Freshman year in college, my buddies were off on a trip for the weekend. I'd come down with some killer flu-ish thing and had to opt out of the trip. I had been starting to get into the Dead at the time, Live/Dead and Skull and Roses were the two albums I had and the only two I'd heard. I liked them, but I was a long way from considering myself a Dead freak (old-school terminology) or even thinking of the Dead as one of my favorite bands. One of my departing friends dropped off his newly-acquired Europe '72 for me to convalesce with. This was a godsend, as it was a 3-album set, so I could stack it on the record changer and listen for a long time without having to move. I threw it on the record machine, plugged in my headphones, and collapsed into bed. Aside from bathroom trips and an ill-advised venture to the commons for food, I pretty much holed up in my room from Fri night to Sun morning, wracked with fever dreams and flipping the stack over whenever I could work up the energy. Somewhere along the 3rd or 4th listen to Jack Straw, everything became clear...you know, it clicked, I got it and everything else on the record and every other thing I'd heard from the GOGD. I was definitely in an altered state of mind from the fever (oddly, I thought, not unlike tripping), but the musical infusion seemed to trigger an epiphany that weekend. A tranformative time for sure....I probably haven't been quite right since -- but I sure wasn't wrong. I get amused when I read the compilation-vs-full show debates that rage with every RT release right now. Compilations were all I had to go by back then, and without this one...well, I sure as hell wouldn't typing away this long boring reverie about my favorite Grateful Dead recording...Europe '72.

if Ice Cream Kid was the inspiration for this: Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

in the family needed braces & they came up w/ the teeth.....LOVE THE ICE CREAM KID!!! haha Gypsy Cowgirl