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| 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.
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