Living With the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus With Garcia and the Grateful Dead

Rating:
Summary: cold
Review: Cold heartless writing. Does not capture the heart, soul, spirituality surrounding the Grateful Dead. Unenlightened author who did not get it, in spite of being there all those years.

Rating:
Summary: More Dead, not as much Garcia
Review: I've read a ton of books on the Dead and this is my favorite so far in that it's more about the band than Garcia. Granted, there's a lot more about Garcia, but it's not as bad as some of the other books. I was thinking that I'd love to see a book written by Donna -- or any of the other members of the Dead. Hell, a quick essay by Tom Constantine would be great too! Scully tends to write more about the party atmosphere of the Grateful Dead. Great anecdotes and personal stories that you don't really find anywhere else. Things like "The Bobby Problem" had me giggling as I read... it's funny and chock full of good info. I definitely recommend it. The only thing this book is missing is more discussion of the music. Blair Jackson's "Garcia" handles this better, but there's still room for improvement. Overall, I've loved reading this book. A real pleasure for any fan of the Dead

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.