In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Europe '72 tour, I am relistening to every one of the big jams -- if only I were committed enough to do the whole shows -- and I am jotting down impressions and notes as I go. These aren't exact anniversary celebrations (and yes, I am getting caught up with my posts now), but oh well. I am posting these grouped by location. I am also interested in what happens in Good Lovin' over the course of this tour, so those will get some attention as well. The evolution of Playing in the Band is, however, not under consideration at this time. I am listening to the recordings from the official box set, so all times an tracking comes from there, but many of these times are approximate.
Lots and lots and lots has been written about this tour, which produced some the band's (and, therefore, also humanity's) finest music. The Every Dark Star blog is currently in the middle of this tour as well, and the On the Bus blog also did an extensive overview 10 years ago (!). [edit: Light Into Ashes has also reposted LMA poster Cliff Hucker's extensive tour overview at Grateful Dead Guide] Heck, someone wrote a whole book about 5/8/77, so where's the Europe '72 book? I, however, will for once ignore most of the context in favor of just the music. Pardon my scribblings.
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| borrowed from Grateful Seconds |
PART 1: ENGLAND (THE BEGINNING)
4/7/72 London, Other One #1
The Truckin' jam after the final verse (they were still bringing it back around to the "finally going home" verse, which they soon stopped doing) is really just a short Other One prelude. After Drums, the Other One begins with what strikes me a fairly textbook jam with the usual 1971-72 motions, and I didn't really engage until @4:30 they drift into the quieter spacey-but-melodic jam that was also a fairly regular move during this period -- but I always find these to be strikingly beautiful improvisations. After 6 min I hear Bobby thinking about the WRS Prelude, if not exactly teasing it. They circle back to the Other One groove, Bob sings the first verse, then they keep jamming along the same lines until Jerry hits a nice peak @10ish min. Yeah! After 12 min, they tilt towards chaos for real, never quite reaching Tiger levels of intensity, but getting close. Jerry scales the side of the skyscraper while Phil and Keith are the metallic winds whipping at his back. But then they veer into an upbeat "country-ish" jam (Phil teases Caution!), consider the Other One again, splash around for a bit, then make a nice smooth move into El Paso, before slamming back into the Other One groove again (fun fact: only 4 Other Ones from this tour do the "Other One>cowboy song>Other One" thing). After 3ish minutes of this O1 jam, they left-turn into an unusual little bonus jam (this doesn't sound familiar? but I quite likes it), then back to the Other One for the last two minutes, the second verse, and off into a majestic Wharf Rat. Then someone comes onstage and tells everyone to sit in their seats.
This first night is understandably not as well-regarded as most of the rest of the tour, but I was quite pleased by this jam.
4/8/72 London, Dark Star #1
This Dark Star is an all-timer, some of the most unfettered joyous music they ever played. To be frank, I was feeling the acid that they were surely also all feeling (hey, it's my blog, man): the way this one swells and veers between jump-out-of-your-skin buzzy joy, contemplative quiet spaces, and dark spookiness... but I digress. I have particularly strong feelings about the jam that builds up out of the quiet around 6 min and soars along until they downshift into the DS groove and 1st verse @10:40ish. After some gentle space, they seem to find their way back to the same jam (after 17 min), which is pretty amazing. This wave crests, Pigpen appears and doodles on organ around 20:25ish, and they rev up the engine again, then take the off ramp into something gentle and prettier. Then their collective trip all takes a turn for the worse and they slide down into a darker Tiger space. Gaaah. The sun comes back out at 28 min and they set their sights on Sugar Magnolia, but take another detour for a few minutes on the way, and folks, it doesn't get much more life-affirming than this. They are just celebrating the fact of it all. I balk at calling it a Mind Left Body Jam, although there are spots where I suppose that's what it is; it feels like an extended Sugar Magnolia transition to me, but that doesn't get at the beauty of it.
After Sugar Mags, Caution #1 is one big roll down the hill... I love this, but I don't have a lot to say about why. There's not as much verbal dexterity from Mr. Pen in this one, but everyone else compensates -- Jerry in particular seems like he's still working through the buzzy high of the preceding half hour and is swooping over all this rather playing through it. Pigpen plays a little harp around 12:20, and then they take a surprise left turn at 14:30 or so into a gentler space that I imagine could have been a doorway back into Dark Star (dream on, buddy). Phil cues them back into Caution and they end without any further vocals. But I am satisfied!
bonus track: Good Lovin #1 jams a bit at first, then Pig does his thing for about 2 1/2 min before handing it back to Garcia and then takes it back for a little bit before the reprise. The band sounds like they're closely following him, not too sure if he's in it in for the long haul or not. The energy is there, the exploratory spirit is not. About 10 min total.
4/11/72 Newcastle, Other One #2
Truckin's jam veers a bit towards the Other One, but @9:45 they pull over into a little oasis and ponder what to do. There's kind of a Dark Starry flavor for a bit, then @13:45 they find a new direction and set off into a loose but unique jam. Phil seems antsy to get to the Other One, but no one else is with him; things get messier, then @15:40 Phil drops a bassline that sounds like Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" (though I doubt that's what he's actually playing) and this re-centers everyone. This feels exploratory in the sense of them being genuinely unsure of what's going to happen, and though they're not as "together" as they were in the preceding two nights' jams, this seems to be new turf. I also believe that this is the first time Truckin' went into a unique jam that wasn't obviously connected to either Truckin' or the Other One (thanks Light Into Ashes for the correction: 3/26/72)
After Drums, they rock the Other One groove for a bit (Pig is on organ for much of this part), digressing for a bit but never going too far off course. First verse is @7:20, then they splash around afterwards and find their way back into the Other One rhythm but Jerry pulls them into a more major-sounding mode. This is great! @11:30 a wonderful Feelin' Groovy jam takes shape and rolls for about 3 1/2 min. Everyone backs off as Jerry leads them into a sparse, gentle space, very peaceful at first, but eventually the knives start coming out and they rile themselves to a Tiger-ish peak; they ease back, then lean back in; @22 min Phil nudges them into a Caution-ish kind of groove (and Pig reappears) but in less than a minute they're back in the Other One for the second verse and a proper ending. Jerry tentatively starts Comes a Time as they're recalibrating themselves and before everyone else is ready. Does he start this in the wrong key? Sounds like they get it all together by the 2nd verse, at any rate. Ha!
bonus track: Good Lovin' #2's jam starts off with Pigpen rapping for a few minutes, establishing the "4 day creep" routine that he expands on considerably in the coming versions. The second half of this is a Jerry-led jam which reaches a nice climax at 11 min. 15 min total, 5 min longer than the last one.
Stay tuned for Denmark (and my getting back on schedule)
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