I have been wondering just how many Deadheads there were lurking abouts here amongst the Kossaks, so this is a sort of a roll call.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Dead, maybe we can do something about that too. Although they are definitely one of the iconic jam bands, and their fame initially tracked with the counterculture of the 1960's, it lasted far longer. Commercially, they only charted one 'hit', their 1987 single 'Touch of Grey', which also netted them an MTV video and a new generation of fans. Despite the lack of album sales, they were consistently top draws at the concert arenas right up until the untimely death of Jerry Garcia in 1995.
If there is an interest in the history of the band, such as the early 'Warlock' years with the Electric Koolaid Acid Tests...that might be addressed some other time, but there are plenty of sites out there on the intertubes (like the Dead's official site), a tribute to the dedication of all the heads out there.
To say that Grateful Dead fans, or Deadheads, are obsessive is largely an understatement. It has even been reported that one guy spent around $13,000 on concert tickets alone during the band's lifetime.
Since I have discovered a good deal of video footage on Youtube, that was the easiest thing to pull up. If that dries up, or some better footage exists out there it will find its way here as well, if there is enough interest to make this a regular thing.
First of all, how fucking cool is this...Obama's personal video message recorded for the 'Deadheads for Obama' fundraising concert...apparently at the urging of Phil Lesh's son who worked for the campaign.
you can tell he doesn't know much about the Dead since he asked everyone to sit down to enjoy the music...but we won't hold that against him! Anyway, back to the band. The original lineup was Jerry Garcia (guitar), Phil Lesh (Bass), Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan (Organ, harmonica), Bob Weir (guitar). In 1967 Mickey Hart (percussion) was added to the lineup. The later keyboardists were Tom Constanten, Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland, and Vince Welnick. The life expectancy of a Dead keyboard player was well short of the median. Pigpen died of Cirrhosis, Keith Godchaux died in a car accident (although after he left the band), while Brent Mydland and Vince Welnick committed suicide (although Vince did so after the Dead broke up). Also in the lineup for a short while was Donna Godchaux, on backup vocals, but that was another soap opera.
From their formation in April, 1965, until July 9, 1995 the Grateful Dead played a staggering 2,314 shows. And for the uninitiated, no two shows were the same....and the set lists for nearly all of them are available to prove it (Deadbase). Their repertoire consisted of original songs, cover tunes, and folk/traditional numbers, and easily numbered in the hundreds of songs. Unlike most bands, the Dead encouraged fans to tape performances, which they were able to freely distribute, even going as far as to have a 'taper section' with reserved tickets strategically located for the best audio/video recording in later years. Now you can find a lot of them online (like the SugarMegs terabyte archive, and FurtherNet FTP archives, and of course Youtube)
I would like to start out with the man whose idea it was to start the band, Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan.
Starting a rock band was actually Ron McKernan's idea, and he was its first front man, delivering stinging harmonica, keyboards, and beautiful blues vocals in the early years of the Warlocks/Grateful Dead. Nicknamed "Pigpen" for his funky approach to life and sanitation, he was born into a family that was generally conventional, except for the fact that his (Caucasian) father was an R & B disc jockey. And that sound put Pig's life on the rails of the blues from the time he was 12. Liquor, Lightnin' Hopkins, the harmonica and some barbecue - it was an unusual life for a white kid from San Carlos, but it was Pig's life. And the hard-drinkin' blues life began to catch up with Pig by the very early '70s. He played his last show with the band in 1972, and on March 8, 1973, he died of internal hemorrhaging caused by his drinking.
He died at age 27.
I've been back and forth over whether to put a clip for 'Lovelight' or 'Hard to handle' as a tribute to Pigpen for this diary. There is the Woodstock version of Lovelight, but Bobby's vocal performance that night kind of provided a distraction from the song, for me at least. I decided on the following clip of Otis Redding's 'Hard to handle' from The 'Festival Express' movie. It is a good, tight, version and it does both him and the song justice.
The next clip I have is from the Hugh Heffner "Playboy after dark" TV series...and how much cooler can you get than a private concert at Heff's house? The clip features Tom Constanten on keyboards, who took over once Pigpen started getting sick. I have heard that Owsley Stanley was on hand before the show to get everyone in the right frame of mind. Owsley, better known amongst the heads as 'Bear', was their audio engineer who just also happened to be a rather skilled 'cook', and I don't mean food. He supplied the better part of the state of California with LSD before it was illegal...and possibly a good deal of it afterwards after the Sandoz pharamceutical grade dried up (supposedly upwards of half a kilogram total...at a couple hundred micrograms per dose you do the math). Supposedly he dosed the coffee, and just about everyone (except Hef, who doesn't drink coffee, and Tom Constanten who always abstained) was tuned in for the set. Anyway, you can say whatever about Constanten, but he is the only Dead keyboard player that is still alive.....(Bruce Hornsby sat in for a while in the 90s after Brent died, but he declined to officially join when asked).
[As a side note...I always thought the Dead keyboardists were the inspiration for the dying drummers in Spinal Tap]
In any event, Jerry was all smiles. They do 'Mountains of the Moon' (acoustic), and then 'St. Stephen'.
All the Bobby fans always complain that he is under-appreciated, and as a second-generation rhythm guitar player I can say with utter confidence, all of us are under-appreciated! I played in a Dead cover band in Memphis for a few years, but I never remember getting much more than free beer (but we did have 7 people in the band). In any event, after Jerry died I decided to go back to school instead of working for a living. Anyway, the next clip has some nice slide guitar work by Bobby, and it is one of my more favorite Dead tunes; Althea, from Rockpalast in Essen, Germany (3/28/81).
Now for some Phil...it is really hard to find some good live Phil songs. Not that there weren't any, but the few nights he sang and the odds that someone did a great job recording it just makes it all the more difficult. In case you notice the crowd is kind of excited about this next piece. You see, Phil didn't play it for nearly 13 years live. While this wasn't the first time he played it after that break (which was 3/20/86), this was the second one from the Spectrum, Philadelphia PA (3/24/86). I give you 'A Box of Rain.'
Brent Mydland deserves a tribute here as well. He brought a lot of soul to the group in the years that he played. Because of the years that he played, however, the video footage on him is less than the rest, on the intertubes at least. This clip shows his energy and soul, and just happens to be his last show with the Dead, three days before his death (and ironically the 10th anniversary of Keith Godchaux's death); 'Good Times/Never Trust a Woman' from Tinley Park/Chicago (7/23/90)
and now for the encore....Taken from the French TV Broadcast of the Grateful Dead in Copenhagen, Denmark (4/17/72) for those needing a Bobby number I give you the namesake of the post; One more Saturday night.