did any of you elder statesmen ever meet pigpen? or any other of the Grateful Dead for that matter? theres not much about pigpen around, and he sees like he was a pretty cool guy. well, have a wonderful day.
The man was wasted... every hour of every day and night, that was until he kacked. "Captain Kid done flipped his lid... ain't nothin' left but the rind." Now there's not even the rind left. If that's bein' cool, I'm gonna go out and eat horse turds.
no, being wasted all the time wasnt the "cool" part. i guess i shouldve written "the man was a organ-playin-harp-blowin mofo". thats all. so, did you meet him, then?
Well... Yes and No. It all depends on where he was while his body was under the influence. Not to mention my own state of being under... When they changed their names from The Warlocks to the Dead, they were still quite accessible to folk. I lived in the neighborhood, I used, and some of us chatted or nodded or tipped our hats in passing on the street. When I hitched back to NYC, I got a job at Crawdaddy, an underground newspaper, as a Rock 'n Roll interviewer, post concerts. It, Crawdaddy, really was "underground" too... four floors below 6th avenue as I recall. But... I'd like to ask you something, if that's OK. When you guys, young and old, ask about meeting rock artists or "famous" folks, do you really think that they're any different from you or I? I talked with Janis just before she kacked, and all that she could say to me was; "Fuck It! I've had it with this business." I've met quite a few recording artists in my day and have always been taken by their sense of ordinariness. They are only human beings with a talent for playing a musical instrument or of using their god given voices to bring joy into the airwaves. We all have at least one thing we're good at, just like them. They get really bent out of shape by fame and media hype... And most of them have told me this themselves. Sam
yeah, i realize that they are ordinary people, and most ordinary people have personalities. i dont want to sound like an idiot, but apparently im not doing that great of a job. its not that i admire the people themselves, but that i admire the wonderful art they produced. thanks for responding though. i dont get to communicate with people that were actually there, and i myself wasnt, so naturally i am curious about things. sorry if i sound(ed) like a fool.
Please, first off, accept my apology for sounding like I think that you're an idiot. I don't think that you are, and I'm sorry if the words that I've typed in make it sound that way. One of the things that I learned when first coming to this site is that the Written Word, devoid of tonal inflection, leaves a lot to be desired. I guess that's why folks use the smiley faces at the end of their sentences. I should, but I don't. I hope that you come back and read this reply... maybe I should PM you with my apology? But you don't sound like a fool! I like answering questions, but on this open forum, some object to lengthy answers. So in the process of keeping my reply short, I guess that my answer sounded kinda Short too. I've been coming here for a little more that 2 years, and there is always the paranoia of being 'set up' that goes along with answering posts by young people. Sort of like; "let's see if we can get any of the Old Farts to bite on this line." I guess some of that personal experience came through also. Forgive? Sam PS. This IS a short answer for me... you should see my long ones.
you really dont have to apologize, but its really kind of you. i am glad to have read your replies, thats more than i knew before. so thank you. so, i must ask, can you explain the "ball bustin goat lady" thing?
Well, Alice... It's not a very interesting story about how I came to be known, in some circles, as the Ball Busting Goat Lady, but here goes... I have kept a herd of goats since I was 22. Back in '71, I was the veterinary source person and the Goat Milk person for the small neighborhood of Freaks in Upper Black Eddy, PA. Everyone knew who they were talking about when they said, "The Goat Lady", it was me, Sam, the goat lady of Ringing Rocks. Last year, when Ken and I were refinancing our home so that we could purchase the adjoining property, we had to go down to Maryland to sign the papers that went along with this deal. We had thought that we had locked into 6 1/2 percent interest for 15 years, but when we looked at the figures on the papers, it turned out that 6 1/2 percent was only an introductory offerfor the first 6 months, then it went up to 7 percent. We didn't sign those papers, and I told the kid who was handling the Bank's side of the paperwork, that 6 months out of 15 year mortgage was nothing... A Sneeze. Further more, I told him that Luring people in with tissue paper-like deals was downright Sleazy in my book. The kid turned bright red and said that he would work on the deal to come up with the rate we wanted. Afterwards, Ken and I went back to his office, where we were talking to the Senior VP, who's an Irish Catholic kinda personality... we talked about what had just occured and he belly laughed about it and dubbed me... The Ball Busting Goat Lady. I took the monika as a compliment and use it every now and again. But that's not where my reputation began. You see, I'm a Very strong woman and I tend to get what I want, when I want it, and I pride myself on using ethical tactics to do so. Period. I also don't put up with any shit that goes against my grain, so to speak. If something doesn't ring kosher, I make no bones about calling someone on it. And if someone starts to play games with me, well then... I play them right back... Only Better. This kind of attitude, back when I was coming up, was called Ball Busting... and I'm not oppossed to busting anyone's balls to get them to do the correct thing, to get it done in a timely manner, and to my liking. I've also been called a Chops Buster... always bustin' somebody's chops... but that was when I was a teenager. Now I have the reputation for being tenacious to a fault. I remember how it was when I was coming up... I was always asking questions too. I figured that I had nothing to lose, and the worse thing someone could tell me when I asked was, No. Big deal. So I asked questions... all kinds of questions... and I still do. I think that this is called ball busting also. You keep on asking questions... I'll keep on giving you the best answers that I know of. If I don't know, I'll tell you that I don't know, and then I'll go and find out the answer, because I can't let an open question stay open for very long. It drives me bonkers. You Take Care,
