Grateful Dead, Terrapin Station
Arista, 1977: Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals, died 1995), Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), Keith Godchaux (keyboards, vocals, died 1980), Phil Lesh (bass), Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals)

Notable songs:

• Sunrise
• Terrapin Station Part 1, which occupies the entire second side of the album has these sub-parts
  • Lady with a Fan
  • Terrapin Station
  • Terrapin
  • Terrapin Transit
  • At a Siding
  • Terrapin Flyer
  • Refrain

This album always seemed to be a controversial album for deadheads as it allegedly didn't fit a more improvised, looser, extended, free-flowing "Dead" style. Deadheads thought the music was over-produced with too many symphonic overtones. I disagree with that and feel that this is by far the best Dead album.

ELO was a pioneering band in the 1970s with the introduction of classical music sounds, especially the use of strings (cellos and violins). The Dead went in the same direction with this album, and I'd note that the whole rock symphonic direction hit its peak with Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

This was the ninth Grateful Dead studio album, but the band always seemed to be more famous for the bootleg copies of their live performances that circulated on cassette tapes.

"Terrapin Station Part One" was Jerry Garcia's idea. I think that should be enough to convince deadheads that this album really was the "dead" at its best and not a different direction.

Actually the most famous "Dead" cultural or pop reference comes from Don Henley in his "Boys of Summer " (1984): "Out on the road today, I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back"

The band formed as a part of California's drug, counter-culture in 1965 in Palo Alto and became famous for their live shows and extended instrumental jams.