Grateful Dead

It's THAT time of year again as we all get the Europe '72 bug so I thought I would share this little post (ha ha, sarcasm) from-the-past regarding my takes on the Dark Stars from this superb tour. Since the first time I've shared this, I've updated with some 'second pass' notes. The whole reason I did this a few years back was to determine which Dark Star had the best 'Feelin Groovy jam', but what I actually got out of this exercise was a front-row-seat in Dark Star-ology. 4/8/1972 - Wembly Empire Pool, London - 32 mins; intense/fast paced first leg up til about 10 mins then returns to DS theme for 1st verse; spacey post-verse til ~17 min, then pace picks up for a few minutes, followed by a brief meltdown; additional spaciness around 24 mins followed by another full meltdown; interesting groove established around 28 min that has hints of Sugar Mag (into which it segues, flawlessly). No second verse. Second Pass Notes: Description above regarding the first leg is right on. Intense at spots; but not lost. Coherent, rapid jamming. Dominant energy. This one moves. Becomes introspective. Probing. But still dialed-in, all the way to the reemergence of the theme. Dark Star crashes. Maintains a serious, captivating groove, exemplifying their ‘leanness’. BTW, Phil is always playing lead. At 21:40, Phil brings an introspective groove; it’s brief. Intensity backs off; aforementioned spaciness sets in. At 28:10, MAGIC! Out it comes. Happy. Intent. Around 29:40 Bobby descends into Sugar Mag territory and off it goes into an inspired jam. Cueing in. Seamless transition > Sugar Magnolia. 4/14/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 29 mins; loose first 10 mins not overly spacey; gets spacey around 11 mins; interesting groove establishes around 16 min to head into first verse w/interesting beat; heads off into intense nearly 7-minute jam inclusive of a very tight and fast Feelin Groovy jam; final 3 minutes are a meltdown. No second verse. 4/17/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 31 mins; spacey opening to about 7:30 when first DS theme emerges leading to 1st verse at 9:45. Spacey post-2nd verse tries to take off but melts further around 19 min; returns to a partial groove around 24:30 and closes out with spaceyness in the last 2 mins. No second verse. 4/24/1972 - Rheinhalle, Dusseldorf, Germany - Split by Me & My Uncle; 26 mins 1st half, 14:30 second half. Spacey opening until about 8:45 where it coalesces and falls into first DS theme around 10:15 followed shortly by 1st verse with slow, sparse notes. Spacey feedback following verse until 15:45 and then picks up into an intense, fast paced jam for just under 2 minutes before it becomes dissonant again leading to major meltdown which eventually heads into Me & My Uncle with ease. Second half: spacey reintroduction persists until about 7 mins, where Keith leads-in with some piano phrasing and then the band follows into a tight fast paced jam where Jerry plays some lines back and forth as if in conversation with himself and then maintains an intense level effortlessly segueing into Wharf Rat. No second verse. Second Pass Notes: Keith seems eager, early. Loose on the Dark Star theme, but obedient. Until 3:40. Challenges emerge. Chaos results; morphs into our main character. Intensity billows and flows. Textures of a familiar theme emerge then drop into the theme proper for the verse. 15:45 is then where it’s at. Overdrive. Visiting that same, intense space and place. Melody hints, but never grasps. Keith is POUNDING! 17:37....dissonance. Then on to Me & My Uncle. Zero effort in the transition. Out of which comes spacey, tangentially melodic hints. Keith spills over the edge. Probing further. At 6:55, a Cautious Phil erupts into intense and inspiring jamming. The tone is there, the urgency. It SOARS! Then tumbles. Then rolls. Then lands upright into Wharf Rat. The transition into Wharf Rat is sooo buttery it melts. 4/29/1972 - Musikhalle, Hamburg, Denmark - 30 mins; spacey opening for ~5 mins, then enters a groove and Phil hints at the Feeling Groovy jam until it finally is joined by Jerry a minute later until about 8:00, then the floor drops out into space. DS theme appears at 14 min which leads to first verse. Spacey post-verse noodling leads to major meltdown, settling in at 22 mins with a fat, fast-paced Keith-led groove. Final 4 mins are spacey & lead to major melt #2, dropping into Sugar Mag as DS finally melts away. No second verse. 5/4/1972 - Olympia Theatre, Paris - Split by drums; 19 mins 1st half; 17:34 2nd half. Spacey opening til about 6 mins when fast paced jam kicks in until 11:20, slowing down then resurrecting the DS theme into the first verse. 4 mins of space leads into drums. Second half post-drums is very spacey until 7 mins, then kicks into overdrive with a very high energy jam leading to a phenomenal Feelin Groovy Jam for several minutes before settling into the second verse. DS dissipates into the Sugar Mag from E'72. 5/7/1972 - Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, UK - 19:49 mins; decent, coherent jamming for the first several minutes that congeals nicely around 8 minutes. Bottom falls out around 10 mins and leads to some light noodling, cymbal fills and space. DS theme emerges at 14:23 and heads into 1st verse. Space fills the air through the remainder of the song until it totally breaks down into drums. No second verse. 5/11/1972 - Rotterdam Civic Hall, Netherlands - Split by drums; 13:45 mins 1st half; 30:34 mins 2nd half; Opens with a light, airy jam that persists to congeal into a decent groove as it treads in and out of spacey phrasing. This settles into a mysterious sounding jam that grows with intensity without a return to the DS theme before dissolving into drums. Emerging from drums, Phil and Billy duel for 2 minutes before Jerry joins back in with some complimentary thoughts; the DS theme appears around 5 min followed by 1st verse. A few moments of spacey feedback give way to spacey noodling that devolves into a full blow chaotic meltdown, only to emerge around 19:30 into a very nice, fast paced groove that hints at Caution and PITB jams. This eventually dissolves and a light, sparse outro ends the song as it heads off into Sugar Mag. No second verse. Second Pass Notes: Following notes above, around 7:25 an introspective jam begins, slow-to-medium tempo, highlights of a tinkling piano accompany. 10:00, the interesting groove begins with Jerry repeating a run up and down, Bobby and Phil filling in behind him with Billy driving. This rolls until about 12:30 and then becomes dissonant preparing for a jaunt into drums. Following Drums.....Phil and Billy feel their way together before Jerry joins in around the 2 minute mark with some delicate lines. As it matures, it straddles the line of melodically jammy and somewhat introspective. Dark Star theme around 5:00 immediately followed by first verse. Space and total and utter devolvement ensue. Exploratory riff by Jerry right around 10:10 and eventually trails off....off into space....then, RIGHT ON!! 19:30! This sucker erupts into a full blown romp. It’s melodic, or at least semi-. Fast. Locked-in. Phil, Jerry, both leading. Keith, Bobby, Billy, even Pig, painting. Glorious, happy, awe. Almost Familiar. These are the best times, the chugging along into that almost identifiable territory but just out of affirmatory grasp. The hints at Caution; the hints at Playin’. Then Holy Intensity, 26:20, as Keith joins in to the tempo ablaze. No Caution. You, instead, melt; despite the Truckin’ intro references. And Phil teases the Bird Song bass line in there a few times before the end.... 5/18/1972 - Kongressaal, Muenchen, Denmark - 28:20 mins; almost 2 mins of noodling before opening notes from Phil; a loose jam ensues around the DS theme for the next several minutes and then decays. At ~9 min an interesting jam emerges, which eventually settles back into the DS theme and 1st verse around 14:30. The remainder of this DS is borderline chaos as it treads in and out of varying degrees of a meltdown until it settles into Morning Dew. No second verse. 5/23/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 30 mins; Spacey opening minutes lead to tight fast paced jam commencing around 3:30 for two minutes and then it settles into another spacey jam digressing to almost…nothing. Billy and Phil then have a small duel until ~13:30 when the rest of the band fills back into a delicate groove which grows to into a jam reminiscent of the post-Truckin' foray from E'72 until about 17 mins, when they drop into the DS theme and 1st verse. Ensuing is additional delicate spaciness that transgresses into a frenzied meltdown madness, and eventually settles into Morning Dew. No second verse. Second Pass Notes: Open, airy, hinting DS theme but exploratory. Then it takes off, just before 3:00. We’ve arrived again. That groove. Familiar, but different. Still driving forward, with purpose. It chugs along the precipice until it aerates and flutters up and away around 6:12. Around 12:30, Phil and Billy are dooking it out and 60 seconds later Jerry joins in the fray. The mystery builds as we find that familiar glue. Meshing of instruments. The purpose, the groove. Phil hints at the Feeling Groovy jam, but no one bites. Then, the Dark Star Theme....light into ashes. 5/25/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 34 mins, out of Wharf Rat. Strong opening with a groove almost from the beginning, no noodling around here in the first 7 minutes. Then turns very spacey until 15 mins when DS theme appears, and heads off into 1st verse. Post-verse finds a Billy, Phil, and Keith duel for several minutes. At 21 mins, Phil institutes a mellow Feeling Groovy jam, soon joined by the rest of the band until ~25 mins. Final minutes are dominated by space and then a monumental meltdown before heading off into Sugar Mag. No second verse. Second Pass Notes: Light, airy start; non-committal. But, probing. Building. At ~2:45, off we go once more. That chug. That place. We’re all going there, yet it’s as familiar as it is different. But it grooves! There’s that Truckin’ jam reference. The seed. This is THE SEED for the next nights’ magic; you can hear it being birthed on this night. Themes from the 5/26 post-Truckin are poking through the music tonight. Around 15 minutes....Dark Star theme.... ...mellow....crashes.....what follows is a three-way duel: Phil, Billy, Keith; HEAVEN. And fun. Then there it is...Feelin Groovy, All in. Melodic but on the fringe and exciting. Back to that familiar place, but this is a much looser and longer Feelin Groovy theme which then effortlessly morphs back into our familiar jammy space. Happy Monday All! Sixtus

39 year anniversary of a great show at the Fox Theatre. One of the all time best Franklin's Towers (coming out of Drums of all things). There's a great sounding board circulating. Keith is nice and high in the mix for this show. If there are any questions about his contributions in '78, this show will dispel the rumors (catch his act on Brown-Eyed Women). I think that head-to-head, if DaP 7 & 15 had not been released, an April 1978 box set would have been better than July '78. Then Red Rocks could have been released as a Dave's Picks with Bonus Disc, to get 7/8 out there + hilights of 7/7. But the timing of the Betty Board recovery prohibited something like this. They could still put together a five show box from April, but with July 78 out there, it would take a few years. Which shows? I'm glad you asked: 4/8/78 "Last Train to Jacksonville with the Grateful Dead" 4/10/78 "Fox is Dead" 4/12/78 "Mad U.S. Blues" 4/16/78 "Ship of Fools" 4/19/78 "High Ohio" These shows are like 77 only they feature a lot of development within certain songs, as their live performances over time were an ever opening flower. The Wolf wails and sings and steamrolls as needed, so the entire rockabilly of the shows is a leg up on most of 1978, as they still maintain the tightness of '77. Enjoy April 1978: The Partial Recordings....

Well, there are 21 Barton Hall mixes In the archives and lots of good ones. However, I believe this could be the best. By Mr.Usborne ,1 sbd, plus 2 auds, Jerry Moore and Jeff Stephensen. Please forgive any misspellings, etc. https://archive.org/details/gd1977-05-08.137570.mtx.dusborne.flac16/gd7…

I was at Barnes and Noble this afternoon. Walking by their Dead Shelf, I saw 2 Cornell 77 books, I had to check one out, they were selling hard cover, 21 bucks. Lots of nice pics, most stuff I knew already, you probably would too but it is a great read. There is a chapter on Betty boards and how she had to sell them to keep from going bankrupt. The booktalks a lot about vids and how they related to songs. This book will answer a lot of questions and ask some too. Well let me put on my helmet on and go back to the mines!!! I will be back with a great new version of Barton Hall.BTW, I noticed 20 Betty Boards were taken from archives. See ya, Jim

... I've been in that predicament too. What I do, is invite someone to a show, with one stipulation, if they don't enjoy the show, they don't pay for the ticket. If they do, they pay. To this day, I've never been left holding the bag. What can I say? Guess I have good taste....

The one on DaP 18 is pretty darn good.

Im not sure what to do, I bought two tickets for both shows in Austin next week, the person who was going with me bailed out, and my cousin who lives in Austin has no interest. Not sure if I am up to driving to Austin and back to San Antonio every night

....just past half way through (no spoilers please). Reading Moore requires focused attention. I also switch hit between love and hate while plowing through this tome. Early on, I realized taking small bites helps digesting the pages. Mad genius? Couldn't have said it better myself....

Mr. V - Was curious if you ever finished Jerusalem by Alan Moore? I wasn't familiar with him, but noted it when you mentioned his novel here a few months ago. Ended up grabbing it when I was looking for something different..I'm about 85% done and something different is an understatement. Guy must be a mad genius or something, to even think of this stuff. I alternate between loving it and hating it, with a good current of WTF the whole time. Anyways, just curious what you thought. Hope everyone has a good Sunday. Got done mowing and was listening to the Rare Cuts & Oddities 1966 release randomly. I grabbed that when I was first getting into them and it was not at all what I was expecting. It's more interesting to me now, after being more up to speed and hearing the first album, etc. Speaking of 1966, this is pretty wacko too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJTGimyf0r8

4/9/82 Rochester War Memorial, Rochester, N.Y.I agree with you, rgergelis. No, I was not there. The people I know who used to go with to shows always had a extra ticket or so, and they'd call me to see if I wanted to go to the GD show, so I didn't have to rely on the kyndness of strangers or (gulp) con-men/women. Plan, plan, plan ahead. Plant a head?