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My long-deferred journey to discover the Grateful Dead resumed, or began in earnest, a few years ago during a random review of the popular music section of my Barnes & Noble bookstore.  Unable to get excited about shelling out cash for another variation on rehashed exploits or for another coffeetable bible of pictures and memorabilia of the bands I have loved and followed for decades, I spied a healthy-sized trade paperback on the Grateful Dead, lots of text, few frills.  I had heard the name Dennis McNally and figured he was a good place to start. for the semi-official burnished history

While I knew reading a book about music that I barely knew would be a grind, I found A Long Strange Trip . . . to be quite an interesting read.  I stayed up all hours to finish it in a weekend.  While I was reading it on two levels — one as a rock fan looking for the expected excesses of the profession and another as a person familiar with the business world and how people in organizations battle over money, prestige and power, I also knew I would need to read it again after becoming familiar with the music.

McNally walked a fine line between telling tales and keeping secrets, and ironically he was more free with the stories of dosed punch than with how the intra-band dynamics worked.  I can certainly understand not wanting to burn such important bridges, but there’s a dog that didn’t bark, so to speak.

I came away with three big questions I will seek answers from in the music.

First, few bands’ lyrics more directly influenced their fans and spoke to (or were believed to allude to) an enlightened value system than those of the Grateful Dead.  Yet the band’s own songs lyrics were largely written by two non-performers in the band, Robert Hunter, who was considered a non-performing member, and John Perry Barlow, who may or may not have been granted that same exalted status.

Each man wrote mostly with one of the two guitarists/vocalists, Hunter with Garcia, and Barlow with Weir.

How were the Dead able to achieve their level of success while being dependent on such designated “wise men” to write the lyrics, where other major bands appear to have written their own?

Second, what was the dynamic between Garcia and Weir personally?  I did not find a lot of speculation or light shed by McNally on this most central topic.  I would expect the Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards or Page/Plant relationships to constitute the focus of books on their respective bands, so I was puzzled and frustrated by the lack of insight provided by McNally where he obviously was in possession of some.

Third, while he alluded to Garcia’s reluctance to be seen as the leader of the band or the “movement” around the band, Garcia clearly acted with authority on many occasions, perhaps passive-aggressively, but not on others (perhaps crucially in not being able to slow the juggernaut to save himself).

What makes the Dead different than all their peers was the lack of a leaping, charismatic front-man, or in the case of the Beatles, the lack of one or both leaders willingly taking the role foisted upon them by the media and public.

What were the personal issues or 60s cultural issues that informed Garcia’s reticence — a reticence I hear nearly every time he sings on the live soundboards, where his vocals are apparently calibrated to be just loud enough to be heard over the music, but leaving the listener straining to hear more.

Listening to the tapes of shows, the balance between the vocals handled by the two frontmen and the balanced origins of the songs they sing, seems amazingly casual but also cunningly calculated.

The survival of the band for such a long time as a true working outfit on the road is amazing given the difficulties of such in the music business and especially where large sums of money are involved.

While it seems the real-world issues faced by the Dead could be seen as a repudiation of some of their professed values, those values could also be seen as the reason for extraordinary longevity and productivity.

I am nowhere close to having answers to my questions, but it should be fun trying to develop them.