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Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72

Grateful Dead - Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72 Audio CD

A fair review of the Grateful Dead "Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Grateful Dead reviews here, or go back to the Grateful Dead tabs.

Band: Grateful Dead
Title: Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72
Rating:

Release Date: 2004-08-31
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Cold Rain and Snow 2: Greatest Story Everr Told 3: Mr. Charlie 4: Sugaree 5: Mexicali Blues 6: Big Boss Man 7: Deal 8: Jack Straw 9: Big Railroad Blues [Live] 10: It Hurts Me Too [Live] 11: China Cat Sunflower 12: I Know You Rider/Happy Birthday to You 13: Playing in the Band 14: Good Lovin' 15: Ramble on Rose 16: Black-Throated Wind [Live] 17: Sitting on Top of the World 18: Comes a Time 19: Turn on Your Love Light 20: Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad 21: Not Fade Away 22: Hey Bo Diddley 23: Not Fade Away 24: Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu 25: Black Peter 26: Chinatown Shuffle 27: Truckin' [Live] 28: Drums [Live] 29: Other One [Live] 30: Paso [Live] 31: Other One [Live] 32: Wharf Rat [Live] 33: One More Saturday Night [Live] 34: Uncle John's Band 35: Stranger (Two Souls in Communion) 36: Dark Star [Live] 37: Sugar Magnolia [Live] 38: Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) [Live] 39: Brokendown Palace

Our Cups Runneth Over
Meticulously documented both in crude bootlegs and official releases, Europe was a triumph for the Bay Area band that was still shaping their sound into the early 70's. In the pantheon of live recordings, 1972 is a magical year for Grateful Dead fans. It was also the swan-song tour for Pigpen, the bluesy singer and harmonica-playing terror who enjoyed centerpiece status since the group's inception.

I picked up Europe '72 back in college and thought it one of the most impressive live albums I had ever heard. As my love for the Dead grew, I began wishing there were other releases from this excellent tour. Little did I know what was coming my way.

Soon appeared Dick's Picks, then Hundred Year Hall, then Rockin' the Rhein. . . . seriously, could we have asked for any more?

Yes, and now we have the sprawling, voluminous "Stepping Out With The Grateful Dead," the most thorough treatment of the '72 tour yet. In the linear notes to "Deadicated," a humble collection of Dead covers, Elvis Costello sums up his own experience of the tour: "I first saw the Dead in '72, forty-odd miles from Liverpool, while standing in a foot of mud among a small, sodden horde who braved the swamp in front of the stage. The sodding rain wasn't even shining as expected. If we had been extras in a remake of 'Henry V,' we would have been the French. After the battle. "

The French indeed. It's well known that to truly appreciate the Dead one only needed to see them live. I saw a modest number of shows and, yes, there's nothing quite like them. Of course, I was only 4 when they first played Europe, but what I saw in the late eighties and early nineties was all the proof I needed to know that Elvis did indeed feel defeated on that cloud-covered, muddy day in 1972.

This is a brilliant collection, the sort one prays for and never gets. Until now.
.

A sonic theophany!
Such exalted musical perfection is simply inconceivable without Love and Power from on High. It was this music that convinced me there is a God. A stunning testamony to the fact that popular music can be art, and a magnificent demonstration to the power of that art to bring us glimpses of the Great Beyond.

The Dead at the top of their game
Ever since it was released, it has been a steady companion, which in 35 years never lost its musical power, creativity, poetry, joy of life, spirituality, humanism, and incredible craftmansship of these six musicians at work. To kick off with a cliche: if I could take one CD to a lonely island, it would be "Europe '72". "Steppin' Out" is a wonderful and welcome addition to the Dead's official live album of their legendary European tour. After their arguably two best studio albums, "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty" and before losing Pig Pen and Keith Godcheaux who have never since been adequately replaced, the Dead were at the top of their game when they crossed the Atlantic, and "Steppin' Out" is the best proof of that. Garcia's and Weir's vocals have never been better. Their guitar dialogues are downright telepathy. In the band's most complex compositions like "Jack Straw" or "Uncle John's Band" the Dead are as self-assured and tight as in rockers like "Big Railroad Blues" and in the jams of "Truckin'" and "Dark Star". . . and it is sheer Rock'n Roll magic to listen to Pig Pen leading the band through "Good Lovin'" and "Turn on your love light". In short: "Steppin' Out" is a great contribution to the Grateful Dead legacy and their musical universe.

Another Great Live Document
It is also poignant, as this was the last overseas tour that Pigpen played. This 4 cd set is superbly recorded and the band is fearless. Listen to him perform here, and you'd never know.

Oh yes, some great jams too.

"Some Folks Look For Answers, Others Look For Fights..."
This set contains, in my opinion, the greatest Dead lineup, minus Mickey Hart. Steppin' Out (along with Hundred Year Hall) is probably the greatest example of how powerful the Dead were in 1972.

What is actually great about this set is that fans of the early Live/Dead era stuff or fans of the Post-Pigpen years will get the best of both worlds, here. You get Pigpen's B3 organ, Soulful Voice and astounding harp blowing wrapped up with Keith Godcheaux's stinging grand piano (he used the Helpinstill piano pickup system, that's why the piano always had somewhat of an electric feel to it, which you couldn't get with microphones; piano players and/or Helpinstill enthusiasts, take note).

Steppin' Out contains so many definitive Dead moments that were never released. Disc 1 and 2 contain superb performances of the shorter songs, especially "Greatest Story Ever Told", "Deal", "Black-Throated Wind", and "Playing In The Band". Speaking of "Playing In The Band", I really think that this is the best version that the Dead had ever done of the song. I really don't think that any hour-long jams that this song bookended after 1974 really captured the essence of the song, as well as this version does.

Speaking of hour-long jams, the "Truckin'-Drums-The Other One-El Paso-The Other One-Wharf Rat" jam on Disc 3 is the true defining moment of this set. However, "Dark Star-Sugar Magnolia-Caution (Don't Stop On The Tracks)" on disc 4 is just as deserving of the same title. But the only problem I have with it is that Donna Jean Godcheaux doesn't get up and harmonize on the "Sunshine Daydream" section with Bob Weir. She did that so well when you heard it on "Europe '72" (although I read that Donna's part was later added during studio overbuds for "Europe '72", so that answers my question). After mayhem of "Caution", Disc 4 and the entire experience in general, ends with the best closing song ever imaginable, "Brokedown Palace". It just sums up everything that has been experienced throughout the duration of the set.

Getting down to the musicians, Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh's lead guitar-bass guitar interplay has never been performed so well, especially in the cerebral modal crosstalk throughout "The Other One" and "Dark Star". Whenever Jerry plays low notes on guitar or Phil plays high notes on bass, they sound so similar, it's almost impossible to tell them apart. Bob Weir's solid rhythm guitar has never sounded so rich and full and hasn't since (during the tune up between "Ramble On Rose" and "Black-Throated Wind", he plays the opening guitar lick from "Weather Report Prelude", which makes you wonder what other things they may have needed these tapes for). Billy Kreutzmann's drumming is just so solid , especially on "Drums" where he rings in "The Other One" in true rhythmic splendor. Along with Kreutzmann, McKernan's random moments of backup percussion (tambourine [audible on "Deal", "Jack Straw", "Wharf Rat", and "Black Throated Wind"] maracas/shakers ["Sugar Magnolia", and "Playing In The Band"], guiro ["Uncle John's Band"]) really does at least make up for parts that were originally played by Mickey Hart in the studio. Still the double drumset crosstalk is sadly absent, and in a way was never the same again after Hart's departure and return, being that both Hart and Kruetzmann changed their drum sounds and styles radically after 1972.

Basically to summarize, any body who even likes the Dead a little bit, should get this set just to here really good live versions of their short songs, but any devoted Dead fanatic who followed the band in it's later years, but couldn't get over to England in time for the recordings of these shows (or you weren't born yet), should get this for the metaphysical/psychological rush of musical mayhem that is the jams, that encapsulate the ends of discs 2, 3, and 4.

The Dead sound very powerful, yet very natural. In later years, they would expand their stage setup with so much percussion equipment and amplifiers that the music seemed to become less original and astounding. This is why, in many respects, this was The Dead at their pinnacle, with Pigpen on his way out and Keith and Donna on their way in. Pretty much the only thing that could've made this better would've been a surprise appearance by Mickey Hart, but unfortunately that was never to be (at least with Pigpen still in the group).

So please, do yourself a favor and buy the album. I promise that a fan of The Dead on any level will love it.

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