A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead

Written by:
Dennis McNally
Narrated by:
Sean Runnette

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
35
Narrator
10
Release Date
November 2017
Duration
29 hours 29 minutes
Summary
From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan exploded out of the early sixties' roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture.

Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than twenty years, takes readers back through the Dead's history in A Long Strange Trip. McNally not only chronicles their experiences in a fascinatingly detailed fashion, but veers off into side trips on the band's intricate stage setup, or the magic of the Grateful Dead concert experience. McNally carries the Dead's saga through the seventies and into the more recent years of constant touring and incessant musical exploration.

Written with the same zeal and spirit that the Grateful Dead brought to its music, the book takes readers on a personal tour through the band's inner circle, highlighting its frenetic and very human faces. A Long Strange Trip is not only a wide-ranging cultural history, it is a definitive musical biography.
Reviews
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Hawkeye

Frustrating to listen because was not always chronological- jumped around a lot. Had the general feeling of a hagiography because of generous use of superlatives but McNally also shared the less flattering behaviours and attitudes of the band and followers so ultimately the reader gets a good overview. Sure was long, needed a good editor.

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Anonymous

good. and overkill

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Anonymous

I am a Grateful Dead fan, so I was predisposed to enjoy this book, and it did not let me down. It may be a little bit heavy on focusing on Jerry Garcia at the expense of the other members of the band, but that is to be expected. And at times it is hard to keep all the names of friends and business associates straight, but one still gets a real feeling for what it must have been like to have been associated with the Dead at any point through their long career. What perhaps made this book so outstanding is the narration, which was perfectly suited to the band and their times. Speaking of which, the book is an excellent history of the genesis of the San Francisco music scene in the 1960s. I don't know if this book was be as entertaining as I found it to be if I wasn't a GD fan, but if you are, it's a great great listen. Neil S.

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Anonymous

Informative and fun !

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