Shakedown Street

Recording

Toward the end of the Grateful Dead's 1974–1976 hiatus, they rented a Front Street warehouse in San Rafael. In 1977, when lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was rehearsing with the Jerry Garcia Band for the recording of Cats Under the Stars, they decided to capture the sound of the room, installing studio recording equipment. The rehearsal/storage space was then convenient for recording Shakedown Street, as lobbied by Garcia. The Dead again worked with an outside producer, but this time they sought a fellow and respected musician. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann said "We didn’t want to work with Keith Olsen again, but we had to keep our promise to Clive Davis and have someone in the producer’s chair – so we hired Little Feat’s Lowell George."

Drummer-percussionist Mickey Hart had a greater influence than previously, writing or arranging much of the music. As with the previous album's "Terrapin Flyer", he and Kreutzmann wrote a drums-based, instrumental track ("Serengetti"), recording it at the compound of medicine man Rolling Thunder, in Nevada. Hart's reggae-informed "Fire on the Mountain", with lyrics by Garcia's writing partner Robert Hunter, evolved from "Happiness is Drumming", which appeared on his Diga Rhythm Band's 1976 album (it had also been recorded during sessions for Terrapin Station). His "France" was also written with Hunter and has co-lead vocals by Donna Godchaux and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, who rewrote a simpler arrangement. Donna made her second, and final, singing-songwriting performance on a Dead studio album with "From the Heart of Me". (In between her two contributions she also wrote and sang "Rain" for Garcia's Cats Under the Stars). Her background, singing gospel and soul at Muscle Shoals, is evident in her vocal delivery.

Hart also influenced the arrangement of Garcia and Hunter's title track, a result of his interest in the Bee Gees and disco. "Stagger Lee" is Hunter's take on the oft-covered and diversely-arranged standard, "Stack O' Lee Blues". Garcia and Hunter also brought the ballad "If I Had the World to Give". Hunter explained "Jerry and I sat down and on a lark decided to write a romantic song, just for the heck of it. We were feeling sensitive because someone said 'Oh you write songs about guys for guys'. Something that would sound good in an old '50s cocktail lounge – that was the idea."

Contrasting with disco, California soft rock and ballads were the songs brought by Weir. "I Need a Miracle" is a rave-up rocker, written with his lyricist John Barlow, and featuring his friend Matt Kelly on harmonica. Weir's two covers  – Noah Lewis's "All New Minglewood Blues" and the Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'" – originally dated from the first years of the band (the latter previously sung by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan) but had been given contemporary arrangements. George would take the track "Six Feet of Snow", written with pianist Keith Godchaux, to his next Little Feat album, Down on the Farm.

With studio sessions uncompleted, the Grateful Dead made three concert appearances. To help pay for the opportunity to play three dates in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza and bring a large entourage to Egypt, they performed two concerts at Red Rocks and one at Giants Stadium. The shows gave them the opportunity to test five of the songs in front of audiences and work on the arrangements (see also Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978). Concerned with finishing the album in time for a US fall tour, the Dead then cancelled concerts scheduled for the UK, that were to follow Egypt concurrent with returning borrowed equipment to The Who. With Lowell George no longer available, the album was finished with Jerry Garcia Band bassist John Kahn producing and taking over the organ seat for the remiss Godchaux. George died just months after the album's release.

Release

The album cover art is by underground comix artist Gilbert Shelton. The front cover features the cartoonist's reimagining of the San Rafael warehouse district where the band had their practice and storage facility. Characters in the illustration resemble those from Shelton's The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. The back cover features the "Invisible Pimp", Shelton's character in a green zoot suit, twirling the fob of his watch chain and finger snapping. Sometimes called the "Doo-Dah Man" (after a lyric in "Truckin'"), it was originally drawn as a skeleton, but then rendered bodyless, except for smiling teeth and a pair of eyes. It became one of the many icons associated with the Grateful Dead, appearing in all manner of official and fan-produced art.

At the height of punk rock's California-centric second wave, the Grateful Dead were perceived by critics as having gone out of touch and abandoning their experimental edge by producing an album informed by disco and softer rock. Disco dominated the charts in the year following the massive success of Saturday Night Fever, but the dance-floor rhythms and production standards of the genre were seen as antithetical to traditional rock by many fans who viewed such changes in style as trend-following and mainstream-baiting. Fans were uneasy with what they sensed was a sell-out attempt, though ultimately the band's crucial live performances continued on their own organic trajectory as the new songs entered set list rotation. Kreutzmann said "Deadheads refer to this album, and even this era, as Disco Dead. I can see why. … Given the material and the producer, Shakedown Street just wasn’t as good as it should have been." However, Hart has been forthright about the collusion between band and label to make a commercial-sounding album: "We were trying to sell out – 'Oh, let's make a single and get on the radio'. Sure. We failed miserably once again. I mean, we could never sell out even if we tried, and we tried". The album was the band's first since Aoxomoxoa to not enter the Billboard Top 40 Album Chart.

Comparatively few of the album's songs can technically be considered disco – chiefly the title track, which features the four-on-the-floor beat, chicken-scratch guitar, syncopated bass and off-beat, lift-and-close hi-hat that were hallmarks of the genre. Other songs have the Latin syncopation and production sheen associated with the style, but rely on rock arrangements and guitar-based instrumentation, lacking the synthesizers and horn sections favored by disco. The larger stylistic change from the previous studio album was the move toward polyrhythmic backing and steelpan and cross-beat drumming, centered on Hart, and the increase in soft rock or ballad tracks. Donna Godchaux called the light and bouncy tone of the album "almost tongue-in-cheek".

The week of the album's release, the Grateful Dead appeared on Saturday Night Live. Their first of two appearances on the show, it was also their first time on a major network broadcast. They performed twice, playing "Casey Jones" and "I Need a Miracle>Good Lovin'" (the former was released on SNL25, The Musical Performances, Volume 1).

Two singles were released from the album. "Good Lovin" (b/w "Stagger Lee") is an edited version, with one verse excised and an early fade-out. It was followed by "Shakedown Street" (b/w "France"), in an edited version that excises a verse, a chorus, and a guitar solo.

The new arrangement of "New Minglewood Blues" had been in live rotation for two years and that of "Good Lovin'" for more than one year. Both remained on set lists through the band's history, along with "Shakedown Street", "I Need a Miracle", "Stagger Lee" and "Fire on the Mountain". The latter had already been performed live for over a year and was normally played after a segue from "Scarlet Begonias". "If I Had the World to Give" was dropped by the end of 1978, after just three performances. "From the Heart of Me" was performed for the rest of the Godchaux's tenure. "France" and "Serengetti" were never performed live.

By the late 1980s, the name "Shakedown Street" was co-opted by Deadheads as an ironic name for the midway-like area for vending, performance and socializing that would appear in parking lots and locales adjacent to concert venues, set up by those following Grateful Dead concert tours.

Shakedown Street was released on CD in 1987. It was remastered and expanded for the Beyond Description box set in October 2004. This version was separately released March 7, 2006 by Rhino Records.

Track listing

Notes

Charts

RIAA Certification