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: CASH COW
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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