The Grateful Dead - Beat-Club 1972 - Part 1
The Grateful Dead - Beat-Club 1972 - Part 2
Beat-Club, a music program broadcast from Bremen, West Germany, was born in the same year as the Grateful Dead, 1965. Eventually, the show reached cult status amongst German youth. Beat-Club evolved with the times, incorporating go-go girls to dance to the music and integrating psychedelic backdrops and colorful imagery while musicians played. This stage hosted the premier musical acts of the day.
On April 21, 1972, the Grateful Dead set up on the Beat-Club stage and sound checked “Loser” and “Black-Throated Wind.” After they were introduced, the band proceeded to play for eighty-three minutes. Out of this dynamic set of music, only “One More Saturday Night” was aired on Beat-Club. Five decades later, the entire Beat-Club video was shown in select theatres nationwide at the 4th annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies in 2013.
A triumphant “Bertha” opener sets the tone as the band digs in and performs as if this is just another concert on their magical journey across Europe. A slow-moving tie-dye/psychedelic backdrop glides across the screen as the band jams. The closeups of the Dead are superb. As “Playin’ in the Band,” begins, Donna joins the festivities. One of the highlights of this video is watching Jerry unload early in “Playin’” as Donna softly sways. Pigpen’s vocals impress during a swinging presentation of “Mr. Charlie.”
The Grateful Dead had difficulty capturing the X factor in recording studios throughout the years. On this occasion in Bremen, they were essentially performing a concert without a live audience, and the results were fabulous. Fifteen years later, the Dead successfully used this format of setting up as if they were performing live when they recorded In the Dark, which turned out to be their most successful commercial album.
A lively “One More Saturday Night” is followed by a second serving of “Playin’ in the Band.” Redundancy is not an issue here as the band doles out another wild and wicked round of improvisation—fusion fireballs galore. TV for Tivoli (4-17-72) and Beat-Club both feature essential footage of the Dead during this legendary tour. The Tivoli segment is more song-oriented. Beat-Club rages with numerous flights of free-flowing improvisation.
Since this wasn’t a live show, a song could be restarted when the musicians weren’t feeling it. There were minor missteps early on in “Sugaree,” the second “Playin’,” and “Truckin’.” The Grateful Dead could play through anything, but on these occasions, they proclaimed a mulligan and started over. The “Truckin’” jam was cooking along, but the band skipped the chorus reprise and let their drummer lead them into “The Other One.” A clock was ticking out their allotted stage time.
The last “Other One” on 4-16-72 was a twisted tease of anticipation without the volcanic eruptions associated with this tune. The Beat-Club rendition is the complete opposite. The band blasts away from the get-go and there’s an abundance of succulent “Other One” meat. Garcia’s shrieking leads blaze a trail through a path of pounding bass detonations. The jam dissolves, reorganizes, and strengthens before Weir sings, “Spanish lady comes to me she lays on me this rose.”
Between verses there’s an aural inferno before the jam dissolves into a dreamlike state, drifting in and out of consciousness—time out of mind terrain. With a subtle shifting of tempo, the jamming becomes more furious than before—Garcia’s searing leads spiral round and round in a tight blizzard of sound. “Escaping through the lily fields I came across an empty space,” howls Weir. On this day, Apollo 16 landed on the lunar highlands of the moon. All this cosmic improv captures the flavor of the day. Back in Bremen, the Grateful Dead’s allotted studio time is almost done. Instead of an abrupt ending, the band noodles away as they resist the temptation of breaking into a new tune before improvising a climactic instrumental fanfare. From: https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/grateful-dead-europe-72-revisited-germany-beat-club/
