Additional personnel: Steve Schuster (flute, reeds).

Originally released on Grateful Dead (4001) on September 1, 1975.

Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Phil Lesh (vocals, bass guitar); Keith Godchaux (keyboards, background vocals); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion); Donna Jean Godchaux (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Steven Schuster (flute, reeds).

As any Deadhead will tell you, the magic of the Grateful Dead was always better captured in a live setting than in a recording studio. Still, while they've probably released more live records than any band ever, their career has been punctuated by solid studio efforts featuring songs that would become staples of their live sets. BLUES FOR ALLAH, released in 1975, was rich in future nuggets. It marked a return to the studio after a string of mostly live releases, and it was an accomplished and varied record.

BLUES FOR ALLAH begins with a jazz-tinged song cycle: the astringent funk groove of "Help on the Way" seguing into the flowing instrumental "Slipknot!" which, naturally enough, slips effortlessly into future concert classic "Franklin's Tower," with its enigmatic but irresistible refrain, "roll away the dew." High points include the sleek, backbone-loosening "The Music Never Stopped" and the languid, psychedelic reggae of "Crazy Fingers." The record is not without its unsettling moments, especially the ominous title track, which probably caused a few freak-outs in its heyday.