Product Description

This memoir chronicles the Grateful Dead's seminal years: 1965-1985.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161416 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
When Scully first saw the Grateful Dead perform, in San Francisco in 1965, he thought they were the "world's ugliest band." He promptly signed on as their manager and lived with them for the next 20 years; in 1985, fresh from a heroin detox clinic, he quit or was fired amid charges (all false, says he) of misusing the band's money. His account of those years, written with the coauthor of Marianne Faithfull's autobiography, is not addressed exclusively to an audience of Deadheads. In fact, they may be disappointed by the low profile Jerry Garcia keeps in Scully's memories. He does remember the LSD and the drugs and the hazy high jinks: the souring Haight-Ashbury scene, Woodstock and Altamont, the "endless party rolling down the road." He describes Garcia as "magnetic, affable, inquisitive, approachable and infinitely benign," and that's about as deep as it gets. A few of the albums, especially early ones, get some attention, but Scully is more interested in the Dead as a social phenomenon. And after 20 years, with Garcia getting ever deeper into drugs and isolation, the group, he says, became both a self-parody and a "cash cow." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Scully's 20-year tenure as Grateful Dead manager ended on a sour note, and he is barely mentioned in other books on the band. Nonetheless, in this first in-depth biography of the group, he displays a vivid, unflinching eye for detail, which is surprising considering the prodigious amounts of drugs he (and they) ingested. Highlights include colorful descriptions of Ken Kesey's acid tests (for which the Dead were the house band) and life in the Haight-Ashbury scene of the late 1960s. The reverential depiction of the late Jerry Garcia dominates sketches of the other band members, but Scully's insider status gives readers a rare view into the Grateful Dead inner circle. Recommended for popular music collections. Not as essential but no less interesting is editor Ganz's (Playing in the Band, LJ 7/85) compilation of some of the heartfelt and eloquent Internet postings that started appearing within minutes of the announcement of Garcia's death on August 9, 1995. Lovingly assembled, this book is far more effective than Linda Kelly's recently published Deadheads (LJ 11/1/95) at helping the uninitiated understand the otherworldly bond between the Dead and their fans. Recommended for larger collections.?Lloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Former Grateful Dead manager Scully presents a biography of the late Jerry Garcia both worshipful and smearing, as when he depicts a soot-streaked, stinky, inert Garcia hiding in his apartment. Yet, despite musical and personal travails, Garcia's likability and innate goodness shine through. He was a big man with big appetites and big problems. He was dismayed at being exalted as a philosopher-guru-icon, and he actively avoided the star treatment, which was anathema to him. On the other hand, he indulged in the debauched rock lifestyle, and Scully enumerates his preferences minutely, albeit in words that make one wish for hip Hunter S. Thompson instead of Dalton as Scully's hired pen. On balance, though, as an insider's view of a significant hunk of rock and pop culture history, Scully's report is valuable stuff. Mike Tribby

Customer Reviews

Read this one first...
If you are wanting to read the "back story" behind the music and are just now starting your homework, let me suggest you start here. Why? Why here, when this is obviously a flawed, overly subjective work seen through a prism of chemical distortions, bringing us what are probably broken and incorrectly reassembled memories? Because this is a book you will finish. You will read this from cover to cover and most likely love it, and because this book is (more than any other out there) about the FUN of the Grateful Dead. That part gets left out - a lot.

Other reviewers are not wrong - the last half of this book is largely about Scully and Garcia's drug addiction. But it isn't, as is made clear, like everyone else was a health food nut. (Well, Bobby was, but that's beside the point.) And there is also a ton of history going on during this time, too. (For one thing, we learn some of the reasons that Bob Dylan was so devoted to Jerry and said such gracious things about him later.) But what made it all work, the glue that held it together, was the fact that this music was just so much more fun than anything else going on. This book is about that fun, and this book is fun to read. There aren't many books that have made me laugh harder.

Where you go after this is your own business: if you want to read a superb biography and perhaps the most important book of the whole genre, read the Garcia biography. "Dark Star" is heartbreaking but very insightful, and much of it makes "Living With The Dead" seem tame by comparison, as it is all first person interviews of persons involved. The McNally book is probably the completest, but is often as dry as toast and completely disengaged from the joy this band dispensed. So start here for fun, and to get a taste for what the life was like, and put a little color in the cheeks of all those black and white photographs.

And as to why this book doesn't get much into the music, it's because no book could get in to the music and talk about anthing else. Scully was not a Dead head - he would probably rather have seen a Stones concert any night. He worked for the band, he didn't follow them for love of the music. If you want to get inside the actual music, that's a whole separate library you need to read. We aren't talking about the songs, we're talking about the band, and this is as good a place as any to meet them, and better than most.

More Dead, not as much Garcia
I've read a ton of books on the Dead and this is my favorite so far in that it's more about the band than Garcia. Granted, there's a lot more about Garcia, but it's not as bad as some of the other books. I was thinking that I'd love to see a book written by Donna -- or any of the other members of the Dead. Hell, a quick essay by Tom Constantine would be great too! Scully tends to write more about the party atmosphere of the Grateful Dead. Great anecdotes and personal stories that you don't really find anywhere else. Things like "The Bobby Problem" had me giggling as I read... it's funny and chock full of good info. I definitely recommend it. The only thing this book is missing is more discussion of the music. Blair Jackson's "Garcia" handles this better, but there's still room for improvement. Overall, I've loved reading this book. A real pleasure for any fan of the Dead

DEADHEADS -- YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!!
Find out what happened behind the scenes! The spark that existed in the early Grateful Dead was drugged and dragged down! It was not all light and airy as - it seems to me - many seem to think. Jerry was in serious trouble and on heavy drugs. Know the truth in what was going on. This book explains the difference in the early, (1960's), Grateful Dead and the clearly more sluggish Grateful Dead of the last years. Apparently, Jerry just continued to play to provide money - support for his life-lifestyle -- which was about serious drug use. Jerry, an experience with you and your group changed my life 30 years ago -- Rest in Peace.