The Adventures of Pigpen, part 1

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. It's great to be back, and thank you very much for tuning in.

In this episode, the first in a two-part series on Ron Pigpen McKernan, we commemorate the life of the original Grateful Dead frontman on the 50th anniversary of his passing. 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 how you like to listen. Please help us by subscribing, hit that like button and leave us a review. Thank you very much.

Have you checked out the transcripts we now have available for many of your favorite Deadcast episodes? Head over to dead.net/deadcastdashindex and click the transcript link on the episode you want to explore, including the recently uploaded season six transcripts.

Well, timing is everything, and as we salute Pigpen, it's only appropriate that there be some music to come along with us on this trip. 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. These were 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 version available exclusively at dead.net. You can pre-order any and all of the Bear's Choice 50th Anniversary Remaster, releases and merch over at dead.net. Thanks to everyone who has left their stories at stories.dead.net, we are now asking you to share your stories of serendipity, miracles and the most unbelievable, craziest stories ever told. Share those stories at stories.dead.net and you just may hear yourself on the Deadcast. Jesse and I took a trip to interview Jim Sullivan, who is the keeper of the Pigpen Archives, a unique collection of Grateful Dead memorabilia and a treasure trove of McKernan Family keepsakes. Sully graciously invited us into his home and shared a multitude of stories, documents, photographs and museum-worthy items that blew our minds multiple times. Welcome back to The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast. Here's Jesse Jarnow.

Ron McKernan (3:05)

I said goodbye, goodbye poor Katie, Yeah, the last words I've got to say.

Jesse Jarnow (3:30)

Ron Pigpen McKernan died 50 years ago this month at the age of 27 He's buried at the Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, the town where the Grateful Dead were born. An inscription reads, Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead. This is from Bear's Choice, a live album released in 1973 that was in large part a tribute to Pigpen.

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.

David Lemieux (4:07)

Take Pigpen away from the electric Grateful Dead. Take him away from being the front man on Turn On Your Love Light and Good Lovin and things like that and bringing the house down with Hard to Handle and things like that.

And he is one of the most soulful blues guys when he's got just he and a guitar.

Ron McKernan (4:33)

I say she got to be a team model for it. Yeah, so she got the shape all right, but you can't care no heavy loads.

Jesse Jarnow (4:52)

It was Pigpen's idea to go electric as the Warlocks in 1965, and he wasn't just the dead's first front man, but their first identifiable character, depicted on the first T-shirts and posters in 1967 But even 50 years after his death, Pigpen is still a bit of a mystery. He didn't give many interviews, and died just as the Grateful Dead were transforming from an underground act into a mainstream band, and more tragically, just as he was beginning to find his own voice as a songwriter.

That was The Stranger, Two Souls In Communion, recorded on the last night of the Europe 72 Tour at the Lyceum in London, one of Pigpen's final original compositions. And as we'll learn today, the intended title for the song is actually Stranger Here. It was never performed again. Pigpen appeared once more with the dead after their return from Europe 72, but only played organ. He died nine months later.

Today we remember and meet Pigpen. Here's Bob Weir on WMMR in 1976

Bob Weir (6:19)

He was really sweet. He was a mad man.