Thanks largely to the indomitable presence of the late Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan, the Grateful Dead’s roots in blues and R&B will never really be lost to history. Here the co-founder of the group is depicted performing “It Hurts Me Too,” an oft-covered tune by icon of the genre Elmore James, from the now mythic Europe ’72 tour: perhaps due to the man’s ill health at the time, it’s a somewhat more subdued take than some of Pig’s barnburners of the past such as “Turn On Your Lovelight.” While the vocalist/keyboardist/harpist was not exactly integral to the group’s psychedelic explorations, he remained indispensable in preserving this elemental link to the Dead’s past as it evolved into the nascent Americana approach documented on Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.
