RADAR
AMIR BAR-LEV, the 45-year-old director of Long Strange Trip, is right about one thing: You don’t have to like the Grateful Dead’s music to warm to their story. Indeed, their music, which can sound to an unbeliever’s ear like a band trying to cover for the fact that the singer hasn’t turned up, may put many of a story worth telling.
Formed in mid-’60s San Francisco, the Dead were always supposed to be too edgy to be popular. However, it was this very rejection of hit singles, predictable set lists, photo sessions and songs that normal humans could dance to that made them popular.