Grateful Dead

Europe ‘72: France supplementary notes

by Jesse Jarnow

When the Grateful Dead were in Paris, they received this beautiful telegram from a head named Mark Princi. Several years back, I spent a bit of time trying to unsuccessfully locate Mark. While assembling this episode, I tried again and was saddened to find an obituary for Mark, who passed away last year. Sounds like he would’ve been an appropriately colorful Deadcast guest.

Writer Jerry Hopkins met up with the band and filed an excellent story about the band’s Paris visit for Rolling Stone, “The Beautiful Dead Hit Europe.”

At L’Olympia, the band caught several performances that wound up on Europe ‘72, including “Tennessee Jed,” “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider,” “Jack Straw,” and “Sugar Magnolia.” Robert Hunter posted the original handwritten lyrics for “China Cat Sunflower” and “Jack Straw” on his website. Alex Allan has compared multiple drafts of “Jack Straw” and David Dodd’s annotation collects some thoughts from train-spotters on the accuracy of the Great Northern out of Cheyenne. The original transcription of “I Know You Rider,” as “Woman Blue,” can be found in John and Alan Lomax’s 1934 book, American Ballads & Folk Songs.

As always, incredible thanks to our friends who have provided auxiliary audio sources for the Deadcast, including David Gans and Blair Jackson. This Is All A Dream We Dreamed and Conversations With the Dead are available via David’s website. Rosie McGee’s Dancing With the Dead is available via her site as both an audiobook and righteous photo-laden edition.