I think it is from some other Dark Star(s), not a different song. It didn't remind me of anything. But Jerry would use these floating licks sometimes, it may well have turned up in the Other One too.
Case in point: I was listening to the 11/15/72 PITB, and there the lick popped up, around the 21-minute mark. So maybe it was a standard PITB lick in '72, or it just wandered around from jam to jam.
#142 1972-09-16 The guys near the taper are definitely psyched to be getting a Dark Star. There's a mellow, dreamy feel as things get underway. The matrix recording probably adds a bit to that vibe as well. They wind slowly and patiently through some lines. There's a sweetness to Jerry's guitar that is accented by Keith. Bob adds nice textures and Phil working some mellow lines as well. Things start to pick up after 2:15 or so and Jerry goes upwards with a stronger, sharper line before bringing it back to down in the mellow haziness. They continue to wind along dreamily, pooling and swirling a bit around 4:25 and then floating around in the ether. Bill's cymbals shimmer through nicely and he works a mellow beat. There's a patient, enchanting feel to everything that they're doing. After 6:30 the intensity starts to grow but slowly; they're building it up in stages. The overall tone gets stronger and more powerful while still being somewhat mellow and a nice groove comes together. Jerry works some compelling lines and Keith mixes in some wah which adds to the vibe. They're still floating along but there is more darkness nearby. Around 9:45 Jerry gets into a high, sharp repeating thing. Then around 10:20 they start finding their way back to the theme and then on to the first verse. The crowd is enthusiastic about "the transitive nightfall of diamonds." After the verse they reset although Phil's part is quite distant on the recording. Jerry peels off as noted by bzfgt and then they ease into the ooze. It's sort of spacey but also melodic. Phil steps forward (it's a shame he isn't more present in the mix) and Jerry brings in some volume knob action. Bob adds some nice chord work and there's a contemplative feel to the proceedings. Keith then introduces some spacey notes that prompt Jerry to start up a Sputnik-esque line that he keeps at a more deliberate pace. They bring it to a near quiet, eliciting applause, and then drift further out into the spacey ooze. Some freakiness abounds but it's pretty too. Slowly something heavier starts to brew. Jerry hits some stronger, darker notes and Phil revs it up a bit. Then after 17:50 some wah starts coming in and Jerry gets a sparkly repeating thing going and then starts spinning up fast notes. Keith adds wah then gets into some horror movie type notes. Jerry is driving to a meltdown but Keith continues to work his choppy piano groove. Jerry is letting loose with mini Tiger squalls busting out while the collective groove carries on. The fury continues to build and then Jerry pulls back a bit before jumping in head first with furious bursts of notes. He starts spinning things up again and by 21:10 the full Tiger starts charging out, screaming with abandon. The crowd is more distant now but they seem to be loving it. It crests after 21:40 and they take things down to a quieter place around 22:10 from which a lighter jam immediately starts to emerge. They're moving along now in bouncier, more upbeat territory that has a bit of cowboy twang too. Plenty of wah too which adds another dimension. They get cooking along and at a certain point you could picture a seamless transition into Big River. They continue to work the groove and ride it for a good spell, rising up to an extended peak after 24:50. Then around 25:50 they bring it down and coast along briefly in semi-spacey fashion before moving on to Brokedown Palace. I like the mellow, dreamy feel at the onset and the jam preceding the verse is cool. Then post verse we get some spacey melodic-ness that blooms into a freaky, choppy jam and an intense meltdown. The post-Tiger jam gets a good uplifting groove going too.
#142 9/16/72 Boston: 26:56 (end patched with AUD) With Ned Lagin, it says. Note that Jerry is back with his Alligator Stratocaster again now! Starts with a pleasant feel, some sparse piano notes from Ned on electric piano, Keith on acoustic. Jerry plays in little fragments for a while. When he starts playing more wildly, he’s stretching notes like mad, getting back in with the Alligator strat. They rein it in a bit, and ride. Series of falling statements and gathering in trills at the bottom, not much separation in the mix, hard to distinguish some things in the seaweed of small sounds, Jerry and Ned are blurring a bit sometimes. Dark Star theme fragments at 6:45, but hidden in there. They build it back to the Dark Star groove, Jerry runs around. He’s still playing a lot with stretching strings way out. (Reuniting with the Alligator.) They settle into a marching little groove with riffing from Phil. Jerry goes on exploring his guitar, a section with pinch-harmonics. And settling into the theme proper before 11 minutes. Verse one comes in, very sensitive vocal delivery. Bill continues a bit into line 2, then holds and builds back into the groove for line 3, beautiful refrain from Jerry, people yell and clap, the outro extends and Jerry already playing some melodic notes, then the go more static on suspended chords. It dies into small swells and notes. Bobby and Phil have a minor modal area that they explore a bit. Bill is keeping a subtle pulse. A Sputnik emerges late in minute 14, moving ominously. It gets really quiet in the 15th, slightly chromatic, but subtly, and stays that way for a while. More latent scary chromatic statements start at about 17:30, with bits of feedback and wah pedal. It grows but not quickly, some arpeggios with wah and then Tiger-like bits at 19 min, stabs from piano, drums build up a fast and odd groove, it stays chromatic and strong building to and through meltdowns. The groove goes on from Bill, Jerry seems like he’s tired of it, then stages a comeback to some high stretches and then back to the bottom to build a real Tiger, he starts to take over with the fast wah wah chromatics to break it apart. Pianos droning on low octaves, Bill won’t quit the groove. Finally at 22 minutes it breaks and a piano (Keith I would think) is playing a saloon western thing, Jerry falls in immediately, then the drums start the train beat, into a fast new jam with a lower volume. Sounds like Cumberland a little bit. Endless riffing from everybody, Jerry gets caught up in several repetitive little bits, at 26 minutes it breaks back to take stock, the drums roll off. Jerry leads a coda and then brings it into Brokedown Palace. (With a small splice of audience tape in the SB.) Not the best version, interesting but not spectacular. Some fun experimenting with stretches and sounds from the guitar from Jerry, different from the previous concerts.
143. 1972-09-21 150281 Philly 37:18 Main theme at 11:30. First verse at 12:05. Tiger at 24:55. Mind Left Body Jam at 33:49. Goes into Morning Dew. A bubbling start with the theme chords and some plaintive Garcia, who at first lays back and adds color, and then at :34 gets mesmerizingly active. This is a classic intro, beautiful and understated, with the vigorous but relaxed feel that they have perfected at this point. The playing is very dynamic with little swells and flurries; a beautifully languid stretch begins at 2:49; Keith seems to be playing with a volume knob somehow here, it sounds like a guitar but I can hear everyone else. Garcia suddenly gets louder at 4:12 and the band kicks up, rather surprisingly. At 4:34 Jerry states the theme, almost, but he backs off before anyone follows him along that route. Instead they get quiet again, and again Garcia seems to be in the lead at 5:04 as some triplets lead into a more assertive jam section. This reaches a small summit at about 5:42, and then more decisively at 6:05 or so. They are playing with degrees of intensity in the way that they first perfected in 1969, so that the dynamics are shifting quite frequently. At 7:25 there’s a kind of pause; rather than go to the theme, Jerry plays some rolls, hinting at a minor shading, and starting at 8:05 it is quite reminiscent of Sputnik. Coming out of this, Garcia draws out a feedback shriek from 8:25 all the way up until 8:43, and then comes back at 8:49 with a light tremolo. There are traces of Bright Star at 9:12, and then Garcia starts hinting at the theme, but it is still not time for that. From 10:12, Weir and Lesh feint back and forth with touches of an out-of-sync funky jam, playfully refusing to commit. Godchaux starts a tremolo at 10:20, and Garcia joins him at 10:25; they draw it out, and Lesh again bounces around with one of his funky licks (10:40) without expecting anyone to follow. As it finally starts to come apart, Garcia enters the breach with the theme at 11:30, and this leads pretty quickly to a confidently perfect reading of the verse. After the riff there’s a quietly bustling little jungle scene, with Keith laying on the wah; Garcia and Weir start playing somewhat frenetic lines, and a bouncy little jam develops. This comes to a head a little after the 15-minute mark, and then attains a steady simmer. There’s a kind of knotty peak beginning at 15:33 where all the threads come together, and as they come out of this there’s a kind of transition—Garcia disappears at 16:00, and now Godchaux comes to the fore as they play a more subdued version of the preceding jam. At 16:54 Lesh strikes up one of his funky riffs. It’s always remarkable to me how, without ignoring him, they usually forgo the opportunity to settle into a groove, and the riff recedes without leaving too much of a mark. He brings it back around 17:35, and they rally around him a little before he lets it go again. After a couple minutes this jam starts to feel a little aimless, though…not unpleasant, but exhausting itself nonetheless. And just before we reach the point of exhaustion, Garcia is back, coming in at 19:04, and perhaps heralding more excitement in what follows. He’s got a little wah going, and might have a meltdown in mind. As we cross the 20-minute mark the intensity is increasing, but gradually at first, and by 21:00 Garcia is flashing some Tiger licks. But they take their time; Godchaux’s wah-wah piano and Weir’s little squalls are flashes of weirdness in a slow burn, with no one in a hurry to bring it to a head. Rather than a Tiger, this is a freaky jam with Tiger-like bits scattered throughout. They seem to have harnessed the power of a meltdown and channeled it into a more consequent and coherent stretch of music. Finally, however, they seem ready to take the next step at 24:55, and we seem to be headed for a true meltdown here. The Tiger is brief and a little subdued, relative to others, and we reach the other side pretty quickly, into a slow meltdown taking place from around 25:35 to 26:38. At 26:46 Garcia is losing some of the wah, and we are at an inflection point; many Dark Stars would end here, but there is still 10 minutes to go. They ease into a gently twinkling jam, ratified by Phil’s easy melodic line. By 28:20 they could almost be shifting into Morning Dew or Stella Blue, but there is no clear referent here yet. It’s just gentle, melodic Dead, a little bent out of shape for good measure. At 30:10 Lesh and Weir are adding little syncopated stabs and bending the music further toward something else. 30:50 sees Garcia start a fingerpicked roll, echoed by Lesh. This develops with some gorgeous country licks, and Weir and Lesh pick it up and push it forward. It really snaps together at 32:00, and a new jam emerges. Jerry keeps going around and elaborating his fingerpicked roll with ridiculous facility; at around 33:05, he even strikes a figure where he’s playing an ascending run on the bass strings and an ascending run on the higher strings at the same time. Then he bears down on it and the band kicks it up some more, and at 33:49 they break into the chord pattern known as the Mind Left Body Jam, which last made its appearance in a Dark Star (for the first time) when it was played double-time in the end jam of 1972-04-08. They go around a few more times, and Garcia strikes up Morning Dew. This is an astounding ending to a gorgeous, magisterial Dark Star. This one is rightly well-known; it’s one of the high points of the entire corpus. It moves slowly compared to some, but there is plenty of excitement to be had, even outside the stellar end jam, for anyone who cares to listen closely.
1972-09-16. An interesting source conundrum... Phil is way low on the SBD tape, in which the instruments are crammed in near-mono surrounded by stereo drums. The audience tape is terrible, but Phil's more up where he should be. The matrix has the audience mixed too loudly for my taste, but perhaps makes the best of a bad situation -- I agree it's the preferred listening choice, the hall sound helps. According to Nedbase, "Ned Lagin played a Wurlitzer electric piano and Crybaby wah-wah when he joined the band on stage for "Dark Star", after which he and his piano exited the stage." But just like the last Boston Dark Star on 1971-04-08, Ned's barely present on the recording. I confess I couldn't discern him at all in this mix....maybe some of what sounds like Keith is him. Boston greets Dark Star with a lot of enthusiasm, but rather than respond with their own energy, the Dead get into a mellow low-key Dark Star. Very relaxed start with a jazzy flow; Jerry seems to be biding his time with understated playing. After a couple minutes it starts getting more intense, then sinks back to a dreamy haze. Calm and pretty, with no urgency, just lying back in the ocean tide and watching the night stars turn in their slow orbits. This whole opening jam has a chill vibe of just floating off in tranquil contemplation. Keith's tinklings are prominent and he's a team with Bob here, sometimes adding shimmering wah textures; Phil is more of a ghostly presence. Phil plays his Marbles line again here & there, starting around 6:20. After 7 minutes they start to kick it up in energy again. Quite a nice drippy jam here, very smooth without any of the mood shifts they did on 9-10. It sounds like it could go on endlessly, Jerry going deeper & deeper into infinity; there's some similarity to the jam out of He's Gone. It's a surprise when Phil starts the theme out of the blue at 10:20 -- usually it's Jerry who does this, but maybe Phil wants to move on. Jerry takes the hint and gets to the verse quickly. Then they sink softly into the spacey ooze... A jam almost seems to be assembling: after 13:40 Bob's chords seem to be taking them to a nice gentle jam (kind of like on 1970-09-17), but it soon breaks up unpursued. Jerry gets into a little Sputnik at 14:30, and they return to the void of space. They stay in soothing quiet tinkles for a while, quietly driftin' & dreamin', echoing in the hall....but some growing feedback hums hint at the coming tension. Jerry turns on his wah at 17:05, Keith has his own wah going, Bill interjects on the drums, the playing gets busier & darker. After some more Sputniky stuff at 18:00, Jerry turns to the Tiger and things get heavy. Now they're doing the same trick as on 9-10, Jerry doing wild flurries while Keith & the band knock out a seemingly unrelated funky groove, and then they converge. Jerry trills & splutters & tickles the Tiger while the band lurches onwards, Keith slamming the piano hard. After some wah squawks around 21m, Jerry dives into the Tiger for real, but they don't reach the Point of Doom; the Tiger screeches fiercely then retreats into the jungle while Keith thrums the low notes. The danger passes and the band relaxes again. (Crowd cheer.) At 22:20 they're suddenly back in a light toe-tappin' jam, which Jerry's amenable to. The darkness has lifted, the country air beckons. I think Keith's doing the growling wah part here while Jerry's back to normal tones, in an interesting switch.* They hit a repeating crescendo line at 24:50 which lasts for a while, Keith on top of Jerry while Jerry drags it out, til Jerry ends it with a trill at 25:50. Then they float calmly again, Jerry doing his gliding-to-another-song transitional-type lines as the band lays out a pretty background. Unfortunately the SBD breaks off just before the actual transition to Brokedown Palace, so the sound change is jarring and kind of spoils the segue. But this is the kind of soft jam-to-song transition that was becoming more common (you'd almost think they're heading into a '73 China Doll). Big cheer for Brokedown Palace. *This part's hard to parse. I don't think Bob used a wah (ever?). There are piano notes alternating with the wah, maybe simultaneous...hard to tell since they're all centered in this mix, Bob blending with piano. The wah is consistent with how Keith usually sounded on it, but is used more than he usually did. This could be a case where Keith & Ned are both doing stuff; it's the only place in Dark Star where I could maybe hear two pianos. This was a great masterful Dark Star in a mellow vein -- not very intense for the most part, an unhurried Dark Star of gentle tranquility. A good one to pick if you're looking for a subtle meditative vibe. Lots of trippy Keith, who does a lot of close interaction with Jerry and sonic shapeshifting between wah & pretty tinkling & jabbing grooves. But it suffers from the thin sound....something we're going to encounter more in late '72. With a better mix this would be really impressive; on this tape it comes off as a little lightweight, but it repays close attention. The audience is really quiet and appreciative too: no chattering in the jams. They dig space too -- just like in the 1970 audience tapes, the crowd applauds what seem like quiet moments of nothingness. Tells you something about the band-audience bond, and what people expected in Dark Star.
#143 9/21/72 Philadelphia: 37:22 - Dick's Picks 36 Lovely plaintive* stretches from Garcia as he starts after the intro goes. Relaxed feel, a lot of interplay between the players, everybody sort of bopping along. Everybody’s instruments has a good sound, even Bob’s got a decent tone here, and he’s playing with some licks in between chordal bits. Jerry sneaks in some little jazz licks in a bassier tone, then he starts playing with volume swells, leading to a plateau, though still with the underlying pulse. The plaintive stretches come back a little bit, leading to some small repeated melodic nursery-rhyme melodics, and it starts to build from there, still referencing the Dark Star thematic world. At about 5 min, Jerry starts plugging away at something that is a new build up to a Brighter Star at 6 min, that contains a little circle around the theme. Nice. That wave comes back down and Jerry goes back to some volume swells on his plaintive stretches, and into a new area. This section has a latent Sputnik, or at least a 6/8 feel, but Jerry brings it into some light feedback, with whammy bar! (Whammy bar? How often does that happen?) Wow, that was unexpected, and then he rolls away on tremolo single notes. Still in the circle-around-the-theme world, Keith and Phil play with that idea in half time against Jerry, really nice counterpoint. The some pull-offs, Keith mirroring. A lot of tremolo and trills from Jerry and Keith, then piano with wah on this also. They back off, leaving small gestures of the theme and then Jerry starts it for real at 11:45, the band falls in and they head to verse 1. Nice delivery, very emotional sounding, highs and lows, long held first syllables of each line. The refrain with strong answers from the instruments, and in the outro Bob has some little appoggiaturas as the band mutters around, they start the next section. Jerry on light and fast low volume stuff that starts to insist itself more and more. The drums seem to roll along haphazardly until about a minute later and then by the 15th minute they are in a fast jazzy jam. Some little eddies of close notes, and out into a lighter area, Bill on side-stick rhythm. Piano and bass accompany, a little bit of Bobby, but Jerry is stepping back to take stock. Or light a cigarette, perhaps. Phil starts a more driving riff, still mostly piano for high melody stuff. Jerry slips back in at about 19 minutes, wah pedal on but rolled back. Bill starts rolling more on toms, he and Phil start a Bo Diddley beat underneath, Jerry starts to take the mode outside, Keith happily follows, as does Bob with some dissonant chords. It’s getting tense, he has some little riffs that lead up and some Tiger pull offs already inserting by 21 min. Wah on the piano stays with Jerry, it starts to sound very Miles Davis of the similar era (or maybe some combo of John McLaughlin and Keith Jarrett era?) Both Jerry and Keith on a chicken riff at about 22:45 and Phil doing the walking bass type stuff. Chromatic fast riffing is building up the volume and tension, up and down, and then from the bottom a Tiger meltdown starts for real by 25 min. Strong low chords from piano and bass, super dissonant, ending with stretched bass notes and pinch harmonics playing out atonal melodies. Big bass chords. Volume swell chords from Bob. Odd notes from everybody as it dies down. At 27:30 or so, Jerry seems to want to take it back to a sweet melodic area, Keith plays around it modally for a bit and they land with some side stick attempts at pulse, Jerry takes a new melodic whirl as they seem to play in D major/e minor while he stretches to a Bb, it never really gets its stride until after 30 min, Jerry has some bluesy/country licks, and it stays in the D major area and he plays some banjo-type stuff. Who knows how they’ve come to this point! (To me it seems like Dark Star is pretty much left behind at this point and they are moving on to somewhere else.) Jerry is still playing with that Bb in the D major world, moving up and down in contrary motion simultaneously. They go full into this for a Mind-Left-Body jam, (which sort of sounds like that part in Music Never Stopped, now that I hear it here) with the dropping line, C-B-Bb-A on a D major chord. Over the hump of this jam, it starts resting a bit and quieting down, and they head to Morning Dew, with only a brief moment in between. ________ Really beautiful playing, some new explorations. The plaintive aspect that Jerry set up seems to stick with it for a long time, and then the whole thing has a trajectory toward the Tiger area, and it comes back to the world with folksy music references. Great piece of music. *(I actually had written this, with the word "plaintive" describing Jerry's stretched notes before reading bzfgt's post, so I guess we are in the same space this week!)
#143 1972-09-21 A very plaintive start from Jerry. It really is though; his playing is patient, smooth and bendy with just a touch of mournfulness. This is counterbalanced with a bouncy vibe from Phil. Nice complimentary textures from Bob and Keith with gentle cymbal action from Billy; the collective interweaving is lovely. Jerry starts going higher and there is occasionally some more bite to his tone. He's spinning beautiful lines, high and low, and the momentum ebbs and flows fluidly. After 2:50 they pool up and there's some volume knob action and things get quieter and more introspective. Gentle, pretty notes from Jerry that Bob continues to compliment well. I hear the volume fluctuation from Keith that bzfgt pointed out too. Then around 4:12 they suddenly burst forth and it feels like a big upswing is underway but they pull back again fairly quickly. Jerry touches on the theme but they keep winding on, continuing with the lovely ebb and flow. Jerry gets into a climbing, repeating thing that Phil plays off of well. They rise up to a Bright Star-ish mini peak around starting 5:50 and the mellow powerfulness is enchanting. From there they wind downwards and briefly find a quiet space before wandering forth. Jerry's guitar cries out into the night and the mellow, introspective playing continues on. It's all rather lovely. After 8:00 they get into a Sputnik-esque zone and then start winding up. Bob works some repeating notes and the momentum builds and there's some sustained feedback from Jerry, again calling out into the night. Jerry then starts spinning up some repeating notes that Bob plays off and there's a touch of the theme again but they roll on, finding a mellow, pretty zone. More ebb and flow and around 10:10 Keith starts blending in some pretty piano runs that Jerry jumps in on and they mirror each other for a spell while Phil works it gently underneath. Keith then shifts into wah and Phil hits some intermittent notes with a bit of rev but it's all still mellow lovely and then around 11:30 they start shifting into the theme and then on to the first verse. Keith continues to add wah at the beginning of the verse. Afterwards they reset and then drift into a transitional zone. Bob is fairly prominent initially. Keith gets into some wah and then Jerry starts spinning up a winding, repeating pattern. Phil then starts coming forward more on the recording and they work up a jam. It builds and gets cooking pretty well with some repeating patterns and then around 15:50 they ease up. Phil, Keith and Bill continue to work it quietly with some accompaniment from Bob. They keep this going for a while. Phil gets into a funky riff as noted by bzfgt while Keith keeps working the wah. They're keeping it on the low burner but it continues to move along. Phil gets more assertive around 17:35 and then again at 18:05 and they continue to work in this territory for a while more. Then after 19:05 Jerry comes in and works his own wah for a bit. They start to build momentum with a prominent bouncy line from Phil and Jerry starts on a path that will eventually lead to meltdown territory. Lots of textures from Bob and Keith is active too. By 20:30 a meltdown feels imminent and the intensity ratchets up further after 21:00. The Tiger is nearby but still being held in check and they continue to work this jam that's melt adjacent but still groove. After 23:00 it starts to ratchet up again and with more frenetic rev. Jerry gets into an intense repeating thing that winds it up but then he eases up again. Keith's wah is prominent and Jerry starts to unleash more although there continues to be some ebb and flow in terms of the frenetic energy. Then around 24:55 they go all in and let the Tiger rip. Jerry's guitar screams out and there are thundering notes from Phil. It peaks around 25:30 but they continue to keep it weird; semi-mellow at first but then Phil thunders through again. By 26:40 it feels like it has run its course and they hover briefly. Things take on a melodic feel and they find themselves floating into a gentle, pretty section. It sounds like a natural transition space for a ballad but there is also a kind of medieval vibe to it. They take their time in this lovely, gentle zone that has just a touch of rev at the edges. After 30:00 they start moving in a new direction with Phil and Bob most prominent initially. Then Jerry starts playing these lovely, bendy, patient notes and things start to coalesce into a new jam. There's a down-home, twangy feel that is nicely accented by Bob. Jerry reaches upwards and the momentum builds and they get a country-fide uplifting thing going that feels celebratory and pulls you in. They take it for a good spin and then around 33:49 they shift into a Mind Left Body Jam that punctuates this section triumphantly. Bless them! They take their time winding it down and then briefly find a slightly weirder space that creates an opening for Morning Dew. Wonderful performance. A lovely, compelling all timer.
144. 1972-09-24 2202 Waterbury, CT 34:32 (DS 28:28>Drums 1:58>DS 4:06) Main theme at 11:03. First verse at 11:14. Tiger at 21:55. Goes into China Cat Sunflower. There’s a lot of Weir and Lesh on this recording. Things get off to a bouncy start, with Lesh deviating from the primary pattern fairly quickly while Weir keeps it pumping along. At 2:01 Bob starts to digress a bit himself, throwing in little tremolo runs in between his triad splashes. This intro provides a good example of the band maintaining a groove while each individual plays idiosyncratic and offset lines that would make little sense on their own. At 3:31 Garcia launches into a series of triplets that culminates at 3:58 with some squalling double stops, and the band pauses a little on the tail end of this. Jerry comes back with some low runs and by 4:55 they’re working toward another of the minor peaks that often occur in the early going. The playing here is somewhat reminiscent of 1969, insofar as there is a rapid succession of dynamic shifts. Lesh brings us into the modern era, though, with one of his repeating jazz licks beginning at 5:22; as is often the case, this comes and goes without too much commentary from his peers, although it all fits together. At about 6:35 Godchaux briefly switches to the Rhodes, I think, unless he just open the wah-wah pedal he sometimes uses with the piano. In any case, shortly afterward he seems to be back on the regular piano. At 7:27 Garcia starts a windup which brings them to another minor peak at about 7:43, and then the music slides into a more ruminative zone. They start to rise again, but something subtly poignant has entered the jam at this point. At 8:30 there’s a lull, and the phrases come back a little longer and less emphatic until at 9:05 Garcia crests and initiates a line that gestures toward Bright Star, and as he descends and then ascends again the rest of the band drops down to a whisper and the tempo slows; at 10:50 Weir decides it’s time for the theme; Jerry takes it for a couple spins and goes right to the verse, which is softly deliberate this evening. The second half starts with some heavy and distorted bass to which the others add color. At times it seems Garcia is trying to latch on, and Lesh is changing it up, so a coherent jam is deferred. At around 14:40 Kreutzmann starts to lay down a groove, but the rest of the band comes to a virtual halt. Godchaux and Lesh are signaling their willingness to groove by 15:20, but nothing is coming together. As we get to the 17th minute Garcia has engaged his wah effect, and probably has a meltdown jam in mind. Kreutzmann gets on the toms and gently but emphatically offers the groove again. Weir is scritching, Lesh is trying to groove, and Garcia is indicating a meltdown; Godchaux sides with the weirdos, and Kreutzmann recedes back to the cymbals. By 18:45 this is starting to coalesce, there is a groove but it’s a pre-meltdown groove. But they seem a bit uncertain with it or, to be more charitable, they are taking their time in any case. And slowly but surely, it is coming together, but Weir drops out at 20:35 and this takes some of the wind out of it, so Jerry gets more Tigerish, since the groove seems to be scotched. When comes back at 20:51 he’s switched to the meltdown team, and this seems to add the needed impetus to move things in some direction. By 21:22 they seem to be driving toward a Tiger, but then they pull back rather suddenly. At 21:55 Garcia goes all in and starts his Tiger roll, and the band follows suit. This Tiger seems a little bit restrained, but it will have to serve. At 23:45 Godchaux is pounding a repeated note; if they all latch on, this will lead them out of the meltdown, but it doesn’t happen that way, and he finally releases it and a more drawn out expression of the meltdown ethos ebbs into an interstice at 25:00 that Garcia soon fills with a melodic line. Lesh is game, and they duet a little on a mournful melody. By 26:05 the band has arrived at a pretty little jam, and they milk it a little before Garcia starts bending it out of shape and they all start weirding out again. They’ve left the jam, and they don’t want to go to another meltdown, so they seem to be at a bit of an impasse; they deal with this by stopping, and Kreutzmann is left to fill the gap with a short drum break. This goes on for a couple of minutes until Lesh joins back in, followed in short order by Garcia, and then Godchaux and finally Weir. What we have here is a choppy little jam that gets bouncing along pretty well, with everyone on the same page. They threaten to color outside the lines a few times, but it holds together, with Garcia playing some frenetic runs; as we approach the four minute mark, it start to shift, and somehow they smoothly drop into China Cat Sunflower and the Dark Star is over. This is a well-known rendition, and it’s far from bad, but it seems to me to lack direction at times in the back half. As always, there is plenty to love here, however. At times they seem to be holding the door open for inspiration, but this can be stated negatively as a reluctance to commit. Either way, it’s another rich and rewarding improvisation, and relative judgments aside, it’s worth spending 35 minutes on.
#144 9/24/72 Waterbury: 33:56 (DS 27:43 > drums 1:59 > DS 4:14) – 30 Trips Phil messes about with the intro riff, then a verbal count off. Soon after the start, Jerry gives the plaintive stretch of the other night again, but they settle into a forward-moving groove, everybody winding out the notes like a multi-headed hydra. Jerry playing with some wide arpeggios, then upward runs, eventually getting caught up in some fast little riffs that take it out of the mode a bit and up to a little plateau of harmonics, everybody else keeps grooving along so he starts again at the bottom strings and builds it up again. Jerry is into some fast chromatic/jazzy riffing tonight. In the 6th minute Keith uses his wah tone a little, but then abandons it. Jerry still skipping a long, they are pounding it out. It finally breaks down a bit at 7:40, entering a quieter mellower area. Jerry is playing with reaching leading tone chromatics, bringing a theme statement before 9 min, and then some more quick running around and back up to the harmonics, and back to the low strings, bringing it back up by thirds, the whole band winding around little riffs. Keith is following Jerry quite admirably here. It gets very jazzy and then min some shorter runs, though it continues back to endlessness, with some great outside-the-mode bits, they are all still just cooking, endless groove. Bob sure likes his stretched doubles stops, he spends minutes playing with them. Theme feints from Phil at or so, they end up playing a skewed Dark Star groove, still moving in and out of it and running up and down, grooving. Keith back with his wah tone. A lot of feints to the theme, but then running away off into more riffing. It breaks apart and reassembles to build as Phil goes up and places the theme notes, Keith and Phil cascade slowly around it and finally an actual thematic entrance. Sort of a grooving verse at 11 minutes, nobody really abandoning the pulse for the fermatas much. Jerry sounds a bit strained, and ragged at the very ends of each line, especially the refrain. Phil starts the Transitive Nightfall with big bass chords, sort of the bell tolling, but it takes only a minute or so before he goes into more minor key and bigger scarier chords. Band is backing this up and then it comes down in texture as Jerry has some sweet little arpeggios happening in the background, with trills from Keith. The side stick rhythm comes in, they seem like they’re heading into a jazzy groove, but it takes a long time to gel. It gets cooking with walking bass, and some scrapey sounds from Bob for rhythm, and isolated keyboard stabs, Jerry with odd wah-backed-off tone. They stick with this odd music for a while, very jazzy and not quite tonal. Jerry seems to want to build this into Tiger meltdown, in the 21st minute it’s getting up there, but still maintaining a jazzy root. After a rise, Jerry starts the Tiger for real, piano following on the chromatic fast bits, the band builds it up to a serious high, Phil starts heading for big bass chords, then dissonant distorted notes and string scrapes. Bob playing offset stretches and screams, piano holds a droning repeated note as it freaks out in a serious noise fest. Jerry leads out with some notes up to high stretches. Keith brings chords into the background, the waves crests, they start to pick up the pieces in a more melodic quiet way. A little side stick rhythm as they settle into a chord progression of sorts with a minor, G and e minor. But at 27 minutes, Jerry starts moving modally sideways into chromatics, Phil and Keith are on it, the music turns rubbery and stretches out while Bill continues grooving his kit, eventually leading the string players to leave him to it for a couple minutes! He picks it up, DRUM SOLO! whooo. Phil and Jerry back in with more jazzy groove, Phil is riffing, Jerry in the bluesy-jazzy mode area. More serious grooving. Phil settles into a punchy groove riff, they take it for a ride. Less than a minute from the “end” Phil settles on a high note and they start looking around for where to go, I think I hear some voices in there talking to each other, and then Jerry starts the China Cat riff, and then fall right into it. Nice one! He starts singing within the minute. Sort of a slow groovy start (and version) to it, but hey, it’s China Cat. (I got lost in this one, my audio file I had copied to my laptop was messed and kept skipping back and repeating parts, it was very confusing!) Anyway, with that sorted, I finally got the actual sequence of events. A nice and generally high energy version of the song with a lot of jazzy grooving, some serious multi-headed animal improv. Much of this type of jazzy groove playing seems to be what develops into Blues For Allah type things, you can start to hear the beginnings of some of those little licks in there.
#144 1972-09-24 Things get off to a sprightly start with some buoyant work from Phil and prominent textures from Bob. Jerry's line feels smooth and more contemplative but he picks up the pace and blends in with the collective vibe. Bob's accents sound particularly good on this recording. Billy gets active with the cymbals which adds some additional sparkle. Jerry winds forth in quicker fashion getting his own swirling thing going. They come out of this and he plays some high, soft notes and then continues on in a lower register. The collective interweaving is nicely in bloom. After 5:20 Phil steps forward with a compelling line while Jerry keeps wandering forth. Lots of little bursts from Bobby too. They ease up a bit and Jerry gets into some higher repeating notes and they carry on. I like the feel of the groove. Keith becomes more prominent first on piano and then with something electric that adds to the vibe well. Jerry continues to wind forth and his lines have a compelling beauty to them. Around 7:27 he launches an upward run and the collective energy rises to a brief peak before they settle back down again. A gentler pattern emerges with Jerry and Phil playing off each other. Bob continues to add accents and Keith's piano becomes more prominent again too. Jerry gets into a gentle wailing and starts taking it up after 9:00. They rise up collectively and then ease back and Jerry hits some subtle Bright Star notes that add to the beauty of moment. He slowly eases off and they gently move into a quieter, hovering zone that also sounds quite pretty. Phil counters with some stronger notes and things could potentially get weird but they shift into the theme instead and slowly move on to the verse. After the verse they reset and Phil lays down some strong fuzzy notes and they move towards some weirdness. Phil keeps going and revs it up even more and there is something spookily melodic going down vs. just drifting into the void. He eases back slowly and Jerry comes forth with some gentle playing. They find a quiet space; Keith asserts himself a bit and then Phil re-enters around 15:20. There's a semblance of a groove being considered but they mostly let it go and Jerry moves into some mellow wah. Around 16:20 Billy starts working a beat and Phil picks it up and they start to bring something together. Jerry picks up the pace of his wah work; it's still somewhat mellow but slowly heading to freakier territory. Bob is scratching his strings and Keith adds some electric fills. Things begin to intensify and it sounds like they are slowly heading towards a meltdown but also working a groove. They work in this space for a good spell. There's a kind of walking bass line from Phil and Keith is adding quite a bit too. It continues to ratchet up but they aren't in any particular hurry to let it come apart. After 21:00 this feels imminent but they ease off while still keeping the melty groove going. Then by 21:55 Jerry full commits and the Tiger comes forth. After thundering it up they start to slowly come out of it but then there's some loud freaky string scraping and Keith plays a repeating note for a sustained period and they get good and freaky again. They start to break out of this around 24:25 but things are still freaky and thunderous and then they ease up and find a quieter place. Keith plays some pretty notes and Jerry starts up a gentle line that Phil plays off of nicely. It's a nice interlude and then they start to work it up and a more fleshed out jam is coming together. However before too long Jerry starts veering off and taking it back to weirdness. Phil follows suit and they are back in freaky territory but they don't go all out with that either. Jerry gets into some fast repeating notes and Keith and Bill assert themselves and then everyone drops out and it gives way to a drum break. Bill does this thing for a couple of minutes and then settles into a beat that creates an on-ramp for the band to reenter. Phil and Jerry come in first followed shortly by Keith and then Bob. They work up a new groove and take it for a spin for a bit. Bob brings some nice textures again while Jerry and Phil work their interweaving lines. The jam gets going pretty well with a bouncy line from Phil and some prominent rhythm from Bob. They ease up a bit and Bob signals Sugar Magnolia at 3:30 but they keep going with what's become a nice, smoother groove. And then before long they slip right into China Cat. I like the pre-verse segment quite a bit. They weren’t necessarily exploring new territory but the collectively playing is compelling. Post-verse the blurred lines between space, sustained groove and meltdown do perhaps point to a lack of direction at times but I also liked the juxtaposition of it. The brief jam at the end is good too.
1972-09-24. Unfortunate tracking on this copy: Dark Star starts about 40 seconds into the track, so the actual pre-drums timing is some 40 seconds shorter. MrBill's copy was remastered to his liking and offers some improvement; I decided to use it for more accurate timings. The 30 Trips release is better quality but I don't have the CD at hand. The mix is excellent, all the instruments are clear and well-balanced. There's a tape-cut about 12 seconds into Dark Star, which skips some small amount of music and throws the opening briefly askew. But after that, the opening jam is energetic and engaging, bursting with high spirits and magical promise. I was too hypnotized to take many notes; the '72 Dead are at full power here, laying out a web of entrancement. They ebb & flow with one mind, hardly a note out of place, reading where the others are going. Phil sometimes teases at his Marbles line (like after 4:40) but doesn't really take it up. Keith makes some wah noises after 5:55, not for long. Bob's always present with well-placed accents. Around 7:30 the music gets more meditative; Jerry builds it up then slips in a perfect and pretty transition to the main theme at 8:35, in the high register of Bright Star. Aha, here we are! But instead of hitting the theme they all quiet down and gently tease it for a minute, sounding like they might wander off to space or go somewhere else entirely, with Phil & Bill hinting at a big buildup -- but Bob brings the theme back after 10m, then they all join in. Before they can settle into the theme, Jerry jumps into the verse a bit too abruptly after 10:20. A perfectly marvelous opening jam. This one doesn't have big peaks or mood shifts, it's more of a single flow with small passing eddies. After the verse, the void. Keith & Jerry add some sounds in the background (Keith's on wah), but Phil takes the lead with big stormy bass chords and a memorable melody. Jerry & Keith join him for a doomy little jam, but this sort of peters out inconclusively around 13:30. Things seem dead after 14m, but Bill & Keith start up a little groove which turns into a light, quiet scattershot jam that doesn't really cohere. Jerry turns on his wah at 15m, but the feeling remains quiet & tentative for a while. The assurance of the opening jam has faded and now they seem unsure where to take this. But after 15:20 Bill's toms and a steadier bassline steer them into a slinky jam with Jerry on wah. Bob's done pretty much nothing for the last few minutes, but now he's playing a funk-type chickachick backing. By 17m they're turning in a Tiger direction, Phil buzzing strangely and Keith making the most of his wah and Bob waking up again, but this is still kind of low-key poking around. For a few minutes they amble along in this strange in-between quasi-tigerish state. But then at 20m they ramp up the intensity; Jerry starts the full Tiger descent at 20:40. They crash nicely in a decent short meltdown, with Jerry getting very screechy. Coming out of it at 22m, Keith hits a drone and Phil goes next-level with string scratches & feedback -- a lovely combination! This reaches its final burst around 23:20 in a glorious rainbow drone, a beautiful moment. After that, momentary near-silence, quiet notes in the aftermath, Jerry noodling prettily, Phil returning to melody. By 25m this coheres into a nice warm group jam -- it's a loping groove which sounds like it could grow into something cool. But Jerry decides to dismantle it, and at 26:20 he suddenly takes a dissonant turn, which the others respond to with their own weirdness; then Jerry starts trilling like he's ready for a second Tiger! Are we in for another freakout? But no: after 27:30 everyone drops out one by one, Keith the last, making way for a drum solo from Bill. That was an odd feint, and once again I feel like the drum solo's a gasp of desperation rather than a smooth turn in the jamming. Bill ends by hitting a kind of Other One-like beat (not for long), and the band comes back in a jumpy off-kilter jam. They sound re-energized -- Bob slashing chords, Phil hitting a downright strong groove a couple minutes in. The playing gets more frantic, trills from Jerry, Bill walloping the beat. Then around 3:30, they pedal for a bit -- Bob hints at Sugar Magnolia, Jerry hints at China Cat, the others like the sound of that, and the last 20 seconds bubble with anticipation before Jerry & Phil make the shift to China Cat. This is the rare Dark Star where I think the opening part was, as a whole, better than the second-half jam. I'm not sure what happened, but I agree with bzfgt that the momentum seems to vanish after the verse. Several times, they almost come to a halt and have to figure out a way forward. So the jamming kind of falls into little sections, some of them great, some of them just sort of odd almost-theres. Still, there's a lot of late-'72 magnificence here: the great opening, Phil's manic displays of belligerence, some cool little jam stretches, and a rare song transition still put this Dark Star in a high echelon even if they lose their way sometimes. P.S. The transition to China Cat reminded me of the great & beautiful left-turn to China Cat in the middle of a Good Lovin' jam, on 1/2/72.
1972-09-21. An excellent mix and recording. Having just listened to 9-24, this opening strikes me as more meandering, more languid & less rollicking. This is a relaxed & leisurely Dead. Jerry uses the volume knob a lot in the opening jam for an extra-plaintive feel. One good instance of his approach is after 2:50 when he gets quieter and quieter while Keith seems to be using his own volume knob for a moody backdrop! Then at 4:10, bam, Jerry kicks up the volume again...he almost heads into the theme at 4:30, defers it, gets into a noodly passage, reaches for the high notes, and plays a quasi-Bright Star around 5:50; then they get more subdued again.... And so the tides of the jam gently rise and fall. The rest of the band bounces right along, but I get the sense they're following Jerry's lead in this one. After some more volume knob twirls at 7m, Jerry hints at the later country feel at 7:30 -- just a small hint, but it's there, a brief foreshadowing. Then at 8m Jerry & Bob enter a cool arpeggio drone, which Jerry ends with a lovely twist of feedback. A tense feeling is starting to creep in, though the jam's still laid-back. After 10:15 there's a neat example of Keith/Jerry mirroring as they both play the same tremolo, Keith turns on his wah to make it more cackly, then Jerry does the same! But just as things are getting weirder, at 11:30 Jerry starts the main theme and the band slowly joins him, order restoring itself very nicely. Keith stays on the wah through the verse for an interesting & unusual contrast. Instead of getting more spacey, there's a busy stirring of activity after the verse and a choppy jam quickly emerges after 14m. It turns into an upbeat fast jam like they've often done in Dark Star lately -- but then after a big flurry Jerry leaves at 16m (gotta be a broken string?). So it's time for a light jazz quartet, Keith tinkling away pleasantly (with the wah at first) over a low-key backing. It's really striking how, just about every time in these Dark Stars Jerry steps aside for a string change or whatnot, nobody ever really takes charge or grabs the chance for a solo, they're obviously just filling time until he returns. It's like without Jerry there, they really long to be a little combo in some cocktail jazz lounge. Then finally Jerry comes back at 19m, on the wah, joining their groove. With his biting tone things get more intense, and by 20:30 a Tiger is obviously in the works. Keith growls on his wah. But they stretch out the Tiger prelude: rather than speeding up to a meltdown, they slow down and spend time exploring this semi-tigerish freaky skitter, which seems to be the part they really enjoy. Jerry keeps bringing in a Tiger spiral then tugging it back in repeated teases. The tension seems to dissipate, but the Tiger arrives for real at 24:45 -- this one's not very noisy or doomy but it slides deliciously at 25:20 into a semi-apocalyptic ooze. Phil & Jerry lead the meltdown with frightening notes. Around 26:30 Jerry starts a pretty line in the embers, which seems like a typical heading-out-of-chaos duet with Phil at first, but he persists with it, Keith calms down, and by 27:30 the rest of the band is coalescing in a relaxing pretty glow. By 28m they've settled into a slow & soothing mood, quiet healing music. Recently this gentle kind of jam has been really rare late in a Dark Star, almost never heard after the meltdown when usually they head to a fast jam or quick transition instead; I can't think of anything really similar to this since Europe. You'd think they'd segue to a Jerry ballad at this point but they're in no hurry, they'd rather stay in this mellow spot for a while. Jerry's playing slow and mournful leads, but around 30m Bob & Phil start to perk up a bit with a little syncopated riff. Jerry responds and after 30:40 he jumps into some snazzy country rolls; the others gradually work up nice complementary parts, and within a minute they're in a full twangin' toe-tappin' country jam (all it lacks is a pedal steel!). They're down in a rich musical silver mine now, all aglow with delight. Around 32:50 Jerry implies descending chords, switching to a sharp lead line at 33:30; Bob catches on and brings in the Mind Left Body chords, spurring Jerry to greater heights. This one hits hard, they attack it with lots of fervor and it turns into an exuberant Mind Left Body Stomp. Then after 35:30 it quiets down into the kind of plaintive melancholy version with Jerry's slide-like playing that they would do in '73. It starts to break up in the last minute as they run out of steam, and they maneuver into a heavy-handed transition to Morning Dew. This Dark Star mainly stands out for its ending, the last ten minutes which are like an extra bonus tacked onto an otherwise pretty normal '72 Dark Star. The rest of it isn't really out of the ordinary for that month, going through the usual paces; if they'd just started Morning Dew after 27 minutes this wouldn't even be considered a standout version for September '72. ("Just another fall '72 Dark Star, yawn....") But for whatever reason, Jerry & the boys decided to take that extra step at the end into the extraordinary. Another way to look at it is, because of the improvisational way they were tackling these Dark Stars, really good endings are not that common in '72. It's not like they're aiming for a specific uplifting jam culmination like they did in '69-70, or even a satisfying verse reprise. No, it's going to be some kind of brand-new on-the-spot transition to a song they only decide on when they get there. Some of the transitions work really well; others are just kind of hammered on more or less abruptly, or sound like the result of a little jam fatigue or tug-of-war....but what you rarely get in '72 is an actual Dark Star ending that rounds out the jam with a solid conclusion before they head to the next song. This one is one of the best. And of course, having done it so well, they decided not to do it again. (Not for another year, anyway.)
145. 1972-09-27 18106 NJ 30:11 Main theme at :07 and 23:51. First verse at 24:12. Goes into Cumberland Blues. This one starts right off with the main theme; it begins at a deliberate pace, but moves with a confident and subtly swinging gait. It seems to gain momentum as it goes, and maybe even speeds up just a tad in the early minutes (I’m not sure of this). At 2:45 Garcia starts a rolling triplet figure which the band picks up on, and for a while they launch into moments of intensity and then pull back again, ebbing and flowing, but always moving ahead with a sense of determination. At 4:20 Garcia plays a figure which Godchaux and Weir keep bouncing back to him, while Lesh does his own thing. The framework that has been established allows a lot of interplay and fosters a variety of ideas, while the overall feel remains much the same. Weir is particularly playful tonight, with little slashes and bursts of harmonics abounding. They hit something of a peak approaching and right after the 7 minute mark, culminating at around 7:20; there are hints of an approach to the theme, but they remain unconsummated. But this is very much a Dark Star jam in the sense that the underlying structure is never far from the surface. At 8:00 Garcia plays a little roll, almost like Sputnik, that may signal a turn away from the main structure. They start to subside into spacier territory, and then at 9:28 Godchaux suggests something with a bouncy and jazzy feel; this is assented to, and a bubbling jam emerges. This dazzling jam is intense but light and mobile, with the instruments firing off toward all points of the compass. (After a couple of peaks, at 15:13 Garcia starts playing the descending melody I pointed out a couple of times recently; I thought maybe it came from another song, but now I think that this is where I remembered it from). At 16:10 Jerry plays a high, soft melody that signals the end of the jam, and brings them into a minor key and a more meditative space. As they near the 18-minute mark it seems like either a space jam or a drum interlude is in the works. Kreutzmann drops out at 18:49, and they take it down to almost nothing, with Weir playing some pretty chordal stuff while Lesh plays a plodding melody, which Garcia augments with some volume swells. Weir drops out for a bit at 20:18, and the field is left to Garcia and Lesh; the latter hints at a Spanish Jam-type progression for a moment, and at 21:26 you can hear a switch, which I think is Garcia putting on the wah. This suggests that perhaps this will build to a meltdown, but there are no other indications of this as of yet. This transitional jam extends for quite some time. It’s almost a space jam, but perhaps a little more melodic and structured than the usual space passage. In any case, it’s quite a beautiful segment. Finally, at 23:36 Garcia starts strumming the Dark Star chords to bring us to the theme, which takes us into the verse with little delay. The latter is sung slowly, seeming to derive its character from the quiet jam that immediately preceded it. As they exit the verse section, Kreutzmann starts a popping backbeat that indicates a return to the lightly swinging mood established in the first jam tonight. This time it’s a little more heavy-footed and emphatic on the beat, but overall once again the feel is relatively light. They work on bringing the energy up without altering the feel, reaching a peak at around 28:30 or so. By 28:50 they’re coming down the other side, and the jam starts to fragment just a little, but they keep more or less the same thing going, until they reach a point where they are pretty clearly pedaling and Lesh finally starts Cumberland Blues. This is a really fantastic piece of music. It maintains a kind of momentum throughout, and the band never seems like they’re foundering or trying to figure out what to reach for. This one feels a little whimsical at times; it’s not laying out any huge cosmic statements, but it is entirely engaging and satisfying nonetheless, and must be included in the pantheon of worthy Dark Stars.
1973-11-11 is notable too because it comes in an era when "normal" jamming after the second verse and after meltdown is even rarer
1972-09-27. Another super recording; Bear has the mix dialed in, it's the same as the previous shows. Dark Star brings a cheer from the crowd! This seems to start more slowly than the previous Dark Stars. But any initial sluggishness is soon swept away -- Jerry's initial moves are soft & delicate, but after a couple minutes the feeling grows more firm & assured. The jam carries on, smooth, calm, unhurried. By 6m they're really getting loose, Bob pinging harmonics, drums splashing, Phil zigzagging. Jerry drives it up to further intensity around 7m with a tense repeating lick, then after a surge the intensity fades again. It feels like the main theme's ready to appear; but after some high pinched notes Jerry drops out and stays out for quite some time (from about 8:15 - 10:50 ...the broken string blues again?). So the other guys go back to the rhythm quartet approach, this time sounding very tentative & amorphous. After a minute Keith starts getting more assertive, a groove appears, and the jam perks up to a hot rhythm. Jerry hops back in, in his bumblebee mode. The jam's fast & jagged, Bob's chopping muted chords, they're skipping through the lily fields... They keep it going for quite a while, several minutes, the jam getting more intense, Jerry attacking with zest. They stay in this fast lane longer than usual, Jerry only starting to peter out after 15m. But at last around 16:20 Jerry slows things down gracefully, and the band pauses. Phil signals that he wants to enter a deeper space and takes the lead with loud long notes while the others drop back. Around 17:30 Bob turns on his chorus tone; Jerry sails on the volume knob; Phil responds with feedback; Bill paddles in the dark waves; Keith adds some brief wah color at 18:40. They hover on a humming drone, unusually still & serene, far out in space. The drumming stops, then it's just the three guitars (mostly Jerry/Phil with some notes from Bob), opening up a tender space. Phil picks out a slow melody with Jerry's plaintive volume swells; after 21:40 Jerry switches to wah for a sad, evocative tonal duet. Bob mostly hangs back and lets Phil & Jerry take us to some secret hidden place of dreams. Like the preceding jam, they stay in this zone for longer than you'd expect, suspending time....you could probably hear a pin drop in the audience. Then suddenly at 23:40 the theme rises beautifully like a rainbow from the silence -- big crowd reaction! Jerry promptly sings the triumphant verse. 24 minutes of jamming before the verse! Just about the longest opening stretch in any Dark Star; I think only 12-6-73 is its rival. Perhaps to balance that out, the jam after the verse is really short, less than five minutes, one of the shortest all year. Space already out of the way, they step right into a mild jam after the verse. Bill's ready to get back into action without delay; after 26m they get into another hopping groove while Jerry plays fast runs. At 27:20 both Jerry & Bob play rhythm chords together, a rare occurrence. Then after 28m Jerry keeps those lightning fingers moving in rapid ripples for a minute while the band kicks up a gear; then he goes back to chordal playing after 29m. He seems to be impatient -- the jam's starting to feel stuck as Jerry repeats an odd chord, and things hang uncertainly, until Phil strikes up Cumberland Blues out of nowhere. It takes the band about half a minute to catch up with him -- Bill & Keith, then Bob, then finally Jerry after a minute. You can hear the crowd likes this choice. This song satisfies Jerry's need for speed, and they give it a rough ride! Well, this was an unusual Dark Star! Very lopsided in that almost all the action comes before the verse -- and afterward, most unexpectedly, there's no Tiger! Not even a hint at a meltdown, which was the main ingredient in just about every Dark Star at this time. For much of it the Dead seem happy to stay in fast loose kinda jazzy jams. And yet, I'd disagree with bzfgt that there was no cosmic statement -- the space trio before the verse is about as cosmic as you can get. I'll quote Robert Goetz from the Taping Compendium review: "This is probably one of the purest moments in Dead history....the band reached the nucleus of Dark Star. It has an inspiring aura while hinting at demise. It is soft and tender and at the same time sad and gloomy. Not a sound is heard from the audience. Incredibly, just as the journey reaches an emotional zenith and silence ensues, Garcia returns to the formal structure of Dark Star... One of their most special moments has transpired."
Yeah, good point. I guess I was thinking of that as more intimate than "cosmic," which seems more panoramic. But not exactly a precise concept.
Hmm, cosmic intimacy, perhaps. Inner space rather than outer space. I tend to hear these intimate moments in Dark Star as being just as cosmic as the grand feedback panoramas. But one thing that's surprised me is that stripped-down quiet spaces like these have not been all that frequent in '72 Dark Stars. The Dead are much more likely to go into a club-jazz piano jam or yet another Tiger than an intimate space duet. Usually when they enter a quiet space lately it's just a brief stop on their way someplace else.
I always dug 1972-09-27, but if you asked me before this week to rank them I'd probably have put 9-24 above it. This time through listening closely I really dug this one, and even more so than the last one....
#145 9/27/72 Jersey City: 30:49 - Dick's Picks 11 A very slow intro this evening after Ramble on Rose. Into a relaxed groove, Bill punctuating with tom hits, the band sort of lays it down into a low energy melodic area, Jerry goes on a tangent of ‘it’s all the same’ dit-dah, dit-dah*, before building up little melodic towers, Phil starts to get into some syncopated rhythmic stuff to make it more exciting, and it works in that they speed up and build into a more solid rhythmic area after a few minutes. These modal thematic waves bubble up and down over the course of this jam. A lull is forming after 6 minutes or so, but the band rolls on, Jerry takes the opportunity to get some more chromatic rising riffs in there, but it’s still Dark Star themed material, to what would be a normal theme statement, nobody makes it at 7:40 or so, Jerry goes into pinch harmonics. The band lies low, slightly quiet sputnik feints, to some potential drum solo… Jerry has dropped out, everybody else seems a bit lost now. At 9 min or so, Keith starts little chromatic bits, Bob copies. They’re still not sure where to bring it off to, but they try for a quick groove bit, sounds like it could hang together by 10 minutes. Still no Jerry. Bill swingin’ it on the ride cymbal. Finally about 11 minutes, Jerry enters and starts the fast jazzy licks. Bits of blues and country thrown in, of course. He’s sort of melding western swing with jazz rock. At 12:40 there’s a fun bit where Jerry is riffing on the intro riff notes within the jazzy swing. He uses the figure again a few times, has a few riff-eddies, but this jam just keeps on chugging away. At 15:45, sort of a jazzy arpeggiated Bright Star maneuver, then to the 7th chord arpeggios he’s playing with. Switch in texture at 16:30, they bring it down, Phil steps on some low chords, Bill still keeping a beat. He lands in a new minor area that Bob picks up on. Jerry frosts it with some volume swells and eventually feedback (with whammy bar again!) This dies off into noises and chromatic falling, Bob on some odd chords. Sounds like Keith is playing the insides of the piano after 19 minutes. Interesting. The band starts to make harmonious sounds at a low and slow volume, though all still playing with quiet odd sounds. More Phil lead, but slow and scary. Jerry again with volume swelled notes. It dies off several times, with small sounds keeping the concert going. People cheer, though. They move outside of the pretty melodic area, and it’s a bit more atonal, still quiet. Suddenly at 24:15, they have died entirely and they start the Dark Star jam up again, into the verse. Wow! We got here, although Jerry sounds a little haggard again, but does a nice dramatic reading. Nice rests on line two and back into the groove for line three. A convincing refrain, held end notes. And pretty little articulated intro to the next section, with Bill maintaining a ride cymbal slower groove, they head off to a new jam, similarly jazzy licks from Jerry, but a different feel, different chords from Bob. Jerry is still using his 7th chord arpeggios here. At 28 minutes he starts a chop rhythm on 3s against the 4 beat, then back into fast riffing and little repeated licks. On the other side of the wave, Jerry keeps getting caught it little things until he goes with the flow of the rest of the band starting Cumberland Blues. Cool version, some great fast jazz-rock stuff, and cool to get to the verse after 24 minutes—I thought it might never happen. Many of these are first listens for me, so I'm not as inside as many of the other writers here. Since we're going through chronologically, I think I'm missing the greatness of of some of these recent versions as isolated pieces. I have to make a new list to go back to (uh, in a few years, I suppose, when we're done...!) *this dit-dah, dit-dah pattern, in threes, usually starting high and jumping down, then up a step or two and down again—for example, A-E, F#-D—is something he's thrown in often in the past year, usually while trying to figure out where to go next. For some reason the first time I heard it, it reminded me of some acid trip thing doing that saying 'it's all the same', so I named it that when scribbling my notes. It probably has a more sanctioned name, I'm sure.
#145 1972-09-27 Things get started nice and easy; there's a smooth, gliding vibe accented by little piano fills from Keith. Phil has a bouncy, casual line going underneath while Bob adds his textures. Billy's gentle drum work comes through nicely on the recording too. It feels like taking a casual stroll on a pretty path. Around 1:07 Jerry starts heading upwards, still gently but with more sparkle, then levels out and continues with a lower line. The pace quickens a little and there's some nice interweaving taking place. Jerry gets into a repeating thing at 2:45 that spins up the collective motor. Things rise up but they still keep it somewhat in the pocket and as bzfgt noted there is some ebb and flow as they go along. They continue to weave and wind in this territory for a good spell. Jerry spins lovely lines and Bob and Keith are active too. There's a taste of the main theme throughout as they saunter along. Around 5:20 or so the pace starts to increase again but there is still ebb and flow. Then after 6:30 Jerry gets into some sustained stretchy notes and they rise up to a nice mini peak before easing back again after 7:20. They continue forth and Jerry adds just a hint of Sputnik sparkle but opts not to flesh it out. He then drops out and Billy comes forward more and is active on the toms and cymbals. From this the others start to bubble up again. Keith works some gentle notes and Phil seems to latch on to that which stirs something up. It gets more jazzy in this stretch which Bill adds to nicely and Bob contributes some textures as well. Things start to get cooking and then around 10:50 Jerry rejoins and weaves in a nice complimentary line. They work this groove for a good while, moving with pace relative to earlier in the song. The intensity starts to pick up too and they take it for a good spin. Lots of building notes from Jerry. By around 15:20 it seems to be running its course. Jerry plays a repeating pattern that Bob mirrors and then things pick up again briefly before setting down. At 16:10 Jerry plays some pretty high notes and they begin to drift into a more contemplative space with some darkness added by Phil. There's a touch of foreboding now and yet still some lightness. Keith adds some wah and Jerry has a stretchy wailing sound and Bob brings in some prominent textures too. Things start to get weirder and then they find a quiet space. It's mainly Keith and a bit of feedback for a short time and then the others add intermittent contributions. There's a drifting, spacey vibe that starts to feel pretty again. Around 19:55 it almost feels like a ballad could emerge but they keep it slightly weird with Phil working some patient notes complimented by Jerry. Phil starts to give it a bit more rev but he's also being very patient and deliberate. Then Jerry kicks on the wah but they are really taking their time in this zone and it stretches out in deliberate fashion for some time. It's all very subtle. Then out of a pretty quiet space the theme gently emerges at 23:40 which is quite beautiful. A flower suddenly blooms they move right into the verse. Jerry sings it in a lovely, weary way that fits the vibe. After the verse Billy gets a beat going and they start to spin up a lighter, bouncier yet still mellow jam. Jerry adds some subtle winding lines with a bit of pace and things collectively start to rise up. For a brief period Jerry plays some rhythm chords along with Bob which adds a different feel. They both do a choppy thing which ratchets it up in a repeating pattern. Then around 27:50 he slips out of that and carries forth with a sharp, quick paced line. Then Phil begins to assert himself more; they ease up a bit but keep it going. There's one more brief burst from Jerry and then he settles back. Phil comes forward again and they hover a bit before he asserts Cumberland Blues. A really good version. I like the smooth, semi-mellow vibe of the opening portion that has a hints of the theme throughout. They really take things for a stroll with lots of collective of interweaving and things get jazzy for a spell too. There’s no meltdown or major freakout but they still find some weirdness and some quiet passages too. And the way that the theme reemerges and leads into the verse is lovely.
