Skeleton Key - by David Shenk & Steve Silberman (Paperback)

About the Book

Deadheads--the passionate, million-strong followers of The Grateful Dead--have their own language. Skeleton Key is the first-ever overview of that language, a guide to more than 1,000 fantastical terms coined during the life of a band still going strong after almost 30 years.

Book Synopsis

For fifty years and more than two thousand shows, the Grateful Dead have been earning the "deadication" of more than a million fans. Along the way, Deadheads have built an original and authentic American subculture, with vivid jargon and rich love, and its own legends, myths, and spirituality.

"Replete with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious love for its subject . . . the mix of concrete and the absurd reminds you of the Dead's music itself."--Rolling Stone

Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads is the first map of what Jerry Garcia calls "the Grateful Dead outback," as seen through the eyes of the faithful, friends, and family, including Bill Walton, Elvis Costello, Tipper Gore, Al Franken, Bob Bralove, Dick Latvala, Blair Jackson, David Gans, Bruce Hornsby, Rob Wasserman, and Robert Hunter. Skeleton Key puts you on the Merry Pranksters' bus behind the real Cowboy Neal, uncovers the origins of Cherry Garcia, follows the dancing bear on its trip from psychedelic artifact to trademarked icon, and unlocks the Dead's own tape vault.

Informative reading for the new fan or the most grizzled "tourhead," Skeleton Key shines throughout with Deadheads' own stories, wit, insiders' knowledge, sincere appreciation of the music of the "band beyond description," and the diverse and soulful culture it inspires.

Review Quotes

Some of the Nice Things Folks Have Been Saying About Skeleton Key:

"A modern day Joycean epiphany . . . colorful, witty and persuasive . . . One can't help but be lulled into the feeling that if you're not a Deadhead, you're missing out on a good time."--Wired

"Replete with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious love for its subject . . . the mix of concrete and the absurd reminds you of the Dead's music itself."--Rolling Stone

"This indispensable guide to all things Grateful Dead-related is the only dictionary you can laugh your way straight--or not so straight--through from beginning to end."--Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Life in Hell

"One of America's great underrated wonders, the Grateful Dead reflect everything that is glorious, tawdry, and strange about this land of ours. Skeleton Key is an elegantly written, one-size-fits-all passport to Deadhead culture's rich, weird pageantry."--Richard Gehr, Village Voice

"A patchwork portrait of the Grateful Dead aesthetic. . . . This gold mine of history and commentary will appeal to even the most seasoned Deadheads."--Al Kemp, Wilmington News Journal

"An informative and pleasurable read for any neophyte fan . . . [and] a must for the Dead freak who can't get enough."--Los Angeles Daily News

"Indispensable . . . captures the essence of the Grateful Dead experience, both enriching it for experienced Deadheads and explaining it for 'newbies.'"--The New York Post

"Loaded with more jargon, humorous slang terms, anecdotes and minutiae than you can shake a kind veggie burrito at! . . . this book is way entertaining."--Terrapin Times

"The Key to understanding our subculture . . . truly the Rosetta Stone of the Deadhead scene."--Mike Maynard, Unbroken Chain

"This book has left trails of multi-hued memories alive and kickin' in my head. . . . Even the PICKIEST PICKY DEADHEADS will approve of Skeleton Key . . . Skeleton Key not only passes the acid test, it defines it."--Blair Jackson on Skeleton Key from the '94 Year in Review feature in Dupree's Diamond News #30, Winter '94

About the Author

DAVID SHENK is the author of six books, including The Genius in All of Us, Data Smog, and The Immortal Game. His book The Forgetting inspired an Emmy-winning PBS film of the same name and was featured in the Oscar-nominated film "Away From Her." He has advised the President's Council on Bioethics and contributed to The New Yorker, National Geographic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Harper's, Spy, and NPR. Shenk lives in Brooklyn. More at davidshenk.com.

STEVE SILBERMAN is an investigative reporter whose feature articles have appeared in Wired, The New Yorker, and many other national magazines. He is also the author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (Avery/Penguin 2015) and one of Time's selected science tweeters (@stevesilberman). More at stevesilberman.com.