Bob Weir › Where The Beat Meets The Street

Bobby & The Midnites: Bob Weir, Bobby Cochran (vocals, guitar); Dave Garland (keyboards, synthesizers, tenor & alto saxophone, background vocals); Kenny Gradney (bass, background vocals); Billy Cobham (drums).

Additional personnel: Steve Cropper, Ike Ueno, Brian Setzer (guitar); Jeffrey Baxter (synthesizers, guitar); Jim Ehinger (keyboards); Chuck Domonico, Lee Drucker (bass); Jim McDonnell (drums); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Sherlie Mathews, Kathie Pinto, Paulette Brown (background vocals).

Personnel: Bob Weir, Bobby Cochran (vocals, guitar, background vocals); Jeff Baxter (guitar, synthesizer); Steve Cropper, Brian Setzer (guitar); Dave Garland (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Jim Ehinger (keyboards); Jimmy McDonnell, Billy Cobham (drums); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Sherlie Mathews, Paulette Brown, Kenny Gradney (background vocals).

Recording information: Casual Soud; Cherokee Recording Studios; Cochran's Studio B; Tam High Recording.

Director: Mike Ragogna.

Photographer: Glenn Wexler.

Unknown Contributor Role: Stray Cats.

If Bobby & The Midnites' debut album represented a half-hearted attempt to go pop on the part of Grateful Dead guitarist/singer Bob Weir, Where The Beat Meets The Street, The Midnites' second and final album, saw the group going for mid-'80s radio acceptance with a vengeance. As he had in his '70s group, Kingfish, Weir began to take a backseat in his own band, leaving most of the singing up to Bobby Cochran and bringing in a host of outside songwriters. Jeff Baxter provided a sharp production sound keyed to Billy Cobham's driving drums, and what you got was, as one song put it, "Rock In The '80s," a set of frisky toe-tappers that concerned themselves mostly with the magical world of rock & roll. What can Deadheads have made of this, especially at a time when the mother group seemed to have given up making its own records? Actually, probably only a few of them (or anyone else, for that matter) got to hear this album, which sank without a trace after four weeks at the bottom of the charts, followed by the demise of the group itself. ~ William Ruhlmann

Genre:

• Pop / Rock

Music Categories:

• Oldies: Rock 'N' Roll

Product Series:

• Rare & Hard-To-Find Audio CDs