Grateful Dead

Week of July 20, 2009

This week's program features a 2009 interview with Peter Conners, author of an excellent memoir titled Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead, with music chosen by the author from shows he attended and describes in the text.

Growing Up Dead is a very important addition to the Grateful Dead bookshelf: an honest, articulate, celebratory, and inspiring account of life on Dead tour in the 1980s. When I first heard of the book (and saw the title), I was afraid it was going to be the story of a boy who went astray on Dead tour, hit bottom, entered rehab, repudiated everything that had happened out there, and now goes to meetings every week. Instead, we have a thoughtful, articulate account of a great American adventure: touring with the Dead.

I led an online interview with Peter Conners in the WELL’s inkwell.vue conference. The interview is well worth reading, and so is the book.

Enjoy!

The music:

Grateful Dead 6/30/87 Kingswood Music Theater, Maple, Ontario
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

Grateful Dead 6/30/88 Silver Stadium, Rochester NY
HE'S GONE

Grateful Dead, Built to Last
BLOW AWAY

Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment. You can browse or search the playlists - by song title, show date, guest name, etc - at gdhour.com or on the GD Hour Search page, and let me know what program(s) you'd like to hear by emailing me at gdhour@dead.net.

Thank you for listening!
- David Gans

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