American popular music had never seen anything quite like the Grateful Dead when they first coalesced, in the mid-1960s. They were five young Bay Area scruffs and Beats (with ranks later increased) variously steeped in bluegrass, blues, jazz, folk, rock ’n’ roll, cowboy songs, and more—who then spiked that gumbo with copious doses of LSD, dissolving boundaries between musical genres as well as, to a sometimes alarming degree, between themselves and their tribal fans. All of this is covered in just the first hour or so of the remarkable four-hour documentary Long Strange Trip, directed by Amir Bar-Lev and produced by Eric Eisner, with Martin Scorsese, whom one wouldn’t necessarily peg as a Deadhead, serving as an executive producer. The film, among the best of its kind, opens in theaters…
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Vanity Fair (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2017