The Wikipedia article for this record says a lot, partly by what it leaves out. It was intended to be the first of a series; there weren’t any others. Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley produced it as a tribute to Ron McKaren, aka Pigpen, who died as it was being produced. Garcia said the band had to agree to this in order to get Europe ’72 the way they wanted. ‘We had to give them four records to get two. It represents us in early 1970, when we’d never done a record,’ he said. Someone’s memoir said that McKaren played a solo acoustic set, which he rarely did, which inspired Garcia and Weir to play a set with just their acoustic guitars. What they left out: None of it was good. I only play this one when I am playing them all.
But if this record was necessary for Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, and Europe ’72, then I give my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.
converselyspeaking 