Tom Constanten was a short blip in the history of the Grateful Dead, and one of the few to avoid the curse of the hot seat.Ĭonstanten joined the band in 1968 and brought some psychedelic improvisation to the table for the recording of 1968’s Anthem of the Sun and 1969’s Aoxomoxoa, and their early days of improvised jams. In March of 1973, Pigpen was found dead in his home of gastrointestinal hemorrhage, at the young age of 27. By June of 1972 his condition had progressed to the point of not being able to play, and he left the band for good. Pigpen and Keith both joined the band on the famous European tour, which turned out to be Pigpen’s last stand. In December 1971 Pigpen returned, but his return was brief. He took a short hiatus to get his health in order in 1971, and it was at this time that the Dead added Keith Godchaux to the lineup on piano.
In the late sixties, when the band started to experiment with psychedelics and extensive jamming, Pigpen stayed away from the acid and instead chose to drink.īy 1971 Pigpen’s drinking was starting to make him sick and keep him from the road with the band. While Jerry emerged as a reluctant leader as the band developed, in the early days one could argue that Pigpen was the main driving force behind the loose, blues-oriented sound of the Dead. The founding keyboardist of the Grateful Dead was none other than Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who according to the Jerry biography Dark Star was named such after Pigpen from Peanuts. Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (1965 – 1972) Pigpen and Jerry Garcia, 1967. Read on to learn about the history of the keyboard seat in the Grateful Dead and what each member brought to the band’s sound. So without further ado, we offer you our official timeline of Grateful Dead keyboardists, in order from the band’s inception in 1965 right up through the final show in July of 1995 a long, strange trip cut short by the heart-attack-in-rehab death of Jerry Garcia. While this unfortunate circumstance made for a lot of broken hearts in the Grateful Dead family, the rotating cast of keyboard players also contributed to the evolution of the Dead’s music and allowed for many different styles to find their way into the band’s sound over the years.Įach keyboard player has come to represent a distinct era for the band, with a shifting sound and dynamics that makes digging deep into their live archives that much more of a fulfilling experience. This led to the keyboard spot in the Grateful Dead being playfully referred to as the “hot seat” by members of the band and fans alike, and some do speculate that there might be some sort of curse attached to being the keyboard player in the Grateful Dead.
The band had five different keyboardists during their time four of them died tragic deaths, and three of them died while they were still in the band. The keyboard players, however, depict a completely different story. We reserve the ability to withdraw our sanction of non-commercial digital music should circumstances arise that compromise our ability to protect and steward the integrity of our work.Brent Mydland with the Grateful Dead in the 1980s.ĭuring the Grateful Dead’s more than 30 year-long existence as a band, much of their core lineup remained the same: you had Jerry Garcia on lead guitar, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Phil Lesh on bass, and some combination of Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman on drums. This notice should be clearly posted on all sites engaged in this activity. No commercial gain may be sought by websites offering digital files of our music, whether through advertising, exploiting databases compiled from their traffic, or any other means.Īll participants in such digital exchange acknowledge and respect the copyrights of the performers, writers and publishers of the music. Our stipulations regarding digital distribution are merely extensions of those long-standing principles and they are as follow:
That a new medium of distribution has arisen - digital audio files being traded over the Internet - does not change our policy in this regard. The Grateful Dead and our managing organizations have long encouraged the purely non-commercial exchange of music taped at our concerts and those of our individual members. Here are some examples of currently nonpublic items (list is not comprehensive):, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, See:Īdditional note on Limitations for this site: Specific items (show dates and/or recording versions) may become unavailable for downloading or streaming here by rights-holder request. Limited Flag: LimSpecial / LimProject / LimShows / LimSBDs / LimRangeġ1/2005 brought a major change to GD material here.
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