Dark Star
 

1 69-2-27 Fillmore West, San Francisco Live/Dead (23:07)*
2 69-2-07 Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh (14:07)**
3 69-4-13- Glenn Miller Ballroom, University of Colorado at Boulder (23:57)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2nhh1o
188 MB

*This file is accidentally mistagged as 8/22/69 Fillmore West, another great version I was originally planning to include. You may want to burn this track second to keep chronological order, or you my wish to just leave it off altogether if you have Live/Dead. I just had to include it since many regard it as the definitive version, and it's from the 1969 U.S. tour.
**The Velvet Underground opened this show; it's too bad Bear didn't record them.

1 69-5-07 Golden Gate Park Polo Field, San Francisco (22:17)
2 69-8-16 Woodstock Max Yasgur's Farm, Bethel, NY (19:09)*
3 69-11-02 Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco (30:06)**
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4hfgt6
234 MB

*A cut too long to possibly include on the Woodstock (the "Peace & Love" festival that they demanded to be paid in front for) soundtrack; maybe it was never even recorded for it. This is the Bear recording.
**This is one of the longest recorded versions. The very longest, however, is from 5/11/72 Rotterdam, NL, clocking in at 48:38.

"Dark Star" 1969 line-up: Jerry Garcia (guitar, lead vocal); Bob Weir (guitar, vocals); Phil Lesh (bass guitar, vocals); Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (organ, percussion); Tom Constanten (organ); Mickey Hart (drums); Bill Kreutzmann (drums).




While I fully realize that this one is an even worse idea that the Sister Ray compilation haha, I'm pressing forward anyhow. I've also kept the files at a fairly high bitrate (the vbr average is 440 kbps or so) and that also means longer download time. In addition, these sendspace links, as we all know, will not last very long.

Of course, one can always easily listen to live Grateful Dead online at www.archive.org which has this neat little flash player feature now that's an upgrade to their streaming.

All of these stellar performances from the U.S. Aoxomoxoa 1969 tour were expertly recorded by infamous chemist Owsley "Bear" Stanley utilizing a Ron Wickersham-designed mic splitter into the PA and the recording inputs of a mobile 16-track. These are among the very first concert recordings by anyone to ever be engineered thusly.
These selections were compiled so that I can put them on when I know I'm not going to have a lot of time (like during the day when I'm working) to be able to go to the stereo and pick out songs. I realize the same lengthy tune repeated over and over may be too boring for some. And it's also a tad odd to listen to "Dark Star" without it being followed by "St. Stephen">"William Tell">"The Eleven" as they usually, but not always, sequenced it live.
At any rate, years ago I also made a four-disc DIY Grateful Dead compilation that covers their entire career. I think the first Dead comp I ever made was for "Drums">"Space." I knew people with lots of bootleg cassettes and I made my own 90-min cassette from different versions.

"Dark Star" was included by Jim Henke, chief curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on the list of the 500 most influential songs in rock and roll.

At first I thought this was a thread about the film. Anyway, more wonderful stuff. This and the SR comp are exactly what my mood calls for at the moment. Now if you could do the same for 'Mother Sky' I'd hack the system to give you limitless reps.

As it stands:

You must spread...

Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" is probably gonna be next.

Probably a silly question, but are there many Can boots around? I've not really looked, but haven't noticed any being discussed.

Either way, Dazed is def. gonna work.

No, there's not too many that are easily gotten. Most are audience recordings and I've only seen few audience masters around (which I should have gotten). I only have two, but they are very good quality.

Canaxis 5 Studio Demo Tapes Technical Space Composer's Crew unreleased studio recordings
1968-1973 (outtakes from Damo sessions and Malcolm sessions)

8/25/73 Edinburgh, Scotland +
BBC Studios - London, England 1974

krautrock related is
Kraftwerk - 6/25/71 Gondel Kino Bremen, Germany pre-FM remaster (with Neu! members)
which was considered by many as one of the best if not the best recording shared last year at dime.

At some point, I suppose I'll get around to snooping and downloading the full concert from the link sarramkrop posted awhile back if I don't forget about it.

---

There's this one "Dazed & Confused" from late...where Jimmy Page plays nothing but effects and noise for a good fifteen minutes leading into the song. And there will be earlier versions too, of course...all from soundboards.

It was tough to decide on "Dazed" because I also would like to do a "No Quarter" and a "Stairway to Heaven" one.

this looks great, man
thanks

My Dead phase has long since passed, and much of what I saw in them is a mystery to me now, but I still love "Dark Star."

dark star crashes, pouring its light into ashes,
reason tatters, in formless reflections of matter
search light casting, for faults in the clouds of dillusion...

shall we go?
You and I while we can...
through...
the transitive nightfall of...
diamonds.....

those dorian leads can last hours if you let them... such simple elegance. dark star and fire on the mountain are the most finely crafted two-chord songs ever performed... vehicles for improv.

isn't it a shame that archive shut down the Soundboards?

I've a feeling there's a dearth of boots because there were about a million live shows released in the early 80s. I remember reading about Can semi-bootlegs in Record Collector many moons ago. Boy, am I glad I cancelled that subscription after 6 months.

very cool. but at first i thought this was going to be a tribute to the ultimate dark star from 8/27/72, whose 35th anniversary was yesterday ...

I have that 2-dvd set called "Sunshine Daydream" aka "The Field Trip." In '72, the Grateful Dead decided to help out a failing business, the Springfield Creamery, in Veneta, Oregon. Ken Kesey of the Merry Pranksters' brother Chuck worked there. I suppose they toyed with the idea at one time of officially releasing this 8/27/72 "field trip" benefit performance at the Olde Renaissance Fairgrounds as a feature film or something, because it's all pro-shot.

Here is the 8/27/72 "Dark Star" at youtube:
part 1
part 2
part 3

Here's the whole 3-set show in mp3 for streaming or download.
(the 8/27/72 show is not currently at archive.org)

What I think should be released at some point hopefully is a single dvd or perhaps a multiple-dvd boxed set with audio of nothing but "Dark Star" performances. The dvd video portion would just be trippy, kaleidoscopic effects and would have a couple of video performances of the song also.

I'm hoping that Blue Note will release all of the Mingus Sextet performances with Eric Dolphy from the 1964 European Tour. I have a little over half of them. This year, Cornell 1964 from the American portion of that tour was released.

didn't the Dead release a cd that was one long Dark Star that was edited together from several shows?

it's been at least 15 years since I've listened to them, but like Clone said I still love this one.

thanks much, I'll d/l when I get home.

I haven't heard of that, floatingslowly, but it gives me an idea for that fantasy dvd set I was just daydreaming about.

A feature of the dvd would be a random Dark Star which would just select different performances at random. An additional feature, I'll call it the "random mix", would work to form a special version.
Certain points of the audio versions would be marked electronically. When the listener selected "random mix", the dvd would compose a randomized performance from several combined performances. Tee Hee!

really? i wasnt aware someone took the time to convert it to dvd ... i have a vhs bootleg i received many, many, many years ago that is sitting collecting dust on a shelf. i would kill to see this on dvd ... ive heard one of the main reasons it was never released was because of the camera men's acid induced banter and lots of panning on the naked women in the crowd. but man oh man the performance is fuckin' stellar.

i dont know if the dead released it themselves, but it was john oswald of plunderphonics fame who put together a continous mixed dark star from several shows. i have never heard it but it does sound interesting ...

Yeah, the dvds were made from the vhs with some audio remastering.

by davmar77
(5.71 GB, there are still 6 seeders supposedly)

by (unknown)
(4.33 GB, there are still 2 seeders supposedly)

yeah, that's it!

I always thought it was an official release (mixed like Infrared Roses), but I guess not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayfolded

Come to think of it, I do remember hearing about this now that my memory has been jogged. The unique 2-disc set by John Oswald first saw the light of day in November '95 and had a tenth anniversary reissue too, which is probably when I read about it here at the board. "Plunderphonics" did ring a bell deep in the recesses, you understand.

Boy, this sure makes my share look like crap.

alt info link:
http://www.deaddisc.com/disc/Grayfolded.htm

bullshit!

obviously nobody got around to actually buying Grayfolded (I always meant to, but you know how it goes).

so, yeah....thanks again.