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| 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.
