Here Beside the Rising Tide - by Jim Newton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A kaleidoscopic history of the Grateful Dead that explores the American counterculture through the life of iconoclastic frontman Jerry Garcia, and his merry band

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.

Review Quotes

"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, but alsohe was an American icon. This book follows my father's life through 60's 1960s San Francisco and examines how what happened there changed the world."--Trixie Garcia

"Jerry Garcia is one of the most significant figures in both the musical and cultural history of America, and in this illuminating book, Jim Newton expertly places him in the context of his times, showing how his fractured, alienated childhood led him to seek collaboration and community, and how the Dead's portable Eden served as a refuge from the tumult and depravity of capitalist society."--David Gans, musician, author, and co-host of SiriusXM's Tales from the Golden Road

"Jim Newton brings to this story insight, perception, and a profound understanding that the world of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead was something more thannot just an endless series of music concerts but a mythic quest, where in which the stage, said bassist Phil Lesh, was c'Church.' The mid-sixties 1960s rift in American culture that offered hope to freedom-seekers was a remarkable moment, and the Dead personified it. Their many fans do so to this day, and Here Beside the Rising Tide illuminates the phenomenon."--Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip

"Jerry Garcia was the involuntary spokesman for our hippie generation. He was the captain of our trip, the rare musician who bends a note and time with it. He created a whole new American musical genre. This is his story."--Huey Lewis

"It's all gravy to me."--Wavy Gravy

About the Author

Jim Newton is a journalist, teacher, and author of Justice for All, Eisenhower, Worthy Fights, and Man of Tomorrow. He was at the Los Angeles Times for twenty-five years as a reporter, bureau chief, editorial page editor, columnist, and editor at large. He lives in Pasadena, California, and teaches at UCLA, where he founded and edits the award-winning public affairs magazine Blueprint.