Europe in 1972 was not the Europe that exists today; it was still a handful of little countries that had been trying to kill each other a generation earlier. There was new money every hundred miles, and new cops and officials to give that money to: Europe was a collection of borders with countries separating them.
It was also farther away, and expensive to reach in any medium. Air mail required a whole different set of tools than regular mail: obscure stamps and special envelopes with red-and-blue wainscoting and see-through paper to save on weight. You could not call Europe. I mean, you could if someone else was paying for it, but if the phone line was in your name, you could not call Europe.
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| Ron "Pigpen" McKernan in Copenhagen, 1972 |
Pig’s deathly ill? Let’s schlep him around Europe on a cold and damp bus for six weeks. [Solid plan, there, guys! - Ed.]
An imaginary conversation between Jerry and Pig Pen, in Copenhagen, 1972…
Jerry: "How do you like Denmark, Pig? "
Pig Pen: "The Pig don’t like it! I’m a damn California boy. How can a man sing the blues when he’s turnin’ blue? It just ain’t natural, Jer!"
Jerry: "I agree. How'ya feeling? "
Pig Pen: "Not so hot."
Jerry: "Ha!"
Pig Pen: "Yeah, I made a li’l joke. Nah, I ain’t so great. It’s okay, though, touring Europe’s just what the doctor ordered."
Jerry: "Really?"
Pig Pen: "Hell, no, peabrain! The doc said to me the exact opposite thing! Was specific ’bout it, too! Pig, he said, Whatever you do: don’t let no one drag you ’round Europe on a bus, and then make you stand out in the cold all afternoon."
Jerry: "Well, what do doctors know? "
Pig Pen: "That’s right, Jer, the Pig's schedule ain’t made by no sawbones!"
Jerry: "Seriously though, you look cold, Ron. Do you want some hot chocolate?"
Pig Pen: "Aw, you know they don’t make it right over here, probably all fancy."
Jerry: "I’ll find you some Nestles Quik. "
Pig Pen: "And if you could rustle up some of them itty-bitty marshmallows, then I wouldn’t mind."
Jerry: "Sure man, hang tight."
[60's Garcia was hep; he was a real beat cat. 80's Garcia was a mess, and 90's Garcia was just plain sad, but 70's Garcia was a cool mofo. - Ed.]
But seriously,
The liver problems that plagued "Pigpen" for most of his life became more severe in 1971, of course the Southern Comfort didn't help. Against doctor’s orders, "Pigpen" hit the road one more time with the Grateful Dead. The band’s 1972 tour of Europe is legendary, but at the time, "Pigpen" was just trying to stay above ground. You could hear it in his voice when he took the mic onstage. Close your eyes and his voice was a window into the past. But listen closer, and you’d hear something else. Something you couldn’t quite put your finger on. A distance. Some pain. Truth was, Pigpen was on borrowed time. Rest In Peace, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan.
'Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72' is a live 4 CD box that collects performances from seven of their eight shows in England during their spring 1972 tour of Europe (their first tour of the UK and continental Europe)
The band visited England
three times on the tour. They had booked four concerts in London
(condensed to two) and one for Newcastle before touring mainland Europe.
After the tour began, an opportunity came to return to England to play
the stormy Bickershaw Festival, in between dates in Paris and Amsterdam. To make up for the poor sound and crowded shows at the last-minute
replacement venue, the Empire Pool, they added more dates at the end of
the tour, returning again to London for four performances at the
acoustically favorable Lyceum Theatre in the West End.
Jerry Garcia - lead guitar, vocals
Bob Weir - rhythm guitar, vocals
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan - organ, harmonica, vocals
Phil Lesh - bass guitar, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann - drums
Keith Godchaux - piano
Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals
For the freeload, what was your favorite "blotter art"?
There are more 'not so little countries' (45-50 dependent on definition) in Europe today than there were in 1972 (only 34). There are also considerably more separatist movements too.
ReplyDeleteEven so the European population has remained roughly 3 times the size of say the USA on an equivalent landmass throughout the period despite having tried to kill each other off not once but twice in the previous 60 years. Not really that 'little' at all......
Today even if you exclude the area that now comes under the retirement home for corrupt national politicians otherwise known as the EU whilst they may have a single currency for the time being they still have 28 official languages and 27 sovereign states responsible for their own defence and finances and that's before you consider the other 20 plus countries who still exist quite happily outside the EU who still have their own currency.
I do wish Americans spoonfed with the propaganda of the likes of CNN and CBS underpinned with a Hallmark / Lifetime view of the world beyond their borders would stop demonstrating their ignorance about the wider world on the Internet.
In the great words of, Foghorn Leghorn: "That was a joke, son"
DeleteHmm.....where have seen that writing style before?
Okay, but what did the paper look like?
DeleteI've actually seen (and dropped) Foghorn Leghorn blotter.
DeleteI encountered blotter acid, I think, 3 times- tabs were much more popular where I "grew up." And I believe I've only seen blotter art online. On a related topic, there is a school of thought that I frequently adhere to that post-71 (i.e. post relatively healthy McKernan) Dead is frequently borrrrring...
ReplyDeleteMy first acid trip ('67), was on a sugar cube, with red dye added to the drop (at that time, there were also Acid Apples). A few years later, there was Orange Sunshine was on a small barrel-shaped pill. After that, it was mostly blotter. There was also "liquid" which was dispensed from an eye dropper, and was my personal favorite.
DeleteI don't have this, so thanks Babs.
ReplyDeletetHEIR WAS ONE
ReplyDeleteTheir was one called Barbie I remember from the early daze. A purple stamp of a woman's torso stamped on a blotter. But it was good.
What the heck did I do and how did I do it?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen anything other than plain blotter. In fact, I only took it once or twice. Like Bombshelter Jim said, tabs were more common where I lived. Orange Sunshine, the kind they cut with strychnine.
ReplyDeleteBut there is a great blotter story I'm compelled to share. A friend who went to grad school in the frozen north sent a couple of sheets of blotter by mail to another mutual friend. He ate one sheet & his buddy ate the other. About a week later, the guy who sent them asked how we ALL had enjoyed it. Turned out those two yahoos had consumed 32 hits of acid, thinking they were each 4-ways. This explained why (a) they sat in a closet for 2 days saying "I think I'm coming down soon, no, no I don't" and (b) why the rest of us didn't speak to them for months.
A friend of mine came back from Viet Nam. Asked his wife if she had any acid. He'd never heard of blotter. He ate the whole sheet. Stayed high for a week.
ReplyDeleteFor us (mid 70s) it was purple microdot.
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/QuupJvT6hJE
There used to be a Ken Kesey website that had blotter patterns.
ReplyDeleteI used acid for the first time in my life in Berlin and do clearly recall that cars passing on a cobblestone street obviously came out of a Pink Floyd record. 5 seconds after I saw a giant crystal shaped UFO it started snowing... But I can't remember anything about the acid itself... Blotter? Microdot??
ReplyDeleteFor the upteenth time I am going to see if the GD do anything for me. For the past 45 years, they haven't, even when off my tits. In MY day, I was a keen consumer of samurai blotters, which were accompanied by Gong, Hawkwind, and Todd Rundgren's more psychedelic/ prog albums. A great time was had.
ReplyDeleteI'm very fond of these four CDs of music, but I've liked/loved everything I've heard from this tour. So, what I'm saying is that my judgement of GD music is no guide to your enjoyment (as always). But I often find that a playlist with a little bit of cherry-picking surpasses the fun of many single shows. Thank you for posting this, so that others can enjoy.
ReplyDeleteMy personal acid consumption was mostly purple microdots, in the Midwest while in college.
D in California
Mr. Natural / Mickey Mouse
ReplyDelete