Grateful Dead

Just dug my vinyl out from a box under the stairs, and was reminded that the original (bought mine in '73!) front cover had the dude "upside down." Seems the internet isn't aware of that, as every image I see these days is like this. ;-)

Freshman year in college, my buddies were off on a trip for the weekend. I'd come down with some killer flu-ish thing and had to opt out of the trip. I had been starting to get into the Dead at the time, Live/Dead and Skull and Roses were the two albums I had and the only two I'd heard. I liked them, but I was a long way from considering myself a Dead freak (old-school terminology) or even thinking of the Dead as one of my favorite bands. One of my departing friends dropped off his newly-acquired Europe '72 for me to convalesce with. This was a godsend, as it was a 3-album set, so I could stack it on the record changer and listen for a long time without having to move. I threw it on the record machine, plugged in my headphones, and collapsed into bed. Aside from bathroom trips and an ill-advised venture to the commons for food, I pretty much holed up in my room from Fri night to Sun morning, wracked with fever dreams and flipping the stack over whenever I could work up the energy. Somewhere along the 3rd or 4th listen to Jack Straw, everything became clear...you know, it clicked, I got it and everything else on the record and every other thing I'd heard from the GOGD. I was definitely in an altered state of mind from the fever (oddly, I thought, not unlike tripping), but the musical infusion seemed to trigger an epiphany that weekend. A tranformative time for sure....I probably haven't been quite right since -- but I sure wasn't wrong. I get amused when I read the compilation-vs-full show debates that rage with every RT release right now. Compilations were all I had to go by back then, and without this one...well, I sure as hell wouldn't typing away this long boring reverie about my favorite Grateful Dead recording...Europe '72.

if Ice Cream Kid was the inspiration for this: Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.