I agree with this sentiment so much that I just took a screen shot of it, including the reply from John, to keep around. Listening to the Dead takes me back to the happier, more centered, more light-hearted me.
I recall with great disdain, picking up my then-girlfriend, now ex-wife, in the car late one night, listening to Live/Dead, and her immediately turning the stereo off. I don't know why I was surprised that things didn't work out. ;)
Howlin Wolf was a perfectionist however I don’t think he would’ve objected to this version of a great tune! Pigpen and the crew do justice in paying homage to one Mr. Burnette!
I love these shows from early 1971. I attended a St. Louis show in March that year. Pigpen was still strong and Bobby was becoming a confident player. Nobody played the harp like Pigpen.
One thing I find very interesting is that Pig sounded amazing right to the end of his days with the Dead. Listen to any of his performances in 72, it seems to me that the fact that he knew his days were numbered actually made his performances more, well, soulful.
Listen to Grateful Dead with Pigpen, and it’s not much of a stretch to say that he and Jerry were equally important early on. The Dead were a fine blues band with Ron, and I love their songs that include his harmonica playing. Some of his raps went on too long IMO, and of course they were still a great band after he left, but they lost a certain aspect without him.
I heard if Pigpen was around to day he would have just gotten a liver transplant. Suck he died at 27. He has so much soul in his voice. I love the Dead with him.
I was gonna say you were wrong but I saw he kicked alcohol. They don't give livers to people who don't give it up but you're right, would have just gotten a transplant. So sad. I really expected him to keep drinking. That's what they do, knowing full well they don't give livers to alcoholics.
Just bless them , god has nothing to do with the way we r ! Don’t b taken in by false statements from that Bible that isn’t real ! It was changed by King Charles ! The real Bible is in the popes possession ! They don’t want us to know the truth !
... Pigpen was the best in his day , for sure ... he was not faking it , he was living it . Beware of what alcohol will do to you , you start sucking on the bottle and you end up the bottle is sucking on you
you got that fuckin' right mate. It will never let you go~it took me 20 fuckin' years of trying to put it down before I finally got clear of the shit. My brain is starting to work right again after almost 2 years. A quart of whiskey a day to cold turkey in a hospital...hellish visons of angels and demons fighting right over and all around me. It took 15 months before the demons quit hissing at me from the shadows and that ain't no shit homey. WORTH IT>!
I’m going off topic here, but you reminded me of what a friend of mine (Hi Bert!) used to say about cigarettes. He knew smoking is bad for you, and is expensive, but he did it anyway until health problems forced him to quit. He used to say, “I don’t smoke. The cigarette smokes. I’m just the sucker.”
I found this on the web. Origionally written by Howlin Wolf. I believe this has set a record for being covered. Quote: "Smokestack Lightning" has been interpreted numerous times by various artists. In the early to mid-1960s, it became a live staple of British beat groups, including the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals, the Groundhogs and the Who as well as American groups, such as Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Electric Prunes, and the Wailers. The song has also been performed or recorded by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Fenton Robinson, Lucky Peterson, John Lee Hooker, John Mayer, Bob Dylan, Gillan, Mike Harrison, Soundgarden, Widespread Panic, moe., Gov't Mule, Lester Butler, George Thorogood, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
And yet no one has a better version than Howlin Wolf.. my fave is the one where he never actually sings the lyrics "smokestack Lightening".. you can find it on youtube: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HTDjD_UdJYs.html
@@guacasauwrisflex4044 written by bo diddley? i don't mean to be rude but that's not at all the case. Bo Diddley is Elias McDaniel, Howlin' Wolf is Chester Burnett. I've never seen it credited to anyone but Wolf, who was still in Memphis when they cut it. Bo was in Chicago.
Thomas travis, although the last post for this video was years ago, this was eerily along the lines I was thinking. Old friends are not around anymore...sitting here Friday night...was thinking ...well I guess I'm hanging out with these guys for a while...life sure changes...
I’m listening to 2/13/70 but couldn’t find the singleton Smokestack lightning. Oh boy am I digging this! Especially because TIGDH cut off drums. And this came on. LOL! Pigpen understands my woe. I’m loving these heavy blues.
I have had cassette tapes of this show, and the other shows from this run at The Cap, yet I don't recall ever hearing this version of Smokestack Lightning. Wow !! What a treat ! One of the better ones, fer sure !
I love GD but quicksilver messenger service really makes this song good and im pretty sure they played the song before GD but i still love this song no matter who plays it
Jeff Zebrasky its actually a howlin wolf tune....GD cover is good skynard does a cover...but I still havent heard anyone do it better than the wolf himself....
Pigpen was it for awhile , to bad for him to have to leave us so soon !? We sure loved his sexy voice ! ❤️🐰🐇🌹🪽🕊️🌎💀☠️⚡️🌙👽🪐🛸🚀😘😍🥰💥🥀✨🌟💗🥳🤩😇all my love to the folks who put this out ? I have it on a bootleg album !
a couple of four disc sets, Ladies And Gentleman 1971 NYC and Stepping Out 1972 European Tour are epic must have great listening. I've always thought Ron's Smokestack, School Girl and Midnight Hour would have fit nicely if he was a member of 1969-70 Steve Miller Bands fourth and fifth albums. This Jam here is something like Credence Clearwater would have been playing if they were jammers.
I lived within a short drive to the Capitol. I was very fortunate to see so many wonderful concerts there and at the Filmore East when it was all going on back in the day. This is not a video, but a fairly good audio recording of this. Really gets Phil's bass and Pig Pen's vocals down nicely.
Bobby and his pitfull slide, more or less ruined it, pig was into it cool though, great rare recording, Bears Choice only good recordings I've heard of this tune, same tour. Pig was so awesome
ruined it? i agree not the best slide guitar work, but it's just a mellow long jam on this great Blues song. Pigpen keeps it mellow n smooth too. Seemed like they, Jerry and or Bobby, was out of tune for awhile, unless they were experimenting with awful harmonies. The slide becomes really apparent after i heard the faint out of tune stuff. It's weird how he starts using it for sure. Like jazzy avant gard riffs, then gets into more bluesy riffs. Def Jerry on slide. Bobby is much worse. Jerry isn't known for his slide blues guitar work anyhow, he kinda just falls into his Jerry licks not evoking the style of true bluesy slide grit.. Conversely he rips the pedal steel! Of course he can pick a mean banjo too. I think he does well with instruments where he learns their main style of playing. Jerry couldn't fit in Duane's slide gitbox shoes, N Duane couldn't fit into any other guitar Greats shoes, cuz he left this world in a hurry. The great gig in the sky, where Jerry has him do the slide parts and Pigpen sings dirty love songs with Janis
Nothing beats the Bears choice version of the song. Perfect. THE version of this song by ANYONE. Indeed this is the opening track to my 9 hours of the best DEAD.. 1968-1980. After that heroin killed off Jerry's genius and left the Dead to rot and become the most boring band around; courtesy of Boring Bob. The Dead's Achilles heel. Even 1973-4 (was weak live as Bob was top Dog until Jerry got back on top for Blues of Allah, Terrapin Station. Shakedown street being the last good Dead Lps. After that shit retread country. Yet under Ron McKernan's sensitive handling the Deads country stuff was great too; Yes Bob could play decent rhythm when inspired and even wrote a FEW good songs. But 90% of the boring half of the Dead material is Weir. My step brother was a Dead Roadie (Rick Moser) in the id 70's when they were on top. He gave me the run down including 'Bears choice' . He KNEW his Dead. Live Dead, Skulls And Roses, Europe 72, One from the Vault (Blues for Allah) Anthem of the Sun, Aoxomoxoa, Working Mans Dead, American Beauty, Wake of the Flood, Mars Hotel, Blues for Allah, Terrapin Station, Shakedown Street, THEN STOP!!!!!!!!! Everything after that is proof of the GD's real capaicity to be boring. At their best the best band of all time. But too many 'Dead Heads' lack the real love and insight that comes from knowing when what you have is shit rather brilliant. No surprise to find that Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart feel the same way. I really feel for the fool who like SHIT like 'Touch of Grey'; just like the fools who can listen to 'We built this Shitty' by the Jefferson Starshit and not realize the fact that they just got shat on.
I was on the permanent Winterland guest list all through the '70's, and saw them all, including virtually every Dead concert anywhere around the Bay Area. Bobby Weir was one of the most underrated rhythm guitar players I ever heard, and let's face it, Jerry spent half his time noodling around on his guitar contributing absolutely nothing to the drive of the band. Sean, did you ever see Kingfish? I saw 23 of its first 25 concerts, and it proved what a talent Bobby was, without any support from Jerry.
Sorry buddy I've stated my case and cannot agree with you. Jerry ALWAYS added soul to the Dead and was the foundation of their greatness. Yes Bob was a very good rhythm player but a boring leader and his songs were, apart from 'Ace' (better than Jerry's 2 stiff solo LPs) the boring songs the Dead did. Indeed I prefered to see JG Band or 'Old and in the Way' country stuff after 1979. My favourite Dead was the mid to late Pig Pen Psychedelic/ Country era anyway (1968-1972) and then again the psychedelic Prog era(1975-79). The rest is treading water or decline.
+Sean Lindblad So your step brother was a roadie for a while and now you are an expert on the Dead? I am 64 years old and have followed the Dead since the beginning and while some of you Dead snobs like to diss on Bobs contribution, he is hugely underrated and could carry a show without breaking a sweat. I have seen several shows where Jerry was toast and Bob turned a potential problem into a solid display. You say anything past a certain point is "boring" and no one should take it seriously, I must have missed the meeting that put you in charge of what is good and bad. Maybe you are thinking of your copy of 9 hours the best of the Beebs.
my mom was a member of the hells angels in the early sities and used to talk about how this rock n roll band and the dutch boy shot at her with a bolt action k98 rifle in dutchess county New York. later the industry became windows at IBM.
Written by Willie Dixon for Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett. Oh yeah. Play this version and the original on my radio show "Bluesland" on KCSB 91.9 FM. Been awhile since I've played it. So good. Going to have to play it again soon.
I found this album on the internet not only was this intercepted these by artists there has been many times this album has been stolen from howlin'wolf so has other albums stolen from other arican american artists
absolutely the best dead song ever... there you will .. and then most of their work is phenominalDID I SPELL THAT CORRECTLY.. lolmike the mechanic signing off july25th 2018 1416hours on a wednesday
He was the Dead as far as Im concerned. l♥ve Jerry too. These 2 fellas are very deat to me personally. And many other people Im sure. xx Love to ya'll. "Jen"
One problem with the picture here, Mickey played his last show with Pigpen the night before. Just sayin'. ;) I was at the show the night before and on the 24th at The Cap.
Went to this show as you can hear Jerry go's nuts playing for Big Ron,( PigPen), They played as one is was a great thing to see at the time , Ron only made it to UK 72. He was sick the whole time their ,so they had to pick up at the time Donna & Keith G. to take if he got really sick and was unable to play, that didnot happen.
