Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail - Hardcover

Grushkin, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076033854X ISBN 13: 9780760338544

Publisher: Voyageur Press, 2011

Synopsis

Whether or not you've heard every song in their catalog, spent countless hours learning the chords to "Casey Jones," or were one of millions lucky enough to have seen them live, odds are the Grateful Dead are not complete strangers to your world.

Rock 'n' roll's seminal jam-band, the Grateful Dead were one of the planet's most successful touring rock bands to ever set foot on the stage. Formed in 1965 and disbanded after the death of Jerry Garcia, their lead guitarist, in 1995, the Dead entranced countless rabid fans with a mind-altering mix of no-rules songwriting, feel-good harmonies, and musicianship that took a backseat to no band.

At the core of the Grateful Dead experience was the world’s most devoted fan base: Dead Heads. Addicted, in the best possible definition of the word, to the music and the experience, Dead Heads went to extraordinary, often inspiring, lengths to get their hands on concert tickets by mailing the band and its staff. After all, the only way to get tickets for the Dead was to go directly to the source. Most often, this took the form of letters (and envelopes) with personalized Dead artwork the likes of which the U.S. Postal Service had ever seen.

Since the band's earliest days, Grateful Dead staff saved tens of thousands of decorated ticket-request envelopes sent to them by Dead Heads hoping to capture the ticketing staff’s attention with their mind-bending designs. These envelopes are inspirational and hugely insightful, not to mention brilliantly illustrated and unique within the world of rock. Now, for the first time in print, these unique pieces of art have found a home.

 

From author, rock historian, and the Dead Head of all Dead Heads, Paul Grushkin, Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail collects more than 300 of these mind-blowing envelope masterpieces, all presented in 14 thematic chapters. Fully authorized by the Grateful Dead, Dead Letters also includes, for further historical context, many rare historical photos and memorabilia, all creating a trip, as it were, down memory lane. A foreword from basketball legend (and supremely dedicated Dead Head) Bill Walton rounds out this one-of-a-kind package.

The end result is a portrayal of the Grateful Dead as related by those who loved them the most -- a love song from fan to artist, all sealed with a stamp.

 

About this title

From the Back Cover:

“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 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/.

About this edition

• Publisher: Voyageur Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 076033854X
• ISBN 13: 9780760338544
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208