[Originally Published: September 27, 2007] When San Francisco’s Grateful Dead first played the song Dark Star in 1967, it signaled a major change in the both the band’s songwriting and the way they approached improvisation. What had been a jug band two years earlier was now revolutionizing rock by combining aspects of psychedlia, jazz and classical music into their songs.

The Dead played 232 versions of Dark Star between 1967 to 1994, according to Deadbase, and each one sounds completely different from the others (there’s a snowflakes and fingerprints joke here, but we’re not quite that lame). Over the years we’ve listened to many of these 232 versions, and we’ve come up with a special B List of our 10 favorites, including a link to streams of each show.

1. 9/21/72 – Jerry and the boys do a nice job of keeping things interesting throughout 37 glorious minutes of improvisation

2. 2/15/73 – Great cohesive jamming throughout the entire song

3. 2/27/69 – This version of Dark Star, which was released as part of Live/Dead, was the first version I ever heard and helped me get into the music of Dead. It still stands up today as an incredible example of how ferociously the Dead used to jam in the early days. Read on for seven more classic Dark Stars…

4. 12/2/73 – Check out this Dark Star for an example of how quickly the Dead can move jams from jazzy to spacey to rockin’ thanks to the incredible drumming of Billy Kreutzmann. This jam from Boston’s Music Hall is great, and the segue into Morning Dew is absolutely mind blowing.

5. 11/11/73 – I know, I know I just can’t get enough of ’73 Dead. The band was firing on ALL cylinders on this night

6. 2/13/70 – One of the most triumphant versions of the tune ever laid down took place during the band’s 1970 run at the Fillmore East. A Deadbase readers poll in 1993 listed this version as the best Dark Star ever, and I’m not sure I could argue with that assessment

7. 8/27/72 – The Dead tear Dark Star a new asshole during mind melting 90 degree plus conditions at the Creamery in Springfield, OR. Many of the best Dark Stars are about group improvisation, but this one is all about Jerry letting it rip

8. 10/31/91 – A mature version of the classic tune with special guest Gary Duncan [Quicksilver Messenger Service] that gets ultra emotional when Ken Kesey comes out at the 7:30 mark to riff on death a few short days after Bill Graham passes away

9. 10/18/74 – A jazzy Dark Star that comes out of Phil Lesh and Ned Lagin’s crazy Seastone segment

10. 3/29/90 – On March 29th, 1990 Branford Marsalis joined the band at Nassau Coliseum for the beginning of what would be a beautiful friendship. Marsalis added beautiful horn lines which spiced up the tune

Obviously we haven’t heard ‘em all, so if you have a favorite, feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below..

Scott Bernstein

Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for Relix Magazine and curates YEMblog.com.

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