Description: In this intensely provocative narrative, award-winning author Carol Brightman returns to the band's roots -- from the heady days of Haight-Ashbury to the formative shows at New York's Fillmore East -- to fashion an entertaining, illuminating history of how The Grateful Dead survived the rebellious '60s and earned a devoted following that spans generations. Drawing on exclusive interviews with remaining band members, the Dead's staff and crew, journalists, other musicians, and her own recollections as an activist during the period, Brightman shows us why, amid turbulent times, the Dead experience -- an abandonment to music, drugs, and dance -- created a magnetic, safe haven. Her riveting in-depth portrait of Jerry Garcia, an obsessed musical virtuoso and nonleader, reveals how his vision turned each Dead concert into something halfway between a revival meeting and a family reunion.

An absorbing and exhilarating exploration, Sweet Chaos offers, at last, a complete understanding of the Dead phenomenon and its indelible place in American culture.

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