weir start making sounds that bear a recognizable relation to their origin in guitars; at 12:03, something resembling Sputnik starts coming out of Garcia’s guitar, but we don’t seem to be leaving space, which is if anything just getting more insistent. Then at 13:16 Garcia starts up Sputnik, which could be our line out. Weir’s counterpoint here is gorgeous. Suddenly Garcia is climbing and Weir is playing some funky chords, and, after a magisterial space segment, the middle jam is underway. At 14:35 Weir sounds like he wants to start Feelin’ Groovy, but nothing comes of it yet; instead, a quite vigorous jam, basically on A with a little kick to the D, coalesces. At 16:08, everyone pauses and Weir kicks into Feelin’ Groovy. Garcia’s lead here is particularly effective; after such a subdued preface, he cuts loose at last. This does not last long, though, as the band shifts through various pedaling maneuvers, and at times seems to touch on Sugar Magnolia. This seems to be one of those segments where they allude to certain structured jams, but manage to stay out of all of them, creating something unique in the process. A bit after the 20 minute mark Garcia seems to be pushing toward Bright Star, which would get us back into Dark Star territory. When he finally hits it at 20:51, he does it half time rather than taking the jam over the top with it, and they bring it down to the main theme. Rather than going to the verse, they cast about a bit and land in a beautiful jam into which Garcia drops a delicate hybrid of the main theme and Bright Star. This gathers steam, but they are not aiming for a crushing finish tonight—even the peaks feel meditative. Soon they return to the theme, and thence the second verse. What a wonderful Dark Star. Calmness and a kind of majesty reign throughout, as the band never pushes too hard. This is a monumental rendition that belongs in every Dark Star fan’s rotation.
I think they do some simple two-chord theme coming after space in most (if not all) of the 1970 Dark Stars, but as far as I've noticed they never do it the same way. So it's kind of elusive, and I'm not sure if they're actually repeating the same chords each time. Sometime on this thread we should do a direct comparison of this section in Dark Stars through the year...maybe it is an actual theme we've been overlooking, or maybe something more nebulous & spontaneous....but at any rate it is a technique the Dead used over & over again.
#107 1970-09-19 Fillmore East: 25:24 (SBD) Night three of the run (Saturday) and a soundboard tape, which is nice. Really intense start after the intro with single building feedback note against the rhythm, then one plucked note and a slow build in the lead, nice tempo and groove. Very slow all the way to the theme at about 2 minutes and low soloing after in varying mode. And a bell tolling for a bit a minute later. This is a very introspective jam, very sparse, wandering into other modal territory, whole new style of Dark Star. Sounds like Bobby has some jazz chords going on before taking it back to the theme groove at 5 min and jam, gliss to the theme a minute later and verse 1. Nice dramatic vocal reading, the verse is fairly animated with percussion and bass. And into the transitive nightfall with almost the groove, bell tolls in the background and this reality isn’t sticking anymore and it fades out. Very quiet space follows, some audience yell. An occasional bass note or bell hit on the strings, like windchimes. Then actual windchimes. The percussion doing some Asian style of wood block, some jack noise while plugging in that screaming thing from the other day, but holding it into feedback. A slow chord progression comes out for a while and fades to string scrubbing, and alternative techniques from both guitars. Sputnik from a trough at 13:00, a short wave of arpeggio and toward the Tighten Up jam at a decent tempo, then a sudden shift to the Feeling Groovy chord progression at 16:00. Long jam and heading toward the Dark Star area again slowly, then a statement of the Feelin Groovy chords from Bob before the 21st minute, capping off this area and it goes to the DS riff. No verse yet, JG starts another very slow lead and the groove devolves into single strummed chords and finally a Dark Star theme, in higher register, in largo. It goes on and on. A gap and a gliss back to the theme and into verse 2. After a few extra bars. Which verse are we at? He gets there and sings it well, sounds a bit like his later voice again. Really groovy verse, drums in. Classic outro to St Stephen. Really, really nice version, very spacey from the outset. It’s suggested that it was on news of Hendrix' death? Slow lead playing in all the Dark Star areas, but at speed in the later jams, then back to slow. Nice ‘other concepts of rhythm’ in the space section, reminds me of, for example, the Noh Theater ideas of rhythm, with rhythm based on ingressive, held and out outgoing breath. Seems like an intense show as it goes on after this as well.
While this thread has lots of in-depth reviews of individual, isolated Dark Stars, so far there's not so much comparison among groups of Dark Stars. So in the interests of scholarship, I put together a little timing list to make easy comparisons of at least this little section of 1970 Dark Stars -- the jam coming after space. Specifically, I was looking for the two-chord part that often kicks it off that year, or sometimes shows up a minute or two in the jam. 1970-01-02 at 17:00 (but the really unique theme starts after 18:00) 1970-01-17 at 10:40 (comes out of Sputnik, turns to Dark Star framework after 11:30) 1970-01-23 at 10:35 (comes out of Sputnik) 1970-02-02 at 10:20 (starts loose, gets more structured after 11:40) 1970-02-08 at 14:00 (very loose, gets more Dark Starry after 15:40) 1970-02-13 at 14:30 1970-02-14 at 10:55 (they lean hard on the 2-chord bit, as on 2-13) 1970-03-24 at 6:20 (theme gets going at 7:20) 1970-04-24 at 12:10 (comes out of Sputnik, Feelin' Groovy starts at 12:40 so not much here) 1970-05-08 at 8:30 (comes out of Sputnik, sounds like a slow Dark Star theme) 1970-05-15 at 8:30 (Sputniky phase at 9:20, 2-chord theme at 10:00) 1970-05-24 at 12:05 (comes out of Sputnik, Bob hits chords at 13:20, then new theme) 1970-06-24 pt. 2 (Dark Star theme after Attics, not really comparable) 1970-09-17 at 11:15 (comes out of Sputnik, slow theme similar to 5-08) 1970-09-19 at 13:15 (comes out of Sputnik, Bob hits chords at 13:45) And looking ahead a bit.... 1970-10-11 at 12:30 (comes out of Sputnik but takes different path, not very comparable...this sounds insane) 1970-10-17 at 8:10 (OMG! totally different! -- then Bob hits chords at 10:15, a slow take) 1970-11-05 at 11:30/12:15/12:50/13:40... (very slow start out of space....totally unlike previous jams til they get to Dark Star theme around 14:30, this is WTF amazing!) 1970-11-08 (Main Ten out of space, completely different) So, unless it resurfaces in 1971, I'd say this two-chord theme pretty much reaches its culmination on 9-19-70....the Dark Stars later on in the year go other places. Mind-boggling places. As far as when it started, I haven't really investigated late '69 for it yet, but I don't recall the December '69 Dark Stars locking into this two-chord theme at all. They do feature an important predecessor though, Bob's dreamy arpeggio that he often uses out of Sputnik -- like at 12:40 on 12-26-69, or 12:55 on 12-30-69. This is the riff that Bob often uses in 1970 to introduce the jam, leading into the chords. The Dark Stars of January '70 have the same kind of loose open-ended feel as in Dec '69 when the jam gets started, but some like 1-23 or 2-2 have that two-chord theme creeping in, and on 2-13 it's full-blown, and it stays put in Dark Star through September. A couple caveats: I don't know if "theme" is the right word here. The chords seem to me to be kind of a funky variation on the Dark Star theme, kind of a cross with Soulful Strut (and often leading into it). I think it should be given a name, but...this is probably too late now that almost all its performances are behind us! Also, it's played a bunch of different ways; the jams it was in could vary a lot, so it's not like a theme where everyone had a specific part to play. The main connecting thread here is just Bob's chords, which he could alter to suit the occasion...sometimes a slow Dark Star groove, sometimes a hard R&B style. Anyway those are just my layman's observations; someone more musically astute could come up with a better analysis.
This is the chord theme that goes A7 to G7, using the F natural as a contrast to the F# that usually exists in the Dark Star world, right? I tried to make note of it, usually yeah, going into the Major 7 version of the G (at the very least, if it goes full on"Soulful Strut" latin vibe, the A also gets the Maj7 and it has that proto-Eyes feel.) This is great, doing whole-period summary stuff. Thank you!
Yeah, you've often noted the chords in your reviews, which is very helpful! Can anyone think of a name for this theme? There must be something better to call it than "the two-chord theme"....I don't know, like "Dark Star Strut" or something... And, bzfgt, could you find a spot for that post on your blog?
