The Grateful Dead – Europe '72 (3xLP, 50th Anniversary Edition)

Grateful Dead's Europe '72 captures the band's first tour outside North America, drawing from the spring 1972 run that took them across six European countries. Originally released in 1972, it became one of the Dead's best-selling albums and helped set the standard for how their live work could translate to record: expansive enough for the improvising, but focused enough to show why this lineup was hitting such a rich streak.

The album mixes then-new songs like Jack Straw, He's Gone and Tennessee Jed with road-tested favourites, while the triple-LP format leaves room for the band's longer instrumental flow. It's also a key snapshot of a changing Grateful Dead: Keith Godchaux had recently settled in on piano, Donna Jean Godchaux was appearing with the touring band for the first time, and these shows would be the last European tour with founding member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan.

This 50th anniversary edition returns to the original live set with newly restored audio and a fresh remaster, preserving the sense of a band still ascending after Workingman's Dead, American Beauty and Skull & Roses. For anyone curious about why Europe '72 remains such a central part of the Dead story, this is one of the clearest and most enjoyable ways in.

Features

• 3xLP, 180g, Black Vinyl, 50th Anniversary Edition
• Newly mastered by David Glasser
• Audio restored by Plangent Processes
• Remastered from the original analog tapes

Reviews

• The Grateful Dead commemorated their first extended European tour with an extravagant triple-LP set appropriately enough titled Europe '72. - AllMusic.com