[Pete B.]

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Grateful-J ... B0009PBLZE
A Night at the Family Dog 1970:
'Picked up this DVD yesterday. I have only watched the Deads segment once so far, but the sound quality is really good.
Jer is playing the Sunburst Strat with American flag sticker below the bridge.
At one point, you can see an arm/hand reaching over from behind one of Jer's amps, blindly adjusting the knobs (Bear?)... the hand finds the input jack, then goes on to turn every knob to zero, and then up to where he thinks it should be. This is kinda odd looking. Jer apparently does not even notice this, as he just keeps playing (I assume there are several amps daisy chained).
I look forward to watching the rest of this one.

[Rusty the Scoob]

I'll have to watch for the amp changer. I've seen it twice so far but both times I've been staring at Phil.

I feel bad for Pig when he's behind the organ during China->Ryder, playing congas and tambourine. He looks like he wants to play it, but they told him not to touch it.

[tigerstrat]

Got that one Netflix queued. Not positive, but Ram Rod may have been JG's designated tech by then, however Owsley was probably there, as this was a little before he was sent to prison for bail violation (pot) in July '70.

[strumminsix]

I feel bad for Pig when he's behind the organ during China->Ryder, playing congas and tambourine. He looks like he wants to play it, but they told him not to touch it.

Really? Who told him that and why?

[Rusty the Scoob]

It was always my understanding that the band collectively asked him to switch to congas sometime around the time that TC joined, greatly hurting his feelings.

[deadguise]

[quoteIt was always my understanding that the band collectively asked him to switch to congas sometime around the time that TC joined, greatly hurting his feelings.
][/quote]

Wasn't that around the same time they almost fired Pig and Bobby?

[tigerstrat]

[quoteIt was always my understanding that the band collectively asked him to switch to congas sometime around the time that TC joined, greatly hurting his feelings.
]

Wasn't that around the same time they almost fired Pig and Bobby?[/quote]

TC came aboard within several weeks after the firing that "didn't take". However, nobody took away Pig's organ, in fact Pig played the Hammond while TC was relegated to the Vox Continental. There were several songs that he probably preferred to play hand percussion, especially the jazzier stuff like CCat. This Family Dog show was just after TC left the band, so the organ is obviously there for Pigpen to play... just not on China Cat.

[milobender]

Jefferson Airplane is ok... it's cool to see, and Jack does a nice solo. But it's a treat to watch Santana's rythm section! Those guys really cook! Totally fun to watch, seems rather like a day at the office for them... but sweating

Brian

[willmusic]

"Constanten often replaced Pigpen on keyboards. In October 1968, McKernan and Weir were nearly fired from the band because of their reluctance to rehearse. The task of firing them was delegated by Garcia to Rock Scully, who said that McKernan "took it hard." The remaining members did a number of shows under the monikers Mickey and the Heartbeats and Jerry Garrceeah and His Friends, mainly playing Grateful Dead songs without lyrics. Weir asked repeatedly to be let back into the band, promising to step up his playing, and eventually the rest of the band relented. McKernan was more stubborn, missing three Dead shows; he finally vowed not to "be lazy" anymore and rejoined the band. In November 1968, Constanten was hired full time for the band, having only worked in the studio up to that point. Joe McIntire, an assistant road manager under Jonthan Reister, commented that "Pigpen was relegated to the congas at that point and it was really humiliating and he was really hurt, but he couldn't show it, couldn't talk about it."

[KCJones]

"Constanten often replaced Pigpen on keyboards. In October 1968, McKernan and Weir were nearly fired from the band ..."

I intended to " the entire above paragraph in general?

Where is this quoted from?

Be aware or beware that Phils book "searching for the sound", and Dead publicists' McNally's biography "A Long Strange Trip", both contradict Rock Scully's book "Living With The Dead" in many areas. In fact McNally flat out says Skully is wrong in some areas.

I've read all three, and its just My Opinion, but Skully's book is NOT reliable. And, although is a fun read, I ended up putting it down halfway through just cause I started feeling like shit was simply exagerated and just plain made up. It read more like the National Inquirerer, and was intentionally written as such to sell. I definately don't recommend reading it, it will falsify your perception of many things.

[tigerstrat]

What makes you assume that paragraph was quoted from Scully's Living With The Dead? In fact it is not a Scully(/Dalton) quote.

Sure LWTD gets kinda fanciful or hard to swallow in places but imho none of the bios are truly reliable in perfect detail because ALL of them are cobbled together from pretty fuzzy recollections (if you can remember the 60's...). Scully's book is told from his unique (manager/non-musician) perspective, and damn is it entertaining! imho, It's one of the best "histories" of the GD to just pick up and start reading at ANY page for a minute or two, for a "slice of GD life" vignette. If he exaggerates here or there or "compiles" separate incidents together into one anecdote, or gets dates wrong... it mostly has a ring of truth to it, and the color he tosses in really makes the book work imho. Also you can tell he has his regrets and lingering personal issues with some of the band, but he never takes on a really resentful or judgemental tone w/o lumping himself into the criticism.

[jonarobb]

"Constanten often replaced Pigpen on keyboards. In October 1968, McKernan and Weir were nearly fired from the band ..."

I intended to " the entire above paragraph in general?

Where is this quoted from?

Be aware or beware that Phils book "searching for the sound", and Dead publicists' McNally's biography "A Long Strange Trip", both contradict Rock Scully's book "Living With The Dead" in many areas. In fact McNally flat out says Skully is wrong in some areas.

I've read all three, and its just My Opinion, but Skully's book is NOT reliable. And, although is a fun read, I ended up putting it down halfway through just cause I started feeling like shit was simply exagerated and just plain made up. It read more like the National Inquirerer, and was intentionally written as such to sell. I definately don't recommend reading it, it will falsify your perception of many things.

I like Scully's book far greater than the others. He finally confirms what that black soot is on Jerry's fingertips from about 1980-on. And it ain't Finger Ease I'll tell ya.

[b weird]

I like Scully's book far greater than the others. He finally confirms what that black soot is on Jerry's fingertips from about 1980-on. And it ain't Finger Ease I'll tell ya.

What exactly is that "Soot"? I never read the book.

[KCJones]

jonarobb wrote:

I like Scully's book far greater than the others. He finally confirms what that black soot is on Jerry's fingertips from about 1980-on. And it ain't Finger Ease I'll tell ya.

What exactly is that "Soot"? I never read the book.

The soot is from Jerry burning his fingers chasing the dragon. But, That's exacly my point about the Skully's book. Fabricated or not, Skully, self proclaimed himself the closest and best friend of Garcia, goes into the most detailed a personel description of Jerry, focusing most of the book on his drug use, bathroom habits, and other stuff, only your "best friend" would know. If he was his closest friend and confidont as he proclaims, why write a tell all book on your best friend; that's bullshit. Obviously he's still sucking what he can out of Garcia.

[Tennessee Jedi]

jonarobb wrote:

I like Scully's book far greater than the others. He finally confirms what that black soot is on Jerry's fingertips from about 1980-on. And it ain't Finger Ease I'll tell ya.

What exactly is that "Soot"? I never read the book.

The soot is from Jerry burning his fingers chasing the dragon. But, That's exacly my point about the Skully's book. Fabricated or not, Skully, self proclaimed himself the closest and best friend of Garcia, goes into the most detailed a personel description of Jerry, focusing most of the book on his drug use, bathroom habits, and other stuff, only your "best friend" would know. If he was his closest friend and confidont as he proclaims, why write a tell all book on your best friend; that's bullshit. Obviously he's still sucking what he can out of Garcia.

+ 1 here
Take it to the grave with you. True or not.