Festival Express-The Movie and a Pigpen question....
 

Hi,
So, I rented and watched Festival Express this weekend. It was great. Amazing to see Jerry and the guys young and vital again. I couldn't get over how young Bob Weir was in this film. Janis Joplin and The Band's performances were spellbinding as well. In one scene Pigpen is playing the harmonica and singing. It started us talking, I read in one GD tome that Pigpen was "clean" that he didn't do drugs, I assume he was a drinker because of his cause of death. Does anyone know if this it true?

Festival Express etc
 

I'm assuming that your talking about The Greatful Dead,I saw them in the 80's over here on tour in the UK and to date they were without doubt the worst fuckin' band I have ever seen in my life and I have seen a few.
We left in the interval what was the hype? Don't get it.

I feel they are an aquired taste. I disliked them when I began listening to them. My husband has always loved them and played them quite often. I would complain that one song lasted for 2 hours etc etc....Then little by little, I began to warm up to them. I then read biographies and articles and became even more enamored of all of them. (even Phil as horribly ugly as he is) I respect them as musicians. Jerry truly loved to play, you can feel it coming through when you listen. What appeals to one person may repel another. To each his own. :thumbsup:

I don't get The Dead.

I especially don't get The Dead Cult.

Yes, I am the right age, own more than one piece of tie-dyed clothing, and do have a prior history of drug use.

Definitely an aquired taste, I think, becuase there is just so much to take in. It takes a little practice to hear it all becuase it's so much different than most other music. It's beautiful noise.
Pigpen was before my time. When I listen to old music I can hear that it's different, but he doesn't have the same impact on me as other members (like the Godshaux's, when they were members the sound was completely different). I always liked Brent and the sound changed again completely when he died. But to me, the Dead was always about Jerry's guitar and Hunter's lyrics, not tie dyes and drugs.

Jerry
 

Hi Jinx,
(that is kinda punny..)
Have you seen Grateful Dawg?
I have a deep and abiding love for Jerry too. In fact, I have a photo of him here at my desk at work along side pics of my kids. One day a 20 something co-worker was sitting at my desk and she asked me if the picture was of my dad.....pretty funny. ;)

I liked "Workingman's Dead" and the song "Sugar Magnolia" mainly because when I was a lad I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for a while and had a sweetie who used to live up on Magnolia Road in the mountains outside of Boulder. We broke up and I went back to Idaho. Haven't thought too much about the Dead since. Brings back some memories, though. Uhmmm... Sugar Magnolia! :biggrinlo

Uhm check out the Dead's first album The Dead. One of the most unbelievable albums ever made. Listen to that in your car on a long drive. Once you listen to that album you'll be hooked. Many don't even know of it. Pigpen's only song is in there - Viola Lee Blues. He did others (wrote) but that's the one the Dead commerated to him and only performed live once more after his death.