Grateful Dead

I still have your original write up as a file on an older computer. I also think One Man did some extensive work/documentation on E72 and other tours.

But all of this is heady stuff to me, just hard to keep up with this old brain...and I think I remember DHB's beer documentary.

Didn’t Deadhead brewer do a deep dive a couple years ago?
Or maybe I’m thinking of Sixtus?
I know DHB did listening with specially pared beers...

Sixtus - good post. I seem to have missed your posts on this year in the past - so apologies for that. You clearly have a lot to offer yourself in terms of write ups for 1972.

Just got my shipping notice, hopefully everyone else who pre-ordered will get their tracking # before the end of today. Thank you also to Sixtus for that wonderful E72 Dark Star write up. I hope everyone here has a fantastic day :) much love ✌️

I know I am not up to the task.. it took me a couple months to get through my first listen all those years ago. I think I'd still be on it if I took notes, rewinding.. taking copious notes, editing down the notes, reslistening then tossing my notes and starting over..

I do like this writeup from the Internet Archive on the topic. There is a write-up for each show that is pretty close to my impression. I believe it was done before the box came out, so some of the recordings used were not nearly so stellar. Some good light GD listening.

https://archive.org/post/304297/europe-72-notebook

Funny.. I took a brief pause from my 71 stream of consciousness yesterday and picked up Lille France. What a great little show.. A+ in my book. Phil's comment is just about perfect, "it felt like he was playing in the midst of a French impressionist painting"

I concur. if there is anyone 'round here who purports a vast knowledge of the Europe 72 jaunt, it's KeithFan. It's quite an endeavor, and I know a bit from experience, as I had done this for each of the Dark Stars several years back as I awaited Boxzilla. Likely many have seen this before, but in the spirit of being a team player, I offer an encore sharing of these efforts while we now await word from KF on his uptake for the balance of the tour:

Here goes....

4/8/1972 - Wembly Empire Pool, London - 32 mins; intense/fast paced first leg up til about 10 mins then returns to DS theme for 1st verse; spacey post-verse til ~17 min, then pace picks up for a few minutes, followed by a brief meltdown; additional spaciness around 24 mins followed by another full meltdown; interesting groove established around 28 min that has hints of Sugar Mag (into which it segues, flawlessly). No second verse.

4/14/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 29 mins; loose first 10 mins not overly spacey; gets spacey around 11 mins; interesting groove establishes around 16 min to head into first verse w/interesting beat; heads off into intense nearly 7-minute jam inclusive of a very tight and fast Feelin Groovy jam; final 3 minutes are a meltdown. No second verse.

4/17/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 31 mins; spacey opening to about 7:30 when first DS theme emerges leading to 1st verse at 9:45. Spacey post-2nd verse tries to take off but melts further around 19 min; returns to a partial groove around 24:30 and closes out with spaceyness in the last 2 mins. No second verse.

4/24/1972 - Rheinhalle, Dusseldorf, Germany - Split by Me & My Uncle; 26 mins 1st half, 14:30 second half. Spacey opening until about 8:45 where it coalesces and falls into first DS theme around 10:15 followed shortly by 1st verse with slow, sparse notes. Spacey feedback following verse until 15:45 and then picks up into an intense, fast paced jam for just under 2 minutes before it becomes dissonant again leading to major meltdown which eventually heads into Me & My Uncle with ease. Second half: spacey reintroduction persists until about 7 mins, where Keith leads-in with some piano phrasing and then the band follows into a tight fast paced jam where Jerry plays some lines back and forth as if in conversation with himself and then maintains an intense level effortlessly segueing into Wharf Rat. No second verse.

4/29/1972 - Musikhalle, Hamburg, Denmark - 30 mins; spacey opening for ~5 mins, then enters a groove and Phil hints at the Feeling Groovy jam until it finally is joined by Jerry a minute later until about 8:00, then the floor drops out into space. DS theme appears at 14 min which leads to first verse. Spacey post-verse noodling leads to major meltdown, settling in at 22 mins with a fat, fast-paced Keith-led groove. Final 4 mins are spacey & lead to major melt #2, dropping into Sugar Mag as DS finally melts away. No second verse.

5/4/1972 - Olympia Theatre, Paris - Split by drums; 19 mins 1st half; 17:34 2nd half. Spacey opening til about 6 mins when fast paced jam kicks in until 11:20, slowing down then resurrecting the DS theme into the first verse. 4 mins of space leads into drums. Second half post-drums is very spacey until 7 mins, then kicks into overdrive with a very high energy jam leading to a phenominal Feelin Groovy Jam for several minutes before settling into the second verse. DS dissipates into the Sugar Mag from E'72.

5/7/1972 - Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, UK - 19:49 mins; decent, coherent jamming for the first several minutes that congeals nicely around 8 minutes. Bottom falls out around 10 mins and leads to some light noodling, cymbal fills and space. DS theme emerges at 14:23 and heads into 1st verse. Space fills the air through the remainder of the song until it totally breaks down into drums. No second verse.

5/11/1972 - Rotterdam Civic Hall, Netherlands - Split by drums; 13:45 mins 1st half; 30:34 mins 2nd half; Opens with a light, airy jam that persists to congeal into a decent groove as it treads in and out of spacey phrasing. This settles into a mysterious sounding jam that grows with intensity without a return to the DS theme before dissolving into drums. Emerging from drums, Phil and Billy duel for 2 minutes before Jerry joins back in with some complimentary thoughts; the DS theme appears around 5 min followed by 1st verse. A few moments of spacey feedback give way to spacey noodling that devolves into a full blow chaotic meltdown, only to emerge around 19:30 into a very nice, fast paced groove that hints at Caution and PITB jams. This eventually dissolves and a light, sparse outro ends the song as it heads off into Sugar Mag. No second verse.

5/18/1972 - Kongressaal, Muenchen, Denmark - 28:20 mins; almost 2 mins of noodling before opening notes from Phil; a loose jam ensues around the DS theme for the next several minutes and then decays. At ~9 min an interesting jam emerges, which eventually settles back into the DS theme and 1st verse around 14:30. The remainder of this DS is borderline chaos as it treads in and out of varying degrees of a meltdown until it settles into Morning Dew. No second verse.

5/23/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 30 mins; Spacey opening minutes lead to tight fast paced jam commencing around 3:30 for two minutes and then it settles into another spacey jam digressing to almost…nothing. Billy and Phil then have a small duel until ~13:30 when the rest of the band fills back into a delicate groove which grows to into a jam reminiscent of the post-Truckin' foray from E'72 until about 17 mins, when they drop into the DS theme and 1st verse. Ensuing is additional delicate spaciness that transgresses into a frenzied meltdown madness, and eventually settles into Morning Dew. No second verse.

5/25/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 34 mins, out of Wharf Rat. Strong opening with a groove almost from the beginning, no noodling around here in the first 7 minutes. Then turns very spacey until 15 mins when DS theme appears, and heads off into 1st verse. Post-verse finds a Billy, Phil, and Keith duel for several minutes. At 21 mins, Phil institutes a mellow Feeling Groovy jam, soon joined by the rest of the band until ~25 mins. Final minutes are dominated by space and then a monumental meltdown before heading off into Sugar Mag. No second verse.
____________________________________________

Be Well People!
Sixtus

Keithfan seems like the man.

50 years ago today…………

April 29, 1971
Fillmore East, New York City, New York

Set 1: Truckin'-Bertha-It Hurts Me Too-Cumberland Blues>Me And My Uncle-Bird Song-Playing In The Band-Loser-Dark Hollow-Hard To Handle-Ripple-Me And Bobby McGee-Casey Jones

Set 2: Morning Dew-Minglewood Blues-Sugar Magnolia-Black Peter-Beat It On Down The Line-Second That Emotion-Alligator>drums>jam>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Cold Rain And Snow-China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider-Greatest Story Ever Told-Johnny B. Goode

Encore: Uncle John's Band-Midnight Hour-And We Bid You Goodnight

Don’t get me wrong, this is a very fine show, with more than its fair share of oddities and rarities. I enjoy the quirky goodness of any show that has a Dark Hollow and a Ripple, the Black Peter is wonderful, the Dew is powerful, and who doesn’t love an Alligator? And I sure do savor the CR&S coming out of GDTRFB, and the three song encore was the only time that happened all year.

All that being said, almost without fail, this show was rated the best show of 1971 in Deadbase polls, which I never understood. Solid show—absolutely. Great last Fillmore East show by the Dead---you bet. Even so, maybe a teeny tiny microscopic step down from the previous night……………

Rock on!!!

Doc
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning……

My vote would be Keith Fan. But it could also be a team effort. Anyway how about the liner notes to E72. Haven't they already been written up? teehee. H.A.D. waiting for this release. TMI?

P.S. I'm not a robot.

The first disk smokes, especially LIG. It's very structured like a studio album but in a good way. If that is the right word.