Song:Sugar Magnolia
Album:Europe '72
The Grateful Dead were a very significant band for several reasons but one of the most interesting developments was the increased popularity of the "live" album or more specifically, the bootleg live album. As I've said before, fans that followed the band around on tour were known as Deadheads. To reflect the counterculture nature of the band, they encouraged fans to record their concerts. LPs of these concerts started turning up in underground record stores. This underground market held up very well through the 80s. If you go through the Grateful Dead catalog, there are literally dozens of live recordings. Of course this became a headache for Warner Bros. So Europe '72 was the third official live release by The Grateful Dead. It was released as a three record set recorded at various points of their European tour. The album reached #12 on the pop album charts so obviously it was very successful. This was the first Grateful Dead tour for Keith & Donna Godchaux and the last for Ron "Pigpen" McKernan as he died soon after. Warners rereleased Europe '72 in 2003 with some bonus tracks and some additional bonus tracks are on The Golden Road box set. Sugar Magnolia is one of the Dead's most popular songs. It was written by Bob Weir & Robert Hunter. Weir sings lead and he apparently wrote it about his girlfriend. It was originally on the 1970 album American Beauty. The Grateful Dead were certainly one of the most consistent live draws in music history. Here's The Grateful Dead performing Sugar Magnolia at Winterland in San Francisco New Year's Day 1979.
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