Ron "Pigpen" McKernan could already feel his influence in the band waning from early on. Even back when the Grateful Dead were still known as the Warlocks. Whereas Pig subsisted on raw power fueled by alcohol and blues music, the rest of the members of the band were functioning on a completely different level. They listened to music, talked literature, and explored the cosmos...while loaded to the gills on LSD. Pig did not partake. He found himself not just playing in a band, but navigating a world of merry pranksters, acid tests, and long, strange trips.
Sources:
A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, by Dennis McNally
Garcia: An American Life, by Blair Jackson
Searching for the Sound, by Phil Lesh
The Grateful Dead FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Greatest Jam Band in History, by Tony Sclafani
Drugs and the 'Beats': The Role of Drugs in the Lives and Writings of Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg by John Long
Living with The Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead, by Rock Scully with David Dalton
Jerry Garcia & Sandy Rothman travel down south (Woodstock Records)
High Flying Bird – Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia interview
Kepler's Books 60th Anniversary (Metro Silicon Valley)
Grateful Dead Guide: Pigpen Solo (Dead Essays)
Flashback: LSD Creator Albert Hofmann Drops Acid for the First Time (Rolling Stone)
'Apparently Useless': The Accidental Discovery of LSD (The Atlantic)
What a Trip (Stanford Magazine)
Ken Kesey & The Merry Pranksters (University of Virginia)
A brief history of psychedelic psychiatry (The Guardian)
Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture (NPR)
“We Were Alive and Life Was Us.” How Ken Kesey Created LSD Subculture (Lithub)
Ken Kesey's First LSD Trip Animated (Open Culture)
Therapeutic Use of LSD in Psychiatry: A Systematic Review of Randomized-Controlled Clinical Trials (Frontiers)
Did the CIA's Experiments With Psychedelic Drugs Unwittingly Create the Grateful Dead? (Collectors Weekly)
Doors of Perception: How Aldous Huxley Brought LSD Therapy to His Readers (Psychedelic Times)
Inside the 1950s LSD Therapy That Changed Cary Grant's Life (Vulture)
Ken Kesey and Jerry Garcia on the Tom Snyder Show, 1981
The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief' (NPR)
What a Long Strange Trip — LSD and the Grateful Dead (Medium)
How the Warlocks Passed the Acid Tests (Relix)
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Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse and many more musical icons all died at the age of 27. Scandalous, tortured, dramatic, and incredibly talented, these artists torched a wild path to their early graves and shifted and shaped our culture along the way. 27 Club tells their stories. 27 Club is hosted and created by Jake Brennan, host and creator of the award-winning music and true crime podcast DISGRACELAND. 27 Club is not a journalistic podcast. It is an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. For more shows like 27 Club, check out www.doubleelvis.com.
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Presenting Disgraceland: Icons (Trailer)
Introducing: Amplify Color
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan” Episode 10: Good, Old, Grateful, and Dead
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan” Episode 9: Conquering Europe, Wasting Away, and Making a Last Stand
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan Episode 8: Turning off the Love Light, Long-Awaited Redemption, and a Deadly Diagnosis
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan” Episode 7: Busted Down on Bourbon Street, Workingman’s Dead, and Riding that Train
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (Episode 6): Coming Down from One Long Strange Trip, Awakening to a New Nightmare, and Shooting up a Led Zep Photo Shoot
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Episode 5: Biting the Hand that Feeds You, Fired from the Band, and Drinking the Dosed Coffee
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan Episode 4: Rushed in the Studio, A Midnight Hour Secret, and Busted Down on Ashbury Street
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan Episode 3: Soundtracking the Scene, Caught in the Lovelight, and Unknowingly Dosed
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan Episode 1: Fueled by Thunderbird, Taught by a Nine-Fingered Wizard, and Saving Woodstock
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Episode 0: 27 Club Season 5 Official Trailer
Amy Winehouse Episode 10: What Really Happened to Amy Winehouse?
Amy Winehouse Episode 9: A Long Day’s Journey into an Eternal Nightmare
Amy Winehouse Episode 8: A Cocaine Overdose in the Bathtub, a Body in the Mirror, and Hacked by the Press
Amy Winehouse Episode 7: The Only Rule Is That There Are No Rules
Amy Winehouse Episode 6: Nursing Rodents, Mortifying the Fairy Godmother, and Hitting the Harder Stuff
Amy Winehouse Episode 5: First Impressions with Mark Ronson, Hitting the Paparazzi Where It Hurts, and an Out of Control Hurricane
Amy Winehouse Episode 4: Booed from the Stage, a Brawl with a Burlesque Dancer, and an Effigy in a Pool of Blood
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