Home Before Daylight : My Life on the Road With the 'Grateful Dead

About this book

The life of rock band roadie would hardly inspire the likes of say Emile Zola. But Steve Parishs 30 year tenure with the Grateful Dead the Jerry Garcia Band and its survivors makes for compelling reading even if his low-key often self-deprecating reportorial style cant hope to begin to unravel the complex psychology that drove the symptomatic excesses---and all too many tragedies--of the 60s most enduringly emblematic American band. Theres more here than sex drugs and rock and roll even if Parishs writing struggles to encompass the meaning of it all. And make no mistake; The Dead and their coterie were in the estimation of unlikely Deadhead Joseph Campbell nothing short of potent modern mythology evolving before his very eyes. In the fallout of one memorable backstage incident the author even found himself parodied by John Belushi in an SNL skit written by Deadheads Al Franken and Tom Davis. Parish casts little judgment on the oft-debauched actions of his cohorts here though he often stops to note the brightness of their humanity. A paradoxical marriage of unrestrained hedonism and radical Christian social conscience The Deads world seems to still baffle Parish. His continued wonderment at it all is one of the books charms; his tortured sense of helplessness in the addiction-fueled decline and death of Jerry Garcia its spiritual and musical leader its most tragic mystery. --Jerry McCulley