Posted on 11/03/2025 9:18:46 AM PST by dayglored
[Subtitle] The vocalist spent the Seventies with the legendary group, and also sang backup on hits by Elvis Presley and Percy Sledge
Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, who spent the Seventies singing with the Grateful Dead, sang back-up on several classic Sixties hits, and fronted her own bands, has died. She was 78.
Godchaux joined the Grateful Dead in 1971 alongside her husband, Keith, who played keyboards. Her vocals were a key feature of the Dead’s seminal run during the Seventies, appearing on such classic albums as Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood, and Terrapin Station, not to mention countless legendary live recordings (including the famed Cornell ’77 gig and the Dead’s September 1978 shows at the Giza pyramid in Egypt).
Prior to joining the Dead, Godcheaux was working as an in-demand session singer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. She contributed to hits like Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” while also singing on songs by Duane Allman, Cher, Neil Diamond, and Boz Scaggs.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
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Terrapin Station had "Sunrise"; Shakedown Street had "From the Heart of Me". Maybe one those?
Interesting bit of Dead lore; I always heard it was the other way around. Thanks for the update.
“””Well you’re wrong about The Beatles.”””
My neighbor was part of the promotional group that brought them here. I have told him they suck. Well, maybe they didn’t suck the first 30,000 times their songs were on the radio. But ultimately they sucked.
opinions are like assholes
the stinkier you are, the more compelled you seem to be to share it
Did you wave your hands in front of your face at the Dead concerts?
You know, to keep the music from getting in your eyes.
😆
Dead keyboardists were like Lieutenants in Vietnam, don’t even learn their name.
Or the drummers in Spinal Tap.
What did one Deadhead say to the other when the drugs wore off?
“Man, this band sucks!”
"The Old joke I've shared before..I don't hate the Grateful Dead, it's the fans I can't stand.
Charming to the last..
It is amusing, I have had more reaction to that post than any post I have ever made. Most are in agreement with me. Predictably, the few who disagreed have done so in a childish manner bordering on tantrum.
I always thought of them as hippies who played crappy music to smoke dope by.
Nightwish has done quite well, especially with Tarja and Floor.
She wasn’t a singer, but Ruth Underwood of Zappa’s band, is the only example of the lone female musician in an otherwise all-male band, that comes to my mind.
Yes the pig pen era is THE ERA
I Saw him with them at the end
It was sad
He was in bad shape to be so young
I stayed thru mars hotel where Donna actually does decent
Last time I visited uncle Sid was Dead at Tuscaloosa 77
It was good too
The drive back to Jax Miss was looong and paranoia filled lol
2 am and half the cars are cops knowing there was a dead show east central Bama
And I had to drive the “spaceship “
It wasn’t like bad but only boomers a few times after that
People today take much lower doses which is smart
I don’t condone psychedelics
I did witness life altering casualties
During the show they really hit the good stuff
I listen to it on archives occasionally and tell my kids I can heart myself yelling for Sugar Magnolia
Finally the encore lol
Pig Pen’s demise was pretty much all alcohol, IIRC.
Agree...1,000%
That said, GD did give us Owsley Stanley, their sound engineer and infamous LSD king who became the subject of Steely Dan's "Don't Take Me Alive" track on their Royal Scam album.
The Dead aren’t really rated
It’s not for everyone anymore than Mahavishnu would be or early Floyd
But they have a following no doubt
The Americana country traditional songs genre kind of gives a tour of the south and the Rockies even though none of them were from there
I think Robert Hunter had traveled a bit
He was the lyricist
I understand why some don’t like it
It grew on me but I like the 66-77 stuff but mostly 68-71
Kind of like the stones timeline for best out out
They probably sound “cleanest “ on American beauty which has Truckin
And yes Live they were erratic
They also represented a culture which some dove into and some absorbed from afar in more conventional lives (that would be me pretty much)
They personified the San Francisco Haight thing probably more than anyone and carried it longer
They also bridged that with prior beat culture
Like Kesey said once “I’m too old to be a hippie and too young to be a beat”
I like harder rock too
B1957 I grew up on stones and Beatles 45s onwards
Stones
Zep
Beatles
Floyd
Prolly my top four which I still listen too
Dead is like an adjunct
An important adjunct
It any of that makes sense
Kid Charlemagne
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