Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street [Audio Fidelity 180g LP] 24-bit/96kHz & CD-format

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"Shakedown Street" is a fascinating listen - classic sounds from a classic band. Even the jacket artwork is classic

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The Grateful Dead led by Jerry Garcia were one of the cornerstones of 60’s counterculture - the band had lots of members from diverse musical backgrounds, each lending a different facet to the band’s sound and approach to music. 1978's "Shakedown Street" is the their tenth studio album, and is definitive Dead - essential to any serious rock collection, a fusion of rock, funk, blues, reggae, country, and improvisational jam. Produced by Lowell George of Little Feat - the union between George and the Grateful Dead was certainly intriguing.

The album features Garcia and Bob Weir on vocals and guitars, Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, Keith Godchaux on vocals and keyboards, Donna Jean Godchaux on vocals, and Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart on percussion.

Two of the Dead's most beloved live songs, "Shakedown Street" and "Fire on the Mountain", appear here. Their bouncy Caribbean-soul-style cover of The Rascals' "Good Lovin'" is irresistible. The Dead revive "New Minglewood Blues" (which they originally cut for their debut) and Garcia and Robert Hunter write their own "Stagger Lee" while Hart and Kreutzmann get a percussion workout on the instrumental "Serengetti," Bob Weir affects a bluesy growl on "I Need a Miracle" and Donna Godchaux's "From The Heart Of Me" is absolutely gorgeous.

The album cover art was by underground comics artist Gilbert Shelton.

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Marshall Blonstein's Audio Fidelity imprint has just released two beautiful reissues on LP from the Grateful Dead catalog. Blues for Allah (1975) and Shakedown Street (1978) are available in limited, numbered gatefold-package editions, remastered from the original sound sources onto 180-gram "pure virgin vinyl," with all the original artwork. All marketing hype aside, they sound gorgeous, with immersive space, crisp highs, full mids, and (considering how effervescent this band was, even—or especially—in the studio) nicely throaty lows. These hefty chunks of black vinyl in their gorgeous packaging should please Grateful Dead fanatics, classic rock album collectors, and audiophiles alike; it's probably safe to say the two albums never sounded better. From the spacey simplicity of "Franklin's Tower" and the folky easygoingness of "Sage & Spirit" to the classic psychedelia of "Slipknot" and the experimental jazziness of "King Solomon's Marbles," Blues for Allah shows off the Grateful Dead at their studio best. Even the spacier and, let's face it, sometimes rather limp material on Side Two—some of which can reach only a brain aloft on hallucinogens—takes on clear new life on this rich-sounding LP. (Even Donna Godchaux's hollow chirping on the otherwise bracing "The Music Never Stopped" sounds almost inoffensive here). Given the terrible events of the last decade perpetrated in the name of Allah, it's also worth noting a few lines from the mystical title track: "What good is spilling blood?/It will not grow a thing." Shakedown Street, the Dead's 10th album, was produced by Lowell George, who gives it an appealingly loose, almost scattered quality. Though the album itself may not be remembered much these days, it introduced both "Fire on the Mountain" and "I Need a Miracle," which became concert staples. It also boasts the title track, a nod by rock's greatest jam band to disco and always one of my favorite Dead songs, I'm not ashamed to admit. All sound crystal-clear here, though the keyboards and vocals feel a little brittle (that's how they were recorded originally). For avid collectors, these reissues come at a reasonable price, though it's more than you'll pay for a new CD or download. If you can spring for only one, and specific song desires aren't swaying you one way or the other, Blues for Allah is the superior album; the Dead were in a tighter songwriting groove in '75 than in '78, and there's also more musicianly excitement on display on the earlier record. I have no hesitation in recommending these LPs for any fan of the Grateful Dead or their era. Jon Sobel - BC**blogcritics

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Track listing

Side A

"Good Lovin'" (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick) – 4:51
"France" (Mickey Hart, Robert Hunter, Bob Weir) – 4:03
"Shakedown Street" (Jerry Garcia, Hunter) – 4:59
"Serengetti" (Hart, Bill Kreutzmann) – 1:59
"Fire on the Mountain" (Hart, Hunter) – 3:46

Side B

"I Need a Miracle" (John Perry Barlow, Weir) – 3:36
"From the Heart of Me" (Donna Jean Godchaux) – 3:23
"Stagger Lee" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:25
"All New Minglewood Blues" (Traditional) – 4:12
"If I Had the World to Give" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:50

Personnel

Grateful Dead

Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
Bob Weir – guitar, vocals
Keith Godchaux – keyboards, vocals
Donna Jean Godchaux – vocals
Phil Lesh – bass
Bill Kreutzmann – drums, percussion
Mickey Hart – drums, percussion

Other musicians

Jordan Amarantha – percussion
Matthew Kelly – harmonica
Lowell George – vocals on the studio outtake of "Good Lovin'"
Steve Schuster - horn, "From the Heart of Me"

Production

The album was recorded and mixed at Club Le Front, and mastered by George Horn at the Automat, San Francisco. "Serengetti" was recorded by MERT at Meta Tantay, Carlin, Nevada

Brett Cohen – engineering
Bob Matthews – engineering
Lowell George – producer
John Kahn - horn arrangements