Libraries, musicologists, and Deadheads alike will want a copy of this comprehensive annotated bibliography that contains most of what has been written over the past 30 years about this legendary American musical institution and its fans, the Deadheads. The approximately 4,000 annotations serve as a chronolgical history, an aid to researchers, and a guide for fans and collectors. The Grateful Dead appeared on the San Francisco music scene in 1965, and over the course of their career inspired a wide array of writing. This work includes the entire spectrum. The work includes every book published about the band, every article that appeared in a major magazine or journal, chapters and entries in books, and articles from The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner newspapers. Several magazines in their entirety were devoted (and remain devoted) to following the band, and this bibliography chronicles the material that appeared in those fan magazines. In addition to author, subject, and title indexes, an index to artists and photographers is included, since the Grateful Dead inspired a large body of artistic and photographic work.

The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyricsis an authoritative text, providing standard versions of all the original songs you thought you knew forwards and backwards. These are some of the best-loved songs in the modern American songbook. They are hummed and spoken among thousands as counterculture code and recorded by musicians of all stripes for their inimitable singability and obscure accessibility. How do they do all this? To provide a context for this formidable body of work, of which his part is primary, Robert Hunter has written a foreword that goes to the heart of the matter. And the annotations on sources provide a gloss on the lyrics, which goes to the roots of Western culture as they are incorporated into them. An avid Grateful Dead concertgoer for more than two decades, David Dodd is a librarian who brings to the work a detective's love of following a clue as far as it will take him. Including essays by Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry and Jim Carpenter's original illustrations, whimsical elements in the lyrics are brought to light, showcasing the American legend that is present in so many songs. A gorgeous keepsake edition of the Dead's official annotated lyrics,The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyricsis an absolute must-have for the fiftieth anniversary-you won't think of this cultural icon the same way again. In fact, founding band member Bob Weir said: "This book is great. Now I'll never have to explain myself."