Hello Readers!

This post is going to be a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster of my reflections about the first seven(!!) shows in the ’72 European tour. I’ve done a pretty terrible job sticking with the original plan to both listen to and write a reflection on each concert on the days they were recorded. Remember folks, if you plan to do something, you better try your hardest not to follow through with it! I really failed to take into account just how much of a challenge it would be to fit in about 3 1/2 – 4 hours of listening and writing time while also managing to attend classes, track & field practices and finish homework. I decided that stressing myself out to complete the listening ‘requirements’ I’d set would ultimately be detrimental to my appreciation of the music. I’d rather take my time to make sure I’m actually enjoying the music. That kind of defeats the purpose of recreating the tour in an entirely historically accurate manner, but I figure that’s less important than having fun with this project…

And now to the music! This is much more of a reflection on the music and the band than a ‘review’ of these shows. If you want that though, here’s my assessment: they’re all good performances, check ’em out!

The Dead started off with three fantastic shows in England. From the first notes of “Greatest Story Ever Told” on April 7th, the Dead were on top of their game. This first show also contains a fantastic suite of Truckin’ -> The Other One -> El Paso -> The Other One -> Wharf Rat.

One of my favorite things about the Dead is how they can flow seamlessly from their famed psychedelic monstrosities like The Other One into renditions of folk/ country tunes such as El Paso. Their covers of songs such as El Paso, Me & My Uncle various other ‘cowboy’ tunes rarely (if ever) come off as forced or ironic. They play these songs with a genuine love for the music. Maybe these songs come off as a little ‘uncool’ today, and my best guess is that they come off as a little uncool or odd (at least initially) to audiences back in the day. The Dead don’t seem to mind. The Grateful Dead pull off a masterful balance of sincerity without pretentiousness or over-seriousness. In my opinion, that skill is somewhat under appreciated in today’s musical environment that often places undue value semi-ironic posturing and post-modern detachment.

Moving on, something I’ve really enjoyed about this project so far is the chance to listen to tunes I wouldn’t normally listen to. Rather than cherry picking sections of shows or individual tunes that I already love, I’ve been listening to plenty of tracks I either didn’t give enough of a chance the first time round or had forgotten how much I enjoyed. This applies to Pigpen’s tunes in particular. My opinions of Pigpen shifted over the years. As a little kid, I loved Pigpen’s tunes; as a twelve year old (with limited access to Grateful Dead recordings), Pigpen’s rendition of Big Boss Man from the Skull & Roses album was a favorite of mine. Eventually I gravitated away from Pigpen’s songs and forgot how much he could really add to the band. As I listen to songs like Mr. Charlie and Chinatown Shuffle, I find myself developing a much greater appreciation of Pigpen’s contributions and talents.

Another highlight from this stretch of performances is the Dark Star on 4/14 in Copenhagen. This one really balances a variety of moods in a way that keeps it fascinating the entire way through. Personally, I think 4/14’s Dark Star-> Sugar Magnolia is significantly better than the version from 4/17. I remember reading a while ago that 4/17 is generally considered the weakest (relative to the extremely high quality of the rest) show on the tour, so perhaps that clouded my perceptions of the performances from that night a bit. 4/14 gives us a taste of the wide range of musical possibilities the Dead explored with Dark Star in 1972.

As I listen to these shows, I wonder why I love the Grateful Dead as much as I do, and why I hold them in such high regard relative to other ‘comparable’ bands. (Though the existence of such ‘comparable’ bands is somewhat dubious) Hearing some of the Dead’s slower tunes on this tour, especially Wharf Rat, Loser and Brokedown Palace illuminated one possible explanation. The Dead sound so relaxed, so fluid and natural in their performances. Songs that don’t move quickly, or don’t have much harmonic motion are hard to pull off in a manner that doesn’t sound overly stiff, plodding or boring. The band knows when to give songs room to breathe. And a big hand to Bobby Weir in particular! His detailed playing adds a ton of dimension to songs like Loser that have a bit of a slow, tricky groove to capture at times. And kudos to Bill Kreutzman (and Mickey, though he was on his ‘sabbatical’ during this period)! The drums provide the perfect loose rhythmic base for the music. The Dead didn’t just write good songs, that’s only half the battle! They knew how to arrange their good songs in order to communicate just how good they were.

And now for a few YouTube links to some neat performances:

Mr. Charlie 4/11/72: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTy3BZuHXxg

Dire Wolf 4/16/72: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfoaXMJgUO8

Loser 4/7/72: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DSot_cMHvE