No Simple Highway

An “entertaining cultural history” of the Grateful Dead, their devoted following—and the powerful reasons for their enduring appeal (Shelf Awareness).

For almost three decades, the Grateful Dead was America’s most popular touring band. No Simple Highway is the first book to ask the simple question of why—and attempt to answer it. Drawing on new research, interviews, and a fresh supply of material from the Grateful Dead archives, Peter Richardson vividly recounts the Dead’s colorful history, adding new insight into everything from the Acid Tests to the band’s formation of their own record label to their massive late-career success, while probing the riddle of the Dead’s vast and durable appeal.

Routinely caricatured by the mainstream media, the Grateful Dead are often portrayed as grizzled hippie throwbacks with a cult following of burned-out stoners. No Simple Highway corrects that impression, and reveals how they tapped into the yearnings of two generations for ecstasy, mobility, and community.

“While Dead devotees will revel in the wealth of biographical details here, every reader interested in music and its social repercussions will find Richardson’s work both captivating and instructive.” —Booklist

“Richardson writes with enthusiasm. . . . He paints the Dead as a utopian experiment in a long American tradition.” —Harper’s Magazine

“[A] far-ranging look at the ultimate jam band in the acid-drenched context of their formative years.” —Kirkus Reviews