10/28/72 hello Cleveland

 

satellite view of the Dead lighting up downtown Cleveland

It is peak fall in my neck of the woods, and fall '72 feels very right right now.  So here are some scattered observations about this show, not one for the "best of 72" list but a very enjoyable one, marred by a poor quality recording, and one that caught my eye for a couple of setlist oddities.  Not to mention another big ol' Dark Star.

So, the Dead in Cleveland.  Someone help me here: there's a Cleveland Convention Center with two venues, the smaller Music Hall and the larger Public Hall.  The Dead played the Public Hall in 1972, 73, 79, and 80, but played the Music Hall in 1970, 78, and 81 -- is that right?  There are pics of 12/6/73 in a larger art deco auditorium with a huge stage, which is said to be the Public Hall.

The Rowan Brothers opened this show, according to this review.

Like a lot of later fall 72 tapes, the mix stinks.  I've seen many of these fall 72 sbds referred to as "monitor mixes" and I have repeated that myself, but I don't think that's accurate: from what I understand now, the band didn't have a separate monitor feed in 1972, let alone individual monitor mixes for different bandmembers.  So my guess is that this tape (made by Bear) is a straight sbd feed.  Vocals and drums are the loudest, Lesh's bass is the lowest, and the guitars and piano move around.  It's what we've got.

Weir picks the opener for the show, but Garcia's first two choices this evening are Friend of the Devil and China>Rider.  I have opined elsewhere that 9/21/72 has perhaps Garcia's most inspired opening gambit (Bird Song and China>Rider), but this sure ain't a bad way to get the ball rolling.  As far as I can tell, this was the earliest placement in a show that FOTD ever had (with the Dead at any rate; dunno about JGB).  

Another first set highlight is a spirited Box of Rain.  I like how Weir screams loudly as Lesh counts it off.  Weir screams a lot during this show.

Weir's mic craps out during Bobby McGee, prompting a pause for a replacement.  Garcia noodles Teddy Bear's Picnic.  Evidently someone from the crowd is throwing marshmellows onstage, which nobody in the band seems particular fazed about.

They play Candyman for the first time in just over a year.

Playing in the Band is, no surprise, another late '72 monster, nothing too unusual for the period, but whoa.  Hard to fully assess what's happening here since the bass is so low, but Garcia and Kreutzmann are locked in like Coltrane and Elvin Jones, and the peak they hit @15:45 is wonderful (hear Weir holler in delight, yet again).  There's a long, luscious swim back to the reprise that's marred by a small cut, but this one is still a keeper.

Opening the second set with He's Gone seems like the move of a supremely confident band.  It wasn't actually that unusual a move in fall 72, but it happened rarely after that.

Greatest Story Ever Told is a freakin' rager!  I mean they all are, but this one is extra hot.  Jerrrry.

Attics of My Life!  This was the second of only two played that year, and the last one in front of an audience until 1989!  Oh woe.  It sounds so good.

This Big River is not a particularly noteworthy one, but it does inaugurate a brief and unexpected tradition of Big River preceding a really heavy duty Dark Star (see also 2/15/73, 10/19/73, 10/30/73, 11/11/73, 12/6/73, 9/10/74 - weird, right?)

Roadmap to this monster Dark Star: This initial jam feels like I'm lost in a dark forest, groping towards bright lights in the distance.  Lesh's bass is audible, but still lower than everything else.  After 5 minutes, they smoothly pick up the tempo, Garcia sizzling away as Godchaux skips stones behind him; they're mostly cruising along in good ol' A mixolydian, and Garcia builds to a beautiful peak at 9:30ish, then settles thing down as he glides into the first verse a couple minutes later.  Things proceed as usual as they ease back and Lesh takes center stage... he doodles around, Garcia and Kreutzmann join in, but just when things seem like they're about to tip over into darkness, Lesh begins strumming the chords of the theme that's now known for posterity as the "Philo Stomp" jam.  Not a fan of that name, but oh well.  It's an incongruously perky little thing, but everyone joins in and Garcia pulls back into the Dark star mode, and this just sounds triumphant.  Check out him trilling @19:30!  Oh man.  By 22 min, Garcia has twisted off in a weirder direction and they start building to a Tiger, albeit via the scenic route.  It boils over at 24:45, rages hard for a minute, then abruptly stops.  They splash around for the final two minutes; I hear no piano here at all; and then Bob boots 'em into Sugar Magnolia.  I wouldn't call this a Dark Star for the ages, nor even one in the top tier of 1972, but we're still talking about a full 3-course meal here; just stunning that something like this is second-level for the year.

This Dark Star, for me, will forever be associated with Dick Latvala's epic introduction from the Grateful Dead Hour, which was once upon a time the only source for this jam.  Treat yourself to a listen.  Dick sounds like he just snorked down a bongwater martini and would have been in no shape whatsoever to deliver a lengthy seaside chat.  "My armpit left the universe."  God bless ya, Dick.

Nice touch in Sugar Magnolia: during the pause before Sunshine Daydream, you can hear Bob jokingly tell Donna as she walks out, "take your time, take your time."

Casey Jones shuts things down with a classic drawn-out, hellraising ending.  It sounds like Weir is telling someone down front to be careful and take it easy.  He also keeps screaming his head off.  Shoot the moon, Bobby, shoot the moon.

not to wax nostalgic, but...

...ah what the hell, it's my blog.  I was digging around in the one box of cassette tapes that has survived the decades (snicker if you want, but when you've been carting around a thousands LP's and CD's for half of your life, a box of tapes is easy to throw on the pile and forget about), and this is all that is left of my Dead tape collection:

There were more.  But for reasons both known and unknown, these are what have survived a quarter century, give or take.  At the time (the mid/late 1990's), I was more interested in getting as many Phish tapes as I could, so I never had a particularly enviable Dead collection.  There were, of course, a lot of crummy aud tapes and super hissy incomplete sbds that were given away or taped over, but I did try to save the cream of the crop... and I know that Veneta, Cornell, Freedom Hall, NYE 78 were all complete at one point, but c'est la vie.  10/14/94 was my last Dead show (and a really great Scarlet>Fire, thank you very much).  I have no clue how Garcia/Saunders 6/4/74 found its way to me, since I can't imagine it was a common tape in the pre-shn age.  Note the misdated 10/8/68 Hartbeats tape!  11/8/69 has the irritating clicking noise that Jim Wise painstakingly repaired, manually, click by click, on a home digital workstation (the story), which was the first time I had heard of such a thing being done -- oh brave new world!

Also, let's have a moment of silence for the lost art of tape filler.  The tape formerly known as 5/5/82 had the huge Mystery Train jam from 12/31/75 on the b-side, which made for an incongruous yet inexplicably satisfying juxtaposition.  Ditto 10/16/89 which had just exactly the perfect amount of space to fit the Garcia solo track from Zabriskie Point as filler.  Good filler was always the perfect comedown.  

I wrote a while ago about the GD Hour broadcast of 1/22/78 that basically changed my life, and I am most pleased to find that that one has held on.  But of course all of these were very, very special in their own way.

That's it.  B&P welcome, or your list gets mine.

the Wildebeest connection

Joe and Corry tossed this around for a second back in 2016, so this is no great discovery, but the discographical nerd in me needs to mark this very marginal release with a post.  I had stumbled upon this record a a few months ago while looking around Discogs for recordings that John Kahn played on.  What really caught my attention was the presence of Jimmy Warren, who played electric piano alongside organist Melvin Seals in the JGB for 15 months in 1981-1982.  $2.11 later (plus shipping), and I present: Reckless Dreams by Wildebeest.

I am curious about John Kahn spent his downtime when the Dead were on the road, since it doesn't seem like he played regularly with anyone else (did he?), so it makes sense that he would get involved with producing a local Bay Area band.  The eyebrow-raiser is that the Dead organization was involved.  Kahn brought Palo Alto's own Wildebeest into Club Front from April 1-5, 1981 to record a 5-song EP using the studio's 24-track Studer @30ips and Neve 24-track console.  I know this because it says so prominently on the back cover, even before the names of the bandmembers are given.  Kahn was credited with co-writing one song, and also played synthesizer on every track (Kahn owned an Oberheim synthesizer, not a common household item, and encouraged keyboardist Ozzie Ahlers to play the same model in the 1980 edition of the JGB).  Jimmy Warren was involved enough in the project to get a co-producer credit, and also adds a few synth parts of his own.  Betty Cantor-Jackson and John Cutler were working the boards -- and, notably, Betty is also credited along with Kahn on the record label itself.  That's a really unusual thing for any engineer, so I am inferring from this that her name had significant cachet with Deadheads even back then (remember, this was still years before anyone had heard of a Bettyboard).  Even Sue Stevens of GDP is credited on the sleeve with "logistics and planning."  So I am assuming that Kahn was calling in a favor here.  He had certainly logged plenty of hours at Club Front with Garcia, but given that this project had no direct connection to the JGB or Dead, one might assume that this happened only because Garcia must have given it the okay.

engineered by Betty Cantor-Jackson, in case you were wondering.

pardon the unintentional selfie

This may be unrelated, but I can't help noticing that Kahn also performed onstage with the Dead twice in this same time period, the only time such a thing happened: two acoustic sets at benefit shows (4/25/81 and 5/22/81), although neither was actually billed as the Grateful Dead.  The story goes that Lesh claims nobody told him about it.  That may have absolutely nothing to do with Kahn bringing a small local band into Club Front for a week, but I wonder.

This also prompts some speculation (on my part, anyway) about Club Front's function as a recording studio outside of the Dead's immediate orbit.  I don't have any sense that it was used that way.  But it certainly could have been -- and it certainly could have brought in some additional income, but the Dead's/Garcia's cashflow problems is not my area of expertise.  Placeholder for that one for now.

Oh, right: and how's the music?  It's okay for what it is.  The cover could suggest either metal or loopy psychedelia, but it's more middle-of-the-road than either: some tunes have a Heart/Pat Benetar kind of vibe, others have a more rootsy blues-rock boogie with slide guitar.  The beat goes on.  But to be fair, I am sure they sounded much better in a bar like the Keystone than at home on the record player (this less-than-rave review in the Sanford Daily appears to agree).

Ah well.  One more piece of the puzzle.  For two bucks, it was a worthy purchase.

postscript: a few words about Jimmy Warren

pic from Jake Feinberg's page, presumably a screenshot from the JGB 6/24/82 video

Until Jake Feinberg aired an interview with Jimmy Warren in 2018, practically nothing was known about him in the deadhead world besides the strong implication that he was a drug buddy of Kahn's and Garcia's.  In his fine interview, Feinberg understandably goes easy on the question of drugs.  Warren explains, in short, that he moved to Mill Valley in the late 70's with his then-girlfriend Liz Stires, met and became friends with Kahn, and would hang out at his home 8-track studio and help record demos (Warren recalls playing on the demo of the Kahn/Hunter tune "Leave the Little Girl Alone," later recorded for Run for the Roses; Liz Stires also apparently recorded several demos with Kahn and Warren).  Eventually, he was finally invited to audition for the JGB -- and Stires, as you probably know, also became one of the backup singers.  Others have implied that he was there more for the procurement of the drugs that most interested Kahn, Garcia, and Rock Scully.  No one seems to have spoken explicitly about it on the record one way or the other, and I am sure that the situation involves several stories that are both contradictory and true.  But regardless, Kahn and Warren seem to have been close for a time.  Warren also tells a nice story about how, after leaving the JGB and moving to Annapolis, John Kahn sat in at Warren's gig after a JGB show (which must have been in the wee hours of 11/6/82).  I have a hunch that Warren's role in this Wildebeest record was a mitzvah from Kahn.  But, as always, this is conjecture, and I would love to know more.

Europe 72: the jams, pt 6

lighting by Candace! nice touch.

 

PART 6: LONDON (THE END)

5/23 London, Dark Star #10

Okay, so they make up for the double Other Ones (5/13-16) with double Dark Stars (5/18-23).  All is in balance as we head into the final stretch.

This Dark Star starts off unusually tentatively, with Jerry playing the initial riff alone. But there's a nice floaty start to this opening jam and all is well. @1:45 Jerry and Bob twine around each other like ivy and spin out wonderfully for about 20 seconds. By 3 min, they're starting to leave the ground, generally calm and peaceful feelings abound. Jerry brings 'em back down to earth @5:30, but rather than drop off the cliff into open space as per usual, they instead do a slow black hole taffy-pull... there's a moment of near silence at 7:10, then Jerry starts sending out long feedbacked notes into the darkness and Phil scuttles away down below. Sparse.  Just Jerry and Phil for a moment in here.  This is the most far out they've gone before the verse so far (4/29 also got dark and spacey early on, but not for as long as this, iirc?).  From 10:30 it's basically just Billy, joined by Phil and some minimal Bobby... though setlists historically don't seem to notate this as "Drums," that's what it feels like [edit: whoops, Jerrybase does]  @13:13 Jerry quietly reenters, and by 14 they're back in flight, in a darker minor mode, but by 14:50 we get another bi-modal tug of war between Jerry/Bob and Phil. @15:25-40ish some Feelin' Groovy hints go unheeded, @15:50 Pigpen makes an appearance on organ, and it fits in well! and @17 min they pull up and move it into Dark Star for real. Wow, that was nice.

@17:43 Jerry sings first verse. @19 they stand at the edge of the cliff and peer over. Bob, Phil, and Jerry all quietly but melodically contemplate the void. by 21 min this has become unexpectedly pretty -- not atonal or weird at all.  Some lovely unison lines @21:35 and I even something a bit like "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" from Jerry in there (no, not an explicit quote).  But inevitably @22 min he turns left into something darker, and by 23 min Jer and Phil are getting spookier, then into the Tiger as everyone else piles on. It peaks by 24, then by mid-25 they drop down and splash around in the wake... but then they build back up again! Rather than another peak, @26:40 Jer turns off the wahwah and slowly they all change directions -- okay, this is a super cool and unexpected move -- pretty intense, and it finally resolves @28:30 into a cool jazzy groove (swingin' drums, walking bassline). A tasty digression indeed. @29:20 they're moving down back into the 2nd verse, but Jerry changes direction and plays the Morning Dew riff to get everyone's attention, then again for real as they make the segue. Wow! That was so good! And Morning Dew is a great one, just exactly perfectly good from top to bottom. 42 minutes well spent with the Grateful Dead, folks.

Well, this one I didn't remember being as interesting or involving as it was. But this was a powerful sleeper Dark Star for sure.

The penultimate Good Lovin' (#12) has no Pigpen rap at all. Yeesh. Jerry is way more in command here than the last one, and I suspect that it was clear from the start that Pigpen wasn't coming out for the jam tonight (whereas on 5/18 it feels like everyone isn't sure whether Pig's going to make it or not).  Solid but pretty uneventful jam.  Pig sounds a little off on the final vocals as well.  11:30 total.


5/24 London, Other One #11

I must confess that I haven't been playing very close attention to the Truckin's from this tour until the jams begin in earnest. But I noticed that the first jam here (before the reprise) has lots of Other One teasing in there. Hmm. Then there are <2 min of jamming after the last vocals with nothing much to report; there's one final Other One hint before easing off into Drums.

The Other One's opening jam felt a little more muted or relaxed than usual, and by 1:30 they're floating in open space... and they stay there for a while. There are some suggestions of other directions and/or moments of turbulence (Phil attempts his jazz riff at one point), and also of some real beauty: @4:50ish there's a beautiful cloud formation by Jerry, Keith, and Bob. But for the most part, this is a longer than usual passage of drifty airy space. The clouds roll in and @6:30 Billy is pushing things along and everyone gets on the same track -- a lot is happening in here, multi-modal shenanigans and generally a very cool jam from 6:30-9:00, then Jerry reasserts the Other One, then slows the tempo down after a minute. First verse @11:23, and then they fall back off the cliff into open space again. Jerry chisels away, Phil plonks along, it al gets progressively stranger but stays relatively calm for this sort of thing. @17:20ish Billy kicks in a quiet but driving groove, just as Jerry starts getting weirder... but after a minute of this, Phil sides (surprisingly?) with Billy and they pull Jerry into the orbit of a more linear, jazzy jam -- also I appreciate that Bob leaves his tremelo on. Keith reenters the scene, but it doesn't much catch fire, even when Jerry turns on his wahwah. They're groovin' along in 2nd gear. I again hear Keith using a volume pedal (?) on his piano around 21 min. By 21:40 or so, Jerry is quietly spinning towards the outer regions. But no deep delving yet! Again, they are taking their sweet time in the outer reaches. Finally @23 they all tumble into a Tiger and hit peak shreddage not long after, but then keep it going along the same lines, just with a lesser intensity (as opposed to collapsing and kicking around in the ashes) @25:08 Jerry very abruptly yanks it all back into the Other One, and Phil takes a minute to reorient himself. @25:55 it's back into the O1 for real, @28:47 2nd verse (nice organ fills from Pig!), and they end it and move into Sing Me Back Home. Which is beautiful! A really nice version.

So this is ultimately another second-tier Other One, mostly because they spend a lot of time free-floating without ever really digging in to any sustained inspiration. The 2 1/2 min jam before the first verse was the most exciting thing to me here.

The final Turn On Your Lovelight (#3 of the tour) follows Sugar Magnolia, and while Pigpen isn't quite spitting fire, this one is the best of this tour and certainly an improvement over the last two Good Lovin's.  There's a nice dovetail into the finale, and then a surprise move into Two Souls in Communion, which Pigpen gives his all and really delivers. Good combination! And this was the last time that Pigpen ended a Dead show in the spotlight -- god speed, Mr. Pen.


5/25/72 London, Dark Star #11

I will confess upfront that this jam has a special place in my heart. I have listened to it many times over the years, ever since it soundtracked a particularly golden afternoon many years ago.  The jam sequence is completely unique, which also adds that extra sparkle.  This Uncle John's Band is an all-timer for me. @7:20 they drift away from the 7/8 riff into a looser kinda pre-Dark Star mode, until Jerry finds some definition after a few minutes and moves 'em into Wharf Rat. Pretty masterful transition there! They jam a bit after the last vocal and the trickle down into Dark Star is absolutely perfect. So at this point, they've been in flight for 19 minutes, so I am not in the same headspace as I have been for the rest of these Dark Stars... this one feels more like a "kaleidoscopic" jam at first, with all of them spinning in different directions but linked to the same grounding point, rather than a linear trip of everyone moving in the same direction. I dig it. @2:45ish I hear them coming together more, and I hear Bob & Keith really driving things while Billy lays back with more of a gentle pulse. Builds in intensity, then @6:45 they all find themselves floating in open air, and Billy lays out. @7:50ish Jerry and Phil start scrubbing their way into a pre-Tiger-ish vibe, then the groupmind seems to want to pull away from the hubbub, but they turn another corner back towards the unavoidable darkness. Feedback and wahwah from Jerry, nasty chords from Phil, Jerry starts showing his claws, but then just as Phil seems really rarin' to go, Jerry turns the tables and brings them back to Dark Star after 15 min. Okay! I thought that was all pretty wonderful. First verse @16:44. They scrabble around spacily, then congeal @18:30ish into a Phil-led groove, trio with Keith and Billy. Bob adds some tremolo-ed guitar quietly. While I grant you that he's no star soloist, I do like these moments when Keith gets to be out front. @21:20 Phil takes them into Feelin' Groovy and Jerry reppears -- this is pretty, but not as skin-poppingly gorgeous as other prior iterations of this theme. By 25ish min they've mostly moved out of Feelin Groovy, not quite, eventually Phil shifts things up and Jerry slips in and out of a different, minor key, and by 26:36 he's back into a pre-Tiger zone again. Everyone rallies around him and starts to climb that mountain. Things get more buggy, they're getting closer, they reach a small climax, but then Jerry begins yet another climb for the top and then they finally unleash the dogs of war. Yeeow! Nice Tiger! During the comedown, I hear Pigpen's organ and Bob immediately tries for Sugar Mags, but Jerry holds off and splashes in the ether for a bit, before giving in.

I can't put this at the level of the best E72 Dark Stars, but it's a powerful second-stringer. But I also don't ever hear this one separate from the UJB>Wharf Rat, and there aren't many pre-hiatus Dark Stars that I associate so strongly with its preceding songs, so this one does also stand apart from the rest somewhat. It's still a special one in my book.

The final Good Lovin (#13) has Jerry again on organ during the tune (Jerrybase has a picture! Proof that it happened!). But Pigpen doesn't rap on this one at all (same as 5/23). Around 6 min into the jam, they find some different waters to explore, and there's some fun cat & mouse between Jerry and Phil as they find their way back to Good Lovin, but this isn't one for the books.



5/26/72 London, Other One #12

Sheesh, how to review this one? No one will argue it's one of the greatest things they ever played, so how does narrating my way through it add anything? Many of us heard it in portions on the original Europe 72 album, and even hearing engineer Dennis Leonard's wonderful story in the Long Strange Trip documentary about being spellbound during Morning Dew adds yet another level of context that I will never be able shed. But here goes!

Truckin' is the first one this tour with no vocal reprise (they didn't quite drop it, though; it's there again in July). Jerry is looking ahead to the Other One at 8 min, and by 9:20ish he's spinning outwards with Bob and Keith in his wake, as Billy maintains the shuffle. Pigpen is hanging in there. No words for this: high level magic happening here, simple and spacious. Slow-down at 13:30 into a more introspective space, but it's a brief oasis as Billy starts a low-key bubbling groove, super tasty. By 17 min this feels almost Dark Starry, but @17:20 Jerry turns again clearly to the Other One. Phil hears him, Billy doesn't quite. @18 min it's a near full stop, Jerry quietly clinking away, Phil doodling, @18:38 it sounds like Bob shows his hand by playing the big D chord for Dew, but not yet: the track ends at 18:58 and Phil does the roll into the Other One for real.

This Other One groove feels more relaxed to me than most others? Billy seems more like he's jazzily doodling back there rather than really driving this. Things thin out, @2:15 Jerry puts on some wahwah, everyone hanging in the air tentatively, and finally everyone but Billy backs down -- nearly a Drums in here, but Jerry then Phil come back in quietly. They trio and slowly build up the volume and energy. This is great! they sound totally dialed into each other, high level communication and love happening here. wowww. Keith then Bob reenter, keeping it cool. @8:27 I like Jerry's cool descending melody. But nothing really clicks and @9:10 Billy takes a solo for real.

(new track) Back into the Other One with another Phil roll, and now they're into it as usual: big organ, everyone in full attack mode now, although the energy still seems more serene than frenetic. @:49 Bob sings 1st verse. They burble, then @2:15ish the tent collapses. No drums: the other four float in open space. @3:10 they synch together for a beautiful moment of perfection: how did that happen? amazing! Billy comes creeping back in. That was brief but perfect. They stay in this enchanted space, not as much melodic beauty, but the spell holds... wowwww. @5:28 Keith starts playing a figure that Jerry and Bob click into. Cool! They keep it going, but Jerry starts drifting away, clicks on wahwah @6:02 (mid line, love it when that happens) and slowly starts getting hairy as everyone else keeps in the groove... but it slowly distorts like a house of mirrors. Great climb to the Tiger here -- I really like how the form comes apart in this one. @7:44 Jerry's in full Tiger mode; Pigpen's organ pops in for a sec, doing that police siren thing, but it doesn't upset the vibe. @8:45ish Billy is nudging it along with a steady pulse, and Jerry seems to back down a bit, then starts building up again (hear how @9:10-40ish his guitar wanders around the stereo field) - but then @9:36 he unexpectedly flips back into a major mode as everyone else churns and reorients around him. @10 min they chill and ease down. No meltdown! or... Jerry is stirring the pot now, threatening feedback, but @11:20 he pulls back into a bright Other One spiral and the universe calms itself: they eddy around each other in the stream... that was a breathtaking little display there... and just perfectly he leads them right into Morning Dew! How did any of that happen?? This whole 'second' Other One is Grateful Dead Groupmind at its absolute best. Dew is pin-drop perfection, some nice fanning at the climax, and generally just exactly perfect. I am out of things to say about anything this amazing. Back into the Other One, and I appreciate how they let this breathe for a minute rather than just hustling right into the final verse.


There you have it, folks.

Europe 72: the jams, pt 5

5/13: Pig incognito, with tie-dyed carpet, photo by Michel Wannenmacher

Sigh.  Motivation slid away, then I was out of town for a bit, and I am now wrapping this project up without any grand sense of occasion and with my tail between my legs.  Sorry, folks!

PART 5: BACK TO THE CONTINENT


5/10/72 Amsterdam, Other One #8

Truckin' is, I believe, the shortest one of the tour so far, with less than 90 seconds of jamming after the final verse.  This is a little surprising, given the odyssey that is to come, but so it goes.

As the Other One rolls off, it feels to me like they are using a gentler touch than many of the preceding versions. Pig's organ is swirling around in there. I am digging the little call & response thing Jerry plays with himself @2:15. @3:40 they rather abruptly fall off the cliff and free-float for a minute. Billy starts a slow 12/8 swing under this and it gets bluesy. Very nice, though it doesn't last long, and by 6 min they're back in free-float space. Keith starts getting assertive, Billy seems to be looking for a groove to hook into, and by 7:45ish Jerry finds an Other One variant and pulls everyone into that orbit; this is kinda skewed, kinda jazzy, kinda messy, three different things happening at once, but all super cool. @9:30ish they transition back into the Other One proper, perhaps a bit awkwardly, but all are fully back in it by 10 min. Bob sings the first verse @11:30, and then almost immediately Jerry nudges them into atonal weirdness.

By the mid 14's they're getting into dinosaur territory: Jerry yawping away, Bob peeling off feedback, Phil scuttering around below. They're doing the full insect crawl by 15:30, but this doesn't feel overwhelming or all that evil: curious prehistoric cockroaches, not chaotic agents of destruction.  @17 min Keith reappears, then @17:35 Pigpen's organ makes a brief cameo (he's usually not too interested in these heavy space jams) @18:25 Jerry is now scaling to a Tiger peak with some monster Phil power chords and feedback below.  Very intense! but it never reaches the climax, and when Billy reenters @20ish min, they take off flying.  Whoa...okay?  but then Jerry & Bob both suddenly disappear for nearly a minute and let Keith take the lead. Unexpected left turn there, fellas. When Jerry returns, nothing catches fire right away and it sounds like they're all wondering about the Other One.  Billy eases back in, Bob and Jerry do-se-do in the open air for a bit. Then back into the Other One @24 but don't really settle into it, and a few digressions happen (I really like the bit @27 min when Billy swings into a 6/8 feel still with the Other One happening above). On paper this sounds unfocused, but jeez, it sounds really sweet to me.  Back into the Other One yet again.  Heads up @29:05, cuz I love that figure Jerry plays a few times here.  @30 min everyone drops out yet again as Jerry keeps going with Bob in support, then Phil -- they're still clearly playing the Other One, not "space," even as it all drifts apart. This whole segment from 30-34 min is amazing. @32ish, Bob takes things in a really pretty direction, not quite a "theme" jam, but he and Phil are on the same page and Jer is cruising over it in a minor key. Even compared to the other E72 moments like this, this feels uniquely beautiful.

@34:20 they transition as perfectly as can be into Bobby McGee.  I am aware that not everyone agrees whether or not Bob's cowboy songs are too intrusive in the middle of a huge jam like this, but I can't think of a sweeter thing that could have happened right at this moment.  They wrap it, and back into two more minutes of Other One, then the second verse, and on into Wharf Rat.

The 20 minutes (!) between the first verse and Bobby McGee is all-timer stuff for this tour. I can see how someone might not appreciate how they never all coalesce into one sustained thematic jam, but I think that their powers of ultragroupmind chaotic spontaneity are occurring at their highest levels here. It's a very different manifestation of this than on 5/3, which of course is also another high point, and I can't say that I like one more than the other -- but it's amazing that within a week they played two versions that are so powerful yet so different.


5/11 Rotterdam, Dark Star #8

An unusually long 1 hour 22 minute jam, at the end of an unusual show (Playing opened the 1st set, and the first Morning Dew of the Godchaux era opened the 2nd)... but I have felt ambiguous about this one ever since the cassette era.  Dark Star's pre-verse jams are beautiful, but it has always felt to me (and still does) like they're all moving in the same direction but not entirely locked in. @4:15ish things tighten up a bit; I hear Pigpen on maracas and a more forward-driving jam takes shape.  But by 5:25 Jerry seems distracted enough to start tuning up, the temperature drops a bit, they drift a bit, then @7:30 they find it again and change direction into a breezy, minor-keyed jam (a bit like Phil's 'jazz jam' in feel, although the bassline isn't explicit).  It breezes along, flying close to the ground, quiets down and it seems like they're ready for a triumphant return to Dark Star (@13:38 Phil even cues it up), but... Billy takes a drum solo.  for almost four minutes!  whut?

@0:00 (next track) Phil returns and duets with Bill for two more minutes, until Jerry emerges. Ok, this is pretty. It's just the three of them for a while, then @4:40 Jerry plays a repeated note like a fanfare to get everyone in line (Bob appears @5) and then back into Dark Star for real. @5:30 he sings the first verse. They head for the dark side, then @8:15 Jerry lets out the butterflies and tries to draw everyone back into the light (Pigpen also joins in on organ). But no one is much committing to anything here, which seems to the tone of this Dark Star in general... eventually they slide down into a sparse spacey place; verrry slowly it gets weird enough for Jerry to get Tigerish by 15 min, Phil finally starts dropping some bombs, and @17:30 Billy makes a grand reentrance like a thunder cloud - very nice effect indeed. Build and build, but no real climax. @19:20 they telepathically shift gears into a brisk country-ish jam (Pig back on organ), which is short lived. Phil lets off a crystal clear Bird Song tease (!?) at 20:30, they turn off into an uptempo, minor, mellow Playin-ish jam, and @22 Jerry disappears and leaves Phil to solo.  Um, okay.  Jer returns, they keep going in this direction, it builds to a head around 25:35. The final minutes of this are a lot of indecision... Jerry strums Caution, Phil teases Truckin', then Bird Song again a few times, Jerry doodles over it all, and finally @30:30 Bob nudges them into Sugar Magnolia.

Jerry gets his Caution (#5) after Sugar Mags ends -- the last Caution ever! -- a very nice 16 1/2 min of rumble. Not a lot stood out to me, but it's got a pleasing bustle to the whole jam and, like Good Lovin (see below) this features some extra verbal dexterity from Pigpen.  There's a nice moment @9:20 they all drop out for Billy and egg him on as Pigpen returns to the mic.  Pig is also jamming away on organ when not singing, and in the last minute he also throws in the first verse of Who Do You Love (see also 4/14).  They simmer down for a minute, then move into Truckin', which feels less energetic coming at the tail end of a long jam. There's a minute of jamming after the final vocal and then down to a stop.

Some beautiful moments, but nothing really transcendent and with way too much casting around for something to happen. It's still a mighty fine Dark Star in contrast with, well, nearly everything else -- but by E72 standards, it ain't hitting the mark for me.  And why the heck was Phil teasing Bird Song multiple times?  I can't think of any other occasion of Phil playing the guitar riff to a song, let alone one they weren't playing at the time (Bird Song, as you may recall, had been put in storage from Aug 71 to July 72).  But really, this is maybe the only jam of the whole tour that I would call overrated.

Anyway, Good Lovin' #10 is only 12 minutes tonight, and the band never turns up the heat too much, but this is worth a listen since Pigpen is in extra witty form tonight. The rap is an expansion of the "take your time, drive slow, use extra grease" sermon he's been working at over the past couple versions (the guy really missed his calling as a life coach), and there are some great one-liners in here: the standard bit about his lady calling from down the hall with her leg up against the wall is spiced up a bit when Pig fixes himself a drink in the kitchen and offers this astute assessment: "I helped investigate the situation -- planned my strategem -- and proceeded to go into action.  I ain't going to go into no details.  But there was a long, sweet, sweet lovin' confrontation."  Oh yeah. Also, this appears to be the first time that Jerry took it upon himself to play Pigpen's organ during the song itself!?  Well, hey now.  Do we know what that was about?


5/13/72 Lille, Other One #9

This was a free outdoor show to make up for a sabotaged theater gig (lots of info here, or read the whole story in comic book form!).  Given that, you (or at least I) might assume that this Other One wouldn't be particularly heavy duty, but you (I) would be incorrect.  Like Rotterdam, this Truckin' has no real jam (90 seconds) before it collapses into Drums. The Other One surges along, strongly but nothing unusual at first. @4:30 they fall off the cliff and float in a bright, hazy space for a few minutes -- I hear Keith playing some unusually pretty harmonies behind Jerry here. @7:50ish Billy returns and establishes an uptempo groove and things take off. Jerry is spiraling away into the skies with everyone buzzing away in his wake. He ignores a blatant push from Phil to get 'em back to the Other One, then leads the transition himself a minute later @10:15. Bob sings the first verse, then they keep jamming the O1 groove -- Jerry vanishes and Keith and Phil both take the lead for a minute.  When Jerry trickles back in @12:30, it seems to be the catalyst for the rhythm to drop out.  Spaciness ensues. I didn't make a note exactly when, but Pigpen has been repeatedly playing a 2-note figure that sounds like a police siren and a bit irritating.  @13:45-14:45 there is a weird shift in the stereo mix [thanks to Light Into Ashes for pointing out that this must be a patch from an alt source, since the prior circulating source has a reel flip here -- weird that Jeffrey Norman wouldn't fix the stereo image, though].  Anyway, rather than fully spacing out, they instead find a driving jazzy groove that is nevertheless pulling towards atonality, with all of them straining hard at the leash. This is pretty sweet!

@15:20, Jerry cuts the lines and they're pulled into atonal weirdness -- I do like these stretches of slow-burn transition to total chaos. @16 Phil drops in something like his jazz theme bassline, but it's too late: Jerry's on wahwah and you know what that means. All of a sudden we're on the side of the mountain in the middle of a storm. By 17:40, Phil's dropping bombs and Jerry's in Tiger mode (@18 min an echo effect is added which is pretty cool). Full meltdown Tiger shred by 18:40. Oh yeah. They're all in! Bob feedback, Phil bombs, Billy free jazz. And they keep at it (Pig's doing that damn police siren thing again at 20ish min). There's not a single climax, but @20:40 they ease off and splash around as Jer delivers a regal oration over the smoldering ruins, then starts arpeggiating as the troops begin fall back in line. @22 min they have found another direction, with Billy driving the groove with his toms and everyone tentatively finding their place. Phil is clearly thinking about the Other One again, but nope, not yet.  This is a cool jam!  Jerry takes off and they're all pushing hard behind him during 23-25 min.  Great!  @25:40 Jer abruptly pulls back to the Other One (I approve of those those Phil chords!), @26 he hits the wahwah for an extra dose of amazing sound. @27:50 Bob sings the 2nd verse, and the ending crashes nicely into He's Gone.  Okay!  First time for that segue, I believe.

Whoa.  I had heard this ages ago, but had no memory of how hot this was.  Maybe it's surprising that an outdoor gig in a lovely town park (some pics) inspired such a sustained shredding Tiger jam. But wowzers, they've got some fire under them in the second half of this one. I look forward to taking that ride again.


5/16 Luxembourg, Other One #10

This was a late night show (12-3am) in a tiny theater for an international radio broadcast (hence the doofy Top of the Pops guy). Truckin has 3:25 of jamming after the final vocal: they drift off into a spacious vista that gets airier and airier and drifts away into just Drums.

The Other One begins as usual.  Jerry peaks around 2 1/2 min and they press onwards, slowly easing back.  Following the established pattern of the last few, things eventually get pretty spacious, but tonight Jerry stays in full-blown Other One mode and presses forward, rarely letting himself be swept off course. Everyone else seems happy to float contentedly off track, but Jer stays the course, and by 7 min they're fully back in the O1 groove and Bob sings the 1st verse. They carry on, Jerry still refusing to be nudged elsewhere, but the groove slowly dissolves and @9:13 Jerry relents with with a sudden loud feedbacky yowl that lets everyone fully space out.  @10 I hear Pigpen doing that irritating 2-note siren thing again.  Some Big Phil chords, however, make this feel pretty nice!  After another Other One hint @10:40ish, Jerry gives in to the pre-Tiger skronk.  He builds to a fast Tiger that peaks at 11:40 then simmers down, but Phil's not letting him off that easy and starts slamming big chords at 12:40.  Well played, Phil.  And yet @13:50 Jerry is sneakily trying to bring them back into the Other One again! They don't all take the bait right away, and there's some nice tug of war for a couple minutes, but at 17:45 they all cleanly jump back into the Other One for real.  Second verse, outro, and then they stop to tune up. A paltry 19 minutes!

Well, that was probably the most "inside" Other One of the tour, even with a (quick) Tiger meltdown.  Jerry just won't let go of the Other One groove!  Not surprising given the circumstances, I suppose, but this sounded relatively constrained even compared with the 4/16 TV broadcast.  Ah well.  That's what they get for breaking the sequence and skipping Dark Star. 

 

5/18 Munich, Dark Star #9

This has an unusually long prelude/intro tonight (including some guitar tuning) and on the box set, Dark Star proper begins @1:47. Pigpen is adding maracas again. The pre-verse jam stays very close to the DS theme: very beautiful and peaceful, but not very exploratory.  @4 min Jerry sends a wonderful searing note trailing feedback out into the cosmos.  @5:30 there are some big reverb tank bangs from Garcia's amp.  Keith is present but a pretty minimal presence in all of this, not doing much.  The only really notable thing happens @9 min when Bob initiates a brisk uptempo jam, very happy and very pretty - not a 'thematic' jam, but some really lovely stuff nevertheless.  @12:45 it tumbles right back down into the DS theme.  They make a fairly dramatic/triumphant statement here before getting to the first verse @14:40.  @16 min some intense Phil chords begin the space jam.  Phil sounds really fired up here, actually; Jerry is content to chip away at some fragmented & feedbacked notes, but Phil is really throwing down some serious chord action. Everyone else watches them from the sidelines.  Go Phil!  He backs off around 20:15 and Jerry keeps picking atonally ahead, with Bob tracing around the edges.  Really sparse stuff.  @21:30 Jerry clicks on the wahwah mid-line (I am always a sucker for when he does this) and @22 min starts messing with his volume knob; @22:25 Keith appears also doing some volume swells on piano... come to think of it, I'm not sure how he's doing this, since I thought he didn't have a pickup on his grand piano until that summer (when Bear rejoined the crew).  Anyway, this sounds awesome, very trippy.  @24ish it finally starts boiling over and into Tiger territory.  It gets nasty, peaks, eases off by 27:20ish, and they all come together for the transition into Morning Dew at 28:20.  Dew!!  This is the first ever Dark Star > Dew (out of of nine total in 1972-74).  It ends, then Billy quietly takes a drum solo for a minute and a half (!?) with Phil noodling along at the end, and then into Sugar Magnolia.

This Dark Star isn't a special one in the big picture, but again, it's incredible that a jam this tasty can be considered "lower level."  The brisk jam before the first verse and Phil's flamboyant chording at the start of the space jam were memorable moments.  Plus, y'know, Morning Dew was back.

Good Lovin' #11, sadly, marks the beginning of a hard falling off for Pigpen on this song.  He is MIA for the first 3:45 of the jam, which begins unusually with Bob taking a 1970-71 style "solo" before Jerry tentatively takes the lead.  It seems like he's staying out of the spotlight, waiting to see what Pigpen's going to do... and when Pig finally appears, he does a little jog through his "4 day creep" bit for a couple minutes, then they bring the Good Lovin' riff up underneath him and usher him out.  Jerry plays the organ on the final reprise of the song itself.  12 min total: a similar length as 5/11, but a far cry from that version's wit and creativity.

One more to go, folks!

6/4/74 - One Mint Julep?

 

My Europe 72 marathon hit a little snag (or rather, life failed to clear the wide path that listening to Europe 72 deserves), but writeups of all that stuff will be coming very soon.  Sigh.  

But in the meantime, here's one for the Garcia/Saunders setlist completists: I wrote up a lengthy review of 6/4/74 many years ago, but there's been a tiny piece of that show that's been nagging at me ever since: at the end of All Blues, Martin Fierro starts playing a blues lick that I could never quite place, and today it finally clicked: it's "One Mint Julep."  Fierro tries it once at 20:13, then gets it right the second time, and Garcia picks up on it and joins in on third go-round.  They riff on it for a few minutes until the song ends at 23:11 (times are for this transfer).

"One Mint Julep" (wiki), by Rudy Toombs, was an early Atlantic Records R&B hit for the Coasters and then found even greater fame as an instrumental when Ray Charles played it on his Genius + Soul = Jazz album in 1961.  A quick look at discogs shows that a variety of folks recorded it after that: R&B instrumentalists like King Curtis and Booker T the MG's, but also more modern jazz players like Milt Jackson, Jimmy Smith, and Freddie Hubbard (Hubbard's version was the one I was listening to today when it clicked), and also Nashville guitarist Chet Atkins -- among certainly hundreds of others.  It's hard to say which version Fierro et al were most influenced by here, since they're playing it over the same groove as All Blues rather than a more typical R&B rhythm.  They also don't play the entire tune: they don't ever play the bridge, just the main blues lick, which was probably in the DNA of every working R&B or jazz musician of the era.  So I don't know if the setlist keepers want to label this as All Blues > One Mint Julep, or just put the ol' asterisk in there with a little note about it.

Carry on.  Or go listen to this show again!  It's great.

Does anyone hear something different?

Europe 72: the jams, pt 4

courtesy Mark Princi (GDAO)

 

PART 4: PARIS, BICKERSHAW

5/3/72 Paris, Other One #6

They jam on the Truckin' shuffle for a bit after the final vocal, then ease down into the Other One @9:30, which the official release tracks separately. Jerry seems happy to get down into it, but then everyone detours into a magical oasis (nice touch with the organ sustain from Pigpen).  Clouds roll in: this isn't aggressive, but it's not pretty either. The ominous vibes simmer down and then @4:40 an amazing moment happens: just Bob and Phil alone for a minute, before Jerry trickles back in. It is the first of many such beautiful moments! Phil drops the roll @6:40, but no one else is ready to go there and Jerry seems to ignore it completely.  But Phil keeps trying a few more times and @8 min it finally sticks (still no buy-in from Jerry, though).  Another shining moment is @9:50 when Keith and Jerry both mindmeld and ride down a descending progression, and then Jer really comes pouring in. Wooowwww. But once again it burns off quickly and @11:40 it's just Phil and Bobby again. After a minute, Phil & Bob start building it back up, and one by one everyone rejoins, Jerry dramatically waiting until last.  After all that, this is some pretty raging Other One jamming!  Bob finally sings the first verse @17:20 and then it collapses into Drums.

Phil returns (new track here) and duets with Billy until @1:50 and then rolls 'em back into the Other One and they're back in full flight. @3:15 they shift into a brighter, major jam (Phil hints Feelin Groovy for a sec) but it quickly tilts back into the O1. The Other One/Feelin' Groovy seesaw tips back and forth, shifting modes with a really engaging and interesting flavor. The Other One reestablishes itself fully @6:20 or so, and then Jerry is off into space, with Bob and Phil quietly playing a rhythmic figure underneath. The vibe here is spacious and wide-open. By @9:30ish Jerry is steering Phil and Bob towards the edge of the abyss, but rather than plunging into madness things become starkly beautiful (12ish min now). This is amazing.  In what couldn't be a more ideal selection for this precise moment in time, Bobby strums them into Bobby McGee.  Afterwards, Jerry spirals 'em back into the Other One and at this point my powers of qualitative assessment have gone out the window. Unbelievably wonderful. 2nd verse and out. Wharf Rat. Then the Jack Straw from Europe '72. Oh yes.

This jam maintains its all-timer status for me. But it was interesting to notice that, for a lot of it, Phil and Jerry seem playfully at odds with each other. 4/24 and 4/26 both had a similar MO of both of them consistently tugging in different directions while still maintaining an incredibly high level of connection. This 5/3 jam also stands out to me, in hindsight, for having a number of moments where Jerry is letting the rest of the band establish a mood, holding back, then making a well-timed dramatic re-entry that seems fully intentional (as opposed to a technical glitch).

Good Lovin #7, at 16ish min, this one isn't one of the behemoths. They seem more eager to find some new sidepaths to explore, but are willing to come back to the main trail when called, and are pretty responsive to Pig's lead -- and Pig in turn seems fully comfortable calling all the shots.  I believe this is the first time he starts working out his "I will ride my woman, which requires both a fair amount grease and also the shifting of gears" motif (slightly more artfully, of course, but I'm sure you get the jist) as the band gets loose and spacey for a minute @10 min, then slowly amp it up as Pig eases his lady up into the higher gears.


5/4/72 Paris, Dark Star #6

Dark Star's opening jam is quite lovely, reminding me of a green canopy of trees with Jerry flying around underneath. After 5ish min, they drift lazily into an uptempo, minor-keyed jam driven by Billy's toms. None of this is really opening my third eye, but it's a perfect way to drift downstream on a warm day. The waters get a little bumpy and around 11 min and they hop off the boat and onto land right into Dark Star and the first verse @12:10. Jerry sounds husky. There's an immediate drop-off into a very quiet space afterwards (1970 style), just Phil and Bob at first. Jerry emerges after a few minutes, but this never builds up to anything intense -- I assume there's some equipment problem, since folks are yelling off mic and Billy winds up soloing for 2 1/2 minutes. They reenter into a similar space, very quiet at first, and finally Jerry threatens to get hairy, but doesn't. After maybe 6 min of this, they ease off and collectively opt for something prettier, sailing off into a bright, brisk jam: Jerry is operating within the Dark Star parameters, but Phil and Bob are thinking Feelin' Groovy, and the resulting uncertainty is a joyous thing to behold. Jerry appears to be actively resisting the Feelin' Groovy jam, then finally succumbs at 10:45... but it feels like the magical moment has passed. Nevertheless, they skip through the sun-kissed dewdrops for a bit, before Jerry again begins to assert Dark St (heads up @13:20 when he turns the wahwah back on, I love this bit). @15:25 he succeeds in bringing them back, and then actually sings the second verse! (first time this tour). They do the old-school ending and wind it down into Sugar Magnolia (the one from the E72 album, btw).  40 min total for this Dark Star, including the drum solo, but not one that stands with the greats from the era.

Good Lovin' #8 opens the 2nd set and has a more relaxed feel and slightly slower tempo than others.  At 22 1/2 min, the boys certainly take the scenic route, but actually never really wander too far off the road.  Pigpen never really hands the wheel over, and also seems like he's taking his sweet time with his lady tonight. I was getting lazy with my note-taking, but there's a distinctive descending chord progression at one point that the band jams on for a bit (not Mind Left Body) that I don't recognize from other Good Lovin's from this tour. The long roundabout digression at the end as they circle back to the finale is also pretty sweet. imho this is one of the better ones of the tour so far.



5/7/72 Bickershaw, Dark Star #7 > Other One #7

We probably all know that this festival was a rainy, cold, muddy mess, and I am probably succumbing to the power of suggestion, but this Dark Star does feel a little stormier right up front. I hear Pigpen thickening the stew with some maracas and maybe other percussion (it's low in the mix, but this is the first time I've noticed him doing this on this tour). The band interaction feels a little more kaleidoscopic tonight, rather than the more linear approach of the last two versions. 5 min of Dark Star jamming, then Jerry and Bob drift away while Billy and Phil rumble along below. This begets that jazzier, kind of Playin-ish, minor-keyed jam (not the Phil jazz theme) that rolls along briefly before Jerry comes soaring back into the major Dark Star modality. This is great. They land in another oasis and drop the rhythmic momentum, though it never gets too spacey or atonal -- I really like Bob's chord voicings in here. @12ish Jerry swims back to Dark Star, but then an amusing cat & mouse game begins as they pull back and forth between Dark Star and creepier space: Phil cues DS, Jerry defers for weirdness, Phil drops a big space bomb, Jerry sidesteps right back into DS. Ha!  @14:30 they're back for real and Jerry sings the 1st verse. They build to a big dramatic A chord, then ease down, splashing around, seemingly unsure whether to commit to a spacey meltdown or not. They do not. Billy takes a solo.

Unusally, the Other One comes out of Drums, and also has a more dense feel to it, now in part because Pigpen's organ is very present: louder in the mix and more active than usual.  Check how @3:25 he even prods Billy into a brisk 6/8 swing for a few bars. I hear you, Pig! Jerry brings 'em to a peak. @4:20 they all ease back, Jerry eventually maneuvers into a minor key, Billy lays back, they float, Jerry brings them back up to the O1 by 9 min and Bob sings the 1st verse @10:25. Pig even alternates fills with Jerry between the lyrics. @11:30 they pull the brakes and slow things down (Jer and Bob surreptitiously tune up), and set sail for a long Space. Just Jer, Phil, and Bob at first, Keith back by @16:35, Phil starts to get aggressive, Jerry comes and goes. This is all mostly atonal space, not a lot of drums, everyone doing a very slooow burn, but it never wanders down the Tiger path. By 23 min it's Phil and Jerry apparently revving up for a meltdown/throwdown duel, but it turns into more a playful joust instead.  @24 Bob locks into a repeated one-note groove and pulls everyone with him, and @25 they burst back into a full-band jam and that feels almost like a blissed-out Dark Star peak to me. Wowww. @27 they veer back to the O1, rage it for a bit, get to the second verse @29:40 and the outro folds into Sing Me Back Home.

Hugely satisfying to have these two played back to back like this, even though the boys don't sound like they're in a truly divine space. Both versions are 2nd tier for this tour. But what does that even mean anymore, man.

Good Lovin' #9 is a hair under 20 min. Pigpen is in great shape, directing things right at the top of the jam, easing back into a similar mellow groove as 5/4 around 11 min in (again with the "changing gears" motif). @13:30 Jerry climaxes the jam with a repeated single note that powers right back into the Good Lovin riff. Haven't heard him do that one yet! Nice move. But Pigpen ignores the cue and keeps his rap going. Yeah, Pig! He's going for it tonight (breakin' them rocks from dawn til doom). I also detect Jerry teasing "Tequila" a few times after 16 min (lol).  This Good Lovin' wasn't as powerful as 5/4 for me, but the unique climax to the jam and Pigpen's extra moxie gets the gold star.

And they also play Lovelight tonight. Like the one on 4/26, it's not at the level of the Good Lovin's from this tour -- but unlike 4/26, Pigpen at least takes a crack at delivering another rap, albeit less coherently than his spots in Good Lovin'. Jerry plays a little nasty slide guitar @9:35 and even teases Caution at the end... which would be too good to be true, so they wrap it up with GDTRFB>NFA instead.

Europe 72: the jams, pt 3

Gunther Kieser's deadhead

 

PART 3: GERMANY

4/21 Bremen, Other One #4
 

This was an in-studio performance for TV broadcast (you've probably seen the video with the, um, extreme blue screen effects; see Light Into Ashes for a fine analysis of the video).  Truckin' has a false start and grand collapse before restarting, then a shorter jam (no reprised last verse) and a minute of splashing around before a brief Drums.  Unsurprisingly, given the circumstances, Other One #4 stays pretty close to the surface: they start off playing too fast and Jerry has to step on the brakes about 2 minutes in; first verse comes at 5, then a few minutes of space, and back into the Other One for the second verse, and stop at 15:45.  Still a pretty good time, just nothing much to comment on.  But what's unsual is what happens next: Jerry feedbacks them into another spacey jam that takes shape when Billy lays down a gentle beat at 18:20.  It's a little reminscent of the pretty 3/22/72 post-Caution jam, lovely as a sping breeze.  They cruise for two minutes, Jerry whips up a little ending, and they're done.



4/24 Dusseldorf, Dark Star #4

Actually, starting with Good Lovin #5 makes more sense here, since it's a clear harbinger of the main event. This is by far the most "out" Good Lovin' jam so far, and it sounds like the band's improvisation here is less oriented around accompanying Pigpen's rap, which in turn seems more free-associative than usual (Jesse Jarnow has pointed out that Pig quotes James Carr's "Pouring Water on a Drowning Man" here, which I didn't catch).  The contrast between his vocal and the spacier music is pretty surreal: it hits peak weirdness @7ish minutes as Pig gets ready to see about his woman down the hall, while the band is trilling away at an atonal space jam.  Hey, whetever floats yer boat.  This version is 17 min total, long but not nearly as long as the titanic 4/14 version, but it's a great complement for being much, much stranger.

This Dark Star is (spoiler) one of my all-time favorites and remains a peak intense GD experience.  The feel is immediately quite different from the prior excursions: Phil sounds particularly raw and pushy at the start, and after a minute or so it seems to rub off on everyone else. @3 1/2 min they fall down a little hole and immediately start considering evil.  No looking back at this point: the rest of the pre-verse jams (between 5-11 minutes) feels like a back & forth between Jerry pulling them into the sun and Phil pulling them right back into the darkness -- this multi-mode tug-of-war makes for an extremely engaging pre-verse jam.  One moment that I particularly like is the jam at 8-10 minutes, which surges from a bright, major Dark Star tonality into a faster, driving jam that Phil tries to steer into minor with an early attempt at his King Solomon-ish "jazz theme," which Jerry rejects by pulling everyone back into a peaky Dark Star jam which climaxes and dovetails into him and Bob playing a harmonized DS riff down into the first verse.  Yowza.  And then!  And then afterwards, whooooo shit, after the verse... out come the knives. Everything sounds about 100 feet high, giant waves rising up, big Phil chords underneath Bobby feedback and eagle-high Jerry.  @15ish min Billy swings 'em out of the jurassic period and into a brisk 12/8, but darkness wins out again, and by 18 min it's a Jerry/Phil faceoff as everyone else eggs them on. Jer finally turns on the wahwah and a bloodbath ensures.  The Tiger jam here from 19-21 minutes has to be one of the most brutal meltdowns of their career.  The tsunami finally breaks, they splash around for a couple minutes in the wreckage, and then ta da! Me and My Uncle.  Well.  Afterwards, they blur back into space, bruised but beautiful, and things get even prettier once Keith joins back in after a few minutes. But once again it descends into darkness.  They pull out again into a 12/8 swing and move back towards the Dark Star theme -- this is amazing, people -- morphing into that "country-ish" kinda feel, then Jerry hints at a full return to Dark Star itself, playing the riff a few times but then sidestepping smoothly into Wharf Rat instead.  [sidenote: this Dark Star shares a few things with 12/6/73, including an ending with Jerry teasing the second verse then veering elsewhere] That was almost 44 min of Dark Star, including MAMU.  Sugar Magnolia segues naturally out of Wharf Rat and jams to a close. Bobby says danke shoen and Phil announces they're taking a break and playing some more.

iirc, Rock Scully's book says that Karlheinz Stockhausen was in attendance at this show. Take that with a grain of salt, but if the presence of one of the 20th century's leading avant-garde composers inspired this masterpiece, well, then that's pretty freakin' sweet (and Light Into Ashes has pointed out that Stockhausen had performed in Dusseldorf on 4/16). Other pretty freakin' sweet things are the fact that the band CAN was in the audience for this show (h/t to Jesse Jarnow), and that the venue was a planetarium.

Another small but notable thing that contributes to the weirdness of this particular DS is the mastering of the recording: there's an occasional but very noticeable delay on Jerry's guitar and Keith's piano (which also moves around the stereo field a few times), and also on Jerry's vocal.  It's inconsistent enough that it's really noticeable when it does happen -- check out about 40 secs into the DS track after MAMU where the delay is so extreme that it sounds like there are two Jerrys.  It's not on the older circulating sbd, and so far I haven't noticed this on any of the other E72 recordings.  Why would John Cutler do that?



4/26 Frankfurt, Other One #5

The Truckin' jam is nothing out of the ordinary tonight, but sounds high and wide-open: after the final vocal reprise, they jam a bit more of the Truckin' shuffle, pull apart for some pre-Other One noodling, then stop almost dead before Drums, although Keith tinkles by himself for a bit before Billy takes over. This Other One is a striking contrast with the Dark Star of 4/24: Evil Phil is nowhere to be found tonight.  Indeed, he seems almost chastened after his dance with the devil two nights ago: nearly every time Jerry seems to be pulling off towards darker weirdness, Phil tips them all right back towards something brighter.  The jam before the first verse veers between the Other One and some other mode(s), but mainly Billy is taking it easy, giving this a placid, way high-up, top-of-the-mountain kind of feel: it's not quite 'space' but very gentle and melodic and beautiful.  First verse comes @13:30, then they keep moving forward in this more spacious 'open' Other One feel. At 17 min it starts getting strange, Jerry hits the wahwah, the vibe gets prickly... so Phil pulls the other way and slides them into his 'jazz theme' at 18:20, which everyone picks up even though Jerry clearly has his sights set on some wahwah space fury. This is almost funny! But it sounds fantastic, of course. They ease off at 21 min and then things start getting ominous: slow and intense, no drums at first, but Banshee Jerry and Throwdown Phil start rustling up the feedback curtains. Things slowly build up to the point where Jerry starts revving up for a Tiger jam @26 min, but they no one else really builds up enough of a head of steam to go there with him (btw heads up for a quickie Spanish Jam suggestion from Bob around 27 min). By 30-31 minutes, Jerry is spiraling out arpeggios while everyone else regroups. imho it never quite comes together into anything coherent for this final stretch (Phil suggests Feelin' Groovy @31:25, but nope), though it is plenty cool nevertheless. They get back into the Other One, sing the second verse @35:35, and then they wrap it up and neatly move into Comes a Time.

Phil's 180 shift in attitude here came as a real surprise to me.  Also for your consideration is that the Hundred Year Hall CD (1995) was the first E72 music to be officially released after the original album, and evidently Phil was the one who made the call to release this show.

Good Lovin #6 is a compact 12 min tonight. It's very different from the last one, since Pigpen is leading the charge throughout and the boys seem happy to fall in line. They digress a bit from the usual jam for about 2 minutes at the end, but Pigpen reigns it in.

This show also has the first of three Lovelights of this tour -- but Pigpen doesn't do much with this at all, and the majority of it is instrumental jamming, nothing groundbreaking, just cruising along at a nice speed. Jerry hits a nice climax around 15 min which he threads into GDTRFB, though it takes them a while to recalibrate and finally get into it. Pretty nice, nevertheless.



4/29/72 Hamburg, Dark Star #5

Dark Star has a warm, pleasant feel to the starting jam, with a nice foggy digression around 5 min. @6:40 a Feelin' Groovy jam comes together, but Jerry seems less committed and derails it after a minute by sliding into a minor mode and leaving a small pile-up in his wake. @8:40 they land in spacey jam, which I quite liked this time around: austere, regal vibe to this, and more happening from Keith in particular - weird, but very beautiful. Eventually it gets into a creepier pre-Tiger space and Phil starts uneleasing some bombers at 13 min, but then they surprisingly move it back to Dark Star, a nice moment of group-mind ESP there. First verse @14:50, and then the following jam pulls apart and lava starts rising through the cracks, with things getting progressively heavier (wahwah Jerry, smashing Phil chords, freejazz Billy). But instead of finding a Tiger, they nearly stop dead after 20 min, start building back up, but then @22 min they shift direction again into a jazzier low-key jam, not Phil's "jazz theme" and a little more like a Playin' jam (debatable, but imho). Jerry will not be denied his Tiger jam, though, and pulls out of this after a few minutes, and finally whips things up to a frenzied peak at 28-29 minutes. Yeeowch. It gets there and crashes down, with Phil & Jer still taking jabs at each other, but Bob awkwardly pushes it into Sugar Magnolia. (I didn't hear any Pigpen organ at all in this DS, fwiw).

Caution #4 is a pretty straight-down-the-middle 20 minute stormer, not too dissimilar from the last Caution on 4/17. Pigpen gets on organ right at the beginning and seems to be soloing for a few minutes (hard to tell because of the mix), before spilling the beans about his lady problems.  At 7 min when his prescribed mojo hand begins to take effect, the boys shift gears into a slinky slower jam before kicking it back up a couple gears into Caution proper (nice touch!)  @8:15, Pig sings a bit from Lightnin' Hopkins' "Life I Used to Live" ("gonna change my way of living/join a church again").  Nothing else to report besides @10-13 min they slip into a spacier, pretty jam that could maybe be a doorway back to Dark Star? (dream on, nick) but Phil is intent on staying with Caution. Again, Jerry plays a little slide guitar around 15 1/2 min. @18ish min it hits a big climax, but then keeps going in a mellower vein, seemingly unclear if they're really done, so Phil finally ends it with a big chord at 20:10.

Europe 72: the jams, pt 2

 

one of the Tivolis

PART 2: DENMARK

4/14/72 Copenhagen, Dark Star #2

The opening Dark Star jam finds everyone staying in their lane and happy to find some magic in a familiar groove. But oh my lord, do they find some magic: absolutely elegant, perfectly balanced, just a divine specimen of what an opening Dark Star jam ought to be. I will say this feels quite different from the acid energy of 4/8: this seems like a more considered approach here, but is no less beautiful for that. Phil takes a stab at the Feelin' Groovy jam around 10 min, but nope. They glide to a total stop around 12 min and open up into another quiet, crystalline space (no drums at all), astonishingly beautiful, birds gliding over the shimmering glassy surface of a mountain lake.  @13 min Jerry suggests a return to Dark Star, but nobody else is ready, and things take a turn for the weirder... it feels to me like Jerry and Keith want to get back to the Dark Star jam while Phil and Bob are staying in the shadows. Jerry builds 'em back into Dark Star and @15:50 the moment when Billy reenters is just incredible... wowowowow.  First verse @17 min, and then there's a flowering of dark clouds, but the sunshine cuts through once again and they pick up the tempo... I am running out of synonyms for beauty, but I am blissing out beyond anything right now.  @22ish min, Phil finally finds his Feelin' Groovy jam and whoa, they just shift into this without a hiccup. I can't handle it. Does it get any better than this?  @25 min things start falling apart, Jer gets on the wahwah, they finally tip over into spookier space and build up to Tiger intensity. As Bob starts up Sugar Magnolia, I love hearing how Jerry slowly weaves his weird thread into the intro. I also appreciate how he's so into the Sugar Mag jam that he's clearly not ready to stop when they cut it off for Sunshine Daydream.

Good Lovin #3 starts immediately afterwards. This one is 29 min total, as long as the Dark Star, and unlike the preceding ones, Pigpen is front and center for almost all of it. There are a few minutes where the boys are cooking away without him, but the majority of this huge version is mostly Pigpen working his "4 day creep" routine into a panorama of depravity. At 18 1/2 min, the boys take it into Caution #2 and jam it for a few minutes, then Pig does his usual Caution thing -- @4:40 he quickly sings the first verse of "Who Do You Love?" -- then brings it way down at the end and lets the boys glide back into Good Lovin -- and Pig's still going! wow.  Titanic version here, one for the books.

4/16/72 Aarhus, Other One #3

Truckin' rocks out on that E7 shuffle for a long while before circling back to the last verse at 10:30, then off into another unique jam.  The box set tracks this separately, right as they slip out of the Truckin' groove: the whole jam that follows basically threads in and out of the Other One, playing cat & mouse without ever really committing to it.  Phil sounds like he's more active and assertive than in some prior jams, soloing more in spots where Jerry makes room for him to lead.  @6 min (in this 'jam' track) they find their way into a moodier kind of groove with an early version of Phil's "jazz theme" (aka the proto-Stronger Than Dirt riff).  A really magical quiet space begins around 8-9 min, no drums, just Phil and Jerry at first, then with Keith -- really sparse and beautiful to begin, slowly building in intensity, never boiling over, but very engaging and cool music.  Jerry eventually threads it back to the Other One and Bob and Billy join back in.  They jam the Other One groove for a few minutes, nothing too heavy (thanks Light Into Ashes for pointing out that Jerry actually vanishes for a few minutes here), then veer into Me & My Uncle, then back for the first verse.  If you're not counting the jam after Truckin, this Other One is actually very short.  As they wind down, Phil briefly takes the lead, but they segue into Not Fade Away instead.

There are some really beautiful moments in here, but the effect of them dancing around the Other One for so long seems like the wind is gone from the sails once they finally get into it for real.  To me this jam felt a little less focused and intense than the preceding ones, but beautiful nevertheless.

bonus track: Good Lovin #4 has another long "4 day creep" rap with many of the same motifs.  @13 min Pig eases off and Garcia steps forward.  The jam that follows seems like it's stretching in new directions -- nothing wild or very long, but now it seems like they have their eye on more expansive horizons, with Phil seeming particularly interested in doing something new; just before 15 min he even gets stuck on a Footprints-ish figure (see 4/11) that he repeats a few times.  Pig returns soon after, but instead of just moving back into the Good Lovin riff they find a different jam under his final rap before moving back into the song proper.  20 min total.  Progress!
 


4/17/72 Copenhagen, Dark Star #3

Maybe it's because this jam starts a 3rd set after two sets that had been filmed (setlist), but this one doesn't take flight like the last two Dark Stars did, although Jerry is is supremely calm melodic form and in no rush whatsoever.  This follows the same "classic" form of a 1970 Dark Star, although perhaps "patient" is the magic word for this one.  Everything before the verse is one relaxed glide down the usual stream of Dark Star waters; Billy pulls the rug out at one point and they spin in a little spacey eddy for a bit, but find their way back for the verse (I do like what Jerry does in the transition).  Afterwards they drift into spacier realms, think about coming back, then get spacey for real, but never get into the thorns: it's like a slow-motion Tiger that never peaks.  This ends and Jerry folksily strums them into a new jam that sounds like to me a lot like a mellow Playin' jam ca 1973, nothing wild, just cruising over the hills.  Nice!  But this Dark Star is nothing life-changing like the last two.  After a dramatic ending, it sounds almost like Jerry's thinking Sing Me Back Home, but Bobby goes for Sugar Mags again.  

Caution #3 is quite the contrast: this is one flying every which way, balls out with no net, frenetic and even messy, but oh so glorious.  Pigpen's rap is pretty strong and consistent, punctuated by periodic shorter instrumental interludes.  Not much to say: they just freakin' go for it (and spoiler: Pigpen's back gets soaking wet).  Garcia plays some messy slide in here.  @18:20 Phil brings them back into Caution itself and they go broke in the final few minutes, then collapse into near silence (no 1969 style Feedback, sadly) as the two keyboards very quietly noodle for a minute (just for the record, that was a 23 1/2 min Caution).  Then Jerry goes for broke and pushes into Johnny B. Goode, the only one of the tour (and not played since 12/5/71), and oh man, they sound done.  But what the hell!  That was fun.

Europe 72: the jams, pt 1

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Europe '72 tour, I am relistening to every one of the big jams -- if only I were committed enough to do the whole shows -- and I am jotting down impressions and notes as I go.  These aren't exact anniversary celebrations (and yes, I am getting caught up with my posts now), but oh well.  I am posting these grouped by location.  I am also interested in what happens in Good Lovin' over the course of this tour, so those will get some attention as well.  The evolution of Playing in the Band is, however, not under consideration at this time.  I am listening to the recordings from the official box set, so all times an tracking comes from there, but many of these times are approximate.  

Lots and lots and lots has been written about this tour, which produced some the band's (and, therefore, also humanity's) finest music.  The Every Dark Star blog is currently in the middle of this tour as well, and the On the Bus blog also did an extensive overview 10 years ago (!).  [edit: Light Into Ashes has also reposted LMA poster Cliff Hucker's extensive tour overview at Grateful Dead Guide] Heck, someone wrote a whole book about 5/8/77, so where's the Europe '72 book?  I, however, will for once ignore most of the context in favor of just the music.  Pardon my scribblings.

borrowed from Grateful Seconds

 

PART 1: ENGLAND (THE BEGINNING)

4/7/72 London, Other One #1

The Truckin' jam after the final verse (they were still bringing it back around to the "finally going home" verse, which they soon stopped doing) is really just a short Other One prelude.  After Drums, the Other One begins with what strikes me a fairly textbook jam with the usual 1971-72 motions, and I didn't really engage until @4:30 they drift into the quieter spacey-but-melodic jam that was also a fairly regular move during this period -- but I always find these to be strikingly beautiful improvisations.  After 6 min I hear Bobby thinking about the WRS Prelude, if not exactly teasing it.  They circle back to the Other One groove, Bob sings the first verse, then they keep jamming along the same lines until Jerry hits a nice peak @10ish min.  Yeah!  After 12 min, they tilt towards chaos for real, never quite reaching Tiger levels of intensity, but getting close. Jerry scales the side of the skyscraper while Phil and Keith are the metallic winds whipping at his back. But then they veer into an upbeat "country-ish" jam (Phil teases Caution!), consider the Other One again, splash around for a bit, then make a nice smooth move into El Paso, before slamming back into the Other One groove again (fun fact: only 4 Other Ones from this tour do the "Other One>cowboy song>Other One" thing). After 3ish minutes of this O1 jam, they left-turn into an unusual little bonus jam (this doesn't sound familiar? but I quite likes it), then back to the Other One for the last two minutes, the second verse, and off into a majestic Wharf Rat. Then someone comes onstage and tells everyone to sit in their seats.

This first night is understandably not as well-regarded as most of the rest of the tour, but I was quite pleased by this jam.

4/8/72 London, Dark Star #1

This Dark Star is an all-timer, some of the most unfettered joyous music they ever played.  To be frank, I was feeling the acid that they were surely also all feeling (hey, it's my blog, man): the way this one swells and veers between jump-out-of-your-skin buzzy joy, contemplative quiet spaces, and dark spookiness... but I digress.  I have particularly strong feelings about the jam that builds up out of the quiet around 6 min and soars along until they downshift into the DS groove and 1st verse @10:40ish.  After some gentle space, they seem to find their way back to the same jam (after 17 min), which is pretty amazing.  This wave crests, Pigpen appears and doodles on organ around 20:25ish, and they rev up the engine again, then take the off ramp into something gentle and prettier.  Then their collective trip all takes a turn for the worse and they slide down into a darker Tiger space.  Gaaah.  The sun comes back out at 28 min and they set their sights on Sugar Magnolia, but take another detour for a few minutes on the way, and folks, it doesn't get much more life-affirming than this.  They are just celebrating the fact of it all.  I balk at calling it a Mind Left Body Jam, although there are spots where I suppose that's what it is; it feels like an extended Sugar Magnolia transition to me, but that doesn't get at the beauty of it.

After Sugar Mags, Caution #1 is one big roll down the hill... I love this, but I don't have a lot to say about why.  There's not as much verbal dexterity from Mr. Pen in this one, but everyone else compensates -- Jerry in particular seems like he's still working through the buzzy high of the preceding half hour and is swooping over all this rather playing through it.  Pigpen plays a little harp around 12:20, and then they take a surprise left turn at 14:30 or so into a gentler space that I imagine could have been a doorway back into Dark Star (dream on, buddy).  Phil cues them back into Caution and they end without any further vocals.  But I am satisfied!

bonus track: Good Lovin #1 jams a bit at first, then Pig does his thing for about 2 1/2 min before handing it back to Garcia and then takes it back for a little bit before the reprise.  The band sounds like they're closely following him, not too sure if he's in it in for the long haul or not.  The energy is there, the exploratory spirit is not.  About 10 min total.


4/11/72 Newcastle, Other One #2

Truckin's jam veers a bit towards the Other One, but @9:45 they pull over into a little oasis and ponder what to do. There's kind of a Dark Starry flavor for a bit, then @13:45 they find a new direction and set off into a loose but unique jam. Phil seems antsy to get to the Other One, but no one else is with him; things get messier, then @15:40 Phil drops a bassline that sounds like Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" (though I doubt that's what he's actually playing) and this re-centers everyone. This feels exploratory in the sense of them being genuinely unsure of what's going to happen, and though they're not as "together" as they were in the preceding two nights' jams, this seems to be new turf.  I also believe that this is the first time Truckin' went into a unique jam that wasn't obviously connected to either Truckin' or the Other One (thanks Light Into Ashes for the correction: 3/26/72)

After Drums, they rock the Other One groove for a bit (Pig is on organ for much of this part), digressing for a bit but never going too far off course. First verse is @7:20, then they splash around afterwards and find their way back into the Other One rhythm but Jerry pulls them into a more major-sounding mode. This is great! @11:30 a wonderful Feelin' Groovy jam takes shape and rolls for about 3 1/2 min. Everyone backs off as Jerry leads them into a sparse, gentle space, very peaceful at first, but eventually the knives start coming out and they rile themselves to a Tiger-ish peak; they ease back, then lean back in; @22 min Phil nudges them into a Caution-ish kind of groove (and Pig reappears) but in less than a minute they're back in the Other One for the second verse and a proper ending. Jerry tentatively starts Comes a Time as they're recalibrating themselves and before everyone else is ready. Does he start this in the wrong key? Sounds like they get it all together by the 2nd verse, at any rate. Ha!

bonus track: Good Lovin' #2's jam starts off with Pigpen rapping for a few minutes, establishing the "4 day creep" routine that he expands on considerably in the coming versions. The second half of this is a Jerry-led jam which reaches a nice climax at 11 min.  15 min total, 5 min longer than the last one.

 

Stay tuned for Denmark (and my getting back on schedule)