Europe '72

Europe '72
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released	November 5, 1972 (1972-11-05)
Recorded	April–May 1972
Genre	Rock
Length	109:35
Label	Warner Bros. 3WX 2668
Grateful Dead chronology
Grateful Dead (1971)Grateful Dead1971 Europe '72 (1972) History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice) (1973)History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice)1973

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	B+
Rolling Stone	(favorable)

Europe '72 is a 1972 live triple album of performances by the Grateful Dead, recorded during their tour of Western Europe in early 1972. A second volume was released in 2011.

History

This was the third live multi-disk 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.

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 1990 and again in 2001 with bonus tracks as part of the band's box set, The Golden Road (1965–1973).

The album was well received critically. 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. A contemporary review in by Tom Dupree in Rolling Stone praised the sound fidelity and musicianship, especially Garcia's lead guitar playing. In 2015, the journal listed the album as number 19 in their top 50 live albums of all time.

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.

Europe '72: The Complete Recordings

Main article: Europe '72: The Complete Recordings

As a hedge against the costs of the nearly two-month trip, the Dead’s label, Warner Bros., paid for the band to travel with a 16-track recorder to capture the entire tour. In early 2011, dead.net announced that all 22 shows from the tour would be released under the name Europe '72: The Complete Recordings. Demand from fans was higher than expected, and the limited numbered box set of 7,200 copies sold out as a pre-order in less than four days. The first three thousand copies ordered were also given a custom personalization option. A music-only version without the limited box set accouterments was made available, though this was limited in release as well. The 73-CD box set shipped in September 2011.

Cover art and packaging

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 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 Revelation, 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.

On the cover of the 2003 CD re-release, the former back cover now becomes the front cover, and likewise the former front cover becomes the back.

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Cumberland Blues" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, and Phil Lesh)	5:47
2.	"He's Gone" (Garcia and Hunter)	7:12
3.	"One More Saturday Night" (Bob Weir)	4:45

Side two
No.	Title	Length
4.	"Jack Straw" (Hunter and Weir)	4:46
5.	"You Win Again" (Hank Williams)	3:54
6.	"China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia and Hunter)	5:33
7.	"I Know You Rider" (trad., arr. The Grateful Dead)	4:55

Side three
No.	Title	Length
8.	"Brown-Eyed Woman" (Garcia and Hunter)	4:55
9.	"Hurts Me Too" (Elmore James)	7:18
10.	"Ramble On Rose" (Garcia and Hunter)	6:09

Side four
No.	Title	Length
11.	"Sugar Magnolia" (Hunter and Weir)	7:04
12.	"Mr. Charlie" (Hunter and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan)	3:40
13.	"Tennessee Jed" (Garcia and Hunter)	7:13

Side five
No.	Title	Length
14.	"Truckin'" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh, and Weir)	13:08
15.	"Epilogue" (Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Bill Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, and Weir)	4:33

Side six
No.	Title	Length
16.	"Prelude" (Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, and Weir)	8:08
17.	"Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson and Tim Rose)	10:35

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Further information: The Golden Road (1965–1973)

Disc ten
No.	Title	Length
14.	"The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)" (McKernan)	6:50

Disc eleven
No.	Title	Length
5.	"Looks Like Rain" (John Perry Barlow and Weir)	7:42
6.	"Good Lovin'" (Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick)	18:30
7.	"Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann, and Lesh)	4:39
8.	"Who Do You Love" (Bo Diddley)	0:22
9.	"Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)"	1:43
10.	"Good Lovin'"	5:59
11.	"The Yellow Dog Story" (Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, and Weir)	3:09

Recording dates

The actual dates for most of the tracks have been determined as follows:

• "Cumberland Blues", "Looks Like Rain", and "The Yellow Dog Story" – April 8, 1972 at Wembley Empire Pool, Wembley
• "Brown-Eyed Women" and tracks 6–10 on disc 2 – April 14, 1972 at Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen
• "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)" – April 26, 1972 at Jahrhundert Halle, Frankfurt
• "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
• "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

The Grateful Dead

• Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
• Donna Jean Godchaux – backing vocals
• Keith Godchaux – piano
• Bill Kreutzmann – drums
• Phil Lesh – bass guitar, vocals
• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – organ, harmonica, vocals
• Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals

Charts

Album – Billboard

Year	Chart	Position
1973	Pop Albums	12

Singles – Billboard

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1973	"Sugar Magnolia"	Pop Singles	91

Certifications

The Recording Industry Association of America sales certifications for Europe '72 are:

Certification	Date
Gold	December 14, 1972
Platinum	August 24, 2001
Double Platinum	August 24, 2001