Europe '72

Fan Correspondence

Perhaps the highlight of the correspondence generated by the tour was the ecstatic telegram they received after their second show at Paris’s Olympia Halle: “You are the best thing to hit France since Joan of Fucking Arc!” Other fans were no less enthusiastic; letters from every country they performed in can be found in the Archive, and from many that only read the admiring coverage: Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia. That correspondence forms one of the most important parts of the Archive, documenting the intensity and nature of the band-fan interaction. In the case of the post-Europe ’72 fan mail, what is most remarkable is the degree to which the Dead’s ethos was immediately picked up by fans far removed from the band’s cultural milieu, or even the United States.