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Right in time for the Grateful Dead's 40th anniversary, eccentric bass player extraordinaire Phil Lesh has delivered fans a most welcome gift: his autobiography. There are many books out there about the Dead told from the perspective of roadies, journalists, third party observers, and fans. However, with the exceptions of Jerry Garcia's ramblings in Garcia: A Signpost to New Space and Conversations With the Dead, Lesh's Searching for the Sound is the first time a founding member of America's favorite band tells their own story of what it was like inside the Grateful Dead. And what a wonderful, strange tale it is.
Phil Lesh, considered the most academic of the group due to his avant-garde classical composition training, literate mind, and passion for the arts, decided to write his story himself. Written without the crutch of a ghostwriter, Searching for the Sound might be considered disjointed in places, but overall it comes across as conversational, intimate, informative, and candid (particularly regarding topics of drug use and death). If you are familiar with the band and their extended family, their history, the sixties' musical milestones and influences and all the band's famous tales (the Garcia/ Lesh "silent" confrontation, being busted on Bourbon Street, the Wall of Sound), you may be a little disgruntled there is not much new here in the way of content. However, what is "new" and totally satisfying is Phil's warm, optimistic perspective on the many events that helped shape his life. As described by Lesh, his life's journey, much like the Dead's music, is "a [series] of recurring themes, transpositions, repetitions, unexpected developments, all converging to define form that is not necessarily apparent until it's ending has come and gone." For the many fans who enjoyed the fruits of his life pursuit of sonic explorations, Searching for the Sound is a welcome addition to their Dead library. --Rob Bracco
Book Description
Right in time for the Grateful Dead's 40th anniversary, eccentric bass player extraordinaire Phil Lesh has delivered fans a most welcome gift: his autobiography. There are many books out there about the Dead told from the perspective of roadies, journalists, third party observers, and fans.However, with the exceptions of Jerry Garcia's ramblings in Garcia: A Signpost to New Space and Conversations With the Dead, Lesh's Searching for the Sound is the first time a founding member of America's favorite band tells their own story of what it was like inside the Grateful Dead. And what a wonderful, strange tale it is. Phil Lesh, considered the most academic of the group due to his avant-garde classical composition training, literate mind, and passion for the arts, decided to write his story himself. Written without the crutch of a ghostwriter, Searching for the Sound might be considered disjointed in places, but overall it comes across as conversational, intimate, informative, and candid (particularly regarding topics of drug use and death). If you are familiar with the band and their extended family, their history, the sixties' musical milestones and influences and all the band's famous tales (the Garcia/ Lesh "silent" confrontation, being busted on Bourbon Street, the Wall of Sound), you may be a little disgruntled there is not much new here in the way of content. However, what is "new" and totally satisfying is Phil's warm, optimistic perspective on the many events that helped shape his life. As described by Lesh, his life's journey, much like the Dead's music, is "a [series] of recurring themes, transpositions, repetitions, unexpected developments, all converging to define form that is not necessarily apparent until it's ending has come and gone." For the many fans who enjoyed the fruits of his life pursuit of sonic explorations,Searching for the Sound isa welcome addition to their Dead library. --Rob Bracco
Customer Reviews:
Moonlight Rain.......2007-05-31
I FINALLY finished this book. It took two or three false starts (i.e., read up to page fifty and stop; wait a month or two, read up to page 50 and stop) but 6 days in the hospital (nothing life threatening) gave me ample time to finish the book. Fascinating- yes. Filled with interesting facts- yes. Reads more a history text book than the autobiography of a rock star- yes. I kept referring to a dictionary ever time (frequently) Phil used a word that I had never heard before. One cool thing is Phil refers to composers (Stockhausen, Berio, etc.) that most Deadheads would enjoy. (BTW, I've been hip to Stockhausen for several years. If you think the Grateful Dead invented "Space", you are wrong.) The same goes for references to books he has read. Basically, it's a slow read but very interesting. What I want to know is with all of the LSD he took, how he was able to remember tiny details from 1966?
Bass-ically where its at!.......2007-05-14
As a bassist myself, I relate to Lesh's writing and train of thought. He documents being a part of Grateful Dead as more of an ironic string of occurances than a drugged out trip. His book is incredibly personal while he discusses such moments as learning an instrument overnight, attending classical concerts while on tour, loosing friends, and finding the inner peace in chaos. He is funny, sad, and everything in between. Although some of the technical parts get a bit too detailed for those unfamiliar with sound technology, one can understand how dedicated he was to his craft aside from the music and lyrics. I liked how Lesh pointed no fingers, rather pushed towards the positives in everyone. I would recommend reading this book with Rock Scully's Living With the Dead because they follow the same format and share similar situations. Lesh's however comes across more intimately humorous. I strong urge readers to dig into this book!
Interesting and Illuminating.......2007-03-26
I've never been to a Dead concert, but once had a roommate in college who'd recorded about 100 of them, which he constantly played, so I've certainly heard my share of Live Dead. Everyone w/ a passing knowledge of the Dead knows that their best stuff was live, not studio. Just an observation that has nothing to do with the Lesh book. It's an interesting read and Lesh is an interesting character. Especially funny was how he got out of the army:
Army Doctor: "read the bottom line on the eye chart" Lesh: "I can't see anything" Army Doctor: "You can't see the bottom line of the chart?" Lesh: "What chart?" Army Doctor: "The chart on the wall" Lesh: "What wall?" Lesh certainly is thoughtful and observant. A good journey through the history of the Dead and sometimes quite moving.
Good 'Ol G.D........2007-01-21
My brother got this book signed by Phil himself. Another biography of the Grateful Dead. Written by One of the band members. It's good. Phils good. Check it out.
Searching for a Ghost Writer.......2006-11-23
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Not by the writing. In fact, some of the prose is quite unnerving, such as "if Mickey had been born Native American, his name would have been `Pushing the Envelope.'" Although he did remember the concept of foreshadowing from High School English, and he makes of point of highlighting all of the ominous signs of the chaos to come. But overall I was surprised, because, unlike many musicians' autobiographies I've read (for example, Miles Davis), Phil Lesh does not come off as a brittle narcissist. He does not use this opportunity as a format for squabbling, for giving his side of the story. He actually comes off as a thoughtful, sincere guy, and someone willing to take the time to reflect on the past.
I was interested to hear his take on the disintegration of the Grateful Dead in the eighties and nineties. His take on it was not unlike my own. He takes some ownership for his role, admitting that the Grateful Dead had become too large of an organization, too much of a money-maker with too many dependents. The band had to keep up an outrageous tour schedule, despite the obvious decline in the quality of the music and the painfully obvious deterioration of Jerry Garcia.
He makes a note-worthy observation about the parallel process between the band and the audience. At first, it was a bunch of guys with different musical backgrounds, but all with open minds, all in the right place at the right time, who used drugs to expand the individual consciousness of each member as well as the group consciousness in step with the counter-cultural revolution happening around them. They pushed boundaries but they also communicated with each other through the music, with novel sounds erupting organically from their collective experiments. But the drugs that fueled their creativity would also eventually isolate each of them from each other and from themselves. As alcoholism and heroin addiction destroyed the sense of community within the band, the dead head scene would suffer as well. By the end, prior to Jerry's death, you had a band on stage pretending they were playing together, pretending to play with even a fraction of their potential. And as an audience, we pretended too. Or at least those of us who still believed we were there for the music pretended, and the frat boys just came for the party. And they continued to sell out stadiums, while shows were marred by police stings, gate crashers, riots, tear gas, and death threats.
When I was catching shows, late eighties early nineties, you would hear two different kinds of fans as you filed out of one of their 2 in 3 mediocre shows. The Pollyanna-heads would be glowing, talking about how Jerry lifted his arm at one point, or almost rocked his shoulders with the beat, "Yeah, he was really into it tonight." The more jaded heads would just be complaining, complaining about the lackluster set-list, complaining the Jerry continued to tune himself down in the mix, that he was quitting on solos, that Bobby was trying to steal the show again. Both types annoyed me. I like to tell people that I quit going to shows because I realized that the fans who supported the Dead were enablers, burying our heads in the sand. But in reality, that's a post-hoc, grandiose explanation. I quit going because I was paying $35 for tickets a mile away from the stage, to see dishearteningly bad performances, while the drunken frat boys all around me didn't even know enough to get quiet during those increasingly rare moments of musical transcendence. The breakdown was complete, and for both band and audience, going to show meant little more than participating in a ritual.
Phil spends the most time on the early years. That's a good thing. That's the most interesting part. When they were actually hippies, living like hippies, and things were just starting to happen. Woodstock and Altamont are recounted not just as events but as contrasting symbols of everything that was good about the hippie scene and everything that was wrong about it. Ultimately it is a commentary on human nature, the capacity to love and experience ecstasy versus the tendency to retreat into hostility and hatred.
Like I said, Phil owns his role in it all, admits to mistakes, and doesn't spend a lot of time defending himself or trying to bolster his reputation. The only part where it felt like he had a little bit of a self-serving agenda was when he talked about the different directions he wanted to push the band, more experimentation with exotic time signatures for example. But even then, he talks about it in terms of lessons learned. He realizes he misread the mood of the band, they were content to play their songs and didn't want Phil as martinet. I think Phil is giving an honest account here. If you listen to the post-Dead music coming from all the living members of the Dead, it is Phil and Friends who continue to be the most exploratory. Though not the most charismatic of a stage presence, he may have been the biggest "believer" of the bunch, the most devout in his quest for the divine through the psychedelic. Along those lines, it's also interesting hearing Phil weave in and out of magical thinking. He's often grounded and very down-to-Earth, but moments later can go off on a tangent about any kind of mystical spirituality that he can tie in to the moment.
It's worth a read. Not great writing but good enough, readable, and will certainly be of interest to any fan of the band. The book ends with the recent history, the fall-out from Jerry's death, some of the ugly fighting over who owns the rights to what, and ultimately Phil's hepatitis and liver transplant. He really does end up sounding like a likeable guy, the grinning musical little brother of Jerry, the classically-trained marching band nerd, and the survivor who gets a second chance at the gift of being a father.
Customer Reviews:
great!.......2007-01-24
received this item in a timely manner and was pleased with the quality of the item. sorry for the late review! thank you!
Book Description
In this ruthlessly honest, illuminating bestseller, the bass player for the greatest improvisational band in American history tells the full, true story of his life, Jerry Garcia, and the Grateful Dead.
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely one of the best rockographies ever.......2007-09-09
Phil Lesh has written a very thoughtful and introspective at times auto- and bio -graphy of his bandmates, lives, loves, families, and most importante to most of us, fictional caricatures...(I mean, Neal Cassidy, was that guy for real???!!!) My road stories pale in comparison, as do all of ours, I think...and the muzak, just flows from Phil's pen, in a similar rythm as his music. Hey, Phil, thanks for the memories, your style is similar to snapshots that one can pull out and look at from time to time, grin, laugh, cry, all good, everything's good. This is one of my current fave gifts to friends, probably will be forever. Classic. Life is good, cya
I'M GRATEFUL, PHIL!.......2006-09-13
An old maxim states that if you can remember the 1960s, then you probably weren't there; a sentiment that suggests, I suppose, that if you really were an active participant in that frenzied decade, with its recreational and psychedelic drug use, then your brainpan should be too sizzled to recall any of it. Putting the lie to this old adage is Phil Lesh, in his 2005 autobiography "Searching for the Sound." If there's any survivor of the '60s who should have his cerebrum toasted well past the point of recall, it is Phil Lesh. As one of the original hippies, a participant at every one of the eight Acid Tests, a veteran of the true Summer of Love (1966), AND the 30-year bass player extraordinaire for that most psychedelic and improvisatory of San Francisco bands, the Grateful Dead, Lesh certainly did have his fair share of electric Kool-Aid pass under his bridge! But, as his beautifully written book reveals, his memory remains remarkably clear, even regarding those events of four decades ago surrounding the birth of his seminal band. To his great credit, Lesh has written his story all by his ownsome--with no ghost writer or coauthor--and tells the Dead's story with clarity, passion and a good deal of touching sentiment; as he movingly tells us in his intro, "I was born an only child but found my true brothers through the art of music." I have personally been a "Deadhead" since the late '60s, and was still unaware of the vast majority of the tales that Lesh doles out in his book. What stories the man can tell! One of the more distressing ones comes early on, when we learn of how guitarist Jerry Garcia almost fell out of a train whilst en route to a Vancouver gig in summer 1966, and would have been crushed by an oncoming train if fellow bandmember Bob Weir had not pulled him back in time. Our good ol' Grateful Dead might have been finished before it had properly begun! Phil matches his writing style and choice of words to match the craziness of some of those Acid Tests, and his way-out description of his craziest (accidental) acid trip is a memorable one indeed. The incident with Barney the Dinosaur and Garcia will surely have all fans of the band laughing out loud, as will Lesh's revelation that an early moniker choice for the nascent band was Mythical Ethical Icicle Tricycle! Lesh seems to hold little back, detailing his descent into alcoholism without maudlin self-pity. Needless to say, many of the stories in this book are sad ones; the Dead lost too many of its family over the years--three keyboardists (well, four now that Vince Welnick has left us) plus Uncle Jerry--and Phil's recounting of these losses is obviously deeply felt. The usual highlights are touched on, of course: Woodstock (pretty nightmarish, from Lesh's description), Altamont (even more so), the bust in New Orleans, the Europe '72 tour, the Dead's gig at the Great Pyramids. But for every by-now-familiar tale (and even these seem fresh through Lesh's eyes) there are a dozen less familiar ones, and the author tells his stories with insight, articulateness, and the wisdom that comes from great trial and experience. (And how gratifying, for me, to learn from Phil how much the band valued audience participation and feedback--I sometimes wondered--and that Madison Square Garden, where I attended so many of my Dead shows, was one of his favorite venues to play in.) What Phil does NOT do in his book is explain the meaning of the Dead's songs ("Box of Rain" excepted); those looking for an in-depth discussion of the recondite significance of "What's Become of the Baby" are advised to seek out another publication (such as David Dodd's excellent new "The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics"). The first five years of the band's history take up the full first half of Phil's story--I gather that he finds the earlier stuff more noteworthy--and, in the book's second half, the final 25 years are increasingly compressed; we can almost feel the accelerating, frenzied tempo of the group's final years. Please don't misunderstand me; I am not complaining here about any disproportionate emphasis. The truth of the matter is that Phil's book could obviously have been four times longer than he has chosen to make it; 30 years in rock music's most heavily gigging band would naturally provide Phil with a superabundance of material, and, again to his credit, he has chosen to write with great economy, cherry picking the incidents that he wants to include and excluding much else. (Perhaps one day we'll be able to coax another book's worth of stories from him...I hope!)
I mentioned up top that Phil's memory seems to be preternaturally clear, and it does; and yet, some sticking points crop up. For example, he tells us that in summer 1970, at the end of the trans-Canadian railway tour so finely chronicled in the film "Festival Express," Janis Joplin received a birthday cake from the tour promoters. But Janis' birthday is widely quoted as being January 19th. Something strange there. Also, Phil tells us of one of the best double bills that he ever witnessed at Bill Graham's Fillmore West: Chuck Berry and Count Basie's Big Band, in summer 1967. BUT, according to the complete listing of Fillmore West concerts provided in the old double CD "Fillmore, The Last Days," such a double bill never occurred that summer. Rather, Chuck Berry appeared with the Steve Miller Blues Band and the Charles Lloyd Quartet from August 16-17, and Basie appeared with the Charles Lloyd Quartet from August 20-21. I'm not saying who's right and who's wrong--how should I know?--but it sure does leave a reader scratching the ol' noggin. Anyway, these are mere quibbles. The bottom line is that Phil Lesh has done all fans of the Grateful Dead and 1960s rock a tremendous service by putting pen to paper and sharing some of his memories with us. Needless to say, as the only band member to do so thus far, he has provided us with a work of great historical significance. I have read the book twice already, and will surely continue to refer to it for years to come. Thanks, Phil! And, on a personal side note TO Phil, please remember to take your milk thistle! We all need you around for as long as humanly possible!
Book Description
The SAS Survival Handbook is the Special Air Service's complete course in being prepared for any type of emergency. John 'Lofty' Wiseman presents real strategies for surviving in any type of situation, from accidents and escape procedures, including chemical and nuclear to successfully adapting to various climates (polar, tropical, desert), to identifying edible plants and creating fire. The book is extremely practical and is illustrated throughout with easy-to-understand line art and diagrams.
Customer Reviews:
Good if you are not in a megalopolis.......2007-10-12
I think this book is very good for certain situations, but I feel that it does not meet the needs of most average folks in case of major catastrophy.
I would recommend Ron Foster's practical guide for all scenarios. Since he works in the field of emergency response, he has the most up to date and useful methods of urban and rural survival.
If you seriously want to learn more than "how to live off the land" short term, I would highly recommend Mr. Foster's publication, "The Rural Ranger: A Suburban Manual & Field Guide of Traps and Snares for Food and Survival".
I know how to live off the land if one can even get to such a ideal location, but hunger, thirst and the elements will wear out the millions of people trying to vacate their huge cities all at once.
This book gives one a fighting chance no matter what your skills are or where you live.
Seriously,
David Highum
Amazing survival book - Incredable - Can't stop reading it!.......2007-10-10
This book is gold. If you decide to donate money to homeless people STOP. Donate this book instead. They will be able to live forever with the helpful survival tips in this book. It sits on my coffee table and has been a talking point with everyone who sees it. It has everything in it - including 'Emergency Child Birth in the Bush'. The trapping and food sections are amazing. This book was everything and much more than I thought it would be. Easily the best few dollars I ever spent on a book. Thanks to the sling traps I have no more stray cats claiming my yard as their own! Then using this book I was able to skin, prepare and cook these cats. I was also able to discard the offal that was not nutrient dense. Note: No cats have really been caught or cooked yet - but I could if I wanted to.
SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea.......2007-09-27
With the new tv shows showing actual survival skills in the wild my family and I have developed a real interest in this topic. I am enjoying the book. It was written in a very easy and understandable way. I feel confident that with this book by my side that I could survive quite well in a variety of situations.
What about cabin avalanche?.......2007-09-19
I found this book to thoroughly take me through the fundamentals of survival, however, I am always thinking of some very particular situations that I could find myself in that weren't addressed.
For instance, what about the "trapped in a cabin by avalance" that we're all fearful of? I play it over and over in my head. Most likely it would be 3 or 4 of us on a weekend ski trip. I've always felt that it would be best to go ahead and turn on the others very early on in the event of an avalance instead of waiting for starvation to decimate the group.
For one, each day trapped in that cabin means that everyone will be burning calories, making themselves thinner and thinner, not leaving much of a meal if natural course is left to do the dirty work of finishing them off. Not to mention, you might be too weak for a death match days later.
Also, turning on them early will almost assuredly be unexpected, since ditching ethical behavior at first opportunity is not the norm and especially with so much food still in the fridge. You're going to need that element of surprise, b/c let's face it, when you start helicoptering that timber axe over your head, the line will clearly be drawn in the sand and its 1 versus 3 at that point. You'll need to mow them all down very quickly. Don't worry that you aren't hungry yet, as there should be plenty of snow at the windows that can be used to keep the bodies from spoiling.
But I definitely liked the informative chapter on which leaves are ok to eat and which are poisonous.
Great!.......2007-09-14
Contains just about anything you would want to know about survival. I am reading the whole thing, and it is quite interesting!
Book Description
In this rich and illuminating book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author Robert Coles creates a portrait of moral leadership--what it is, and how it is achieved--through stories of people who have led and inspired him: Robert Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Erik Erikson, a Boston bus driver, teachers in college, medical school, and elementary school, among others.
Coles tells how to be a moral leader and shows how the intervention of one person can change the course of history, as well as influence the day-to-day quality of life in our homes, schools, communities, and nation. We need to "hand one another along" in life, says Coles, quoting his friend Walker Percy, and in
Lives of Moral Leadership he explores how each of us can be engaged in a continual and mutual life-giving process of personal and national leadership development. Coles discusses how the actions of the American president affect the way people feel about themselves and the country, and-citing the influence of Shakespeare's Henry V on Robert Kennedy, and of Tolstoy's
Anna Karenina on his own mother--explains how reading literature can motivate action and growth. The way in which moral leaders emerge today, and for all time, comes vividly to light in this brilliant book by one of America's finest teachers and writers.
From the Hardcover edition.
Average customer rating:
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Birds Of Ontario: Habitat Requirements, Limiting Factors, And Status : Nonpasserines : Waterfowl Through Cranes
Al Sandilands
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