Garcia: A Signpost To New Space

The number one complaint I've read about this book over the years is that it was too rambling. I would disagree - it rambles, but that's the point. It's a set of conversations that were had with Garcia (and sometimes Mountain Girl as well) recorded to tape, while hanging out and talking music, life, etc. It's not meant to be a structured question-and-answer session, and if that's what you go in expecting, you may not enjoy it. The book puts the reader in the place of an observer, listening in on these transcribed conversations, and they're an interesting way of learning about Garcia's thought process and philosophies. I would say this should not be the first book one reads on Jerry Garcia, but maybe a later one to further understand Jerry's mindset towards life and the decisions he made while he was with us.

For anyone who loves the Dead or Jerry Garcia--this book is a must read!!

My book has been received in fine condition. Garcia is one of the most accurate and fair participants in an admittedly renaissance culture. Good luck with contextual understandings (have you ever seen an old political joke funny if you didn't know that history?). My history library is smiling-thanxs!I also recommend Mr. Garcia's film and book on the "Deadheads." The film is set at Winterland Auditorium in the 70's (not the 90's film; altho that work is fair to standard reflections of power and society). The deadhead book is a grand presentation of illustrations and paragraphical delight reflecting a cultural introduction to the fairness of our hippydum that has "saved the world."

My husband loved this book.

If I was still high on drugs I might find it entertaining. As is...it's really hard to take. Look elsewhere if you want more salient info about the "Dead."

Great book.

I've read a lot of interviews done with Jerry by many different types of people, but this book contains the one that left me feeling like I'd actually had a conversation with him. We catch Garcia in 1972 here. Pigpen is still alive, Mickey Hart has just left the band, and Jerry's addiction to smoking heroin is still five years away. The adventure of his life is still unfolding, and he seems happy, content, at rest. Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams is his companion, and they have a beautiful house bought with the fruits of his musical skills. They are living legends.So it's easy to see why Charles Reich tweaks out during the longer part of the book, the "Stoned Sunday Rap." Staying true to the title, it's a conversation between three stoned members of the counterculture, discussing a wide variety of spiritual, psychological and intellectual concepts. It's not the focused discussion centering on Jerry and the Dead you get at the beginning of the book. It's the conversation that every Deadhead wishes they'd had the chance to have with Jerry.At times Reich's questions, lines of thought and quest for validation from Garcia and Adams become extremely painful and embarrassing to read, but it's fair to assume that most Deadheads would fare little better stoned in the presence of '72 Jerry and Mountain Girl than Reich does. Of course this really doesn't excuse the periods of the conversation where he doesn't let Jerry or Mountain Girl get a word in edgewise. But maybe this is why you get a sense of Jerry's character, depth and compassion that you don't get in other interviews. In the parlance of the times, it's a far out conversation that every Deadhead should experience.

This book is only for die hard fans....It's rather bitter sweet reading now knowing how his life turned out and how shackled he became to heroin