Customer Reviews

Shakedown Street (Dig)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've always had great affection for this album. Their cover of "Good Lovin'" is absolutely irresistible. This album is likely to appeal to non-Dead fans to, as it is funkier and tighter than most.

The Grateful Dead really put themselves out on this one.One thing that makes 'Shakedown Street' so great is the fact that the bands recent mix of blues and jazz with their traditional rock sound is now spiced up with a little creamy production slickness and a lot of funk.The title track is a perfect example-it's silly,catchy and deeply into an R&B/funk flavor.R&B is a big interest here because The Rascles "Good Lovin'" is given a bouncy Caribbean-soul type of feeling right along with a bit of a slower take with "Stagger Lee".Same goes for Mickey Hart's brilliant percussion on the sing a long "Fire On The Mountain"."France" is another matter entirely-a very fun and romantic vision set to music that so perfectly accompanies it-the best part is the ringing steel drums and fender rhodes piano.Ironically the two rockers "I Need A Miracle" and "All New Minglewood Blues" aren't the most impressive tunes here."From The Heart Of Me" is absolutely gorgeous and the closer? "If I Had The World To Give" has a songcraft to it that is almost to the level of an Elton John or The Beatles.So are the Grateful Dead trying to be less jamsters and more craftsmen here?Yes they sure are but Bob,Bill,Mickey and Jerry do it sooooo well here that it makes no difference.Yes long intricate jams are what made them but 'Shakedown Street' shows what great musicians they are and that even though these are short songs they never had to commercialize their music.Nothing here is very conventional-each song could spin off into some other crazy musical genre.And it's themes are relaxing and fun.So what more could a music lover want?

This purchase was to replace an old, long-lost copy. I've always liked their studio-produced stuff, much to the chagrin of some more serious aficionados. Every once in a while it's nice to hear a nice crisp rendition than to have to pore over tons of bootlegs to find just the one.

Though this is not the dead best album(in my opinion Blues for Allah is) it is still an alright album. The highlights are Shakedown St., Fire on the Mountain, and Good Lovin' but the other song are good too. Im not really a fan of bonus tracks but the bonus tracks on this album are great like the Good Lovin with Lowell George on vocals and the live Ollin Arageed, Fire on the Mountain and Stagger Lee from the Grateful Deads legendary trip to Egypt. Buy this album and if you have got the money buy Blues for Allah also, you wont regret it.

Released in 1978, this was the Grateful Dead's tenth studio album and 14th overall. Oringally, it had 10 songs and was just under 39 minutes long. With the bonus tracks, it comes out to 74 minutes.

On the first CD release of this album, the sound quality was mediocre. All of these remastered Grateful Dead CD's have excellent sound. They are recorded in HDCD (24 bit instead of the standard 16) so they sound better than normal CD's. And if you have a CD player that has the HDCD decoder, they sound stunning.

All of the remastered Grateful Dead CD's have bonus material to bring the total playing time up to close to 80 minutes. The bonus material has been very good on some CD's (like Blues for Allah) to disappointing on others (American Beauty).

Except for Ollin Arageed, the bonus material on Shakedown Street is not very good. Ollin Arageed is the best thing on the CD, and one of the best and more unusual tracks by the Grateful Dead. The other tracks are a version Good Lovin' with Lowell George on vocals (which isn't as good as Bob Wier's inspired version), and then a bunch of live songs. The live material is nothing special, just rambling versions of some of the studio songs. Even the 13 minute Fire On the Mountain is nothing special. I have heard much better live versions of this song.

As for the original Shakedown Street was produced by Lowell George of Little Feat (about a year before he died). It kind of goes back to the days of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead (but with more of a seventies flavor). Rumor has it that the Dead were looking for a hit and conformed the music to the sounds of the time. Some say there is a bit of disco flavor in this. But, I don't agree.

Just like most Grateful Dead albums, there are some great songs on this CD (a rollicking version of the Little Rascal's Good Lovin', Shakedown Street, I Need a Miracle, Fire on the Mountain) with a bunch of mediocre songs. Even the great American Beauty album was not consistant throughout.

This is a three to four star CD. I tilt to 3 stars because the bonus material isn't very good.

This is an okay record. Basically, the band wanted to record another album before their Egypt performances in 1978. So they went into the band's new studio and began recording before they even had enough new songs and unfortunately, it shows. This album has a much more "plays it straight" feel than the others up to that point. This might have had something to do with what many in the Dead felt that Terrapin Station had a somewhat over the top production. Despite all this, there's some nice stuff on here. The Good Lovin' that opens this album is quite good. France I've come to like okay although that's probably because it was never played live and thus is kind of a rarity. The best things about this Shakedown Street is the cool little Jerry string bending overdubs and the fact that it's one of the few times I've heard all the vocals on-key. Serengetti is fun but short. Fire On The Mountain turns out in a nice version. I Need A Miracle is a straight up rocker that's actually pretty basic for the Dead. Once again, one of the problems some of the band members had with Terrapin was that it didn't rock out enough. Donna's From The Heart Of Me has a cool hook. Both Stagger Lee and All New Minglewood Blues are no great shakes in the versions from here. From The Heart Of Me was a tune written to be romantic and it's okay. It was only played live three times (one of which can be found on the bonus disc for the Road Trips From Egypt With Love release). Most of the live songs here would later be released on Rocking The Cradle.

As a hard-core Dead fan, and a music lover who believes that everyone's musical world would be enriched by a true appreciation of the Dead, I can in no way recommend this album. The Dead have a poor track record as far as what they were able to accomplish in the studio that captured the power of their live shows, yet there is almost nothing in their catalog as anemic and uninspired sounding as this.
To begin with, two of the Dead's most beloved live songs, "Shakedown Street" and "Fire on the Mountain", appear here in woefully lame sounding versions that fail to ignite any sense of funk in the former or intense jamming in the latter. Together, the two tracks do not even reach the nine minute mark, which at least allows us to say that they are mercifully short. And let's admit, those two tracks are two of the main selling points for this album. "Good Lovin'" is a psuedo-disco mess; "I Need A Miracle" pushes the lyrics to the forefront, which are some remarkably unflattering lyrics. And "The New Minglewood Blues" would cause every blues singer who has ever performed this song to turn over in their grave, even if they weren't dead.
What's left? The horrible "France", the drum noodling "Serengetti", two mediocre ballads, and the quite decent and only really enjoyable song on the album, "Stagger Lee".
Unfortunately, unlike the other re-releases the Dead put out recently, the bonus tracks are not strong enough to make a dent in the damage the rest of the album does. There is a really nice live "Fire on the Mountain" that shows what a true beast this song can be, but the other tracks- another studio take of "Good Lovin'", and strong live versions of "Stagger Lee" and "Minglewood Blues"- are not what you would call "must hears".
Honestly, this is just not a good album. Save your money and don't go to this show!

What can be said, classic sounds from a classic band. Even the jacket artwork is classic. A must have for any deadhead.