A (3:59)

The Grateful that arrived on the continent on 13 April 1972, making landfall at Esperg, Denmark, after taking an overnight boat across the North Sea from Harwich. Tour manager Sam Cutler.

B (4:11)

We went famously from England to Denmark with two buses. One was an English bus and one was a Danish bus. 52 people split between these two buses. And we arrived at the port off the ferry in Denmark. And the Danish police, customs, whatever, said, okay, everyone's got to get off the buses. So there's. Now, there's a famous picture of it, actually, of everyone standing kind of somewhat forlornly on the dock side, but whilst they searched the buses and Sven, Danish bus driver, very straight, he came over to see me looking very worried. And we'd been there for an hour or so and people were getting all fed up and it was cold and all that. And he goes, the customs man said, the. The bus smells of hashish. So I of course, went, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ridiculous. Of course not. How could that possibly be? You know, you used to have this thing that we used in hotels. It was called Ozium. It was in a little kind of bottle, a spray. You sprayed it. And it was actually designed for people who were being sick, you know, were vomiting. It was designed to cover the smell of vomit, right? So I had several of these, needless to say. So I told the bus driver, oh, I'll go and check, you know, I'll sort this out. So I went on the bus, you know, and there's all the customs guys searching under seats and all that, you know. So I walked around going, everything all right? Yeah. Alice good squirt, squirt. Alice good squirt, squirt, squirting Ozium as much as I could everywhere. Anyway, that was all good. In the end. We were all let back, you know, they checked all the passports and all that, and they let us all back on the buses and off we went. And I was like, and I wonder where they. Where did they put the hash? Where was it hidden? And it was hidden in the curtains. The curtain or the buses all had curtains, right? And so used to gather the curtains together like that, and then they'd have a strap around them, you know, that kept them together. And that's where everyone put the hash. And the stupid customs guys never found it. So that was one nil. One to the Grateful Dead, zero to Danish customs.

A (6:25)

There were at least two Americans following the ban on the entirety of the Europe tour. A pair of young filmmakers, John Norris and Sam Field. Later that summer, they would be two of the primary forces behind the Dead concert film Sunshine Daydream. Both are sadly no longer with us. But I interviewed Sam in 2014 for my book Heads.

B (6:45)

It was John Morris and I, and it was John who was the instigator of the whole idea to film a concert.

A (6:58)

And they decided they needed to study the band in action. So they headed off to Europe.

B (7:02)

They knew we were there and why we were there and welcomed us. And so there were ferry rides that we all took together from England to Denmark, for example. And say, sometimes we were on the bus, sometimes we were off the bus, but we didn't stay at this. We didn't stay at the same hotels, I'll put it that way. We hit them all. Except there was one show in Bremen, Germany, which I think was at the place called the Beach Club, which was sort of a. For television only, and it was done in a studio, and there was no audience. And so we were doing something else that day or felt it was okay to miss that. And even though the Radio Luxembourg one was also done in a studio, there was at least a few other people there. But no, we hit them all with the intent of doing that and actually did miss one that turned out to be okay. Well, I don't think Europeans were hip to being on the tour, following a tour. And I really don't think there were any other Americans that were really doing that either. There was nobody that I remember seeing more than once, you know, or in more than one town. There were some people who did go two nights in a row, you know, in Paris or whatever that we. That we saw, but not from town to town than I can recall.

A (8:36)

If you're an exception to this rule, or even if you just saw one or two shows, get in touch with us at stories.dead.net we've heard rumors about a pair of German brothers, Hartmut and Volker Koletsko. Who did all the shows on the continent and later became friends with Dick Lotvalle but we've been unable to find them. Volker Hartmut, are you out there? I wish I'd asked Sam Field more questions about the Europe shows and many other topics. The band hit the continent in a cloud of expectations. Both theirs and the continent's. Giersbert Hankrut was a Dutch photographer with the Amsterdam based publication ur. He met up with the band in Copenhagen and would photograph them in a most unexpected location.

B (9:18)

I used to be a freelance photographer working for a bi weekly newspaper music newspaper called Induchmucant Ur which is Earth. I had an assignment for doing. I was kind of their first photographer. I did everything what happened which was a lot. And we were in the beginning started 50 years ago 71 and after a couple of months when American or English groups came to Holland there were two the main daily newspaper and this year this poor magazine that were the two interviews. So Emma was happy to be one of the two that were able to do this interviews and shows. We did not cover much of the Dutch groups like Focus or Golden Earring. That was not big enough for us. We were concentrated on the English and American groups. They were very well accepted here and very prescientious. We took the train to Copenhagen to cover the show and that quite often was a couple of weeks before they would play in Holland so that they could publish the story, the review and the photos of the show. We also did an interview with Bob Weir. Actually I don't think we did an interview with Jerry.

A (10:43)

It wasn't the first time he'd met a band at the edge of the North Sea. Giusbert made beautiful photographs of many of the era's biggest musicians. We've posted a link to his website@dead.net.

B (10:54)

Deadcast it was important to cover Europe. It happened a lot with all the American the Birds. I was one year before they did the same. They started in England or they started in the Netherlands and they went to England and tried to conquer Europe. And that was also for them very important. That's the reason that I was happy to be a photographer in that period of time.

A (11:18)

And there were heads in Denmark ready to meet them. In particular there was one head who was more ready than most. A head who is now a household name in Denmark for pretty much all the right reasons. For once. Though virtually unknown to American the late Danish writer Dan Tyrrell. Please welcome Danish historian and Dan Tyrrell biographer Lars Movin.

B (11:38)

Dan Tourell was very special character in in a Danish context. I mean, he was a. He was very, very well known in Denmark for a number of years, especially in the 70s and the 80s. I was born in 59 and he was born in 46. So he was sort of a generation older than me. And for my generation, he was. He was sort of the guy that introduced my generation to a lot of cool stuff like the Beat writers and Jack Kerouac and William Burrows and a lot of music, jazz music, free jazz, and also beat music, rock music, like the Grateful Dead or Velvet Underground and all that stuff. I mean, so. So for a long period, especially in the 70s, where information was not as easily available as it is today with the Internet and all that, to get to know something about American underground culture in Denmark, you had to go to guys like Dan Tyrell, who sort of was finding all this information and writing about it and challenging it into writing, into radio, into television. He was all over the place. And he was a very prolific guy. He was. I mean, he lived only to be 47, like Jack Kerouac, but he published almost 100 books in his lifetime. And at the same time he was sort of traveling around in Denmark and doing stand up poetry and lectures and talks. And he was on radio, he was on television, he was in every cool magazine. He was the newspapers, he was writing poetry, he was performing with poetry and music. He was writing prose and essays and articles and even crime novels. I mean, to understand that. That he was sort of all over the place in a very special way. And he's. I mean, I can't think of any other avant garde poets that are sort of known by everybody in Denmark. Everybody knew what he looked like yet sort of with. He had a very. He was the only poet also with a real image. Like he had a shaved head and painted his fingernails dark or black and looked in a very special way. He was sort of iconic. So he was basically just very well known.

A (13:59)

Remember how I said he was ahead?

B (14:00)

It was clear that he had two sort of heroes or two acts that he followed especially. One was Velvet Underground from the East Coast. The other was the Grateful Dead on the West Coast. So these two were sort of his big thing. In various writings he has talked about how the Grateful Dead was sort of the soundtrack to his life. He was in late 60s. He moved into a commune here in Copenhagen. And he. One place, he states that Dark Star, the long track from Grateful Dead, the Live Dead album, was sort of their favorite tune. And they were constantly listening to Dark Star and taking acid in this commune where he lived around 1970, he went from being a jazz writer to a rock reviewer or writer. He started following the Grateful Dead and writing about every new album that came out from about 70 and on. I think his first really favorite was Working Man's Death. And he tells a funny story one place about how when it came out, he was totally blown away by this album. So he. He made a cassette tape of the album. And when he was traveling around in Denmark, he carried it everywhere and played it for everyone who wanted to listen and sort of was pushing that album. And he carried it on a trip down to Northern Africa, where he was hitchhiking in the desert in Northern Africa, and he lost the tape there and the tape recorder. And he writes about how he imagined that some Arab guy found this tape and tape recorder and was now sitting somewhere in the desert listening to Working Man's Dead.

A (15:50)

So when the Dead came to Denmark in 1972, Dan Terrell scored an assignment to interview Jerry Garcia.

B (15:56)

It's for a music magazine, Danish music magazine called Mm. Just the Letter M twice. Mm. They were staying in Nyhavn, a place close to the harbour front in Denmark. In Copenhagen, Nyhavn basically means new harbor. Today it's a very touristy place. Back then it was a little more rough. You could say a place where sort of seedy bars and sailors and not a too safe environment, but you could say a very colorful environment. It's not very big. It's like one block on St. Mark's street in New York or something like that. Quite a small area. In one piece of more autobiographical writing where he tells a little anecdote about the meeting he's talking about. I mentioned before how. How this place Nyhavn, where the interview took place, is not very big and one place he writes about how amazing it was when the Grateful Dead arrived with their entourage of, I think 40 or 50 people that were traveling with the Dead at that time. And they sort of arrived to this place, Nyhavn, and they were all over the place. And they completely changed this little part of Copenhagen into a small, Haight, Asbury type place. It was a big deal for Dan Tirrell to meet Jerry Garcia. I think it was one of the first sort of his big American heroes that he met in real life. I have a feeling that they hit it off quite well, which was not actually the case in all the meetings he had with American musicians or writers, but with Jerry, I think it went quite good. And maybe because Jerry was, as I can read from the things he wrote about it, because Jerry Cassir was such a relaxed guy and they could smoke some joints together and just hang out. And it all seemed to happen in a more relaxed atmosphere, which suited Danturell well. So I think that also reflects on the content of the interview that they actually hit sort of the same wavelength there.

A (18:08)

It's a fascinating conversation and with Lars help, we've posted a retranslation back into English@dead.net deadcast. The original tape seems to be long since gone, so the conversation went from English to Danish and back to English. They speak about the power of music as a form of communication all on its own. The language is getting so weird, Garcia observed. English is being wiped out by television, politicians, all these words and statements, generation gap and alternative culture, media expressions and all that shit. The language finally becomes meaningless.

B (18:42)

It was published very soon after, a couple of weeks after or something like that, in a quite nice layout in the magazine. Also the COVID of the magazine was also referring to that interview. So grateful they sort of had the full cover, the front and the back cover of the magazine. It was definitely something that meant a lot to him because he mentions it in later articles also when he writes about the Grateful Dead or. Or Robert Honda or whatever he writes about. Then he goes back to that meeting in 72. After the interview, they went over to Tivoli with Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, the bass player, and were hanging out there while they were doing sound checks and setting up the equipment and so on. And at that point they were still smoking joints together. He tells about how at some point at Tivoli, while they were waiting for. For the day to pass so it could be evening and the concert could begin, they were smoking a joint with Phil Lesh and Dan Terrell was sort of just throwing. When it was half smoked, he was throwing it on the ground very casually. And Phil Lesh got completely paranoid and sort of went down on. On. All on. On the floor and looked for it and picked it up and destroyed it and put it in. In a small matchbox that he had in his pocket and. And said, oh, you can't do that. You would give. We will all have to go to jail and it's very dangerous and people will find out. And Dentrell and his friend Peter Bungard, who he was doing the interview together with, they were just laughing and say, oh, come on, this is Denmark. I mean, nothing will happen. Just relax. And Phil Lester paranoia strikes deep. And then he left with a joint to sort of put it away somewhere.

A (20:34)

Bjorn Lindstrom saw the Dead for The first time on the 1972 tour.

B (20:38)

I lived north of Copenhagen in a small town. We went to Copenhagen and bought American comic books. Zap Comics and BC and the wizard of it. We studied that closely. So we were sort of into that culture. We were reading them in English. So that's a great education. Really learned all the dirty words from the underground comics, that's for sure.

A (21:08)

Bjorn's friend Han Frank was another burgeoning music head who saw the band at Tivoli.

B (21:13)

There were Danish bands. We had Burning Red Ivanhoe and we had Culpeppers Orchard and stuff. Like Young Flowers playing Cream like music, you know, blues hippie music. The band that I was most into at the time in Denmark was called savage rose. Dear Mr. Asler, what's in your solitude and day?

A (22:01)

That was the Savage Rose with Dear Little mother from their 1971 album of the same name, a big hit in Denmark.

B (22:07)

You would sit on the floor with your legs folded and hash clouds would be overhead and it was amazing. And we had Icelandic sweaters and smoked pipes and. Yeah, very intellectual, lots of hair. We were also very much into British music. Just they were more frequent visitors to Denmark being so close.

A (22:29)

The Dead were following a new trail through Europe which we talked about in the first episode of this season. A few other acts were ping ponging through the same venues as the Dead that spring. Leonard Cohen about a month earlier and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, often within days of the Dead as well as Uriah Heep and the Post Jim Morrison Doors. Across the street from the Copenhagen Central Station was Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park built in 1843. And in the middle of Tivoli Gardens, Tivoli Concert Hall.

B (22:59)

So it was a regular destination when we were kids with the grandparents and so on. The amusement park and the concert hall is in the middle of the amusement park built for classical concerts.

A (23:12)

Originally Bjorn was ready for the show.

B (23:15)

I copied the skull and roses logo onto a piece of cardboard color as a circle and stapled it on the back of an old military jacket. That's what I was wearing.

A (23:29)

And Hans was definitely ready.

B (23:30)

I was celebrating spring and some friends in the park and had had a few large beers before I came. Suddenly remembered I had to be in Copenhagen at 8. I managed to get there on time. So we met just outside the hall and we strolled in. It's a beautiful hall, Julie. Eventually, you know, eventually as the band came on and burst into Gather and then we were rolling. I had a hard running. It was just amazing. I'd Never heard anything like it. Everybody played an integral part of it. They played off each other. It was so different from any. Any other band I'd heard.

A (24:34)

The band that took the stage on 14 April was a hungry band.

B (24:37)

What it's really down to is a kind of shared vision thing, you know, that everybody's really on the same page and. And getting high in the same way, which we did before every gig. The band and crew would get high together, little microdose and go out there and do it.

A (24:58)

One of G S Burt's great shots of the Dead was of just such a moment. The band sitting around in a circle backstage with Sam Cutler, John McIntyre, Steve Parish, and somewhere hidden from the lens, most likely a joint. We've posted it as part of our daily dose on the Dead's social media. Where's the joint? It looks to me like Sam has just passed it to Phil. Sam's coughing. Phil is smiling, perhaps a little guiltily.

B (25:23)

They wanted to do a good show and as you know, also here they played four hours, which is extraordinaire. And that was hard also for them. Hard working and trying to do as best as they could. And they did greatful, Ed.

A (25:36)

Archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux The.

B (25:38)

Copenhagen show, It's to me one of the brightest shows on the tour. Sometimes I see concerts, dead shows in colors and I think, well, like Newcastle, I think of a crimson dark, you know, red. Whereas I look at The Tivoli, the 414 show in particular, as a rainbow. It's such a beautiful show, start to finish. I think the brightest. Again, I use the word bright. I feel like it's the brightest show on the tour. Where from that opener, it's just. It's so pleasing and uplifting and positive.

A (26:14)

In 2011, to celebrate the impending 40th anniversary of the tour, David assembled Europe 72 Part 2, which includes a quartet of songs from this show.

B (26:23)

Europe 72 Volume 2, for instance, opens with a terrific version of Bertha, really wonderful Bertha that had already opened up Skull and Roses. So I don't even think a song like that was given consideration. Because of that, Sam really had to move. The stage was quite low, so if too many people had been dancing, they would have obstructed the view from. For the rest. But in the Isles there may have been people dancing. We were in seats about one third back from the stage. It's quite intimate, so it felt really close. They weren't going to play in Sweden, so I believe there was a great deal of Swedes Great number of Swedes there because we have. Only we didn't have the bridge then. So it was just, you know, a 40 minute ferry ride from, from the south of Sweden to Copenhagen. So there were quite a lot of Swedes, probably. They usually are.

A (27:48)

The Dead were on new turf and they had some discoveries to make. This is From Blair Jackson's 2011 interview with Dennis Wiz Leonard working for Alembic.

B (27:56)

That tour, Copenhagen was very early. You know, that was one of the first mind blowers. Everybody openly smoking. Ha.

A (28:04)

Lightning crew member Ben Holler.

B (28:05)

The other thing you got to get used to at European concerts there is fire. Oh boy. But what it is, is they don't have a lot of pot or at least didn't at that point. They have a lot of hashish because it's smaller, easier to take. And so you'd be standing there on the lighting thing and all of a sudden the three foot tall thing of flame would come up. Your thing that you show off in Europe is your cigarette lighter. And you have this three foot thing of flame that you then burn some stuff off the hash. And you can scrape the hash into a bowl or into a. Make it into a cigarette. And so there was flames jumping everywhere all the time. It was a little unnerving to begin with. And then I realized what it was and then it was quite spectacular. I'm sure it was great from the stage because you just whoosh, whoosh, you know, in the audience.

A (29:02)

It was the Dead's first real show in a non English speaking country besides their spontaneous pool party in France the summer before. And pretty early into the evening, the band reached their first communication barrier. Hans Frank reports.

B (29:15)

People started clapping after the first numbers.

A (29:24)

The band interpreted it as a sign of displeasure.

B (29:28)

See, you know what, we're gonna keep on playing. You don't have to clap like that, but you can if you want to. If you want to clap, go ahead, go ahead, get it on. But we won't do one in that tempo, you know, necessarily.

A (29:44)

You can if you want to, but.

B (29:46)

You don't have to if you don't want to. You can do whatever you want. Don't get sucked into it now.

A (29:50)

But Han says it was a sign of sheer approval and enthusiasm from the Danish crowd.

B (29:55)

It was spontaneous sort of, we're going to be part of this, we're part of this music. They're playing the music to us and we want to give something back to them.

A (30:04)

It led to the first of the tour's language checks.

B (30:11)

The front row was completely occupied by American GIs. I don't know if you know this. A large rotating number number has been stationed in Germany. World War II. The end of World War II. And they gave the rest of us a taste of how a typical Deadhead audience would react, whistling and cheering at every opportunity. Someone told me later that they had been unable to get tickets to any of the shows in Germany, so they made the trip probably by train and ferry to Copenhagen.

A (30:43)

Bob Weir took it to a vote.

B (30:44)

I want to show our hands on that. How many of you out there can understand what we're saying? Raise your hands. Not very many.

A (30:54)

But Bjorn thinks the vote wasn't quite reflective of the room.

B (30:57)

I think it was more than a few. I think it was unfair the way he concluded. We all have English in grammar school from the age of 11 or 12. We understand English quite well. A little slow on the uptake and we may have felt a bit intimidated by these very loud GIs.

A (31:25)

And it did lead to a good transition into the next song.

B (31:29)

You win again. The news is up all over town you've been seen.

A (31:51)

There was no language barrier in enjoying the music.

B (31:53)

I'm out of an Anglophile family, so. So we learned it early. Yeah, that was. I. I was amazed by the lyrics. I was into the band too, at the time, which were also just very much their own and made songs that was in a style and a style of music that was just so new and just very special. And the Dead or something like that, you know, the lyrics, especially the Hunter lyrics, were just amazing.

A (32:21)

And of course, everybody loved Pig Pen, Especially Pig Pen.

B (32:26)

It was great having the chance to. To hear Pig Pen live. Many people in the US never got to that or got gone on the bus too late. But it was a great performance by him.

A (32:39)

In Europe, though, first sets would often begin by alternating between Garcia Weir and Pigpen. Pigpen was an extremely present part of the tour. Europe 72. Part two includes perhaps the canonical version of Chinatown Shuffle, an original song by Pig debuted at the end of 1971.

B (33:00)

Take it, you can have it what I got, baby, I can't hold and if you got the secret Tell me how to build a mold and I can handle your problem don't try to handle mine I'll get yourself a shotgun A pocket full of shells and make.

A (33:23)

It wide away the time played nearly every night of the tour. Chinatown Shuffle was a fixture of the band's early 1972 set list, and surely would have stayed with the band had Pigpen's health not taken a turn in some ways it might qualify as a lost Great Drill Dead song not officially released until the 1999 so many Rhodes box set which used the version from Rotterdam later down the road, though plenty of tapes circulated long before that. Back in ye olden days of the 1990s, this show from Tivoli was one of my very first Dead tapes, and where I heard Chinatown Shuffle for the first time. Our friend Sully, the keeper of the Pigpen archive, shared an early draft of the song with us. Pigpen originally titled it Shotgun Song, giving it slight overtones of urban self defense. The vibe survives, a subtly honed song perfectly fit for Pigpen's menacing stage Persona. He was only getting better.

B (34:24)

Pay for advice and if you need it you got to have it now get yourself a shotgun and Brandon Black Hole look like a wall you know you gotta call before you start calling Be ready for and if you fall into my direction don't expect no help at all Gone.

A (34:47)

And by the second set, the band was sufficiently warmed up to record a keeper version of another song for Europe 72 LP2, track one and jazz Parlins this is take three of Brown Eyed Women.

B (35:18)

Take up the Gone are the days when the lady said please.

A (35:27)

Jerry Jack Jones won't you come Brown Eyed Women was the first original written for Europe 72, not counting previously recorded tunes. It was written in the summer of 1971, just after the band finished mixing Skull and Roses and Jerry Garcia recorded his solo debut. And just after Garcia and Robert Hunter finished two years of cohabitation in Larkspur along with their respective partners, it was the beginning of another new songwriting era for the two. The band debuted Brown Eyed Women during their late August 1971 tour. Very much a first musical draft with a straighter rhythm. I'd describe it as country soul.

B (36:15)

When the lady said please Jimmy Jack Jones won't you come to me Brown Eyed Women and Red grenadine the D was dusty but the liquor was clean Sound of the thunder when the rain pouring down and it looks like the.

A (36:36)

Old man that was the live debut of Brown Eyed Women, August 24, 1971 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Now Dix picks 35 from the so called Houseboat tapes discovered by our friend Brian Godshow in 2020. A draft of the lyrics turned up in the collection of the late Dick Lotvala, which are fascinating to see in Hunter's handwriting, but appear to be a slightly later version, perhaps rewritten for clarity. We've posted a link to a relic story about it@dead.net deadcast and of course, you can and should consult Alex Allen's site whitegum.com for close examinations of lyric histories, including Brown eyed women. In 1977, David Ganz interviewed Robert Hunter, included in his book Conversations with the Dead, which we've linked to@dead.net deadcast. David brought up a previous interview Hunter had done in which Hunter spoke about certain songs that contained a character that represented the band Bertha Direwolf and Cumberland Blues specifically. But it was a character he said he'd finished writing about. Hunter told David, that's true. The character was dispensed with nicely in Working Man's Dead. Then he popped up again in Brown Eyed Women. It's some composite relative of mine, part of my gestalt baggage. These things have as many layers of potential meaning to me when I've created them as they do to the listener. And I look for that hiss. Golden messenger performed the song on the 2016 Tribute Album Day of the Dead.

B (38:14)

Oh, I cut acre just to find the steel drink in a bottle, man, you ready to well, night women in red grenadine. The battle was just different.

A (38:34)

Please welcome to the Dead cast MC Taylor of his Cold and Messenger.

B (38:38)

But I think that was the first time that I actually sat down and learned the song in such a way that I could play it, you know, play it in public. Learning that song confirmed that they were really good as narrative songwriters when they wanted to be. Because there's a real story in that song, and just seeing how it's laid out and how Hunter moves the character through the song is really cool. I think of the narrator of this song as someone maybe in their 20s, sort of out in the world and kind of kind of footloose and reminiscing back. There's a lot about family in there. The narrative has multiple siblings, and the father appears kind of his specter appears throughout the whole song. It's kind of an outlaw song. But it's even more than that. The songwriting to me feels a little bit looser maybe than the three previous records, Working Man's and American Beauty. And I guess the live record. It feels like an even more holistic version of sort of like the Margins, the Weirdos of America, than the previous record. I think there's some humor to it that still really works for me, or just like some. Maybe some lightness to it. And it's just like a compendium of vernacular American knowledge in the words. Like, I always think of it kind of alongside Harry Smith or like Joseph Mitchell's up in the Old Hotel. If you know that book. It's like the same sort of. Same sort of feeling.

A (40:21)

Once the song was reintroduced into the band's repertoire in later 1971, it stayed there through 1995. Though it got slightly scarcer by the late 80s and early 90s, it never disappeared for more than a few months. Like some other Dead songs, it's got some unusual songwriting turns. Just like the song's lyrics represent an emotional return to home, so does the chromatic lick that appears throughout the song. Let's go back to the beginning.

B (41:03)

Fall down, take up the open.

A (41:08)

Please welcome back to the Deadcast musicologist Sean o'. Donnell.

B (41:12)

We're in E, but we're starting away from the tonic chord. It's not where you would necessarily normally start. And then once the riff is there taking you B, B sharp, C sharp, you're. You're right into the harmony and you. You can connect it in a way.

A (41:27)

That is much more clear, like bouncing a rubber ball. That little chromatic riff gives the song its signature sense of motion.

B (41:34)

It feels like a normal song and people play it all the time without thinking about this at all. But every single section of it has an extra two beats thrown in.

A (41:49)

In the chorus, the word gettin in, the old man's gettin on extended by two extra beats.

B (41:56)

Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down. And it looks like. So this happens in the verse every time it happens in the chorus, it happens in the bridge. And even the little echo at the end, you get this extra 2. 2 beats. Totally comfortable and natural feeling driven by the text. Strange if you stop and think about it or like, pay attention to it.

A (42:28)

And while the song didn't have a jam, it did change very gradually.

B (42:32)

It's really interesting to see a song that, you know, is born fully formed, rides the whole career and doesn't change in any musicological, you know, structural way. So you get to follow the details of nuance in the player's approach. There's no major changes, but you get to hear the changes in gear, the changes in feel, all the variations in tempo and mood.

A (43:00)

The Brown Eyed Women Solo on Europe 72 is pretty simple.

B (43:27)

Delilah Jones was the mother of twins. It's the fully formed structure where you're staying very close to the. To the vocal line. And so that's where it lives at the very beginning. It's kind of like he has to live with the. The conversation for a while, you know, where he has an idea and he keeps it close. Very much in the line of bluegrass playing or Jazz playing where the head is the head and you stick to it best you can. But as he gets more and more comfortable, he's. He's a talker and that's kind of how I imagine it. And, and he just starts to embellish as it starts to become a more comfortable thing. He literally grows the number of verses. He's going to talk. He makes the conversation longer and longer. So they stick with one verse all the way through the hiatus, but the solos get fancier and fancier across that arc. You know, by 73 they're already decorated, you know, in a clearly decorated way. And they're starting to get fairly well embellished by the, by the hiatus. And then when they come back, it starts off in a one verse version, but by the time you get to May 77, it's three. Three verses already and quite more verbose.

A (45:11)

That was from May 25, 1977 in Richmond, Virginia. Now, Dave's picks one.

B (45:41)

The. The melody still remains to anchor, so you could still hear clips of the sort of vocal rhythms in the. In the playing. But what he does, he opens up the range a ton and has an arc to the whole solo. So there's what would be the normal embellished version of the earlier periods the first time through. And then in the second time through, he expands the range to bigger and starts to use double stops so it's more guitaristic. And then the third one is climactic with high bends and a couple of chromatic riffs that then kind of stay in the vocabulary for that song the rest of the way. Like you'll, you'll hear snips of that in the 80s and in the 90s of the same kind of little chromatic lines.

A (46:29)

And by 1991 it's even more embellished. This is a version from June 17, 19, 1991, at Giant Stadium with Bruce Hornsby on piano. Now the release saint of Circumstance. First Vince Wellnick jumps in, then Hornsby enters the chat and turns it into a jam. Before Garcia seeds to the piano player entirely.

B (48:05)

L. Jones was the mother of twins two times over, you know, the rest was sin.

A (48:12)

Brown eyed women everywhere. One other song event we'll note from the 14 April show, directly following the canonical version of Brown Eyed Women.

B (48:38)

Felt your side of bed the covers were still warm where you'd been laying.

A (48:51)

The Grateful Dead had backed Bob Weir on Looks Like Rain during the Ace sessions at Wally Hiders in February with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel. And he'd play pedal steel on Looks Like Rain during all the earliest versions, starting with the song's debut in March, David Lemieux.

B (49:05)

They were so on it. On Looks Like Rain, Jerry played pedal steel guitar. And there weren't enough track assignments to give Jerry a lead guitar and a pedal steel. So they. I guess. I think Wiz might have been watching through a closed circuit camera. I think that was the case in the truck. And so he could unpatch it when he'd see Jerry sit down at the pedal steel for Looks Like Rain and only Looks Like Rain. So they'd have to patch it from that to that because there weren't enough track assignments and they never missed it.

A (49:35)

But the Copenhagen version is not only the last version of Looks Like Rain with pedal steel, but the last time Garcia played pedal steel on stage with the Dead. Until a Dylan and the dead tour in 1987, ending a period that started almost exactly three years earlier. I'm a big fan of Phil's harmony. On these early versions.

B (49:57)

Have songs written in the letters of your name.

A (50:17)

And then it was time for the main event. Please welcome back Graham Boone.

B (50:46)

Jerry. Building up a little bit of repetition up to G and then up to A. That climactic. A little bit of climax riff there. Bob really affirmative on the progression. Coming back down here, a little bit of E minor and back down to the Dark Star progression. But they're still moving, building up again. Beautiful chords from Bob, Jerry up to G and then A at that climactic A. Hitting it, bending into it. One thing I regret to this day is that I never got to hear Live Dead. So when they came through to Dark Star, I didn't recognize it. And so I couldn't appreciate how different it was from the Lab Dead version. So we get into this interesting spot where things have kind of settled into B minor. Very strange and interesting key. Phil hitting these chords. Then Jerry, he plays his Dark Star riff as if he wants to get to the first verse. But the other guys don't want to go there. They stay in B minor. So he lets go of that. And they're working around. There's a little bit of A major, Keith doing some flourishes. And that E minor chord. And then Keith gets into these interesting flourishes. Cherry with beautiful violin sound going through different harmonies as if inventing a song on the fly. But then it goes into chromatic notes. Everyone's exploring those sharps and flats. Like we could get into space here, but we haven't yet gotten to the first verse yet. And then a beautiful landing on A major is this going to be. Don't let your deal go down. Just a little hint. Maybe with that mixture of the A and the E minor together. Beautiful Preparation for what?

A (54:03)

The Dead's disco ball continued to blow minds in Europe.

B (54:06)

I remember a great dark star and they had this huge glass ball under the ceiling, slowly rotating and the lights going on. That was amazing. We were taking places.

A (54:19)

Jen Scobby saw the Dead a few days later in Aarhus, but reports this story.

B (54:24)

At that time I had the connection to a guy in Koppenhagen who was. He was selling drums, actually. And he and his friend had been in the Tivoli concert. Not at the tv, but at the Tivoli concert. And his friend has got to look at, you know, these disco things who are going around under the ceiling and making light all over. So when he has been looking at that for five minutes, he simply had to go out. He couldn't stand it anymore. And then Jared gets into this long riff that he repeats many times. Bob backs off a little bit and then listen for Bob. There it is. Mind left body in the middle of this jam. But Phil doesn't want that. Totally different direction with the feeling. Groovy. A great feeling, groovy lick. And now they're into that great jam. And then every once in a while, pausing to just hang out on a D chord and then going back to the jam. This. This reminds me of Dylan's All I really Want to Do. I ain't looking to compete with you. Beat or cheat or mistreat you, Simplify you, classify you, deny, defy or crucify you. There we have that pause on D and then back into it. Super joyous, energetic. That Bill so strong, doing everything there with the drums. And listen to Bob's comping. So much energy from everybody in the group. Now Keith is low in the mix, but he's right in the middle of it. It's that great Phil flying way up in the range, coming back down all over the bass. And then Bob says no, moves on to a straight A chance. Where are they going to go, everybody? On a super intensity. Something's got to give and why not Back to feeling groovy. Wonderful pause on D. And then the last time through, calming down. Lighter, quieter, and then holding out beautiful, suspended a chord again, recalling a little bit of that. Don't let your deal go down. But they don't go into that. That's true.

A (59:10)

And coming out of the ending to Sugar Magnolia was perhaps the first serious pigstravaganza of the tour.

B (59:20)

When I was Feeling so big I have. My family talked about what I heard.

A (59:32)

Pigman had done tunes on the first three nights of the tour, but wasn't quite at full strength in Copenhagen, though he didn't hold back.

B (59:39)

You know that love Drive a man to drink Make a professor forget how to think Too many strange, strange things to your mind Try to roll.

A (60:07)

It was a freestyle so inventive that it inspired a full transcription in the first volume of the taping compendium.

B (60:12)

He was not the big fellow that he was in the early pictures. He was quite little and skinny and just stood there and building out those reps. That was awesome.

A (60:27)

The jam even shifted into Pig's first original showstopper. Caution. With the band absolutely cooking an inside caution. A Surprise Turn Walk 47 miles Barbed.

B (61:07)

Wire Got a cobra snake for a necktie Got a brand new house by the roadside Made out of rattlesnake hide Brand new chimneys set on top Made out of human skull Come on, child, tell me who do you love? Yes, I do what you told me do what you told me do One of only three performances of who do youo Love? So that's a rarity, part of the band's repertoire.

A (61:34)

In 1966, when it showed up on a studio demo, who do youo Love surfaced only on a few scant live tapes.

B (61:40)

Grapes.

A (61:40)

It's hardly a full performance of the song, but gives this sequence an ominous core. Before bringing it back home.

B (62:04)

He said, yes, it is all I need, all I need.

A (62:15)

Bjorn didn't have to wait long to hear the show again.

B (62:18)

Most of it was on the radio a couple of weeks after they had edited a few songs out, but. But most of it was there and in a good, good quality, taped from the radio. My brother taped it for me. Quarter inch tape. I've heard that many times.

A (62:33)

The Grateful Dead got along with Copenhagen. Their local promoter was Knud Thorbensen. John Morris recruited him for the Independent Promoters alliance that helped organize the Dead's tour.

B (62:43)

He had a partner named Andre Stephenson, who was the quiet one. But Knud was quite a character. He had a couple of restaurants. In the end he was involved with abba, bringing them into the world. Had a bit of an affair with one of the girls. He was a great character, blonde, tall. He was your ideal Scandinavian, good looking guy. And he once bought a Rolls Royce on which he had to pay 200% tax. And I said, why? He said, because it's a Rolls Royce and I've got the only one in Copenhagen.

A (63:17)

Another reason the Dead may have gotten along With Copenhagen was the hash.

B (63:20)

Steve Parish the Danish people were great, man, oh boy. We had a lot of fun in Denmark. And it was the first country where they had no law against smoking hash or marijuana. And so we, we couldn't believe it. We went into a bar, me and Kreutzman, and people were smoking. And I kept asking the guy, you sure it's okay? And he was like saying, he said, you Americans, can't you ever realize it's okay?

A (63:42)

The Previous September In 1971, a group of heads had begun squatting in abandoned army barracks, establishing the community Christiania, with its open air hash market known as Pusher Street.

B (63:55)

Hans Frank used to be army barracks just outside Copenhagen. And they actually just broke into it. There was much less control in the early days. So it was just anarchy, disputes between groups of settlers. Some were into the environment, some were into exotic foods, and some were into politics, and some just wanted to build a house in a windmill and stuff like that.

A (64:20)

In fact, one of the founders of Christiania was a former resident of the commune where Dan Terrell dosed and listened to Darkstar. Lars Movin.

B (64:29)

One of his best friends, a guy named Jacob Ludwigsen, was actually one of the people who founded Christiania. They were living together in that commune I was talking about. So in that sense, he was really close to the beginning of Christiania. He didn't live there and, you know, he was a very dedicated pot smoker or hash smoker. So he would probably go there to buy his supplies. Mountain Girl, we walked through there and just found. Wasn't open when we were there. That's all I can say. You know, there was a few bulletin boards up, but it was just everybody was somewhere else. It felt like, you know, it wasn't. The weather was not nice or something. And we did, we did cruise over there, but we didn't have the right connection to really explore it. And I think there was a time factor there too.

A (65:22)

Sam Cutler, the Grateful Dead, of course.

B (65:24)

You know, have always been pot smokers, man, you know, forever. The Californians, for fuck's sake. They always had the best pot. Yeah, ever. Because, you know, all kinds of fans would come and go, hey, Sam, try some of this, man. Oh, wow. Shit, yeah. Can we get some more of it? Sure. You know what I mean? So there was always wonderful pot and everybody loved pot, but in Europe, because they discovered hashish, because at that time there wasn't really any pot in Europe. You know, you need California weather and altitude and all that shit for good pot. So they discovered hashish Much to their delight. They loved it. Denmark's a kick. I recommend Denmark. It's a lovely country. It's just everything is so well thought through in Denmark. In other words, it's a country of designers and they're carpentry and boat makers. Like in Amsterdam, everybody seems to have a boat.

A (66:19)

Here's Rosie McGee from the audiobook of her excellent memoir, Dancing with the Dead, available from rosiemcgee.com My roommate in Europe.

B (66:27)

Was Sue Swanson, who handled payroll for the band. And while we were in Copenhagen, Denmark, sue and I went for a long walk from the hotel, ending up lost in the city's famous red light district where the hookers were on display behind their crib windows. With the help of a friendly local, we were pointed back in the right direction and on the way back to the hotel we found a great basement shop selling hand knitted Scandinavian sweaters in a dazzling array of colors. We got to do a bunch of sightseeing and everybody bought a sweater. We all walked around with our beautiful hand knit Danish sweater. That's a lovely place. I have to say. They are. There are. It's smooth, you know, everything there is nice and smooth and laid out for easy living. So my hat's off to those guys.

A (67:19)

Much of the band and family and crew were soon outfitted with the Danish sweaters, which can be seen throughout photos of the tour.

B (67:25)

Throughout the tour, those who had the means got into some high end shopping. What was funny was that when one of them came back from a shopping expedition with something particularly nice, then everyone else had to go get the same thing. First it was Dunhill lighters, then Mont Blanc pens, then Swiss cutlery, and so on. This behavior was a continuation of the group mind already in place at home with Pendleton blankets, Courtney tie, dyed mandalas, Navajo silver and turquoise jewelry, Ukrainian flower shawls, even extending to one group of people all driving Citrons. The result was that you could go to any one of a dozen homes in Marin or Sonoma and the decor and accoutrements would be nearly identical.

A (68:17)

Thanks to our friend Sully, we have access to a clutch of letters Pigpen wrote to his parents over the course of the tour. His longtime girlfriend, Veronica, known as V, couldn't make the trip trip. She was tight with his parents too, and Pig noted in one letter, don't.

B (68:31)

Let her get down about school and keep her nose in them books.

A (68:36)

But Pig noted in a letter home she should be expecting some mail.

B (68:39)

I bought V a hand knitted sweater in Copenhagen and hope it fits. I Got her one about my size. It's 100% wool. Mine has no seams, done on circular needles. And took the woman who made it somewhere around 75, 80 hours to make. If it don't fit, I can send it back and change sizes, colors or styles.

A (69:02)

One place the sweaters can be seen is photos of an excursion that Giusbert Hanekrut documented the day after the first Tivoli concert Hall show.

B (69:10)

There was a funny thing. They had one day off. I think they did two shows in Copenhagen. I covered one and the next day they have a kind of day off. And they asked Jerry join us and we can have a tour with this bus. And I remember him saying, I'm a musician, I'm not a fucking tourist, I'm not joining you. But eventually he did. Alan Trist There were visits to the island in Denmark where a hamlet occurred. I do remember that. The castle. That was pretty exciting.

A (69:46)

You know, historically Kronborg Castle overlooks the Sund, a body of water at the exact border of Norway and Sweden and became Elsinore in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

B (69:57)

Hamlet's castle by Denmark and Sweden right on the border up there, you know, everybody was there, but they were suffering the slings of arrows of outrageous fortune, man. And everybody was getting all gloomy and down and moopy and mopey and all of a sudden everybody was Hamlet. Alas, poor Yurich. I knew him, Horatio. He was a motherfucker worse than you, man. And everybody was like that and it was getting kind of depressive.

A (70:24)

It's also the site of a beautiful and appropriately gloomy portrait of Jerry Garcia taken by Giesbert Hanekrut for the COVID of the Dutch Underground Paper or Groenberg Castle in Helsingor.

B (70:35)

That's. I think that's Sweden and that is at the seaside. I walked with him to the area, the location with the sea. And about the photo I. You call that pushed? I pushed the sky, the dark room. This is of course analog and I had a. I used to work for. Before I was freelance. I worked for a well known photographer and he learned me how to print photos. And just with your hands pushing and which is an important technique and it's also type of. Other well known Dutch photographers use that technique as well. And I learned that from them. There are a lot of photos of him, but not so many portraits. And I think this is one of the better ones.

A (71:23)

You can purchase prints from Giesbert's website and we've posted a link@dead.net deadcast and then it was deeper into Denmark for the Dead's only University gig of Europe 72, archivist David Lemieux.

B (71:36)

It is truly a small university, a small college cafeteria in this beautiful wood, a frame building with glass everywhere. The energy I get from that show is very similar to Newcastle, which is a little out of their element, but incredibly cool nonetheless. There's some great stuff in our house. You get the feeling the Dead are playing. I think it held 700 people. And this is at a time when the Dead could very easily sell out 20,000 seats in the United States.

A (72:05)

How did the Dead end up playing in a university cafeteria in Denmark? The same reason they played most universities back home. There was a budget to bring them. But the stock laden wasn't just any university cafeteria. It was home to Aarhus's student Enter Jazz organization. Paul Leek attended the Dad's Aarhus show and starting in the 1980s was the university's official historian writing the liner notes for this show in the Europe 72 Complete Recordings box set.

B (72:32)

It was established in 1964. It was the same year that Stagland was built. This room which was a university cafeteria during the day and a jazz venue or a meeting room in the evening. During the first years there were Bill Evans Trio, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Youssef Lechief, Lee Coney, Oscar Peterson, Don Cherry Stuff Smith, just to mention a few of them. It's the biggest names in jazz, of course. And then in the late 60s when the interest in jazz ceased, then the club chose some rock and roll or rock names like Taste and Country, Joe and the Fish, Soft Machine and Colosseum, for instance. And they all played in Abstagland.

A (73:23)

They'd produced shows by Jimi Hendrix and the who a few years earlier at the nearby Velsby Riskov, Holland, but didn't have enough advance warning from the Scandinavian booking agency. So stock laden it was. Jan Scovby attended the Aarhus show and remembers it was a journey to get there in those days you have to.

B (73:40)

Drive for three hours and on the route you have to sail for one hour. At that time we didn't have a bridge as we have today. So it's four hour transport in a country as small as Denmark. The building manager told me when I interviewed him that they brought much more gear than any other band that has played in Stagnant ever since.

A (74:00)

Among that equipment was the band's light rig. By then the band's new lighting team was starting to come together. Lighting technician Ben Holler.

B (74:08)

We played Wembley. I think that was the first gig In London, when I'm out there, I'm running a Polish front in the back of the house. They don't really know me that well. Candice can at least talk to one human, you know, it's enough nightmare. Even in America, talking to fossil spot operators, you know, you get a New Yorker talking to a guy from Georgia. Forget it.

A (74:30)

In Aarhus, they chalked up another solid tour story.

B (74:33)

It was a university setting and everything. We set it up. For some reason it got done really quickly there. So we went to the cafeteria and we got in line and Candace is so excited. And there's. There's a carton of milk. You know, here's just something American, you know, you just drink this carton of milk and she takes this big gulp and then spits it sky high. And because the Danes like buttermilk and she just wasn't ready for a big mouthful of buttermilk. And it didn't say buttermilk on the box, it just said milch or whatever, you know. So the concert was. It was a nice concert. It was one of those ones that. But I remember, and this happened a lot with the Dead, some of this stuff in Europe, in the big places, the show was all right. But I remember especially in Dijon, the show was magical. But it's in a little farming community. There are no critics there to see it. There's no. And as I recall, the show in that university was again, nice. Maybe it just was. There wasn't a lot of pressure. JENS GOVI it simply means a barn. If you saw the Bruce Springsteen film, you know how a barn is. And that means it was a very small cafeteria connected to the University of Oz. All the equipment from the cafeteria was there. There was chairs and tables and all that just stuffed into the side of the room. We'd never seen that much equipment before, so there was not much space in the stage. Pill like I sat near the entrance, a long way from the stage. I think There were about 700 people, full capacity. And as I wrote in the liner notes, I had to sit on this cafeteria trace light at least until the intermission. And there was these rafters under the ceiling, so people were crawling up there and sitting there. I think most were students from the university. I don't think rather many of them knew what they were going to hear. We have all heard Grateful Dead records or something like that, but I think none of us has never heard a concert like this where the band was connecting to the crowd as they did. It was simply a quite new experience to all of us. The critic that I interviewed, he told me that there was this very tight connection between the band and the audience. And, well, he said also that there was no security at all. He was sitting up front and he noticed that there was this tighter connection between band and audience than he had ever experienced before. And he told me that it was like an invitation to the audience. I think most Dead concerts starts in a little scrambling way. And then suddenly inside the band a machine starts and then it goes. And I think it started already in Sugary. And when they started up Sugary and it kept rolling, I think people were on it. Just one thing I ask of you it's just one thing for me Please forget you knew my my name My daughter Sugar me Shake it, shake it, sugar I think at that time, people normally came and took up their amplifier and their guitar and they played a number and that was that. And hello people and. And all that here. They simply mingled with the crowd in a way we never. We never heard before. You know, people dancing and you couldn't walk around to the music, but you could slip and slide a bit. To was like they simply put out their arms and hold us. It was so intimate.

A (79:11)

Like everything from Europe 72. It's an excellent show. Donna Jean is absent, perhaps hanging back in Copenhagen. The band play their first direwolf in nearly a year. And thus the first of Keith Godshaw's ten year with the band playing in. The band is starting to turn some corners in its jams. I love the amount of movement in this little segment.

B (79:59)

I remember that I was a bit disappointed during some of the first songs in the first set. But later that night I became very enthusiastic about the music, especially, of course, the jazz parts and the second sets. And I have been a fan ever since, not a fanatic fan. I counted my records last night. I have about 180 compact discs and 25 LPs with a grateful Dead. That's all in the intermission at the concert in 1972, I think that about a third of the audience left simply to. They think that they did not know the Grateful Dead, I think. And they thought that, well, we have had two hours now. It's time to go home. I think that was what happened at that time. Of course, the second set, which is one long set, it was fantastic. There was a tremendous sound. And one of the things I remember very clearly was, of course, Jerry playing a starokaster, but that was Phil's bass. I think he was using Big Brown that evening. And it was so distinct. So clear and so sweet and soft and everywhere. So that was fantastic. We've never heard anything like that before.

A (81:18)

In the second set, there's a long transition between Truckin and the other one, with lots of little episodes like this.

B (81:53)

I remember that during the. The last couple of songs, Not Fade Away and Going down the Road, it was possible to walk around in. In the room. That has been quite impossible during the first set. I think it was without comparison with anything else we've seen or heard before. It is quite another way to listen to a concert and to be with a band. And we were talking about it four weeks after that. And I think for many of the people who were there, the album from the 72 Europe tour was their first way into the Dead.

A (82:59)

Thanks, Jens and Pill. And then it was back to Copenhagen for another legendary show, David Lemieux.

B (83:05)

They come back to Tivoli and play there again, this time with some TV cameras. And the vibe is very similar to 414 for the second Tivoli show. And add to that that they're now playing to the cameras, which is fun. And I love that show too. This is important Grateful Dead music. This is important era. And to get to see that was very, very special. So I think the Tivoli is a wonderful. It's a wonderfully important document. Similar to Venita, where you get to see a China writer transition, minus the cutaways of the dancers, but Dark Star, you get to see. You get to see things that are important parts of the Grateful Dead sound.

A (83:44)

The cameras belong to Danish national television. And it was a landmark event. The cameras were present for the first two thirds of the show, filming for later broadcast. And in the middle, broadcasting live for a half hour on Danish television. One very young fan who was at the show was Lars Benecke. Lars is now the head of catalog for Warner Brothers in Denmark. It's the family business. His father, Olaf Benneke, was the contact point for the dead in Denmark.

B (84:11)

My dad filled us up with music from when we were kids. He was the second in command of the local licensee of Warners in Denmark. At that time it was called Metronome. And he, together with a guy called Ben Fabric, who had a number one hit in the States with Alicat, made this Metronome company in Denmark. They made a deal with Atlantic later on Warner, and then Electra came on board. And he was kind of running the show when I was a kid. And every Thursday he brought home test pressings. And to me it was like heaven. Thursdays were Always heaven. Because that was. You know, we picked me and my bigger brother, we went through all the. The stacks of new music from. From grad 17 to dolls to James Taylor, whatever. So, yeah, so I was hooked quite early on. And he took us to shows at the time. I remember we. We met. That was very early. And one of the first one was. Was Dolls, where you had to. To give them some. Some kind of award. And then the rascals in 69, I think it was.

A (85:30)

It was because of Olaf Bennecke and Metronome that Bjorn Lindstrom was able to snag a recording of the 14 April show off Danish radio. And it was because of them that cameras would be at the 17th of April show back at Tivoli.

B (85:42)

And the producer, Egmond Jensen, who interviews Jerry, he was a cool guy from Danish radio who was interested in music. And so he was a very good friend of my dad who promoted the records in Denmark. So they kind of hooked up and did TV shows with Randy Newman, Harry Chapin, Tom Waits, stuff like that. And that also included Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead and Doors. I remember the producer coming in privately in our home, and they were. I mean, we as kids were bummed to bed, but I know they stayed up very, very late, maybe had some scotch or whatever they had, but they played records all night. And many of those nights I'm dead sure that's where their ideas of doing recordings or, you know, my father's knowledge of who was touring and who was doing this and that, and then trying to see if something could be worked out from there.

A (86:40)

Edmund Jensen interviewed Jerry Garcia following the band soundcheck. I like this exchange.

B (86:46)

You played a favorite of mine just a moment ago, Uncle John's Band. Right. What does that tell about then? Well, what does it tell you about? Well, you got me there. Right. But you like it anyway. Yeah. Okay.

A (86:59)

Well, that's the way it is with me.

B (87:01)

I don't know what it tells about. All I know is I like it. I like it.

A (87:04)

I like that place, wherever it is.

B (87:06)

I like Uncle John and his band, whoever they are.

A (87:08)

Garcia explains why the band's performances stretch over three hours. Basically, the experience we relate to is.

B (87:15)

Playing music and really getting off and really, you know, getting high from it, you know, and the audience getting high and everybody getting high. And on a.

A (87:22)

On a really super night, that's what happens.

B (87:24)

And that's the thing that we're basically.

A (87:27)

We basically try to do every performance.

B (87:28)

So we have long performance to allow ourselves the possibility because we'd never be able to do it. If we were doing like 45 minute sets and that sort of thing it would just.

A (87:37)

We never do.

B (87:38)

When we arrived at the hall we went straight to backstage area both for my dad to discuss with the TV people and so forth. And we had to meet the band and say hello. My dad had to. So we tagged along. We went backstage and there was a lot of people back there as I recall, a lot of people, very colorful people. And it was very cheerful and I was standing there some of the time alone because my dad was mediating or talking to the TV production and the band of course. But they overcome this guy, grinning, having fun, big smile and saying who are you? What's your name? And stuff like that. 11 years I tried to explain who I was and English is the second language in Denmark. So I. From the first grade you learn English. There was no problem speaking German. But he was so. He was very happy and cheerful as I remember. But there was this grin and this huge face, hairy face. I remember and most of all I remember seeing out of my eyes or I noticed that he was missing part of his finger. Didn't say anything like that or didn't think about it at the time. But later on when my dad was there I said well what have you been? I've been speaking to this guy called Jerry and. Oh, you met Jerry. Rah rah rah. Yeah, he's the guitar player. I was like guitar player? He's missing one finger. But anyway I didn't say anything. But later on when we were in the hall and they were on stage. Oh, there's the guy and he was on the left and he was playing the guitar for real. So yeah, that's, you know that was, you know some of the non music impressions that an 11 year old kid.

A (89:30)

And tonight the band do it again. Playing the first three set show of the tour with over three hours of music. Though none of the music would make it to Europe 72 some pictures certainly would. It was an eventful night out in the equipment truck. The crew gave three stars to a number of performances including China Cat Sunflower into I know you Rider.

B (89:53)

Sam Lars.

A (90:20)

Benneke and his father went to their seats.

B (90:22)

I was only 11 so I mean I was more like a spectator and a lady taking off a T shirt with nothing beneath. Three rows back were things. I remember another kid who's in another famous Danish act called Swartzhou Black Son. He's called Steen Jurgensen and he is like three or four years older than Me, he was in the audience with his dad as well. People were so much into the music because I wouldn't say we're Japanese in the sense of just sitting there and then clapping and sitting there, but people enjoyed it. They were very much into the music and seeing and smelling, because it was a show where there was a lot of smoke in the air and we weren't used to that, or at least I wasn't. And I remember the sweet smell in the air and the whole loose kind of thing that went with the music. It fitted well with the music. It was not just another day in Copenhagen. It was a special day. I wouldn't say it was like a church, but it felt like when you're in a church and really going for it, it was like everybody was into it. That's what I remember. And I also remember that it was quite difficult to see everything on stage because everybody was standing up. And I'm not short, but at the time I was shorter than now, so it was difficult to see all of what happening to them. Many a times I had to stand on the chair in order to see the stage. So that's what I did.

A (92:00)

And with television cameras rolling, though not yet live, the band debuted a brand new Jerry Garcia Robert Hunter song, destined for the live album, but wasn't yet finished. He's Gone was destined to be a dead classic, of course, a sing along that lasted in the band's repertoire all the way through 1995. They tracked the canonical version in Amsterdam a few weeks later. The newest song on Europe 72. We'll dive more into it then. And then it was time to go live to Denmark.

B (93:18)

We're gonna take a little short break here and then come back in a few minutes for this TV thing. And then we'll. We'll do the TV thing. And that'll be then. Then I'll add a little special. It's very special. Thanks a lot. Meanwhile, you'll find your souvenir posters in the lobby, cupidolls of all the band members and.

A (93:41)

Sam Cutler.

B (93:42)

The Grateful Dead were going to be the first ever band to play live on Danish television, which was a big fucking thing, you know. And, yeah, it was a bit of a coup that we got together, right? And what happened was this Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was on a state visit to Denmark. So there was a half hour show of her wandering around in golden carriages and all that. Like, you know, there's a queen of the Netherlands, isn't it? You know what I mean, Visiting Denmark. And then they were going to cut from that to the Tivoli in Copenhagen, right? Very famous old theater where the Grateful Dead were going to play.

A (94:21)

There have been many live rock performances on Danish television, including the first filmed appearance by led Zeppelin in March 1969. But the dead were the first to truly play live. Lars Bennecke's father helped organize it on the Danish end.

B (94:35)

I think that was one of the only ones I know about, because I would definitely have known if there were other stuff, because there were not any live transmissions from Danish television. We didn't have the gear for it. They weren't set up to do it. And when they did live transmissions, it was very seldom. It had to be from the royal family or it had to be from, you know, something spectacular event. Rock music at the time weren't that spectacular. It was like, nah. So. So it was definitely history in the making. So everything was set up. It was all happening. The band's on stage. It's all cool. I was outside where they had the outside broadcast TV truck with the Danish director. And, you know, it's all gonna. You know, everything's getting ready. So we're like five minutes away, and we're about three minutes away from, like, cutting from Queen Juliana's state visit to the Grateful Dead at the Tivoli. You know, like a very, very tense moment, and the little prick that's gonna announce the Grateful Dead and go like, scobbledy, scobbledy, scobbledygob. The Grateful Dead is trying to be seen by the camera that. You know, camera number three or whatever that he's got to talk to. And he's behind Garcia's amplifier, this bank of amplifiers. And the amps are too high, so he can't see over the amps, and the camera can't see him. And I'm in the control booth, and this camera's going like this, trying to find where the. Is the guy that's going to announce the show. And there's, like, a minute to go. But here we were at Tivoli Gardens, and we were very professional. Wasn't our first rodeo. We worked with people coming in and doing, you know, want to film something and introduce the band. And film always went down that way. And so we're at the monitor board, and now it's like two minutes of Showtime. The band's out on stage, and then these guys are ready. The guy's out on the mic, and the guy's got the camera on him from Danish tv, and they're going to broadcast the show from Tivoli, this amazing historical place. And the little guy was a little too short, the announcer, and he starts yelling at the cameraman, whose name was Fritz, Fritz, I'm too short. I'm too little. Get me something to stand on. Get me something to stand on. So he didn't know what to do. He takes a garbage can and. Been there all day, man, and. And people have been throwing milk containers in it and all kinds of lunch receptacles and stuff and dirt and sludge. And he just takes the fucking thing and spit drop, turns it over and dumps on our cables and all over the stage, all this garbage, man. And he puts the announcer up on it. And the guy's up on it, turns it upside down and stands on it. And the camera's like, got him like that, right? At which point, finally, you know, there's like 15 seconds to go. The guy puts his microphone up to his mouth to introduce the band. And this fist that in slow motion comes through the side of the recording goes bang. And the guy goes right. And the director buries his head like this next to me. I'm ruined, I'm ruined, I'm ruined. And Garcia luckily saw the whole thing and started playing. So that was the introduction of the Grateful Dead in Copenhagen. Sam says, I slugged the guy, but I didn't. But right as he goes. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I tackle him and he falls off the garbage can. I go, you're not doing this. So this is what people saw, this little fracas going on because of the disrespect. Now what would you have done? The director finally pulled himself together and. And there we are. That was the first time a live band ever appeared, and they were fabulous. I mean, it was a great gig.

A (98:34)

This little bit of film. In fact, nearly the entire live part of the evening doesn't survive in the circulating copies. Lars and Olav Bennycke have nothing to contradict this story, though.

B (98:45)

I called my dad and said, do you remember anything he said could have happened? But it was not put to him. And unfortunately the people involved in the production are not here anymore, because otherwise I would have called Egmond or somebody out and said, what the hell happened, Gu? And there's nobody from Tivoli around.

A (99:03)

Bjorn Lindstrom, who'd seen them a few days previous, though, was watching at home and is positive he witnessed a more peaceful transition of power with announcer Edmund Jensen sitting on the lip of the stage and introducing the band from there.

B (99:15)

The TV transmission was just 20 minutes, I think the first voice from the producer was, you just made. You just missed the great song and then went to the next one.

A (99:31)

Recently, at the behest of the Dead cast, Bjorn was nice enough to do some searching through Danish newspapers and found a review of the broadcast published the next morning, which offers a thumbs down review to Edmund Jensen's introduction of the band and mentions no punch. If it's something that Sam Cutler saw through one of the monitors in the television truck, maybe it was an incident that occurred before they were live to all of Denmark. Certainly enough members of the Dead family seem to recall a Danish for coss. It was totally a great gig. If you've never seen it, it's pretty easy to find. And if not, ask a Deadhead. For once, the band seemed totally comfortable in front of the cameras. And even a few of the live tunes get three star ratings from the crew, including Mr. Charlie and the closing number of the live segment. And the only part of the actual live broadcast to currently circulate is video, the band's new single in Europe, One More Saturday Night.

B (100:45)

Wow.

A (101:11)

Even though Bob Weir said goodbye, the cameras weren't gone yet and the Dead hit a few more highly rated numbers, including It Hurts Me Too and Ramble On Rose.

B (101:50)

I wanna sing you hundred verses in a ray tab I know this song. It ain't.

A (102:20)

Perhaps the show's most legendary moment didn't warrant a rating, but it's there on video during Big Railroad Blues, the clown masks and Groucho Marx glasses they'd been using to weird the locals find their way to the stage with band and crew alike donning Bozo costumery for one of the band's most visually arresting performances.

B (103:08)

And it was me that went in New York to a joke shop and bought all those Bozo masks and all that stuff. We brought a big bag of those with us just for the hell of a it and ended up becoming iconic to that tour as the guys wore them in a couple of places and played, you know. And we would go into towns in our two buses and we had 50 of us and we would have all those masks on and we had some other masks that I kept them for all these years. They were in my barn, but they all melted together in this giant thing from a window, a window and hit a and just UV'd them into a pile of all this mixed up alien faces and strange masks. I should have preserved them. They became such a historical thing. People loved them.

A (104:23)

When the shoot ended, the band took another set break and came back for another piece of Important business. Please welcome back Graham Boone.

B (105:00)

Jerry repeating that riff, pushing it in there. And everybody's getting behind this beautiful progression. Energy picking up. Listen to Bob and Keith together. Interesting move, Jerry on this slow descending line. No D. Well, mini episode unfolding. Beautiful. A little bit like a slower deal. Go down, but not quite. Jerry up to high G. And then the high climactic A. There you have it, guys. It's that climax riff. Beautiful dark star progression coming down. And then return to that Jerry riff. And we're locked in. And now quieting down for the first verse.

A (106:45)

Though some Dead Hill heads complained about the repetitive organ riff Pigpen would play on early versions of Darkstar, by 1972, he was contributing to the jam in deeper ways. Graham calls him out at the beginning here, but he's right there jamming along for this whole great segment.

B (107:04)

And now you can hear Pigpen coming in on organ. Very quiet, but very supportive of what's going on harmonically. And now you can hear Keith picking up the rhythm A minor. And all of a sudden they're off into A minor. Phil picking up a great riff in A minor, A minor. And there we have Bo Little A minor, B minor diminished riff. Let it grow vamp in embryonic form. Listen to Keith really getting. Getting around that vamp. Lots of energy built, great rhythmic backup. Phil backing up the Bob rip. So here Jerry starts playing gestural ideas that aren't really in the meter. Bob stops playing that vamp, going to D minor. Interesting. Where might they go from here now to G and then back to A minor? Bob returning to that Let it grow vamp a little bit. Notice the loose meter. Keening slow notes from Jerry. And now Jerry hitting an insistent high E. Jerry's starting to blur things with chromatic notes.

A (110:07)

The Dead liked their song suites, and in Europe, Dark Star was pretty solidly linked to one song in particular.

B (110:19)

Things are melting and getting really timbrel. Oh, beautiful. Complete opening up onto A. A. And now we're waiting. We're waiting for it to come out. Beautiful harmonies from Jerry. Bill slips into rhythm, Bob takes over, and we're into Sugar Magnolia. Alan Trist, Denmark that was at Tivoli Gardens, wasn't it? And the. And there was a TV show done there, I think. Later on, it became problematic for copyright reasons as to how it could be used. David Lemieux There's a copy in the vault, but there's no ownership and there's no quality to do anything with even if there was. But there is a master somewhere in Europe that is owned by somebody by an organization. Also, unfortunately, the third set from Tivoli 417, which is the Dark star Caution Night, there doesn't appear to be video of it. I think there's a one camera shoot on kind of mediocre video that's more of an in house feed. I think it's more of like a closed caption or a closed circuit thing. Whereas the rest of the show looks amazing. That was the part that was broadcast and looks wonderful. Multi camera, great angles. The third set unfortunately wasn't. There's no known great quality film of it. And we have talked to the owner and they've dug through and they've never found that either.

A (112:37)

But it was an important show.

B (112:39)

It is one of those shows that you talk about. It's not, you know, forgotten also because. Mainly because it was recorded and has been shown many a times on Danish television. It's something that pops up as being one of the historic shows in Denmark and people refer to it. And that's why I said that if everybody who claims being there on that night, Madison Square Garden would be too small to buy for having all those.

A (113:05)

People, Pigpen made an impression, as Hans Frank recalls.

B (113:08)

Well, I'm really happy that we managed to see and hear Pigpen play and sing. That was amazing. Actually, when I was in the Wyndham City Air Force course a year later and to do my my service and then there I heard that Pigpen had died. So Danish TV actually put up, sent some of the pig pen tunes from the show, put them on television and.

A (113:33)

Of course Danish fans got a triple album of the tour and then we.

B (113:36)

Got the this marvelous triple album. And that was kind of the holy grail of music, the go to album of the time. Europe 72 back when it was just three LPs brought back some of the sensations of that night.

A (113:52)

And fans who attended the first night at Tivoli can even say they contributed.

B (113:56)

Yeah, I'm clamping on that.

A (113:58)

So was Dan Terrell, who continued to be an enormous Grateful Dead fan, reviewing their albums and writing likely the only Danish language essay on Robert Hunter, even translating some of Hunter's lyrics into Danish. Dan Turrell would die in 1993, but would have one more powerful encounter with the Grateful Dead.

B (114:16)

Lars Movin, on his very last trip to California in 1989. He actually got to see Grateful Dead on sort of their home turf or whatever. They played a number of shows. I think it was three days in a row in Mountain View, just south of San Francisco, in something called the Shoreline Amphitheater. And he happened to be there on holiday with his family or they were traveling California. He went to see them on the first night, Friday, September 29th, the first.

A (114:48)

Night Dan Terrell saw the Dead revive Death don't have no Mercy for the first time since 1970. Later released on the so Many Roads box set.

B (114:58)

Come to your house. You know, it don't take long. You look in the bed, find your old mama is gone. No mercy. We have his notebooks from. From that trip because they were. After he died. His notebook from that California trip was. Was published in a sort of facsimile of the notebook. And you can see from his note that he was slightly disappointed because Jerry Garcia apparently was not that. Well that evening. It turned out not to be quite the experience that he had hoped for. But then his family convinced him to go back and see them again on the third night because they didn't. They felt sorry for him that he was so disappointed. So he. He was allowed to. To go another time, one more time, and on Sunday. And this time Jerry Garcia was apparently much better. And it was a perfect concert. And they played Turn on your Love Light that evening, which was one of the tracks that he really liked, from the very first album that he ever reviewed by the Dead, live dead from. From 70. So he got to hear that track live. And they ended the night by playing Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan as an. As an encore. So it was a perfect evening. And in his notebooks he writes about how beautiful it was and how much he felt like being part of that whole community of Deadheads that were attending the concert and that he finally experienced that feeling of being part of that whole thing. So in the next couple of days, he was just floating on a cloud. And. And he says in his notebook, his family could hardly recognize him because he was just so happy. So it was bliss. So it was very beautiful that he got to have this experience because, you know, unfortunately, he didn't live much longer. He got cancer when he was 47 and died soon after that. So that was sad. But he had this experience just before that. So that was beautiful. And just to give you another idea about how much he valued the graceful dead, just before he died, he had made a Danish translation, sort of his own version of Black Muddy river from in the Dark, where he sort of transformed it into a piece about a big Copenhagen or a Danish location. And on his own request, Black Muddy river, the actual track from. From Grateful Dead's album, was also played at his funeral. So The Grateful Dead followed him right till the end. You could say I will walk alone by the black muddy river Sing me a song of my own.

A (118:36)

The Danish Dead scene remains a cozy place. Bjorn Lindstrom, who saw the Den in 1972, now runs the website DancingBear DK, acting as an importer of cool Dead stuff to Denmark.

B (118:48)

I got here that year to save a little on the postage, which was a great part of the expense. If I could buy a number of each item, the postage would be spread out. Of course, it started small in 99 and 2000 and grew very slowly and is. Well, it's not a thing I'm making big money out of. I don't have many regular customers, but the ones I have are very regular, both in Denmark and in many countries in Europe. Apart from the shop, I have some Deadhead friends whom I meet once a year. One of the fantastic record collector. He has vinyls and CTs and tapes from floor to ceiling in his little flat. So we go there and listen to great music for a long, long evening and most of the night once a year.

A (119:53)

Alan Trist had a memorable run in during the loadout from the Tivoli Gardens, which we'll use as a way to start our own loadout from Denmark. In our last episode, we discussed the mythical figure of St. Dilbert, the mysterious vessel of hypnocracy. But he sometimes took earthly form.

B (120:10)

Mostly, I rode the Bozo bus, and I had an interesting run in with St Gilbert. He accused me of not carrying my weight and set me to breaking down the setup after the Tivoli Gardens gig in Copenhagen. By that time in the tour, some of the crew got a little fed up with some of the managers and office people saying, why, you guys are just dividing along. You're not doing anything. You know, we're carrying you. It was a kind of typical complaint between the different parts of the Dead organization. Well, I immediately volunteered to help the crew on their loadout after a show, I said, well, I can do something here. My job was to wheel road cases from stage to the equipment and back, and almost immediately, one catapulted over a loose cable and sundry items spilled on top of each other and clattered across the parquet floor. Eloquent silence and devastating glares from the crew. But to be fair, the Saint was forgiving. So perhaps you can guess the identity of St. Dilbert.

A (121:26)

Ready to know the inspiration for St. Dilbert?

B (121:28)

It was Steve. He was the saint and is to this day. I turned around and all the crew were looking at me from the stage where they were stacking up stuff, you know, you. You know, but. But then there was a lot of laughter and, you know, I don't think anyone ever did it, tried to help out the crew anymore. I was trying to tell Hunter that he. He was psychic when he wrote St. Stephen. I said, you wrote that about me, but you didn't know you were writing it. So he, he started calling it Saint Dilbert, you know, as the stupidest thing he ever heard, right? And so he was playing with that.

A (122:06)

And it was onward to Germany. There was another ferry ride, as Donna Jean recalls her encounter with what is now known as Haj, a Danish love of comfort.

B (122:15)

We left Denmark on a ferry, an overnight trip on a ferry. And that was also something that I. I definitely remember because at that time, you know, I had no even thinking about what European bedding was like. Like, it was so different than ours. And that's where, like, the concept of a comforter and all of that came from. When I got on that ferry and there were. There were these comforter, like, things that we slept in, and I, I went, wow, that is really cool. You know, that's very different. And I, I loved being on that ferry. And. And I have a photo of Keith and Jerry just smiling, laughing together on that ferry. And it's just a special. Sam, thanks very much for tuning in. Huge thanks to our guests in this episode, including Sam Cutler, Steve Parrish, Mountain Girl, Donna Jean, Gottshaw McKay, Ben Holler, Alan Trist, Jim Sullivan, Gisbert Hannahkrut, John Morris, Sam Field, David Lemieux, MC Taylor, Lars Benneke, Bjorn Lindstrom, Hans Franchi, Jen Skovbig, Paul Leike, Lars Movin, Graham Boone and Sean o'. Donnell. And please don't forget to like and subscribe. Thanks very much. See you next week. Executive producers for the good old Grateful Dead cast Mark Pincus and Doron Tyson. Produced for Rhino Entertainment by Rich Mahan Productions and Jesse Jarno. Special thanks to David Lemieux. All rights reserved.