If you graduated from High School anytime in the 1970’s (and even the 1980’s), then you almost certainly had some interaction with Deadheads.

Now that the fanbase for the Grateful Dead has outlived the band by a significant margin, I sometimes wonder if the ‘modern’ version of a Deadhead acknowledges their studio recordings with the same degree of intensity as the thousands of live performances that have been so well-documented.

From my perspective, and with only a few exceptions (“Workingman’s Dead” and American Beauty” in particular) the studio recordings seem to get short shrift, or entirely ignored by their most adoring fans, and that disappoints me. I applaud anybody who appreciates the various nuances of a live performance, even if that includes attempting to memorize two thousand-some-odd renditions of “Dark Star”, but for me, I often find myself returning to the studio recordings, and if I needed to pick just one, it would be “Mars Hotel” because it does such a fine job of presenting the band’s strong points.

Any album that opens with the tongue-in-cheek irony of “U.S. Blues” and closes with the provocative insight of “Ship of Fools” is bound to be great, but add in a Phil Lesh masterpiece like “Unbroken Chain,” the gorgeous rock and roll of “Scarlet Begonias” and the dreamy/spooky wistfulness of “China Doll” (which always gives me chills when they resolve to a major key) and you have a Grateful Dead album that will withstand the ages, regardless of when you graduated.

Feature tracks:

U.S. Blues

China Doll

Unbroken Chain

Loose Lucy

Scarlet Begonias

Pride of Cucamonga

Money Money

Ship of Fools

June 1974 - Billboard Charted #16