Rating: 
Summary: Acid and the Dead
Review: Rock Scully was the Grateful Dead's manager from the beginning through 1986. I knew they did a lot of drugs but I had no idea of the extent of it. All those guys had serious, debilitating drug problems. They wouldn't play Europe because getting through customs was a major concern. They couldn't or wouldn't function without their stash.In the beginning they lived in a house with Owsley Stanley, the now infamous LSD manufacturer. Owsley financed the group for years, buying them instruments and sound equipment. They had a pill pressing machine going 24 hours a day in the attic. The acid was in powder form and the dust from the machine spread all over the house. It got onto their clothes, their hair (they had a lot of hair) the dishes, even when they slept at night they breathed the stuff. Then all of them would hustle the LSD for money. Back when only 400 or so people would come to their concerts part of their reputation was that a Dead show was a good place to score. Later on of course they got heavily into coke and many other things. Jerry was addicted to what is called Persian heroin, a form of refined opium that is smoked (or more properly speaking vaporized). He spent $1000 a day on his habit. That's right, per day. He did a lot of shows with his own band to afford it. His legs were swollen. He could hardly walk. He would nod off and lit cigarettes would start fires. It was really, really bad. The book is written in the Tom Wolfe - Hunter Thompson rapid-fire word collage style. I liked it a lot. I will probably read it again someday. That's the best thing I can say about a book.
Rating: 
Summary: furthur on the long strange trip
Review: Rock Skully, ignored, villified and "disappeared" in most "official" Dead anthologies got it right the first time around. This is as close to the real story as anyone will ever know. The descriptions of Garcia are both tender and ominously sad. His "swamping" of the hotel room in Rhode Island spoke of terrible things to come. The description of Goldfinger dosing the Munich firemen was cheering in the extreme. The explanation of the "Bobby" problem was enlightening. Many old friends and wonderful places appear in this fine book. Save some of that stuff for me too Rock! Andal
Rating:
Summary: RESPONSE TO THE REVIEW ENTITLED CASH COW
Review: The author of the review, "A reader," claims to have worked for the Dead, but inaccurately spell's Garcia's first name several times "Gerry" and Mickey's last name "Heart." As such, I have real doubts this guy indeed did work for the band and hence, his comments on the book seem a bit suspect.
Rating:
Summary: Managing Perspective
Review: This book doesn't really represent the music of the Grateful Dead - it's from the perspective of Rock Scully, one who managed them for their first twenty years - not performed with them. Does this book tell of the Dead's drug abuse? If your looking for something that doesn't then you're not interested in their history - drug abuse was the foundation of their music. It was through Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests" where they developed their "devil may care" approach to performing. This book explains why the Dead weren't radicals because all that mattered to them was performing, but it doesn't get too much into technique, just things like: why Phil Lesh plays the bass like a lead guitar, why Bob Weir struggled to learn electric guitar, how and where Jerry Garcia learned the pedal steel guitar, why Kreutzmann and Hart are a drumming dichotomy, and why Pigpen hated playing psychedelic music. If you liked Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" then you'll enjoy this one too.
Rating:
Summary: Managing Perspective
Review: This book doesn't really represent the music of the Grateful Dead - it's from the perspective of Rock Scully, one who managed them for their first twenty years - not performed with them. Does this book tell of the Dead's drug abuse? If your looking for something that doesn't then you're not interested in their history - drug abuse was the foundation of their music. It was through Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests" where they developed their "devil may care" approach to performing. This book explains why the Dead weren't radicals because all that mattered to them was performing, but it doesn't get too much into technique, just things like: why Phil Lesh plays the bass like a lead guitar, why Bob Weir struggled to learn electric guitar, how and where Jerry Garcia learned the pedal steel guitar, why Kreutzmann and Hart are a drumming dichotomy, and why Pigpen hated playing psychedelic music. If you liked Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" then you'll enjoy this one too.
Rating: 
Summary: Inartfully pieced-together series of superficial anecdotes
Review: This book is largely an inartfully woven-together collection of some humorous and some not-so-funny anecdotes about the Grateful Dead that basically catalog the drugs the band members did, which other musicians and celebrities they did drugs with, the logistical difficulties of transporting the band's equipment, the herculean efforts to make sure all the band members had the drugs they wanted when they wanted them, the hazards of carrying illegal drugs over national borders, what happens to unsuspecting public officials when they are unknowingly dosed with LSD, and the problems the band had recording their music in the studio. Scully portrays Jerry as the only creative talent in the band, and the only band member who actually works on the band's music and recordings. He paints the rest of the band as a bunch of hacks who are only interested in partying and fornicating with underage females. As a biographical account of the band, the book is superficial and, with the exception of Jerry, paints the band members in only one-dimension. Bobby is the inept rhythm guitarist who is up for any adventure. Phil is a musical snob, with a seemingly insatiable appetite for young girls. Pig Pen and Kreutzmann are just guys who drink a lot, fornicate, and destroy property. Very little is said about Mickey. Keith is a shown only as a drooling, drugged-out spaceman, and is mentioned even less than Mickey. Overall, very unbalanced and not very insightful.
Rating:
Summary: Another side of Jerry
Review: This book is not the most eloquent tome I've ever read. It has a lot of problems from a structural point of view. The thoughts are kind of random, things are repeated, and some of Scully's exclamations can be frequently annoying. But the bottom line is, if you are fan of the Grateful Dead and want to read more about Jerry in particular, you should read this book.
I wouldn't read it alone for an accurate picture of Garcia, but if you read it in the context of 'Garcia' and McNally's history of the band, you are going to get a more rounded picture of Garcia. This book portrays Garcia in an unsanitized form, and although it is painful to read, it is necessary. Here you see the drugs and the self-indulgence which was Garcia (in part).
This book is very much an opinion piece and should be read in that way. Scully speaks mostly about the band as a whole, or Garcia. He doesn't particularly give flattering views of the rest of the members of the band. However, this is one man's opinion who was there. I'm glad I read it, and because of the brutal honesty of the views he expresses, this book is essential reading for any deadhead.
Rating:
Summary: a great and thorough look at the grateful dead
Review: this book was one of the better ones i have read on the subject of the grateful dead on jerry garcia. the fact that one of the authors had spent twenty years actually with the band not interviewing them and planning this book added to the quality of it. i praise this work and recomend it thouroughly to anyone interested in the subject. it is informative and easy to read, and really gives you the feel of living with the dead.
Rating:
Summary: Living With the Dead
Review: This book was very riviting. I couldn't put it down. It was so good. I really LOVED this book. I'm sure that any one would LOVE this book as well.
Rating: 
Summary: What was it...If you can remember the sixties then you...
Review: This is an immensely readable swashbuckling tale by the first mate on the good ship Grateful Dead for some years at least. The reader is transfixed by the gory tales of drug use and abuse of sex and life on the rock 'n' rollroad. You are mesmerized by tales of dosing everyone who came within reach with LSD and standing back and watching the reactions. With each page there is new excess and with every other page the narrator recounts some contact with the authorities or other and escapades of derring-do and close shaves. What a long, strange trip indeed. Of course, the writers' credibility must be in question to some degree. Given his early confession of consuming many tabs of acid much of which of the strength and purity that only Owsley Stanley could muster, the exact occurrences must have some dubious quality about them. As Joni Mitchell has pointed out sex sells along with lurid tales of goings on in the rock and roll universe. In this case the many references to under age sex with band members throughout the book are some of the obvious sensationalist traps used to entice the unwary reader. The trouble is that it is so easy to read dammit and so many of us want to know more about what our anti-heroes get up to. And it must be true too because, you know, he was there when it all went down. Well there is that side of things but then how can you believe everything that you read? My fascination with the Grateful Dead came about through listening to their music, on record and in performance. Whether I got to know anything about their private lives really had nothing to do with my enjoying their sounds. Sure they became celebrities and they got big and sure they as musicians were exposed to things that most people do not. But there is nothing new in that and they were not the first or will be the last to meet ferryman through drug use. The fact remains that most of the people who enjoyed the Dead enjoyed their music first and foremost even if they did like to party to it. When I finally put this down I felt revulsion about how someone so close to his hero Jerry Garcia could lay bare his humanity so cruelly for all the world to see. Garcia may not have been a saint but did he have to see his dignity destroyed by one who purported to be his friend. What is missing most from this book is the music and the relationships involved. If you want sensationalist stories dripping with lurid day-glo details then get this book now. If you want to know more about the man, men and their music read something else. Rock Scully was an integral part of the Grateful Dead organisation for a long time. It is a pity that he did not do the justice to everyone in that organisation that they deserved.
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