07/27/2015
This epic oral history of the 50-year-old band is timed to coincide with five massively hyped “Fare Thee Well” concerts. The straightforward approach by Jackson and Gans (who collectively boast almost 80 years of Grateful Dead journalism) uses multiple perspectives to tell the story of a group that began as a San Francisco jug band of penniless hippies, morphed through multiple musical incarnations, and created a colorful psychedelic subculture. The more than 100 voices here include members of the Dead—including deceased guitarist/de facto leader Jerry Garcia, and keyboardists Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Brent Mydland—and their collaborators as well as business partners and fans. Jackson and Gans relied on new and archival interviews, as well as other published and unpublished sources. To their credit, the authors focus as much on the creation, recording, and marketing of music as they do on the ingestion of hallucinogens. The result is a solid, engaging chronicle. Agent: Sandy Choron, March Tenth. (Nov.)
This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead
Narrated by Arthur Bishop, Cynthia Hopkins, David Gans, Eliza Foss, Fred Berman, Helen Litchfield, Holter Graham, Oliver Wyman
Blair JacksonUnabridged — 17 hours, 19 minutes
This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead
Narrated by Arthur Bishop, Cynthia Hopkins, David Gans, Eliza Foss, Fred Berman, Helen Litchfield, Holter Graham, Oliver Wyman
Blair JacksonUnabridged — 17 hours, 19 minutes
Overview
In This Is All a Dream We Dreamed, two of the most well-respected chroniclers of the Dead, Blair Jackson and David Gans, reveal the band's story through the words of its members, their creative collaborators and peers, and a number of diverse fans, stitching together a multitude of voices into a seamless oral tapestry. Capturing the ebullient spirit at the group's core, Jackson and Gans weave together a musical saga that examines the music and subculture that developed into its own economy, touching fans from all walks of life, from penniless hippies to celebrities, and at least one U.S. vice president.
This definitive book traces the Dead's evolution from its humble beginnings as a folk/bluegrass band playing small venues in Palo Alto to the feral psychedelic warriors and stadium-filling Americana jam band that blazed all the way through to the 90s. Along the way, we hear from many who were touched by the Dead-from David Crosby and Miles Davis, to Ken Kesey, Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, and a host of Merry Pranksters, to legendary concert promoter Bill Graham, and others.
Throughout their journey the Dead broke (and sometimes rewrote) just about every rule of the music business, defying conventional wisdom and charting their own often unusual course, in the process creating a business model unlike any seen before. Musically, too, they were pioneers, fusing inspired ideas and techniques with intuition and fearlessness to craft an utterly unique and instantly recognizable sound. Their music centered on collective improvisation, spiritual and social democracy, trust, generosity, and fun. They believed that you can make something real, spontaneous, and compelling happen with other musicians if you trust and encourage each other, and jam as if your life depended on it. And when it worked, there was nothing else like it.
Whether you're part of the new generation of Deadheads who are just discovering their music or a devoted fan who has traded Dead tapes for decades, you will want to listen in on the irresistible conversations and anecdotes shared in these pages. You'll hear stories you haven't heard before, possibly from voices that may be unfamiliar to you, and the tales that unfold will shed a whole new light on a long and inspiring musical odyssey.
Includes archival recordings of Grateful Dead band members and fans.
Editorial Reviews
"This Is All A Dream We Dreamed is an epic jam." --Vanity Fair
"You could hardly ask for a more ideal configuration for a retelling of the Grateful Dead's story than an oral history, which is, after all, the jam band of biographical formats.... [T]he editors have pulled off the pretty neat hat trick of filling in plenty of cracks for the hard core while providing a basic education for novices. Best of all, they've provided a celebration that never feels remotely like hagiography. Even a nominal fan has to appreciate the wonder and unlikeliness of how the band sustained that first quarter-century or so of magic." --San Francisco Chronicle "Despite its title, what makes this book different from all other books on the Grateful Dead is that it is anything but dreamlike. It is down-to-earth, plainspoken, without special pleading or arguments for differing levels of awareness. You didn't have to be there. On many pages, this could be the story of any band-the story as it emerges here carries no pretensions-and elsewhere it is the story of people doing their work. And it is so full of the intensity and repetitions of ordinary life that it throws the work that was done into a new light." --Greil Marcus, rock critic "This epic oral history of the 50-year-old band... is a solid, engaging chronicle." --Publishers Weekly "[Jackson and Gans] know as much as nearly anyone alive about the storied band.... There's plenty of peace and love here and lots of smoke and psychedelia, as well as the usual Altamont regrets, all voiced by people in and close to the band. Worthy of Studs Terkel and an essential addition to the books of the Dead." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review "The Grateful Dead, when they were making music together, may have sometimes seemed 'more than human, ' but they were always the first to admit that they were less than perfect. Here they are, in all their cockeyed glory. Gans and Jackson have orchestrated a shrewd, essential account of the band members' lives and times, a tale as polyphonic as the 'electronic Dixieland' they unperfected through the years, to our (and their) enduring delight and awe." --Nick Paumgarten, staff writer, The New Yorker "Jerry, Kesey, Bobby, Billy, Bear--this amazing book speaks to me out loud, inside my head, in all the voices of the Grateful Dead! It's an audio illumination of family, fans, and friends, and the long, strange trip. It leaps straight out of the tree-flesh to dance in our dreams." --Wavy Gravy "[A] high-demand backstory...lively oral history." --Booklist "Readers will quickly become absorbed into the Dead's world and will feel that everyone is speaking directly to them.... There may currently be no better introduction to the Grateful Dead than this superior tome." --Derek Sanderson, Library Journal, starred review★ 09/01/2015
This fine oral history joins the list of essential Dead books that includes such titles as Dennis McNally's A Long Strange Trip and Jackson's own Garcia: An American Life. It's not so much a matter of the revelations contained herein, although there are plenty, as what the different voices, working in concert, add to the band's story. Readers will quickly become absorbed into the Dead's world and will feel that everyone is speaking directly to them. Considering the disparate sources (every single one documented) Jackson and Gans have drawn from, the narrative's natural flow is incredible. Helpful to telling the story are small narrative and scene-setting interjections provided throughout each chapter, giving just enough information to allow the reader to understand the particular context in which the material is being presented. Some interviews were conducted expressly for the book, but much is published here for the first time. VERDICT There may currently be no better introduction to the Grateful Dead than this superior tome.—Derek Sanderson, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY
★ 2015-08-15
Coming on its 50th anniversary and just after the band's farewell tour, an engaging, near-comprehensive oral history of the Grateful Dead. If "the Grateful Dead" and "disco" are not phrases that go together, it's not for want of their trying. As Jackson (Grateful Dead Gear—The Band's Instruments, Sound Systems, and Recording Sessions, from 1965 to 1995, 2006, etc.) and musician Gans (Conversations with the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book, 1991, etc.)—collectors and archivists who know as much as nearly anyone alive about the storied band—chronicle, midway into the 1970s, with albums such as "From the Mars Hotel" and "Wake of the Flood" under their belts, the Dead were enough under the sway of Saturday Night Fever to attempt a disco-ish take on "Dancing in the Street." Chalk it up to Mickey Hart, one of the many thorns in this thorny narrative hide, whose return to the band wrought big changes. "We had to tell him [what to play]," said guitarist Bob Weir in 1977, "which means we had to be thinking about it, which means while we were thinking about it, we might as well rethink things in general." As fans already know but will further note, the superficially peace-and-love demeanor of the Dead disguised all sorts of tensions, from personality clashes to money worries and differences over musical direction. But it all worked, despite Jerry Garcia's drug use and increasingly erratic behavior. Says sound tech Bob Bralove, "The energy around [the last tour with Garcia] was kind of confusing, because there was this really positive energy coming from the band, but it was missing a key ingredient." For all that, there's plenty of peace and love here and lots of smoke and psychedelia, as well as the usual Altamont regrets, all voiced by people in and close to the band. Worthy of Studs Terkel and an essential addition to the books of the Dead.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169051018 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 11/10/2015 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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