Probably the most memorable definition offered in Skeleton Key, A Dictionary for Deadheads, is that given for getting it. "Getting it," according to the book, is the term "said by heads about the moment they became a Deadhead." Is this book a modern-day Joycean epiphany or drug- or music-induced hysteria? Brothers and sisters, it is both.
After years of "being on the bus," authors David Shenk and Steve Silberman have put into words the experience and lifestyle that getting it implies. Sure, the untrained head may suspect that a couple of freaks wrote this book - filled with countless facts - to justify lives spent following a rock band all over the world and spending large sums of money on concert tickets and drugs. But Shenk and Silberman have done their homework, and the dictionary format serves the authors' purpose well: relating the history, happiness, and devotion of Deadheads.
The result is a colorful, witty, and persuasive read. Explaining such Deadhead-speak as "Dirt Surfer" ("The joys of living on a tour bus are many, but hot showers aren't one of them.") is a passionate endeavor. One can't help but be lulled into the feeling that if you're not a Deadhead, you're missing out on a good time.
Luckily, the appendices included in the dictionary offer some tools for the trip. Directions on How to Tie Dye and on How to Become a Nethead ("You know you're a nethead when your Windows 3.0 background is a picture of Jerry Garcia, your cursor is a Steal Your Face skull, and sometimes you swear it's leaving 'trails.'") are the first steps along the road to salvation.
Hey, if Tipper Gore can be a Deadhead, anybody can.
Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads, by David Shenk and Steve Silberman, US$14.95. Doubleday/Main Street: (800) 255 4133, +1 (212) 354 6500.
STREET CRED
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Skeleton Key
