Shakedown Street

Studio album by Grateful Dead

Released

November 15, 1978

Recorded

July 31-August 18, 1978 at Club Le Front, except "Serengetti", recorded by MERT at Meta Tantay, Carlin, Nevada

Genre

Jam rock, funk rock, disco

Length

39:04

Grateful Dead chronology

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
(1977)

Shakedown Street
(1978)

Go to Heaven
(1980)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	C
Rolling Stone	Mixed

Shakedown Street is a studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released November 15, 1978 on Arista Records. The album came just over a year after previous studio album Terrapin Station. It was the final album for Keith and Donna Godchaux, keyboardist and backing vocalist spouses who left the band a few months after its release. The record was produced by Lowell George (of Little Feat) and John Kahn.

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, earning three co-compositional credits in addition to assisting with the arrangements of several songs, including Garcia and Hunter's title track (influenced by his interest in the Bee Gees and disco). As with the previous album's "Terrapin Flyer", Hart and Kreutzmann wrote a percussion-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. Although an attempt to record the song for Terrapin Station proved to be unsuccessful, it rapidly evolved into one of the band's principal jamming vehicles (often paired with Garcia's "Scarlet Begonias") during their spring 1977 tour. Hart and Hunter's "France" was sung by Donna Godchaux and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, who devised a simpler arrangement and earned a compositional credit. 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 as a gospel-soul session singer at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is evident in her vocal delivery.

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Wikipedia