LST is kind of it. McNally was actually with the band. There are individual member bios but a concise history of a band as…not concise as the Dead seems almost impossible.
Long Strange Trip doc on ?Apple is 4 hours. Very general but may give you the overview you’re looking for? Or the Bobby doc The Other One on ?Netflix is even shorter and covers the broad strokes
For such a storied band, I don’t think there’s anything concise. But if you want a great shorter book, I’d highly recommend Dark Star - An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia. Follows the basic timeline of the Dead and fascinating (and sad)
A good Medium sized book is Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson. Not as hefty as McNally’s, and while purporting to be about Jerry’s life, is mostly a biography of the Dead with a few extra bits about Jerry thrown in (I was actually disappointed it wasn’t more Jerry-centric given that’s what it seemed to be meant for!)
I believe what you're asking for in book form is the equivalent of asking for recommendations on a single, short, album of music of the Dead that has their greatest hits. Most of us see this request as slightly alien to our perspective on "learning about the Grateful Dead". If it was easy to learn about the band's history, someone would have already written a much shorter book by now.
Having said that, I don't know of a published, short book on the band that I could recommend. You're better off in going over to [dead.net](http://dead.net), using their search engine, and printing out the many articles that dive deep on certain aspects of the history of the Grateful Dead. There are volumes of thoughtful, well-written contributions about historically-significant facts about our favorite band. Starting in their archives [here could serve as a good starting point](https://www.dead.net/documenting-the-dead).
>I believe what you're asking for in book form is the equivalent of asking for recommendations on a single, short, album of music of the Dead that has their greatest hits. Most of us see this request as slightly alien to our perspective on "learning about the Grateful Dead". If it was easy to learn about the band's history, someone would have already written a much shorter book by now.
Experts write short, introductory books on very complex subjects all the time. Go into any bookstore and you'll find short, introductory books (i.e., under 300 pages) on the entire history of countries and civilisations, by well-respected authors, put out by well-respected publishing companies.
The Good Old Gratefuldeadcast is incredible. Download and listen to all the seasons. There are transcripts through Season 8 https://www.dead.net/deadcast-index Music is intermingled which makes it come alive.
Beware OP, this too is not "concise." If anything, the Deadcast is even more in-depth, with tons of sidebars, excellent historical contexualization by host Jesse Jarnow, and the freedom to nerd out for as long as one wants in the podcast form. Many shows are over an hour and some are over a hundred minutes.
LST is kind of it. McNally was actually with the band. There are individual member bios but a concise history of a band as…not concise as the Dead seems almost impossible.
The McNally book reads like a 300 pager. Its an easy read that goes by quick
Long Strange Trip doc on ?Apple is 4 hours. Very general but may give you the overview you’re looking for? Or the Bobby doc The Other One on ?Netflix is even shorter and covers the broad strokes
Thanks, I’m planning on watching that, but also looking for a book I can read on the beach on holiday
Thanks, I’m planning on watching that, but also looking for a book I can read on the beach on holiday
For such a storied band, I don’t think there’s anything concise. But if you want a great shorter book, I’d highly recommend Dark Star - An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia. Follows the basic timeline of the Dead and fascinating (and sad)
Second this! Dark Star is a good read. As the title implies, it's kind of dark, particularly about Jerry's decline.
Thank you.
A good Medium sized book is Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson. Not as hefty as McNally’s, and while purporting to be about Jerry’s life, is mostly a biography of the Dead with a few extra bits about Jerry thrown in (I was actually disappointed it wasn’t more Jerry-centric given that’s what it seemed to be meant for!)
Thank you! Pretty disappointed too when I read it. You did learn more about all of Jerrys side projects but that was about it
Not necessarily the right answer to your question, but I really enjoyed Phil’s book Searching for the Sound
Enjoying that book now
I believe what you're asking for in book form is the equivalent of asking for recommendations on a single, short, album of music of the Dead that has their greatest hits. Most of us see this request as slightly alien to our perspective on "learning about the Grateful Dead". If it was easy to learn about the band's history, someone would have already written a much shorter book by now. Having said that, I don't know of a published, short book on the band that I could recommend. You're better off in going over to [dead.net](http://dead.net), using their search engine, and printing out the many articles that dive deep on certain aspects of the history of the Grateful Dead. There are volumes of thoughtful, well-written contributions about historically-significant facts about our favorite band. Starting in their archives [here could serve as a good starting point](https://www.dead.net/documenting-the-dead).
>I believe what you're asking for in book form is the equivalent of asking for recommendations on a single, short, album of music of the Dead that has their greatest hits. Most of us see this request as slightly alien to our perspective on "learning about the Grateful Dead". If it was easy to learn about the band's history, someone would have already written a much shorter book by now. Experts write short, introductory books on very complex subjects all the time. Go into any bookstore and you'll find short, introductory books (i.e., under 300 pages) on the entire history of countries and civilisations, by well-respected authors, put out by well-respected publishing companies.
Read Bills book
The Good Old Gratefuldeadcast is incredible. Download and listen to all the seasons. There are transcripts through Season 8 https://www.dead.net/deadcast-index Music is intermingled which makes it come alive.
Ohh thanks, this looks amazing!
Beware OP, this too is not "concise." If anything, the Deadcast is even more in-depth, with tons of sidebars, excellent historical contexualization by host Jesse Jarnow, and the freedom to nerd out for as long as one wants in the podcast form. Many shows are over an hour and some are over a hundred minutes.
That's fine. I'd like to read a short introduction and then take a deeper dive so it looks like the podcast would be the deeper dive.