tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post6970770956033869312..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: May 24, 1970: Pigpen Interview and Hollywood Festival, EnglandLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-34274443658774596552019-02-08T14:11:37.877-08:002019-02-08T14:11:37.877-08:00An informed look at the Dead from England, just be...An informed look at the Dead from England, just before the release of Workingman's Dead. The Dead were on the cover of this issue of Zigzag, which ran a lavishly illustrated article. It seems to start abruptly, but I think it's complete. <br /><br />Though Garry complains about the lack of information and misguided opinions about the Dead in the media, he seems pretty well-informed about them (and American readers would have had the same problem). Writing for a music publication, he had access to quite a few American magazines, since he quotes from a variety of sources and pulls together a fairly detailed and accurate history of the band. (He still has a few unanswered questions though, as listed at the end.) <br /><br />More interesting to me was his interview with Pigpen, which must be one of Pigpen's longest appearances in print. (It's possible you can see this interview taking place in the background during the hotel-reception footage on the Long Strange Trip bonus disc.) Pigpen turns out to be "one of the most charming, polite, and quiet people I have ever met," and discusses appropriate footwear. He sounds quite sensible and down to earth.<br /><br />Garry was enthralled with the Dead's festival show - even Me & My Uncle was fabulous! Not knowing what will be on Workingman's Dead, he thinks the covers the Dead are playing will be on the album. Actually, the Dead played a covers-heavy set for the English crowd, playing only one song from the album. (The only other new song in the set, Attics, Garry thinks is a '900 Miles'-style traditional folk song.) But he's right that since the Live Dead days, the Dead had slanted much more towards "traditional Americana" and pop. <br />Pigpen sounds pleased that "we've gone right back to simpler, more straight forward type of stuff." Garcia sighed years later that up til then, "We were doing something that was forced, it wasn't really natural. We were doing music that was self-consciously weird. If we had paid more attention to Pigpen, it probably would have saved us a couple years of fucking around."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com