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OfflineLearyfanS
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Today in psychedelic history (03/08) * 2
    #14085259 - 03/08/11 05:18 AM (13 years, 24 days ago)

  • 1877: Carl Mannich is born




Quote:

Carl Ulrich Franz Mannich (8 March 1877 in Breslau – 5 March 1947 in Karlsruhe) was a German chemist. From 1927 to 1943 he was professor for pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Berlin. His areas of expertise were keto bases, alcohol bases, derivatives of piperidine, papaverine, lactones and also Digitalis-glycosides.

The Mannich reaction was named after his discovery of the mechanism in 1912.


(https://en.wikipedia.org)




History

MDA was first synthesized by C. Mannich and W. Jacobsohn in 1910. It was first ingested in July 1930 by Gordon Alles who later licensed the drug to Smith, Kline & French. MDA was first used in animal tests in 1939, and human trials began in 1941 in the exploration of possible therapies for Parkinson's disease. From 1949 to 1957, more than 500 human subjects were given MDA in an investigation of its potential use as an antidepressant and/or anorectic by Smith, Kline & French. The United States Army also experimented with the drug, code named EA-1298, while working to develop a truth drug or incapacitating agent. Harold Blauer died in January 1953 after being intravenously injected, without his knowledge or consent, with 450 mg of the drug as part of Project MKUltra. MDA was patented as an ataractic by Smith, Kline & French in 1960, and as an anorectic under the trade name "Amphedoxamine" in 1961. MDA began to appear on the recreational drug scene around 1963 to 1964. It was then inexpensive and readily available as a research chemical from several scientific supply houses. Several researchers, including Claudio Naranjo and Richard Yensen, have explored MDA in the field of psychotherapy.


(https://en.wikipedia.org)









  • 1968:  Time Magazine publishes short article in 'Drugs' section entitled "Penalties for LSD"




Quote:

Drugs: Penalties for LSD
Friday, Mar. 08, 1968

There is no question that LSD is a dangerous drug, and President Johnson last month asked Congress to make possession of it a misdemeanor, punishable with a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison. He had the firm support of the Justice Department, but the medical men of the Food and Drug Administration were opposed on the ground that an anti-LSD law would be about as enforceable as the Volstead Act. Chief adversary was FDA Commissioner James L. Goddard, who four months ago complained publicly about the harshness of existing antimarijuana laws. In a surprising turn last week, Dr. Goddard reluctantly endorsed the Johnson LSD bill during a congressional hearing before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

Goddard also supported Johnson's companion request to increase penalties for manufacturing, distributing and selling LSD and such stimulants and depressants as methedrine (speed) and phenobarbital. Under the bill, possession of the drugs would become a federal offense for the first time (some 24 states now have laws prohibiting possession of LSD). Manufacture, distribution and sale, federal misdemeanors punishable by up to a year and a $1,000 fine, would become felonies with penalties of up to five years and $10,000.

Goddard made it clear that, personally, he opposed such harsh measures. But law-enforcement officials had convinced him that without the increased penalties their hands were tied. Peddlers of LSD and other drugs, they had pointed out to him, could claim that drugs they possessed were for personal use rather than sale under present law. Still, Goddard reported, the use of LSD is already on the decline. "Not because of penalties," he said, but because of increasing awareness that it causes chromosomal damage.


(http://www.time.com)










  • 1971:  Jimi Hendrix releases the single for "Freedom" b/w "Angel"




Quote:

"Freedom" is a Jimi Hendrix song released in 1971 from the album The Cry of Love. The album was released posthumously in 1971 and became a major hit. This was the only single released from the album and was somewhat successful on the charts, reaching number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.  It is now one of the more popular songs in the Hendrix collection, and is a staple in many compilation works. It was later featured on the 1997 album First Rays of the New Rising Sun.

Interpretation

The lyrics "Keep on pushing straight ahead..." towards the end of the song are most likely a reference to the Curtis Mayfield song "Keep On Pushing" from the album of the same name. Mayfield was a major influence on Hendrix, from whom he borrowed much of his R&B rhythm guitar style, as heard on recordings such as "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" and "Little Wing". "Straight ahead" is a phrase which features on several tracks from the period--and it was one of the titles considered for his final studio album.

Covers

In 1994, Steve Lukather sang this song for his album Candyman. In 1995 Jeff Healey did a version on his "Cover To Cover" album.
In popular culture

On March 19, 2009 the song was released as downloadable content playable on basic controllers for Guitar Hero: World Tour.

It was made available to download on December 20, 2011 for play in Rock Band 3 Basic, and PRO mode which utilizes real guitar / bass guitar, and MIDI compatible electronic drum kits / keyboards in addition to vocals.

B-side "Angel"
Released March 8, 1971
Recorded June–August 1970
Studio Electric Lady, New York City
Genre Rock
Length 3:24
Label Reprise
Songwriter(s) Jimi Hendrix
Producer(s)

    Jimi Hendrix Mitch Mitchell Eddie Kramer


(https://en.wikipedia.org)



"Angel" is a song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix, first released in February 1971 on the posthumous LP The Cry of Love. In April it was released as a single, which failed to chart. In the US the single was backed with "Freedom" and in the UK with "Night Bird Flying".

The song was included on 1997's South Saturn Delta, a compilation of Hendrix demos, unfinished tracks and alternate mixes, as well as the same year's First Rays of the New Rising Sun, which attempted to reconstruct what Hendrix's unfinished fourth album might have sounded like had he lived to complete it.

In 1972, Rod Stewart covered "Angel" on his album Never a Dull Moment. This version can also be heard in the film Charlie's Angels, which was released in the year 2000, but is not included in the film's soundtrack album. In the UK, it reached no. 4 as a double A-side with "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me).

Vinegar Joe covered the song on their second album Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies released in 1972.

This song was also recorded by singer/songwriter and harpist Dee Carstensen in her 1995 studio album release Regarding The Soul. The album The Gil Evans Orchestra Play the Music of Jimi Hendrix features "Angel" rendered heavy on saxophone. The Jeff Healey Band also recorded Angel on their 1995 album Cover To Cover.

Some of the song's lyrics were recited at Hendrix's funeral.


(https://en.wikipedia.org)









  • 1973:  Ron "Pigpen" McKernan dies




Quote:

Ronald C. "Pigpen" McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973) was a founding member of the Grateful Dead. His contributions to the band included vocals, Hammond organ, harmonica, percussion, and occasionally guitar. In 1994, Pigpen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with the other members of the Grateful Dead.

Life

McKernan was born in San Bruno, California, the son of an R&B and blues disc jockey. He grew up with many African-American friends and felt very strongly connected to black music and culture. As a youth, McKernan taught himself blues piano and developed a biker image. In his early teens, McKernan left Palo Alto High School by mutual agreement with the school's principal. He also began using alcohol in his adolescence.

McKernan began spending time around coffeehouses and music stores, where he met Jerry Garcia. One night Garcia invited McKernan onstage to play harmonica and sing the blues. Garcia was impressed and McKernan became the blues singer in local jam sessions. A high-school friend named Roger gave him his nickname based on his "funky" approach to life.  However, in an essay included with the Grateful Dead box-set The Golden Road (1965-1973) it is claimed that a girlfriend of McKernan's gave him the nickname, owing to his similarity to the permanently-dirty character in the comic-strip Peanuts.

McKernan was a participant in the predecessor groups leading to the formation of the Grateful Dead, beginning with the Zodiacs and Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann were added and the band evolved into The Warlocks. Around 1965, McKernan urged the rest of the Warlocks to switch to electric instruments. Around this time Phil Lesh joined, and they became the Grateful Dead.

McKernan played blues organ as well as harmonica and vocals. While his friends were experimenting with LSD and other psychedelics, McKernan stuck to Thunderbird wine and Southern Comfort. He steadily added more signature tunes to the Dead's repertoire, including some that lasted for the remainder of their live performance career such as "Turn on Your Lovelight" and "In the Midnight Hour."

In 1967 and 1968 respectively, Mickey Hart and Tom Constanten joined the Grateful Dead, causing the band to take a stylistic turn from the blues toward full-blown experimental psychedelia influenced by avant-garde jazz, surrealism, and world music traditions. Constanten often replaced Pigpen on keyboards. In October 1968, McKernan and Weir were nearly fired from the band because of their reluctance to rehearse. Ultimately, 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."

McKernan would achieve a new prominence throughout 1969, with versions of "Turn On Your Lovelight" (now the band's show-stopping finale) regularly taking fifteen to twenty minutes. When the Grateful Dead appeared at Woodstock, the band's set (which was marred by technical problems and general chaos) consisted mostly of a 48-minute version of the song.

McKernan developed a close friendship with Constanten based on their mutual aversion to psychedelics and eventually served as his best man when Constanten wed. After Constanten's departure in January 1970 over musical and lifestyle differences, McKernan resumed keyboard duties.

McKernan had a short relationship and longer friendship with Janis Joplin — a poster from the early 1970s featured them together.  Joplin joined McKernan onstage at the Fillmore West in June 1969 with the Grateful Dead to sing his signature "Turn On Your Lovelight," despite her dislike of the band's jamming style. The two reprised this duet July 16, 1970 at the Euphoria Ballroom in San Rafael, California.

In 1970, McKernan began experiencing symptoms of congenital biliary cirrhosis. After an August 1971 hospitalization, doctors requested that he stop touring indefinitely; pianist Keith Godchaux was subsequently hired and remained a permanent member of the band until 1979. Ever restless, the ailing McKernan rejoined the band in December 1971 to supplement Godchaux on harmonica, percussion, and organ. Unfortunately, after their Europe '72 tour, his health had degenerated to the point where he could no longer continue on the road. He made his final concert appearance on June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles, California.

On March 8, 1973, he was found dead of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at his home in Corte Madera, California. McKernan is buried at the Alta Mesa Memorial Park (Plot: Hillview Section 16 Lot 311) in Palo Alto, California. His grave marker is inscribed:

RONALD C. McKERNAN
1945–1973
PIGPEN WAS
AND IS NOW FOREVER
ONE OF THE
GRATEFUL DEAD


(https://en.wikipedia.org)









  • 1974:  Tim Scully and Nick Sand are sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison




Quote:

2 GET PRISON TERMS FOR LSD PRODUCTION

  SAN FRANCISCO (UPI)
--Two men found guilty of 'manufacturing LSD and evading taxes on the sale profits Friday were sentenced to a total of 35 years in federal prison.
  U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel Conti sentenced Robert T. Scully, 29, a Mendocino electronics expert, to 20 years, and Nicholas Sand, a Santa Rosa chemist, to 15 years. Each also was fined $10,000.
  The judge set bail for appeal at $500,000.
  The two were convicted Jan. 30 of manufacturing one million tablets of LSD that were distributed by Hell's Angels in Northern California and by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love in Southern California,
  The tablets, called "orange sunshine," were made at a farmhouse laboratory outside Windsor in Sonoma County.
  Chief witness for the government was William Mellon Hitchcock, 34, New York heir to an oil fortune, who testified  that he helped underwrite the drug scheme. He was  granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony.


(Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California)  09 Mar 1974, Sat Page 20)









  • 1978: Operation Julie defendants receive prison sentences




Quote:

King of LSD Is Sentenced To 13 Years

  BRISTOL England — (AP) — After Britain’s biggest drug trial a brilliant chemist who made millions of tablets of extremely pure LSD was sent to prison Wednesday [March 8, 1978] together with his lover and other ringleaders of a worldwide drug conspiracy.
  The chemist Richard Kemp got 13 years and his lover Dr Christine Bott got nine years Fifteen others drew sentences ranging to as long as 13 years.
  In a crowded courtroom at the end of the two-month trial Judge Sir Hugh Park said that Kemp 34 had avidly read all the literature on the drug LSD and had become a world expert.
  Recalling evidence that Kemp devised a new process that resulted in an extremely pure product the judge told Kemp:
  “All this was done it is said in pursuit of the ideal that LSD liberated people’s minds and therefore your work would be beneficial to mankind That was I think a false ideal
  “Your considerable talent which over the years could have been of such benefit to society has in my judgment been wasted in the production of LSD”.
  Evidence at the trial told of two LSD factories — at a detached Victorian house 12 miles west of central London and at a remote mansion in mid-Wales.
  The prosecution said the Victorian house in Seymour Road Hampton Wick must have produced at least 15 million LSD tablets — and the operation was responsible for 95 per cent of Britain’s LSD supply and half that of the free world.
  British police launched a major investigation to track down the leaders of the drugs ring after it became clear nearly two years ago that massive supplies of LSD were reaching the illicit market.


(The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) 09 Mar 1978, Thu Page 18)









  • 1987:  The William Cothburn O'Brien LSD lab is busted




Quote:

No hallucination

  Charlottesville police thought they were following up a routine burglary but what they found soon convinced them otherwise: 300,000 doses of suspected LSD, a '60s drug that's reportedly making a comeback.
  The street value of the suspected acid is said to be about $3 million. But what's more valuable to police is that they uncovered the drug's source — a secret laboratory in an apartment. Most LSD is produced on the West Coast and the discovery of a lab in Virginia is so rare that a state chemist said this may be a first.
  Police got a tip two years ago that LSD was being produced in Charlottesville but they were never able to locate where. When they "tripped" over it Sunday night [March 8, 1987], they must have thought they were hallucinating.
  But if this bust proves good, LSD's comeback will have been dealt a severe setback — at least in Virginia.


(Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), 14 Mar 1987, Sat, Main Edition, Page 6)




Chemistry student surrenders on charge

  CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) —University of Virginia chemistry student William Cothburn O'Brien has surrendered to police to face a charge that he manufactured the illicit drug MD in his apartment.

  General District Court Judge Paul M. Peatross set bond Tuesday at $10,000 cash or $20,000 property for O'Brien, 28, of Richmond, who faces a felony count of manufacturing LSD.

  An April 16 hearing was set, pending receipt of a lab report on chemicals police seized from his apartment.

  City police Detective J.E. Harding said after the bond hearing that O'Brien would be transferred to Richmond, where he faces a misdemeanor charge of impeding a police officer.

  Police on Sunday seized 93 gallon and quart jars containing various chemicals, including bottles of fermented rye.

  A man who refused to give his name told the Daily Progress on Monday that O'Brien used the liquids for chemistry experiments.

  University spokesman Chip German said O'Brien has been an intermittent chemistry student since the fall of 1978 but has accumulated only enough credits to be classified a second-year student. German said O'Brien had worked part-time for the campus food services from last October until 10 days ago.

  Dr. Paul B. Ferrara, director of the Bureau of Forensic Science in Richmond that is analyzing the chemicals, said some jars police found in O'Brien's refrigerator contained ether, used chiefly as an anesthetic.


(The News Leader (Staunton, Virginia), 11 Mar 1987, Wed, Page 3)















Edited by Learyfan (03/05/23 11:44 AM)

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Invisibledwpineal
Psychedelic Artist
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan] * 2
    #14086875 - 03/08/11 02:06 PM (13 years, 23 days ago)

R.I.P Pigpen

GDF
:gd_icon:

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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: dwpineal]
    #14088093 - 03/08/11 06:06 PM (13 years, 23 days ago)

R.I.P.  :heart:



























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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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OfflineBest
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan] * 1
    #14088125 - 03/08/11 06:14 PM (13 years, 23 days ago)

For all you Pigpen fans (I hope this is okay to post)

http://gratefulbreed.blogspot.com/2008/03/ron-pigpen-mckernan-apartment-demos.html

It has a link to download a bunch of demos Ron Pigpen McKernan recorded between 1965-1966. Only about 88mb or so.

That site is actually pretty awesome if you don't already know of it, a bunch of good stuff on it.

RIP!


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OfflineLearyfanS
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Posts: 34,184
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Best]
    #14088536 - 03/08/11 07:26 PM (13 years, 23 days ago)

Dude, of course it was okay to post that.  It was totally related and is a great link.  I didn't know about this and I'm downloading it now.  Pigpen was my favorite Dead singer.
























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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


Edited by Learyfan (03/08/13 05:39 AM)

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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #15917945 - 03/08/12 05:57 AM (12 years, 23 days ago)

Annual bump.




















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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


Edited by Learyfan (03/08/13 05:40 AM)

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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #17923025 - 03/08/13 05:45 AM (11 years, 23 days ago)

For the 40th anniversary of Pigpen's death, here's "Death Don't Have No Mercy". 

:heartpump:



















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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


Edited by Learyfan (03/08/14 11:35 AM)

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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan] * 1
    #19667271 - 03/08/14 11:37 AM (10 years, 22 days ago)

Annual bump.
















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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #21377872 - 03/08/15 11:43 AM (9 years, 22 days ago)

Annual bump.
















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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #22984858 - 03/08/16 06:39 AM (8 years, 22 days ago)

Annual bump.
















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--------------------------------


Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #24145548 - 03/08/17 05:47 AM (7 years, 22 days ago)

Annual bump.














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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #25047916 - 03/08/18 05:59 AM (6 years, 22 days ago)

45th anniversary of Pigpen's death today. 




Quote:

'Pigpen' McKernan Dead at 27

A look at the life and death of one of the Grateful Dead's founding members

CORTE MADERA, Calif. — Ron McKernan — better known as Pigpen — was found dead in his apartment here March 8th. The organist and singer, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, was 27.

The body was found at about 9 PM by his landlady. She had noticed that for a couple of days his car had been in the garage, the lights in the house left burning and the back door open. McKernan was found lying on the floor beside his bed, half-dressed as if about to get into bed. He had apparently been dead for two days.

At press time the Marin County Coroner's Office had not issued a final autopsy, but the suspected cause of death was hemorrhaging of blood vessels around the liver and the point where the esophagus enters the stomach. He had been under a doctor's care for cirrhosis.

The coroner said McKernan had been "following doctor's orders exactly to the letter. There was a chart beside his bed showing what he was eating and the time he was to eat it."

McKernan had been living alone in a modified ranch-style place overlooking San Francisco Bay. A long-time friend of the group, in going through the apartment on Saturday, discovered a tape cassette McKernan had apparently recorded in the last week of his life. On the tape he plays slow, gospel/blues piano and sings in an eerie, frail voice. One of the songs is extraordinary for the way the lyrics and phrasing shift in and out of stanza form, and the melody likewise seems to be making its own way independent of any repeating pattern.

"It's hard to say," suggests the discoverer of the tape, "who the song is addressed to. Some places I'm sure are directed to individuals in the Dead family. Some of it clearly, maybe all of it on some level, is to everybody." The imagery of the lyrics is of separation and departure:

Don't make me live in this pain
no longer

You know, I'm gettin' weaker, not
stronger

My poor heart can't stand no more
Just can't keep from talkin'
If you gonna walk out that door,
start walkin'

I'll get back somehow
Maybe not tomorrow, but someday
I know someday I'll find someone
Who can ease my pain like you once done*

*Lyrics copyright 1973

* * *

Ronald Charles McKernan was born September 8th, 1945, in suburban San Bruno, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. His father, Phil McKernan, was a disk jockey who had a daily blues program on radio station KRE in Berkeley from 1951 to 1956. In 1966 McKernan told an interviewer, "I began singin' at 16. I wasn't in school, I was just goof-in'. I've always been singing along with records, my dad was a disk jockey, and it's been what I wanted to do."

His parents and his young brother and sister, Kevin and Carol, followed his career with the Grateful Dead and, according to Kevin McKernan, "attended every concert the Dead played on the peninsula."

"You can quote me as saying this," Kevin also said: "I plan to follow in his footsteps."

Ron left school at 16 and started hanging out at a Palo Alto club called the Chateau, where he met a young guitarist and banjoist named Jerry Garcia. In 1964 the two of them formed Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions with Bob Weir. The jug band became the nucleus of the Grateful Dead.

Garcia credits McKernan with the idea of playing rock & roll: "He'd been pestering me for a while, he wanted me to start up an electric blues band. That was his trip . . . because in the jugband scene we used to do blues numbers, like Jimmy Reed tunes." When the group went electric, McKernan switched from harmonica to organ, and his singing, which owed something to Chicago blues, something to Lightnin' Hopkins, was featured.

With the addition of Phil Lesh on bass and Bill Kreutzman on drums, the Warlocks were born. The group changed the name to the Grateful Dead in 1966, after long association with Owsley Stanley, the acid chemist, and Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, and became a mainstay of the San Francisco ballroom scene.

With his long black hair in an Indian headband, his striped shirts, his black leather jacket covered with medals and a Hell's Angels patch, his biker's cap and often a couple of days' growth of beard, "Pigpen" was the most visual member of the group. But for all the rowdy appearance — he rode a BSA and was an honorary Hell's Angel — McKernan was known as a gentle, introverted soul.

"He was a warm, lovable cat," says Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld. "Unlike many rock & roll stars, he never projected an image of skulking evil." Ironically, McKernan was one of two members of the Dead arrested in a famous 1967 bust; of the group he was by far the least into drugs.

In 1971 McKernan first fell ill and for about a year seldom played with the Dead. He joined the group for its European tour last summer, reportedly against doctor's orders, and when he returned, his condition was diagnosed as anemia. Last year, for the first time, he didn't join the Dead to sing "Midnight Hour" or "Love Light" at the group's traditional New Year's Eve concert.

Dusty Street, a disk jockey at KSAN-FM in San Francisco and a veteran of the pioneer underground FM station KMPX, remembers McKernan from a long time back: "I knew Pig from when we were both 15 or 16 in Palo Alto," she said. "We used to sit around and drink together.

"Well, he drank himself to death. Toward the end, he was real skinny — real skinny, man his arms were skinnier than mine. He was down to about 126 pounds, and in his prime he was 180.

"He drank junk — Ripple and Thunderbird, even Thunderbird mixed with raspberry Kool-Aid. And even after he was making some money, the highest-grade lush he ever drank was Bourbon Deluxe. He was never quite sober, even when he woke up in the morning; he'd wake up drunk.

"To make it worse, he used to drink and not eat. We all were telling him not to drink, for years. Then he got sick, and he couldn't drink any more. Ironically, about that time we all started to drink."

The funeral was held March 12th at a modernistic, cinder block-and-stained-wood funeral home half a dozen blocks from where McKernan lived. About 200 people attended, nearly all of them friends from the Acid Test and Dead family scene, including Ken Kesey and head Merry Prankster Ken Babbs. At least a dozen Hell's Angels, including New York Angels president Sandy Alexander, attended. There was also a tiny handful of conservatively dressed older people in attendance at the traditional Roman Catholic funeral.

"His family really blew our minds, man," said Dead manager Rock Scully. "They had him laid out in an open casket — dressed in his leather jacket and his brown cowboy shirt, with his hat on the pillow." The funeral service did not include a eulogy, but the Rev. James Healy delivered a short, impersonal sermon on the importance of music "as an instrument for good in interpreting the voice of the future and the young." The body was buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park on the peninsula.

The night before the funeral there had been a wake, held at Bob Weir's home. "There were tons of people there," said Dusty Street, "maybe 75 or so. Lots of people I haven't seen in years, like Jason, the eight-year-old orphan of the Haight, whose mother lived with the Dead. There were lots of roast fowls around, turkeys and other kinds; and ham, roast beef, salad. The chicks knocked themselves out on it. There was lots of booze and no reminiscing. People sat around and listened to music and talked and got drunk.

"It's what he would have wanted. It was a good party. I'm glad I went."


(https://www.rollingstone.com)













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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #25860182 - 03/08/19 06:21 AM (5 years, 22 days ago)

45th anniversary of Sand and Scully's sentencing today.











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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #26523689 - 03/08/20 10:12 AM (4 years, 20 days ago)

Annual bump.










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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #27242651 - 03/08/21 04:05 AM (3 years, 21 days ago)

Annual bump.








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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #27686993 - 03/08/22 05:02 AM (2 years, 21 days ago)

35th anniversary of the William Cothburn O'Brien LSD lab bust today.








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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #28220044 - 03/08/23 04:12 AM (1 year, 21 days ago)

50th anniversary of the death of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan today.








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Re: Today in psychedelic history (03/08) [Re: Learyfan]
    #28691085 - 03/08/24 04:16 AM (20 days, 3 hours ago)

50th anniversary of Tim Scully and Nick Sand being sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison.








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