Completely Conspicuous 525: Shakedown Street

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead album Shakedown Street.

Show notes:

- Recorded at CompCon world HQ

- First ep of the new decade

- Shakedown Street came out in '78

- Lots of musical stuff happening: Disco, punk, new wave, hard rock

- Disco wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be

- Jay: No guilty pleasures: If you like it, you like it

- The Dead were coming off a triumphant '77

- This was a contractually obligated studio album

- Lots of influences thrown in: Funk, disco, African jazz, rock

- Met with savage reviews

- The version of "Good Lovin'" here pales in comparison to the live version, especially when Pigpen sang it

- The last album with Donna and Keith Godchaux

- Title track gets slagged as bad disco, but we dig it

- Shakedown Street is now the name of the merch area at Dead & Co. shows

- Pressure was on from Clive Davis for them to have hits

- This album was produced by Lowell George of Little Feat

- Seen as a disco album, but it's pretty diverse musically

- The Dead weren't a great studio band

- Mickey Hart stepped up with three songs

- Phil: "I Need a Miracle" might be the best song on the album

- "Stagger Lee" has an interesting history; versions were covered by many different artists

- Jay: The Nick Cave version is the best, and the most profane

- Album was scattered because of different influences plus substances

- "All New Minglewood Blues" is a pretty rockin' cover

- Dead appeared on SNL that year

- Ends with a Garcia-Hunter love ballad that works

- Jay: Liked about half the songs on the album

- Next: 1980's Go to Heaven

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The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.