#pigpen died 50 years ago today & the good ol’ #gratefuldead-cast begins our 7th season with a 2-part tribute built on a whole pile of never-seen writings & never-heard tapes, the deepest pig bio yet. in part 1, we zoom in on the palo alto #folk scene circa 1961-1964, including tales of teenage pig hanging with train-hopping hobos, a look into the pre-warlocks R&B bands he played in, & bits of a few uncirculated tapes, including one with #JerryGarcia. https://www.dead.net/deadcast/adventures-pigpen-part-1
a wee mindblower (for me, anyway): both pigpen & garcia did time in an R&B band called the zodiacs. garcia credited zodiacs’ guitarist/leader troy weidenheimer with some of the loose jamminess the dead would later pick up. turns out that in 2007 the legendary norton records put out a session by a pre-pig/JG version of the band & you can totally hear it even though their songs are like 2 minutes. check out their "caravan" especially. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MVGJpsYWY&list=OLAK5uy_nJCL9qdlYOLZV8tehLGIuDcB9zuf45WEI
this is the chateau, the house in menlo park where #JerryGarcia & #RobertHunter lived circa 1961, where garcia met #PhilLesh at the kitchen table, where #Pigpen got his 1st harmonica, & where there was once an out-of-control 3-day party called "the groovy conclave." hear more on the newest deadcast: https://www.dead.net/deadcast/adventures-pigpen-part-1 (photo via @InstituteJerry)
@bourgwick Oh hell, yeah.
Cannot wait.
@bourgwick coolness. I really flipped over that Chieftains track you played on WFMU last night. Getting my hands on the album. Made my split pledge yesterday, with a piece allocated to Frow. Looking forward to listening to the new Deadcast.
@sluggobeast it's such a beautiful piece, beautifully recorded. and thank ya!!
@bourgwick "The primitive instrumental sounds" is perfect!
@bourgwick Nick's got a write up on the Zodiacs, Billy was on the scene too http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/11/zodiacs.html
@InstituteJerry kreutzmann says he only played one gig as a fill-in with the zodiacs, but mainly played with the legends.
@bourgwick @InstituteJerry i have ALWAYS wanted to see a pic of it, and surely will be tuning into Deadcast ~ thank you for all you do, Jesse
@ll_rain @bourgwick @InstituteJerry There are additional pictUres of The Chateau, circa 1970, here: https://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2014/09/palo-alto-menlo-park-and-stanford.html
@bourgwick @InstituteJerry can’t thank you enough for the Deadcast, the previous seasons have been unmissable. Really looking forward to the Pigpen episodes.
@bourgwick About an hour into Part 1–hot damn, is this one good! So much to chew on already.
@bourgwick thank you so much for this. it's a joy to hear the man speaking in the taped interviews. #Pigpen