“Strange to think back on those days when it was perfectly natural that we all slept on the floor in one small room…. These were the days before practical considerations, matters of ‘importance,’ began to eat our minds. We were all poets and philosophers then, until we began to wonder why we had so few concrete worries and went out to look for some.”
These observations come from Robert Hunter, who vigorously documented the bohemian lifestyle that he and his young friends in the Grateful Dead embraced to bring their visionary ideas to the eyes of the world. At the outset of their long, strange trip, the legendary lyricist and songwriter saw the magnitude of the cohort’s youthful escapades, and devotedly preserved it in The Silver Snarling Trumpet, his lost manuscript that blends novelistic and autobiographical modes into a mythical origin story of the Dead. After decades on the shelf, this unprecedented record of the artists who would go on to change the world will finally be released on Oct. 8.
The Silver Snarling Trumpet captures Hunter’s origins in the Palo Alto scene, his connection with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead’s natural emergence from these roots. His account is nothing short of vivid, capturing not only events but the spirit of the times with a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes that record the lives that charged the late-beatnik, proto-hippie countercultural revolution. In live documentation of impromptu jams, first performances, life in Haight-Ashbury and on the road and rich, immersive depictions of dreams and psychedelic experimentation, Hunter sketches the precipice of a revolution. His vision of the band captures the essence of their inspiration undiluted by time: pure, unbridled creativity.
Hunter’s newly uncovered manuscript is issued here alongside a foreword by John Mayer, an introduction by Dennis McNally and an afterword by San Francisco scene contemporary Brigid Meier. Hunter’s own thoughts on the volume are included as well, with a recollection of the few confidants with whom he shared his text and an elucidation of his decision to leave it unpublished. Now just over five years in the wake of his passing, The Silver Snarling Trumpet arrives next week as a tribute to the author, the Grateful Dead, and the music that never stopped.
Pre-order The Silver Snarling Trumpet here.
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