Today marks what would have been Grateful Deadkeyboardist Keith Godchaux’s72nd birthday. Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948 – July 23, 1980) was a musician best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979. He began piano lessons at age five at the instigation of his father (a semi-professional musician) and subsequently played Dixieland and cocktail jazz in professional ensembles as a teenager. It was not like a mind-blowing far out, just a beautiful far out. From then on, I was super turned-on that such a thing existed.
The earliest rehearsal tapes from September 1971 find the new keyboard player already comfortable and confident with the material. In his book he writes, "Keith turned into a fire-breathing demon about halfway through the fall [1971] tour—not only following the band effortlessly through all our endlessly bifurcating highways and byways, but grabbing the ball and running with it, leading us into unknown regions and setting the stage for what many heads consider the peak years of the Grateful Dead. With Keith, we became the turbocharged turn-on-a-dime Grateful Dead that had only been hinted at before, but the music also became warmer and more organic, almost but not quite filling the hole Pig's absence had left. Godchaux played keys for the Grateful Dead throughout the 1970s. He struggled with depression and a heroin addiction. On this date in 1980, former keyboardist Keith Godchauxtragically died in a car accident just days after his 32nd birthday. Watch Keith and Donna Godchaux Perform in 1975 at Winterland Keith and Donna regrouped and started the Heart of Gold Band, featuring a hot-shot Bay Area guitarist named Steve Kimock. Juli 1948 in Concord, Kalifornien; † 21. They played to enthusiastic audiences and cut one record before Keith was killed in a car accident on July 23, 1980.His legacy with the Grateful Dead can be heard throughout their music of the '70s, from his work on the popular live album So we played that benefit concert at Oakland [2/17/79] and then a few days later there was a meeting at our house and it was brought up whether we should stay in the band anymore...and we mutually decided we'd leave. Grateful Dead (englisch für Dankbare Tote) war eine 1965 gegründete US-amerikanische Rockband aus San Francisco um den Frontmann Jerry Garcia, die eine wichtige Rolle in der US-amerikanischen Musikszene und Gegenkultur einnahm. His background was in Dixieland, big band and cocktail-lounge jazz. July 23, 1980 – Keith Richard Godchaux (The Grateful Dead) was born on July 19th 1948 born in Seattle, Washington, but grew up in Concord, California where he commenced piano lessons at five at the instigation of his father (a semiprofessional musician) and subsequently played Dixieland and cocktail jazz in professional ensembles as a teenager. Like Constanten before him, he had "never played rock 'n' roll" until joining the Grateful Dead. In early 1979, both Godchauxs were dismissed from the band.Keith and Donna regrouped and started the Heart of Gold Band, featuring a hot-shot Bay Area guitarist named Steve Kimock. By the end of the '70s, his playing had fallen by the wayside, and tours became filled with nightly clashes with Donna. According to Godchaux, "I spent two years wearing dinner jackets and playing acoustic piano in country clubbands and Dixieland groups...I also did piano bar gigs and put … I knew I was related to them. Keith was brilliant for the first three years or so he was in the band, but he was sensitive and prone to depression, and the road ate him alive. Tags: American Born in … Gentle with a bit of a depressing attitude, Keith had a generally quiet personality. He said there was a guy down there with him that I simply had to hear. "Bill Kreutzmann writes about Keith, "He was one of the best, if not the best, keyboardist that I’ve had the honor of playing with. Enter Keith Godchaux, whose wife, Donna Jean Godchaux, cornered Garcia after a solo gig and announced, "This is my husband, Keith. Not exactly a choir of angels but some incredibly holy, pure and beautiful spiritual light. Juli 1980 in Marin County, Kalifornien) war US-amerikanischer Musiker, 1971 bis 1979 Pianist und Keyboarder bei den Grateful Dead. "Keith Godchaux had played piano his entire life. Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Concord, California, a regional suburban center within the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948-July 23, 1980) Although he grew up in the suburban town of Concord, California, Keith Richard Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington on July 19, 1948.
Keith Godchaux (* 19. According to Godchaux, "I first saw [the Grateful Dead] play with a bunch of my old lady's friends who were real Grateful Dead freaks.
Nobody else from the band was around, but almost immediately after I arrived, I knew that Jerry was right—this guy could really play piano. He maintained a presence in the band's extended orbit, returning intermittently to California to perform alongside Kreutzmann in the Healy-Treece Band (a venture for Godchaux sustained massive head injuries in an auto accident while being driven home on his birthday by noted According to Phil Lesh, many fans consider the years that Keith joined through the touring hiatus in 1974 to be the best years of the Grateful Dead. "During his tenure with the Dead, his only lead vocal and wholly original composition was "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away," a collaboration with lyricist Following their departure from the Grateful Dead, the Godchauxs enjoyed an extended period of recuperation with their family in Alabama.
A year later, Keith died as the result of a car accident. He's the Grateful Dead's new keyboardist. "Although the band had employed several other keyboardists (including Initially, Godchaux incorporated a richly melodic, fluid and Increasingly frayed from the vicissitudes of the rock and roll lifestyle, Godchaux gradually became dependent upon various drugs, most notably Eventually, according to Donna Jean Godchaux, "Keith and I decided we wanted to get out and start our own group or something else – anything else.