Aaaaaand, ANOTHER Grateful Dead book!
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Lance minimum goad Newberry
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https://www.billboard.com/pro/grateful-dead-wall-sound-system-loud-clear...
30 years after they're gone, and 50 years after the end of the main subject of this one, specifically about the Wall of Sound, and the books just keep coming. Absolutely amazing.
While I may or not end up reading it, my personal reaction to this isn't "corpse humping" or "cash grab" negativity, I think it's another valuable piece of historical documentation, and almost certainly better than yet another tired "That time Jerry & I were..." story.
The Grateful Dead have now become completely mainstream acceptable and are currently experiencing a massive tsunami of popularity so it's understandable that people are looking for any way to jump on the wave and squeeze out a dime, but at some point that huge interest will ebb, so I think it's great that 10/20/40 years from now there will be an extensive written history about the Grateful Dead that will be more than, "It was a great party! The music was great, everybody wore tie-dye and you could get wasted and buy cool stuff in the parking lot!"
And this one sounds like it could be one of those.
IMO, through their 30 year history, and most of the 30 years since, the GD have never gotten the credit they deserve for their music or maybe more importantly their overall impact on the live music industry, but right now everyone is listening, and I think that's far out.
LLTGD!!!!!
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philnweird
I've read Phil's, Billy K's,
I've read Phil's, Billy K's, Parish's, Selvin's and Scully's books. I think I'm done unless Weir joins the club.
I forgot McNally wrote a book. Is it any good? How about Sam Cutler? Thought about picking his up a couple years ago but never did. Wish he could've had a longer career with the band. From interviews I've heard he's a good storyteller.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: JP (J Bomb)
McNally's book and Blair
McNally's book and Blair Jackson's Garcia book are the two must reads.
Is another tale about the Wall of Sound really needed? That period has been covered more closely than the Zapruder film.
In part that is what I liked about Dell'Amico's recent book. At least the focus was on '80-'95 and not the same ole' lore.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
JP - McNally has a new book.
JP - McNally has a new book. The beatnik to hippie transition.....
I'm holding off until my next cross country flight, when I really need a print book or two with me.
Thanks for the DellAmico info -- I was wondering about that one.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
I liked Skully's book the
I liked Skully's book the best. It's by far the trashiest and probably only 50% true.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Nino
This was my first. I don't
This was my first. I don't think there was any thing else around in the 80's.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> I don't think there was any
> I don't think there was any thing else around in the 80's.
There were a few. Paul Grushkin's The Book of the Deadheads and Blair Jackson's The Music Never Stopped were published in 1983, and David Gans' Playing in the Band came out in 1985.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philnweird
Joel Selvin's "Fare Thee Well
Joel Selvin's "Fare Thee Well" was the first book to focus on the post-Jerry years so I enjoyed it for that aspect. He wasn't a fan of Jill though!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: JP (J Bomb)
JP - McNally has a new book.
JP - McNally has a new book. The beatnik to hippie transition.....<<<
Cool, thanks. I'm going to pick that up. His last one (Highway 61 - Music Race and Cultural Freedom) was very good, despite being a bit clinical at times.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
There are some excellent
There are some excellent books of photos, too, by Rosie McGee, Bob Minkin, Jim Marshall, Jay Blakesburg, and others.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Nino
Really liked the Rosie McGee
Really liked the Rosie McGee book. She had a great and unique take on Altamont.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
Candace Brightman's sister Carol's 1999 book Sweet Chaos is worth seeking out.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
There's a new edition of
There's a new edition of Rosie's Dancing with the Dead with the same stories/memories and pics with a few additions. She also did a beautiful "coffee table" book of photos that's now out of print called 'My Grateful Dead Photos and How I Came to Take Them'. She was in the right places at the right times.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Ken D.
Rock Scully's book is
Rock Scully's book is seediest.
Phil's book seemed too sanitized.
Bill's book was a little over dramatic.
Parish's book was the best I have read. Good stories throughout, non-sanitized, but not overly dramatic or unnecessarily seedy.
>>>>How about Sam Cutler? Thought about picking his up a couple years ago but never did.
Yeah, I read that one too. It's mostly about his time with the Stones and the 1969 American tour. Some interesting stories and its really wild how he literally got left holding the bag after Altamont. The Dead took him in as sort of an orphan after he was exiled by the Stones and left in California.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philnweird
Cutler always said his short
Cutler always said his short stint with the Dead was the best time of his life. Wonder why he walked away? I thought he was fired in 74 but a Google search says he left on his own.
I'm glad he stayed somewhat in the scene and was embraced by the core four before he died. He was hanging around at DeadCo shows. Sounds like he didn't have much money as he got older. Was apparently living in a van in Australia.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Ken D.
If I recall correctly, Cutler
If I recall correctly, Cutler said in his book that there wasn't any one incident or big blowup, just an overall shift in management (too many managers). He was also a "road manager" and 1974 was just before the GD stopped touring for a while.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philnweird
Yeah I wondered if the
Yeah I wondered if the upcoming hiatus had anything to do with it. From what I've read he had a lot more on his plate with the Dead than he did the Stones. And the Dead had tons of hanger-ons which probably irritated him.
Here's an AMA he did on Reddit several years ago. Some good stuff in it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldead/comments/6kbrm2/im_sam_cutler_form...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
>>>"Good luck," and walked
>>>"Good luck," and walked out of the room<<<
Biggest mistake he ever made. I wonder how many times over the years he calculated 5% of what the band was earning later in their career?
>>>Rock Scully's book is seediest<<<
That's the reason why I like that one the best. Whether all the stories are true or not, there is little doubt that behind the curtain the truth is that it was a seedy scene. While reading that one I got the closest sense of what it was really like.
Scully was there from the very beginning and in many ways he was more "in" the band than the band members. Professional touring musicians live in a bubble, protected, pampered and told how wonderful they are at every turn.
The artists don't book the flights and hotels, they don't arrange tour & travel plans, they don't make sure all the musicians are at the venue on time, they don't fight with the promoters over every penny, they don't fight with venue managers about the incorrect dimensions of the stage or the type of piano provided, they don't deal with who gets backstage and who doesn't, etc. The artists show up, perform, be worshipped and then scream at their manager because the sushi isn't exactly perfect.
Scully was chin deep in every way from the start, he saw it ALL, but not with the glory and adulation that comes from the bright lights of the stage. His performance was all behind the curtain, and I think he tried to show us what it was really like behind the curtain.
Not surprisingly, many fans didn't like that and neither did the band. I think the general response from them was that almost none of it was true, but given the "seedy" nature of the stories that's what I would expect them to say.
Anyway, as Hunter Thompson said, "The best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism."
I haven't read Skully's book in a long time, but now that I spent this time jabbering about it I think I'll dig it out and read it again.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Anthony Coscia
The new book Loud and Clear
The new book Loud and Clear is absolutely a must read. It's very well written and is nothing like any of the other Dead books out there. It's heavily fact checked and referenced and covers the entire sonic journey from the earliest of the Deads sound systems through the final wall.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
Len Dellamico's Friend Of The
Len Dell'Amico's Friend Of The Devil has just been released.
https://jambands.com/news/2025/07/11/len-dellamico-to-discuss-new-jerry-...
Len will be giving a free reading at the San Francisco Public Library on July 31st.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Dr. Benway
ive always wondered if there
ive always wondered if there was a GD related book that describes in any meaningful way, the process of the band realizing that their improvisations are causing either the crowd or themselves to have these sorts of very intense pseudo religious experiences? surely, there must have been some time in the 60s when they all sat down and said "dude i think we're causing mystical experiences" or something. maybe at the time, these things were indistinguishable from the effects of LSD, and it only seems to me like it should have been obvious at the time because i had so much prior experience with live music and LSD, which made the experience of a dead show very obviously distinct.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> the band realizing that
> the band realizing that their improvisations are causing either the crowd or themselves to have these sorts of very intense pseudo religious experiences
In his book, Searching for the Sound, Phil writes about the formation of the band in 1965: "For more than two months we played together every day, and I can't exaggerate the importance of this experience. The unique organicity of our music reflects the fact that each of us consciously personalized his playing: to fit it with what others were playing and to fit with who each man was as an individual, allowing us to meld our consciousnesses together in the unity of a group mind" (56).
And then in a footnote to that passage, Phil adds "For us, the philosophical basis of this concept was articulated by the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon in his novel More Than Human, wherein the protagonists each have a paranormal talent—telepathy, psychokinesis, teleportation—and are joined by a quadruple paraplegic who acts as a central processing unit. The process by which they become one is called 'bleshing,' from a combination of mesh and blend."
I think that qualifies as a pseudo religious experience, but maybe not so much pseudo.
It's also worth noting here that Sturgeon was friends with Kurt Vonnegut, and that Vonnegut twisted Sturgeon's name into Kilgore Trout and used it for a character of his who was an obscure, unsuccessful science fiction writer who appears in several of Vonnegut's novels.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> McNally has a new book. The
> McNally has a new book. The beatnik to hippie transition
The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties. I'm about 100 pages in and pretty knocked out by McNally's research and storytelling. There's not much about the GD yet, but it's chock-full of stories about people and events moving towards the new ways of seeing and being that would come to define the 1960s. I'm going to say this should be required reading for anyone who cares about these sorts of things.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: (~)};)StealYourFace
New Jim Marshall book:
New Jim Marshall book:
The Grateful Dead by Jim Marshall: Photos and Stories from the Formative Years, 1966–1977
but a Mayer Afterword
&%$#@
Jeesus Mayer is everywhere...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/john-mayers-all-nighter-with-jim-marshall-rock-n-rolls-most-legendary-photographer/ar-AA1JVYVg?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
The photos in Jim Marshall's
The photos in Jim Marshall's book are so beautiful. They are printed so lushly. Maybe Kodachrome? Anyway they're gorgeous from the few I've seen.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: donster
Based on this thread, I got
Based on this thread, I got my copy of Scully's book today . Viva la Zone!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Dave
The first GD book I ever saw
The first GD book I ever saw and purchased was Hank Harrison's The Dead Book. It came out in 1973.
My copy of this book has been through a lot, but it remains on my book shelf.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Dave
One of my favorite quotes
One of my favorite quotes comes from this book:
Reporter: Who are you guys?
Jerry: Well, I just see us as a lot of good-time pirates. I'd like to apologize in advance to anybody who believes we're something really serious. The seriousness comes up as lightness and I think that's the way it should be. The important thing is that everybody be comfortable. Live what you have to live and be comfortable.