GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

Episode: Europe ‘72: Lille, Luxembourg, Munich

Date: May 19, 2022
Hosts: Rich Mahan, Jesse Jarnow

Overview:

This episode of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast travels through the Grateful Dead’s final continental European stops on their legendary 1972 tour: Lille (France), Luxembourg, and Munich (West Germany). The hosts and a rich ensemble of guests recount wild road stories, cultural observations, and musical insights, tying the band’s local impact and the intersection of Deadhead mythology, spontaneous mystical experiences, and European counterculture. For seasoned Deadheads and the merely curious alike, this episode situates the band’s performances in the unique physical, social, and psychic spaces they occupied across Europe.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lille, France: The Real Free Show

[03:54 - 14:36]

• Sabotaged First Attempt, A True Gesture of Goodwill
  The Dead’s Lille show was previously sabotaged by sugar in the band’s truck tanks, leading to a canceled concert and a crowd sent home. The band kept their word, returning a week later for a completely free show in the town’s park (Champ de Mars), a gesture “classic Grateful Dead joint: roll up in the park and jam for the people” ([04:49] Rich Mahan).

• Atmosphere & Audience

  • The crowd included local townspeople, families, coal miners—many who didn’t know who was playing.
  • Memorable descriptions of “little old ladies bundled up in wool coats, with their baguettes in a bag… oh, there’s a concert, I’ll stay and watch that” ([11:52] David Lemieux).
  • Pigpen was notably ill, bundled up against the cold.

• A Unique Show in Tour History

  • “The only proper free gig of Europe 72… They played a full two set show with an ‘Other One’” ([12:48] David Lemieux).
  • The experience left some present as lifelong Dead fans:
    • “Since the concert, I am encoded freely a fan of the Dead, and it was for me like a moment of eternity. It’s a real point of my life that I never forget.” ([13:26] Guest testimony).

• Visual and Emotional Impact

  • Mountain Girl: “My goodness, you’re walking around in a French impressionist painting. I swear. Oh, I’m in a Renoir.” ([10:39])
  • The “impressionist colors of the French countryside” audible in the playing ([12:48] Rich Mahan).

2. Unexpected Vision: Greenpeace and Mystical Experiences

[14:57 - 29:46]

• Rod Marining’s Story (Greenpeace Founder)

  • Rod relates attending the Lille concert while hitchhiking for an environmental mission. During “the Other One,” he has a striking visionary experience, perceiving himself in a mythological courtroom, confronting the Three Fates from Greek mythology:
    • “All of a sudden, I got sucked into [Jerry Garcia’s] mouth… I was in a courtroom all marble… seven people there… the three sisters of fate.” ([18:45])
    • “Zeus, who’s the Greek God of sky and lightning… cut me off and told me to shut up, basically…”
    • “All of a sudden I was hit by a bolt of lightning and I was back standing in front of Jerry Garcia again.” ([18:45])
    • His friend tells him: “You weren’t moving to the music… there were just whites in your eyes. You looked weird.”
    • “I thought, okay, I don’t think I’m going to be going into any more Grateful Dead concerts for a while. That was too much. But I love the music.”

• Discussion of Unitive/Mystical Experiences at Dead Shows

  • Steve Silberman (author, Deadhead chronicler) contextualizes this as well within cognitive science and Deadhead culture ([26:15]):
    • “30-60% of people report some kind of transcendent experience in their lives.”
    • Silently understood among Deadheads: “...the Grateful Dead brought with them the message it was cool to freak fucking freely.”

3. Luxembourg: Radio Revolution and Cross-Border Broadcasts

[35:29 - 61:00]

• Radio Luxembourg and its Unique Role

  • Legendary pirate station, “sound of freedom” beaming all over Europe, especially behind the Iron Curtain ([36:05 - 42:43]).
  • Hosted the Grateful Dead for their only officially recorded soundcheck of the tour ([43:23]), and a condensed, two-set radio show played to ~350-500 in the purpose-built theater ([41:36, 46:55]).

• Across-Border Deadheads and Mayhem

  • Mix-up over ticketing after being advertised as a free concert; some fans injured trying to get in. Many French Deadheads made the trek ([53:20]).
  • Inside, a calm, attentive audience; outside, failed expectations of a free-show riot.

• Vivid Descriptions of Venue and Reception

  • Mountain Girl: “Radio Luxembourg… a giant fucking antenna up on whatever high spot they had in Luxembourg… It was partly a museum of old radio gear” ([40:32]).
  • Donna Jean Godchaux: “It would be, to me, the epitome of European culture. It just gave me that sense of, ‘This is why people love Europe.’” ([39:36])

• Technical Details

  • The performance was meticulously mic’d and designed with world broadcast in mind.
  • Unique moments: Bob Weir dedicating a song to his then-partner Frankie ([56:15]).

• Audience Accounts

  • Many UK listeners heard it with “poor reception… blizzards of interference from Neptune or somewhere” ([59:21] Bill Giles).
  • It became a rare, prized tape in the tape-trader circuit despite the static.

4. Munich: Crossing Into “Deep Space”

[62:10 - 111:29]

• Traveling to Munich, Germany

  • Including a detour to the student-town of Heidelberg—site of previous operetta “The Student Prince” (and family stories from Keith Godchaux) ([62:15 - 62:45]).
  • Band, crew, and companions string-out on acid, marvel at local tourist kitsch and encounter the relentless German culinary monotony (“Wiener schnitzel!”).

• German Deadheads & Political Context

  • Munich on the eve of the 1972 Olympics; city in massive transition and cultural opening ([70:16]).
  • Scirocco, a legendary local music shop, introduced many in the local “Krautrock” and commune scenes to the Dead ([72:05 - 74:17]).

• Musical Highlights

  • Alligator sticker legend: Jerry Garcia’s Stratocaster receives iconic sticker between Lille & Munich, giving birth to the guitar's nickname ([76:45 - 81:22]).
  • Extended discussion of performance, especially “Dark Star > Morning Dew”, regarded as one of the heaviest transitions in Dead history ([100:15 - 105:58]).
    • Graham Boone: “Curiously, Jerry hits that Dark Star riff of his an octave low… Jerry’s not dominating, everybody is standing out” ([100:56 - 101:45]).
    • David Lemieux: Draws parallels to the “dark energy” of later Miami ‘89 shows ([101:46]).

• Concert Atmosphere

  • Stories from both local Germans and American expats/Deadheads highlight early confusion (seated concert, attempts to enforce “no dancing”) quickly giving way to full-blown Deadhead response and mutual cultural exchange.
    • “Those American heads, always setting good examples.” ([95:23] Rich Mahan)
    • Thomas Stork: “It was like a meeting of the conoscenti… a catalyst for a certain scene” ([97:49])

• Unconfirmed Lore

  • Sam Cutler’s tale of a Hitler-mustached fire marshal’s helmet, power outages, and chaos: “A blinding flash… all the lights go out, and a third of Munich now has no electricity…” ([83:33])

5. Between the Shows: The Swiss Interlude

[111:58 - 142:49]

• Myth Meets Reality: The Bridge of the Grateful Dead

  • Encounter in Lucerne with a bridge adorned with skeletal, “Danse Macabre” artwork, resonating with the band’s own iconography and name myth (“plaque on it… the Bridge of the Grateful Dead” ([119:27 - 121:39] Steve Parish & Alan Trist)).
    • “It was the Grateful Dead. They helped you from beyond and protected you and your family…” ([119:27] Steve Parish)

• Hospitality & Culture Clash

  • The band is met with both amusement and wariness by elite Swiss hoteliers, who roll out the red carpet only to try rolling it back up on seeing the long-haired visitors ([124:09] Phil Lesh/Bob Weir; [124:14 - 124:36] Dennis Leonard).

• Legendary Side Stories

  • Various members recall wild bus rides, crew dosing, and Robert Hunter serenading Swiss cows with a trumpet on LSD during a lunch stop. ([136:46, 136:52])
  • Every restaurant along the way seems to offer only “Wiener schnitzel,” much to the Dead’s exasperation and amusement.

• Fan Perspective:

  • Sebi Bueller (former student, Ecole d'Humanité): Details efforts to get the Dead to play their school, walking explorations with the band, and missing her chance at a souvenir sticker ([127:31, 128:26, 130:05]).
    • “They had invited us to walk down to Meiringen with them… everybody was totally high. There’s a lot of shoveling going on…” ([131:08])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Music as Magic:

  • “There’s a subtly different light shimmering through the band’s playing. I feel like I hear the impressionist colors of the French countryside shining through…”
    ([12:48] Rich Mahan, on Lille)

• On Spontaneous Visions at a Dead Show:

  • “I'm the type of person that likes to think that I'm in 100% control of my destiny... And here I am watching this concert, and I'm just locked on Jerry Garcia... And then I just--all of a sudden, I got sucked into his mouth. Holy crap.”
    ([18:45] Rod Marining, Greenpeace)

• On the Societal Role of Radio Luxembourg:

  • “Radio Luxembourg was the sound of freedom for us because the Soviets would jam the signal... whenever you would hear three beeps, you knew you’d be live to Poland or Czechoslovakia...”
    ([42:43] Radio Luxembourg testimony)

• On the Cultural Exchange in Munich:

  • “With the Grateful Dead, it seemed there's five, six people walking onto the stage, taking up their instruments, joking among each other, joking among the guys in the first row. And they seemed to be some of us only a bit older, maybe.”
    ([91:50] Thomas Stork, German Dead fan)

• On the Swiss Bridge of the Grateful Dead:

  • “The bridge was made out of wrought iron skeletons... and there’s the f***ing name of it... the Bridge of the Grateful Dead... There was a plaque on it that says that.”
    ([119:27] Steve Parish)

Timeline of Important Segments

• [03:54] — The real story of the Lille free show.
• [10:11] — Vivid descriptions of Lille in springtime, “walking around in a French impressionist painting.”
• [14:57] — Greenpeace founder Rod Marining’s mystical experience at the Dead show.
• [26:15] — Steve Silberman on mysticism in Deadhead culture.
• [35:29] — Introduction to Radio Luxembourg and importance in European radio.
• [43:23] — The Dead’s rare rehearsal and “Big River” soundcheck.
• [53:20] — The Radio Luxembourg free-show confusion and fan mayhem.
• [70:16] — Social transformation of Munich and musical connections with the local psychedelic scene.
• [83:33] — Sam Cutler’s tale of the fire marshal and helmet in Munich.
• [100:15] — Deep dive into the Munich “Dark Star > Morning Dew.”
• [119:27] — The Grateful Dead’s Swiss adventures and the “Bridge of the Grateful Dead.”
• [127:31] — Swiss student stories and intersections with the band.
• [142:49] — Looking ahead to the Lyceum shows in London.

Tone & Language

The episode is infused with the Deadcast’s typical mix of loving, encyclopedic nerdery and vivid, often hilarious anecdote, switching easily from the mythic to the mundane, the academic to the psychedelic, and from poignant reminiscence to raucous road stories. The varied guest testimonies—ranging from crisp documentary detail to the ruminating, sometimes “altered-state” tangents—mirror the Dead’s own approach to music: exploratory, inclusive, and open to accident.

Summary

With Lille came spontaneous generosity. Luxembourg highlighted the Grateful Dead’s role as radio and cultural pioneers, drawing a continent-wide (and sometimes confused) crowd. Munich captured both the “dark star” side of the band’s sound and its role as social catalyst in a Europe in flux. These journeys bristled with risk, fun, confusion, and visionary weirdness, and in between the scheduled shows, the band and their entourage immersed themselves in the idiosyncratic landscapes and cultures of continental Europe—sometimes high, sometimes lost, always together. Through local voices, Dead family, and the Dead's own accounts, the episode captures what Europe ‘72 really meant to those who took the ride.