Deal, Bill Kreutzmann
Deal, Bill Kreutzmann
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Deal
My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead

Author: Bill Kreutzmann

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Unabridged: 13 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/26/2015

Synopsis

On their fiftieth anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead.The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For thirty years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways. From the music to their live-concert sound systems and fan recordings, they were forward-thinking champions of artistic control and outlaw artists who marched to the beat of their own drums.Bill Kreutzmann, one of their founding members and drummer for every one of their over 2,300-dd concerts, has written an unflinching and wild account of playing in the greatest improvisational band of all time. Everything a rock music fan would expect is here, but what sets this apart is Bill’s incredible life of adventure, which was at the heart of the Grateful Dead experience. This was a band that knew no limits, and Bill lived life to the fullest, pushing the boundaries of drugs, drums, and high times, through devastating tragedy and remarkable triumph.But at this book’s beating heart is the music—theirs and others. Some of the greatest musicians and concerts were a part of the Grateful Dead’s career, from sharing the stage with Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and the Who, to playing in the Acid Tests, the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, and Altamont. Bill’s life is a chronicle of American music and pop-culture history, and his epic personal journey is one of sonic discovery and thrilling experiences.

About Bill Kreutzmann

BILL KREUTZMANN was the drummer and co-founder of the legendary rock band, The Grateful Dead. He played in every one of their over 2,300 shows from the first one on May 5th, 1965 until its dissolution following the passing of Garcia in 1995 and on every album. He lives in Hawaii.

About Benjy Eisen

BENJY EISEN has written for Rolling Stone, Esquire, Relix and so on. He lives in San Francisco, where he is currently finishing work on his first novel, Oysterland. Upon completion of Deal, he cut a deal with Kreutzmann and is now his manager.

About Peter Berkrot

Peter Berkrot, winner of Audie and Earphones Awards for narration, is a stage, screen, and television actor and acting coach. He has narrated over 450 works that span a range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, thriller, and children’s titles. His audiobook credits include works of Alan Glynn, Eric Van Lustbader, Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz. In film and television, he appeared in Caddyshack, America’s Most Wanted, and Unsolved Mysteries. He performs in regional and New York theaters and directs the New Voices acting school.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Todd on May 08, 2015

Disappointed, but still hopeful. I want very much to like this book, but so far it's just a rehash of stuff most deadheads already know. The Dead took a lot of acid? They hung out with Kesey and were the house band for the acid tests? Owsley financed them? Duh. I wish Kreutzmann had realized that th......more

Goodreads review by David on August 21, 2015

I love the Grateful Dead. I love them for the same reason Billy loves them--they are experimental risk takers who never stopped seeking to find the kind heart within every moment. I did not love this book because it is clearly written by a ghost writer who brought a format to the proceeding which ju......more

Goodreads review by Marcia on July 16, 2017

This is my brother so it is not easy to write this down, but had he let a best-that-money-could-buy-editor work with him, this would have been a super great book. His stories are wonderful, but it has a disjointed feel, no real chronology to it. A collection of interesting stories. Benjy Einsen of R......more

Goodreads review by Cody on April 04, 2024

Outside Garcia, I’ve always felt the greatest affinity for Bill. He’s always seemed a pretty normal dude, and this travelogue of fucking, dope, and improvisational rock and roll confirms it. Worth it to read his thoughts on Welnick; Donna; TC; Mickey; and some others. The Hart shit is pretty goddamn......more

Goodreads review by Duffy on February 04, 2016

The websites and catalogs note that "Drums" was the most played "song" in the band's repertoire. I have to admit, it was never a favorite of mine. It was, for me, more of a prelude to "Space," which was often the high point. And I didn't have particularly high expectations for this book. So I was pl......more

Quotes

“A memoir of his years with the anarchic band that became an unlikely American institution…Kreutzmann and co-author Benjy Eisen recount the Dead’s formation, its zigzagging rise, and many low points. Unlike other books about the Grateful Dead’s history, Mr. Kreutzmann homes in on his own experiences with the group. Deal chronicles partying with John Belushi, riding camels through the desert to a Bedouin musical jam, and encountering George McGovern’s presidential campaign in 1972.” Wall Street Journal

“Bill Kreutzmann, founding drummer of the Grateful Dead, has produced more than just a tourist’s guide. What emanates, maybe more than he intended, is a testimony to friendship and profound sadness when it abruptly ends.” Chicago Tribune

“In Deal, this thoughtful musician writes about his long, long career with the greatest improvisational band of all time and the wild times and radical changes that went with it.” Barnes&Noble.com, editorial review

“Taking its title from a Jerry Garcia solo song the band was fond of playing, the book’s understandable and blatant subjectivity of the Dead’s story is a given…[and] offers plenty of insight, opinion, observations, and analysis that are unique and of great interest to fans.” Houston Press

“The uninhibited (of course) tale of the co-founder of the legendary rock band, who played drums at every single one of the Dead’s 2,300 concerts and lived to tell about it all.” Tampa Bay Times

“Like one of the Dead’s meandering, free-form jams…[Kreutzmann] provides his own history of the Dead through chronicles of the band’s albums and the personnel involved in making them…Kreutzmann offers his take on each band member, recalling many of his long, strange trips on various hallucinogens, as well as the ups and downs of his personal life.” Publishers Weekly

“The book’s last forty or so pages, which recount Jerry Garcia’s death and its aftermath, are tremendously moving, and here the work finally hits its stride.” Library Journal

“Readers dropping into Grateful Dead drummer Kreutzmann’s stream of memory may be surprised by only one overriding theme: namely, the frequency of bitter episodes of discord, always roiling under the surface of a good-time psychedelic jug band that slowly emerged as a stadium filler.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Shelf Awareness Best Book
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