A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead [B1404]

2002 HCDJ 1st edition in nice clean condition. The complete history of one of the most long-lived and legendary bands in rock history, written by its official historian and publicist-a must-have chronicle for all Dead Heads, and for students of rock and the 1960s counterculture. From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the artistic ferment of the early sixties' roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. To those in the know, the Dead was an ongoing tour de force: a band whose constant commitment to exploring new realms lay at the center of a thirty-year journey through an ever-shifting array of musical, cultural, and mental landscapes.

Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than twenty years, takes readers back through the Dead's history in A Long Strange Trip. In a kaleidoscopic narrative, McNally not only chronicles their experiences in a fascinatingly detailed fashion, but veers off into side trips on the band's intricate stage setup, the magic of the Grateful Dead concert experience, or metaphysical musings excerpted from a conversation among band members. He brings to vivid life the Dead's early days in late-sixties San Francisco-an era of astounding creativity and change that reverberates to this day. Here we see the group at its most raw and powerful, playing as the house band at Ken Kesey's acid tests, mingling with such legendary psychonauts as Neal Cassady and Owsley "Bear" Stanley, and performing the alchemical experiments, both live and in the studio, that produced some of their most searing and evocative music. But McNally carries the Dead's saga through the seventies and into the more recent years of constant touring and incessant musical exploration, which have cemented a unique bond between performers and audience, and created the business enterprise that is much more a family than a corporation.

Written with the same zeal and spirit that the Grateful Dead brought to its music for more than thirty years, the book takes readers on a personal tour through the band's inner circle, highlighting its frenetic and very human faces. A Long Strange Trip is not only a wide-ranging cultural history, it is a definitive musical biography.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Classic, took me back to my first acid trip with Dark Star on the stereo."; "Well researched, fantastic book!"; "An EPIC book of one of the greatest bands to create music. The amount of detail in this books is incredible and I found myself being fully entwined with each era the author covered. So well written."; "Very thorough and informative. I felt like I was laughing, hurting, and hanging loose with the dead the whole time."; "So many great memories the Dead have helped bring into my life. A rollicking and reeling story that has me back listening to their catalog on repeat."; "Loved learning more about the Dead, but this book is a lot at times. It felt like every show they ever played was listed but sometimes major stuff (like almost breaking up) just popped up out of nowhere. Still, there's good stuff in here... you just gotta poke around"; "I recently went to see Dead & Co at the Sphere. Before going, I wanted to dig into the full history of the band. After reading this, I am obsessed! The graphics made a lot more sense to me, as well as the drug culture. And I gained a huge appreciation for them as musicians. Bob is the only original member left but the song remains the same. (Watch the documentary of the same name on Prime. It's SO good, and this book's author is featured in several interviews. He was THERE for it all)."