Description
Book SynopsisIn the studio and more than 2,300 concerts between 1965 and 1995, the Grateful Dead performed more than 400 different songs. Their music continues to be tremendously popular as surviving band members and countless tribute bands memorialize the legacy the band left us upon the death of lead guitarist and singer, Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead’s 100 Essential Songs examines the band’s remarkable musical journey, pairing song analyses and memories with an online list of recommended recordings. Beyond a mere summary of each song, the descriptions here compare individual performances as they relate to the evolution of the band’s style and the waning health but vibrant spirit of Garcia. Welcoming readers into the unbroken chain of the Dead’s legacy, this book is indispensable for Deadheads, students of popular music, rock musicians, and anyone marveling at how the Dead’s appeal continues today. With linked performances and studio recordings to allow readers to listen along with the book, as well as other song analyses and first-hand narratives of the authors’ experience at hundreds of Dead concerts, the book will appeal to Deadheads, students of popular music, rock musicians, and anyone marveling at how the Dead’s appeal continues today. The online song list may be accessed under the features tab at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538110584.
Trade ReviewGrateful Dead fans and academics Barnes and Trudeau, members of the Grateful Dead Scholars Caucus, provide illuminating if overly detailed profiles of what they deem the band’s 100 greatest songs. Each profile lists the number of times the band performed the song, memorable performances of the song, and elements that make the song essential listening. For example, the band debuted “Lazy River Road” on February 21, 1993, and they played it 65 times, including during the band’s final show in Chicago on July 9, 1995. According to Barnes and Trudeau, front man Jerry Garcia “was still in fine voice and plays it beautifully. . . it is a great window into what the Dead sounded like in their last years on the road.” The Dead performed “Casey Jones,” the story of a train engineer who wrecks his train, 312 times beginning in 1969 through 1992. “Truckin’,” arguably the best known Dead song (a “rocker that gets the crowd on its feet dancing and singing along”), made its debut in August 1970, and the band played it 519 times between then and 1995. Barnes and Trudeau’s entertaining book provides a useful introduction to the Dead’s representative music, offering first-time listeners a starting point and encouraging fans to pick up the songs and listen to them again. * Publishers Weekly *
In The Grateful Dead’s 100 Essential Songs, Barry Barnes and Bob Trudeau—both members of the Grateful Dead Scholars Caucus, which is a section of the Southwest Popular Culture Association meetings—provide fact-filled profiles of the one hundred songs they believe are essential listening for, in their words, “a serious appreciation of the music of the Grateful Dead.” Of course, Deadheads are bound to quibble about which songs make the cut for this book, and so that conversation, like the music, will go on forever. In many ways, the book serves as a nice guide for first-time listeners who might wonder why people devote their musical lives to the Dead and what about this music keeps them listening to it. After all, the attraction that many find in the Dead’s intractable jams and musical explorations simply bore many listeners who can’t hear the reasons anyone would want to listen to the music, let alone listen to it obsessively. This book won’t convince those listeners—there are simply too many facts about which first-timers won’t care—but it will give them a starting point for finding the songs that might take them down that road. * No Depression *
In a stimulating overview of the band’s performing repertoire, these authors blend their personal concert experiences with the evolution of performances of the band’s most memorable compositions. An indispensable element of their publication is a vast online repository of their favorite live versions of the songs, including many taped personally by Barnes. -- Michael Parrish, San Jose State University, co-organizer of the 2014 So Many Roads conference
An in-depth look at the Dead’s great American songbook, informed by the authors’ many decades of thought, analysis, and participation in the Grateful Dead phenomenon, this book takes up the question of the band’s finest songs with a compelling, refreshing, and thought-provoking look at these time-honored classics. -- Nicholas G. Meriwether, director, Center for Counterculture Studies
The Grateful Dead left an immense trove of recordings—live performances and studio takes—all tied together with improvisation in a manner that amounts to a musical genre all its own. New arrivals to this cultural banquet are going to need some help navigating this mountain of music; in The Grateful Dead’s 100 Essential Songs, two longtime fans of the music offer a delightful road map to help you get started. -- David Gans, musician and author of Conversations with the Dead and This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead
Table of ContentsTitle Page Frontispiece Preface Deadication Table of Contents Introduction Quick Start Guide The 100 Most Essential Songs Alabama Getaway Althea And We Bid You Goodnight Attics of My Life Beat It On Down the Line Bertha Bird Song Black Muddy River Black Peter Black Throated Wind Box of Rain Brokedown Palace Brown Eyed Women Candyman Casey Jones Cassidy Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider China Doll Cold Rain and Snow Comes a Time Crazy Fingers Cumberland Blues Dancin’ in the Streets Dark Star Days Between Deal Dire Wolf Dupree's Diamond Blues El Paso The Eleven Estimated Prophet Eyes of the World Feel Like a Stranger Fire on the Mountain Foolish Heart Franklin's Tower Friend of the Devil Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad Good Lovin' Greatest Story Ever Told Hard to Handle He's Gone Hell in a Bucket Help On The Way > Slipknot > Franklin’s Tower Here Comes Sunshine High Time I Know You Rider I Need a Miracle Iko Iko It Must Have Been The Roses Jack a Roe Jack Straw Lazy Lightning > Supplication Lazy River Road Let It Grow Looks Like Rain Loser Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance Lovelight Me & My Uncle Mexicali Blues Might as Well Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodleloo Morning Dew The Music Never Stopped Not Fade Away One More Saturday Night The Other One Peggy-O Playing in the Band The Promised Land Ramble on Rose Ripple Row Jimmy Saint of Circumstance Saint Stephen > The Eleven Samson & Delilah Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain Shakedown Street Ship of Fools So Many Roads Stagger Lee Standing on the Moon Stella Blue Sugar Magnolia > Sunshine Daydream Sugaree Supplication Tennessee Jed Terrapin Station They Love Each Other Throwing Stones To Lay Me Down Touch of Grey Truckin Unbroken Chain Uncle John's Band US Blues - (Wave That Flag) Viola Lee Blues Weather Report Suite > Let It Grow West LA Fadeaway Wharf Rat The Wheel Bonus Tracks Online Resources Bibliography and Sources: For Further Reading Acknowledgements and Thanks About the Authors
