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Learn moreOn their fiftieth anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead.
The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For thirty years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways. From the music to their live-concert sound systems and fan recordings, they were forward-thinking champions of artistic control and outlaw artists who marched to the beat of their own drums.
Bill Kreutzmann, one of their founding members and drummer for every one of their over 2,300-dd concerts, has written an unflinching and wild account of playing in the greatest improvisational band of all time. Everything a rock music fan would expect is here, but what sets this apart is Billās incredible life of adventure, which was at the heart of the Grateful Dead experience. This was a band that knew no limits, and Bill lived life to the fullest, pushing the boundaries of drugs, drums, and high times, through devastating tragedy and remarkable triumph.
But at this bookās beating heart is the musicātheirs and others. Some of the greatest musicians and concerts were a part of the Grateful Deadās career, from sharing the stage with Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and the Who, to playing in the Acid Tests, the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, and Altamont. Billās life is a chronicle of American music and pop-culture history, and his epic personal journey is one of sonic discovery and thrilling experiences.
Bill Kreutzmann cofounded the Grateful Dead in 1965 with his musical cohorts Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron āPigpenā McKernan, and Phil Lesh. As the drummer in that band for the thirty years until they disbanded in 1995, he performed more than 2,300 concerts and played on every one of their albums. Kreutzmann continues to play music in various bands, including Billy and the Kids. He lives on an organic farm in Hawaii.
Peter Berkrot, a forty-year veteran of stage and screen, has voiced over 450 audiobook titles, winning Earphones Awards, a 2012 Audie Award nomination, and a 2016 Audie Award.
Reviews
āA memoir of his years with the anarchic band that became an unlikely American institutionā¦Kreutzmann and co-author Benjy Eisen recount the Deadās formation, its zigzagging rise, and many low points. Unlike other books about the Grateful Deadās history, Mr. Kreutzmann homes in on his own experiences with the group. Deal chronicles partying with John Belushi, riding camels through the desert to a Bedouin musical jam, and encountering George McGovernās presidential campaign in 1972.ā
āBill Kreutzmann, founding drummer of the Grateful Dead, has produced more than just a touristās guide. What emanates, maybe more than he intended, is a testimony to friendship and profound sadness when it abruptly ends.ā
āIn Deal, this thoughtful musician writes about his long, long career with the greatest improvisational band of all time and the wild times and radical changes that went with it.ā
āTaking its title from a Jerry Garcia solo song the band was fond of playing, the bookās understandable and blatant subjectivity of the Deadās story is a givenā¦[and] offers plenty of insight, opinion, observations, and analysis that are unique and of great interest to fans.ā
āThe uninhibited (of course) tale of the co-founder of the legendary rock band, who played drums at every single one of the Deadās 2,300 concerts and lived to tell about it all.ā
āLike one of the Deadās meandering, free-form jamsā¦[Kreutzmann] provides his own history of the Dead through chronicles of the bandās albums and the personnel involved in making themā¦Kreutzmann offers his take on each band member, recalling many of his long, strange trips on various hallucinogens, as well as the ups and downs of his personal life.ā
āThe bookās last forty or so pages, which recount Jerry Garciaās death and its aftermath, are tremendously moving, and here the work finally hits its stride.ā
āReaders dropping into Grateful Dead drummer Kreutzmannās stream of memory may be surprised by only one overriding theme: namely, the frequency of bitter episodes of discord, always roiling under the surface of a good-time psychedelic jug band that slowly emerged as a stadium filler.ā
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