Even at four hours running time, the bulk of which comprised of priceless footage spanning the various eras of Grateful Dead history, Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead had a nebulous narrative at best. Director Amir Bar-Lev and editor John Walter were either lost for a thread of continuity or when that prevailing theme appeared arising directly from the conflicted life of Jerry Garcia, they chose to avoid it for as long as possible.
Ultimately, the filmmakers left only the final segments of roughly that thirty minutes to punctuate that which appeared prior. So, it’s probably just as well that the two-hours of bonus content on the limited edition triple-DVD doesn’t constitute any direct extension of the film proper. Instead, the sum total of the inclusions effectively restores the prevalent public perception of Jerry Garcia as the cheery, voluble figurehead of the Grateful Dead.
Previously unreleased footage from the band’s first show overseas recorded on May 24, 1970, in England at the Hollywood Festival, can’t help but call to mind the Beatles’ first film A Hard Day’s Night. The cinema verite content is in black and white, comprised of airport delays, photo sessions and a press soiree (prior to which the group parades into the record label offices to a mixture of bemused and apprehensive stares from the Warner/Reprise label staff). Garcia is his usual loquacious self here, a marked contrast to other interviews depicting a clearly uneasy Pigpen and a slightly overeager Weir. The humor of the group elsewhere isn’t deliberately comedic, but it does offset some studious vocal rehearsal by the two guitarists and Phil Lesh on “Candyman.”
What makes this ninety minutes worth watching in its entirety, however, are the six full songs from the festival performance. Drummer Mickey Hart hadn’t yet left, so the sextet’s is a loose-limbed spontaneity as it traverses a range of material from “Casey Jones” to “China Cat Sunflower” to “Good Lovin’.” Snippets of all the bonus content were used in the film as originally distributed, but two other live performances from 1989 included here may be just as notable, in the overall context of the Grateful Dead’s career: both “Dear Mr. Fantasy”/”Hey Jude,” “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” clearly exhibit not only the contributions of the late Brent Mydland, but the bond he established with Garcia that inspired both men to great gusto in their singing and playing.
The former couplet, from July at Sullivan Stadium in Boston, derives from Len Dell’ Amico’s concert film, shown in its entirety for the 2016 annual Grateful Dead Meet Up at the Movies and it, like its September Shoreline Amphitheater counterpart, features a good-natured vocal and instrumental exchanges between the keyboardist/vocalist/composer and the titular leader of the Grateful Dead. Given the group’s de facto business approach in recent years, it’s possible these two abbreviated segments are designed as teasers/trailers for future use in theaters and/or stand-alone releases. Still, as with Long Strange Trip in this limited edition, the archival team at dead.net could do far worse than emphasize those positives.
