: (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. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was the first member of the Grateful Dead to pass away. Sept. 25: Dead for 15 years: To celebrate the bands 15th anniversary, the Dead open an 18-date run at the Warfield theater in San Francisco. He died a year later in a car accident, at the age of 32. McKay is an instrumentalist playing the bass guitar. Keith's tragic death in an automobile accident on July 23, 1980 put a pall over his departure. 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 later interviews, he sounds like he preferred the independence & freedom to work on his own projects. 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. It was performed live six times, all in 1973. Guitar, Vocals, Illustration [On baby's face] - Jerry Garcia. May 5: Warlocks play Magoos: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron Pigpen McKernan, Dana Morgan Jr. and Bill Kreutzmann play at Magoos Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park as the Warlocks, an electric band that took shape at Dana Morgans Music Store in Palo Alto. July 10: Garcia in a coma: Garcia collapses at his Marin County home and falls into a diabetic coma. He was steadying a piece of wood when the ax severed a large chunk of the middle finger on his right hand. The culprit: a lethal dose of heroin and speed. Just a little over a year after leaving, Keith died of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Dec. 10: Fillmore first: The Grateful Dead, still known as the Warlocks, perform at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for the first time, as part of Bill Grahams S.F. 6. tv special live performance concert film cult music band Plot summary Add synopsis Genre Music Keyboardist Keith Godchaux joined the band with his wife, singer Donna Jean Godchaux, in late 1971 following a fortuitous encounter with Garcia at San Francisco's Keystone Club. In 1994, he was inducted, posthumously, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. Following the Grateful Deads 1975 hiatus, he largely yielded to a simpler comping-based approach with the group that eschewed his previously contrapuntal style in favor of emulating or ballasting Garcias guitar parts. Then the next day the Dead practiced, and by the end of that day Keith was on the payroll. Keith godchaux. But it makes sense when you can rehearse with the band each day, theres little need to check out their tapes. : . http://www.blairjackson.com/chapter_twelve_additions.htm One wonders, though. At the break, Garcia walked by going backstage, so I grabbed him and said, Jerry, my husband and I have something very important to talk to you about. And he said, Sure. While these bios are brief and lacking in detail (Donnas role is not mentioned at all), they were written only a few months later, so they should be taken into account. By all accounts, Lenny Hart was a weird guy. After one wonderful night of rehearsal, Keith drove off to the car crashthat killed him. Keith: It had to happen. She remarried again to her present husband David McKay in 1980. I went to a concert with them and saw something I didnt know could be really happening It was not like a mind-blowing far out, just beautiful far out. Donna Jean and Keith Godchaux were in the Dead until 1979, and Keith died in 1980 following a car accident. Never mind the trauma of being fired . Mr. It no longer had that sparkle and imagination that marked his best work ('72-'74). Keith was 32 years old at the time of death. So Pigpen stayed at home until December, while Keith went out and surprised Dead audiences. I wanted to be myself and go the direction I wanted. We went home, looked in the paper and saw that Garcias band was playing at the Keystone, so we went down, of course. He sighed in 76, Im just now starting to learn about the type of music Im playing now I never played rock and roll before I started playing with the Grateful Dead. (Shades of Constanten!) 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.) Its notable that Keith plays both piano and organ equally during the rehearsals. The couple introduced themselves to Jerry Garcia at a concert in August 1971; ailing keyboardist/vocalist Ron Pigpen McKernan (who would go on to play alongside Godchaux from December 1971 to June 1972) was unable to undertake the rigors of the bands next tour. (Ironically, he became unhappy with Brandeis and soon dropped out, to resurface on a later Dead tour), Merl Saunders, of course, was playing with Garcia all the time, plus he had done studio overdubs on several songs for the Deads 1971 live album that summer. Sept. 26: Dead reach top 40: Touch of Grey enters the Top 40 charts. http://archive.org/details/gd71-10-01.sbd.rehearsal.cousinit.16896.sbefail.shnf very little Keith can be heard But McNally tells the story of Wales auditioning with the Dead around this time. Pigpen and Bob Weir were fined $100 each. So I said to Jerry, Well, Keiths your piano player, so I want your home telephone number so I can call you up and come to the next Grateful Dead practice. And he believed me! (Perhaps someone mixed up the Keystone and the rehearsal space either way, Jerry & Bill jammed with Keith before the rest of the band did.) The head Deadhead is immortal. Godchaux sustained massive head injuries in an auto accident while being driven home on his birthday by noted tie-dye artist Courtenay Pollock (who was hosting the Godchauxs at his home in San Geronimo, California as they worked with their new band) in July 1980. The decision was made quickly. During a family vacation when Garcia was 5 years old, he decided to help his older brother chop wood. Donna remembered the Dead rehearsal being scheduled for the following Sunday, but the Dead canceled and only Jerry came. The Godchauxs remained with the Grateful Dead until 1979, when they left to try other avenues of music on their own with the band The Heart of Gold. We may never know. Backup singer Donna Jean Godchaux once woke up under husband Keith Godchaux's piano. After jamming with Jerry and Billy at a small club, and getting together with the Dead to work out some tunes, he joined the band in September of 1971. 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. In July 1986, an abscessed tooth resulted in an infection. Garcia struggled with three heavy addictions throughout his adult life: smoking, drugs, and overeating. I guess the worst thing you could say about later-period Keith is that he was just taking up sonic space in the Deads overall sound. Tragically, Keith Godchaux was a passenger in an automobile accident on July 21, 1980 forty years ago today and died two days later. Faced with the choice to crash into the Grateful Dead's house and a Hells Angels house, he chose the Hells Angels as his landing pad. 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. But their love of intoxicants was only the first in a series of mishaps that led to them playing lousy. They played a total of 29 shows, and recorded two live albums Vintage Dead and Historic Dead there. The couple managed to quickly bounce back. June 14: Workingmans Dead: Workingmans Dead, recorded at Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco, marks a turn from psychedelia to a more country-rock sound, influenced by lyricist Hunter and the bands friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash at the time. He later committed suicide in 2006. We said to Pete & Carol, Hey guys, were going to play with the Grateful Dead! And we really believed it. Godchaux sustained massive head injuries after being involved in a car crash while being driven home on his birthday on 7/19/80 and he died four days later on 7/23/80 at age 32. I went to a concert with them and saw something I didnt know could be really happening It was not like a mind-blowing far out, just beautiful far out. (Not only that, it would mean they lost no time in taping rehearsals with the new guy, in fact starting immediately. The incident also inspired "He's Gone," a tune about the not-so good reverend's wicked ways. The pair become known as the Rhythm Devils. Enough to shut down every resort. In 24 hours we created all the problems of our society in one place: congestion, violence, dehumanization, Gleason wrote. From their first show as the Warlocks at a pizza place in Menlo Park to their farewell stand with three sold-out 50th anniversary shows at Chicagos Soldier Field stadium, here are some key dates on the Grateful Deads incredible journey. To add to the strangeness of his demise, Brent's final performance on July 23rd, 1990 came 10 years to the day after the death of Keith Godchaux, the former Dead keyboardist who Mydland had. But there were still a lot of ups and downs. Garcia and Weir have said that their microphones kept shocking them. The Dead even planned to play a benefit with him at the Harding Theater on September 3-4, 1971: The Grateful Dead was one of the most popular jam bands of the late 20th century. Private Life. Godchaux sustained massive head injuries in an automobile accident while being driven home from his birthday party in Marin County, California, on July 21, 1980. Aug. 13: Deadheads pay respect: Garcia is celebrated by family and thousands of friends in Golden Gate Park. The Deads music is absolutely 100% positive influence. Other violence during the concert resulted in two deaths. A few years later, the band ran into trouble in New Orleans during a drug raid that, according to Ultimate Classic Rock, didn't really surprise anyone. Garcia would soon get the chance to play some more with Wales in the January 72 east-coast tour supporting the Hooteroll release. Throughout this period, Godchauxs rented pianos were outfitted with a state-of-the-art pickup system designed by Carl Countryman. Keith Godchaux replaced him at keys until 1979, when drug use forced his departure. Jan. 31: Dylan and the Dead: Dylan & the Dead CD by Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead released. He was in a car accident and received massive head injuries from which he didn't recover. July 23: Keith Godchaux dies in car crash: Keith Godchaux dies in a car accident in Marin County, at age 32, about a year after leaving the band. Although the band took the predictable long breaks between songs, many of the tunes were stitched together end-to-end, as the Dead played as tightly as a soul band, Joel Selvin wrote in The Chronicle. Not that a lack of Grammy Awards hurt their sales. He identifies the Deads rehearsal space as a warehouse off Francisco Boulevard in San Rafael. (The tapes of Keiths rehearsals are labeled as being from an unknown location in Santa Venetia but Santa Venetia is basically a neighborhood of San Rafael, so it is likely the same place. 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