Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN num: 9780312333997
ISBN number: 0312333994
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: October 01, 2004
Publishing house: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: September 23, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 213205
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The untold story of life on the road with the Grateful Dead, written by an insider who lived it from the early days to today.
Steve Parish was never one to walk the straight-and-narrow, even during his childhood growing up in Flushing Meadow, Queens. Busted as a teenager for selling acid in the summer of 1968, Parish landed in Riker's Island. The experience changed him and after getting out he did his best to stay out of trouble, securing a job moving music equipment at the New York State Pavilion. The very first show he worked was a Grateful Dead concert in July of 1969 and Parish was captivated by the music. A life seemingly headed nowhere had suddenly found its calling as he fell in quickly with a band of likeminded misfits who formed the nucleus of what would be the greatest road crew in rock 'n' roll history.
Parish traveled to California where his apprenticeship began. Working for the band for free and learning his craft, Parish got to know Jerry, Bobby, Phil, Billy and Mickey and through the years their relationships forged an unbreakable bond. He became very close with Garcia in particular, acting as his personal roadie and later manager for his solo performances and Garcia Band shows. He was there during times of trouble (like when a pimp held Garcia hostage at gunpoint in a New York hotel room), spending hours by his bedside when Garcia was in a coma in 1986, and performing the duties of best man at his wedding. He was also the last friend to see Garcia alive.
Throughout the Dead's historic run, there were parties of biblical proportion and celebrity run-ins with everybody from Bob Dylan to Frank Sinatra--but there was a dark side to life on the road and tragedy didn't just strike the musicians.
But Home Before Daylight is a story of friendship, of music and redemption. It is a piece of music history, one that reflects the American spirit of adventure and brotherhood. Seen through Steve Parish's eyes and experiences, The Grateful Dead's wild ride has never been so revealing.
Amazon.com Review:
The life of rock band roadie would hardly inspire the likes of say, Emile Zola. But Steve Parish's 30+ year tenure with the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band, and its survivors makes for compelling reading, even if his low-key, often self-deprecating reportorial style can't hope to begin to unravel the complex psychology that drove the symptomatic excesses---and all too many tragedies--of the 60's most enduringly emblematic American band. There's more here than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, even if Parish's writing struggles to encompass the meaning of it all. And make no mistake; The Dead and their coterie were, in the estimation of unlikely Deadhead Joseph Campbell, nothing short of potent modern mythology evolving before his very eyes. In the fallout of one memorable backstage incident, the author even found himself parodied by John Belushi in an SNL skit written by Deadheads Al Franken and Tom Davis. Parish casts little judgment on the oft-debauched actions of his cohorts here, though he often stops to note the brightness of their humanity. A paradoxical marriage of unrestrained hedonism and radical Christian social conscience, The Dead's world seems to still baffle Parish. His continued wonderment at it all is one of the book's charms; his tortured sense of helplessness in the addiction-fueled decline and death of Jerry Garcia, its spiritual and musical leader, its most tragic mystery. --Jerry McCulley
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Rated by buyers 
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As with some of the other reviewers here, I started this book with higher expectations of the content than the book was ultimately able to deliver. Unfortunately, the author spends more time talking about his own behind-the-scenes life than he does on the band itself. As a glaring example, it's three full chapters before he gets into discussing the Dead at all.
The anecdotes that ARE related are great reading -- the one that stands out most is Parish's telling of went went on at the infamous 2/7/79 concert where Jerry gulped down a handfull of Valium just before taking the stage. But yeesh, Steve Parish was the band's road manager and not a word is written about the Wall of Sound shows and the accompanying logistical nightmares. And that is just one example.
All in all, I would reservedly recommend this book to a hardcore Deadhead, if only for the fact that there are some new nuggets in here. But that would be only after reading more comprehensive works such as "A Long Strange Trip," "Garcia", or Phil Lesh's own book.
Rated by buyers 
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Did a lot of drugs.
Got laid a lot.
That's about all he has to say.
Rated by buyers -
The reverent hero worshipful tone of this is cloying.
Since Parish didn't get on board until mid '69 there's nothing here of the very first four or five years, which included the most interesting life and times of these people and the culture of which they were to co-creators.
After reading Lesh's memoir, this, and Sculley's book one can read between the lines and see where everyone stands.
Lesh had enough class not to write anything too hurtful and respected peoples' dignity for the most part. And he stayed on point as to the music itself.
Also Phil gets points for not using a ghost writer. The other two must've lacked the talent and literacy for that or were simply too lazy to do it themselves.
Parish still works for them so he treads a cautious path twixt all the juicy details and losing his job.
Sculley's outta there and so he laid it on thick without mercy, detailing things that have gotta hurt. The guy comes across as lacking any sense of morality, drugged out and proud of it, a judas to boot. Further, he may be the one person who did the most to put Jerry under, king of the enablers. Little wonder the "family" despises him. I regret buying Sculley's book on so many levels, not the least of which being that I contributed to something and someone I don't feel particularly good about.
Perhaps Sculley's book's one redeeming quality is that he was there at the beginning and had a lot to say about it, some of it undoubtedly true.
I got the distinct feeling that he was rubbing Parish's nose in that fact. It's obvious these guys aren't exactly bosom buddies. Pardon me for giving Sculley so much space in Parish's review, but I ain't gonna deign to write one for his book.
Gave Parish and the ghost writer three stars cuz there are some redeeming qualities here in spite of the usual name dropping, groupie groping, drugs and internecine fighting, etc.
Garcia was the only true genius in the whole crowd. He was also a good man underneath the addictions and human failings, humble, generous, compassionate and realistic. That is, he resisted the constant temptation to let it all go to his head and fought off the pedestalizing all along the way. Right on, Jerry, for that.
The rest are, or were competent musicians at best, regular guys who found themselves being treated as living gods and reacting to that just like most regular guys would.
I suppose they should be cut some slack. What young man wouldn't be swayed by hordes of young honeys and all the rest of the "fun."
OK, as a regular guy who isn't famous or a genius, I admit to having envied people like them until I realized one day that I'd have surely become one of the casualties, being cursed with a thoroughly addictive personality. I gotta watch it as it is, one day at a time.
This cult of personality we find in rock and roll and elsewher amongst the rich and famous is frankly sickening.
The typicalness of the dead family as described here I found disappointing. Everything after 1967 or so comes across increasingly as just another version of "Almost Famous."
It had to be said.
At least the music is there for us and it's a lot of fun to play.
Hell, I love getting together with friends and mangling tunes like Jackstraw, Bertha, Row Jimmy, etc.
Peace n love
Rated by buyers 
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I couldnt put this book down, once i started reading it! Truly an amazing experience, Steve Parish makes you feel like you were there with the dead on the road. I even if your not a huge deadhead this is deffinatly worth reading! It gives a really good sence of the pop culture and the times. Great read!
Rated by buyers 
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One of the better Dead books I've read. Parish (with assist from Layden) surely has a lot of stories to tell and he does it in an affable manner - even when his own behavior is less than stellar. Learned a lot about Jerry Garcia, but little about the rest of the band. Though that's understandable since Parish was by far closest to Garcia.
In reading this back to back with the books by Rock Scully, Dennis McNally, and the Garcia oral history "Dark Star," there is a bit of Grateful Dead "Rashomon." That is, all three books sometimes cover the same people/events, but all with a slightly different take. And the "hero" in one version can be the "villain" in another. Still, an indispensable tome for both hardcore and casual Deadheads.
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