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Go to Heaven
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Go to Heaven
Go to Heaven is the eleventh studio album (sixteenth overall) by rock band the Grateful Dead, released April 28, 1980, by Arista Records. It is the band's first album with keyboardist Brent Mydland. Go to Heaven was both the third Grateful Dead studio album in a row to use an outside producer, this time Gary Lyons, and the last studio album for over seven years.
Keyboardist Keith Godchaux and vocalist Donna Godchaux left the Grateful Dead in February 1979 and were replaced in both positions by Brent Mydland. While in the band Silver, Mydland had performed on the hit pop song "Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang", also playing and writing tracks for that band's 1976 country rock album. Following that, he toured with Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir's solo band Bobby and the Midnites.
The Grateful Dead were contractually obligated to record another studio album before they could release live material. As with the previous two albums, they used an outside producer, per an agreement with Clive Davis, and in the hope of a more mainstream production with greater commercial potential (and perhaps a hit single). Davis sent British producer Gary Lyons, who was known for his success with Foreigner's debut album. With track construction stretching past a couple months, Lyons simultaneously began working with Aerosmith, taking over the production of Night in the Ruts. He commuted between California and New York, trading off with assistant producer Peter Thea.
The album was recorded at the band's own studio; however, as happened while finishing Terrapin Station, overdubs were made in New York City (at Media Sound) while the Dead toured the region. Instead of compiling different takes of a solo, as with other productions, Lyons learned to keep the sequences whole. According to recording engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson, "Jerry's sitting there and Gary says, 'Well, what do you think?' And Jerry says, 'I wouldn't play it that way.' It was true, because his style had a certain logic to it and there were certain ways he put together notes, the sequence of notes, which had to do with the way he thought about music. So to cut that up it no longer sounded the way Jerry thought."
I think of recording as sort of a necessary evil in a way.
Bob Weir had a greater influence than on previous studio albums, writing three of the songs, with his lyricist John Barlow. Both "Lost Sailor" and "Saint of Circumstance" mention sails and navigation, and reference the Dog Star. They were usually played live as a pair. Jerry Garcia brought just two songs to the album. Both were composed with his writing partner Robert Hunter: the lyrically obscure, Berry-esque rocker, "Alabama Getaway" and the meticulously arranged "Althea". Hunter said the title character of the latter was inspired by Minerva. A third Garcia-Hunter effort, "What'll You Raise," was not recorded to the guitarist's satisfaction during the sessions after failing to enter their live rotation; it was ultimately released as a bonus track on the album's 2004/2006 reissue. Mydland's "Far from Me" and "Easy to Love You" were written for Weir's band but Garcia encouraged him to present them to the Dead. The second had lyric additions by Barlow (at the behest of Davis). Unlike the songs Weir and Garcia brought, Mydland wrote straightforward pop songs, usually with a lyrical focus on unrequited love. He also brought synthesizers to the Dead, playing a Minimoog solo on "Alabama Getaway" and a Prophet-5 on Weir's funk-incorporating "Feel Like a Stranger".
Folk standard "Don't Ease Me In" had been played in the band's former incarnation as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and was the A-side of the first Grateful Dead single. It had re-entered their live set lists shortly before the addition of Mydland. As with the previous two albums, drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart contributed an instrumental, "Antwerp's Placebo (The Plumber)". The subtitle was Hart's taunt at Lyons, who had worked as a plumber. To tighten the beat, Lyons had focused on one drummer, keeping mostly Kreutzmann's work in the mix. Weir also disagreed with the stylized, abrupt ending to "Feel Like a Stranger", but he worked with Lyons again the following year for his Bobby and the Midnites project.
Garcia had band sound man Dan Healy set up a low wattage radio transmitter so he could drive around the neighborhood and listen to how the production would sound on a car radio. Go to Heaven would be the last Grateful Dead studio album for seven years, though there was an aborted attempt four years later.
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Go to Heaven
Go to Heaven is the eleventh studio album (sixteenth overall) by rock band the Grateful Dead, released April 28, 1980, by Arista Records. It is the band's first album with keyboardist Brent Mydland. Go to Heaven was both the third Grateful Dead studio album in a row to use an outside producer, this time Gary Lyons, and the last studio album for over seven years.
Keyboardist Keith Godchaux and vocalist Donna Godchaux left the Grateful Dead in February 1979 and were replaced in both positions by Brent Mydland. While in the band Silver, Mydland had performed on the hit pop song "Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang", also playing and writing tracks for that band's 1976 country rock album. Following that, he toured with Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir's solo band Bobby and the Midnites.
The Grateful Dead were contractually obligated to record another studio album before they could release live material. As with the previous two albums, they used an outside producer, per an agreement with Clive Davis, and in the hope of a more mainstream production with greater commercial potential (and perhaps a hit single). Davis sent British producer Gary Lyons, who was known for his success with Foreigner's debut album. With track construction stretching past a couple months, Lyons simultaneously began working with Aerosmith, taking over the production of Night in the Ruts. He commuted between California and New York, trading off with assistant producer Peter Thea.
The album was recorded at the band's own studio; however, as happened while finishing Terrapin Station, overdubs were made in New York City (at Media Sound) while the Dead toured the region. Instead of compiling different takes of a solo, as with other productions, Lyons learned to keep the sequences whole. According to recording engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson, "Jerry's sitting there and Gary says, 'Well, what do you think?' And Jerry says, 'I wouldn't play it that way.' It was true, because his style had a certain logic to it and there were certain ways he put together notes, the sequence of notes, which had to do with the way he thought about music. So to cut that up it no longer sounded the way Jerry thought."
I think of recording as sort of a necessary evil in a way.
Bob Weir had a greater influence than on previous studio albums, writing three of the songs, with his lyricist John Barlow. Both "Lost Sailor" and "Saint of Circumstance" mention sails and navigation, and reference the Dog Star. They were usually played live as a pair. Jerry Garcia brought just two songs to the album. Both were composed with his writing partner Robert Hunter: the lyrically obscure, Berry-esque rocker, "Alabama Getaway" and the meticulously arranged "Althea". Hunter said the title character of the latter was inspired by Minerva. A third Garcia-Hunter effort, "What'll You Raise," was not recorded to the guitarist's satisfaction during the sessions after failing to enter their live rotation; it was ultimately released as a bonus track on the album's 2004/2006 reissue. Mydland's "Far from Me" and "Easy to Love You" were written for Weir's band but Garcia encouraged him to present them to the Dead. The second had lyric additions by Barlow (at the behest of Davis). Unlike the songs Weir and Garcia brought, Mydland wrote straightforward pop songs, usually with a lyrical focus on unrequited love. He also brought synthesizers to the Dead, playing a Minimoog solo on "Alabama Getaway" and a Prophet-5 on Weir's funk-incorporating "Feel Like a Stranger".
Folk standard "Don't Ease Me In" had been played in the band's former incarnation as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and was the A-side of the first Grateful Dead single. It had re-entered their live set lists shortly before the addition of Mydland. As with the previous two albums, drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart contributed an instrumental, "Antwerp's Placebo (The Plumber)". The subtitle was Hart's taunt at Lyons, who had worked as a plumber. To tighten the beat, Lyons had focused on one drummer, keeping mostly Kreutzmann's work in the mix. Weir also disagreed with the stylized, abrupt ending to "Feel Like a Stranger", but he worked with Lyons again the following year for his Bobby and the Midnites project.
Garcia had band sound man Dan Healy set up a low wattage radio transmitter so he could drive around the neighborhood and listen to how the production would sound on a car radio. Go to Heaven would be the last Grateful Dead studio album for seven years, though there was an aborted attempt four years later.