Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter Of The Grateful Dead’s Long Strange Trip

Joel Selvin with Pamela Turley DA CAPO

Life after Dead.

The Grateful Dead relentlessly took the revolutionary possibilities of a rock band to trailblazing heights, including supersonic sound systems, internet innovations and the world’s most devoted fan base.

After founding leader Jerry Garcia’s 1995 death, the scramble for Captain Trips’ seat in the cockpit raged for 20 years between surviving original members Phil Lesh,

Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman, becoming what Selvin calls an “endless soap opera with surprise twists, shifting alliances and dramatic reunions” in his magisterial account of the whole often ugly business.

Experiencing his first

Dead show in 1966 and first interviewing Garcia in 1970, Selvin covered Dead-related doings for the San Francisco Chronicle, but it’s his forensic research and engagingly incisive writing style that elevates this frequently astonishing tale, as vividly woven prose leaps from every page (aided by co-author Pamela Turley on recent years).

All those years of power plays and clashes melted into immortal glory when the embattled quartet reunited in 2015 at Chicago’s Soldier Field to lay the Dead to rest with well-deserved dignity. Those Deadheads won’t be the only ones loving the riveting modern rock fable that came before.