Europe '72 is a 1972 live triple album of performances by the Grateful Dead, recorded during their tour of Western Europe in early 1972.
History
This was the third live double or triple album in the Dead's past five releases, revealing how the group's reputation rested on their live performances. Indeed, the liner notes simply stated: "There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert." The album contained considerable new material in addition to versions of tracks found on previous studio albums.
Despite the band being out of the country, Europe '72 showcased the Dead's mixture of American bluegrass, folk, and country influences, and provided the culmination to the band's early 1970s sound. Archetypal American images abounded on "Jack Straw", while "Cumberland Blues" and "Tennessee Jed" were firmly rooted in their regional feeling. "Truckin'", which had recently become the band's first hit song, catalogued its own troubled-but-resilient pathway through American life. The Dead's start-stop-restart segue of "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider" also linked their psychedelic past into a more traditional context. Reviews specially praised the track "(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew", a ten-minute rendition of the melancholy folk standard that features guitar crescendoes from Jerry Garcia.
Europe '72's packaging was designed by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse under their Kelly/Mouse Studios name (they also did other Dead albums) and set against mostly white, empty foldouts. The front cover shows a large Truckin' boot crossing the Atlantic, while the back cover depicts the corresponding Truckin' fool smashing an ice cream cone against his forehead. (Some of the ice cream flying through the air spells out the word "LIVE".) The ice cream to the forehead happened while Kelley was in New Haven. Kelley, Bill Brockett, Franz Douskey and Bill Ness used to hang out together. One night, after buying ice cream at Clark's Dairy, on Whitney Avenue, Bill Brockett took his cone and smashed it on his forehead. The image stuck and Kelley used the image on the Live album.[citation needed] The inside cover credits are in a reserved type font, but do not forget to list "Family", including Mountain Girl. The included color booklet contains photos of European sites and the concerts, a quote from Revelations, and a long account of how the tour split into two factions, the Bozos and the Bolos, with references to St. Dilbert and the Feast of Fools.
The tour represented by this album was Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's last with the Dead before he died in 1973, and the last album he would feature on as an active member. It was the first album to feature Keith Godchaux and his wife Donna Jean Godchaux.
Originally a triple album on vinyl, Europe '72 was later reissued as a two-disc CD in 1995 and again in 2001 with bonus tracks as part of the band's box set, The Golden Road (1965–1973).
Europe '72 has been the Dead's best-selling live album, and one of their best-selling albums overall, achieving double platinum status in the U.S.
Although Europe '72 is billed as a live album, the songs featured on the release were subject to significant overdubs after the fact, specifically with respect to the lush harmony vocals. Unadulterated multitrack recordings of the performances used for the album are no longer available (because they were simply snipped from the multitrack concert tapes whereupon the band overdubbed directly onto them, destroying the originals) but, for example, the available two-track soundboard recording of the May 10, 1972 show indicates the band had not yet figured out the vocal arrangements for "He's Gone" that would later be overdubbed in the United States.
Track listing
Side One
- "Cumberland Blues" (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) - 5:47
- "He's Gone" (Garcia, Hunter) - 7:12
- "One More Saturday Night" (Weir) - 4:45
Side Two
- "Jack Straw" (Weir, Hunter) - 4:46
- "You Win Again" (Hank Williams) - 3:54
- "China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia, Hunter) - 5:33
- "I Know You Rider" (trad., arr. The Grateful Dead) - 4:55
Side Three
- "Brown-Eyed Woman" (Garcia, Hunter) - 4:55
- "It Hurts Me Too" (Elmore James) - 7:18
- "Ramble On Rose" (Garcia, Hunter) - 6:09
Side Four
- "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter) - 7:04
- "Mr. Charlie" (McKernan, Hunter) - 3:40
- "Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter) - 7:13
Side Five
- "Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) - 13:08
- "Epilogue" (The Grateful Dead) - 4:33
Side Six
- "Prelude" (The Grateful Dead) - 8:08
- "(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) - 10:35
Bonus tracks, 2001
14. "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)" (McKernan)
5. "Looks Like Rain" (Barlow, Weir) 6. "Good Lovin'" (Clark, Resnick)--> 7. "Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh) --> 8. "Who Do You Love" (Ellas McDaniel) --> 9. "Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh) --> 10. "Good Lovin'" (Clark, Resnick) 11. "The Yellow Dog Story" (Grateful Dead)
Recording dates
The actual dates for most of the tracks have been determined as follows: [1]
- "Cumberland Blues" – April 8, 1972 at Wembley Empire Pool, Wembley
- "Brown-Eyed Woman" – April 14, 1972 at Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen
- "Jack Straw", "China Cat Sunflower", "I Know You Rider" and "Tennessee Jed" – May 3, 1972 at Olympia Theatre, Paris
- "Sugar Magnolia" – May 4, 1972 at Olympia Theatre, Paris
- "He's Gone" – May 10, 1972 at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
- "Mr. Charlie" – May 23, 1972 at Lyceum Theatre, London, London
- "You Win Again" and "Hurts Me Too" – May 24, 1972 at Lyceum Theatre, London
- "Truckin'", "Epilogue", "Prelude", "Morning Dew", "One More Saturday Night", "Ramble on Rose" – May 26, 1972 at Lyceum Theatre, London
Personnel
Charts
Album – Billboard
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1973 |
Pop Albums |
12 |
Singles – Billboard
| Year |
Single |
Chart |
Position |
| 1973 |
"Sugar Magnolia" |
Pop Singles |
91 |
Certifications
References
