Psychedelic songwriter John Dawson dies at 64(New Riders Of The Purple Sage)

AP ^ | 7/23/09

[mylife]

SAN FRANCISCO — John "Marmaduke" Dawson, a longtime Grateful Dead collaborator who co-wrote "Friend of the Devil" and developed a devoted following with his psychedelic country group New Riders of the Purple Sage, has died. He was 64.

Dawson died Tuesday from stomach cancer in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he had retired several years ago

[Richard Kimball]

I've never met her, but she always gave the impression of being the girl that was beautiful, but not stuck up. There were girls that were beautiful that if you said "hi" when you saw them would just look at you, and you could tell they were calibrating your social standing before determining if you were worthy of a return comment. Ronstadt always gave the impression that she was the girl who'd say hi to the football star or the dork, without evaluating what it did to her social standing.

Was that your impression?

[ASOC]

Just regular folks - the family was well to do, with a long history in Tucson and SoAz. My family was relative Johnny-come-latelys as we first came to Tucson 1926. For cool photos & some Ronstadt history see http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/ronstadtfamily/wagons/shopint1.html - true pioneers. Linda mostly spent her summers in Mexico with grandparents (moms side). Which is to say, we were in different orbits in colliding universes. Never heard any stories about nastiness or the like.

She moved back to Tucson to raise her adpoted children. Supports the community and is still a nice person in many ways, tho a liberal.

Oddly, she never played at Catalina HS that I can recall. After a semester at UofA, she booked to LA and as they say, the rest is history.

In an even stranger subnote, her father got into trouble with the ATF for selling dynamite (this was the 60s where you could buy anything) to a couple of young folks who went back to California and blew up some banks. Thanks for asking, many folks see the famous person, but forget that behind the fame is a person - someone who went to school, had friends, etc. FWIW, I would to have dinner with Linda to compare notes on our HS days.....

[frithguild]

I always loved Dirty Business - Jerry on pedal steel

I Don’t Know You is another wonderful tune.

Saw them so many times live in the 70’s

so sad :(

[bamahead]

Dirty Business is one of my favorite tunes. Widespread Panic does a great cover of it.

Watcha Gonna Do is also a great tune. Will really miss this guy. Adding you to the Deadhead ping :)

[wagglebee]

I’ve got a bunch of old NRPS bootlegs in a box somewhere. I need to get them out an listen to them sometime (of course I’ll also need to see if I can find a cassette deck).

NRPS was one of the pioneers back in the 60s and early 70s along with the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, it’s a shame that they didn’t get the kind of appreciation they deserved.

[wagglebee]

FOTD is one of my all-time favorites. It is played to PERFECTION here (in fact I think this might be the Grateful Dead’s best show ever and far superior to the next night):

http://www.archive.org/details/gd77-05-07.sbd.eaton.wizard.26085.sbeok.shnf

[InvisibleChurch]

Don’t think too much of it. People have to come up for air sometimes. Nobody is going to forget The Big 0.

[wardaddy]

darn, RIP Marmaduke old pal...

[Fred]

Linda was Jerry’s beard.

[wardaddy]

note the firerams blam..

lefty libertarianism was different animal

[wardaddy]

Lonesome LA Cowboy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d0pRFu4G-k

[Lancey Howard]

It sure was. Sometimes I miss the old days.

Yep.
I saw the New Riders at a big outdoor concert at Englishtown, New Jersey in the summer of 1976. The New Riders and somebody else (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, or Marshall Tucker maybe?) opened for the Dead. Great concert.

Now I'm thinking of a zillion other concerts from those hazy, crazy '70s.... in my 20s, footloose and fancy free....

Darn.

[Lancey Howard]

Buck up soldier. Who was it that said, “I have only begun to fight?” John Paul Jones?

Yeah, always liked Led Zeppelin, too.

[wardaddy]

The Chocolate Watchband or The Thirteenth Floor Elevators were psychedelic but New Riders of the Purple Sage?

anyone who plays a pedal steel or dobro while high on uncle Sidney or psylociben or peyote

the harsher acid laced California sound of the 60s mired in thundering blues and or trippy spacey meanderings more often than not morphed into cowboy or mountain music

Gram Parsons was a big part of that as well as Marmaduke...I think it was a natural progression (refuge maybe?) for tired minds

worked for me...who knows had Syd Barret or Peter Green gone country rock instead of where they went , things might have worked out better...the perils of being English I guess

[Lancey Howard]

Heh, no, the New Riders were not even remotely “psychedelic”. I think the story was written by some know-nothing youngster recently of the Daily Collegian.

[blam]

"lefty libertarianism was different animal"

It sure was.

[blam]

"Yeah, always liked Led Zeppelin, too. "

Me too...I was at this concert in 1969.

[Lancey Howard]

I love Wolfgang’s Vault.

[Mr. Mojo]

the harsher acid laced California sound of the 60s mired in thundering blues and or trippy spacey meanderings more often than not morphed into cowboy or mountain music

Like Manassas. That first album of theirs was an all-timer.

[centexan]

I remember an interwiew with Townes where he talked about being pulled over for speeding and he tried to talk his way out of it by saying he was a songwriter. The cops started to give him a hard time - what songs did you write, boy? He said Poncho and Lefty and their attitude changed. The cops nicknames were Pancho and Lefty and they let him off with a warning.