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if any of you have read/followed my rants/ 'research' regarding pigpens organ play and the lack of him in the mix on the vast majority of tapes from 70 &71 check out Minglewood and Beat it on down on this recording where he is fully in the mix where as most tapes he is audible to barely audible, inaudible.He is also audible on Truckin, but lower after the initial open. also audible but low(to my taste ) on Bertha, good levels for the most part on black Peter and his little 'pase stops' on greatest story. audible but drowned out when phil/jerry/bob get loud on cold rain(so to my taste he could be a tad louder via the 16 track). He is audible and 'fully' in the mix for this entire tape/show. Interestingly he doesnt play(or is in audible) on Me & my uncle a tune he would play aggressively on in Europe a year later. So for this show/tape it seems as if Pigpen is playing and in the mix for almost the entire show except for Ripple,Bobby McGee, the previously mentioned Me/uncle and a few others as opposed to the vast majority of the rest of the 71 (2 track) tapes available.You can occasionally hear him in 71 on Bertha, Loser, Beat it on down usually but not always on Truckin. even NFA he is only audible sometimes ditto the other one. Compared to the europe 72 tapes,both the 2 tracks and the 16 track mixes where he plays on Bertha, texture to Sugaree,& LOser'phases' and fills on Mr charlie & He's Gone good playing on Me &my uncle, of course Truckin, the other one, the 'phase' fills and playing on Morning Dew plus the playing on NFA and Saturday night. He plays 'chugging' on Big RR and Casey Jones. The shows we listen to here from the 4/29 16 track tapes as opposed to the live mixes on the 2 track tapes. that we listen to here when i say here i mean the vast majority of the 71 recordings not this recording from 4/29 which is obviously mixed via the 16 track tapes.. A real anomoly is Chinacat which is a good vehicle for organ. Pigpen is NEVER audible on any Chinacat from post 2/70 when TC left. Watching footage from Europe Pigpen indeed leaves his organ for Chinacat which would explain the TOTAL lack of any audible organ even via leakage on any post 2/70 chinacat although admitedly this is evidence that he leaves the organ for just one Chinacat. But I watched the film(video) from Chateau in France from 6/71 and in that performance Pigpen is seen playing on Chinacat yet is TOTALLY inaudible in the mix. This copy of 4/29/71 sounds to me like a mix-down from the 16 track as opposed to the live 2 track tapes. Of course I could be wrong. I'll check other 4/29 tapes, hopefully different sources to see if the mix particularly the organ is different. Just to be clear in 1970 Pigpen is mostly inaudible except for Dancin in the street, Minglewood, Black peter, other one occasionally on Cold rain and of course those little fills on mornin dew. Listen to the fillmore west closing, 7/71. Pigpen totally inaudible on Cryptical which he always played on in 70 then when it opens into the other one you can hear Pigpens opening blast which quickly fades to much lower in the mix. Ive noticed this more than once. It seems that it might have been a conscious decision to minimize his organ in 71. I ahvent listened to 'skull/roses aka skullf*ck in years but I think Pig is again low/minimally audible in that mix which as an album release must have been a very deliberate action so that would add to the evidence that minimzing pigpens organ was intentional in 71(and 70?) but they brought him back so to speak for europe 72. Ill check out skull/roses to confirm this thesis

- November 7, 2015pigpen organ