Grateful Dead - Europe 72

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Music reviews of Europe 72

Music Review: A classic album, with 45 minutes bonus material
Rating: 4 Stars

Europe 72 was the document of Grateful Dead's first European tour. Grateful Dead brought their wives, friends, children and the whole crew with them, and the tour was a combination of a vacation and a tour. During two months, they played 22 shows in England, Denmark, West Germany, France, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. All the shows were recorded, and this CD is what came out of it. With this album, Grateful Dead wanted to present the rest of their new material that still hadn't been issued. The Dead were extremely creative between 1970 and 1972: The band released two studio albums in 1970, a double vinyl live album in 1971, plus both Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir had released their debut albums in 1972. Still, there were more songs left, and ready to be released. New songs, written by The Dead, included He's gone, One more Saturday night, Jack straw, Brown-eyed women, Ramble on rose, Mr. Charlie and Tenesse jed. This re-mastered CD also includes another two then-new songs; Looks like rain and the more obscure Pig Pen-number, commonly known as Two souls in communion (aka. The stranger). The song, a soul ballad, is one of the few songs Pig Pen wrote for The Dead, and this was actually the first official version of the song released. This song was only performed 12 times live, and of the three I've heard, this is the best version.

So, to the QUESTION: SHOULD I BUY THIS CD OR NOT?

Whether you're into Grateful Dead or you're not familiar with the band, my answer would be YES! Grateful Dead was, by 1972, on top of their career. They'd never been more popular, and due to an extreme creativity over the last 3-4 years, they had an enormous repertoire of songs to choose from. Musically, they now combined catchy blues, country, folk and rock 'n' roll songs with longer psychedelic and jazz-like jams. This was Pig Pen's last tour with The Dead, and backing singer Donna Godchaux' first. Moreover, the album was to be their last live album until 1981. Go figure!?

Highlights from this CD are definitely the version of the classic combination of China-cat sunflower and I know you rider, the version of Truckin' that leads into the jam (called Epilogue), Sugar Magnolia and Brown-eyed women. This re-mastered edition also gives you a real good version of Pig Pen's Two souls in communion. There are also fine versions of Hurts me too, Cumberland blues, Mr. Charlie, Morning dew and the bonus track, Looks like rain. If Pig Pen wasn't given a respectable place in the original edition, singing only on two numbers, this issue have tried to mend that, by putting almost half an hour of Pig Pen stuff at the end of the second CD, including live favourites like Good lovin' and Caution.

If you're not into Grateful Dead, you should by this CD, plus the new compilation, The Very Best of Grateful Dead. That will assure you a good start into the world of Grateful Dead. More stuff from the Europe 72 tour could be found on Stepping Out, England 72, a 4-CD from the Europe 72 Tour, released in 2002.

Description of Europe 72

Classic Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock