Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip - Hardcover

Blair Jackson; Dennis McNally; Stephen Peters; Chuck Wills

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0756602432 ISBN 13: 9780756602437

Publisher: DK, 2003

Synopsis

Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip is the definitive illustrated biography of the Grateful Dead and a visual record of America's greatest rock experience — now available in a paperback edition to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary.

This encyclopedic book tells the real story of the band from childhood to the present day, incorporating rare photography that captures pivotal moments, both large and small. Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip features seminal posters, memorabilia, and ephemera; personal essays that give revealing insights into life in the band and on the road; and all the facts — biographies of the band members, all the albums and key songs, and every tour date ever played.

Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip is the definitive illustrated biography for die-hard Deadheads and new fans alike.

About this title

Review:

A behemoth of a book, Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip isn't cheap (especially the limited-edition slipcase edition). But Grateful Dead devotees should think in terms of its per-pound price. Tipping the scales at over 15 pounds, it's priced more like hamburger than steak. Make no mistake, however--this is a porterhouse of a book. Weighty, lushly illustrated, and thorough, the collaboration (spearheaded by longtime band publicist Dennis McNally and stalwart Dead chronicler Blair Jackson, among others) is constructed around an annotated timeline that runs from the 1940 birth of the band's oldest member, Phil Lesh, (the following notation concerns the assassination of Leon Trotsky) through the Dead comeback shows of the summer of 2003. Striving to capture the tenor of the times as well as the development of the group, vignettes capture seemingly everyone and everything that came into the orbit of Jerry Garcia and company, from the rise of the underground press through the links between the Dead and hip-hop nations (which pretty much begin and end with a shared affection for weed). Great fun to scan and visually dizzying (thanks to more than 2,000 photos and other pieces of artwork), this is the Dead coffee table book to end all Dead coffee table books. --Steven Stolder

From Booklist:

The Dead book is a group project put together by the likes of Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip [BKL Ag 02], and Blair Jackson, editor of the fondly remembered GD fanzine The Golden Road. Augmenting their efforts are a rambling time line constructed by rock scribe Chuck Willis, many boxed features, lotsa colorful illustrations, and capsule descriptions of standout Dead shows as selected by "proto-taper" and Dead discographer Ihor Slabicky, whose criteria were "long extended jams" and "uniqueness" rather than historic considerations. Coverage runs from the earliest performances of the Warlocks (the band's earlier name) through the Grateful Dead years and on to the band's two post-Jerry Garcia incarnations, the Other Ones and the Dead. Comprehensive, terminally upbeat, and nostalgic as all get out. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: DK
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0756602432
• ISBN 13: 9780756602437
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480