Tragic Odes of Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead

Brent Wood is Lecturer in the Department of English and Drama, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada, and is the author of several articles on the music and poetry of the Grateful Dead.

• Introduction: Mystery Dances in the Magic Theater 1 "Morning Dew" and the Greek Theatre 2 "Death Don’t Have No Mercy": Catharsis and Redemption Death Don’t Have No Mercy * He Was a Friend of Mine Cryptical Envelopment * Brokedown Palace * Bird Song * He’s Gone 3 Befriending Chaos: "Dark Star," Dionysus and Psychedelics 4 Dancing to Fateful Folk Tales Reuben and Cherise * Fennario * Dire Wolf * Sugaree Dupree’s Diamond Blues * Stagger Lee * Casey Jones5 Meditations on Mortality, from Uncle John to Stella Blue Uncle John’s Band * New Speedway Boogie * Black Peter * LoserWharf Rat * China Doll * It Must Have Been the Roses * Stella Blue 6 Chasing the Dragon and Escaping the Netherworld Fire on the Mountain * Comes a Time * Althea Black Muddy River * Standing on the Moon7 Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door: Dylan and Garcia It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue * She Belongs to Me * The Mighty Quinn Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door * Visions of Johanna 8 Is it the End or Beginning? So Many Roads * Days Between * Mason’s Children 9 The Rebirth of Tragedy

For decades, scholars have found the Grateful Dead's work and example to be rich and rewarding interdisciplinary topics. Brent Wood's thoughtful exploration of the band's tragic odes and their intersection with Jerry Garcia and the Dead's complex history marks a welcome addition to the discourse, offering provocative readings of seminal songs and creative connections to a range of writers, ideas, and theories in philosophy, literary history, and cultural studies. Nicholas Meriwether, Center for Counterculture StudiesThis is a valuable book, masterfully balancing diverse topics such as the Dionysian rituals of ancient Greece, Nietzsche, the Cold War, LSD, Frankenstein, shamanism, and more in its reappraisal of Jerry Garcia’s songs as “tragic odes." The Dead’s story has been told many times, but this book goes beyond the usual discourse of band history and fan culture to probe into a web of fascinating intertextual and historical reference points that account for the unique catalytic power of this much beloved band. Brent Wood’s writing casts the Grateful Dead’s “long, strange trip” in a new light.Kevin Holm-Hudson, University of Kentucky School of Music