Memoir Is Dead On Arrival

“Living With The Dead: Twenty Years On The Bus With Garcia And The Grateful Dead” By Rock Scully and David Dalton (369 pages, $24.95)

Well, here’s a revelation: The Grateful Dead, led by Jerry Garcia, gobbled drugs like candy in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Here’s another stunning news flash: No matter how pleasantly it might begin, heroin addiction ultimately is a horrible, degrading experience.

Already knew that, did you?

Good. Then there’s no need to waste $24.95 plus tax on Rock Scully’s tabloid-style schlockumentary, “Living With the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead.”

Scully was the Dead’s co-manager from 1965 until 1985, when he was fired following what Scully claims were unfounded accusations of stealing money from Garcia and the band.

His tabloid-style, tell-all memoir was in the works well before Garcia’s Aug. 9 death of a heart attack and the surviving members’ subsequent decision to disband.

There’s little in Scully’s 369-page book, co-written with rock celebrity biographer David Dalton, that hasn’t appeared elsewhere in more detail and clearer context.

The Dead’s love affair with psychedelic drugs and Garcia’s battles with heroin have been well-documented for years.

Books about the Dead by David Gans, Blair Jackson and Sandy Troy, immediately come to mind, as do “Summer of Love,” Joel Selvin’s account of the Haight’s halcyon days, and the new tribute to Garcia published by Rolling Stone magazine.

Unfortunately, “Living With the Dead” is not in their league. Ultimately, it’s little more than Scully’s hazy remembrances of sex,drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and sharing a heroin habit with Garcia.