Terrapin Station

With the folding of their own record label and a change in management, the Grateful Dead signed with recently founded Arista Records. Label head Clive Davis had been interested in working with the band since his time at Columbia Records and had previously signed their colleagues New Riders of the Purple Sage.^[7] He added the Dead to the label with the agreement that they work under an outside producer^[8] – something they had not tried on a studio album since Anthem of the Sun (1968), though American Beauty (1970) had been co-produced by engineer Stephen Barncard. After talks with several prospoects, including Val Garay and Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk, they settled on Keith Olsen.^[8] The band temporarily moved to Los Angeles, as Olsen preferred to work at Sound City, where he had recently achieved success producing Fleetwood Mac's self-titled 1975 album.^[9]

Olsen had a method for reining in the Dead: "During the cutting of the basic tracks it was pretty hard to get every member of the band in the studio at the same time ... so [Steve] Parish went out to the hardware store and got these giant nails and a great big hammer and as soon as everybody was in, he hammered the door shut from the inside ... we didn't have drifters from the other studios coming in to listen. We didn't have people leaving to go screw around elsewhere. We started getting work done."^[10] Recording of the basic tracks went smoothly. Olsen managed to mic up both drummers in the studio without intruding on each other or their bandmates, which was a longstanding issue on previous albums.^[8]

With Fleetwood Mac, Olsen had a hands-on approach, orchestrating the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and influencing song choice, arrangements and sequencing. He entered the Terrapin Station sessions with similar expectations, imagining a concept album or song cycle.^[8] However, Olsen said that Davis told him: "I need a commercial record out of them."^[10] This caused some friction during the sessions as well as with the end results. Kreutzmann said: "He'd have us play the same thing over and over again, and we're not really the type of band that can put up with that. ... Our very identity is based on the opposite principle."^[11] With the tracks put down the Grateful Dead went out on tour, leaving the tapes with Olsen, who augmented the songs with added orchestrations and choir parts without the band's consent, in particular a horn section on "Dancing in the Street", "Sunrise" and "Terrapin, Part 1". Garcia regretted not attending the orchestra sessions in London with Olsen and called the orchestrations "a little overripe" and felt some of the parts could have been improved.^[12]

The final overdubs were recorded at Automated Sound in New York City while the Dead toured the region.^[20] Olsen then added strings, horns and choirs to the tracks at studios in London, unrequested by the band. For "Estimated Prophet", Donna's vocals were multi-tracked and he had Tom Scott add lyricon and saxophone. In a further quest for commercial potential, he ignored other contributions. Kreutzmann commented

Mickey [Hart] had a cool timbale part that he recorded, with Garcia adding interplay on guitar. But Olsen had another idea. Without telling anyone in the band, he erased Mickey's part entirely and then hired a string section to fill out that passage instead. I was pissed off about it, but Mickey was deservedly outraged. Outraged. ... it was a very stupid thing to do. Mickey wasn't going to be had that easily, though, and so he and Garcia – who sided with Mickey – redid their part. Olsen wasn't going to give up either, so he made sure the strings remained in the final mix. The recorded version of "Terrapin Station" is probably my least favorite version because of that. It sounds really grandiose, like somebody's ego is playing those strings.^[11]

Weir likewise felt "All the orchestration and choral stuff was given too much prominence ... so we began this long negotiation, as it were, to put it in a more reasonable perspective. Keith was real stoked – he'd gone over to England and gotten these parts ... I thought it had to be backpedaled considerably. Keith said 'I'm going to bring Tom Scott in' ... I didn't know there was going to be anything added on "Estimated Prophet".^[13] Nonetheless, Weir worked with the producer that summer, taking advantage of an offer by Davis to record his second solo album, Heaven Help the Fool, for Arista.

The cover artwork was produced by Kelley/Mouse Studios, who had created several previous works for the band. The image of the terrapins playing instruments on the cover was drawn by Heinrich Kley. Though a terrapin appears in the lyrics only as a place name, dancing terrapins feature prominently in the artwork and afterward became part of the large iconography associated with the Grateful Dead. The front cover image takes the idea of a "terrapin station" literally. The back cover features a stylized, one-eyed skull with a crossed bone, feathers and roses, in keeping with the imagery that had evolved around the Dead.

Though the heavy sound production was of its time, it was unusual for a Grateful Dead album and a departure from their earlier, edgier psychedelic albums or their more recent americana or jazz-blues efforts. Garcia said Olsen had "put the Grateful Dead in a dress". Unhappy with the string sections and choirs on the title suite, he complained "It made me mad. He and Paul Buckmaster had an erroneous rhythmic sense; they changed it from a dotted shuffle to a marching ⁴
₄ time."^[21] Lesh said "The orchestral and choral sweeteners added to the title sequence by Olsen and Buckmaster were a classic example of gilding the lily."^[9] Reaction to the production from both fans and critics was similar, with a more positive response to the songs themselves.

A vehicular accident involving drummer Mickey Hart prevented a summer tour supporting the release of Terrapin Station, and while Weir returned to the studio with Olsen, Garcia focused on exhibiting The Grateful Dead Movie, and the Jerry Garcia Band and Cats Under the Stars. All of the songs on the album were played live, with "Terrapin Station", "Estimated Prophet" and "Samson and Delilah" staying in concert rotation until the dissolution of the band, usually as part of the second set. After its reappearance, "Dancin' in the Street" was played frequently while Donna Godchaux remained in the band, after which it was performed sporadically until 1987. She also sang "Sunrise" during the rest of her tenure. "Terrapin Station Part 1" was never performed live in full. The first three sections (known live as "Terrapin Station") remained on set lists, with the third generally extended into a climactic focus of the second set. The most complete performance included versions of the "Terrapin Transit", "At a Siding" (without lyrics), and "Terrapin Flyer" sections. It was performed only once (March 18, 1977, at Winterland, San Francisco). Conversely, one performance skipped the "Lady with a Fan" section – that of May 22, 1977, at Hollywood Sportatorium in Pembroke Pines (see Dick's Picks Volume 3).

Two singles were released from the album. Davis selected "Dancin' in the Streets" as the first, in a different mix featuring a horn section that Olsen had wanted to add to the album mix. The second single featured "Passenger". Both singles were backed with "Terrapin Station", an excerpt of the album's "Terrapin Part 1" featuring the second section and part of the third (i.e. "Terrapin Station>Terrapin"). Domestic CD copies substitute the album version of "Dancin' in the Streets" with the single mix.

Terrapin Station was first released on CD in 1986. In 2004 it was expanded and remastered for the Beyond Description box set. This version was released individually in 2006. Initial releases did not list time lengths for individual sections of "Terrapin Part 1", though the sections were apparent by style and authorship. Various CD releases break the song down into individual track sections, albeit some with nebulous track boundaries.

Reissue production credits

Billboard

RIAA Certification