Grateful Dead: Terrapin Station (1977)

 

After taking 1975 off of the road, the Dead returned in June 1976, energized and ready to face the next phase of their run. The wall of sound was long gone, as was Grateful Dead Records, as the band signed with Clive Davis’ newly-launched Arista label, and returned to playing smaller venues, with a more modest PA. 

I have long blamed Arista for being the label that sucks the soul out of their artists, in the name of getting a “hit”. They did it with everyone they signed and they tried very hard to do that with the Dead, assigning hitmaker Keith Olsen to produce what became this album. Despite the disco vibe of “Dancin’ In The Streets”, and the crazy orchestration on the title suite, this is still one of the band’s classic albums. 

Stylistically, this goes all over the place, kicking off with the reggae-flavored  “Estimated Prophet”, the disco “Dancin” (which used to infuriate me but now I kinda dig it), and Phil Lesh’s explosive rocker, “Passenger”; as Phil was no longer singing, this was sung by Bobby and Donna, who did a great job. 

Weir’s arrangement of the old gospel number “Samson and Delilah” follows, with a funky, Cajun sort of beat that made it very popular in concert. 

One of the stipulations when reconvening was for Donna to have a greater role, and she ably subbed in for Phil in the backing vox game, while also sharing leads and even throwing in a few of her own. “Sunrise” is the first and best of her contributions. Such a beautiful little song, though the strings are most unnecessary and bog this down (there were some great live versions of this).

As fun as side one is, it’s side two that we’ve really come for. Jerry gives us his all on the title suite. Labeled “Terrapin, part one”, this version features several distinct sections, most of which was only played live a few times at most. This is the most prog thing in the band’s entire canon and is only the slightest bit controversial because of the orchestra that Olsen slathered all over the place. Personally, I quite like it and find it to elevate the band’s performance (unlike in the previous song), but I totally get why lots of people (including the band) hate it. 

While this is a slicker Dead, these were slicker times, and they wore it well.