Skeleton Key by David Shenk and Steve Silberman

Best Seller

Skeleton Key

Name: Skeleton Key
Price: 20.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: David Shenk, Steve Silberman
ISBN: 9780385474023

Paperback $20.00

Published on Aug 01, 1994 | 416 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

$20.00

Published on Aug 01, 1994 | 416 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

For fifty years and more than two thousand shows, the Grateful Dead have been earning the “deadication” of more than a million fans. Along the way, Deadheads have built an original and authentic American subculture, with vivid jargon and rich love, and its own legends, myths, and spirituality.

“Replete with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious love for its subject . . . the mix of concrete and the absurd reminds you of the Dead’s music itself.”—Rolling Stone

Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads is the first map of what Jerry Garcia calls “the Grateful Dead outback,” as seen through the eyes of the faithful, friends, and family, including Bill Walton, Elvis Costello, Tipper Gore, Al Franken, Bob Bralove, Dick Latvala, Blair Jackson, David Gans, Bruce Hornsby, Rob Wasserman, and Robert Hunter. Skeleton Key puts you on the Merry Pranksters’ bus behind the real Cowboy Neal, uncovers the origins of Cherry Garcia, follows the dancing bear on its trip from psychedelic artifact to trademarked icon, and unlocks the Dead’s own tape vault.

Informative reading for the new fan or the most grizzled “tourhead,” Skeleton Key shines throughout with Deadheads’ own stories, wit, insiders’ knowledge, sincere appreciation of the music of the “band beyond description,” and the diverse and soulful culture it inspires.

Some of the Nice Things Folks Have Been Saying About Skeleton Key:

“A modern day Joycean epiphany . . . colorful, witty and persuasive . . . One can’t help but be lulled into the feeling that if you’re not a Deadhead, you’re missing out on a good time.”—Wired

“Replete with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious love for its subject . . . the mix of concrete and the absurd reminds you of the Dead’s music itself.”—Rolling Stone

“This indispensable guide to all things Grateful Dead-related is the only dictionary you can laugh your way straight—or not so straight—through from beginning to end.”—Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Life in Hell

“One of America’s great underrated wonders, the Grateful Dead reflect everything that is glorious, tawdry, and strange about this land of ours. Skeleton Key is an elegantly written, one-size-fits-all passport to Deadhead culture’s rich, weird pageantry.”—Richard Gehr, Village Voice

“A patchwork portrait of the Grateful Dead aesthetic. . . . This gold mine of history and commentary will appeal to even the most seasoned Deadheads.”—Al Kemp, Wilmington News Journal

“An informative and pleasurable read for any neophyte fan . . . [and] a must for the Dead freak who can’t get enough.”—Los Angeles Daily News

“Indispensable . . . captures the essence of the Grateful Dead experience, both enriching it for experienced Deadheads and explaining it for ‘newbies.’”—The New York Post

“Loaded with more jargon, humorous slang terms, anecdotes and minutiae than you can shake a kind veggie burrito at! . . . this book is way entertaining.”—Terrapin Times

“The Key to understanding our subculture . . . truly the Rosetta Stone of the Deadhead scene.”—Mike Maynard, Unbroken Chain

“This book has left trails of multi-hued memories alive and kickin’ in my head. . . . Even the PICKIEST PICKY DEADHEADS will approve of Skeleton Key . . . Skeleton Key not only passes the acid test, it defines it.”—Blair Jackson on Skeleton Key from the ‘94 Year in Review feature in Dupree’s Diamond News #30, Winter ‘94

Author

David Shenk

David Shenk is the national bestselling author of several books, including The Forgetting, Data Smog, and The Immortal Game. He is a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com, and has contributed to National Geographic, Slate, the New York Times, Gourmet, Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, NPR, and PBS.

Learn More

Skeleton Key

Related Genres

You May Also Like

The New Art of Photographing Nature

Photographs from the Edge

The Catholic Way

More Anguished English

Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits

The Martini Cocktail

Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com

How Good Is Good Enough?

Bulletproof

Gastrophysics

Success!

By David Shenk and Steve Silberman