Search - Grateful Dead :: Shakedown Street (Dig)

Nice collection of songs

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 03/16/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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.





"

Fire On The Mountain

Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 06/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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?"

One of the Dead's uniquest contributions

lisamcmil | 05/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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