Some fans halfheartedly wondered whether a bigger, wilder Shakedown Street might pop up and thrive at any of the three shows over the July 4 weekend, hoping for one last bacchanal at Soldier Field in Chicago before any possibility of future Grateful Dead concerts apparently comes to a real, final end. Of course, the beginning of the end of the Grateful Dead happened long ago. Some say it started when the band experimented with disco, in the late '70s. Others say it was when the parking lot became a bigger scene than the concert itself, some time in the '80s.
Most agree it really, finally happened when lead singer and hippie icon Jerry Garcia died in , but some, like Ben, kept chasing the dream after that anyway, mixing with much younger crowds at Phish shows, or in the parking lot outside a Widespread Panic concert.
It's hard to pinpoint, exactly, when a cultural phenomenon officially becomes out of touch or unrepresentative, but in , it's clear the belief in a counterculture utopia, which motivated generations of fans to pick up their lives and follow the band from show to show to show for years on end, has been dying for quite some time. But even though Ben was one of a dwindling number of devout Deadheads working the parking lot this past weekend, most people at the shows were getting high.
They just didn't need to go to Shakedown Street to pick up their pot. It's amazing how lax it is now," one year-old man told BuzzFeed News, talking about the drugs he used to sling at Dead shows back in the late '80s and early '90s. We know what it was like before, with those old sentencing guidelines. The police were certainly less concerned about drug use this past weekend than fans say they had been in the past.
Instead, cops were on the lookout for unlicensed products featuring the logo or likeness of any member of the band. Nearby, a bunch of cops swarmed a guy selling off-brand merchandise while another man walked right by, calling out, "Mushrooms!
Doses of LSD, specifically, on small tabs of paper pulled from cross-body fabric purses. Ben approached a group of kids in torn, dark clothing selling crystals off the hood of a car. A girl with locs sat in the front seat, eyes straight ahead, driving to nowhere. Ben handed the guy a photograph. Wrapping three dirty fingers around the top of his cane, the guy tore off a strip of red paper containing three tabs of acid, and then handed Ben an additional tab from somewhere else in the folds of his clothing.
As he walked away, Ben explained that most of the acid at Grateful Dead shows, Phish shows, and the like still comes from people who look just like the guy with the cane and the dirt-caked skin. GDF," he said. Most people call them gutter punks.
The first studio album for which the Dead used a song title as the album title was Blues for Allah. But then the words came as an admonishment, and I believed right away that the song was about disco.
We had a responsibility, as listeners, to listen harder, to set aside our negativity. It opened the second set in what appears, on paper, to have been an amazing show. And given the setting of Red Rocks, I have no doubt that it was. In between, it was played on a regular basis, for a total of performances of the song.
The album was released on November 15, —more than a year after the song was first played. You can find it on So Many Roads: I love the echoes of other popular music in the lyrics. And that happy tune is your step Life can be so sweet On the sunny side of the street I used to walk in the shade With those blues on parade But I'm not afraid The Rover crossed over If I never have a cent I'll be as rich as Rockefeller Gold dust at my feet On the sunny side of the street.
Of course, beyond the musical meanings, there is always the fact that you can take almost any old run-down part of town and find vitality in its history. The song became useful in a number of situations. In fact, that concert was a benefit for the Earthquake Relief Fund. You may know of some Eventually, the parking lot scene at Dead shows came to be known as Shakedown Street, nicely completing the circle.
Although I must admit to a distinct lack of cynicism on an ongoing basis. Not a very picky Deadhead Favorite performances? Other tales to tell about your experiences of the song? First impressions vs. License plate stories? Where Were We? June 20, Next Article:. Grateful Dead Hour no. Jerry Garcia Jerry Garcia.
Bob Weir Bob Weir. Bill Kreutzmann Bill Kreutzmann. Phil Lesh Phil Lesh. Mickey Hart Mickey Hart. Robert Hunter Robert Hunter. Tom Constanten Tom Constanten. Keith Godchaux Keith Godchaux. Brent Mydland Brent Mydland. Vince Welnick Vince Welnick. Log in or register to post comments. Custom Sidebar.
Display on homepage featured list. Custom Teaser. Feature type. Greatest Stories Ever Told. Shakedown Street. One of my favorite Dead songs When my son was just a few months old, he'd lay on my bed and I'd play this song for him. He'd move his legs and shake his arms, dancing with the music.
You can never tell. My brothers Made fun of me when this came out because of the disco beat, even going so far as to sing "Disco Dead, Disco Disco Dead" over the "Well well well you can never tell" Lyric. Gotta love older brothers sometimes. I always loved this song live. Show opener. Great vocal back and forth by Jerry and Bob towards the end. Wasn't the album released in November ???? Making it coming out three months after it's Red Rocks debut???? Love the 'Woo's in it -- for some reason - I've always wanted to jump a second too early.
Good job David on hooking me every thursday with anticipation! Killer Shakedown The sound of "Shakedown Street" Shakedown Street was probably inspired by the late 70s disco trend, but the song actually has the sound that the Grateful Dead was using all throughout their music in the late 70s. Lots of wah-wah guitar licks. Shakedown Street was basically a continuation of this particular groove.
It became a fan favorite. It was released during the Keith and Donna era Hey, I wish Brent contributed to the album, but he was not a member of the band back then. Maybe the perceiver and the perceived But these lyrics by Hunter seem to refer to a place to score your party favors. George "did as good a job as anyone, but there was far too much chemical adventure and far too much drinking: Peruvian marching powder and brandy," Weir told LouderSound. He had a lot of anxiety problems.
He was very nervous around the Dead and he had to flush a lot of demons out just to keep in check. Listen to the Grateful Dead's 'Stagger Lee'. In the end, they emerged with something far greater than "disco Dead. And Weir's "I Need a Miracle" certainly worked in rock-focused contrast. Still, fans worried that even a glance toward the mainstream meant the Grateful Dead were selling out. If that was the goal, not many were buying. Shakedown Street failed to reach the Top 40, the first time that had happened since 's Aoxomoxoa.
Neither of the album's singles, including the much-maligned title song , even charted. A pall fell over the band. I mean, we could never sell out even if we tried — and we tried. Things were no better on a personal level. Keith Godchaux was now using, while Garcia had resorted to freebasing coke.
Godchaux's wife Donna missed dates in Buffalo and Detroit in January , a sign of things to come. Every concert stinks.
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