I am relatively new to Grateful Dead but Ive already found myself obsessed with all the music and information I can get my hands on and sift through. I just read "Living With the Dead," the Rock Scully memoir And wanted to get one of the band member's books. I only want to buy one for now so if anybody here has read either or both of Lesh's or Kreutzmann's books and found one to be more engrossing or for any reason more worthy of my immediate purchase it'd be cool to get some insight. I'll read both eventually but which of the two is more essential/informative in your experience?
It is a chronological narrative stretching from Garcia's youth (from his brother, Tiff, and high school friend Laird Grant) to his time in the Army to before the Dead, the formation of the Dead and the ensuing years. Along the way you get accounts from Owsley, Rock Scully, Ron Rakow, managers Richard Loren, John McIntire and Chesley Milliken, band attorney Hal Kant, wives Sarah and Mountain Girl, numerous other Garcia girlfriends (Barbara Meire, Manasha Garcia), Grateful Dead office staff and longtime fans (Sue Stephens), musicians (Donna Godchaux, Merle Saunders, David Nelson, Jorma, Marmaduke, David Grisman), Garcia's doctors, promoters, production managers, his personal managers (Vince and Gloria Dibiase), Ken Kesey, John Barlow, David Gutierrez, Justin Kreutzmann, the list goes on. No author chiming in to pull it all together, just strings of direct quotes from the people who knew him, arranged by date. From Tiff chopping off his finger all the way through to the accounts from the people who were at his funeral.
It is a pretty riveting read, and it gets, as Garcia's life did, very dark toward the end. You come to the conclusion that he was a mystery to everyone, including himself. Every Deadhead should read this book. It really shows how the band evolved from a bunch of misfits into a huge organization that promoted light from the audience even as it grew more dark and twisted and dangerous within.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Biograp ... 0061715727
Dennis McNally's "Long Strange Trip" is the most exhaustively detailed look at the band, although it is much more detailed and focused on the early years and the social aspects of the Deadheads. Blair Jackson's "Garcia: An American Life" did not tell me much I did not know before.
Scully's book is entertaining but very little of it seems to be based in fact, it's riddled with errors and inconsistencies.
Phil's book is interesting, but somewhat light on the details and more of Phil's life anecdotes, it comes across as a bit brief.
Have not read Billy's book. I have read Steve Parish's "Home Before Daylight" which was okay, but also fairly short and not a lot of insight to be found.
