Phil Lesh

I picked up this book hoping it would be about the actual "search for the sound"---ie, the effort that the went into trying to write and perform songs. What I got instead was a fascinating history of the Grateful Dead. Despite having no idea what they were doing, and continually "blowing the big ones", they somehow did alright for themselves. It's an inspiring book on that front, but damned depressing in terms of they were torn apart by bad management, the inability to focus on anything other than music, and a bunch of substance abuse.… (altro)

I was really looking forward to this for two reasons:

1. The Dead is the best band of all time.
2. Phil Lesh always struck me as the Michael Palin of the Dead.

And while it begins well enough, Searching for the Sound soon becomes the written version of the 15-minute Space of set two that--admit it--you skip each time it comes up on iTunes. The problem is that Lesh continually tries to describe what he felt during some of his shows, and the result is unreadable:

"Invisible bands march across the soundstage in two different directions at different speeds; a solo viola mutters an occult hymn-tune as the rest of the orchestra spreads fireworks in all directions; the chorus intones wordless transcendental benedictions as the music fades away into silence."

Or:

"It was as if the music was being sung by gigantic dragons on the timescale of plate tectonics; each note seemed to take days to develop, every overtone sang its own song, each drumbeat generated a new heaven and a new earth. We were seeing and singing the quantum collapse of probability into actuality--it was frightening and exhilarating at the same time."

What the hell is he talking about? I feel bad ragging on a guy who has written "Box of Rain" and "Unbroken Chain," and maybe the second half of the book is better, but I'd rather hear him hold forth with his bass. Yet again I claim and bemoan the fact that no one has yet written a readable, engaging history of the Dead. Everything is either a freakshow or faux-philosophical treatise on "layers of being," etc. And don't get me started on that awful Amazon documentary.… (altro)

Very well written & very entertaining, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh provides a detailed look at the formation and early years of the Grateful Dead. The latter half of the band's career is provided in less detail, but still remains fascinating to a read. Of all the biographies/autobiographies of rock & roll figures that I've read, Lesh's is the best. There is a tendency in the genre to go tabloidesque in the writing, clamoring over the excesses of sex, drugs and alcohol that often permeate the industry. Lesh acknowledges the presence of such factors in a very down-to-earth manner without obsessing over them or glamorizing them. Highly recommended to Deadheads & to fans of rock & roll biographies.… (altro)