Brothers REACT to Grateful Dead: Hard To Handle (6/21/1971)

The Honky Chateau was a 17th-century mansion in France, owned and used as a recording studio by the British singer-songwriter Elton John, among many other pop stars of the 1970s.
The Grateful Dead spent some time there in June of 1971, which is where this performance of "Hard To Handle," featuring Pigpen on vocals, was captured. At the time, the Grateful Dead had a five-man, one-drummer lineup. This was after Micket Hart left the band for the first time, and before Keith Godchaux arrived on keyboards.
Original link: • Grateful Dead 06-21-71...

[@dscotthoward7467]

Back when they were Pigpen's backup band. As Bobby would say. Thanks!

[@chefbo297]

The Hard to Handle from the Fillmore East '71 is one of the best they did..

[@michaelbettonville5085]

Eton John tells the story about how he and his entourage showed up at the Chateau a couple of weeks after the Dead had been there. He said the staff and locals seemed to be suffering from a form of PTSD and were leery of interacting with rock musicians. Apparently while the Dead were there, anyone and everyone managed to get dosed with Owsley's latest. It was a different time.

[@samblethen]

Robert Plant was scared to death of Pigpen when Led Zeppelin met the Dead at Herb Greene's photo studio in 1969. Pigpen was firing this pistol into the ceiling and out the window and Led Zeppelin left in a real hurry.

[@robertkramer41]

Plant recently lauded DEADHEAD "who wouldn't love them, they will carry each one to their grave, they're the best fans of all, who wouldn't want that devotion" something to that effect, you can Google it.

[@narasmith1531]

So awesome!! What a Jam! Best Version of Hard to Handle, Ever!

[@NickLandess]

8/6/71 called and wanted to tell you that your lunch order is ready.

[@genosiegelli5237]

Oh yeah!!!

[@JB-Deadskins]

Don't know how I've never seen this before. Awesome, thanks

[@user-eo7nc5in7o]

Totally diggin it...Can i have more Sir!

[@bobschenkel7921]

Never seen Phil so "Preppy", like he's a frat brother that got recruited to play Bass for the evening. LOL. The Audio is really good and clean, and the Video is pretty good too. And a "Merci" from Pigpen right at the end. Other GD songs to try, "U.S. Blues", "Sugar Magnolia>Sunshine Daydream", "Truckin' ", "Standing On The Moon", "Help on The Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower", "Cumberland Blues" and "Turn On Your Lovelight".

[@11BlackLamb]

Phil w/ that Peter Fonda look, love it!

[@longislandcerealkiller6385]

I got to say pig was suffering during the whole Europe tour he gave his best year later we lost the great pig pen

[@johnschall7855]

Wow, this is Epic footage. Incredible.

[@chuckcelemin6789]

Can't decide if Phil looks more like Elton John in a bad wig or the guy at Sears trying to sell me a hifi.

[@philliephan5090]

Thank you for posting such a classic. Never seen this before.

[@g.e.5723]

Faaarrrrrr out!

[@P1Looper]

76-77 live, please. There’s countless, as you know, but find a crisp version of anything from those eras. Please. 🙇

[@WilliamdeSouzaSantos-kv9pc]

I belive Hard To Handle music was The Black Crowes , Oh ! Elton John Music , Gratedful Dead amazing performance .

[@glennandadriansrocktalk]

Hard To Handle was written by Otis Redding :)

[@robertkramer41]

Lol, Black Crows were a bit late lol

[@WilliamdeSouzaSantos-kv9pc]

Oh , Elton John only used the same record studio , OK !

[@floorticket]

That picture at 1:17 is not the Château d'Hérouville, ('The Honky Chateau'). The band had dragged their equipment all the way from California and they weren't about to not play at all. So they set up in the courtyard in the afternoon/evening and just started playing and the Herouville townspeople heard it and started showing up. And more people showed up, and someone called a local television crew and they brought a billion-watt light and a camera. People opened bottles of wine as you do in France and the party was on. They crowd got drunk and danced in the octagonal pond. You can still see the pond on google maps. The whole video is about an hour with a few minutes of Jerry being interviewed at the end.

[@glennandadriansrocktalk]

Thank you for the heads-up and other info. The photo was mislabeled. I did some research and apparently it's really the Montsoreau Chateau. - G

[@alansilverman8500]

The Fillmore version is better - you should've done that one...

[@williamgriffin-zk6ob]

Kreutzmann must've been dosed. He doesn't look comfortable at all. Phil looks like a conservative bystander here, not like a member of a counterculture band from SF.