T.C.

Rich Mahan (0:05)

The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of The Grateful Dead. I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarnow, exploring the music and legacy of The Grateful Dead for The Committed And The Curious.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Deadheads, welcome to season seven of The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast. I'm your co-host Rich Mahan. Thank you very much for tuning in. This episode dives into everything that is TC. Tom Constanten, keyboardist with The Grateful Dead from November 23rd, 1968 to January 30th, 1970 You might have known TC was in the band, but you didn't know a lot about him. Well, this is the episode for you.

Head on over to dead.net/deadcast and check out all of our past episodes, including the complete seasons one through six. And you can link from there to your favorite podcasting platform so you can listen where you like to listen. Please help this podcast by subscribing, hitting that like button. And if the spirit moves you, leave us a review. Thank you very much. It's very kind of you. And you know we have transcripts for a lot of your favorite Deadcast episodes now, right? Well, those of you waiting on season one transcripts don't have to wait any longer. They are up now for your viewing pleasure at dead.net/deadcastdashindex. Check them out.

Announcing history of the Grateful Dead, Volume One, Bear's Choice 50th Anniversary Remaster. This is the original album, newly remastered by Grammy award-winning engineer David Glasser using Plangent processes from the original analog two-track tapes recorded live by Owsley Bear Stanley at the famed Fillmore East on February 13th and 14th, 1970 There are two versions, a black 180-gram vinyl edition and a limited edition custom vinyl available exclusively at dead.net. Both of these releases are out as of May 5th, but you can pre-order any and all of the Bear's Choice 50th Anniversary Remastered Releases and Merch over at dead.net.

Thanks to everyone who has left their stories at stories.dead.net. We're now asking you to share your stories of serendipity, miracles and the most unbelievable, craziest stories ever told. Share those stories over at stories.dead.net and you just may hear yourself on a future Deadcast.

Tom Constanten, or TC as he's also known, played keyboards with The Grateful Dead in the last part of the 60s. This episode shines a light on all things, TC and we'll hear from Tom extensively, learn all about his time with the band, as well as what he did afterwards and what he's up to today. Jesse, over to you.

Jesse Jarnow (3:21)

Tom Constanten was a full-time member of the Grateful Dead for something close to 15 months, from mid-1968 to the end of January 1970 A music school classmate of dead bassist Phil Lesh, TC contributed to the albums Anthem Of The Sun, Oxum Oxoa, and Live Dead, and appears on more than a dozen archival releases so far. Also, he got to be in the Grateful Dead in 1969

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.

David Lemieux (4:08)

I think he was exactly the right guy for that exact psychedelic primal Grateful Dead time. What TC added to that I feel was magnificent. Listen to A Dark Star from August of 1968 Let's say from The Shrine or The Fillmore West. A few shows recorded.

And Dark Star is good. Everybody's doing incredible things on it. Pigpen is doing that thing.

For the whole thing.

Phil Lesh (4:44)

Thanks for!

David Lemieux (4:57)

But then TC joins, and Pigpen steps back from his keyboard duties, and TC brings something to the table that allowed Darkstar to become Darkstar.

Jesse Jarnow (5:26)

That was a bit of the live dead dark star, and before that, two from the vault.

Here's Phil Lash talking with David Gans in 1981 from an interview now in Conversations With The Dead. Thanks, David.

Phil Lesh (5:37)

I mean, his work is just unique.

Jesse Jarnow (5:42)

Henry Kaiser has been a friend and collaborator since TC played in the Henry Kaiser Band in the 80s.

Henry Kaiser (5:47)

T.C.'s a very special, both human being and a very special improviser and a very special keyboard player, and there's nobody who's like him. And he's a great keyboard player, you know, with a wide knowledge of the history of Western music composition for keyboards, and all that informs what he does, no matter what he's doing, what he's playing.

Jesse Jarnow (6:13)

For the past 30 years, Grateful Dead MIDI engineer, Bob Brelo, has been Tom Constanten's partner in the collaboration Dose Hermanos.

Bob Bralove (6:20)

He's essentially a romantic piano player.

He just sent me a Spiegel prelude that he just recorded. You know, it's like, okay, this is really cool.