Home Jambase Happy 75th Birthday Donna Jean Godchaux: Remembering Grateful Dead Europe ’72

Happy 75th Birthday Donna Jean Godchaux: Remembering Grateful Dead Europe ’72

August 22, 2022

Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay celebrates a milestone birthday today as she turns 75 years old. Earlier this year marked another milestone for Godchaux with the 50th anniversary of her first tour with the Dead, their landmark Europe ‘72 Tour that took place in April and May of that year.

JamBase revisited each of the 22 performances the Grateful Dead made on the Europe ‘72 run with deep dives published on the date of each’s 50th anniversary. Godchaux appeared at 21 of the 22 gigs, sitting out the show on April 16, 1972, at Stakladen on the Aarhus University campus in Aarhus, Denmark.

Prior to the Europe ‘72 Tour, Godchaux made her first appearance onstage with the Grateful Dead on December 31, 1971. Donna’s New Year’s Eve premiere at Winterland in San Francisco came during a rendition of “One More Saturday Night.” Also onstage that night was Donna’s husband, the late Keith Godchaux, who became an official member of the band in October 1971, along with guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and drummer Bill Kreutzmann (drummer Mickey Hart was on a sabbatical from the group, rejoining in 1974).

After the New Year’s sit-in, the Grateful Dead flew to New York City in late March 1972. They spent a few days in NYC before departing to London to start the Europe ‘72 Tour. While in the city, the Dead played a run of concerts at the Academy Music Hall that included a March 25 benefit for the Hells Angels, which saw the Dead backing Bo Diddley, in addition to playing a set that officially marked the start of Donna’s tenure as a full-time member of the group.

On an episode of the insightful Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast podcast, Donna told host Jesse Jarnow about the experience:

“You know, it should have been [intimidating], if I had a lick of sense in my head, but I didn’t, and I was not afraid. One of the reasons I was not afraid is that the Angels were very respectful of the band. And, really, especially, of me. They were told by the president: ‘Don’t mess with her.’ And they respected that. So I never did have any fear. I always felt protected. And they were always very kind to me.
“So here I am. This little girl from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. All of a sudden, I’m in New York, with the Grateful Dead, on this stage, going to Europe. And it was just… can you tell I’m at a loss for words? It was unbelievable — to be in that place, at that time, with that band. ”

Donna, whose career started as a backup singer at the historic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals where she recorded with Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge and others, was primarily featured on “Playing In The Band” during the Europe ‘72 Tour. Weir often preceded her coming on to the stage by introducing the newest member of the band to the European audiences.

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April 21 – Beat Club

“Playing In The Band” was played at every Europe ‘72 stop, including twice when they taped an appearance on the Beat Club program for West Germany TV (see above). Another song played on that tour that Donna can be prominently heard on is “Greatest Story Ever Told,” which was played eight times with her (and also at the aforementioned Donna-less Aarhus show).

One of the more memorable experiences for Donna most likely occurred at the Dead’s concert on May 3, 1972 at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France. Donna spoke about her experience in Paris during a session with Betty Cantor-Jackson – who was part of the Europe ‘72 sound engineering team – at Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra’s 2013 DSO High School retreat in Upstate New York (watch here).

Donna: Of course, we had [on Europe ‘72 tour] the good acid … And so we were there for two months, weren’t we Betty, something like that?
Betty: Yep, two buses: the Bolos and the Bozos …
Donna: So eventually, the acid that we had taken from the U.S. got weaker and weaker and weaker. So I was like taking 15 hits every night, before every gig. And then Owsley [Stanley] showed up.
Betty: No, he didn’t show up, he was in jail. He must have sent an emissary, because he was in [prison in] Lompoc …
Donna: He did show up at some point, or sent some.
Betty: He sent some, because I had to smuggle him tapes, my tapes into Lompoc, so he could hear Europe 72. The whole tour … he had a moving van to get out of that place he had so much stuff smuggled into that “low security prison” …
Donna: I didn’t realize that the new batch that we had gotten in Paris was like a new batch … and I didn’t know that, nobody told me. And I took like 15 hits of this fresh, sparkling, batch of acid and kind of halfway during The Olympia Theater in Paris, I found myself – I don’t know how I got there – underneath Keith’s grand piano. During the show!
Betty: I was about as high as you were too that night.
Donna: We were all screaming high.
Betty: I used to watch the meters and think, “Are they moving or are they moving because I’m watching them? Is that an after image?” I swear to god! “Am I hearing it because I’m listening for it, or is it really in the mix?”
Donna: And she’s doing the sound!
Betty: I did. I recorded it all, on a multitrack recording.
Donna: At some point I realized, I went, “Oh my god! I sing with this band!” And somehow, I don’t how I did it, but I got up, and when I was supposed to be singing again, I was up there at the microphone. And I don’t know how I did that.
Betty: I don’t know how I recorded any of that stuff either!

As noted by Jarnow on a Europe ‘72 50th anniversary episode of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast podcast (featuring Donna retelling the piano story), the May 3 first set “Playing In The Band” was likely when she pulled herself out from underneath Keith’s piano.

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Playing In The Band – May 3, 1972

By the end of her first tour as a member of the band, Donna’s 21 appearances with the Grateful Dead between April 7 and May 26, 1972, fully solidified her place as an integral component of the legendary group. The band spent 55 days touring through Europe, performing 55 different songs in six different countries while traveling (with an entourage of around 50 friends, family and crew members) some 5,572 miles.

Donna and Keith Godchaux continued playing in the band through a final show on February 17, 1979. Keith tragically died in a car accident on July 23, 1980, at age 32.

Donna’s career also saw her have stints as a member of the Jerry Garcia Band and the Heart Of Gold Band. Additional collaborators include Zen Trickers, Dark Star Orchestra, Jeff Mattson, Dead & Company, and others.

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Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 Tour 50th Anniversary: May 25 – London, England