Not too fast, and not too slow.

Swirling, roiling waves of rock and roll - Phil and Keith play off each other beautifully

Great early version - the line between 'Hey, did Bob fudge the lyrics?' or 'Hey, is Bob freestyling?" is an awfully thin one, tho

Pig continues his quest to get everyone on the planet laid, goes 2 for 2 in the Grateful Dead Dating Game.

Short, sweet, and soulful. This is sock-hop slow song happiness. Also 3 other words that start with S. (RT vol1, no3)

Lots of musical ground covered in 'just' 25 minutes here, but the Phil>Feeling Groovy is particularly tasty. If you're listening on archive.org, click the 'check for other copies' link - there's another source (just the Darkstar>Bobby McGee) with a little less hiss.

Certainly not the best soundboard of the era, but this thing is a MONSTER. Compounding the 'flatness' of the recording, there's a splice to a higher gen source for MAMU. That said, if you can tolerate listening to less than pristine recordings, this is one that's worth the effort. The 10 minutes before Other One 1st lyrics is just jaw dropping, nimble, punchy, beautiful. The segue into MAMU is slick, with Keith laying down some perfect saloon piano vibes throughout the tune. The second half of Other One starts with the sights set for deep space, but after a couple minutes, things veer back to the saloon - the best I can describe it is as a free-form Me And My Other Uncle One. Dear lord, please let there be a pre-FM version of this gathering dust in the vault, somebody's barn, anywhere.

Back in the caveman days of mail trading tapes, few things rivaled the anticipation of seeing that one whole side of a tape you just received was labeled "Dark Star" - you knew you and your headphones were in for a journey. Decades later, and I'm still absorbing this one.

beautiful, peaceful - great auditory landscaper for your mental zen garden.

Love this. You can hear a pretty immersing audience recording on archive.org, or the version on disc 2 of the Reckoning reissue - both have things going for them. (I still want to know what the lady next to the mic stepped on)