Essential Reference Guides | Grateful Dead Songbooks | Jerry Garcia Songbooks | Others | Out of Print  

I have noted some of the best books about the Grateful Dead below in summary fashion. 

More on Searching for the Sound

April 2005

Read Phil's comments and listen to samples of "Viola Lee Blues," "The Other One," "Dark Star," and "Dancing in the Street."

From Amazon:
The bass player for the greatest improvisational band in American history tells the full, true story of his life, Jerry Garcia, and the Dead. Phil Lesh first met Jerry Garcia in 1959 in the clubs of East Palo Alto, California. At Garcia’s suggestion, Lesh learned to play the electric bass, joining him in a new band that blended R&B, country, and rock and roll with an experimental fervor never before heard.

Now, in time for the Grateful Dead’s 40th anniversary, Phil Lesh offers the first behind-the-scenes history of the Dead--a story no one will ever know as he does. From their first gigs to the legendary Acid Tests, in San Francisco’s Summer of Love, at Woodstock, Monterey, Altamont, and the Pyramids, the Dead have been in the center of rock’s defining moments. Phil Lesh tells what it has been like to live at the heart of this whirlwind, making uncompromisingly original music with bandmates Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Pigpen, Mickey Hart, and especially Jerry Garcia, the charismatic, enigmatic soul of the band. He tells the stories behind songs like "Dark Star," "Friend of the Devil," "Truckin’," and his legendary composition "Box of Rain." And in intimate detail, Lesh describes what it was like to storm heaven night after night--and the price he and others have paid, up to and following Jerry Garcia’s tragic death in 1995.

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512 Pages

Oct. 10, 2005

Do you know the way to Fennario? Or wonder where the Nuthatch winters? What is the "Buck Dancer's Choice?" And where do the four winds dwell? If these are questions that leave you wondering then David Dodd's The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics may just be the skeleton key you've been looking for. Every Deadhead knows there is something profound hidden within their lyrics, even if most of the nuances go by unnoticed. Why are the obscure tales of their characters' (Jack Straw, Black Peter, August West, et al) trials and tribulations on the psychedelic Americana landscape so intriguing? What is the deal with the reoccurring imagery that popped in and out of their songs for decades (the crows, light and darkness, rolling rivers, gambling, playing cards, space, and, of course, roses)? It is clear the Grateful Dead's lyricists Robert Hunter and John Barlow tapped into the well of the collective subconscious for material, but rarely were any explanations provided. Fans were basically on their own to put the pieces together themselves, until now. 

The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics began as a research project for David Dodd while he was working at the University of Colorado. Like many fans before him, Dodd spent hours passionately trying to find the deeper meanings in the Dead's songs. In 1994 the Internet may have been in its infancy, but Dodd knew the Web was the perfect to tool to help him annotate the entire Dead catalog. So began the building of his incredibly popular Web site. The fruits of his labors lie within the pages of this encyclopedic book. Where Robert Hunter's A Box of Rain only includes his lyrical contributions to the Dead's catalog, Dodd's book is expanded to include John Barlow's songs, as well as tunes the Dead covered so many times they became their own. It is worth mentioning, this book should not be viewed as a cheat sheet, but a tool giving lots of background and cross-references. The interpretations are still up to you. Be forewarned, this book can be extremely habit forming. --Rob Bracco

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Home Before Daylight : 

My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead

by Steve Parish (Author), Joe Layden (Author)

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An interview by David Gans on the Grateful Dead Hour with Steve Parish on September 24, 2003, about his book Home Before Daylight and more.  

A Long Strange Trip:

The History of the Grateful Dead

Dennis McNally - Aug. 2002

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Not new, but excellent 

Garcia: An American Life

Blair Jackson - 1999

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I enjoyed the former Grateful Dead magazine the Golden Road that was published by Blair Jackson, the author of this book. I thought it was the best of three major publications on the subject, the others being Relix and Dupree Diamond News.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that his book Garcia - An American Life, IMO is the cream of the crop.

Blair Jackson's homepage has a section called the Cutting Room Floor. It has the "outtakes" to this book, which are the pages removed from the submitted manuscript, to meet the publisher demands.  

Blair Jackson has written liner notes for many Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band CD's releases, was on the box-set So Many Roads team.  
Grade  A +
More about Garcia: An American Life

Grateful Dead : 

The Illustrated Trip

by Robert Hunter

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The book's unique, encyclopedic, timeline format tells the real story of the band from childhood to the present day, incorporating rare and unseen photography which captures pivotal moments, both large and small.

This is a coffee table style book, large, heavy, and great photos and stories.

Essential Reference Material

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The Dead Heads Taper's Compendium 1:

An in-depth guide to the music of the Grateful Dead on tape

by Michael M. Getz, John D. Dwork - 1998

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The Taper's Compendium - Volume 1 is an in depth guide to the Grateful Dead's music focusing on their beginnings, 1959-1974. 

The Compendium does great analysis on each year of the Grateful Dead. Then, for each entry they review the show and include details such as the date, location, the songs played, the existing tapes and lineage, concert highlights, and a comments section. Dozens of great  photographs throughout the book give the pages a visual appeal enhancing it immensely. 

This volume includes rare and exclusive interviews with legendary early Dead soundman Oswley ("Bear") Stanley and Dick Latvala, the official archivist of the Grateful Dead.

This is an essential reference book for tape and CD collectors. Read what others have to say about The Deadheads Taper's Compendiums.
Grade  A 
More Compendium information

The Dead Heads Taper's Compendium 2:

An in-depth guide to the music of the Grateful Dead on tape

by Michael M. Getz, John D. Dwork 1999

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The Taper's Compendium - Volume 2 is an in depth guide to the Grateful Dead's music focusing on 1975-1985. 

The Compendium does great analysis on each year of the Grateful Dead. Then, for each entry they review the show and include details such as the date, location, the songs played, the existing tapes and lineage, concert highlights, and a comments section. Dozens of great  photographs throughout the book give the pages a visual appeal enhancing it immensely .

This volume includes rare and exclusive interviews with Better Cantor Jackson, one of the Grateful Dead's primary recordist from 1967 - 1985.

This is an essential reference book for tape and CD collectors. 
Grade  A 

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The Dead Heads Taper's Compendium 3:

An in-depth guide to the music of the Grateful Dead on tape

by Michael M. Getz, John D. Dwork 2000

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The Taper's Compendium - Volume 3 is an in depth guide to the Grateful Dead's music focusing on 1986-1995. 

The Compendium does great analysis on each year of the Grateful Dead. Then, for each entry they review the show and include details such as the date, location, the songs played, the existing tapes and lineage, concert highlights, and a comments section. Dozens of great  photographs throughout the book give the pages a visual appeal enhancing it immensely. 

This volume includes rare and exclusive interviews with Jeff Norman, Grateful Dead sound engineer that plays an integral part of vault releases.

This is an essential reference book for tape and CD collectors. 
Grade  A 

More Compendium information

The Deadhead's Tapers Addendum: 

The follow-up to the award winning trilogy The Deadhead's Taping Compendium

by Michael M. Getz, John D. Dwork, Bryan Dyke - 2001

Order: The Compendium's website is here. 

Here is an excerpt from a The Tapers Addendum Press Release: "This final addition specifically addresses the onslaught of newly circulating music that has surfaced since our last publication, and is an essential companion to the first three volumes, containing a wealth of information and new data for both new tapers and old school veterans alike." The complete press release for the Tapers Addendum Compendium .

Grade  A 

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Deadbase X:

The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song lists

Authors: John W. Scott, Mike Dolgushkin, Stu Nixon

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This book is much more than set lists. Each version of Deadbase offers slightly different statistics. The last printed edition Deadbase XI is out of print. 
More Deadbase information

Grade  A 

Grateful Dead Anthology I

Warner Brothers - 1979

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Contains 260 pages of music, 48 songs: The Golden Road, Cream Puff War, The Other One, Cryptical Envelopment, New Potato Caboose, Born Cross-Eyed, Alligator, St. Stephen, Mountains of the Moon, China Cat Sunflower, Cosmic Charlie, Dark Star, Uncle John's Band, Casey Jones, Box of Rain, Friend of the Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Truckin', Operator, Wharf Rat, Bertha, Playing in the Band, Deal, Sugaree, One More Saturday Night, Cassidy, He's Gone, Jack Straw, Brown-Eyed Woman, Ramble on Rose, Tennessee Jed, Row Jimmy, Stella Blue, Eyes of the World, Scarlet Begonias, Ship of Fools, U.S. Blues, The Music Never Stopped, Franklin's Tower, It Must Have Been the Roses, Estimated Prophet, Passenger, Sunrise, Terrapin Station Part 1, Lady with a Fan, Terrapin Station, At a Siding, Shakedown Street, Fire on the Mountain, France and If I Had the World to Give. Plus discography.

Grateful Dead Anthology II

Warner Brothers - 1996

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Grateful Dead Authentic Guitar Classics: 

Authentic Guitar-Tab Edition Includes Complete Solos

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The ten tunes in this folio represent the best-known and most enduring songs from the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead and American Beauty CD's. The songs include: Black Peter, Box of Rain, Casey Jones, Cumberland Blues, Friend of the Devil, New Speedway Boogie, Ripple, Sugar Magnolia, Truckin', Uncle John's Band.

Garcia Songbook

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Arranged for Guitar Tablature with Chords and Lyrics
Guitar lead-line arrangements of over 70 songs written and/or recorded by Jerry Garcia. 

Includes: Deal * Bird Song * Sugaree * Loser * Friend of the Devil * Tore Up Over You * That's All Right, Mama * How Sweet It Is * He Ain't Give You None * Let It Rock * The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down * After Midnight * Tangled Up In Blue * Knockin' on Heaven's Door and many, many more. Folio will have photos, bio, liner notes on the artist and legend.

Shady Grove:
Acoustic Guitar Solos by Jerry Garcia 

Mel Bay Publications; (August 26, 2002)

Transcribed by Dix Bruce

Order:  Shady Grove Guitar tab

More details about this book and the author.

Shady Grove Mandolin Solos

Mel Bay Publications; (August 23, 2002)

 Transcribed by John McGann

Order:  Shady Grove Mandolin tab

More details about this book and the author.

The books in this section are not graded because I am not familiar enough with them to do an adequate analysis and they are not on my bookshelf.  Below are some further biographies, collections, and assorted reference books. 

Conversations with the Dead: 

The Grateful Dead Interview Book - 1991(Paperback 2002)

by David Gans

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A collection of in-depth interviews with members of the Grateful Dead. David Gans, the author, is the host of the Dead Head Hour. I haven't read this one, but I do have one of his other books, which is quite good. I expect this is a great read.

Playing in the Band: 

An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead

by David Gans, Peter Simon (June 1985, revised 1996)

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Grateful Dead Reader 

 Edited by David G. Dodd and Diana Spaulding - 2000 

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Captain Trips : 

A Biography of Jerry Garcia

Sandy Troy - 1994

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A biography of Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist. 

Dark Star: 

An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia

Author: Robert Greenfield - 1996

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A biography of Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist. 

Living with the Dead:

Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead

Rock Scully, David Dalton - 1995

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Scully, a former manager of the Grateful Dead, profiles the life and times of the rock group. 

A Box of Rain 

 Author: Robert Hunter - 1990

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The lyrics and annotations by the Grateful Dead lyrists, Robert Hunter, the silent member of the band.

The Grateful Dead and the Deadheads: 

An Annotated Bibliography 

by David G. Dodd, Robert G. Weiner - 1997

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A reference to everything written and recorded by the Grateful Dead. It includes not only books, but magazine articles, reviews, and more.  Hardcover - 448 pages (May 30, 1997)

The American Book of the Dead: 

The Definitive Grateful Dead Encyclopedia

by Oliver Trager - 1997 

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Paperback - 400 pages (December 1997)

What a Long, Strange Trip:

The Stories Behind Every Grateful Dead Song 1965-1995

by Stephen Peters 1999

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A song by song look at the Band.

Garcia:

A Signpost to New Space

by Charles Reich, Jann Wenner

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About the Authors:
Charles Reich is Professor of Law at Yale University and the author of The Greening of America. Jann Wenner is the founder of Rolling Stone and Wenner 

Between the Dark and Light:

The Grateful Dead Photography of Jay Blakesberg

Jay Blakeberg - Oct. 2002

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Between the Dark and Light is a  25-year visual journey, that includes more than 500 rich color and black-and-white photos; many never before seen.

Essays by Dead historians Blair Jackson, J.C. Juanis, Jon Sievert, a foreword by Phil Lesh, and photographer Blakesberg's own reflections.

Tiger in a Trance

by Max Ludington

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 an excerpt of Tiger in a Trancefrom Nerve.com

From the Back Cover
“A gripping and astonishing On-the-Road first novel that in both subject and execution can be compared to the best of both Kerouac and Kesey.”
— George Plimpton

“The Grateful Dead's unique partnership with Dead Heads generated not only devotion but artistic inspiration — and Tiger In A Trance is the finest literary sample of that creativity to date. It is a brilliant novel of life in the world of one subgroup of Dead Heads, documenting the full package that results when the young pursue freedom and are forced to pay the maximum price.”
— Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead

“The Grateful Dead have been the backdrop of many novels, but Tiger in a Trance is the first one to portray the lives of the Deadheads themselves. The dialogue is fantastic — sharp, economical and authentic. This excellent first novel will certainly last as long as the Dead’s music will.”
— Jim Carroll, author of The Basketball Diaries

"Max Ludington is an obviously accomplished and promising writer. His style is graceful, his characters alive, and he can tell a story. As a generational novel, Tiger in a Trance reminded me of The Sun Also Rises."
— Philip Caputo, author of The Horn of Africa and A Rumor of War

About the Author

Dancing Within The Song

by Shawn Davis

by Shawn Davis |Official website

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From the back cover: "The thwack thwack of the windshield wipers beats a steady cadence as Daisy drives me to my death."This opening line in Shawn M. Davis' coming-of-age novel Dancing Within the Song proves to be more prophetic than her 14-year-old protagonist Rashia could ever have imagined. Daisy is Rashia's mother, who gave birth to her at a Grateful Dead show. Rashia was raised on a communal farm that grew its own organic food, gave its kids Kerouac, Huxley, and Thoreau to read, and took them on tours with The Dead. Rashia abruptly loses the only life she's known when her father decides it's time to join the real world and transports the family to a small Oregon town where he buys a house and opens a store. Dancing Within the Song explores the wrenching rite of passage that all too many of today's young people go through and does so in the context of an unusual setting as Rashia runs away from home and goes back to following The Dead, now a much harder and more dangerous world.

In her youth, Shawn M. Davis spent several years following the Grateful Dead. She's been known as "The Yogurt Lady," mermaid, archaeologist, creative writing teacher, and editor of Cenotaph Pocket Editions (www.cenotaph.net/pe). She holds a Masters Degree in Arts & Letters from Southern Oregon University. She currently lives in southern Oregon with her husband and daughter.

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Goin' Down the Road: 

A Grateful Dead Traveling Companion

by Blair Jackson (Editor) (Paperback - August 1992)

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Dead to the Core: 

An Almanack of the Grateful Dead

by Eric F. Wybenga - Paperback Aug 1997

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Garcia

by Rolling Stone (Editor) 

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(Hardcover - January 1996)