The Grateful Dead Reader (Readers on American Musicians)
Diehard Deadheads Dodd and Spaulding, a husband-and-wife editorial team, have compiled 41 short selections from the more than 4000 entries in The Grateful Dead and the Deadheads (Greenwood, 1997), the definitive Grateful Dead bibliography, gathered by Dodd and fellow collaborator Rob Weiner. With the exception of an excerpt from Tom Wolfe!s landmark Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), the editors favor more obscure extracts from fiction, interviews, record liner notes, poems, articles, and concert reviews. They divide the material into four sections, chronicling the band!s Haight heyday (1967$75), the growth of the Deadhead legion (1976$86), commercial success (1987$94), and Jerry Garcia!s death. Except for two revealing interviews with Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter, the editors have resurrected Dead ephemera that adds little to the mounting Dead literature that already includes standards such as Robert Greenfield!s Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia (LJ 6/1/96) and Dead manager Rock Scully!s Living with the Dead (LJ 12/95). Recommended for Deadheads only."Dave Szatmary, Univ. of WashingtonCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.