Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Episode 5: Biting the Hand that Feeds You, Fired from the Band, and Drinking the Dosed Coffee

27 Club

iHeartPodcasts and Double Elvis

Society & Culture, Music

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Haight-Ashbury devolved from a counterculture mecca to a commodified tourist haven, and the Grateful Dead searched for the perfect sound to complement their continued evolution, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan found that his musical contributions were becoming obsolete. It wasn't long before he had to face the fact that the he was finally losing control of the group he had created.

Sources:

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, by Dennis McNally

Living with The Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead, by Rock Scully with David Dalton

Searching for the Sound, by Phil Lesh

The Grateful Dead FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Greatest Jam Band in History, by Tony Sclafani

This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead, by Blair Jackson and David Gans

Grateful Dead Close Down Haight Street For Free Concert, On This Day In 1968 (Live for Live Music)

Jerry Garcia 1967 interview

Haight-Ashbury “Hippie Hop” bus

Grateful Dead: Anthem of the Sun and American Beauty (Classic Albums)

1967: Grateful Dead visit the Warnecke Ranch (Chalkhill Residency)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0iULSnZUkg

Grateful Dead's 'Anthem of the Sun': 10 Things You Didn't Know (Rolling Stone)

The 1967 letter from a record executive that said The Grateful Dead had "many problems" (Far Out)

Internet Archive Forums: 1968 - The Firing (part I)

Grateful Dead Guide: 1968 - The Firing (Dead Essays)

The moment when The Grateful Dead dosed the 'Playboy After Dark' crew (Far Out)

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Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse and many more musical icons all died at the age of 27. Scandalous, tortured, dramatic, and incredibly talented, these artists torched a wild path to their early graves and shifted and shaped our culture along the way. 27 Club tells their stories. 27 Club is hosted and created by Jake Brennan, host and creator of the award-winning music and true crime podcast DISGRACELAND. 27 Club is not a journalistic podcast. It is an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. For more shows like 27 Club, check out www.doubleelvis.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1995, Detective Tony Richardson was trying to figure out who killed a fellow officer.
0:11.5	The case comes down to who is believed and who is ignored.
0:15.8	Oh my goodness, we did connect to Innocent Man.
0:19.1	I'm Beth Shelburn from Lava for Good Podcasts.
0:22.6	This is Ear Witness.
0:24.9	Welcome to Ear Witness on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
0:29.9	podcasts.
0:32.4	Sometimes the pop culture we love just teens hits differently in retrospect.
0:36.4	Maybe it's a tabloid story we couldn't get enough of or an illicit student-teacher relationship
0:40.9	on our favorite show.
0:42.5	We're Suzy Banna-Karim and Jessica Bennett, posts of the new podcast in retrospect.
0:47.2	Where each week we'll revisit a cultural moment from the past that shaped us and probably
0:51.3	you.
0:52.3	To try to understand what it taught us about the world and our place in it.
0:55.0	You're the first person that I've talked to about this for years and years.
0:58.2	Listen to In retrospect on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find
1:02.4	your favorite shows.
1:04.2	911, what's your emergency?
1:07.2	It's a nightmare we could never have imagined.
1:10.7	In the killer, we were still on the loose.
1:14.0	In the 1980s, we were in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members.
1:18.6	We weren't safe anywhere.
	...

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