Research Catalog

Title

Growing up dead : the hallucinated confessions of a teenage Deadhead / Peter Conners.

Author

Conners, Peter H.

Publication

Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 274 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

This is the story of Peter Conners's journey from straight-laced suburban kid to touring Deadhead. Peter discovered the Grateful Dead in 1985, at the age of 15, through friends who exchanged bootleg tapes of live Grateful Dead concerts. A teenager living in the suburbs of Rochester, New York, he became exposed to an entirely new way of life, and friends who were enjoying more freedom and less parental guidance. At the age of 16, he attended his first Grateful Dead concert on June 30, 1987 - he was hooked. Between 1987 and 1995, Conners would attend Dead 'shows' all over the United States. He traveled with a makeshift 'family' of other Deadheads in a Volkswagen camper, selling drugs and whatever else would provide gas money to the next concert. His hair was a wild, unkempt bush and baths were infrequent. In short, he had progressed from suburban kid, to Grateful Dead fan, to full-blown Deadhead. Chronicling this progression, which culminates with the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia, Conners reveals the truth behind Deadhead culture and history. The result is a riveting insight into the obsessive fandom that made The Grateful Dead the most successful touring band of all time, as well as a cultural phenomenon.

Subject

• Conners, Peter H
• Grateful Dead (Musical group)
• Deadheads (Music fans) > United States > Biography
• Subculture > United States

Genre/Form

• Autobiographies
• Biographies
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• Autobiographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-274).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction (tuning up) -- Kingswood music theatre, June 30, 1987 -- Morning on the bus -- High times -- Oakland Coliseum, December 28, 1987 -- The town and the village -- Show time -- Once a prankster, always a prankster -- Fire on the mountain -- Silver Stadium, June 30, 1988 -- Deadhead goes to college (briefly) -- In and out of the garden he goes -- Deal -- Madstop -- Now let's go run and see -- So many roads -- Wake of the flood -- We will survive.

ISBN

• 9780306817335 (alk. paper)
• 0306817330 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009005189

OCLC

246894815

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library