I've been reading Sweet Chaos : The Grateful Dead's American Adventure, which I
thought was going to be more about the Grateful Dead's process of becoming an
institution in American music, but which is really more about the author's experiences
in the 1960s and how the Dead related to them.
There is a need for someone to illuminate how this ragtag band of hippies became one
of the top concert attractions for the past 30 years. This book certainly doesn't do
it. The author had the access to many key people within the Dead's organization, but
doesn't seem to have understood what to do with the information they provided.
Plus it really bothers me when one of the pictures supposedly portrays Jerry Garcia
playing banjo with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the person shown is playing
a bass guitar and is obviously NOT Garcia as shown by the other photos in the book.
