The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead―The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter

by Robert Hunter, Brigid Meier (afterword), John Mayer (foreword)

Discovered at last, the legendary lost manuscript of Grateful Dead co-founder and primary lyricist Robert Hunter, written in the early 1960s—a wry, richly observed, and enlightening remembrance of “the scene” in Palo Alto that gave rise to an incredible partnership of Hunter and Jerry Garcia, and then to the Grateful Dead itself—with a Foreword by John Mayer, an Introduction by Dennis McNally, and an Afterword by Brigid Meier.

“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.”

So wrote Robert Hunter in The Silver Snarling Trumpet, both a novelistic singular work of art and the missing piece of the Grateful Dead origin story. In this book, listeners are privy to the early days of Hunter, Garcia, and their cohorts, who sit at coffee shops passing around a single cup of bottomless coffee because they lacked the funds for more than one. Follow these truth-seeking souls into the stacks at Kepler’s Books, renting instruments at Swain’s House of Music, and through the countryside on mind-expanding road trips. Witness impromptu jams, inspired intellectual pranks, and a dialogue that is, by turns, amusing and brilliant and outrageous. Hunter shares his impressions of his first gig with Garcia for a college audience, along with descriptions of his most intense dreams and psychedelic explorations. All of it, enlivened by Hunter’s visionary spirit and profound ideas about creativity and collaboration.

The lost manuscript is augmented with a Foreword by John Mayer, an Introduction by Dennis McNally, and an Afterword by Brigid Meier, who was part of their scene in the San Francisco Bay Area that served as a bridge from the beatniks to the hippies. Also included is Hunter’s own 1982 assessment of his work—about how he shared it with close confidants but then decided to leave it unpublished. Five years after Hunter’s death, the text has been found, so readers and fans of Hunter’s indelible poetry and song can explore the origin of his genius and his craft.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Audiobook, History, American

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2024

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
This is the “catch-all” profile.

Current authors

Robert^^Hunter American musician, novelist
Robert^^^Hunter ceramics
Robert^^^^Hunter self help/business

Robert Frank Hunter illustrator
Robert^E. Hunter American diplomat
Robert^^E. Hunter American surgeon
Robert N. Hunter road engineer
Robert P. Hunter veterinary drug specialist

Dead authors

Robert C. Hunter lyricist, The Grateful Dead (1941-2019)
Robert Brockie Hunter British physician (1915-1994)
Robert Hancock Hunter, known for memoir (1813-1902)
Robert M.T. Hunter American politician (1809-1887)

Robert^^^^^Hunter Canadian environmentalist; co-founder of Greenpeace (1941-2005)
Robert^^^^^^Hunter American politician and golf course architect (1874-1942)
Robert^^^^^^^Hunter British civil servant and solicitor (1844-1913)
Robert^^^^^^^^Hunter doctor, (1826-?)
Robert^^^^^^^^^Hunter Scottish missionary; Encyclopædist (1823-1897)
Robert^^^^^^^^^^Hunter British military officer (1666-1734)

Reviews

[Mark Miano · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book supplied a few key Grateful Dead elements for me:

1.) At 19, Robert Hunter wrote as well as Jack Kerouac - and this was an unfinished manuscript.  Clearly, he could write.

2.) The Prophet is an important figure for explaining why Jerry Garcia not only had the world view that he had, but also the drive. I think a lot of young people in that time had the same world view, but they didn’t have the drive. Jerry figured he could die any day and he had stuff he needed to accomplish before that happened.

3.) I get the sense that Jerry didn’t think much of Robert’s playing, and that Robert agreed with him.

4.) The afterword by Brigid is the best of all the essays outside the manuscript in the book. It shares a poem Robert sent to Brigid and it’s got all the elements of a Dead song. Fantastical descriptions with hints of deep lore and legend.  Essentially, you can’t separate the words from the music with the Grateful Dead - and this is why Robert is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

5.) These guys (Alan, the Brit, too) were smart.  They immersed themselves in some heavy reading and that was the topic of their conversations at the bar or the bookstore.

6.) This is a slice of life from another era.  As the afterword explains, this was years before pot was easy to find and acid was even a thing.  They didn’t have any money, they were basically eating when they could, but they believed they were onto something great.

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely exceeded expectations, about as good as a young man's autobiographical novel like this could be, a memoir of madcap Holy Fool bohemian young intellectual searchers, especially worthwhile now as the pendulum swings toward oppressive conservative conformity. This would be worth it as a historical document even if the narrator and the main character didn't go on to write some songs together. Humorous shades of Melville and epic poetry in the DNA of the prose, humorous because it's justa poet, a writer, and a guitar player, mostly, also a sax player and a few other weirdos, hanging out, philosophizing/jabbering at cafes. Late teens, early '60s, post-Beat, pre-hippie, no drugs or anti-war movement or anything other than chasing their quixotic white whale they call The Scene, always on guard against the conventional temptations of "security." Interstitial dream sequence bloviation mars the story, a texture that was easy enough to half listen to on audiobook but the sort of thing I'd've skimmed if reading in print, and you're only allowed one "lapis lazuli" and "idly wandered" per book, but even so the humor (a delightful, truly LOL scene with "Tom" early on), free associative exuberant dialogue, general crazed high-minded anti-"security" spirit, and simple wonderful characterization throughout make this a winner. The dual subtitle was surely added by marketing, not Hunter. The contextual intro and outro by Dennis McNally and Barbara Meier are worth a listen. Jerry, apparently, was always Jerry, the focal point of the scene even if being the center of things wasn't his intention as much as living in the here and now and playing music. Also interesting in that the action picks up soon after the car crash Jerry and Alan Trist were in that killed their friend and made Jerry think he better start taking his music more seriously. But overall, if you have a Spotify account, it's worth ~six hours of your time. And if you're still interested, also recommended are ~three hours of related interviews with Alan Trist and Barbara Meier and others spread across two episodes of the Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t a history book, rather a poetic look into the minds and habits of “the scene” that Grateful Dead was born from. As a Menlo Park native myself I really enjoyed the local lore and glimpse into the daily activities of Bob Hunter and his group, most notably including Jerry Garcia. As this lost manuscript was written before hallucinogens made their way into the mix, the writing and stories are reflective of a lost teenager’s thoughts with a rare gift for words. I recommend this book to any Deadhead (or not) who is interested in jumping into the setting from which one of the most legendary music groups of all time was created.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the positive side, this is a warts-and-all account of the very earliest days of a musical collaboration that would eventually grow into a phenomenon and a picture of San Francisco on the eve of a cultural renaissance. On the flipside, it's a naive narrative of the end of a "scene" and an occasionally cliched account of young people seeking truth and meaning in the Babylon of the mid 20th Century, a story told better in countless elsewheres. The astonishing verbal play and wonder of Robert Hunter's lyrics is mostly absent from the youthful, soul-searching prose in this book.

To do justice to this text, it should have been presented with a better "frame," annotations where the characters' identities and destinies could be tied to the meandering anecdotes and stoned conversations that comprise the text. The intro by John Mayer is no help at all.

Essential reading for Deadheads but really not a very good book. It's easy to see why Hunter wasn't interested in publishing it.

[Sam Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful time capsule of moments i would have never known!

[Anna Whitney]

Looking for friends who want to form an undercover branch of the Youth for the Abolishment of Virginity Service so we can gather statistical data on the shameful overabundance of nonerotic literature on the market

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good, if somewhat out-there, read and one made better if the reader is familiar with the glittering, nascent ripples of cultural that led, eventually, to the formation and subsequent trajectory of The Dead. This book, to me, is more of a snapshot of the brief period between the Beat movement and the rise of the hippy subculture. Before the LSD and perhaps after the black turtlenecks and berets. Hunter’s prose, familiar in style to some - myself included - from hundreds if not thousands of hours spent listening to his words come through the music of the Grateful Dead, are here, penned by a younger version and filtered through seasoned and accomplished author. I’d encourage anyone interested in “the scene” to pick this up and even if the characters and settings aren’t familiar ones, what you’re left with at the end is either a unique piece of the puzzle comprised of other books about this era or a jumping off point to find other pieces you’ve not experienced yet.

[Kirsten Fearman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for any deadhead. What a treat to have a glimpse into the scene that started the wheels in motion. I love how Hunter is able to describe the monotony of their daily life in such an intriguing and poetic way. It reads more like a journal than a historic book in the best way possible.

[Stephen Raguskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book with some useful tidbits about Hunter and Garcia’s early friendship. But there was a lot of self-indulgent weirdness, bizarre hallucinations, and other pointless ramblings like many of us scribbled down in notebooks when we were 19. I really don’t think Hunter would’ve made the decision to publish this.

“And we talked, not just in words but in communication, that rare form of understanding that sometimes slips unheralded into a conversation.”

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have absolutely no idea what I just read. None of it made any sense to me. I’ve never been a fan of The Grateful Dead so maybe that is why I didn’t get it. Or maybe I should have gotten stoned before reading. I truly did not understand a thing that I read. Supposedly about the beginnings of The Grateful Dead, it certainly was not. It was nothing but the ramblings of the author. I think that even most Grateful Dead fans would be very disappointed. Does it even deserve one star?

[Roy McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transient youth, enfold to the breast the searched-for grail, and know it to be nothing but that which it is.

[Steve Cushman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title bills this as the “birth of the Grateful Dead”, although I can’t quite embrace that. Hunter and Garcia are teenaged friends, pseudo intellectuals, and they create a “scene” of like minded souls.

Their friendship would endure, and grow into the songwriting team that would write most of the Dead’s wonderful catalog.

The “scene’ described in this book reminds me of groups of friends that I have been part of, and I am certainly exist in different combinations throughout the world.

I’d like to say this book is required reading for any “Dead Head” but I can’t really make that statement. I did find it interesting with much of reading like an acid trip.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This quasi-memoir was written by (future) Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter when he was a young man hanging out with friends in Palo Alto. It was not published, and when Hunter looked at it again 20 years later he decided that he shouldn't attempt to revise it, since he felt it was an important record of a dramatically different time in his life. Along with others in the early 1960s 'scene' he was consciously opting out of a conventional path in life and trying to find his voice as a writer.

Chronically short of money, Hunter slept with several others in a dreary room funded by his slightly richer friend Willy. They would hang out in a coffee house, ordering a single cup of coffee to share between 3 guys, until the owner got tired of them taking up table space without a purchase and kicked them out. The scene then gravitated to a local bookshop, where they talked about philosophy, music, poetry and art.

They were so broke that they would scrounge for cigarette butts while walking to the bookstore and back, tearing them apart for the tobacco. They were also too short of money to use illegal drugs, although in one memorable scene someone shares a marijuana cigarette with Hunter and he experienced wild visions.

Many of the most memorable passages are descriptions of his close friend and fellow roommate Jerry Garcia, who he described as playing his guitar 38 hours a day. For a while, Hunter and Garcia played together, working on harmonies for the old folk songs Garcia loved, until Jerry decided that Hunter was more dedicated to his writing than to music. Before the duo broke up, they played a couple gigs together, where Jerry was amazed and thrilled that people would enjoy listening to him perform.

Toward the end, Hunter describes a sense of dissatisfaction with the 'scene' and a desire to move on. When Alan, a British student / poet, returns to the UK and when Jerry gets a job teaching guitar at a music shop the group drifts apart.

I enjoyed this rather intense vision of how the 'scene' is the intersection of the earlier beatnik and the later hippie scenes. It is interesting as one man's record of his experiences. The following two quotes were ones I flagged as I read it.

All over the world, the insect of social irritation was making known his presence. We were as much a product of the times as of anything else; a time devoid of new physical horizons and a time that was forced to seek within for the conflicts nature could no longer afford us. The well explored, carefully charted world that had been offered to us at birth was discarded, with its figurehead kings and be-highwayed jungles, as devoid of either interest or worth. Even so, we had a faith in ourselves similar to the proverbial flea crawling up an elephant's leg with rape on its mind, as we freed ourselves from the world of manners and polite society that we might reenter it on our own terms, if at all. The rejection necessarily included the loss of its comforts, and coffee, the staff of life, assumed the position of its richer brother, the cocktail.

There occur days in the most prosaic lives upon which nothing remarkable happens, and yet the day remains engraved on the memory just because it was remarkable in itself; "remarkable" because it was the very antithesis of "dying," in contrast to those days in which we find ourselves a little less alive than we had been the day before. These are the days we give the catch-all tag of "memories," and they make the gathering of years a little less unpleasant because they happened. They touch the clouded mind softly and place a pleasant mist around the accumulated years.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead - The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter by Robert Hunter (Hachette Books 2024) (780) (4000).

This is the recently-uncovered unfinished manuscript of a novel penned by Grateful Dead member and lyricist Robert “Bob” Hunter in the late 1960s when he was nineteen years old and living in San Francisco. He was already chums with Jerry Garcia.

This is an interesting early look at Hunter’s developing literary genius. He went on to become Jerry Garcia’s principal songwriting partner; Hunter wrote the lyrics, and Jerry wrote the tunes to many of the Grateful Dead anthems ("Dark Star," "Friend of the Devil," "Scarlet Begonias," "Shakedown Street," "Terrapin Station," "Uncle John’s Band," etc.).

This is a novel about hanging out in Bay Area coffee shops and bookstores well before the acid-drenched halcyon days of Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties. The story is less a story than a daily account of idly sitting around and hanging out with dead-broke pals. The author spends much of the book musing on either his nightly dreamscapes or daydreams and attempting to parse them. It is possible to discern Hunter’s lyric gift for language which grew into full fruit with the Grateful Dead.

Hunter acknowledges in this tale that the only drugs in San Francisco in those days that the proto hippies could find were benzedrine (speed), tobacco, and caffeine - and alcohol too, though that drug makes little to no appearance in this tale and was apparently few hippies’ drug of choice. An occasional “stick” of the exotic drug marijuana was a huge treat and was esteemed beyond all other substances.

Hunter’s story has a telling “Afterword” written by Brigid Meier, who was one of the integral characters in the story:

“The scene was intensely literary. But also extremely silly…We did not take ourselves seriously, and we were eager to undermine and poke fun at any and all pomposity. The ‘holy goof’ immortalized by Kerouac became our unspoken Zen lunatic inspiration. Years later, with the infusion of LSD, it was turbocharged and embraced as the Merry Pranksters’ fundamental ethos.

But in 1961/62, we had no drugs, so spontaneous dada zaniness was highly prized as a ‘high’...The point was to laugh at it all…We would keep the verbal improvisation going just to see how far over the top we could stand the wordplay before our stomachs ached from too much laughing. We generated our own endogenous drugs - serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin - from singing and laughing and bonding as a gang of close-knit misfit friends.”

- (p. 217, Snarling Silver Trumpet, quoting Brigid Meier).

This little tale is sure to be appreciated by Deadheads but will probably strike most everyone else as a head scratcher.

I own a brand new hardback copy that was given to me by my 63-year-old baby brother (!) on 11/1/24.

My rating: 7/10, finished 11/18/24 (4000).

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Terry Ballard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1961, two unusual 19 year olds met in Menlo Park, a suburb of San Francisco, and formed a bond that would last for decades. Bob was a college dropout from Connecticut who had dreams of being a writer. Jerry was just out of a failed attempt at army service, and dreamed of being a folk singer. Alan was a poet from England, killing time before entry to Cambridge. Jerry's girlfriend Barbara just wanted to be part of the scene. As the story begins, they are staying in a one room apartment with a motley crew of individualists inspired by Kerouac and cheap wine. Their days began with a search for half used cigarette butts. At night they would go to the coffee shop, until being banned by the owner because the deal of four people sitting at a table for hours sharing a single cup of coffee did not make good economic sense. Later the scene showed up at a nearby book store. One day Jerry and Bob are invited by a teacher friend to sing songs for his elementary students, and they were a huge hit. The seed was sown, and Jerry decided that music would be his life. Bob stuck with dreams of writing - he wrote down the entire scene of that year and then put the manuscript away for decades. Those who know Hunter's work will not be surprised to learn that the book is mainly a prose poem. Many pages foreshadow the last song he wrote with Jerry in the 1990s - Days Between. It ponders the concept of waiting through grey days for something big to happen. Maybe the big thing did happen when they weren't paying attention. You wonder how many groups of bohemians lived in those days and the big thing never happened. Even if they had the talent. In this case something big DID happen. Eight years later, Jerry Garcia was the lead man for a hugely successful Bay area band with a growing international following. Robert Hunter was installed as chief song writer- writing the lyrics for gems like Truckin, Touch of Grey and Uncle John's Band. Much later Jerry married Barbara, but it did not last - stability was not his thing. What did last was the music and the words - words that launch a hundred million t-shirts. Sometimes the soil is just right for something big to pop up.

[James McCallister · Rating 4 out of 5]

A key text for those interested in the through-line of American bohemia which led to the hippies and, yes, psychedelic music like that of the Dead.

SST is a vital literary artifact (and fast read) depicting not so much 'the birth of the Grateful Dead' as the cover promises, rather, a glimpse at the liminal space occupied by the 'war babies' coming of age in the cultural moment between the Beats and the Merry Pranksters circa 1961. This means that it's folk and other traditional music being played in the coffee houses; it's youthful poverty and spending day after day nursing a single cup of coffee or reading and conversing at the bookstore, a group of youngsters trying to form personas not only for themselves as individuals but for the seeming group mind forming among the participants, a phenomenon later coming to full fruition in the time of widespread LSD use and the fellowship found at a Grateful Dead concert.

"What now?" seems the prevalent mood of the participants in the narrative. The active scenes documented are vibrant, meaningful, funny and interesting, while the philosophical asides often read like material written by a bright but youthful intellect, and only detract in the sense of not being terribly deep or insightful. Such material is more than forgivable—Hunter was 19 or 20 during the writing of the manuscript. He will 'get there' as an artist and thinker but only later, and far outside the parameters of this work.

Whatever its flaws and limitations, I will always be grateful this document found its way to publication. Will it resonant with anyone outside the sphere of interest of the Dead? Possibly, but SST will likely enjoy an audience comprised mostly of Deadhead completists and cultural historians... which, let's face, is the audience for whom this book is intended.

[Steve Johgart · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And we talked, not just in words but in communication, that rare form of understanding that sometimes slips unheralded into a conversation. Communication... the fascination of which precludes sleep or hunger or anything except further communication.”

That passage is from the newly published “The Silver Snarling Trumpet”, a rambling chronicle of youth written by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter in his late teens, in 1961, a few years before there was any Grateful Dead. I share that passage because it struck me in the moment, bringing to mind those uncommon times in conversation so outside time and space we forget we are in conversation. I could have chosen a number of other marvelous passages from the book which set my mind traveling through familiar unknowns, but that one was right there waiting.

I absolutely enjoyed this book. The events, the characters, and the story evoked memories of a similarly questing and confused youthful past of my own ten years later, likewise filled with friends and conversations and moments of wondering “what” (rather than “why”). The writing was strangely familiar, evoking thoughts of my own journaling in a similar period of my life. I loved the vivid details woven into the impressionistic narrative, a style somewhere between Kerouac and e.e. cummings’ “The Enormous Room”. The characters are real people, identified by only first names, and the events are real events, but the evocation of the energy and ultimate return to entropy of “the scene” goes beyond. A fun read involving well-known and beloved artists long before they had any inkling they would become well-known and beloved.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a cataloguer, these kinds of books make me absolutely crazy. Where to classify it? (my local library, where I got it, has it in the music number, which isn't exactly wrong, but doesn't feel totally right, either. This is the published version of a manuscript produced by Robert Hunter, well-known as a prolific lyricist, especially for the Grateful Dead, in 1962. The scene that Deadheads would recognize hasn't even been born yet -- this book exists in the space between the beatnik movement and the psychedelic era. The denizens--Hunter, Jerry Garcia, and a few random other folks who are only referenced by first names, and may or may not have been around as the scene developed--aren't really doing drugs, except drinking lots of coffee and wine, and smoking tons of cigarettes and the occasional joint. They were broke, drifting, unmotivated. This is part existential rumination (what am I doing with my life?), part psychedelic dream (even without drugs, Hunter's brain seemed to be a kaleidoscope of bizarre images and experiences), all of which seems to be barely a distraction from the listless bohemian existence, which by Hunter's account was really pretty boring. Hunter himself was only about 19 or 20 when he wrote this, which is pretty remarkable given the maturity of the reflections. It's an interesting peek into the lives of people, pretty ordinary people actually, who became the centre of the Grateful Dead scene. There are some very familiar aspects here, and other facets that bring new insight into the whole history. A cataloguer's nightmare, but an interesting read.

[Jason Bergsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acclaimed lyricist and writer Robert Hunter shares a story of the scene leading to the early days of the Grateful Dead. The auto-fiction/memoir/novella shares some beloved and trying moments in Hunter's relationship with Jerry Garcia and other friends of theirs at the time.

I think the presentation of this story is different from the story itself. With introductions/afterwords from people tied to the Grateful Dead and the addition of "the Birth of the Grateful Dead" to the title, it seems as if the publishing of the book is certainly trying to capitalize on the band's following (1. I don't blame them. And 2. It worked on me) But other than Hunter's interactions with Jerry, it seems like this story only sets the ground work for the story of the birth of the band.

As far as the actual novella goes, I think it is enjoyable and a fun and interesting read. There are certainly some areas that could use some improvement, most of which are addressed in the Author's Note. I think it certainly has potential to be a great story, but it needed a little more editing. But as an early work from Hunter, I won't knock it too much.

Overall I think it's an enjoyable read, especially if you're interested in the history of Hunter and the Dead. But you're not really missing out on too much if you don't read it. On a side note, if you enjoy this writing style from Hunter and you've never read Jack Kerouac, check him out.

[Alex McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would be lying if I said this book turned out to be exactly what I had expected. Going into this, I thought the emphasis would be on San Francisco's blooming music scene in the 1960s. While there are nods to this, the book is better understood as snapshot that captures the early adolescence of one of America's most important singer-songwriter partnerships: Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.

Reading this book as a 21-year old man, I resonated with a lot of the emotions and experiences Hunter truthfully pens. The feelings of uncertainty that are captured in these pages is a sensation that I believe is a very common experience. In many ways, these autobiographical accounts were the highlights for me.

The level of detail that Hunter was able to capture of the people he was surrounded by during the early 60s demonstrates how perceptive and absorbent he was. As an avid Grateful Dead fan, it is very insightful to see how Hunter's young mind worked. I feel that revisiting his lyrical contributions to the band will deepen my appreciation now that I have had the opportunity to appreciate his literary origins.

[K'Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lifelong Deadhead, I fell right into the swirling, improvisational rhythm of Snarling Silver Trumpet. The book reads the way a good jam sounds—layered, unpredictable, but somehow holding together in this perfect, offbeat harmony. There were moments that reminded me of standing in the middle of a show, surrounded by people who all hear the same notes differently but are carried by the same current.

The language is wild and alive, pulsing like feedback through a stack of speakers, but there’s also a tender undercurrent that caught me off guard—like the quiet moments between songs when the band is tuning up and the crowd is breathing as one.

What I loved most was how it refuses to be boxed in. Just like the Dead never played the same song the same way twice, this book feels like it shifts with your mood. One read-through hit me with raw electricity, another with mellow soul.

If you like your literature straight-laced and predictable, this might not be for you. But if you’re the kind of reader who’s ever closed your eyes at a show and just let the music take you somewhere new—this book will feel like home.

[William Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in Dead history and that (in retrospect) amazing scene in Palo Alto (of all places) between the eras of beatniks and hippies. I found it engaging and interesting when describing the real characters and events of the "scene", and not so much when it veered into more "literary" directions, e.g. extended descriptions of dreams etc. For the Dead lover it is very interesting to see how central Jerry was to the scene even when barely a functioning musician; he is omnipresent and the only one referred to by his actual name. Apparently he had a powerful charisma which, honestly, has never seemed real apparent to me in the years of the Dead. He chose, I guess (and he has said this pretty explicitly), to submerge his individual self into the greater whole of the band in order to create something bigger than any of them.
I only gave it three stars because it would not be particularly interesting if their Godot-like scene of waiting for "something" to happen, had not actually led to the results we all know.

[Gillian Shin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Silver Snarling Trumpet was my first exposure to the Grateful Dead. Despite not knowing much about the band, the writing felt extremely personal. The book is beautifully written, comprised of Robert Hunter’s cinematic dreams, vivid descriptions of "the scene,” and a growing sense of waiting— but not knowing exactly for what. Beyond just a nice snippet of youth in '60s painted by art, drugs, and dreamers, it is also a comforting piece of evidence that the pains and worries and contemplations of young people continue to carry a similar tune across decades. Much of what Hunter said resonated deeply with me, articulated in a precise and original way. It is not only for Deadheads— this is a book for anyone going through a transitional period in their lives and perhaps feels alone in that regard, or anyone who simply wants to indulge in an avalanche of elegant, poetic prose and earnest philosophical observations.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. Hunter was 19 when he wrote this. He never published it. It was lost for years. I doubt it ever saw an editor. These things need to be taken into consideration before someone jumps into this long-lost "manuscript" written in the early days of his relationship with Jerry Garcia. Some of the book is obviously tied to their relationship and their physical setting. Some of it is obviously derived from his desire to write fanciful fiction. Elvis Costello describes it as " aMenlo Park version of Withnail & I." I've never actually read that, but if you have, I suppose this gives you some idea of what you are getting into. Hunter's work lands somewhere between the Beats and the Hippies and probably isn't getting published if it is written by anyone else. As a fan of the Dead, I loved the bits regarding Jerry and the early days, but I readily admit that this book is not for everyone.

[Brian Manby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s essentially an amateur philosopher’s diary, interspersed with whimsical anecdotes intended to illuminate the zeitgeist of 1960s’ youth in California. I don’t mean that negatively, either. Robert Hunter is in the pantheon of lyricists, and this book shows that his non-lyrical, standalone writing (and thinking) deserves individual praise, but it can be a challenging at times to comb through pedantic descriptions and depictions of dreams/visuals (trips?) from a third-person perspective. Nonetheless, it’s a wonderful avenue into the mind of a creative genius outside of the work he’s most known for (lyrics). A fun, at times unromantic, read with some profound and insightful moments, but special for any Deadhead.

[Jason Levenstiem · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I am a huge fan of the Dead, I found this to be somewhat of a rambling, unfocused mess. While that might be the point of Hunter’s lost manuscript, to me, it felt like I was expecting something more central to the formation of the band. I did enjoy Hunter’s recounting of conversations with the great Jerry Garcia, and some of his dream sequences, but overall I felt a bit underwhelmed. A glimpse into a different time, written as it was happening. Interesting to say the LEAST.


“We exist not in the future nor in the past But in that precise unmeasurable point of time that rushes headlong into the next point and is called the present.”

“And we talked, not just in words but in communication, that rare form of understanding that sometimes slips unheralded into a conversation.”

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for all Deadheads. Despite being big on the music, hippie culture, and Dead scene in general - I have found most Dead books and stories interesting but unrelatable. Silver Snarling Trumpet immediately grabbed me and didn't let go. It is a look into the daily lives of pre-Dead Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Most of the time I think of Jerry as a superhuman who knew something the rest of us never could begin to understand. This singular account of a young Jerry before he had it all figured out made me think of him in a new light, especially as Hunter described Jerry's world (a child's garden) vs the real world (growing up). I look forward to reading this again and again.

[Dhaivyd Hilgendorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fun to hear about the lifestyle of Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia when they were penniless and unknown intellectuals in 1961, 4 years before the formation of the Grateful Dead. Hunter’s dreamscapes are in the vein of Jabberwocky, On the Road, Alice in Wonderland and similar absurdist literature. Following alliterative streams of consciousness by being in tune with the moment - it makes sense that this pod was instrumental in the formation of the counterculture movement of the 1960s and became the songwriting duo behind the most artistic of the Dead’s repertoire. I also enjoyed John Mayer’s introductory comments.

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very lightly veiled memoir, a "novel" but a short one, about the very beginnings of the "scene" that included members of the Dead family. I was a little leery of this, being something written when the author was about 20 and knowing what my writings from that era are like. And the effusive praise it garnered also made me leery.

But it was great. Light reading, but deep in parts. Eloquent but not flowery. Hunter is as good a writer as a poet and songwriter. He did go back and change it, so it feels fresh but also has a sense of hindsight.

Found at a bargain book store and of course I couldn't pass it up, and I'm glad I read it.

[Ric · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars with an asterisk. This is a fascinating and compelling book if you care about the earliest days of Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia. This 'novel' is more of a diary really and tracks the pair as they wander through life and wonder what comes next, peppered with some dream sequences that defy description. I found it extremely interesting and entertaining, and it's worth the price of admission just to read about the aftermath of a fatal car accident and how it shaped Garcia's view of living. I picked it up the minute I heard it was out and it will have a home on my bookshelf forever.