My first 20 tapes 5/4/72

 In honor of the Dead and Rhino records announcing the release of a 60 CD box set commemorating the entire Europe ’72 Tour, I’m bring you another installment of My First 20 Tapes, today it’s 5/4/72 Paris France.
     When I got my first list of tapes to choose from, I picked this show because I had the official live album Europe ’72 and wanted more. Below is the setlist

1: Greatest, Deal, Mr. Charlie, BIODTL, B. E. Women, Chinatown Shuffle, Playin, You Win Again, Hurts Me Too, He's Gone, El Paso, Big RxR Blues, Two Souls, Casey Jones
2: Good Lovin, Next Time, Ramble On, Jack Straw, Dark Star> Drums> Dark Star> Sugar Magnolia, Sing Me Back Home, Mexicali, Big Boss Man, Uncle John, NFA> GDTRFB> NFA
E: Saturday Night

    First thing that jumps out is the length of the sets. A 14 song first set and a 17 song second set. I was lucky to get 14 songs in an entire show in the 90’s. Keith Godchaux had joined the band in the fall of ’71 and was really coming into his own. I love the grand piano sound that blends in so well with the Dead’s take on Americana. There is almost warmth that comes through on these recordings. Pigpen still did fills on his organ but health issues had really sapped his strength and this tour would be his last hurrah (He passed away on March 9, 1973. Yes my favorite member of the Dead dies when I was 6 months old). Pigpen does shine on the upbeat Chinatown Shuffle and the incredibly moving Two Souls in Communion.
    The meat of the second set is Dark Star>Drumz>Dark Star. This is a little over 41 minutes long. The jams the boys were doing during this time were jazzy, formless explorations of the psychedelic canvases they had been weaving the previous two years. With a more competent keyboard player (no offense Pig), this allowed the boys to go deeper into the abyss without even losing sight of dry land. This was also one of the first shows I got that had the amazing sandwich of Not Fade Away> Going Down the Road Feeling Bad> Not Fade Away. The boys take Buddy Holly’s ode to teenage love and make it about the relationship between the band and their fans.

You can stream the show here
http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-05-04.sbd.hamilton.143.sbeok.shnf
or shell out 450 bucks to get the box set.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
Ph.D. in rock and roll