Pigpen recorded several songs for an album which never was released. These include "C.C. Rider" and "Bring Me My Shotgun", recorded in 1970. In February, 1973, he recorded a Lightning Hopkins song, "She's Mine", as well as "I Believe", "Like A Long Time", and "Michael", at his apartment in Corte Madera, CA. ... Another song, intended for the solo album, was the Clancy Carlile song "I'm A Loving Man", which was recorded in 1969 at Pacific High Recording, located on Brady Alley just off Market, in San Francisco. ... The album was to be released, tentatively, on Mercury, or its Smash subsidiary, with Bob Serempa as the A&R person.Many of these songs have been given different names over the years. The most common tape in circulation has the following songs (with alternative titles in brackets):
I Got Two Women (Two Women)I'm A Loving Man circulates separately, normally with outtakes from Workingman's Dead/American Beauty
Michael (Poor Michael Went Down, Queen Of Santa Fe II, Gas Station Rap)
Katie Mae
Baby Please Don't Go (New Orleans)
That Freight Train, Up In The Sky (That Train)
Untitled instrumental
Bring Me My Shotgun
C.C.Rider
Katie Mae (repeat)
Hitch Hiking Woman
I Got Two Women (repeat)
When I Was A Boy (Santa Fe Queen, Queen Of Santa Fe I)
Bring Me My Shotgun (repeat)
I Believe (The Devil In My Bones)
She's Mine
Like A Long Time (Look Over Yonder, No Tomorrow, No Time)
Sweet Georgia Brown (instrumental, with Jorma Kaukonen)
Betty And Dupree (with Jorma Kaukonen)
"The folk motif continues with "Hobo Jungle Rap," a simple one-chord monologue in which Pigpen describes his first encounters with local hobos. After dissolving quickly as a song, the monologue continues as a spoken word narration. In it, Pigpen talks briefly about his first experiences hopping freight trains, adding a sweet lick from his guitar here and there. Much to our dismay, however, the tape breaks off prematurely.A very early solo by Pigpen is McKernan's Blues, recorded in 1963.
"Following the tape flip, the subsequent two tracks are disturbingly haunting. All the preceding selections are based around traditional blues and folk approaches, but these songs are derived from a deeper spiritual influence, remotely similar to that of Charlie Patton or Son House. Vocally, these are emotionally harrowin, and the musical approach is dark, almost occultish. "Passing Through," while admittedly not a very dynamic selection and further hampered by feedback blasts, is a chilling tale of weary travel, with loneliness and despondency prevailing. "Easy Rider," which at the outset sounds distinctly similar to the Rolling Stones' "Sister Morphine," is only slightly less morbid lyrically but far eerier in execution. Unlike "Passing Through," which is delivered from an emotional and perhaps autobiographical approach, this tune is presented in the form of a narrative, focussed intently on setting as well as character.
Following a brief rap, the tape concludes with a fragmentary and comic attempt at the fifties sock hop classic, "In The Still Of The Night," complete with teen idol falsetto, before the finale of "Big Boy Pete," which is playful and immature."