Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia

by Robert Greenfield

Book Overview

For more than thirty years, Jerry Garcia was the musical and spiritual center of the Grateful Dead, one of the most popular rock bands of all time. In Dark Star , the first biography of Garcia... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688147828
• ISBN13: 9780688147822
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

An incredible read....

This book is an absolute must read for any Grateful Dead fan. The beauty of the book is that you have accounts and opinions from (what seems to be) everyone in Jerry's inner circle. Not only does the book allow you to take a deep look inside Jerry's life but it allows you to take deep study of the scene and the characters that were an enormous part of his life.This book was damn near impossible to put down and will certainly be re-read very soon - just to make sure I did not miss anything the first time around.

A must-have for Deadheads...

...and anyone who wants to know about Jerry Garcia, actually. Like the title says, it's an oral biography: Jerry's friends, bandmates, ex-lovers, and siblings talking about their memories of him. Their words portray Jerry as half musical genius demigod, half womanizing drug addict. It's one of the most interesting biographies I've ever read, and I go through a lot of rock bios so that is saying something. It isn't exactly intellectual reading, since lots of the talk is mainly dishing dirt and gossiping, but it's straightforward. If you're interested in Jerry's life and want to find out both facts and opinions from the people he associated with, this is the perfect book for it.

This book wore me out

I was unable to put this painful, marvelous book down until I had finished it. Starry-eyed twirlers should beware their illusions: Jerry Garcia was a powerful, wealthy (in the end), troubled genius who broke a lot of hearts. But his contribution to his friends and the millions who adored his art stands as one of the most enduring of the last half of this century. He once said, "Anybody who thinks I'm God ought to talk to my kids." Truer words were never spoken, and this book illustrates the folly in putting people on pedestals. Garcia is still my favorite artist, bar none, and this book is priceless for it's clear view into his life and work. It also provides a lot of depth and counterpoint to Rock Scully's "Living With the Dead", correcting some of the wilder tales with conflicting eye-witness accounts. The only negative comment is that the interviews are printed verbatim, and the often broken and incorrect English makes the statements unintelligible. I remember reading several of them 4 or 5 times and still being unable to decifer the intent. But they are the minority. Buy it, read it.

An appropriate way to do a biography of Garcia

This is really a good book, though it left me a little depressed after I finished it. The book begins with a haunting, faded picture of a young Jerry Garcia concentrating intently on his banjo and then proceeds to words by Garcia's brother, Tiff, on how Jerry lost part of one of his fingers and the death of their father. Greenfield lets the people who lived around or with Garcia tell the tale...and what a powerful story it is. The sorry part of it is that it seems like the last 10 years of Garcia's life was like a slow suicide. The center of Garcia's life was music and people who adored him, though it seems he had a great deal of trouble making lasting, emotional bonds to those who loved him. The ones he did make are just sweet. The highlight of the book, for me, is the tale of Garcia's recovery from his mid-80s coma and how instrumental Merl Saunders was in helping Jerry back to life and back to music. Garcia was a human singularity and this is an interesting portrait of this interesting, adored, and creative person. Of all the books about Garcia that you want, this is the one you want the most.

Warning: I worshiped Jerry Garcia until I read this book

Even though I knew about Garcia's drug and alcohol problems, I still thought he was one of the most wonderful people on the planet. Until I read this book. His treatment of the women in his life - including his neglect of his daughters - made me realize that he was just another human being, and possibly someone I might not even have wanted to meet. I still think that he really did want and try to be a good person at times, and and I still love his music, but reading this book was quite a shock for me. It was hard to deal with my feelings of disillusionment afterwards.