“Each of the unique pieces of art is displayed fully formed and is intriguing not only for its relationship to the band but also for the level of devotion that so many fans have held for so long to their favorite cause.” – Vintage Guitar
It’s a fascinating read and one that captures the spirit of the Deadheads in a new light. It’s not all images, though those are the most appealing, it also includes the stories behind the sales team and band from their perspective. – Creative Loafing
“5 out of 5 stars…a sprawling and beautiful tome that more than adequately documents the phenomenon that the GDTS inadvertently created and is fascinating and engaging as a skim-through coffee-table book or as a full-on read. And while the artwork is clearly the focal point of the book, Grushkin’s accompanying text provides an informative and enjoyable history of the Grateful Dead and insight into the behind-the-scenes activity that helped the legacy endure.” – www.mediamikes.com
Dead Freaks Unite! This simple exhortation, printed in the gatefold of the Grateful Dead s 1971 Skull & Roses double LP, opened the floodgates. Soon the band was blessed with a constant flow of fan love via the U.S. Post. But among all the mail the Dead received daily, the envelopes bearing ticket requests were easily the most remarkable. As the band blazed a path for DIY ticket sales, fans began tucking their money orders into wildly imaginative hand-drawn, hand-painted, and otherwise hand-decorated envelopes. Each hoped to capture the attention of the Dead s inner sanctum and thus secure those increasingly elusive passports to The Show. Of the hundreds of thousands of ticket-request envelopes the band received over the years, some 15,000 have found their way into The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With Dead Letters, bestselling Grateful Dead author Paul Grushkin (Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Dead Heads) has combed this archive to come up with a fantastic survey of nearly 400 Grateful Dead ticket-request envelopes. Arranged by Dead themes, such as the band s rich iconography, song interpretations, concert locations, and more, the envelopes are accompanied by essays and archival photography that provide a rich historical context for a subject that like the Dead Heads themselves is truly unique in the realm of rock. In addition, a final chapter includes a selection of envelopes from the archive of Grateful Dead Ticket Sales TOO, bringing the story from the 1995 passing of Jerry Garcia to the present. At once inspirational and hugely insightful, the works featured on the pages of Dead Letters truly are objets d art, brilliantly and lovingly illustrated. Perhaps more significantly, they offer an unprecedented look at a storied love affair between a legendary rock band and its equally legendary fans.
About the Author
Paul Grushkin is the author of The Art of Rock, the standard work in the field of rock posters, and its bestselling followup, Art of Modern Rock. He is the author of several other books in the field of rock history and memorabilia, including Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Deadheads and Treasures of the Hard Rock Café. A former archivist for promoter Bill Graham, he has more than two decades’ experience at the forefront of rock merchandising, having mounted campaigns for top acts and created his own Phantom clothing line.Paul Grushkin is one of America?s top rock & roll historian. For over twenty five years Grushkin has been at the forefront of rock merchandising. As VP/Sales and Marketing for Signatures Network, Sony Signatures, and Winterland Productions, he designed and led the retail merchandising campaigns for nearly every top rock. pop, and country music band, including the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Ozzy Osbourne, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, New Kids on the Block, John Lennon, Madonna, N?Sync, Backstreet Boys, and more than two hundred others.Grushkin is the author and co-author of four best-selling rock & roll histories, collectively selling over one million copies. Grushkin?s Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Deadheads (1983) is the most successful book about the Grateful Dead to date, and one of the longest in-print rock music histories (24 years, 16 U.S. printings). Grushkin?s other books include Rockin’ Down the Highway: The Cars and Stars that Made Rock Roll, Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion, and Grateful Dead Book of the Dead Heads. A graduate of Stanford University (1974), Grushkin now resides with his family in Northern California. His web site can be found at http://www.paulgrushkin.com/.
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