50 Years Later: Revisiting Grateful Dead’s Iconic ‘Europe ’72’

Half a century after its original release, the Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 (released 11/5/72) remains a seminal inclusion in its discography. The nearly two hours of live recordings accurately capture the iconic band at a crucial juncture of its career, well into one of, if not the most, significant transitional phase of its thirty-year history. 

That is, the ensemble began to emphasize the structure of its musicianship to correlate with that of the plethora of original material now at its disposal. In that respect, if no other, it makes perfect sense that the original release serves as a combination gateway/benchmark for the Grateful Dead fanbase at large. 

This is despite the fact that as subsequent collections of such recordings were issued, it’s become common knowledge that the content was accentuated with additional vocal tracks as well as guitar and piano. In addition, in order to present polished excerpts from the tour, almost all of the stage banter and crowd reactions were edited out at the tops and tails of songs. 

 To some extent, even Europe ‘72 Volume 2, compiled by chief archivist David Lemieux coincidental with the release of Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings, is also a live/studio hybrid. But then, such an approach was hardly an anomaly at the time: Merl Saunders overdubbed some keyboards on the previous concert collection, Grateful Dead aka ‘Skull & Roses’ (originally introduced as ‘Skull Fuck” to label execs). 

And the fact is, the bedrock performances only required some accent, not reconstruction. For instance, the sweetening on the vocals for “I Know You Rider” reflects an attention to detail indicative of the precision upon which the Grateful Dead were putting so much premium at this stage of their career. This careful orientation also applies to the rotation of songs in the setlist, sung in cyclical turns by Garcia (“He’s Gone,” “Ramble On Rose”), Weir (“Jack Straw,” “One More Saturday Night”), and Pigpen (“Mr. Charlie”). 

None of which altered the prevailing economy of the arrangements, but only highlighted the variety of song styles including blues icon Elmore James’ “It Hurts Me Too” and country hero Hank Williams’ “You Win Again. This alteration in direction did not preclude their distinctive style of improvisation either: the “Epilogue” to “Truckin’” leads seamlessly into the “Prelude” to “Morning Dew,” all of which, instrumentals and otherwise, come from the last show of the tour around the continent.

Issued as a standalone in 2022 after its inclusion in the massive box set, the release of Lyceum Theatre, London, England 5/26/72 coincided with that of a fiftieth anniversary two CD package of the original content, sans the bonus material included on the version within 2001’s twelve-CD box The Golden Road (1965–1973). 

While tightly-structured material dominated the triple album–originally conceived in part to fulfill their contract with Warner Bros. Records–the Dead were simply learning to pick their spots. As a result, despite the separation of the two in the setlist, “China Cat Sunflower” became of a piece with “Sugar Magnolia,” the ebullient likes of which was a romp all its own. The remastering and other technical enhancements further clarifies the collective confidence of a band fine-tuning itself in a now fully-established personnel lineup on a treasure trove of original material. 

Donna Jean Godchaux was in place to bolster the harmonies that were such an integral component of the material Garcia & Hunter were composing at the time like “Brown-Eyed Woman.” Meanwhile, the interplay is delicious between Jerry’s guitar and Keith Godchaux’s piano on “Cumberland Blues.” And as bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, along with ever-idiosyncratic rhythm guitarist Weir, reined in their propensity to stretch out, they only maximized the potency of their playing. Fortunately, recordists Betty Cantor, Bob Mathews, and others did right by them with their own astute technical skills,

While nothing quite compares with the triple-vinyl format sporting art designed by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse , its provocative graphics (plus the booklet of photos with the same white background) bring to mind Robert Hunter’s prospective studio sequel to Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty: Ramblin’ Rose would’ve consisted of a half-dozen tunes from Europe ‘72, plus “Wharf Rat” and “Bertha,” as well as other originals that eventually showed up on From The Mars Hotel. 

With a half-century perspective now, how fortunate is it that in this instance, the good ol’ Grateful Dead didn’t act upon their late lyricist’s creative thoughts?