This was performed about 40 days before Pigpen did his last show, and he died 10 months after this. He was the Dead's party spirit - he would always get the crowd wild and rowdy. He put the fun in FUNK!
I was at this festival having driven my Red VW Bug up from Portugal. Got in free, too. I convinced the guy who put the whole gig on that I was an advance electrician for the band and I wandered around onstage with a screwdriver for a few hours before the band showed up and I sauntered offstage to enjoy the show. then on to London and Amsterdam for those shows. A few days later, I saw Pig for the last time in Rotterdam. Still miss him and Jerry, Keith, Vince, Brent, Bill Graham, too.
My fav period of the band, late '71 and Europe '72 with Pigpen on organ and Keith Godchaux on piano! Unbeatable duo in the keys department. I love Pigpen and Keith.
Mum says I was at this festival when I was 11 mths old, and she was waving me about in the air so I could watch the stage, and took me on stage at the end to dance with everyone. that someone tuned to her and said I bet she'll be musical when she grows up. Dad said he was pushing me in the pram and the crowd parted to let us through, but that he accidentally rolled the pram over an american lady who was lying down. She said, "do you mind..am tryna sleep!!". Good times ( i remember nothing) :)
This song i found at the heights of extasy in my pathetic little life, its sharp words sabbotaged my relationship slowly slowly from the inside. yet i couldnt stop listening. its been years now and i still hold this song up to one of the greatest pieces of music to ever bless my ears. i would be crying to its beauty, its ups and downs. but must of all. crying to rons honesty in his vocals. i tainted my karma with this wonderful bipolar piece of magnificence. LET IT SHINE LET IT SHINEEE OONNNN MEEE LET IT SHINEE OONNN MEEE just a little bit
Exactly fifty years ago today on May 24th, 1970 the Grateful Dead made their United Kingdom concert debut with a four-hour show at the Hollywood Music Festival at Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Newcastle, England... They opened their set with "Casey Jones" and seventeen songs later ended with "Turn On Your Love Light"... Mungo Jerry was the opening act, and at the time his "In The Summertime" was at #13 on the U.K. Singles chart at the time...
the dead closed there show at the 49th st.theather in Bklyn,NY with this song, when I went outside after the show, the sun was coming up, I was coming down, they must have played 6 or 7 hr.becaused the new riders opened for them.the shit you remember when you're having fun!
thats like when they play standing on the moon abd then tbe clouds break and theres the moon for tbe rest of the song... or when it rained during cold rain and snow... AMAzing things happened at these shows,, simple yet amazing....
Yes saw pigpen my first few Dead shows. Fillmore Feb. 1970 an July at Portchester Capitol theatre 1970. Both awesome. Pig was down an gritty Turn On your Lovelights an let it shine still shing after 54 years
Oh Yea! This is another great version of "shine on your lovelight." My fav version is on a greatest hits cassette and has a lot of soul in it, like this one too. :)
Make sure the grandkids know about this. When my dad was that age he was flying over hostile Berlin. When I was that age I was doing neither You were in the sweet spot and went for it
Oh great sound!!! I'm putting this recording on my channel, if I don't have it already. One of the best jams. I think I'll start a play list with that title. It will be nothing but great jams, of great songs, by great bands like this. Love your show.
there was nothing like the dead with Pig Pen and Tom Constaten Pig pen brough his blues Tom brought a quick jazz but in 1972 even though he was still kicking Keith joined to fill Toms shoes when he left. But the deads musical eras are based of whos on the keys.
Never had an issue with Keith. although he preferred just playing piano and not organ. Ned Lagin would usually sit in on B3 when they needed an organ or clavicord.
05-07-72 Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, England (Sun) 1: Truckin, Sugaree, Mr. Charlie, Deal, BIODTL, He's Gone, Chinatown Shuffle, China Cat> I Know You Rider, B. T. Wind, Next Time, Playin, Tennessee Jed, Good Lovin, Casey Jones 2: Greatest, Big Boss Man, Ramble On, Jack Straw, Dark Star> Drums> Other One> Sing Me Back Home, Sugar Magnolia, Lovelight> GDTRFB> NFA E: Saturday Night Bill Kreutzmann's 26th birthday - also: NRPS
I remember dancing in the mud in front of the stage, my flared denim jeans were coated solid damn near up to my knees. Dr John had been on the night before and had scattered handfuls of glitter sequins around during his set, so the mud was full of little shining stars... :-)
You're right, Jerry tears it up on this track. What a stylist, what a fucking virtuoso. Don't kid-----Pigpen was great, but the Dead made one helluva lot more music after 1972, and Jerry was who everyone went to see. BTW---We saw them in San Diego once when Jerry had laryngitis, We heard every Bob Weir song they could think of, including Big Iron and El Paso, Weird, but wonderful nonetheless.
Not that it matters now, with Pig Pen and Garcia both no longer with us, but I wonder if the Dead would of tried their Working Man's Dead & American Beauty country albums with Pig Pen around. He would of been like "we a rock band fellows, leave that country shit for Merle Haggard"...LOL!
@GypsyRose333 the dead IS nothing without jerry, but on a side note PIGPEN fuck yaaaah....incredible!!! @jakethesnake576 i'm pickin up what you're puttin down.
John Hebert ..are you trying to say people only listen to music they themselves create?. This is an odd statement. Although I think you mean to say that if the dead listen to all styles of music, then you should too, which is odd in itself. How would you even know what music was if you hadn't heard some type of song before, even if it was the beating of your mothers heart in the womb, holy shit, too much acid making me overthink again...down the rabbittt hhhooolllleeeeee
@GypsyRose333 the dead arent anything without Jerry, but they certianly lost quite a bit when they lost pigpen the sound COMPLETELY changed. then again, pig pen was a huge influence in turning them into the rock-ish band that they were. While he could sing the blues like nobodys business he couldnt play the organ to fit with them and while I love pigpen and think the dead wouldnt be anything if they had NEVER had him, I think they were able to grow quite a bit once he passed on
Can someone explain to me the appeal of this song? It contains exactly TWO chords.... TWO. Where is your capacity for harmonic boredom??? Is there no tendency to want to hear some root movement in the harmonic structure of this song? It is BORING..... Listen to Steely Dan's music. It was never one-dimensonal like this. I just truly don't get it.... It is so harmonically-limiting. The groove is unmistakable; they know how to put together a toe-tapping rhythm; that's for sure.... but, I miss the tone-colors and rainbow of the beautiful chord changes that are possible with a group of talented musicians like this. Guess I just always look for interesting chord changes, because I know what is possible. So did Becker/Fagen. They never recorded ONE song that was so limiited in harmonic scope, like this.
+bill dedman That's the point, though, isn't it? The Dead could be wonderfully harmonically diverse (listen to some of their '73/'74 shows), but occasionally they tried to test how far they could push music within harmonic constraints. Turns out they could push it pretty fuckin' far. This is an excellent version; many of the '72 "Lovelight"s were comparable with the Fillmore '69 ones.
+bill dedman but Lovelight was at its peak when the Dead still billed themselves as at least partly a dance band. The long lovelights not only allowed solos (on 2 or 3 chords), but were easily danceable by all the heads in attendance. While I absolutely LOVE the Dan, they weren't interested in that sort of live, dancing group-think kind of experience. Apples and Oranges
I used to question the Dead and their long monotonous songs. I used to tell my friend (who turned me on to the Dead) to turn it off. He would just smile and kind of dance around to it and say "Someday you'll know." Well one night he took us to see the Dead. We all did mushrooms and smoked a good amount of bud. We are all musicians so we were ready to be entertained. over 75 shows later, I can say that I know. And unfortunately if you havent seen the Dead with Jerry Garcia live, you have no way of knowing......this is a dance song and it works.....There's a reason that they sold out every show for decades. There is a reason that many many people followed this band from show to show. I wish that i could explain it to you better but, yeah, you ARE missing something.....Sadly....YOU HAD TO BE THERE ....
