well, I'm a fan of studio recordings in general ... I love live music, but it doesn't always come across well in a recording ... there's kinds of guitar tones in particular that you can't get any other way ... whether it's The Velvet Underground's studio take of "Sweet Jane" with all it's beautiful stilted clunkiness, or (more relevantly) "Stella Blue" (for clarity of delineated groove) or "U.S. Blues" (for vocal and guitar tones) or "Terrapin Station" (for unnatural closeness of perspective) or side one of Anthem Of The Sun (cos it's insane) ... I'm not a fan of badly applied studio technique, just that there's sonic things that happen naturally there if you let them that can't happen in other places
By no means would I disagree that the Grateful Dead brought the 300 pound gorilla to the live idiom, and at their best could take you places you couldn't get to any other way (whether one wants to go to those places is one's own prerogative)
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