GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

Episode: Europe '72: Epilogue

Date: June 2, 2022
Hosts: Rich Mahan & Jesse Jarnow

Episode Overview

The final episode of Season Five of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast serves as a comprehensive epilogue to both the storied Europe ’72 tour and the season-long show-by-show podcast exploration. Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow trace the post-tour aftermath, the production of the legendary triple album Europe '72, its lasting impact on fans globally, and how the material has continued to resonate across the decades—both musically and culturally.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Tour’s Conclusion and Immediate Aftermath

• Departure from Europe

  • After wrapping the 22-show, two-month tour at London’s Lyceum on May 26, 1972, “pretty much everyone flew home the next day” ([04:14], Alan Trist).
  • Crew and family (all 43 ½ including a newborn) returned both exhausted yet deeply fulfilled ([04:35]).

• Pigpen’s Declining Health

  • Crew chief Sam Cutler describes the toll:

    “What can I say? It nearly killed me doing it all. I had a burst ulcer when I got home… The only person who came to see me in hospital was Pigpen.” ([05:15])

  • Pigpen was gravely ill and played his final show with the Dead at the Hollywood Bowl soon after, not singing and clearly "very ill" ([05:30]).

• Transitionary Moments

  • The Hollywood Bowl show served as a symbolic end to a chapter: the last for Pigpen and the start of a new era, as recalled by promoter Sepp Donahower ([06:06]).

• Lighting Crew’s Lasting Influence

  • Candace Brightman and Ben Haller discuss innovations in concert lighting, their evolving rig, and accidental encounters—such as running David Carradine off stage ([06:49], [07:38]).

Producing Europe '72: Tapes, Technology, and Overdubs

• Massive Undertaking

  • 73 hours of tape needed to be sorted, cataloged, and reviewed. Alan Trist, Dennis "Wiz" Leonard, Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor-Jackson, and Janet Furman heavily involved ([09:09], [09:18], [13:43]).
  • Sub reels culled the best takes for potential album inclusion ([10:07]).

• Garcia’s Hand in Selections

  • “As far as choosing the songs and what order they would appear, that was mainly up to Jerry.” ([20:06], Janet Furman)

• Vocal Overdubbing & Album’s Sonic Realism

  • Almost every vocal part was overdubbed for the album except Pigpen’s, due to his illness ([13:43], [14:57]).
  • Bob Matthews recreated the stage's spatial layout at Alembic to ensure vocal overdubs sounded as “live” as possible ([16:14]–[17:24]).

    “We duplicated the inter width of the stage… Each microphone that was on stage represented a source… So we got the correct phase sync as far as timing and sounding real rather than sounding overdubbed.” ([17:24], Bob Matthews)

• Notable Myths Debunked

  • Merl Saunders did not overdub organ parts on Europe ‘72 (unlike the prior 'Skull and Roses').

• Song Selection & Track Mysteries

  • “Morning Dew” from the Lyceum was added at the last minute, with Garcia excitedly confirming its place, describing it as a “technological equivalent of what the band embraced musically: it would just make itself” ([21:30], Wiz Leonard).

Lyrics, Liner Notes, and Iconography

• Liner Notes & St. Gilbert

  • Alan Trist and Willie Legate shaped the mysterious tone. Legate (“neither bozo nor bolo” but perhaps proto-Deadhead) contributed cryptic “wisdom,” including hypnocracy references ([24:01]–[25:42]).
  • Willie was a Bay Area fixture and caretaker of the Dead’s HQ, lending “weird elder” gravitas ([26:03], [26:24]).

• Album Cover & The Ice Cream Kid

  • Mouse and Kelly’s art (the trippy “Ice Cream Kid”) captured the humorous, irreverent, and psychedelic energy of the band. Underground culture expert Erik Davis connects the art’s “greasy kid stuff” vitality to the Dead’s musical and cultural ethos ([29:18]):

    “The goofiness, the idiocy, the kidness, these powerful icons that are as profane as they are sacred.” ([29:18], Erik Davis)

• Merchandising Innovation

  • Album included the first “order form” for official Dead t-shirts, launching Mouse and Kelly’s Monster Company and setting a precedent for rock merch ([32:50]).

Reception, Impact, and Global Spread

• Hunter’s Bittersweet Reflections

  • Lyricist Robert Hunter, feeling alienated both by the crew/band dynamic and song selection process, saw Europe ‘72 as the “third in a trilogy with Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty”—and lobbied for a standalone LP of new songs ([35:33], [36:23]):

    “This was a surprise to me … because there was an album of songs … a fine fat album of songs.” ([35:49], Hunter)

• Immediate and Lasting Fan Connections

  • Listeners share stories from the U.S. (Minneapolis, Wyoming), New Zealand (Dunedin), and India (Calcutta), describing how the album sparked personal revelations and localized psychedelic movements ([39:22], [49:55], [54:11]).

    “We were in heaven… liberating and beautifully joyful… I had become a Deadhead for life.” ([55:46], Shiku Parbat)

• Cultural and Sonic Resonance

  • Deadheads and critics echo the album’s role in converting scores of new fans:

    “I am forever grateful to Europe 72 and to the particular performance of China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider” ([42:03], Steve Silberman)

  • The album functioned as a living touchstone, evoking optimism and joyful resilience ([57:16], Andrew Stewart; [57:44], [57:46]).

• Deadhead Community & Tape Trading

  • The lure of unheard shows and “completism” led to a massive tape trading culture, documented by Cory Arnold and a 1979 German fan’s exhaustive search ([60:41], [63:26]).

The Europe ’72 Box Set: Modern Archival Mastery

• Bringing the Box Set to Life

  • Archivist David Lemieux recounts the years-long push to release the tour in full, facing skepticism at first until new leadership supported the vision ([64:53]–[66:09]).

    “How many people are going to buy this one? … Well, I’m going to buy it. So there’s one.” ([65:28], Lemieux)

• Technical Process (Jeffrey Norman)

  • Transferring and remixing the original 16-track analog reels—a physical and sonic challenge described in detail ([68:09]–[73:41]).

    “You have to have a great transport that can keep speed pretty constant at the beginning of a reel…It was pretty straight ahead. Nothing between the tape machine and Pro Tools.” ([68:09], Norman)

  • Balancing authenticity (“as original as possible”) with improved sound for modern release, while navigating the quirks of overdubbed and live vocals ([75:25]–[77:44]).

• Reimagined Listening Experience

  • The new mixes aimed to restore a more ensemble feel to the vocals and preserve the essence of the live shows, “making things a little spaceier when they said to me, 'Hey, it’s supposed to be bigger and spacier here’” ([77:50], Norman).

Europe '72's Ongoing Legacy

• Spread of the Deadhead Ethos

  • The tour and album seeded local scenes, tribute bands, and festivals throughout Europe—building a cross-continental community.

    “After Jerry died, there was this sort of great awakening…we hope to assemble as many people as possible in the UK who saw the Grateful Dead or who liked their music…” ([83:47], Bill Giles)

• Modern Musicians Respond

  • Oteil Burbridge (bassist, Dead & Co) praises Phil Lesh’s sound and the creative unity of the band in this era:

    “You can feel that they’re of one accord, of one mind…everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s on the same drugs…that type of creativity…it just kind of has a halo around it.” ([87:33], Oteil Burbridge)

• Final Reflections: The Treeth

  • The episode closes with Dead wisdom—humility, the anti-guru stance, and embracing mystery—

    “In the sea of hypnocracy, the shore is just another wave.” ([88:48], Jerry Garcia)

Notable Quotes

• On the Experience of Europe ’72:

  "We ask you to once again rise and thank tour architect Sam Cutler. Sam had an especially rough reentry." ([04:35], Rich Mahan)

• On the Album’s Unique Sound:

  "We duplicated the inner width of the stage… Each microphone that was on stage represented a source… recorded new vocal tracks with the leakage from the original 2-inch tracks… so we got the correct phase sync as far as timing and sounding real." ([17:24], Bob Matthews)

• On Fan Impact:

  “Listening to that album… we were driving across Wyoming, blasting out Europe 72… the emotional story… opened me to a realm of expression in music and song that I don’t know what verb to use for what it gives my heart and mind.” ([39:22]/[48:36], Mark Mumper)

• On the Deadhead Ethos:

  “We might have enlightenment experiences, but we’re still bozos on this bus. We don’t know where it’s going. We don’t know who’s driving.” ([58:11], Erik Davis)

• On Vinyl Remastering & Archiving:

  “The process was aligning the tape machine as best you possibly can… it was pretty straight ahead. Nothing between the tape machine and Pro Tools.” ([68:09], Jeffrey Norman)

• On Europe ’72’s Halo:

  “I love the way it sounds… you could feel that they’re of one accord, of one mind. It just kind of has a halo around it.” ([87:33], Oteil Burbridge)

Key Timestamps

• 00:58: Wrapping up the Europe ‘72 season.
• 03:42: Details on tour's conclusion and returning home.
• 05:15: Sam Cutler and Pigpen’s post-tour struggles.
• 06:49: Promoter Sepp Donahour on Hollywood Bowl.
• 09:09: Post-production begins, technical process.
• 13:43: Studio overdubs, Pigpen’s absence.
• 16:14–17:24: Bob Matthews explains Alembic’s stage recreation for overdubs.
• 20:06: Song selection process; Jerry’s decisive role.
• 21:30: Morning Dew’s addition to album; Garcia’s joy.
• 24:01: Liner notes and St. Gilbert, hypnocracy.
• 29:18: Erik Davis on the Ice Cream Kid and Dead iconography.
• 35:33: Robert Hunter’s retrospective and album’s position.
• 39:22: Listener testimonials on the album's impact.
• 49:55: The New Zealand scene, importation of Dead records.
• 54:11: Europe '72 reaches Calcutta.
• 64:53: David Lemieux on the box set’s conception, resistance.
• 68:09: Jeffrey Norman details tape to digital transfer and mixing.
• 77:50: On mixing jams and restoring space.
• 83:47: Bill Giles and the rise of European Dead band festivals.
• 87:33: Oteil Burbridge’s deep appreciation for the album’s sound and era.
• 88:48: “In the sea of hypnocracy, the shore is just another wave.”

Tone & Takeaway

Rich and Jesse guide the Deadcast with warmth, humor, and a real love for both nitty-gritty archival detail and the swirling mythology that surrounds the band. The episode balances technical insight with cultural reflection and fan testimony—an oral history of Europe '72 that encompasses both the footnotes and the cosmic significance.

Final words (Jerry Garcia via Jesse Jarnow, [88:48]):

“In the sea of hypnocracy, the shore is just another wave.” “That’s the whole truth…The truth and the treeth…The treeth of the matter.”
—The Grateful Deadcast, signing off.