Ron McKernan

Posted: July 6, 2007 - 7:00am

Pigpen's topic.

Comments

..and leave it on

On July 12th, 2007 cosmicbadger said:

wow I get to start this one. Wish I'd been around to hear Pigpen tearing it up on Hard to Handle' Good Lovin' and Lovelight etc. The R & B jams that those songs inspired were never the same after he'd gone. So wild and joyful. I amazed too when I first heard the 'The stranger (two souls in communion)'...a whole new angle on the man.

I love the shows too where you can actually hear him playing the organ...its so often inaudible. I have heard various theories..does anyone have a definitive answer?

Also does anyone have a complete list of all the songs he sang lead on ...please share it if you do.

how's that for starters.....on an TC has no topic yet..can you add him...I don't know much about him and would love to learn more

But TC has his own topic!

On July 16th, 2007 marye said:

Right here!

nickname??

On July 17th, 2007 CCs Gone said:

McKernan's nickname Pig Pen goes back (at least) to the days of the jug band with Garcia and Weir in 1964? 65?

did Snoopy's Charles Schultz rip it off from McKernan?

or did McKernan pay an homage to Snoopy??

or, does it have to do with the FreeMason's cipher???

Pigpen made his debut in the Peanuts comic strip on July 13, 1954 by the by....

the irony is that Ricky Scaggs was born on July 18, 1954....

Pig In A Pen. Composed by Grand Old Opry fiddler Arthur Smith, who recorded it with the Delmore Brothers in 1937....

anyways, does anybody know the origin of Mckernan's Pig Pen nick name??

"What's the point of calling shots, this cue ain't straight in line
Cue balls made of styrofoam and no-one's got the time"

pigpen

On July 18th, 2007 gypsy soul said:

as lesh put it once "ah yes pigpen, out tether to earth" or something along those lines. i think had he not met such an early demise ballin that jack and driinkin his wine, the band's direction would have continued to be more blues-oriented. but are we realy here to say what could have been, alas, there are so many possibilities. i loved the man dearly. he had soul dammit!!!! Not sure of the origin of the name, thought it had something to do with bad hygiene though. He did hang around with a lot of hell's angles, etc. speaking of....who knows anyghitng about chocolate george???

peace
nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile

don't know a thing about chocolate george

On July 18th, 2007 marye said:

though when I was interviewing him about something else David Nelson had a great story about the origin of Pigpen's name--basically, one of the girls in their crowd in Palo Alto just called him that one night and he got this horrible look on his face because he knew he'd be stuck with it forever. I'll see if I can dig it out and transcribe it.

ahhh

On July 18th, 2007 CCs Gone said:

thankx.

ahhh, but then where did the girl get it from?

Snoopy??

just one of those questions that I have pondered all of my life...

yes, Snoopy

On July 18th, 2007 marye said:

I'm pretty sure. At that period, Peanuts was ubiquitous.

When she was first in college, my sister went out with a guy who'd taken piano from Pigpen!

I see the

On July 18th, 2007 CCs Gone said:

image hosted by ImageVenue.com

I see the resemblance...

peace.

no offense pig

On July 19th, 2007 gypsy soul said:

i think it stuck because he would do any chick, too. could be just rumor- i wasn't there unfortunately for me. wait, that didn't sound roo good...

nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile

ouch! "What's the point of

On July 19th, 2007 CCs Gone said:

ouch!