That’s how my friend JL captioned her own HBD post on Instagram at the beginning of the month. With the header image here, she led off a series of pictures across her years. What a fn great sentiment. It is worth living. Every single gotdam day, even the sh!tty ones. Find beauty and inspiration where you can. Both are out there. Just pay attention.
That person is dear to me. I met her as a 17 y.o. h.s. senior, and grew to know her through college and after. Many moves, many memories, and more every year. She’s an amazing person, and an amazing artist across many disciplines. You can check out her current passion @homebody_ceramics on the ‘gram. This playlist is dedicated to her. She might even like most of it. (Yeah yeah. Sorry, kiddo. It’s way too long. Like way, like usu. Just click thru the annoying tracks. Those eight hours will fly, promise.)
On Friday, April 7, 1972, the Grateful Dead began a two-month sojourn across Western Europe with a concert at the Wembley Empire Pool in London, England.
That show is not our focus today. All ten shows from April ’72 are.
Welcome to part one of the Liner Notes celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the greatest tour by the greatest American band in rock history.
Since the beginning of 2022, ECM and I have been discussing how to commemorate Europe ’72. We settled on something low-key. Two posts: one for the April shows and one for the May shows. Each with a short travel log, pics of the venues and the band at the corresponding concerts, a couple of playlists, and links to the official release of every night.
The whole tour came out as a box set in 2011. The sound quality is nothing short of spectacular, thanks to the original efforts of Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor, who recorded every second for a planned live album, and the subsequent efforts David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman, who refreshed what Bob and Betty captured nearly 40 years later.
[LN CEO ECM and LN contributor BW, shortly after the former received the entire E’72 box set via snail mail. Thumbs up, fellas! (What’s in that XL mojo bag, btw, B?)]
Nicholas G. Meriwether recently wrote a piece for SFGate that provides a nice overview of the people and the places involved. And, starting today, the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, the band’s official podcast (available at all the usual outlets), will be “going on the whole tour” over the next two months. I enthusiastically recommend the ‘cast in general, and I’m looking forward to hear what the gang there will do with this epic continental trek. Judging from how well they commemorated the 50th bdays of Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, and Skull & Roses, I’m sure that they’ll provide invaluable content for the community.
With that preface (and that same goal), here’s our humble contribution to the existing and ever-growing oeuvre about Europe ’72…
In 1978, the Dead went to Egypt, and debriefed with a series of shows in San Fran now affectionately known as “From Egypt with Love.” (We covered that run in 2017.) In 1972, they sorta did the opposite. The band camped-out at the Academy of Music in NYC for seven shows over eight days in late March to practice new material. (We covered that run, highlighting 3/28/72, last year.) Then they got on planes and crossed the pond.
[Garcia, maybe making like an airplane, and Rock Scully at London’s Kensington Palace Hotel – 4/4/72.]
(Note: The links on the dates below will send you to the individual shows in their entireties on Spotify. The band photos are from the correct dates, as far as I know. Big-ups to Ed for tracking them down. I have not added credits for them. If any of the image originators would like me to do that, please let me know and I’ll try to do so.)
The first two concerts, 4/7/72 and 4/8/72, were at Wembley Empire Pool in London, England.
Three days later, on 4/11/72, they moved to the Northeast for a concert at Newcastle City Hall.
Another three days later, on 4/14/72, they crossed the North Sea for a concert at Tivolis Koncertsal in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The band stayed in the land of the Red and Whites for a concert at Aarhus University’s Stakladen on 4/16/72.
They returned to the Copenhagen venue for a concert the next night on 4/17/72.
The April leg of the tour ended with four shows in then-West Germany.
On 4/21/72, they went a bit south and played a short one-setter, which was recorded for tv, at the Beat Club in Bremen.
There’s video from that set online.
On 4/24/72, they went much farther southwest and played a concert at Rheinhalle in Dusseldorf.
All of that show was officially released, with some bonus material, as Rockin’ the Rhein, on 5/25/04. (Weird that there aren’t photos.)
On 4/26/72, they went farther southeast and played a concert at Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt. (We covered that show in 2020.)
Most of that show was officially released as Hundred Year Hall on 9/26/95 – the first archive show after Garcia’s death.
And on 4/29/72, they cruised way back north, up by Denmark, and played a concert at Musikalle in Hamburg.
That’s the travel log. And here’s a map. The April shows are connected by the purple arrows, duh.
Time for a playlist. Ed and I coaxed and cajoled (Sloan reference) our dear friend FenmanNC out of semi-retirement to curate it. Fen is a living legend, at least to me. I’ve told this story before, but here it is again. Back in 2004, he posted a link to a GD show from the Live Music Archive every day on the Phantasy Tour Phish message board. The phans who were also heads started paying attention, and started commenting. One of those people was yours truly – noob then, noob now. On one of Fen’s threads, I proposed a project where interested folks would work together to find the Top 100 shows that didn’t include the most famous 25. So assembled the Grateful Dead Clubhouse gang. Fen, ECM, OM, BW, a guy called DireWolf300, a guy called Brobacca, and various others. (Remember Duanebase, who hung with Charlie Miller? Remember mikenimzo?) The core of us, and anybody who would pop in and pop off, figured out some stuff.
Anyway, if the GDC were the A-Team, Fen would be Hannibal. (I’d be Face, fwiw.) We’re lucky to have his April highlights here. He and a friend do the tour every year, and their common sense and good taste will provide an invaluable guide for your listening. Oh, and thanks to Brian Levine for the playlist image of this European Vacation!
If you want to be more bayyy-sic (Anna Delvey reference), the Dead have officially released three overviews of the tour.
The original Europe ’72 triple-album, was released on 11/5/72. It was expanded in 2003 as part of The Golden Road box set. Widget…
Europe ’72 Volume 2 was released on 9/20/11. Widget…
And highlights from the England shows from both April and May were released as the Steppin’ Out box set on 7/9/02. Widget…
The next GDM will be another post of similar size/shape for the May shows.
Liner Notes 