June 2005    

Searching for the Sound Author: Phil Lesh Publisher: Little, Brown $25.95 Cloth (338p) ISBN: 0316009989 B&T         YBP As I write, I have the sounds of the Summer Solstice 1989 in the speakers of my stereo. "Goes to show, you don't ever know...watch each card you play, and play it slow" sings a gleeful, but very warm Jerry Garcia. It was hot, both for music and temperature in Mountain View, California that night -- a fact that Phil Lesh commented on between sets as darkness finally fell, saying that it was "just below boiling." 1989 was about as good a time as there ever would be in the career of the Grateful Dead, still riding out the success of 1987's In the Dark, with legions of new fans and sold-out shows. Lesh was in fine form, pumping out his crisp and explorative bass lines as if he were a lead guitarist; answering the call when the "we want Phil" roar went up, chanted by the masses. Lesh delivered with his staple "Box of Rain" to the delight of the crowd and band. The phenomenon of the Grateful Dead is difficult to explain to anyone who did not experience it. The band was as much about its fans as it was ever about itself. Almost like baseball, with the crowd sitting on the edge of their seats during each game, hoping to see a really great play at the plate. There were periods of musical anticipation, interjected with a sudden moment of excitement either via a sharp improvised musical crescendo, a song transition, or an unexpected and rare song thrown into the mix. This sort of excitement existed in equal parts on the stage as it did in the crowd; an experience that had to be felt to be understood and the reason that someone sitting near you at the next desk may still admit when prodded: "yes, I am a Deadhead." There is no escaping it: once you are a Deadhead, forever a Deadhead you shall be. From the kids in the broken down microbus on the side of the road, all the way up to Al Gore--we are everywhere. Searching for the Sound is the first testament to the history of the Dead written by a member of the band, the title coming from the somewhat lesser known, but acclaimed Lesh composition "Unbroken Chain". Lesh is known to be one of the more cerebral members of the band. Throughout the book, Lesh's recollections are prominently colored by words that will have many dashing for the nearest dictionary, yet with a conversational and warm approach. It is his ability to still be able to tell the story of the band's early years with such clarity that will reel in readers. Setting up the story are memories of his earliest years discovering music, an obsession with the story of Charles Ives, and also Lesh's mastery of his first instrument, the trumpet. As the tale unfolds, we watch the prototypical school band nerd grow into a key element of the subculture of 1960s San Francisco, and launch into a journey that would last over forty years to the present. Much attention is given to serious musical matters, such as the influence of postwar avant garde composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. Lesh and eventual band member Tom Constanten unsuccessfully attempted to pursue personal study with Berio after auditing a class he taught at Mills College. Lesh also reflects on aspects of improvisation that would forever change his views on music, such as when he first came across a place in the music marked 'ad lib' as he worked through a jazz trumpet piece early in his musical life. As expected, drug experimentation is a large part of the story, but for Lesh it wasn't about a wild party of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (in fact that was never what the Grateful Dead was about). For Phil Lesh, his first night on pot was spent listening to a recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring all by himself. A number of events would eventually lead Lesh from working on writing his own symphony to hanging around a group of people living mostly outdoors in sheds and cars-- apartments known as "The Chateau". There he met fellow musicians such as Jerry Garcia who were more involved with folk and blues music, and would later form the heart of the Grateful Dead. Their association would solidify as these music-obsessed men eventually began to play together, all the while surrounded by the likes of Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady and the Merry Pranksters. This is the point where the experimentation with LSD takes over. The experiences of common consciousness and its role in the music are at the forefront of the book, and Lesh amazingly remembers everything. Poetic descriptions of various chemical excursions abound. More than half of the book deals with the early years of the band's development. Lesh covers the period of the mid-1970s with much less reminiscence, often speaking of financial troubles and the sheer size and difficulty of the entourage of crew and equipment. Changes in the dynamic of band interaction and his own personal life would put Lesh onto a course of alcoholism and cocaine use. He claims that the music enabled him to eventually swim back to the surface. The early 1980s and 1990s are covered in much the same way, focusing on Lesh's forced recovery, due to the discovery of a lingering hepatitis problem, and the positive influence of the most serious romantic relationship of his life. Lesh would marry and begin a family life that would be his sustaining force while watching his band mate Garcia sink into a life of heroin use and trouble from diabetes. Lesh tempers these busiest years of his partnership with the band by traveling alone with his wife and family on tour, and during his rare moments away from the road, once again immersing himself in classical music and opera. He even once guest-conducted the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. The mid-1990s Grateful Dead tours were beginning to take a toll on the band's soul as the crowd dynamic swung toward violence and a series of bad scenes. The sudden 1995 death of Garcia should have been expected, but the shock had a profound impact on the surviving members and the greater organizational entity. 1995 saw the end of the Grateful Dead as we knew it. The loss of one of the five critical pieces meant that the formula would never again be the same, no matter how hard the remaining members wished for it. Lesh's story concludes with the sudden reemergence of his own health issues, culminating in a liver transplant, a new outlook on life, and a new commitment to continuing the musical journey. The book is as much about Jerry Garcia as it is about Phil Lesh. It is about Garcia's inexplicable influence that would drive the band through good and bad times, life and death, darkness and light. After attempts at reconstituting the sound and the scene in Garcia's absence with the Furthur Festival, Phil and Friends, The Other Ones, and eventually the renamed "Dead", Lesh, Weir, Hart, and Kreutzmann still hold the dream close. There will, however, never again be a "Grateful" Dead without Jerry Garcia. By Jonathan Colcord Published by YBP Library Services 999 Maple St., Contoocook, NH 03229 USA v: 800.258.3774   f: 603.746.5628 w: www.ybp.com   e: academia@ybp.com All rights reserved.