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Almost every time I visit Dead.net I get into technical problems. Need to hire a techie maybe? <grin>
I can't order Dave's Picks 2020. The field that says "delivery option" is blank. No choices are listed. So it won't let me continue to the "billing" section. What's up? - Kate_C.Joined:Pig - endings
It's late on a Sunday and that means bed soon, but since my quick reply to TD's inquiry below, I've been further thinking about the tragedy of Pig - and I certainly think of it that way despite the manifest personal responsibility for the consequences of near incessant alcohol abuse from a young age. It's a spiraling decline that seems particularly pathos-laden given the picture of a gentle, genial man that emerges from all the familiar documentary sources.
I take notes or attempt to catalogue page references by subject from my little library of the Dead, but realize I've done a poor job on this particular subject - and certainly during the general time frame implied by TD's question. So, I wanted to share a couple relevant - and heartbreakingly poignant - passages from Jackson's "Garcia/American Life" that I've revisited since:
First, McIntire speaking: "I remember one day Garcia coming into my office and saying, 'Look, I'm really worried about Pig. I think his life is in danger, and I want to do whatever we can. The band'll pay for everything. Let's find out if there's anything we can do.' So I researched it and I found out the most famous place in the world for liver problems was Sheila Sherlock's clinic in London. But my doctor, Sandor Bernstein, said there was a guy at UCSF [University of California and San Francisco] who was as good. So we slotted Pig with him. And Pig jumped in and did, too. He stopped drinking and he learned all the things about nutrition that he could. He really tried, but it was too late."
And second: "[On the tour] he rode on the hard bus, this Danish bus, which was sort of like the crew bus," Annette Flowers said. "It was the quieter of the two buses usually. Pigpen lived on the back bench of that bus. ... I think that trip sort of sunk it for him; put him over. It was really grueling in a lot of ways." "He got knocked off that bench five or six times," Rock Scully recalled. "He rolled off that bench and a couple of times he really hurt himself I could see it; he really hurt his kidneys and bruised himself. I'd have to help him off the bus."
"He really tried, but it was too late." A short, simple statement, but one that can put fault lines in even a strong foundation. I recall reading that Pig sent Veronica away as his condition became increasingly acute, which, in light of other information, clearly underscores what a lonely and frankly terrifying period those final 12-18 months must have been for that kindhearted soul./K