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Sep 8, 2013 · Nick DeRiso Published: September 8, 2013. Michael Putland, Getty Images. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was part of the Grateful Dead before it was even called the Grateful Dead. As this list...
- ‘Smokestack Lightning’
- ‘Alligator’
- ‘In The Midnight Hour’
- ‘Caution (Do Not Step on Tracks)’
- ‘It Hurts Me Too’
- ‘Mr. Charlie’
- ‘Big Boss Man’
- ‘Operator’
- ‘Ain’t It Crazy (The Rub)’
- ‘Chinatown Shuffle’
Pigpen’s first job within The Dead was to act as frontman for their blues covers. In the beginning, that’s all the band had, and most of their repertoire was handpicked by McKernan based on his personal tastes. ‘Smokestack Lightning’, the classic Howlin’ Wolf track, is almost impossible to perform: it has a single chord, and it relies solely on the...
It was no secret that Pigpen had a hard time keeping up with the psychedelic sound that was quickly becoming the band’s signature in the late ’60s. With little room for the garage rock originals or blues covers he preferred, aided by his dislike of LSD and marijuana, Pigpen began a slow estrangement from his bandmates. However, their styles briefly...
As the members of the Grateful Dead began to gel as musicians, group improvisation became an essential part of their chemistry. Propelled by Phil Lesh’s interests in jazz and Jerry Garcia’s expansive guitar work, the trick was finding the right vehicle with which the band could go off on whatever musical tangent they desired. Wilson Pickett’s ‘In t...
There’s a certain irony to the fact that Pigpen’s biggest showcase was on the band’s most “out there” psychedelic album: Anthem of the Sun. The two songs that make up the back half are Pigpen tunes, the aforementioned ‘Alligator’ and ‘Caution (Do Not Step on Tracks)’. Talking of gypsy women and the touch of the mojo hand, Pigpen was well within his...
Nobody did pained pleading like Pigpen. The band’s other singers excelled at country tunes, rockers, and psychedelic songs, but when it came to bluesy heartbreak, Pigpen just hit the right notes to give the songs the proper believability. The real life demons that Pigpen struggled with were given an outlet when he plugged into Elmore James track ‘I...
When Robert Hunter was brought into the Grateful Dead camp, he became the in-house lyricist for all of the band members with their originals. Hunter had the unique ability to tailor his writing style to each member’s strengths, and for Pigpen, that meant bluesy tales of shotguns and wine. ‘Mr. Charlie’ is a romp if there ever was one, complete with...
When he passed away, Pigpen’s songs were rarely touched by the Dead. Partly out of respect for their deceased friend, the band also realised that Pigpen’s tunes required quite a bit of charisma to pull off. Weir’s revivals of ‘Turn on Your Love Light’ and ‘Good Lovin’ were adequate but lacked the spark that came with Pigpen’s original performances....
Pigpen could plead with heartbreaking honesty, but he wasn’t above a bit of comedy as well. The lighter side of Pig was well known to those around him, but to those who only saw him on stage or in pictures, he seemed like a whiskey-soaked villain straight out of a cartoon. ‘Operator’ allows Pigpen to play around with less weighty sounds. Once again...
The Dead’s roots as a jug band can seem ludicrous when compared to the styles that eventually made them: psychedelic rock and jam band music. But there was an intrinsically folky heart to the band’s sound, and one of the first songs they ever attempted as a group was the Lightnin’ Hopkins song ‘Ain’t It Crazy’, known to the band as ‘The Rub’. Once ...
There are a large number of Grateful Dead songs that never got properly recorded for a studio album. The Dead weren’t much of a studio band anyway, and most of their material became constricted within the confines of a recording session. Still, it’s a shame that ‘Chinatown Shuffle’ never got a studio recording, nor did it appear on Europe ’72, desp...
McKernan achieved a new prominence in 1969 singing "Turn On Your Love Light"; initially introduced in 1967, the song gradually evolved into the band's show-stopping finale, often taking fifteen to thirty minutes to complete.
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Songs with music by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Official Site. 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 ...
Popular Ron "Pigpen" McKernan songs. Dark Hollow. The Grateful Dead. I've Been All Around This World. The Grateful Dead. Hard to Handle. The Grateful Dead. Katie Mae. The Grateful Dead.
Mar 8, 2016 · Listen To The Grateful Dead’s Debut Performance Of Every Cover In Their Repertoire. In remembrance of the late great Ron “Pipgen” McKernan, here are 10 videos that capture his brilliance and...
This is from Bear’s Choice, a live album released in 1973 that was in large part a tribute to Pigpen. AUDIO: “Hard to Handle” [ Bear’s Choice] (0:34-0:48) - [ dead.net] [ Spotify] [ YouTube ] JESSE: Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.
