The Grateful Dead Dark Star

[Quincy]

I use both Windows & a Mac, though I do all my downloading on the iBook. I've had great luck using xACT for converting FLACs and SHNs.

I'm using an older version (1.4b21) with OSX 10.3.9. The more recent version of xACT is 1.58. Anyway, it seems pretty friendly and prompts you where you want to deposit your converted files. There's a checkbox if you want to dispose of your FLAC files after conversion.

Sometimes those downloads from Archive don't unzip properly after downloading. I believe the latest (free) version of StuffIt can now handle those rascals, at least one did for me after updating.

Oh yeah, the link for xACT.

[jazzbo]

You're just making me feel bad.

Well, more power to ya! I just don't have something that it takes to do this, and the patience I guess to acquire it.

Right now, listening to disc two of DP 22~!

[Newk]

I picked up DP 23 because 19 was not available. I have been looking for a good '74 concert and my local Borders has 24. Is 24 a good one or should I hold out and get 31 from the Dead store?

Any favorite Brent era DP's or vault recordings?

Thanks!

[orchiddoctor]

You're just making me feel bad.

Well, more power to ya! I just don't have something that it takes to do this, and the patience I guess to acquire it.

Right now, listening to disc two of DP 22~!

Really, it's just as well. Downloading is very addictive. You don't have to do anything, and soon as it's done, on to the next one, and the next one . . . . Then you have way too much to listen to. An interesting book, usually available used on Amazon, i the G.D. taping compendium. While not complete or wholly up to date, they do provide a nice service in previewing possible acquisitions. DP is really--or was-great because you had time to absorb each disc at your liesure before another one came out. Hope they do this again.

[jazzbo]

I like 24! Have it at home in Austin presently and can't hear it right now. But at two discs it's affordable and quickly "digestable."

[Quincy]

I picked up DP 23 because 19 was not available. I have been looking for a good '74 concert and my local Borders has 24. Is 24 a good one or should I hold out and get 31 from the Dead store?

24 (3/24/74) has one of only 3 Playin' sandwiches performed and is a delightful 2 disc morsel. 31 (8/4-6/74) is more like Thanksgiving dinner. Listen to all 4 discs at once and you'll burst. Both are recommended. However, if you don't have DP 12 (6/26 & 28/74) I'd strongly encourage you to get that 1st. The China/Rider intro is one of the most beautiful things they ever did.

Any favorite Brent era DP's or vault recordings?

I received DP 13 (Nassau 5/6/81) accidentally and I'm very glad that happened as it's a keeper. Very solid show with a strong "He's Gone" and jamming that follows. It also has a "hidden" Scarlet>Fire from 11/1/79 on disc 2 which makes a very nice bonus.

Speaking of '79, DP 5 (12/26/79) might be my favorite post Keith & Donna era Pick. The band was really on in the fall of '79. Not much else to say, other than many who don't care for the post Keith & Donna era end up liking this one (along with 12/28/79 which circulates.)

I have DP 21 (11/1/85) but I like the 2 above more. The filler is killer though from 9/2/80.

One that I like that few seem to is DP 6 (10/14/83). Criticisms center around that they should have picked another show from that week and that Jerry & Brent's voices are rough. However, look at Disc 2 (Scarlet>Fire Estimated>Eyes.) Disc 3 has a nifty jam going into The Other One. And though his voice is rough, I loved Jerry's set 1 songs from that era (Althea & Alabama Getaway.) The St. Stephans that were played in the shows that weren't picked for a Pick were interesting & fun, but not that well executed. I think this is a highly underrated DP.

Oh oh oh! How could I forget about Reckoning. This is the acoustic brother to Dead Set (which I don't recommend) from the Warfield & Radio City Music Hall shows in '80. They've now added a lot of extra songs to it with the latest remastering. The acoustic "Bird Song" is one of my all-time favorite performances, and there's much more than that. A+.

[Spontooneous]

I second Quincy's recommendation for DP 12, and add a further recommendation for downloading any June '74 you can get your mitts on.

[shrugs]

the 5/5/77 Peggy-O is tha shit.

[Spontooneous]

the 5/5/77 Peggy-O is tha shit.

So's the 5/19/77 "Sugaree" on DP 29.

Welcome back, Shrugs!

[Chalupa]

However, if you don't have DP 12 (6/26 & 28/74) I'd strongly encourage you to get that 1st. The China/Rider intro is one of the most beautiful things they ever did.

Hands down my all time favorite version of China>Rider. Not to be missed. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 w/ out hearing this first.

[shrugs]

the 5/5/77 Peggy-O is tha shit.

So's the 5/19/77 "Sugaree" on DP 29.

Welcome back, Shrugs!

10-16-77

love this "review" from the archive:

Reviewer: Ole Uncle John - - March 19, 2005

Subject: Why Jerry? Why?

"Why did you have to go and ruin Bobby's 30th B-day show like that? Why did you have to follow his peppy little Promised Land opener with a 17 min plus colossus of a Sugaree?? Did you have to remind him and us who's the Master and who's the young apprentice? We knew,he knew, we still know."

[jazzbo]

[jazzbo]

Love this photo; used it as the front cover of a little collection of favorite Pigpen performances which I call "Hard to Handle: the Ron Pigpen McKernan Collection."

[orchiddoctor]

Love this photo; used it as the front cover of a little collection of favorite Pigpen performances which I call "Hard to Handle: the Ron Pigpen McKernan Collection."

Love to do those "collections." I'm trying to find a moment to burn a Pen disc with The Same Thing, Schoolgirl, and Midnight Hour from the "Sunflower/Avalon" recordings (1966) plus a Smokestack Lightning/Kingbee pairing (or the Kingbee/Caution pairing) and a few other ditties. That's a good snapshot of Pig when he was the "frontman" for the group.

As is, I put together a cd with Smokestack from Bear's Choice, Kingbee and Hard to Handle from the Fillmore East, Good Lovin from Copenhagen (Europe '72) and Midnight Hour from Fillmore.

What too many folks miss is that Mr. Pen always made the boys work extra hard to keep up.

[jazzbo]

I agree totally. . . Pig really worked that band!

[orchiddoctor]

I agree totally. . . Pig really worked that band!

In terms of discussing the various keyboard players and their tragic demises, Pig's is in that category. He's the one who talked Jerry into taking the jug band electric. He's the one who moved them into blues and r&b. He was the soul.

In the primal days, Pig had a major role as a musician and a vocalist. Constanten limited Pig's organ playing (okay, it wasn't that great), but if you look at 68-69, Pig sometimes got a whole set. Alligator--Caution. Lovelight. Lot's more Kingbees, Midnoght Hours, all sorts of raves. But, by 1971, he was relegated to a few songs a set--albeit standout tunes like Hard to Handle (almost all of the 1971 versions smoke). His slots in the rotation were cut way back. Often, the tunes were basic blues--short but strong--like the rub or Next Time You See Me or Big Boss Man. As his health faced, his role in the band diminished. He did comeback with a vengence in 1972--those Good Lovin's from Europe often outshine everything else--those and the Cautions. But the band was moving away from the hard blues into the c&w tunes from Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, and the post Pig Wake of the Flood.

In a way, Pig never quite fit in to the acid drenched trip of the sixties. As the band evolved musically into post psychedellic jas infused jams, his style seemed more and more out of place. His keyboard work, when it was there at all, is mixed way down on the tapes that circulate.

It's sad, because when he died, he had reemerged not only as a master of mojo and a stone solid rapper, but his songwriting had just begun to mature.

I've always felt that he was the soul that fueled the Grateful Dead, and his passing marked the end of an era.

[Tony Pusey]

Too right.....

Wasnt he recording a solo album at the time of his demise?

[orchiddoctor]

Too right.....

Wasnt he recording a solo album at the time of his demise?

All I know for sure is that an article in, I believe, Rolling Stone said that he was found dead on the proverbial floor and that among the various artifacts in his room were some homemade demos tapes.

Just think--he had several songs done that the Dead chose not to release--The Stranger and Empty Pages leap to mind. Both excellent tunes that are extrememly mournful--both expressing loss instead of the usual boisterous strutting. State of mind?

And why, I wonder, was Empty Pages left off of So Many Roads; and why was the Stranger not on Hundred Year Hall? Publishing issues?

[Tony Pusey]

Dont have it to hand but I am pretty sure that Wenners interview with Garcia that came out in book form mentioned a solo album. Also remember about 10 years back, that a release sheet of indie releases that went out to Dutch shops mentioned that it was on the way, I made an advance ordet, but it never turned up....

[orchiddoctor]

Dont have it to hand but I am pretty sure that Wenners interview with Garcia that came out in book form mentioned a solo album. Also remember about 10 years back, that a release sheet of indie releases that went out to Dutch shops mentioned that it was on the way, I made an advance ordet, but it never turned up....

The Wenner/Reich interview(s) were done in 1971. I don't recall a mention of Pig's purported solo, but I'm over 50, and my memory sucks.

Still, with all the boots and so on, all we have seen is the early demos from various dates--a haphazard collection of material.

I really am surprised that nothing has surfaced after 30 someodd years considering the stuff that's out there--including rehersals from 1971.

[jazzbo]

I'd really like to see a dedicated effort to assemble that stuff. . . . But I'm a Pigpen fan.

Bill, great summation of his "career."

The man was really something.

[orchiddoctor]

I'd really like to see a dedicated effort to assemble that stuff. . . . But I'm a Pigpen fan.

Bill, great summation of his "career."

The man was really something.

Maybe I'll get inspired to do a retrospective set of cds--there are many, many songs over his career--going by time period. There are things like the Feb. 14, 1968 Carousel Ballroom Alligator--Caution that deserve listening (that's the Alligator used as the basis on Anthem of the Sun--but it is uncut.) I guess there would have to be a Europe '72 disc--at least one. Or Pig and Janis on Lovelight (the good version, not the drunk one).

I've never heard the Bring Me My Shotgun Cd in its entirety, but there are a few nuggets there to be sure.

[jazzbo]

I've never heard it, never came closer than the cover pic!

It's a cool one!

I'd definitely read a biography of Mr. McKernan.

[Chalupa]

Still, with all the boots and so on, all we have seen is the early demos from various dates--a haphazard collection of material.

I really am surprised that nothing has surfaced after 30 some odd years considering the stuff that's out there--including rehersals from 1971.

I've heard(have somewhere?) a cd of Pig's demos from 1971(?). IIRC, it's just him on piano or acoustic guitar. Supposedly it was recorded in his apartment. Is this the same thing you're thinking of?

Edited July 18, 2006 by Chalupa

[orchiddoctor]

That's Bring Me My Shotgun.

Here's a rundown, though I don't buy the idea that these recordings were more than demos:

"Pigpen recorded several songs for an album which never was released. These include "C.C. Rider" and "Bring Me My Shotgun", recorded in 1970. In February, 1973, he recorded a Lightning Hopkins song, "She's Mine", as well as "I Believe", "Like A Long Time", and "Michael", at his apartment in Corte Madera, CA. ... Another song, intended for the solo album, was the Clancy Carlile song "I'm A Loving Man", which was recorded in 1969 at Pacific High Recording, located on Brady Alley just off Market, in San Francisco. ... The album was to be released, tentatively, on Mercury, or its Smash subsidiary, with Bob Serempa as the A&R person.

Many of these songs have been given different names over the years. The most common tape in circulation has the following songs (with alternative titles in brackets):

I Got Two Women (Two Women)

Michael (Poor Michael Went Down, Queen Of Santa Fe II, Gas Station Rap)

Katie Mae

Baby Please Don't Go (New Orleans)

That Freight Train, Up In The Sky (That Train)

Untitled instrumental

Bring Me My Shotgun

C.C.Rider

Katie Mae (repeat)

Hitch Hiking Woman

I Got Two Women (repeat)

When I Was A Boy (Santa Fe Queen, Queen Of Santa Fe I)

Bring Me My Shotgun (repeat)

I Believe (The Devil In My Bones)

She's Mine

Like A Long Time (Look Over Yonder, No Tomorrow, No Time)

Sweet Georgia Brown (instrumental, with Jorma Kaukonen)

Betty And Dupree (with Jorma Kaukonen)

I'm A Loving Man circulates separately, normally with outtakes from Workingman's Dead/American Beauty

The Deadhead's Taping Compendium Volume 1 lists a tape (dated ??/70) which may be an earlier source for the more widely circulated tape above. It includes some additional tracks:

"The folk motif continues with "Hobo Jungle Rap," a simple one-chord monologue in which Pigpen describes his first encounters with local hobos. After dissolving quickly as a song, the monologue continues as a spoken word narration. In it, Pigpen talks briefly about his first experiences hopping freight trains, adding a sweet lick from his guitar here and there. Much to our dismay, however, the tape breaks off prematurely.

"Following the tape flip, the subsequent two tracks are disturbingly haunting. All the preceding selections are based around traditional blues and folk approaches, but these songs are derived from a deeper spiritual influence, remotely similar to that of Charlie Patton or Son House. Vocally, these are emotionally harrowin, and the musical approach is dark, almost occultish. "Passing Through," while admittedly not a very dynamic selection and further hampered by feedback blasts, is a chilling tale of weary travel, with loneliness and despondency prevailing. "Easy Rider," which at the outset sounds distinctly similar to the Rolling Stones' "Sister Morphine," is only slightly less morbid lyrically but far eerier in execution. Unlike "Passing Through," which is delivered from an emotional and perhaps autobiographical approach, this tune is presented in the form of a narrative, focussed intently on setting as well as character.

Following a brief rap, the tape concludes with a fragmentary and comic attempt at the fifties sock hop classic, "In The Still Of The Night," complete with teen idol falsetto, before the finale of "Big Boy Pete," which is playful and immature.

"

Somehow I doubt that these were intended for release. If they were, the Dead had their own labels, GD Records and Round Records, the latter being for solo projects. Jerry, Hunter, Lesh, Keith and Donna all released recordings on Round. Seems as if Pig would have gone the same route, professional recording and all. As is, the cd in question is really an interesting document of various things Pig did that someone gathered together for a bootleg.