Ipod Shuffle 34: The Grateful Dead Quiz

Answer: Donna Jean Godchaux

Donna Jean Godchaux provided backup vocals for this hit single before she joined The Grateful Dead. "Suspicious Minds" was Elvis's last number one single in the United States until his death in 1977. Donna meet and married Keith Godchaux in 1970. She contributed vocals to recordings by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Cher, and The Jerry Garcia Band.

Answer: Surrealistic Pillow

In 1967, The Grateful Dead contacted Davis Hassinger, the engineer for The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" to produce their debut album, "The Grateful Dead". Garcia both contributed the title to "Surrealistic Pillow" and also was a session musician for that album.

Phil Lesh had this to say about their debut: "To my ear, the only track that sounds at all like we did at the time is Viola Lee Blues. ... None of us had any experience with performing for recording ... although the whole process felt a bit rushed.""

Answer: Aoxomoxoa

Their third studio album "Aoxomoxoa" is a palindrome. It is the first album recorded near San Franciso. Both pianist Tom Constanten and lyricist Robert Hunter became recognized as full-fledged band members, though Hunter was a non-performing member of the band, being Jerry Garcia's lyricist.

The album includes two tracks that would later become live staples for the band: "St. Stephen" and "China Cat Sunflower".

Courtney Love (at the time five years old) appears on the album's back cover.

Answer: Ron Charles "Pigpen" McKernan

Pigpen, who performed organ, harmonica, percussion, and sometimes guitar, was one of the principal members of The Grateful Dead. He died March 8, 1973, due to complications with alcohol, at the very young age of twenty seven. His last live performance with the band was at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on June 17, 1972.

Keith Godchaux died July 23, 1980, in an automobile accident. His replacement, Brent Mydland, the band's fourth keyboardist, died in 1990.

The next to die would be Jerry Garcia on August 9, 1995.

Answer: Ugliest Girl In The World

By 1988, Dylan's career was rather abysmal. "Down in the Groove" is consistently named among the worst albums of his storied career. The album was a hodge-podge of recordings, assembled from various recording sessions over a six year period.

Jerry Garcia, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir were all featured on the album as background vocalists. Eric Clapton and Ronnie Wood also played on the record.

Dylan co-wrote two songs with Robert Hunter on that album: "Ugliest Girl In The World" and "Silvio". The later would appear on Dylan compilations, the sole representative of "Down in the Groove" on greatest hits compilations. "Silvio" features Weir, Mydland, and Garcia on background vocals.

Answer: Uncle John's Band

"Uncle John's Band" sounds very much like a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young recording with closely knit vocal harmonies. Due to the length, Warner Bros edited the recording for a single version. Garcia called the mix "an atrocity". According to Garcia: "I gave them instructions on how to properly edit it and they garbled it so completely".The original album version ended up getting more airplay than the revised Warner Bros. version.

The album "Workingman's Dead" was also notable for the use of profanity in "Uncle John's Band" and mention of cocaine in "Casey Jones", both of which received radio play.

Answer: "Ace" by Bob Weir

In the early 1970s, Warner Bros. Records offered members of the Grateful Dead to cut their own solo records. Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, and Bob Weir all released solo albums due to this offer. These three band members released solo albums in 1972.

Garcia's album "Garcia" is more of a solo effort, as Garcia played almost all the instrumentation of the album.

Hart had left The Grateful Dead by 1972, but members of the band played on his album. However, the album features contributions from several outside musicians. This album featured an early version of the concert staples "Playing in the Band" and ""Greatest Story Ever Told", although they only appeared as a single track under the title as "Pump Song" and also partially as "The Main Ten".

With "Ace" however, the album is a full fledged studio Dead album in all but name, as Weir used the the Dead as his backing band for the album. Seven of the eight songs became concert staples for The Grateful Dead, with only the song "Walking In the Sunshine" left behind.

"Ace" also featured "Greatest Story Ever Told" and "Playing in the Band", under their proper names respectively.

Answer: Wake of the Flood

"Wake of the Flood" was the band's sixth studio album, released in 1973. The band had been performing much of the material live before they entered the studio. The album features such live staples as "Rowe Jimmy", "Stella Blue", and "Weather Report Suite". It was also the first studio album released by the band on their own Grateful Dead record label and also the first since Pigpen passed away.

Keith Godchaux wrote his sole track "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" with Hunter.

Answer: Friend of the Devil

In 1970, the Grateful Dead released two now seminal, classic albums: "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty". The second track on "American Beauty" is "Friend of the Devil", a song about an outlaw trailed by both Satan and a law enforcement agency. Garcia and Dawson wrote the music and Hunter wrote the lyrics.

Both Bob Dylan and Tom Petty has covered the song numerous times in concert. Dylan has officially released a live version of the song back in the late 1990s.

Answer: In the Dark

The Dead first performed "Touch of Grey" on September 15, 1982 as an encore. They finally did a studio recording of the song in 1987 for their album "In the Dark", their first studio album in seven years, since the 1980 record "Go To Heaven".

The song was the first by the band to have a music video. The song peaked at Number Nine on the Billboard Top 100 and hit Number One on the Mainstream Rock chart.