Diamond Drilling as DNA Branching Through Eternal Forms of Being
The Grateful Dead on 10/11/1977
https://archive.org/details/gd77-10-11.sbd.cotsman.19290.sbeok.shnf
For all those who quest thru the eternal via plastic boxes holding magnetic spools, todays 1977 Grateful Dead set is a true keeper - not just one you jam and enjoy, but you mark the label to remember that this one stands above most in a sea of very tall sentient fossils.
Set 1 starts w Help on the Way -> Slipknot -> Franklins Tower, always an immediate plunge into a slightly darker Dead zone which of course reveals the sunniest Dead zone in Franklins Tower. Help starts very spectral, riding the late night smoke and dankness it was born in, evaporating it’s structure into the smoke, slowly filling the cracks in the air - Garcias first solo kinda serves as a recap/illustration of the light slowly spreading into the darkness and the band behind him illustrates the dark attempting to react as the light very slowly starts to permeate from the 2 AM comedown watching insects crawl zone. This is peak disco Dead w Bill and Mickey as the drivers, the rest of the band cooking the body of the meal they will serve us in set 2. Slipknot is the sound of the darkness frying, a last attempt to shine harder than the light; a raging yet contained flame inside of something much larger. Definite Mahavishnu without the superhero posturing zone here, no one is flexing, they’re too deep in something beyond themselves. Now the insects are starting to scatter and scurry, seemingly multiplying from one into thousands every time you focus. We get some hints of the W African/diamond miner zone that set 2 really bursts w here, a lot of slow sparkle inside the dust. Transfer to Franklins is not one of the best ones, but hey man we’re all still human here. The sun rises from the seemingly endless dark and haze, the insects are all gone and you see the clear sky and ground. By Garcias first solo the gel is thick but effervescent, you can feel the music between your skin and bones rolling away the dew. Some really good country disco jamming in this one, but not a top FT, can think of a few better in 77 alone. Always nice to hear the band find their feet and find each other’s place inside the singular body of sound they built. 77 Jack Straw has a nice disco thing going, w that boiling/frying Garcia dial in thing going in and out of the structure like lightning bolts.
Peggy-O has some nice reserved, fluffy unfurling going on, also has that “shoes in the washer” drum zone kicking hard, but still an uncanny yet comforting zone that only the Dead know how to pull off (maybe they didn’t even know and just were, idk). This is definitely a show where Jerry is LEADING the band, he’s in truly top form, and the rest of the band returns the zone by working overtime to melt and morph both before and after his cues, providing a liquid bed of fluff flux for Jerry to conjure from and inject lightning into and squeeze out of. El Paso is what it is, probably not really anyone’s favorite song, but a great vehicle for Jerry to explode atop of and the rest of the band to tighten up on. Sunrise idk, not a fan of that song (tho big DONNA FAN in general). Smoking DEAL brings some freight train energy. Mickeys snare still hitting right after Bills most of the time, but it’s 1977 and that’s expected. Donna’s vocals sound beautiful in the chorus, adding a deep layer of calm and comfort to the criminality on high display.
“Let It Grow” ends set 1 and it’s an immediate dimension shift. I’m not even sure how to describe this one, it’s definitely still fusion disco, but also kinda no/new wave music yet still very Coltrane, Garcias leads the sound of neurons both frying and connecting new. The middle of the jam has a nice kinda melodic build up thing going on where Jerry keeps hinting at auto accident zone, and the rest of the band builds behind him, yet it never bursts. The last half of the jam turns a corner and we are deep in some miasma. Drums go back and forth between an almost hardcore tempo and Elvin Jones tumbling. Jerry has the fuzz turned way up and pulls out some Black Sabbath style riffs. There is an intensity here which is hard to find in most music, very hard to find in any rock music that’s for sure….. lots of hard left hand turns from a seemingly together zone into full on center of the earth drill, only to snap back together in a split second to show you the endless flow you saw as chaotic is actually very controlled and eternal, we just tune ourselves kinda different. Bob sounds great, replaying the Sabbath hammer that Jerry pulled out earlier, but in more of a 1960s SF/Nuggets (yet a top an Impulse era Coltrane structure) style playing. Set 1 ends on ridiculously high note, for most bands you’d be very excited if this was where they ended and the night was over. With The Dead, you just watched a nice warm up, with its own very high peaks, for something much larger which will fully immerse you in the depths.
Set 2 starts w “Dancing In The Streets”, a staple of 1977 gigs and probably not many’s favorite. Tho some corn decorates the main idea of the song, it’s an insane vehicle for a disco Dead workout and Garcias endless dripping/rubber slap soloing which was really born and formed in 1977 (mu-tron zone). Two large aspect of Grateful Dead music are opening your mind to new possibilities and seeing light within the dark; both could be summarized as learning to embrace what initially puts you off. For those willing, this jam will endlessly offer these type of rewards - we get a lot of full on synapse frying (making room for instant generation of new synaptic super structures) via Jerry, while the rest of the band is like boiling plasma in a bouncing tea kettle. Phil and Bob both ooze and drive the jam, yet also offer pointillistic spotlighting on some sparkles. This is still really fried, maniacal, lysergic sound, the whole track sounding like all of eternity’s structures meting simultaneously, forming as one, and then remelting before your senses into new and ancient beings. Beyond all the intellectualization, if you were seeing this in person (and the doses were really starting to flow), your feet would be moving non stop leading to an endless smile smile smile you share w all faces present and ever had. “Dire Wolf” follows, which is a fave GD song of mine, but 77 versions usually a little choppy. Def not bad, just kinda stuck in a weird half disco/half shuffle zone w lots of shoes in the dryer. Jerry’s solo is both pineal and crown/Godhead referencing, but what really sticks out is how nice Donna Jean, Bob and Jerry sound singing “I beg of you, don’t murder me” together. True unity beyond any sense or selfhood.
The main course begins with Estimated Prophet (and just so you know, the menu ahead is Estimated-> Eyes -> Drums -> NFA -> Wharf -> Around), a song which truly illustrates the name Grateful Dead. From the first note we are immediately in depths which are not usually noticeable, the souls of the dead have been raised to dance with us in celebration, especially those who have dosed themselves beyond the death of the self and have realized our souls all share the same root in the same eternal (just like there is only One , God, there is only One Man, and we all inhabit his eternal being… but that’s for a future writing). All persons rejoice as one as all individuals are left behind in the sensory illusion, the sound here providing endless vistas of endless haze which unfold flat outside of time and space; dimensional mapping and grafting of eternity. Nothing similar to a “new form of knowledge or wisdom”, more like the understanding and remembering of eternal being which always has been, both for the self and the other.
The level of architectural blueprint being illustrated here is nothing one can put into words or language. Keith’s test tone Yamaha actually sounds great on this, giving a slightly fried late 70s haze/screen to what is a deep dive into the archeology of always; Phil laying down solar systems atop Bobs weird sky sea miasma negatives. And then next thing you know, you’ve woke up to find out that you are the Eyes of the World. The zone shifts from expansive to reflective, pure happiness and pure sadness drip in both high speed and slow motion simultaneously as Jerry immediately takes flight, the flow of being chained by every existing frequency. Just like the switch from Slip -> Franks, your eyes (all 3) have opened wide and you’re seeing that creation sunrise which never ends and always has been. Are you witnessing it or are you inside it being formed anew? The time mirror illuminates once again, tho this time more gentle than last; instead of dancing in the global graveyard w the Guild of All Souls, you are now the air inside of every tree, slowly watching them all grow outside of the clock, seeing every branch and connection as one you’ve always taken part in with every breath you’ve ever taken and ever will.
The jam here is an endless flow, kinda just tapped in and turned on. Watching footage of the Grateful Dead, it’s easy to notice how the whole band barely moves, all tuned together to a larger download from way beyond their stage. You can hear that well here, it sounds as if they all have shut their minds off and are just pure conduits for frequency and electricity; taking the memories, illusions, dreams and fears of the crowd into a stream beyond conceptualization. Feeding off this and both feeding it back gently.
We segue into Drums and the drive kinda slows on the surface, but there is still a throbbing depth beneath the decorum being laid. Very nice tunneling interplay going on, spiraling structures erected only to cave in on themselves and re-erect/regenerate immediately. The whole time both drummers are hinting at the NFA beat, finally settling on it a good 4 minutes in. And now we are truly truly deep in the diamond mine - Bob drops over the top first w some very choppy waves/slabs. Phil, Jerry and Keith slowly follow, and out of nowhere we’re in a kinda Beefheart “Clear Spot”/“Doc at the Radar Station” meets no wave but in mid 70s Ghana zone. This jam is easily the highlight of the set. Smoke, steam, popping oil and dripping, runny oily ooze all illustrate this bed as the jam begins to cook - Garcias smoky oily lead rising above about 2 minutes in. This is really weird music yet still tied to the true blues or Bo Diddley - it’s still nothing but a primal grunt despite all the diamond decorum. The drums both drive the grunt and sound like they’re eating themselves, the whole jam, and ready to fall apart at any second, yet the drive never stops. The whole band drills at the mine, and Garcia slowly lets diamonds of different shapes, sizes and hues flow out from the drilling. The center of the earth is opened with an act of violence (or at least pushing), only to reveal endless flowing depths of beauty which both hold us up and envelop us always. We are back in an archeological survey of eternity here, only at a much faster and more rapid rate than prior; history in fast-forward. As the band builds the strange sub-disco country funk zone (just past the 8 minute mark), the fuzz on Jerry’s guitar intensifies and we find him do something abnormal. He finds a nice mode/lead he likes, playing around it for a minute before truly locking in, and then starts to hammer this same lead over and over, letting the structure behind him breathe deeply and expand. Bob mirrors immediately under him w some nice fuzz bricks, Jerry refusing to stop the 6 note circle he has built as a cell. Repetition is not something the Dead were known for, but the rare times they lock into a true repetitive groove, there is always a level of excellence rarely heard in sound. The Mu-tron is stepped on right before the 10 minute mark, and Garcia is now improvising within his mode, illustrating with bendy slabs of wet rubber slaps both inside and outside of the track.
There is a slight heavy metal/Black Sabbath aspect going on here, fuzzed out rapid paced yet zoned blues playing. The concept of “Not Fade Away” is both being built and conceptualized in front of us and for us - built through being and conceptualize via immersion, a true prosumption loop inside of endless mirrors. This is some cutting edge/beyond sound which is being reached thru a deep respect for the eternal form (here being the blues, and to a lesser extent rock and roll) with no worry about how the ego would play into this - there are still aspects of the person at work here, and even the individual, but it’s all in service to something beyond. There is a super quick “Goin Down The Road” tease but the band decides to drop the zone deep into Wharf Rat. Very quickly, the tension/boiling/popping/drilling of NFA melts into the slow and lazy river which many Dead songs inhabit. A top spins at high speed, and you are looking at the bottom of it in slow motion. There are both worlds on the bottom of this top and spilling out from it; diamonds, wood, water, light, wind, even some lingering yet dwindling fire. You can let go and ride the time waves endlessly, flipping and bouncing in every direction while staying comforted and still. You can float forever on this grid and many other grids, all it takes is the acknowledgment of the end, and being Grateful in your death as true birth/beginning.
Not much more I can say using language about this set, the Wharf Rat has some deeply inspired playing with a nice balance of both floating and direct drilling. Wharf Rat serves as a kinda slow drip back to earth, where we fully wake back up to as they let us know “we never stopped rockin’” and we go Around and Around. The band may fool you in the way they channel the beyond, but they are not Gods themselves, they are mere human conduits (really any Chuck Berry cover they do as an encore has this purpose - “there is an old cabin made of earth and wood” in Johnny B Goode, reminding you of the alchemy of being we often take for granted/given, after deep space and time travel). Around and Around always serves as both a nice recap and constant tie to eternity - what a crazy sound. And they never stop rocking even when the moon and the sound go down.