Europe '72


++++++++++ A triple live set featuring some of Pigpen's last days with the DeaD and introduced Keith and Donna Godchaux. It was the band's first tour through Europe and every concert was recorded by Alembic Sound. The NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE came along. Pigpen had lead vocals on IT HURTS ME TOO and MR. CHARLIE was his last new song. JACK STRAW is a country-favoured shaker that features Weir and Garcia splitting the lead vocals for the first time. HE'S GONE resembles a slowed-down shuffle and is about Mickey Hart's father who ran away with the Dead's money. BROWN EYED WOMAN combines the sound of a classic western saloon ballad and something of a ragtime feel about the lives and values of average Americans in earlier days. TENNESSEE JED was partly written by Robert Hunter after he saw a man walking in Barcelona, playing a jew-harp with a rhythm that became the song. It's about a drunk man and his dog. After he felt and broke his spine, the dog says to him: "Let's head back to Tennessee, Jed". MORNING DEW comes out as a dissonant jam and has a fine glistening bell-like rhythm guitar and an explosive crescendo, powered by Garcia and Lesh. TRUCKIN' was given a solid and inspired treatment with a lengthy instrumental coda that leads into a fiery jam. The album sold very well, becoming their second 'gold' album, but the DeaD weren't satisfied with the manufacturing and marketing by Warner Brothers. The album is also a good sampler of the Dead's various styles in one concert.


nr. 1 De DeaD zorgt niet voor explosieve momenten van genot en geluk, maar wel voor kippevel. Maar dan moet je blijkbaar tot het type van de stille genieter horen. OOR, JAN. 1973
nr. 2 Boy, did the DeaD make a lot of people happy when they put out a triple album! Most of it quite good,too. In addition to several new songs it contains killer versions of SUGAR MAGNOLIA, CHINA CAT, RIDER, TRUCKIN' and a definitive MORNING DEW. I could live without MR> CHARLIE, YOU WIN AGAIN (Hank Williams never sounded so limp), and RAMBLE ON ROSE, but the LP's high points are high indeed and the record stands as a good sampler of the various styles the DeaD taggle in concerts. BLAIR JACKSON
nr. 3 This live-triple is where everybody except certified Grateful Dead freaks gets off the bus, but I've still got my card and it ain't no joker. Sure they're beginning to sound very complacent-the whole "MORNING DEW" side could be scratched, and the long version of TRUCKIN' proves conclusively that the song doesn't truck much. But the best stuff here- the ensemble playing on SUGAR MAGNOLIA, the movement of CHINA CAT, Garcia's IT HURTS ME TOO solo, the lyric to RAMBLE ON ROSE- is a lot more than laid-back good. It's laid-back brilliant. Most of the rest, patchy though it may be, is laid-back good. Also I like the way they sing. (And write.) rating: B+ ROBERT CRISTGAU, ROCK ALBUMS OF THE 70'S, 1982
nr. 4 This album was their best yet and showcased some of the best vocals the band has ever managed-even if some were overdubbed. Their harmonies has never been sweeter than on tunes like RIDER (which melts magically out of a brilliant CHINA CAT) and SUGAR MAGNOLIA. Garcia said about playing in Europe:"We really played well. The tone, the sound of the band was terrific there. We played some wonderful rooms, some of the finest concert halls in Europe, so the ambient sound is really lovely, really nice." JAMIE JENSEN, BUILT TO LAST, 1990
nr. 5 LIVE DEAD and SKULL AND ROSES may be equally loved by yer Deadhead but EUROPE '72 -The Ice Cream Kid- shades them all, thanks to new Alembic production and the excitement of hearing the band taken away from their natural habitat for the first time. Pigpen was on his last legs here, which makes the album triple poignant. New members Keith and Donna get an airing and the rest of the Dead family are in fine fettle, with Weir and Garcia fully locked into their unique tandem approach. The JACK STRAW side is the DeaD at some kind of peak, and proof positive that no other band in the world ever have embraced the live format so often and so comfortably. Old hippies? Cobblers. MB, VOX, JANUARY 1992
nr. 6 The album start off in high gear with an inspired version of CUMBERLAND BLUES, followed by the only song taken from the Amsterdam concert, HE'S GONE. ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT is not a favourite of mine, but JACK STRAW, with the nice harmonies and dual singing, makes up for it. YOU WIN AGAIN is a nice, but forgettable country-tune. CHINA CAT>RIDER are inspired and the IT HURTS ME TOO and MORNING DEW are totally different from their earlier released versions. What the album really makes worthwhile having, is the third record. Beautiful renditions of TRUCKIN', PRELUDE and EPILOGUE and the definite version of MORNING DEW. * * * * ERIK SCHOTHANS, July 1992
nr. 7 It received very mixed reviews... The next natural step in the band's development - a live album structured in the same way as their concerts, perfectly balanced and containing a suitable mixture of songs old and new. It truthfully represents the Dead at that time they were over here, nothing more, nothing less, and as such I treasure it. An essential buy for all Deadheads. ANDY CHILDS, ZIG ZAG Magazine
nr. 8 The playing is, as ever, impeccable. The singing is, as usual, mighty frail. But the songs! This album was the high point of a songwriting binge between Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter that lasted for the most of the 70's. Unlike most pop acts, the Dead have never written much about romantic love. Their songs are more apt to be hard-luck stories -some mournful, some surprisingly funny- about desert rats, sharecroppers, footloose troubadours, gamblers and bums. MALCOLM JONES, NEWSWEEK, aug. 21, 1995
EUROPE '72

USA  1972  WARNER  BR.  3WX 2668
europe