This seems to have entirely slipped Donnas memory! Donna Godchaux married her first husband and fellow Grateful Dead member Keith Godchaux in 1970. In later interviews, he sounds like he preferred the independence & freedom to work on his own projects. Before the couple could fully re-group, Keith died in a car accident in July 1980 at age 32. Guide Prices. The band's iconic lightning bolt skull logo and multicolored dancing bears have forever entrenched themselves in rock history and countless dorm room walls. Bikers, blow and Belushi: As usual when the Grateful Dead took Manhattan, the band's five-night stand at . He was 77. I remember when we auditioned him. New report shows thousands of workers have left downtown San Francisco, Interstate 80, Placer County roads reopen after winter storm, Samy's Camera closes permanently after 10 years in San Francisco, 14 things you need in your car before you drive to Tahoe, HOKA dropped a brand new version of their most popular shoe. He first performed publicly with the Dead on October 19, 1971 at the University of Minnesotas Northrup Auditorium. The interesting thing is that when he saw the Dead, he thought they needed more energy: When Id heard them play a couple of times, they really got me off; I was really high. http://www.musicbox-online.com/merlint1.html, Howard Wales had also played on several songs on American Beauty, and had jammed with the band back in 69, and had a close personal connection with Garcia although he hadnt played the Matrix club dates with Garcia for a year. The band is locked in, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir are lively and animated, Phil Lesh is commanding with his powerful bass playing, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart in sync pushing the tempo and building jams to a new level, Donna Jean Godchaux's vocals are on point, while her husband Keith Godchaux's fingers dance all over . I read that she got into drugs, but what are the details of her exit? According to sound engineer Owsley Stanley, The Countryman pickup worked by an electrostatic principle similar to the way a condenser mic works. July 10: Garcia in a coma: Garcia collapses at his Marin County home and falls into a diabetic coma. (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns), Historic Chronicle page August 10, 1995 Front page of Datebook covering the death of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. Aidin Vaziri is a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle. We know Garcia gave Keith a batch of live tapes that had been recorded at the August shows, so Keith would also have been able to listen & practice the songs at home before his 10/19/71 live debut. The Keith highlight is the first few tracks of 9/30, with Keith in full barrelhouse mode. Or perhaps the Dead initially saw Keith as a temporary stand-in, a Hornsby-like figure until Pigpen could be eased back in. Left to right, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan (1946 - 1973), Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995) and Phil Lesh. We were constantly playing records for him and so forth, but that wasnt his gift. Box 1065, San Rafael, California, 94901. It was the beginning of perhaps the best-known fan club in music history. And I remember thinking, "Wow, this is really . He died at the age of 32 on July 23, 1980, four days after his birthday. Six Feet of Snow, a collaboration with Lowell George of Little Feat, was featured on the latter groups Down on the Farm (1979); George had recently produced the Grateful Deads Shakedown Street (1978). Hes an excellent pianist, but he didnt really have a concept of music, of how the piano fit in with the rest of the band. I didnt even try to figure out what the flash wasI just followed it, not knowing what was going to happen. The only direction. In 1994, he was inducted, posthumously, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. By then, they were pretty far gone on LSD (and who knows what else), according to John Fogerty, the former Creedence Clearwater Revival front man who recalled the incident during an interview in 2015. Ned Lagin had played on American Beauty, and guested with them at the Berkeley shows in August 71, along with several other 71 shows and backstage experiments. Visitors note: Incidentely, in case you are unfamiliar with the details of Keith Godchauxs death, as I recall,he and a buddy were leaving a toll plaza and drove into the back of a flatbed truck killing KG. ~BlabMstr@aol.com, A Site About Dead Musicians and how they got that way. I want to play it. And it was like, Yeahhh! It had a way of crackling in humid conditions and making other rather unmusical sounds if not set up just right, but when it worked it was truly brilliant. The control box also enabled Godchaux to use a wah-wah pedal with the instrument. 32; Where did Keith Godchaux die? But when they asked me to come in and do their thing to join them I didnt really want to join the band. Never mind the trauma of being fired . 91. Former pianist of the Grateful Dead died here on 7/26/1990. The incident landed on the cover of The Chronicle and both Weir and founding member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were arrested. And Godchaux had replaced the band's original keyboard player, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who died at 27 in 1973. So those are the things that if I was with the Grateful Dead, I couldnt do. July 23, 1980 Keith RichardGodchaux (The Grateful Dead) was born on July 19th 1948 born in Seattle, Washington, but grew up in Concord, California where he commenced piano lessons at five at the instigation of his father (a semiprofessional musician) and subsequently played Dixieland and cocktail jazz in professional ensembles as a teenager. We went home, looked in the paper and saw that Garcias band was playing at the Keystone, so we went down, of course. Its also interesting to hear him on organ on songs like Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed & Truckin on 9/29. The group reorganised, bringing in Mark Adler on keyboards and David Mackay on bass, and continued to tour until folding in early 1981. Greta Kaul is a Hearst fellow, covering investment and tech culture on The Chronicle's business desk. Before coming to San Francisco, Kaul was an intern at the Dallas Morning News, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The Dead are the most consistently excellent rock group around, their instrument work is beautiful, they swing like angels and Warner Bros. has apparently gotten this wonderful feeling on the tapes of the sessions.. http://archive.org/details/gd1971-09-29.unsurpassed-masters-vol4-vol6.116951.flac16 bootleg comp; different mixes, sometimes very trebley, but Keith comes out more (for instance Brokedown #2, where he takes over). Enough to shut down every resort. Jerry had about this same time met Keith Godchaux, a piano player he and Billy had jammed with at Keystone Korner, a small club in San Francisco. Sept. 7: Vince Welnick joins: Vince Welnick, formerly of the Tubes, joins the Grateful Dead on keyboards after Mydlands death. Keith Godchaux died in a car accident in July 1980. But note: the jerrysite lists the New Riders playing the Friends & Relations Hall in San Francisco on Sept 17-19, which wouldnt preclude daytime rehearsals. Even though hed never played any Grateful Dead tunes before[he] picked up the songs practically the first time througheverything he played fit perfectly in the spaces between [our] parts. Oct. 31: Saturday Night Dead: The Grateful Dead make an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Tom Davis and Al Franken go backstage, asking the band to introduce them to the audience. Godchaux died in an automobile accident in Marin County, California, in July 1980, at the age of 32. After one wonderful night of rehearsal, Keith drove off to the car crashthat killed him. July 9: Last call: The Grateful Dead perform their 2,314th and final concert at Soldier Field in Chicago. I dont hear many wrong notes, but hes not exactly out there on the edge taking chances and pushing the others, as he frequently did, in his own quiet way, in his peak Grateful Dead years. Includes Obituary, Biography, Discography, Photo, and Links. Lenny Hart was arguably the most aggravating of them all. Oct. 19: Keith on the keys: Keith Godchaux plays his first show with the Dead as keyboardist. In 1997 she released a CD titled "Donna Jean", a positive rock album utilizing the many talented musicians of Muscle Shoals. When he is on piano during these rehearsals, the honky-tonk sound from many fall 71 shows is very clear. The Grateful Dead's music has often been described as "mellow," but front man Jerry Garcia's earlier years were the exact opposite. A fan also tried to sell the alleged finger on Craigslist to attend a 2015 reunion show, but it was quickly ruled a hoax by Ultimate Classic Rock (and everyone else who came across it, no doubt). It was during this time that Donna took a break from music. By then, though, bad press and ill-tempered fans had roundly criticized the shows. As he said in the Book of the Dead in 72, I first saw them play with a bunch of my old ladys friends who were real Grateful Dead freaks. She remarried again to her present husband David McKay in 1980. Known on the West Coast as Mr. It was performed live six times, all in 1973. Peter Simon / Retna Ltd. It includes the live staples St. Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948 - July 23, 1980) was a pianist best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979. March 3: Live on Haight Street: The band plays a free show on the back of a flatbed truck for thousands assembled on Haight Street. He added a Fender Rhodes electric piano in mid-1973 and briefly experimented with the Hammond organ again on the bands fall 1973 tour; the Rhodes piano would remain in his setup through 1976. Id never sung before an audience before, really, and Keith had done only very small gigs. Other violence during the concert resulted in two deaths. (On the other hand, Keith is not mentioned in the album credits, so its a mystery where Jackson got this info. Watch the Dead live in '77 at Winterland on 12/31/78 Video unavailable Watch on YouTube Watch on April 13: 20 years Dead: The Dead marks its 20-year anniversary with a three-night run at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Saunders helped him regain not only his musical skills, but hisstrength and confidence as well. Backup singer Donna Jean Godchaux once woke up under husband Keith Godchaux's piano. But the Grateful Dead's transformation from Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a fairly obscure band based in Palo Alto, California, in the early '60s, to one of the most beloved touring acts in the world was definitely a "long, strange trip." Without realizing it, we put a lot of pressure on him to hurry up and get better. Amazingly enough, the band was back to performing live by December 15, 1986, five months after he emerged from the coma. In 1970, Keith Godchauxmarried Donna Jean Thatcher,a session vocalist. Then his health took a turn for the worse. On his thirty-second birthday in July 1980, he was severely injured in a car accident and died from those injuries four days later. The couple began bickering heavily as lots of touring and drug use took their toll. But the band had forgotten to tell Jerry that the rehearsal had been called off, so Jerry was down there by himself. Rock Musician. No doubt, though it cant be measured.. At least when they rolled the tapes, Keith was ready to go on every song. Want to end the touring life of the Grateful Dead? an Internet message board post from the band read. There are almost no jams here, just straight songs (there is a short, interesting band jam on 10/1, and a rehearsal of the Uncle Johns jam on 9/29). July 6: In the Dark LP: The Dead release In the Dark, a comeback album featuring Touch of Grey, Hell in a Bucket, West L.A. Fadeaway and Throwing Stones.. All of that was reportedly behind him as he welcomed a newborn baby daughter, his fourth and youngest child, in December 1987. Donna has returned to live in the Shoals area and is active in the Christian ministry. We said to Pete & Carol, Hey guys, were going to play with the Grateful Dead! And we really believed it. Before the Dead, I was working with Lionel Hampton, Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis. John Kahn remembered, One night there were a lot of people out there, and Howard realized that thats not what he wanted to do, and he stopped doing it. Garcia also said, Howard went offperiodically he gets this thing of where he just cant deal with the music world any more, and he just disappears., Of course there were plenty of other keyboard players around San Francisco who might have auditioned. Jerry Garcia fell into a coma and forgot how to play guitar Shutterstock Garcia struggled with three heavy addictions throughout his adult life: smoking, drugs, and overeating. Learn our music. The irony was that Donna Jean doubts mightily Keith ever bothered to listen to them hed never listened to the Dead all that much before he auditioned In any case, he left the tapes on his parents houseboat in Alameda, and there they stayed. Garcia spotted the phrase grateful dead, which the band later discovered to be from an Egyptian prayer, in a dictionary, and it stuck. This is a carousel. Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Concord, California, a regional suburban center within the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. http://archive.org/details/gd71-10-01.sbd.rehearsal.cousinit.16896.sbefail.shnf very little Keith can be heard Although the band had employed several other keyboardists (including Howard Wales, Merl Saunders and Ned Lagin) as session musicians to augment McKernans limited instrumental contributions following the departure of Tom Constanten in January 1970, Godchaux was invited to join the group as a permanent member in September 1971. Or, if Donnas memory is right, possibly Sunday the 26th was the first day Keith played with Jerry. They lived in a boarding house in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the fabled Summer of Love in 1967, as drummer Bill Kreutzmann recalled in a 2015 article for theSan Francisco Chronicle. Pin. Note that Pigpen went into the hospital the next day. Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948 July 23, 1980) was a pianist best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979. Donna told Blair Jackson, When Keith and I first got together, we wrote some music that we wanted to be meaningful and spiritual. Just playing cocktail lounges and clubs., He played jazz piano & cocktail music in a Walnut Creek club, but was just starting to get into rock & roll. The Heart of Gold Band was formed in early 1980, shortly after Keith and Donna Godchaux had left the Grateful Dead in 1979. While the rest of the players explored their inner consciousnesses with the help of LSD in the late '60s, McKernan opted to stick with alcohol lots and lots of it. But it makes sense when you can rehearse with the band each day, theres little need to check out their tapes. I wanted to be myself and go the direction I wanted. Jan. 14: First signs of the Summer of Love: At least 20,000 including some Hells Angels gathered at Golden Gate Parks Polo Field for the Gathering of the Tribes, the prelude to the Summer of Love that came to be known as the Human Be-In. The tribes gathered early in the day. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images), The Grateful Dead performing at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on June 19, 1995. Is it possible there was a lost Jerry & Keith jam at the Keystone sometime in September 71? Tuesday, Aug 31 In early 1978, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir began to perform slide guitar parts with an eye toward variegating the groups sonic palette, with Weir concluding that desperation is the mother of invention. Garcia biographer Blair Jackson has also asserted that the quality of Keiths playing in the Dead fell off in 78 and early 79. Hed played piano in club bands since he was 14: I spent two years wearing dinner jackets and playing acoustic piano in country club bands and Dixieland groups I also did piano bar gigs and put trios together to back singers in various places around the Bay Area[playing] cocktail standards like Misty the way jazz musicians resentfully play a song thats popular that frustrated space I just wasnt into it I was looking for something real to get involved with which wouldnt necessarily be music. (Getting a job was out of the question: I could never see working during the day, and nobody would hire me for anything, anyway.) July 26: Mydland overdoses: Mydland dies of a drug overdose in Lafayette at age 37. http://www.blairjackson.com/chapter_twelve_additions.htm The same year Jerry lost his finger, his father tragically drowned during a fishing trip, and he and his brother were eventually sent to live with their maternal grandparents for five years. What were the circumstances of Donna Jean Godchaux leaving The Grateful Dead? Keith Godchaux: Age 32 | Cause Of Death: CAR CRASH Grateful Dead (b. A year after leaving the Grateful Dead, Keith Godchaux was killed in a tragic auto accident. So I understood those roots, but I never got taken on that kind of trip with rock and roll and I never had the sense to take myself on it. What started as a sunny day in the Haight turned dark and somber as people learned of Garcias death. Still in 1977, Carly Simon's future chart-topping ballad "Nobody Does it Better" was released, as was Foreigner's future Top Ten single "Cold As Ice". During this same period, Godchauxs playing in the Jerry Garcia Band which had fewer instrumentalists and hence a more open sound retained more elements of his earlier work with the Grateful Dead. ), In early 1972, the Dead had a little promotional flurry, releasing a few band biographies for the press & fans. Garcia struggled with three heavy addictions throughout his adult life: smoking, drugs, and overeating. Garcia, whose signature look is a black T-shirt and coordinated jeans and who probably never wore a tie in his life, laughed when he recently received a box of samples, said Irwin Sternberg, the president of Stonehenge Ltd., which launched the ties. Album credits, so Jerry was down there by himself appearance on Saturday Night live asking band. Before an audience before, really, and Keith had done only small. Re-Group, Keith drove off to the audience and Donna Godchaux had left Grateful...: Saturday Night live Haight turned dark and somber as people learned of Garcias death, Keith in... Includes Obituary, Biography, Discography, Photo, and Links what started a! Chronicle and both Weir and founding member Ron `` Pigpen '' McKernan were arrested to work on his own.... And founding member Ron `` Pigpen '' McKernan were arrested was back to performing live by December,... 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