Completely Conspicuous 518: Terrapin Station

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's 1977 album Terrapin Station. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - The Dead's 9th studio album - Band had signed with Clive Davis and Arista - Album was produced by Keith Olsen, later known for slick AOR albums by Eddie Money, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon, Heart - Phil: Would get a tattoo of the Terrapin cover - Cover of "Dancing in the Streets" is pretty lame - Live, the cover turns into a long jam (duh) - Donna Godchaux was featured a lot on this record - Side 2 is an side-long suite written by Hunter and Garcia - Band didn't tour for this album after Mickey Hart got in a car accident - The tour before this album was legendary for Dead fans - Tried songs out live before they made it to studio recordings - Side 1 closes out with a Donna G. song that sounds nothing like anything else the Dead has done - The Godchaux marriage was splitting up while they were in the band - Olsen erased Hart's drums on one song and replaced them with strings - Lyrics on Terrapin Station are pretty dense - Relatively short album for the Dead at 35 minutes - Phil: These songs got better in the live setting - Jay: A lot of filler on side 2 - Album feels like a contractual obligation - Dead & Co. plays part of the title suite now - Phil: Not a John Mayer fan, but he's a good guitarist - Jay: Not a fan of this album - Next: Cornell 5/8/77 Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review! 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.