Synopsis As one of the Grateful Dead's founder members, bassist Phil Lesh knows his audience-- only a few brief pages into his autobiography, SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND, he's already on his first acid trip and being chauffeured around San Francisco by Merry Prankster Neal Cassady. There are Acid Tests, subsequent instances of telepathy, as well as mayhem against The Man, and much jamming--and it's still only 1966. Lesh gives a riveting eyewitness account of the Dead's side of 1969's Altamont debacle, while his intimate descriptions of numerous Dead concerts, notably their February 1970 Fillmore East show with the Allman Brothers and Love, are spellbinding. There are deaths, births, and drug busts, and always music, from mid-'60s performances as their pre-Dead incarnation, the Warlocks, in a San Francisco strip joint, to 1978 concerts at the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Ominously, towards the end of the book, hints of Jerry Garcia's debilitated condition occur with ever-increasing frequency; the mortal outcome is made more painful by its tragic inevitability. Candidly and colorfully written, SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND is a Sixties coming-of-age story, as well as a fascinating account of the inner workings of one of the most significant bands of the late 20th century.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2005-04-18 |
| Size | | Length: | 338 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 21.6 oz |
Publisher's Note An insider's look at the behind-the-scenes history of one of the world's most beloved bands told from the point of their bass player offers an honest and intimately detailed description of the people and events that made music history.
Industry Reviews "[E]nergetic and flawed, but sure to be loved by fans....Deadheads will surely celebrate Lesh's honest, intimate remembrances." Publishers Weekly (03/28/2005)
"[M]arvelously economical and engrossing....Lesh proves to be as capable and enthusiastic a writer as he is a musician....[A] work as graceful and sublime as a box of rain." New York Times Book Review (07/03/2005)
"[H]e's strong yet clearsighted about the group's utopian indulgence of LSD and the head culture blossoming around San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district, dropping the heartbreaking hindsight that the group failed to foresee the toll the drugs would take on their music and friendships...." The Wire (07/31/2005)
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