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List Price: $19.95 | | Publisher: Broadway
Salesrank: 187724
Released: August 12, 2003 |
| Our Price: $10.00 |
| Used Price: $4.49 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
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 the Hardcover edition.
A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead Reviews:
The Absolute Best 
2008-07-02 - Absolutely the best book from the best of sources. We all know that Jerry died but I still cried at the end of the book.
Anything more than what Scrib has shared is none of our business. I "Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul."
Highly recommended.
Grateful Experience 
2008-02-15 - The book arrived in great condition! I have loved The Dead for years! Glad to have added this selection to the collection!
a long strange trip 
2008-01-12 - the book came in a timely manor BUT IT WAS DESCRIBED AS A HARDCOVER WHICH I VERY MUCH CHOOSE FIRST AND IT WAS A PAPERBACK VERY MISLEADING thats why only 3 stars other than that the quality of the book is fine
Buy this book with a dictionary.
2007-10-02 - While a most in-depth book about the Dead - A warning: You will either need to be a graduate English major or keep a dictionary close by to understand the points conveyed.
Dennis McNally uses every word in the English language (and a few of his own design) to flower up the 620 pages of this book.
I found the overuse of obscure wording very annoying. Sometimes "less is more".
Nice Try
2007-07-15 - Although the author is no doubt bright, he's not a great writer. Characters are introduced as if we should already know who they are, and he can't seem to keep a linear time path (Garcia's father died, and - oh yah, his finger got cut off before that). He assumes we know who important people are, so there's no need to introduce them properly. He almost has a "wink-wink" style, like we all know who Kesey is, or who Kantner will grow up to be, so he can just straight away start moving along without any background or introduction. I had read prior Grateful Dead books, so I knew all the characters, but I still found the style jumpy and awkward. One minute the band mates are in their 20's, then we're at a board meeting 20 years later, then back to the original timeline. Lesh is driving a postal truck when he hears JFK got killed - I assume he worked for the post office. Not a good introduction to anything, really. It gets confusing when writers use the forum of biography to do creative writing. "Garcia" by Jackson is a superior work.
