Garcia said “We were great for seconds on end.” I was lucky to see Jerry play for about 1,000,000 seconds exactly. Thanks for your 1,000,000 views here . Dave Davis wrote this blog for 500 posts and 5 years from 2015 to 2019. Contact me at twitter @gratefulseconds

Friday, February 3, 2017

Bird Song: Dark Star of the Mid-1980's




I first heard an acoustic Bird Song on December 31, 1980 and loved it.  I had heard wind of Bird Song during the Radio City run (not much info from the Warfield made it to Maine in the Fall of 1980 after the Lewiston show).  The Dead ramped up Bird Song when they added it to the electric sets.  I first electric one I saw was September 12, 1981 outdoors at the Greek in Berkeley.  It soon moved into outer space.

A: According to Zephyr on deadessays:

ZEPHYR -
I just listened to 1/10/79 and 7/13/84 back-to-back and 7/13/84 wins. I love this Dark Star. It comes at us from out of nowhere, it has really nice playing from Lesh, it features that scrumptious full-bodied '84 sound, and it provides living proof of the interconnectedness of Dark Star and Bird Song. I can't really explain the Dark Star/Bird Song thing, other than to say that each tune, to me, is like an alternate reality version of the other. Throughout '83 and '84 I kept hearing Dark Star in Bird Song, so it was great to hear a Dark Star that radiated a heavy Bird Song vibe.

http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2013/05/dark-star-1978-1984-roundtable.html

E: My three Bird Songs from 1983-1984 were:
\
May 13, 1983 Greek     Bird Song

July 15, 1984  Greek     Dancin' In the Streets>Bird Song

December 31, 1984  SF Civic   Jack Straw>Bird Song

B


Cliff Hucker Parent Piece
https://archive.org/post/328144/acoustic-bird-songs

A Light Into Ashes really well-researched piece (unlike mine :)

C:  The only one of its kind:

July 31, 1971   Yale   Dark Star>Bird Song


D:   From a great book on the Dead:
from The American Book of the Dead

E: Another interesting Bird Song tale:

 Via a few phone calls and distant, mutual admiration, Marsalis – a prolific and acclaimed jazzman from New Orleans with deep roots and experience in his city's R&B and funk – was invited by the Dead's resident jazz head, bassist Phil Lesh, to sit in with the band that night, initially for one tune late in the first set: "Bird Song,"







A rare mention of Bird Song in a show review in 1990 in Ohio


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