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Europe '72: Vol. 2

Did you feel left out by all the hoopla surrounding the Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings mega-box? Or maybe you thought: “Geez, I don’t really need 22 shows on 73 discs in a box the size of a small refrigerator. But I sure did love the original Europe ’72 album back in the day. And now that you mention it, Hundred Year Hall, Steppin’ Out and the Rockin’ the Rhein became favorites of mine, too! It would be kinda cool to hear more from that tour.”

Well, it’s your lucky day, pal. We’ve got you covered! Ready for release on September 20 is Europe ’72: Vol. 2, a two-CD set featuring 20 newly mixed, never-before-released gems from that epic and historic tour. As most of you know, engineer Jeffrey Norman spent many months mixing down the 16-track master tapes from every show on the tour for the humongo-box, while mastering ace David Glasser put the final polish and brought the sonics up to HDCD specs. You may have heard various circulating soundboard tapes from these shows through the years, but trust us, you haven’t heard the music sound quite like this before! Meanwhile Grateful Dead vaultmeister and box producer David Lemieux was tasked with coming up with a two-disc compilation that would work as a worthy successor to the classic original album, 39 years later!

And there was this guiding philosophy: There would be no songs that appeared on the original 3-LP set. Whoa! No “Truckin’”? “Morning Dew”? “China Cat”? Nope! But what’s here is magnificent, including a spectacular, nearly hour-long combo of “Dark Star” > “The Other One” from the famous Bickershaw Festival in Engalnd (5/7/72); a kickin’ version of “Not Fade Away” > “Goin’ Down the Road” > “Not Fade Away” from the super-charged first night of the tour in London (4/7); and the always-moving “Sing Me Back Home” from the last night of the tour (5/26). There’s also a wonderfully varied selection of other tunes from Copenhagen, Paris, Frankfurt and Luxembourg, including favorites such as “Bertha,” “Playing in the Band,” “Good Lovin’,” “Black-Throated Wind,” “Sugaree,” “Deal” and many more.

“One cool thing,” David Lemieux told us recently, “is that we ended up including several songs that the band had pulled from the master reels for the original Europe ’72, but which, for whatever reason, didn’t make the cut. That was really the impetus to get this thing rolling—that there was a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor that the band had slated for the original album at some point.” (You can find our entire interview with David here.)

Finally, we should note that the artwork on the album is by none other than Stanley Mouse who, along with his late partner Alton Kelley, created the memorable “Ice Cream Kid” and “Rainbow Foot” images for the original Europe ’72 package. Yep, it’s the return of the Kid! “Trouble comes in many flavors,” Mouse cryptically commented recently. “Ice Cream Kid is in hot water. The jury is out. His only defense is love.”

For ordering info and the complete track listings for Europe ’72: Vol. 2, click here.

(Still tantalized by the possibility of purchasing the music-only version of Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings? Click here for more info.)