Hello and welcome back to part 2 of Collin’s Guide To The Grateful Dead, where we take a look at the history and stories of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, from their legendary performances to their wild antics.

In part 1, we did a brief overview of each member of the band, except for the keyboardists. So starting today, and continuing for the next three columns, we’ll be taking a look at three distinct eras of the Dead, each based on who is playing keyboard. We’ll be giving a brief history of the keyboardist during their time with the band, their influence, and how they joined and left the band. The eras we’ll be discussing will go as followed:

-The Pigpen Era (1965 – 1973)

-The Keith Godchaux Era (1973 – 1979)

-The Brent Mydland Era (1979 – 1990)

Today, we’ll be starting with the Pigpen era. This era mainly focuses on the early days of the Grateful Dead, and how the band quickly matured in a matter of 8 years. This era, while the first three albums were psychedelic, mainly focused on elements of the blues, folk, and country music. It also showed how quickly someone can fall if they don’t keep up, as was the case for Pigpen. But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves just yet. Let’s start at the beginning.

Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan was born on September 8, 1945 in San Bruno, CA, earning his nickname for his dirty appearance and habits. Not only was he the band’s first keyboardist, but also the band’s original frontman and co-founder. But unlike Jerry or Bob, who were mainly influenced by country and bluegrass, Pigpen was influenced by the blues, even going as far as to teach himself how to play piano and harmonica. In the early 60s, Pigpen left for San Francisco to immerse himself in the ever growing music scene. While there, he met Jerry Garcia while working with him at a local music shop. The two struck up a musical friendship when Jerry invited him to play with him, and soon, along with Jerry’s friend, Bob Weir, the trio began to form a band.

Around 1964, there was Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, a jug band that focused on blues and bluegrass music. However, with the arrival of the Beatles that same year, Pigpen decided that the band should go electric and turn to rock and roll. This decision would lead to the inclusion of Bill Kreutzmann and evolving into the Warlocks. However, when the band discovered that there was another band in the area called the Warlocks, they had to change their name again. This led to Jerry opening a dictionary and pointing to the first term that caught his eye; the Grateful Dead. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It should be noted that the band had two keyboardists during the Pigpen Era. In 1967, in the wake of the San Francisco Acid Wave, the band decided to go psychedelic.

Pigpen, however, was stubborn about the decision, and didn’t want to partake in psychedelic drugs. Instead, he chose alcohol, which would ruin his perception of the band. To help them in their psychedelic quest, the band hired keyboardist Tom Constanten to help bring a more psychedelic feel to their music. While Pigpen was still playing a role in the band’s development, his significance was quickly dropping.

Between 1967 and 1969, we would see three consecutive albums as part of the band’s brief psychedelic era: Grateful Dead (1967), Anthem of The Sun (1968 and the first to feature Mickey Hart), and Aoxomoxoa (1969). While not bad albums, they weren’t selling as well as their label, Warner Bros., were expecting them to. However, when the 70s came around, the band decided to go back to their roots. In 1970, Tom left the band over musical differences, leading to Pigpen to resume his duties. The removal of Tom and the decision to focus on their roots would bring us to Workingman’s Dead in 1970, composed of songs focusing mainly on country and blues. Pigpen even got to sing on the album, on the track “Easy Wind”, describing himself as a stone jack baller with a true heart. But despite this, it was obvious that Pigpen was on a downward spiral.

You see, Pigpen’s alcoholism had worsened during the band’s psychedelic period, and caused him to get lazier and more stubborn. He would miss shows, skip rehearsals, and slow down the band during performances. He was even fired for a short period of time, but came back after missing three shows. But by that point, he was no longer the leading figure of the band. Jerry and Bob had taken the reins, and led the band in the right direction, leaving Pigpen in the dust. But that’s not to say that he was a bad performer. Pigpen was an excellent motivator and known for pumping the crowd up during his songs. During his sets, he would rap and improvise his lyrics on the spot, keeping the atmosphere fresh and exciting. While not the greatest keyboardist in the world, he was certainly one of the best entertainers of his time.

While Pigpen focused more on blues covers, he did write a few of his own songs. The two most notable songs being “Chinatown Shuffle” and “Mr. Charlie”, both of which were performed during the band’s Europe ’72 tour. But the more iconic Pigpen songs were always the covers, including “Turn On Your Lovelight”, “I’m a King Bee”, and my favorite, “Hard To Handle”.

Around the time of Europe ’72, the band once again requested the help of a second keyboardist while Pigpen was on a short hiatus. That keyboardist would be classical pianist and deadhead Keith Godchaux, and his wife, Donna. More will be discussed about them in the next column. But anyway, the band was now in a better place than they were 5 years ago. All, except for Pigpen. By the end of the tour in May of 1972, Pigpen’s alcoholism had gotten so bad to the point of retirement in June, claiming that “I don’t want you around when I die”.

And unfortunately, that was exactly the case.

On March 8, 1973, Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan was found dead at the age of 27; The cause of death being a gastrointestinal hemorrhage from his many years as an alcoholic. Despite falling off the wagon near the end of his life, Pigpen was an incredible influence on the band and their development. He was a sweet human being with a big heart and a tremendous love for music. Later on, the song “He’s Gone”, would become, as lyricist Robert Hunter described it, as “An anthem for Pigpen”.

As Jerry said it best, “After Pigpen’s death, we all knew this was the end of the original Grateful Dead.” And indeed it was, for in that same year, the band would release their first album without Pigpen, “Wake of the Flood,” launching the band into the next big era of their career.

Stay tuned for part 3, where we’ll explore the history of the Keith Godchaux era of the Grateful Dead. Until then, stay weir’d!