After years and years of anticipation, delays, and a variety of obstacles, the long-awaited Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip will be made available to the public on May 26th via Amazon Prime Video. The film, produced by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and directed by Amir Bar-Lev, made its debut at the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to glowing reviews. Running nearly four hours in length, this sprawling look at the history of one of the most influential bands in American music history features in-depth interviews from roadies, band members and extended Dead family members, along with incredible unseen behind-the-scenes and live footage spanning from the band members’ childhood through the various rungs of their climb to success.
Long Awaited Grateful Dead Documentary Will Soon Be Available On Amazon
Earlier this week, Entertainment Weekly posted an exclusive clip from the movie, which features interspersed video interviews of Garcia (from the ’90s) and bassist Phil Lesh (in the present day) talking about the origin of the band’s name. As they explain in the clip, the band had been using the name The Warlocks, but after discovering another group with that name, they had to pick a new moniker. While brainstorming ideas, Jerry opened a dictionary to a random page, and written on the page, nestled in the small print, were the words “Grateful Dead.” You can check out the clip below, via EW:
The movie is broken into six distinct parts, touching on Jerry Garcia’s well documented history of drug addiction, the complications of the band’s increased popularity in the 80s and the unique community that grew an unwieldy size by the early 90s. While the film’s scope is wider than any film about the band to date, it is less concerned with displaying a detailed chronology of The Grateful Dead and more focused on conveying the bands adventurous and idiosyncratic essence–how their music manifested as a truly communal artistic effort, and garnered a following closer to that of a religion than that of a rock and roll band. As clips, clues, and reviews continue to surface ahead of its public release, our level of excitement could not be higher for the long-awaited Long Strange Trip this May!
[h/t – Entertainment Weekly]