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Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978

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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:

Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978

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  • Artist: Grateful Dead
  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Release Date: September 30, 2008
  • Total Time: 145:37
  • Type: Compilation (best of), Live
  • Genre: Rock

Review

In 2008, the idea of a rock band doing their proverbial thing in Egypt holds far less cache than it did 30 years prior. However, it was unquestionably a novel notion when the Grateful Dead sought to begin diplomatic talks between the U.S. Government and Egyptian officials to allow for the band to bring their "long, strange trip" to Cairo's Gizah Sound & Light Theater in mid-September of 1978. Considering the precarious political state of the world at the time, it is a minor miracle that these shows came off at all. Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 (2008) gathers two-and-a-half hours of highlights from the September 15 and 16, 1978 performances -- with the vast majority coming from the latter date. While they played on the 13th (as a sort of sound check) and the 14th as well, there is no music from either date located here. In terms of the set list -- and in particular the contents of this title -- the combo stick pretty close to their concurrent late-'70s repertoire. The obvious and notable exception being highly-truncated remnants of "Ollin Arageed" featuring Hamza El Din and the Nubian Youth Choir. Otherwise, half of the band's yet-to-be released studio album Shakedown Street (1978) is represented by way of "New, New Minglewood Blues," "Stagger Lee," "I Need A Miracle," "Fire on the Mountain," and the title track "Shakedown Street." As was typical, the Grateful Dead chose to road test and woodshed much of their "new" material prior to committing it to tape in the comparatively sterile studio confines. In fact, it is the more recent selections that seem to give this double-CD package its brightest moments. Disc One's rousing opener, "Jack Straw," boasts some stellar interplay between Bob Weir (guitar/vocals) and Phil Lesh (bass), while Jerry Garcia's emphatic fretwork stands the finale of "Deal" in good stead. More substantive are the thoroughly jammed-out contents of Disc Two. The percussion-intensive opener -- the aforementioned "Ollin Arageed" -- yields to thoughtful, if not slightly meandering readings of "Fire on the Mountain" and "Iko Iko." The quarter-hour plus workout of "Shakedown Street" then leads into a short "Drums" and "Space" excursion. Lovely and poignant as ever, "Stella Blue" is sandwiched between the otherwise standard fare of "Truckin'" and their tried and true take of Chuck Berry's "Around and Around." The bonus DVD is more of a curio than a significant contribution to the Grateful Dead's musical canon. The footage is fairly well shot and thankfully bereft of the untenable graphics that all but ruined most of the in-house video of the band circa the '80s and '90s. As an added bonus, there are several minutes of silent Super 8 mm film shot by the combo's then-road manager Richard Loren. Sadly, the packaging -- replete with a pop-up cardboard Sphinx -- offers no protection for the playing surface of the CDs or DVD. Therefore scratches are inevitable. Deadheads seeking similar performances by the Grateful Dead during this same era are encouraged to check out either Dick's Picks, Vol. 18 (2000) or Dick's Picks, Vol. 25 (2002), as well as the multimedia Closing of Winterland (2003) from December 31st, 1978. ~ Lindsay Planer, Rovi

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Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978

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Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released September 30, 2008
Recorded September 15 - 16, 1978
Genre Rock
Length CDs: 145:48
DVD: 111:49
Bonus disc: 75:32
Label Grateful Dead
Producer Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead chronology
Road Trips Volume 1 Number 3
(2008)		 Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978
(2008)		 Road Trips Volume 1 Number 4
(2008)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
All About Jazz (favorable) [1]
Allmusic 3.5/5 stars [2]
Glide 3.5/5 stars [3]
The Music Box 3/5 stars [4]
Relix (favorable) [5]
The Best of Website (A+) [6]

Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 is a live album by the Grateful Dead, consisting of two CDs and one DVD. It was recorded at the Gizah Sound and Light Theater in Giza, near Cairo, Egypt on September 15 and 16, 1978.[7][8]

Most of the tracks on the DVD also appear on the two CDs. Besides the concert material, the DVD includes a 15 minute feature called The Vacation Tapes, containing footage, shot on 8 mm film, of the band and crew visiting tourist attractions in Egypt.[9]

A bonus disc of additional tracks recorded at these dates was included with early shipments of the album.

Contents

Concert planning

Bassist Phil Lesh was instrumental in arranging the concert. Describing the planning he said "it sort of became my project because I was one of the first people in the band who was on the trip of playing at places of power. You know, power that's been preserved from the the ancient world. The pyramids are like the obvious number one choice because no matter what anyone thinks they might be, there is definitely some kind of mojo about the pyramids." [10] Lesh contacted promoter Bill Graham in January 1976 but found that he was too busy. Through an introduction to Joe Malone, a professor at the American University of Beirut, Lesh made contacts with the Egyptian government. Lesh did not want the band to take any money from Egypt, and asked that proceeds from the concert be donated to the Department of Antiquities, the charity preferred by Jehan Sadat.

The Egypt tapes

The Grateful Dead only played three concerts in Egypt in their thirty-year history — September 14, 15, and 16, 1978. The shows were performed very close to the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. A total lunar eclipse occurred during the third concert.[11]

A live album was planned to be made of these shows, but on listening to the recordings, the producers found that the first night and most of the second night were unusable due to technical problems. Then the recording of the their 1978 album Shakedown Street took most of their energy, and the idea of the live album was quickly abandoned. Thirty years later, the album was finally released, consisting of the tracks that were usable.[12]

The track "Ollin Arageed" is a song by Nubian oud player Hamza El Din. This version of the song was previously released (along with "Fire on the Mountain" and "Stagger Lee") on the remastered issue of Shakedown Street. There is only one other officially released version, on the album Road Trips Volume 1 Number 4.

Track listing

Disc one

  1. "Jack Straw" (Robert Hunter, Bob Weir) – 6:44
  2. "Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Jerry Garcia) – 11:46
  3. "New Minglewood Blues" (Noah Lewis) – 6:26
  4. "Candyman" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:29
  5. "Looks Like Rain" (John Barlow, Weir) – 8:52
  6. "Stagger Lee" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:30
  7. "I Need a Miracle" (Barlow, Weir) – 5:45 >
  8. "It's All Over Now" (Bobby Womack, Shirley Womack) – 7:40
  9. "Deal" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:04

Disc two

  1. "Ollin Arageed" (Hamza El Din) – 6:56 >
  2. "Fire on the Mountain" (Hunter, Mickey Hart) – 14:06 >
  3. "Iko Iko" (James "Sugar Boy" Crawford) – 7:03
  4. "Shakedown Street" (Hunter, Garcia) – 15:31 >
  5. "Drums" (Hart, Bill Kreutzman) – 3:31 >
  6. "Space" (Garcia, Keith Godchaux, Phil Lesh, Weir) – 2:26 >
  7. "Truckin'" (Hunter, Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 10:14 >
  8. "Stella Blue" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:19 >
  9. "Around and Around" (Chuck Berry) – 8:21

DVD

  1. "Bertha" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:30 >
  2. "Good Lovin'" (Arthur Resnick, Rudy Clark) – 7:52
  3. "Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 11:20
  4. "New Minglewood Blues" (Lewis) – 6:07
  5. "Candyman" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:08
  6. "Looks Like Rain" (Barlow, Weir) – 8:33
  7. "Deal" (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:52
  8. "Ollin Arageed" (El Din) – 7:49 >
  9. "Fire on the Mountain" (Hunter, Hart) – 9:12 >
  10. "Iko Iko" (Crawford) – 6:04
  11. "I Need a Miracle" (Barlow, Weir) – 5:54 >
  12. "It's All Over Now" (B. Womack, S. Womack) – 3:30
  13. "Truckin'" (Hunter, Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 9:23

Bonus Disc

  1. "Bertha" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:03 >
  2. "Good Lovin'" (Resnick, Clark) – 7:55
  3. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins) – 4:58
  4. "Ramble on Rose" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:51
  5. "Estimated Prophet" (Barlow, Weir) – 12:00 >
  6. "Eyes of the World" (Hunter, Garcia) – 13:26 >
  7. "Lady With a Fan" / "Terrapin Station" (Hunter, Garcia) – 11:35 >
  8. "Sugar Magnolia" / "Sunshine Daydream" (Hunter, Weir) – 10:42

Personnel

Grateful Dead

Guest musicians

  • Hamza El Din - vocals, oud, tar, hand clapping on "Ollin Arageed"
  • The Nubian Youth Choir - vocals, hand clapping, tar on "Ollin Arageed"

Production

  • Concert executive producer – Richard Loren
  • Concert sound – Dan Healy
  • Concert video – Gary Biddle
  • Sound recording – John Kahn, Betty Cantor-Jackson, Bob Matthews
  • PA system and recording equipment provided by The Who
  • Lighting director – Candace Brightman
  • Video documentary – Richard Loren
  • Compilation produced by – David Lemieux
  • Stereo and 5.1 mix – Jeffrey Norman at Garage Audio, Petaluma, CA
  • Concert video post-production at Video Arts, San Francisco
  • Concert video mastering – David Glasser at Airshow Mastering
  • CD mastering – Jeffrey Norman
  • Audio restoration – Jamie Howarth / Plangent Processes
  • Audiovisual research – Mike Johnson
  • Archival research – Eileen Law / Grateful Dead Archives
  • Cover art – Kelley
  • Art direction – Steve Vance, Scott Webber
  • Package design – Steve Vance
  • Pop-up art – Scott McDougall
  • Liner notes essay "A Venue for Recollection" – Alan Trist
  • Dedicated to the memory of Jerry Garcia, Keith Godchaux, John Kahn, Hamza El Din, Lawrence "Ramrod" Shurtliff, Goldie Rush, Ken Kesey, Alton Kelly, Bill Graham, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin

Recording dates

  • Disc 1 tracks 1 & 6, bonus disc tracks 5–8: September 15, 1978
  • Disc 1 tracks 2–5,7-9 discs 2 & 3, bonus disc tracks 1–4: September 16, 1978

Charts

Album - Billboard

Year Chart Position
2008 The Billboard 200 35[13]

References

  1. ^ Collette, Doug (January 3, 2009). Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978, All About Jazz
  2. ^ Planer, Lindsay. Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 at Allmusic
  3. ^ Collette, Doug (October 17, 2008). Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978, Glide magazine
  4. ^ Metzger, John (November 25, 2008). Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978, The Music Box
  5. ^ Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978, Relix, December 3, 2008
  6. ^ Small, Barry. Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978, The Best Of Website
  7. ^ Fricke, David (October 16, 2008). "The Dead Rock the Pyramids", Rolling Stone
  8. ^ Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 at the Grateful Dead Family Discography
  9. ^ "The Dead Rock the Cradle of Civilization", JamBase, July 15, 2008
  10. ^ The Grateful Dead Reader, David Dodd and Diana Spaulding, page 133
  11. ^ Rodurago Cypheron Perpetual Moon Calendar — September 1978 — Giza, Egypt
  12. ^ "Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt 1978", dead.net
  13. ^ "Billboard album chart history – Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978". http://www.billboard.com/album/grateful-dead/rocking-the-cradle-egypt-1978/1177135#/album/grateful-dead/rocking-the-cradle-egypt-1978/1177135. Retrieved July 4, 2011. 

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