One week left in the tour. By this point, they were really on a roll. Those first few shows, performed a month earlier at Wembley and Newcastle, sound a little chilly, a little tight, a little rigid. Epic, but nervy. As spring sprung, the weather warmed up, and they tripped their way farther into mainland Europe, the Europe ‘72 sound really began to unfurl show by show. Loose, colorful, trippy, and powerful.

Devoted students of baroque music will tell you that the European music of old reflects the environment in which it was composed. French baroque music is flowery. The same can be said of the old French architecture, language, artwork, clothing, etc. Different elements of a culture definitely influence one another in that way.

Things were no different in the 20th century. Delta blues sounds like the Mississippi Delta. Reggae sounds like Jamaica. Elizabeth Cotten sounds like the Carolinas. Springsteen sounds like Jersey. “What’s your point?”, you may ask.

In ‘65-’66, the Grateful Dead sounded like a California surf band. After tireless listening of (and collaboration with) other musicians, and countless miles of touring across different parts of the United States, they would go on to master several genres and styles, crafting their own in the process. Musicians absorb skills from the environments in which they operate. You can pinpoint the Europe ‘72 tour as perhaps the most important and influential external development of their career. Yes, every Grateful Dead tour sounds slightly different from the last. But their sound before and after this tour reveal an especially dramatic evolution. 1/2/72 and 8/27/72 are two completely different animals. Dropping Owsley, crossing national borders in the old world, and performing inspired music in those ancient halls in the European springtime had to have affected them tremendously. Jerry made the music for Stella Blue out there, for crying out loud.

If they hadn’t flown across the pond, would their trajectory have been the same? We’ll never know. But I doubt Fall ‘72, Spring ‘73, and so on and so forth would have turned out the way they did had it not been for this monumental milestone in their career.

As pointed out in other reviews, 5/18/72 isn’t as much of a household name as the Paris or London shows, but it’s right there alongside them as far as quality. From the first notes of Truckin’ to the final flares of OMSN, they are truly cooking.

The Dark Star > Morning Dew pairing is grand. The Dark Star is brilliant, yet mellow, eventually picking up steam and carrying itself into the first verse, after which, the boys deconstruct the tune into a stark madness that beautifully redeems itself into purity, sailing with a soaring segue into a gorgeous Morning Dew.

I described this tour as being transitional. It’s just as much the last of a certain phase of the band’s career as it is the beginning of a new one. This show contains a good few songs from their first album. This is one of the GD’s last Sittin’ on Top of the Worlds. 5/18/72 was also an important part of Pigpen’s last stand. After this, he played the Strand Lyceum shows, 6/17/72 at the Hollywood Bowl, and that was all she wrote for live McKernan. Raps and rock, blues and theatrics. He’s in his element here, delivering a great performance both vocally and instrumentally. It’s fun to hear a few instances of his organ and Keith’s piano playing on the same tune!

This show is as good as any from the tour, which is saying quite a lot. The Dark Star > Morning Dew (especially the “>”) is the big highlight, but the whole show is excellent. Highly, highly recommend!

Of the 22 dates on E72, this is in the top 5 and is almost as good overall as 5/3 Paris and 4/14 København. Man the Bavarians were lucky bastards this night. Kongress-Saal im Deutschen is the Conference Room of the Deutsch National Museum. It's the largest science museum in the world, so it has a big lecture hall, with long boxes down the side - but not big as far as concerts go, and this night it was half-empty, so, another small venue near tour's end. It's also sort of the tour's hidden gem, in that it didn't get a lot of attention or trades for decades, as far as I noticed, though it seems to be well-discovered now since the Miller upgrade and the official box.

First Set. Truckin' launches itself full of Jer fills. Mr. Charlie is the tour's most consistent song but his night Jet just nails it right down and the band is on, on, on. Jack Straw is not the most rambunctious but anywhere else might be a set standout. Tennessee Jed is insane and the solo supernaturally inspired. A solid Chinatown but not the best example of Black Throated (Phil plays the España Cañí tuning). China Cat is a very dynamic version but Billy slows it way down after the 1st verse. Rider is rubbery and then Jer does magic. You can't do better than this El Paso. When they're this on, Jer has carte blanche (wie sagen du das auf Deutsch?) to go nuts. Hurts Me Too is a bit dry but the 2nd Pig blues in a row (You Win Again) makes up for it and has a cool little Jer ladder. Playin' has some Donnaskreech™ and is a little less energetic than others on tour, but with a good jam section. There are also two jam songs in a row, but Good Lovin' is not 4/8 or 4/16 (yet still good; it's relative!). Casey Jones is an outright perfect rendition.

Second Set. Phil starts Greatest Story but it's one of the last ever Sittin' on Tops instead. They're not sittin' on top of it yet but quickly warm up, after a false start, for a great Me & My Uncle into a whopper Ramble On Rose - sent me left at the lights. It's kind of strange to follow Beat it on Down the Line-10 with a Dark Star but the effect is from shrug to cosmic smear. This isn't my favorite tour for Dark Stars but this is the best one. I like the jazzy Rotterdam, the doodly Düsseldorf with the M&MU in the middle and the sparkly London (4/8) but this one stands out. It's immediately exploratory and has some truly one-of-a-kind sections. It's just one verse and was the first time it went into Morning Dew (see Cliff Hucker's descrip of Dew below). Some setlists list a Drums but it's really just a tuning with Billy goofing around. Sugar Mag tries hard to trainwreck then sort of gets back on its feet. Sing Me Back Home is a bit of a slog if you've heard most of the rest of the tour first, bathroom song. One More Saturday Night is played this great a dozen times on the tour. It just worked better with one drummer.

1st Set:  A+
2nd Set: B
Overall = 5 stars

Highlights:
Entire First Set - Sugaree, Hurts Me2, & BTW are low points; but that's only relative. Full of diamonds.
Me & My Uncle - after a brief false start, flies
Ramble On Rose - good gods
Dark Star>Morning Dew - if you want to hear a '72 state of the art
One More Saturday Night - send 'em home happy and exhausted

One great show after another on this tour and this one is no exception. Great Kick-off with a lively Truckin' and a beautiful Sugaree. Pigpen really shines on this show as well - I just love this Good Lovin'. The Morning Dew is sublime and the Sing Me Back Home encore is just gorgeous.
As expected from a Charlie Miller recording, the sound is stunning.

Notice the few bars of "White Rabbit" afer Chinatown Shuffle?

Not crazy about Donna's contribution to PITB.

Again: shouldn't Dark Star and Morning Dew be one track?

This show has a bit of everything that I love about the Dead - the tempos are generally slow, but the intensity is high, and the band is unusually tight, even on the jams. I was drawn to the show for the Dark Star->Morning Dew, and it did not disappoint. I am glad that I didn't skip over the other tunes on my way to this gem, because virtually every song kicks ass, even a few that are not usually among my favorites.


Of particular note, this is far and away the best Casey Jones I've ever heard. I didn't expect this to be the standout here, as early 70s performances of the song usually sound to me like an obligatory performance of a hit song. But here, the band just blazes with an almost frightening intensity.


On another recording of this show, a reviewer mentioned that 1972 was a good time to be in Europe. I couldn't agree more. Consider that Pink Floyd was also touring Europe at the time to debut the songs on "Dark Side of the Moon" - in fact, they were in West Berlin the same night as this show. Must have been something in the air that night in Germany...

Jerry and the boys wanna get spaced out and jazzy and Pig is trying to bring it back down to his rap. I think they reach a happy medium and everyone ultimately wins. 5 stars up in your guts for sound and performance.

Another very strong performance, if somewhat less spectacular (with the exception of Morning Dew). Recent upgrades in sound quality have made this show more enjoyable. It's consistently well played. Stand outs include what might be the best ever performance of It Hurts Me Too and of course the superb performance of Dark Star> Morning Dew, the first time that this combination was played together.

The 26 minute Dark Star is superb. It's not as beautiful as the performance of the song at Wembley, or as jazzy as the Rotterdam version. Nor is it as cohesive as the rendition in Copenhagen. Still, it is an excellent and up beat performance of the song that carries its momentum entirely through its duration. The intro theme jam is gorgeous. Following a brief bass solo, there is a lovely duet between Garcia and Weir starting at 7:00 that turns nice and jazzy before soaring back into the pre-verse theme. A second bass solo follows the verse and things get atonal for a while, building in intensity before the first ever segue from Dark Star into Morning Dew.

This performance of Morning Dew is unique and extraordinarily beautiful. Although the rendition on 5/23 seems to garner more accolades, this one is just a bit better in my opinion. Jerry's voice is strong and his interpretation here is highly emotive. He really slows it down and turns reflective prior to the refrain. One of the elements that sets the music of the European tour apart is the dynamics of having two keyboard payers. Nowhere is this more apparent than during this gorgeous performance of Morning Dew. Pigpens swirling organ fills really seem to complement Keith's piano work on the beautiful quiet parts. It's one of the high points of the tour. An interestingly placed drum break follows Morning Dew before the band launches into a great Sugar Magnolia. (96 pts)

Excellent both in performance and sound quality. You can hear a little so called tape hiss in the quieter moments if that bothers you.

This one is a jinglin' janglin' show for sure. Pure. Thank You Mr. Miller for everything you do. Great sound quality and quantity. CLASSIC DEAD.

Damn. And the hits just keep on coming. As usual, Mr. Miller has done it again. The quality of this mix is only outdone by the quality of the show itself. Many, many standouts here with my favorite perhaps being the Good Lovin'. The groove is more jazzy then anything else and Jerry's lead is just stupendous. Pig's rap is more subdued than many, but it fits perfectly into the vibe of the night. Instead of trying to steal the spotlight, he succeeds in melding with the rest of the group and helps create a great piece of music. Great show, great recording, better mixing. Thanks again, Mr. Miller, you spoil us.