I picked up this book hoping it would be about the actual "search for the sound"---ie, the effort that the went into trying to write and perform songs. What I got instead was a fascinating history of the Grateful Dead. Despite having no idea what they were doing, and continually "blowing the big ones", they somehow did alright for themselves. It's an inspiring book on that front, but damned depressing in terms of they were torn apart by bad management, the inability to focus on anything other than music, and a bunch of substance abuse.