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Joan Didion's Lost Grateful Dead Interview Surfaces
19 May
Summary
- Joan Didion interviewed the Grateful Dead in 1967.
- Full interview draft found in New York Public Library archive.
- Discusses band's disillusionment with Summer of Love.
An extensive, three-page interview conducted by novelist Joan Didion with the Grateful Dead in 1967 has recently been uncovered. The full draft, discovered in the archives of the New York Public Library, offers a unique perspective on the band during the Summer of Love.
Although a portion of the interview appeared in Didion's "Slouching Toward Bethlehem," this complete version reveals more about the band's candid views. Didion described the musicians as "engaging and unpretentious."
The unearthed document captures the Grateful Dead's early slang and their disillusionment with the commercial aspects of the counterculture. The band members express frustration with programmed events and the perceived inauthenticity of certain scenes, preferring their own "trip."
