Dark Star (song)

For other songs named "Dark Star", see Dark Star.
"Dark Star"
Single by Grateful Dead
B-side"Born Cross-Eyed"
ReleasedApril 1968
Recorded1968
Genre
Length2:44
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Grateful Dead
Robert Hunter
Producer(s)Grateful Dead
David Hassinger
Grateful Dead singles chronology
"The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)/Cream Puff War"
(1967) 		"Dark Star"
(1968) 		"Dupree's Diamond Blues/Cosmic Charlie"
(1969)

"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead on Warner Bros. Records in 1968. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia;[2] however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir.[3][4] "Dark Star" was an early Grateful Dead classic, which the group often used as a vehicle for extended jam sessions during live performances. One such performance, lasting 23 minutes, was included on the Dead's breakthrough 1969 album Live/Dead and is the best-known version of the song. "Dark Star" is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and was ranked at number 57 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

  1. ^ ""Dark Star", both in its title and in its structure (designed to incorporate improvisational exploration), is the perfect example of the kind of "space music" that the Dead are famous for. Oswald's titular pun "Grayfolded" adds the concept of folding to the idea of space, and rightly so when considering the way he uses sampling to fold the Dead's musical evolution in on itself." – Islands of Order, Part 2, by Randolph Jordan, in Offscreen Journal Archived September 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, edited by Donato Totaro, Ph.D, film studies lecturer at Concordia University since 1990.
  2. ^ Lesh, Phil (2005). Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-00998-9.
  3. ^ Dodd, David (2003). "The Annotated "Dark Star"". The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  4. ^ Allan, Alex. "Dark Star". Grateful Dead Lyric and Song Finder. Whitegum. Retrieved 2007-05-19.