American Beauty is the great album of the Grateful Dead, a perfect album in which are some of the best songs of their career such as Box Of Rain by Phil Lesh, Sugar Magnolia by Bob Weir, three absolute classics by the main songwriting couple of the band (Jerry García putting the music and Robert Hunter the lyrics) such as Friend Of The Devil, Ripple, and Candyman, and the track that closes the album, Truckin ‘.
The album closes with Truckin ‘, composed of the four main members, García, Lesh, Weir, and Hunter who hit the spot with this description of life on the road that perfectly defined the band: “What a long, strange trip it’s been “.
“Truckin'” is practically an autobiographical story about life on the road literally, where all the locations are mixed in a “who’s who” of American cities. At the end of the day, the song remembers that all the places are the same and what matters is to go play for your fans and then rest at home, recover your energy to hit the road again. Cities mix: “Chicago, New York, Detroit, it’s all on the same street.”
“Truckin ‘” was also one of the band’s highest-ranked singles, and it is a very inspired song that also serves as an ideal complement to the image that one can make in his head of what was the west coast American musically speaking.
In short, “American Beauty” is an album that doesn’t waste your time and delivers pure good moments in its forty-odd minutes, mixing pop magic with simplicity and good taste.
A truly inspired work by the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia being on the guitar with many high points, unbeatable and brimming with the best qualities that the group boasted. A coherent work that at no time is caressed with mediocrity or banality and also without any dispensable or filler theme as they say. Below you can hear one of the best-isolated guitars ever made on YouTube.