Shakedown Street has long served as the lovable sidekick to any Grateful Dead concert, a hub of good vibes, both real and chemically induced. In the late '70s and early '80s, fans adopted the phrase to refer to the area in the parking lot where concertgoers and Deadheads could buy, sell, or trade not only mushrooms, pot, and LSD but also art, homemade food, beer, trinkets, tickets, and anything else a partygoer might want when the edges of the world are blurring and the noodling guitar solo in a 20-minute jam is wafting in from the show.īetween the late '70s and the mid-'90s, the thousands of concertgoers and thrill-seekers without tickets showing up to Shakedown Street could overwhelm local law enforcement in whatever town the band pulled into each week, so as to effectively suspend prohibition and allow an open drug trade. Legend has it that the place now known as Shakedown Street existed as a nameless phenomenon before the band released a 1978 song and album called Shakedown Street. "They almost always buy when they hear me say that."īen found his tickets and was peddling band photos and homemade marijuana macaroons at the traveling, concert-adjacent circus slash freewheeling marketplace known as Shakedown Street, one of America's oldest and most storied places to buy drugs.
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"When it's ganja treats, the line 'Just like mother used to make' cracks chicks up," Ben said.
Grateful dead shakedown street full#
The following afternoon, in the hours leading up to the Sunday show, the grinning 60-year-old once again begin traversing a parking lot full of graying locs and more luxury SUVs than VW microbuses, introducing himself to new strangers every few minutes.
Grateful dead shakedown street free#
As showtime drew closer, suddenly lots of people in the lot seemed to have free extra tickets, and Ben got to see the surviving members of the band play for one of the last times. Other fans had panicked over ticket lotteries and complained publicly after being shut out of the band's five final "Fare Thee Well" concerts before they settle into retirement, but Ben came to Northern California's Levi's Stadium planning to do just what he's now spent decades doing in Dead show parking lots: selling whatever he could to pay for drugs, beer, and gas, and trusting that the universe would bring him a ticket. Used to be the heart of town Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart.A miracle helped Ben get into the Grateful Dead show last Saturday. Well, well, well, you can never tell I just stopped in 'cause I want to say, Well, well, well, you can never tell I recall your darkness when it crackled like a thundercloudĭon't tell me this town ain't got no heart Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart When I can hear it beat out loud! Maybe you had too much too fast Or just over played your part Maybe you had too much too fast Maybe you had too much too fast. Well, well, well, you can never tell It's not because you missed out on the thing that we had to start You think you've seen this town clear through Well, well, well, you can never tell Nothin' here that could int'rest you.
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Used to be the heart of town Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart.
![grateful dead shakedown street grateful dead shakedown street](https://www.musicrecords.cz/upload/catalogue/image/original/big/a1522068435865898086.jpg)
Maybe the dark is from your eyes, Maybe the dark is from your eyes Maybe the dark is from your eyes, Maybe the dark is from your eyes Maybe the dark is from your eyes, Maybe the dark is from your eyes You know you got such dark eyes! Well, well, well, you can never tell Maybe that's cause it's midnight, in the dark of the Moon besides Well, well, well, you can never tell The sunny side of the street is dark. You tell me this town ain't got no heart.