Besides the first set which is stellar, I must concur that this is spectacular. Jerry's raw energy after the first verse is unsane. Then it just gets weirder. I wonder if 🐻 's🍌 contained the Ark shows. So worthy of upgrade. But, I will settle nonetheless.

This spring the band was basically on a non-stop tour since the first of the year. This show and the two others of this run and the one night at Clark University, in Worcester, were the only east coast dates before they hit the Chicago for two nights and then one night in Minneapolis before returning to the west coast.

Many may not know this but The Ark, which is still a club to this very day, is located on Lansdowne Street, which puts this club just on the other side of the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Believe it or not the Red Sox were hosting their bitter rivals, the New York Yankees, this day too. The Sox’s won that game 8-3 and were 8-5 so far that April back in 1969, so they were off to a strong start playing .600 ball.

The Dead played the Ark twice this year, six shows in total, and the second run would be a rare east coast New Year’s Eve show, so they always had an extraordinarily strong fan base in Boston; it being a major college town which made this a perfect relationship that lasted for the next 25 years.

They open the show with a nice tip of the hat to their first album, with “Sitting on Top of the World”, which is a fast short song and is played as such. Jerry throws down a nice Morning Dew, the band is still finding its groove, but obviously if they play Morning Dew for the second tune, the band is feeling it. BIODTL is much rawer in the early days and is a little rough around the edges but is always fun to hear.
Things really start to take off with Pig Pen putting out a nice and bluesy “School Girl”. Jerry comes back with another staples of 1969 “Doin’ That Rag” Jerry’s voice really was so sweet during the early days and he does a great job singing all the verses, which shift quite dramatically as the song progresses. This is the second song where the band starts to stretch it legs as Jerry starts playing the end jam after the final verse. This is a good example of how fun this song could be, Tom Constanten compliments the song perfectly with his organ, which is prominent in the mix.
Jerry continues to dominate this set with “Cryptical Envelopment” before it makes the traditional exodus into drumming before beginning “The Other One”, which may be the shortest they every played at 2:06, led by the monster on the bass Phil of Lesh. Bobby comes into the chorus with the vocals, it does not sound like a mistake but as another poster stated it was a massive tape gap and the missing material is lost forever. Then right back into “Cryptical”. Jerry and Phil lead it all the way and at the 2:00 mark this famous duo take the melody on a cool leisurely walk, given the subject matter of this song, before Jerry sings the final verse. Then at the 4:25 mark the reprise reaches its dramatic conclusion with Billy and Mickey laying down some serious drumming as this become the launch pad for a cool jam that lasts about four minutes, before Jerry makes an extraordinary and hauntingly transition in “Death Don’t Have Now Mercy”.

This is an amazing version with the rhythm section really backing up Jerry nicely as he methodically wails on his Les Paul. After he finishes his main solo, which is stunning, he gets a warm round of applause from those in attendance. Then he keeps rising the emotional ante by putting on a dramatic vocal plea for mercy and they end the first set with clearly the best song of the night…so far. All Jerry too. Phil announces that it is set back time, so something must have been up with Bobby.

Set two features some stage banter, and Bobby is at least speaking now, as they break out the acoustic guitars and they jump into strong rendition of “Dupree’s Diamon Blues” with more extraordinarily strong singing by Jerry. They completely stop and then start up “Mountains of the Moon” a few seconds later.
Again, led by Jerry, this is a tough song to sing as well and he really gives it his all and it is a beautiful version. If you ever want to wonder if Jerry lived a past life during the Renaissance Period, this song will pretty much validate that thought. Jerry solos on his acoustic guitar as well, which is nice, as he would often transition back to his electric before moving onto “Dark Star”, he eventually does that at the 6:20 mark.
It is a perfect transition into “Dark Star” with Bobby finally in the mix now. This DS stars off quite well, with no rush, and is played with textbook perfection, as they really take their time exploring the main motif. They arrive at the first verse at the 9:30 mark and after Jerry sing’s it they launch for deep space with Phil playing some strong chords, as Mickey hits his gong and then Jerry lays down that remarkable electrified riff that takes the song into the next dimension.

At the 17:00 marks the direction of the music takes a cool turn, compared to other version from this year. This builds for the next couple minutes with Phil’s playing quite exceptionally, countering Jerry’s every note. This continues as they continue to explore the outer rim. This version is more melodic and jazz inspired than spacey. At the 24-minute mark Jerry hints the “mirror shatter verse” but there is a bad tape malfunction and Jerry continues to build and build on that ending jam, and then the left channel goes out. Jerry finally sings the final verse at the 27:00-minute mark. This is an exceptionally long DS for this year as many averaged 18-19 minutes.

Then you get that joyous sense of anticipation as they begin the transition into St. Stephen. It is slightly slower temps than the “Live Dead” version, but the band is wicked tight, as we liked to say in Boston. The end jam is thrashing away like waves crash against the U.S.S. Constitution coming into Massachusetts Bay.
The band continues that “Live Dead” four song sonic excursion by boldly galloping into a an intense “The Eleven.” Yet another fine example of one of the most difficult songs this band would ever play live, and they nail it big time! The good ole Grateful Dead completely rages on this one!
Unfortunately, there is another tape malfunction right at the 10:30 mark so the final minutes of this amazing “Eleven” are lost but it picks up right at the beginning of “Lovelight” Pig is primed and ready to go and the band is completely dial in too. It is all business for the boys tonight and the sparks continue to fly big time. The thing that is amazing about Pig Pen was that he was barely 23 during this year and he sang like a man who lived 5o years. His phasing, that raspy voice and how he could work and take over a room was something that you only see once in a lifetime.
This “Lovelight” is stretched out and at the 17 minutes mark the band veer off into a full out “Caution” jam and then comes back to “Lovelight” at the 21-minute mark with Pig starting his rap once again and throwing down those cool lines. Someone then is on stage and is clapping which comes through quite clearly in the right channel, not sure who it was. An audience member, a backstage innie, or one of the band members? At the 24-minute mark the audience is totally in sync with Pig and the band, as they are all clapping in time as Pig prepares for the big finish.
Bobby finally shows up with Pig for the “Shine on me” chorus”. Bobby then starts singing “Keep on rolling home” which I think I have never heard before as the band backs Pig to an orgasmic peak….and then it is over.
Somebody broke a string on that one kids. No encore as the MC shares that the Dead are very tired and will be back tomorrow night. Overall, this is a historic concert that is exceptionally well played and features that good ole Grateful Dead at the peak of their 1969 powers. Granted Bobby only sings two songs the entire night, so if something knows the inside scoop on that one please share.

Happy trails!

Hi, I'm the Lee Revell who seeded this among other masters to etree nearly 20 years ago, when it was rare to have access to a lot of bandwidth, so old DAT-heads with extremely dank masters would seek you out.

Anyway... I don't think 4/21 and 4/23 hold a candle to this show. I believe it to be the best 1969 Dark Star and on the short list for best ever. What makes this recording unique from nearly the beginning (definitely one Schoolgirl gets going) is the way Mickey and Billy are mixed in the stereo field - listen to it with headphones, there's a snare on the left and one on the right and they're more locked in on this than anything I've heard from this era, the interplay between the drummers is what makes this show.

That being said, this suffers from three significant flaws that to me account for why it hasn't been officially released:

Minor: Tape hiss. This should be fixable with time and a modern DAW. I actually have remastered disk 2 using Cool Edit 2000's noise reduction filter and I believe it improved the sound, but it's not considered kosher to distrubute such things unless you're GDP so I didn't.

Moderate: Mic feedback. Especially early in the first set, the mics howl and screech with feedback to the point that Weir begs Bear for help. Used to be the case that action on a master recording couldn't be removed, but with the advent of visual waveform editing of the type that removed the "clicks of doom" from the 11/8/69 master thus allowing it to become DP 16, I think someone using the pen tool in Sound Forge could remove the worst of it. And there's only a few seconds of audio total that need this work, not a whole show.

Major: The brutal, jarring, atrocious cut in The Other One. I've been collecting Dead recordings for 25 years now and this is IMO the worst cut on any of them. 10 to 30 minutes of the best stuff they've ever done is missing here. Judging by how hot they were playing when the cut happens, and by the reaction of the audience when it reaches the quiet part after the cut, I belive that what's missing could have been as cosmic as the 5/2/70 version, the little of it we have certainly seems like it's the best 1969 version. I just don't see how this could be made releasable unless an alternate recording is found. Another reviewer mentioned being there for this show; maybe they could recommend another version that could be spliced in?

Awesome rendition of this one. Still hard to see how they can keep up with 11 beats per measure and keep it all straight.

I just got here. Did I miss anything?

This is my go to DS of '69. It is pretty like 5/15/70, 11/8/70, 9/27/72 and 2/26/73. Those are my faves. This one has the best intro.
The Eleven rips and the Pig windup is very good.
The Fillmore 2/27-3/2 and these shows at The Ark are most compelling.

I found this show because I have am in a kick where I needed a major dose of Mountains of the Moon. What a show! But, I am adding my two cents to comment on "koeselitz" post. I loved it. I may be older than you, but I humbly admit I am not wiser. In the years I have been reading these posts, I think you summed up why the Dead have been so important in all of our lives. Glad you are in the community

I also wish Pigpen was a little higher in the mix, but incredible show nonetheless!

So, so excellent to be able to enjoy these fabulous 3 nights at the Ark. Would love to read more posts from folks who were there. My first shows were in February 69. I LOVE 69 and 70 Dead!!!! Check out the show at Clark U from the night before the Ark stand.

More focused than the night before. pretty solid all the way through. "Dark Star" really takes you out there. A real nice "Sitting on top of the World" to open(sound improves after 1min.) I think is a really good show for 1969.

Mountains of the Moon...love it

Besides 2/27/69 (Live/Dead) This may be my favorite Dark Star of the year. I had not heard this show until now since it's overshadowed by the previous night, but if the rest of the show is anywhere near the quality of this 'Star then its a five for sure...

I worked at the Ark. I will never forget seeing the Dead there
magic!

... even though I'm 'so young.'

The night before I was born, Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hart & co. were inhabiting the space of the Seattle Center Coliseum in another epic show that included so many of my favorites - Sugaree, New Minglewood Blues, Playin', El Paso, S. Blue, Mexicali, and of course the always-magnificent Frank's Tower - as well as some rarer gems like Passenger and Don't Ease Me In. The band was awesome that night, full of that rhythmic power and perfect sync and stride that they so often hit during that period of the late '70s which I feel, perhaps with some bias, is their golden era. Of course I wasn't there yet; but it's a sign of this band's power that I feel as though the show that happened the night before I popped out into this world is a big part of the reason why I exist.

All this is ten years ahead of the moment we're looking at right here: the twenty-second of April, 1969. By now, you know that, far from being there, I wouldn't be *anywhere* for more than a good ten years. That's not why I love this show, why it means so very much to me, why it's part of me in a way that very, very little music is.

See, I grew up in a small town in Colorado - the sort of place that remembers, or at least remembered, the Dead and their mammoth influence, a place where aging hippies generally went to raise their kids; so this mythology was all around me. Even so my body rejected it, like a youngster's body generally rejects the things he's raised with; there weren't that many *certified* fans around anyhow. My thing, back then in the early '90s, was Phish. Heh. Until a grungy guy I met around the record store had a long conversation with me. He agreed that the boys from Vermont were good and all, but he got a faraway look in his eye when he told me that the Dead were 'trying to say something more spiritual, something that isn't in words.'

The next day he brought me three tapes. The other two were very good '73 and '74 shows which I remember fondly as being a great introduction to a very rocking and enjoyable band. However, this show, the show from the twenty-second of April, nineteen sixty-nine, was a revelation. I remember as though it were a moment ago huddling close to my little tape player all alone downstairs in my room, popping this tape in at the beginning of the second side (which for some reason happened to be cued up when I got it home) and hearing the haunting first notes of Mountains of the Moon, and then listening to the music give way to Dark Star. This music - it wasn't just from another generation, it was from another planet! I don't know why it made me shiver to think how *old* this tape had been - when you're fourteen years old, everything seems ancient and strange, but the thought that people had been guarding this recording, passing it from person to person, transferring it through technologies long dead that I didn't really understand so that the spirit could be kept alive and finally bestowed upon me, gave me a sacred initiation into eternal rites which purified me and made me a more complete human being. This was my thing, sitting in my room all alone; these guys, these crazy, thoughtful, rambling, ecstatic and soulful guys, separated from me by generations and by years and even by geography, understood how it felt to be me, and had something they could give me just because I happened to be human. Since those days, I've never been able to explain fully to people what that meant to me; it's so personal, and yet it's a membership in a family, a community that is built not on the apparent bonds of proximity but on invisible bonds of the spirit. I never saw the Grateful Dead live; but I *lived* the Grateful Dead live, and while I would give major parts of my body (an eyeball, for instance - I'm dead serious, I am) to have seen them play at any stage of their career, I know that even merely listening to their tapes I'm actually a part of something much larger than myself. That spiritual initiation into the rites of the sacred and divine groove is a comfort not only because such rites are rare in our jaded times, but also because that sense of belonging and of true reality is actually the center of human life.

This show is more to me than a concert, although that's really what it is in the world of simple reality. This show is a sacred object existing in the realm of the divine. I know that, for once in my life, I can say this and expect that somebody understands what I mean. Thank you, everyone who was there through the years keeping the flame alive: the band, but also all the people that came together and made this beautiful thing called The Grateful Dead possible. Otherwise, young people like me would have far less guidance, far less spirit, far less soul, and most of all far less of the touch of the rite of the sacred.

Hope this isn't too long. Had to get that out. This show really changed my life. Thank you so very deeply, archive.org, for giving me back this moment that meant so much to me.

`

~^|\_@|@_/|^~
~<->/<->\<->~

Super 69' Soundboard!...Beam me up Scotty!

Forty years ago today the GRATEFUL DEAD were in Boston at the Ark, where were you? I couldn't be there in 69, but I made it today....where were you???

I highly recommend all the Boston Ark Shows, April 21,22 & 23 1969.

I highly recommend adding this Scott Clugston transfer to your 1969 GRATEFUL DEAD collection. Scotty did it again, another "Audio Masterpiece".

"Classic 1969 Sound"

"Mountains of the Moon" starts acoustic then turns electric, and then...into " Dark Star" with all the right sounds in all the right places.

Yeah...check it out. This show is magical and mythical.

5 Stars for the mix, recording, performance and transfer.

The IA recommends users of Windows XP view this web-page with RealPlayer. RealPlayer is a free media player you can download at www.realplayer.com.

For easy streaming or downloading use RealPlayer. Click the VBR M3U link to open the songs in the Playlist. If your Playlist is not open, open it by clicking the Playlist icon at the lower right hand corner of RealPlayer. Once the songs are in the Playlist, double click the song to play it, then click the record button at the lower left hand corner of Realplayer to record it. When the red line reaches the other end click the stop button to download the song. Your song is in the RealPlayer Downloads folder. Repeat these steps for each song.

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Thanks for the LOVE from 1969.

PS: Get em' while you can, get em' while they're free, get em' now or you'll be sorry...the Man giveth and the Man taketh away...WTTW

Remember to click on the "DeadLists Project" link to get the poster for this show.

indeed, this dark star is excellent

This show has a good version of 'Death Dont Have no Mercy' that just crackles with energy and is one of my favorite version of this song. The rest of this show is pretty good too, despite being a little sloppy.

The SBD is still at gdlive.com for download. The sound is very good for 1969. Good show.

It's always a treat when the Dead segue "Mountains of the Moon" into "Dark Star." "Mountains" always sets a proper mood and keeps the tempo and feel into "Dark Star" cool, relaxed, and dignified.

Out of all the Dark Stars out there, this one is one of my favorites! Clocking out at over 30 minutes, get ready for it to blow your mind! Great setlist too...