Europe '72: The Complete Recordings - All The Music Edition
Europe '72:
The Complete Recordings -
All The Music Edition
Our Europe '72 boxed set is now officially sold out, with all 7,200 boxes now gone! We can't thank you enough for your support, for having faith in the project and taking the plunge to purchase this unprecedented release. Despite the fact that it's going to be a bit of a wait before it arrives on your door step, we are sure you'll be blown away with the results.
We are now offering the All-The-Music edition of Europe '72, which includes all of the music recorded on the tour, with each show in its own individual package, complete with its own liner notes by Dead scholars such as David Gans, Blair Jackson, Steve Silberman, Gary Lambert and others, as well as by attendees of some of the shows. You'll get 73 CDs and over 70 hours of prime Grateful Dead. You can purchase it now by clicking here.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC...
Because you dared dream this might happen one day… Because you went down to the Gypsy Woman and offered up your first-born to try to make it happen… Because there are enough passionate Dead Heads at Rhino/GD who thought it might be cool for this to happen… It’s happening! Coming in September is a gargantuan EUROPE ’72 MEGA-BOX SET containing ALL 22 SHOWS of what is arguably the greatest tour the Grateful Dead ever played, on a whopping and clearly cosmic 73 DISCS (over 70 hours of music!). Bet you didn’t see that comin’!
Really, at this point we probably don’t need to lay on too much hype about how wonderful the music is: Chances are, if you’re even considering buying a copy of this enormous box, you already know how amazing the Dead’s tour of Europe in April and May of 1972 was. To review briefly, though, the Dead’s first tour outside of North America took them to all sorts of historic and unusual venues in England, Denmark, West Germany, France, Holland and even tiny Luxembourg. Many members of the Dead “family” came along on what was really an extended working vacation that was designed to both expose the Dead to new audiences and also reward the band for their unlikely conquest of America during the preceding two years. As a hedge against the costs of the nearly two-month trip, the Dead’s label, Warner Bros., paid for the band to lug around a 16-track recorder to capture the entire tour… and we’re glad they did!
This was a band at the top of its game, still ascending in the wake of three straight hit albums — Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty and the live Grateful Dead (“Skull & Roses”). It had been a year since the lineup had gone to its single-drummer configuration, six months since Keith Godchaux had been broken in as the group’s exceptional pianist, and this marked the first tour to feature Donna Godchaux as a member of the touring band. There was a ton on new, unreleased material that came into the repertoire in the fall of ’71 (after “Skull & Roses” was out) and during the spring of ’72, including “Tennessee Jed,” “Jack Straw,” “Mexicali Blues,” “He’s Gone,” “Comes A Time,” “Ramble on Rose,” “One More Saturday Night,” “Black-Throated Wind,” “Looks Like Rain” and Pigpen’s “Chinatown Shuffle,” “The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)” and “Mr. Charlie.” (Sadly, this was Pigpen’s final tour.) All those future classics were interspersed with songs from the aforementioned “hit” albums—such as “Uncle John’s Band,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Casey Jones,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Bertha,” “Not Fade Away,” et al — and then were topped off by loads of big jamming numbers — the Europe ’72 tour produced spectacular versions of “Dark Star,” “The Other One” “Playing in the Band,” “Truckin’,” “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider,” “Good Lovin’,” “Lovelight” and even the early Pig chestnut “Caution.” And that’s leaving out a truckload of other tunes, too! There wasn’t a clunker show in the bunch, and many are acknowledged today as classics. No doubt you already have some favorites.
Through the years, there have been a few releases of material from the Europe tour—starting with the 3-album Europe ’72 which knocked our socks off in the fall of that year, and followed many years later by material from a pair of German shows and the fantastic 4-CD Stepping Out, culled from the group’s eight shows in England. Incredibly, though, only one full show from the tour has come out previously: the excellent 4/24 concert in Dusseldorf, Germany, released as Rockin’ the Rhein in 2004.
Until now, that is. Jeffrey Norman, who has been the primary mixer of Dead archival multi-track material for the past 15 years (Fillmore West ’69, Ladies and Gentlemen…, Rockin’ the Rhein, Nightfall of Diamonds, etc.) has spent many months toiling over the 16-track masters from the tour, and will continue working on the mixes through the Winter and Spring, employing the high-tech Plangent Processes transfer and restoration tools, trying to get every show to sound “just exactly perfect” (as Bob Weir says) for this release. You might think you’ve heard that intense “Dark Star” > “Sugar Mag” > “Caution” from Copenhagen, but I guarantee you’ve never heard it sound this alive! Mastering to HDCD specs is two-time Grammy-winning engineer David Glasser of Airshow Mastering. Needless to say, all the songs that turned up on previous Europe compilations will be appear in their proper show contexts, and in the case of songs from the Europe ’72 album, without overdubs that were added later (where possible).
So dig deep, raid the penny jar, take a weekend job at Jack-in-the-Box, beg your kindly ol’ grandma for some of your inheritance early… Yes, it’s an extravagance, but jeez, you (or your loved one) deserve it! This is way cool.
Previous E'72 Post & Comments Thread
i enjoy the track times being right on the back covers of each show
on some releases you have to dig into the booklet for track times, some dont have them printed anywhere physically
now one aspect i used to think was cool about "bootleg" tapes was that they were free from any type of corporate or record company packaging frills, yada yada yada, it was just the musc man, straight and pure
so now i think of having them so handy as sort of a guilty pleasure
The fan is the legendary "BERTHA" and it's also a windmill of Holland.
First song played in the 1st set , Bertha.
What's the significance of the cover of the 5/10/72 Amsterdam show? A fan with a screw loose? Hmm! What does the B stand for?
That is where I am now. Lille Fairgrounds, France, the Dead playing for free, really cold weather, Pigpen in a really thick coat, no Steinway for Keith, but they managed to get him a Blünther and the story says he was delighted. Is that the reason why he's notably louder in the mix when compared to the rest of the previous sets? You can notice lots of details and beautiful things he plays that were buried in the mix in previous concerts. But, alas, Bob's guitar is lower (at least during the first two songs). There is some inconsistency in the mixing department, I think. Don´t get me wrong, I think Mr.Norman does an amazing job (I still can´t believe the pristine sound of some of the Road Trips volumes, or the 2-track recording of the Winterland 1973 set he mastered), but maybe he was rushing against time in this opportunity. Mixing over 70 hours of music must be really hard, even when you have months to do it. Anyway, overall he did a fantastic show, I'm just saying it is a pity it wasn't done better, because I'm sure it could have been the case (I would have liked the box set's book to feature an article written about the mixing process. Thankfully, a nice interview was available here on the web).
Oddly enough, after listening to so many versions, I started to like two numbers I was not very fond of quite much: OMST and Sugar Magnolia (the rocker live version). The Dark Stars and Other Ones are generally mind-blowing (and some of then even much more than that). It is a huge amount of music, and there is a lot to be said. Got to keep listening, gotta go.
Newcastle ROCKS. Truckin' jam is balls to the wall and nice little unmarked Caution jam in The Other One.
First night Olympia ROCKS. I love Billy.
Well, finally listened to them all, here is what I requested from customer service:
4-7 and 4-8 all 6 discs replaced
5-4 disc 2 jack straw skips
5-11 disc 3 drums skips
5-24 disc 2 casey jones skips
5-25 disc 3 whart rat skips
also asked for replacement sleeves for the 4 that ripped when I looked at them wrong.
keeping my fingers crossed that they will replace these 10 discs and the 4 sleeves, will let you all know what customer service replies.
This, to me, is unacceptable and if there is no replacements, I will be returning this to Deadnet.
By the way, what does play, sounds great. :)
Should I get in contact as each defective disc comes up, or wait and try to get them all at once (but it may be another month or two before I can absorb the entire thing)?
I'd contact them now. By the time they get back to you, you will be done listening to the box and can give them a final tally. ;-)
(Still awaiting two personalization stickers myself. I'm pretty sure one person with a triple digit IQ could type them up and send all the missing ones out in half a day.)
What's the protocol for handling defective disc? One disc couldn't be read at all in my player, and I have at least 2 other disc that have some problems.
But, I'm nowhere near through the entire set!
Should I get in contact as each defective disc comes up, or wait and try to get them all at once (but it may be another month or two before I can absorb the entire thing)?
I'm still waiting for my numbered, personalized, early order trunk. Three weeks ago Cust.service said it was "in the packing stage" at the European distribution center - I presume it still is. I guess I shall have to pester them again.
Only bright spot: At least they don't seem to have started shipping the "All the Music" editions (OK, "bright" depends on your viewpoint), so there's still hope.
Location
I could not be more disappointed with GD merchandise. First they advertise limited edition for the Europe 72 tour. Like many of you, I had already in my collection high quality recordings of most of these shows. I dropped $450 to acquire the few shows I didn’t have. Lo and behold, GD Merch started offering single shows, and now they are offering the “All the Music” edition. (whatever that means – you don’t get all the crappy schwag they hype?). Speaking of which, the hardcover book that was sent in my box set couldn’t be more poorly manufactured. Both the front and back cover were warped. I emailed customer service with my specific concern and got a bunch of automated responses, the latest of which (three weeks ago) said that a replacement item was sent. I’ve received nothing.
GD Merch can’t be trusted – the “limited edition” has been subsequently released as single shows and as a box set without all the useless collateral material; all I really wanted was the music. I won’t be buying another single item from them due to Bait and Switch marketing tactics, poor product quality, and horrible customer service.