Formal Analysis

The recording opens with noise from the audience as the band walks out on stage to start their final set. The piano player noodles a little and the drums are checked for levels. Then the bass improvises a melodic line to which the audience responds, “Dark Star! Dark Star!” Here it comes:

Section One: Jam
The first section of the piece is Improvisatory based on a simple chord progression I ii/VII IV I (ii/VII refers to the fact that they alternate between playing it as a ii and VII). It is a 2 bar pattern in 4/4 time signature. The first bar is all a I chord. The second bar starts with the ii/VII. The IV chord comes on the “and” of 2 and sustains through the rest of the bar.

Building an on Idea:
Building on the basis of this progression, the guitar and bass begin to improvise. With the support of the other guitar (Wier) and piano (Godchaux) as a melodic foundation, the Garcia plays fast 16th note mixolydian patterns. The bass also plays melody lines, but usually keeps the movement between whole notes and eighth notes. The bass’s rhythm provides contrast to the guitar’s leads by syncopating the downbeats, oftentimes coming in on 2 instead of one. This section continues for 7 minutes, slowly building momentum and volume.

Section Two: Verse
At 7 minutes into the piece, the instruments end their improvisations and the rhythm guitar falls into original chord progression consistently. Once the rhythm guitar repeats this pattern 8 times, the vocals enter over the progression. The melody is doubled by the lead guitar. I will refer to the

I VII IV I VII IV I VII IV I
Dark Star Crashes, pouring it’s light in the ashes
v
Reason tatters, the forces tear loose from the axis.
I VII IV I VII IV I VII IV I VII IV
Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion.
I VII IV III IV V IV III IV v
Shall we go, you and I while we can
I III IV V IV III IV v
Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?

lyrics by Robert Hunter

Section Three: Jam on...
Coming out the words “ nightfall of diamonds” and the minor five chord, another Jam ensues, over the same progression as the opening. During this section, polyrhythms are incorporated by the lead instruments (guitar and bass) to displace the beat, which leads to the eventual transition to the next song.

At 10 minutes into the piece, the major one chord modulates to a minor one through a melodic line hinted at in the lead guitar and bass; the rest of the band follows suit a couple measures later. They then suddenly land on a minor V chord (10:45) and speed up the tempo and modulate time signatures to 6/8 to prepare themselves for the next song “The Other One”. The tempo modulation comes from a signal from the lead guitar, the drums remain in 4/4 for 4 measures after the guitar shifts and then they follow after the other melodic instruments have locked in with the lead.

Recording Techniques:
The performance was originally presented as a TV and radio simulcast. The performance was mixed live first on stage by the musicians (they were using a musician-mixed PA system called “The Wall of Sound”) and then leveled out backstage, presumably by their sound man Dan Healy. For this particular recording, the analog tape of the multi-track recording was salvaged, digitized and mixed and produced by David Lemieux and Jeffery Norman for its HDCD release in 2003.