GOOD OL’ GRATEFUL DEADCAST
Episode: Europe '72: France
Date: April 28, 2022

Episode Overview

In this vibrant episode, hosts Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow take listeners to Paris, recapping the Grateful Dead’s two legendary shows at the Olympia Theatre on May 3 and 4, 1972, during the iconic Europe ‘72 tour. The episode explores the band's Parisian adventures, the creative and logistical chaos behind the scenes, memorable musical performances that made the Europe ‘72 album, audience experiences, French cultural collisions, and a near-riot at the ill-fated show in Lille. Through first-person accounts, archival interviews, and music analysis, this installment captures the heady mix of high times, historic performances, and Dead family shenanigans in France.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arrival & Life in Paris

• The band's journey from Hamburg to Paris was marked by cultural misunderstandings—most notably, the challenge of feeding 52 hungry American hippies in the French countryside during off-restaurant hours.
  Bob Weir:
  “We’d have to go to some little countryside French place...I'd have to go in there with my small knowledge of French, try to talk them into serving 52 really weird-looking people who will be very grateful if they were fed at a time when no one is eating in the entire country.” [05:03]
• The Grand Hôtel expected a 37-piece orchestra, instead receiving the Dead’s “hippie circus,” causing confusion but also leading to many memorable moments.

2. Travel Logistics & “Bozos and Bolos News”

• Rosie McGee details her job creating a newsletter for the crew with practical info and French phrases, leading to the first and possibly only issue of “Bozos and Bolos News.”
  Rosie McGee:
  “...I wrote a short history of Paris and sightseeing and restaurant tips...everyone had a copy under their door when they got up in the morning.” [08:37]
• Regular bulletins became a staple of the tour, filled with jokes, information, and schedule changes, making the band feel like “herding cats.” [10:19]

3. Off-Day Parisian Adventures

• The crew soaked up Parisian culture, aided by local filmmakers who played tour guides.
• Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl wandered through closed museums, eventually enraptured by antique instruments at the Musée de la Musique.
  Mountain Girl:
  “We spent about an hour in there looking at antique instruments. Really old, you know, like a thousand years old… the history of music and musical instruments. We don’t really have a history of that here in this country, but there they’ve got it.” [12:51]
• Steve Parrish and Ramrod, after taking acid with Phil Lesh, had a surreal day exploring Notre Dame and the Louvre—almost causing a cultural incident by opening windows near the Mona Lisa to smoke a joint:
  Steve Parrish:
  “He says, you stupid Americans...the air of Paris will completely destroy this beautiful painting. Don’t you understand that?...If it was that important, they’d be locked, man!” [18:01]

4. Paris Banquet & the Dead’s French Connection

• Warner Bros treated the band and crew to a lavish banquet at La Grande Cascade, complete with fine French cuisine, Cuban cigars, and a cultural exchange when Americans offered the waiters hash pipes as a gesture of “Indian friendship.”
  Rosie McGee:
  “When a pipe was offered to him a moment later, he took a hit, smiled at me, and did the feather pantomime again. I almost fell under the table laughing.” [30:15]

5. Paris Shows at the Olympia Theatre

Audience & Setting

• May ’72 in Paris was marked by a heavy police presence due to post-’68 protest paranoia, though inside, the Olympia crowd matched New York’s intensity and passion. John McIntyre (manager):
  “The audiences in Paris… had already adopted us as their exciting partners, and it was just thrilling, absolutely thrilling.” [36:57]

Pigpen’s Letters

• Pigpen wrote home, bemused by persistent crowd trouble and police agitation, warning kids not to show up ticketless:
  “Pigpen says not to come to a show without a ticket.” [36:01]

Musical Highlights

• Multiple tracks from these nights landed on Europe ’72, including “China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider,” “Tennessee Jed,” “Jack Straw,” and “Sugar Magnolia.”
  David Lemieux:
  “It really does feel like a couple of Saturday Night shows in New York. And the band matches it.” [38:21]

Musicological Deep-Dive: “China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider”

• Robert Hunter shares the trippy origins of “China Cat Sunflower”:
  “There’s a cat dictated China Cat Sunflower to me. How did that happen? I was just sitting on my stomach purring away and saying this stuff. It’s easier then just write it down. I guess it’s plagiarism.” [47:32]
• An extended segment (51:17–56:10) breaks down the seamless musical transition between the two songs, a hallmark of Dead performance.

Song Histories

• “I Know You Rider” traced back to an unnamed Black woman recorded by Alan Lomax in the 1930s.
• “Tennessee Jed” inspired by Hunter’s late-night wanderings in Barcelona and echoes of American folk radio.
  Hunter:
  “It was Barcelona...Fell four flats and broke my spine. And it was so out of place in Barcelona at 2 o’clock…” [68:05]
• “Jack Straw” as the last Weir/Hunter collaboration for decades, originally with different vocal assignments before Garcia and Weir established their alternating parts [80:50].

Audience Reflections

• French Deadheads recall the euphoria and singularity of the Paris shows: Philippe Sicar:
  “It was pure bliss, you know… I expected the five founders of the Great Dead. And there was Keith [Godchaux]. I was surprised because it was so, so good.” [40:50]

6. Psychedelic Mayhem & Second Paris Show

• Rampant use of Owsley’s LSD (with unforeseen potency) resulted in surreal onstage and backstage episodes. Donna Jean Godchaux:
  “…I was sometimes taking 15 hits at a time. It was just normal, normal, normal… I didn’t realize that Owsley had brought in a new batch. And I took like 15 something hits and it was fresh.” [89:15] Steve Parrish:
  “Everybody was on it, man. Everybody was taking it there and it was because it was 10 times stronger… these massive LSD experiences were happening.” [89:39]

7. Load Out & French Crew Sabotage

• Hostile French union crew sabotaged the Dead’s load out by trapping cables under heavy trusses and shutting out the (tripping) American roadies.
  Steve Parrish:
  “They shut the lights off in the building and they dropped the trust...pinning everything to the floor…We must have sat there for about a half hour…it took us hours, man.” [104:01]

8. Lille Disaster & Riot

• The next show's gear truck was sabotaged—an aggrieved Communist (after a chocolate ice cream incident) poured sugar in the Dead’s diesel fuel. The band was stuck in Lille without their equipment; fans waited into the night, some angry and frustrated, but mostly disappointed. Steve Parrish:
  “The truck made it about eight miles out of Paris and it broke down and that was that…There was an audience and there was, you know, the place was full and there was no equipment…And so they were going to cancel the gig.” [110:23]
• Music and lights crew, amidst rising crowd discontent, had to "strike the gear while looking like [they were] setting up gear." Announcements were made in French, but some in the crowd grew rowdy, smashing windows to escape.
  Rosie McGee:
  “So we went one by one into the bathroom of the dressing room and out the window and down a pipe...somehow we all just got out.” [119:31] Phil Lesh (recalling via Cutler):
  “Women and musicians first,” said as they scrambled out the window. [120:20]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Every day was a fucking crazy adventure. Especially because on days off we took Acid, Phil and Ramrod and myself… The famous trip we made to Notre Dame, which was, at that time, fully intact and just ancient.”
  — Steve Parrish [16:42]
• “Paris sure is mellow in the springtime. Sidewalk cafes, motorbikes on the sidewalks, parked groups just peacefully hanging out outside of bistro. Just like in the movies. It's great.”
  — Excerpt from Pigpen's letter home [16:14]
• “When a pipe was offered to him a moment later, he took a hit, smiled at me, and did the feather pantomime again. I almost fell under the table laughing.”
  — Rosie McGee [30:15]
• “I know you rather gonna miss me when I get gone.”
  — Classic Dead lyric, in discussion of “I Know You Rider” [56:10]
• “You are the best thing to hit Paris since Joan of fucking Arc. Love and thanks.”
  — Telegram from fan Mark Princey [86:06]
• “I took like 15 something hits and it was fresh.”
  — Donna Jean Godchaux, on unexpectedly potent LSD [89:19]
• “Women and musicians first.”
  — Phil Lesh, during escape from Lille dressing room [120:20]

Important Timestamps

• Arrival & Paris logistics, hotel confusion [05:03–06:59]
• Paris sightseeing (Louvre, Notre Dame, acid trip adventures) [12:19–18:45]
• Crewing, banquets, French culinary culture [25:18–32:05]
• Garcia on communicating through music (interview) [32:05–34:35]
• Olympia Theatre shows, police presence [34:35–39:12]
• Music analysis: China Cat > Rider transition [51:17–56:10]
• The roots and evolution of “Jack Straw” [79:29–84:56]
• Second Paris show, LSD stories & technical mishaps [88:56–93:38]
• Lille riot: sabotage, stranded fans, staff escape [109:29–121:47]

Conclusion

The Europe '72: France episode vividly rummages through the Dead’s Paris stints, blending musicological analysis, road stories, and French-American countercultural clashes. The voices—band members, Dead family, Deadheads, and historians—paint a memorable portrait of the tour’s highs (both literal and figurative), the Paris shows’ lasting magic, and the chaos that was always only a step behind on the Grateful Dead’s European adventure.

For full track discussions and archival links, visit dead.net/deadcast. For fan stories, see stories.dead.net.