Several comprehensive books have been written about the Grateful Dead in recent years, including "Garcia: An American Life" by Blair Jackson and "What a Long, Strange Trip" by Stephen Peters. But the first authorized Dead biography, "A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead," should offer the most in-depth account of the band to date.
Over 20 years in the making, the book was written by longtime band publicist Dennis McNally, and is scheduled to come out in August 2002. Jerry Garcia asked McNally to write the band's biography in 1980 after reading his 1979 book about Jack Kerouac, "Desolate Angel." McNally researched and interviewed for the book for four years, but put the project on hold for 12 years when he became the Grateful Dead's personal publicist in 1984. After Garcia's death in 1995, he resumed the project, and finished it in May.
"For the last 15 years of the band's life, and in particular in the late '80s and '90s, I had risen to the point where the band entrusted me with a lot, and I was in the room when a lot of stuff went down," McNally said. "A lot of that's in the book." "A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead" begins with the births of eldest Dead members Garcia and guitarist Bob Weir and ends with the scattering of Garcia's ashes in April, 1996. McNally conducted numerous interviews with the band, including more than 20 hours of conversations with Garcia.
There are 55 chapters in the book, which McNally divided into three subjects. The first, which comprises 40 chapters, tells the linear history of the Grateful Dead. Another 10 chapters recreate a hypothetical late '80s year in the life of the Dead. The accounts are not fictionalized, but they're assembled from various events that happened over the years. The final section of five chapters provides ancillary information on how a show is booked and staged, the roles of the road crew, what promoters do and the impact of LSD in the '60s, among other subjects. The 40 chronological history chapters make up the framework of the book, and the other 15 sections are interwoven throughout, in no particular order.
"I didn't want to write just a linear history of the band," McNally said. "I wanted to also reflect being a Deadhead, and what it's like to be at a show. And I wanted to use the band as a lens to illuminate the story of San Francisco in the '60s and America in the '60s. I wanted the book to be about a lot more than just rock and roll." Of course, there's plenty of rock and roll in there as well, and a wealth of behind-the-scenes information. McNally said previously unreported facts include the real story of Altamont, not the "popular mythology"; why the Grateful Dead hated their set at Woodstock and why they didn't appear in the 1970 Michael Wadleigh movie, "Woodstock"; and what happened in 1968 after guitarist Bob Weir and keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were temporarily fired from the band.
"That band was my life," McNally said. "There was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. It was the last great American adventure. Nobody has combined intellect and heart and improvisation the way they did. No one has even come close."
