Finished Th 6/11/15
I ordered this from Amazon and received it on 6/2. I had recently seen Bob Weir's documentary, THE OTHER ONE- THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF BOB WEIR on Netflix and I was watching Youtube videos from Lesh's TERRAPIN CROSSING site.
The biography is ten years old, and I was hoping for more of an insight into the drug problems within the band. The Grateful Dead seems to get a pass from any serious scrutiny in that their disastrous history with drugs and alcohol is generally chalked up to experimentation or 60's 'mind expansion', and Lesh glosses over his 'Heineken Years'. The decimation of the band due to addiction is largely ignored, and defended because, 'nobody wanted to be a cop'. Most members of the Grateful Dead Production have fallen to alcohol and drug abuse , but the reader is left with a kind of positive impression that these guys were somehow special. I don't think that the facts bear this out. The depiction of Garcia at his most drug addled and depraved is a tragedy, and nothing was done to help him but to continue to tour and support the massive financial burden of the 'Dead Entourage'.
And, Jerry Garcia did NOT teach his cat to fetch and retrieve. Of all the Dead Folklore, this is the most unbelievable.
I have read other Dead bio's, and some of Lesh's observations seemed familiar. I know that I have read that Keith tended to 'ape' Garcia's solo work when he was deep into his alcoholic phase, and this was a major irritant to the band, and Lesh repeats this verbatim.
I was kind of aware of Bruce Hornsby's work with the Dead, but I had never heard of Vince Welnick who was a keyboard player in the band during the 90's. He played for The Tubes and Todd Rundgren.
Link to Amazon-
http://www.amazon.com/Searching-Sound-Life-Grateful-Dead/dp/B0009GV1KI
I'd read almost anything about the Dead, and I'd rate this one about a C Plus.
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