A Long Strange Trip [Paperback]

It was interesting that this independent view also carried into the descriptions of the protagonists - Garcia while getting most coverage has his good and bad sides described. Its easy with all bands to fall into the trap of how you think they are in real life - this book shows all members in what I choose to believe are their true colours - and as with all people they have their faults and are not always likeable.

That said I am a big fan of the Dead and have enjoyed their music for many years. It was very interesting to have the "inside view", the stories behind the songwriting and the live experience. The latter point was wonderfully covered by a number of "intermission" chapters that described parts of the show throughout the book. This format I found very interesting and enjoyable.

For those people who are generally interested in music there is a lot here to enjoy about the pyscadelic music movement, the development of the hippy generation and how this coincided with the politcal situation of the times.

The book is extremely well researched and written and gives a good well rounded view of the band.

Complaints - I would agree with one reviewer here that once you get to the late 70's onwards the chapters tend to speed up a lot in the detail and number of years covered. This is a shame as despite this not being as ground breaking as the 60's/70's there was a lot to be interested in. Such as how a band like the dead managed to become so popular with a new generation, while making some "dodgy" studio albums and not exactly looking like a boy band. Its the quality of the music and the ability to perform live I guess....

Also I would say there is no reference to the money the band made in the 80s/90s. They only refer on a couple of ocassions to the money the fans brought to towns when the dead toured their. While money does not indicate everything, it is significant that they led the annual tour grosses in the US for a number of years and how that money changed the organisation and how it was invested in the workers pension plans, health schemes etc. Again it is another interesting aspect of the band.

You also get the clear impression that the Dead became popular in many ways despite themselves. They played what they wanted, how they wanted and were certainly not afraid of experimentation. You also get the sense that the financial rewards that came late in their careers really did not change them. It was just a by product of doing what they loved. In many cases they reinvested this wealth in new instruments new stage sound equipment oh and drugs...It also looks like even if the band had not gone on to be what they were that they would still be playing in bars and still getting pleasure out of making music.

So there it is the Dead in all their glory. If you want the in depth "muck racking" there are books on this band that will do that for you this is not one. Its just an even view of what went on - "you were either on the bus..or your weren't"

But this is simply not as good as Blair Jackson's excellent biography of Jerry Garcia - which covers much of the same ground but in a far more readable way.

The trouble is that Dennis McNally is not the most critical of writers, and was far too close to the band to sort out the good from the bad.

Thus Garcia's drug habits are sketched in, but precious little is heard on the often relentless substance abuse by other members of the band. And it falls badly down in writing about the late seventies/early eighties, when the Grateful Dead became bypassed by popular culture only eventually to turn into that most lumbering of beasts - a cultural phenomenon. This period saw a fairly relentless critical panning of some shoddy albums, as well as a sense that the band had stopped trying to reach the outer edges of the musical universe.

Instead we get all sorts of breathless descriptions covering the usual "then they went to Egypt" variety, together with some coy references to what the writer himself (dubbed "scrib" in the Dead organisation) was doing.

No insightful interviews. No mea culpa moments. In this book its taken as read that the Dead were somehow "right" all along.. more or less in line, of course. And no, they did not single handedly invent the hippie era.

I'd have liked to have read more about the tensions between band members; more how they felt when their popularity began to wane (only to wax again); and just why the band closed ranks, put their waghons in a circle, and stuck to repetitive set lists for the last 15 years of their life together...albeit with some bright moments.

Maybe, too, a little more humility all round. They were, after all, a band, not gods of wisdom and learning.

Stick to the Blair Jackson book.

The coverage does focus heavily on the late 60s and early 70s, perhaps rushing later periods, but for me that's a good thing. We get plenty of stories from the psychedelic glory days (imho) before cocaine, ill health and bad relationships really took their toll. He also delves into the psychology, mythology, philosophy... that shaped the band members and their music. And despite the ailing relationships, and the emotional and physical decline of Garcia, the book never becomes morbid or sentimental. It finishes in a very hopeful manner, plus throwing us a few leads -as far as newer Dead-inspired bands goes- was a nice touch.

A rich and rewarding book, and very highly recommended. Do yourself a favour and buy it!