Here Beside the Rising Tide

Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening

By: Jim Newton

Narrated by: Jim Newton

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A MULANEY READS PICK • A kaleidoscopic history of the Grateful Dead that explores the American counterculture through the life of iconoclastic frontman Jerry Garcia, and his merry band

“By writing this book, Jim Newton informs the rest of the world what Deadheads have known for years: that Jerry Garcia was more than a world-class musician, he was an American icon.”—Trixie Garcia

In 1965, in Palo Alto, Jerry Garcia opened a dictionary to a fable in which an appreciative soul repays the generosity of a traveler, a “gift of the grateful dead.” After a traumatic car accident that injured him and killed a close friend, Garcia had resolved to build his life around music. He had practiced relentlessly and caromed across the northern California folk and bluegrass scene. He had gathered up some fellow musicians and formed a band.

Now they had their name.

Following the history of the Grateful Dead means tracking American cultural history through a period of radical reconsideration. The Dead played at the Acid Tests and the Human Be-In and Woodstock, at the occupation of Columbia and the Bail Ball for People’s Park. They performed at the base of the Pyramids during a lunar eclipse, at Madison Square Garden to defend the rainforests, in San Francisco to sound the alarm over AIDS and at Huey Newton’s birthday party. For three decades, the band explored the meaning and limits of freedom.

The radical message of the Dead, to reject the mainstream and build a bohemian community, radiated across the world, manifesting itself in art, music, business, and politics. Here Beside the Rising Tide tells the story of those disparate shafts of light, putting Garcia into a broader context while tracing his eventful life.

Nearly a century after his birth, Garcia’s influence stretches onward, expressed in guitar licks and a gentle way of life, one of excellence and gratitude, chasing freedom, living moment to moment, guided by song—the gift of the Grateful Dead.

The cultural context of JG and the Dead

Lots of bios out there, this was a sadder/realer take on Garcia and his demons a put all in a social and cultural context that was interesting

fantastic

The appreciation of the birth/growth of the Dead along with the political side of the times was a great listen!

Wonderful, intelligent, well written

Wonderful, intelligent, well written and insightful. That said- the quality of the recording is rather - very poor. It’s unfortunate.

Heart wrenchingly beautiful!

This is one of the best books I have ever experienced. Newton brought me back through time and space, and I experienced every bit of the history of the Time and the band as if I were there through all the joy and the sadness and the music! I highly recommend pausing the book and finding the poetry and the shows that are distinctly and specifically mentioned throughout the journey. Knowing the history and the context of the music and specific shows make it all the more meaningful and beautiful.

Good but not great

When writing about the Grateful Dead, it’s music and the music around them. The book is very good if not great. However, the author interjects outside cultural circumstances which at times feel forced. Further, the off the author in interjects a biased version of politics and this keeps the book in my opinion from being great.