Workingman's Dead

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Workingman's Dead
A black-on-sepia image of men in Stetson hats standing along a road.
Studio album by
Grateful Dead
ReleasedJune 14, 1970 (1970-06-14)
RecordedFebruary 1970
StudioPacific High Recording, San Francisco
Genre
Length35:33
LabelWarner Bros.
Producer
Grateful Dead chronology
Live/Dead
(1969) 		Workingman's Dead
(1970) 		Vintage Dead
(1970)
Singles from Workingman's Dead
  1. "Uncle John's Band"
    Released: July 1, 1970
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
American Songwriter[2]
Christgau's Record GuideA[3]
Pitchfork9.1/10[4]
Rolling Stone[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[6]

Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album (and fifth overall) by American rock band Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970. The album and its studio follow-up, American Beauty, were recorded back-to-back using a similar style, eschewing the psychedelic experimentation of previous albums in favor of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's Americana-styled songcraft.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 264 in a 2012 revised list,[7] and 409 in the 2020 list.[8] It was voted number 371 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[9]

Recording[edit]

The band again recorded at Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco, spending just nine days there. After the protracted sessions required for the previous two studio albums, Garcia suggested "Let's do it all in three weeks and get it the hell out of the way".[10] Besides trying to avoid the debt that had accumulated while recording Aoxomoxoa, the band was dealing with the stress of a recent drug bust in New Orleans – which could have resulted in jail time. Additionally, they returned from a tour to find their soon-to-be-fired manager, Lenny Hart (father of drummer Mickey Hart), refusing to show the books to anyone else in the organization. "In midst of all this adverse stuff that was happening ... [recording the album] was definitely an upper," said Garcia in an interview.[11]

Lyricist Robert Hunter had joined the band on the road for the first time, resulting in a period of faster song development. Unlike the psychedelic, electrified music for which the band had become known, the new songs took a new direction, reviving their folk-band roots. Bassist Phil Lesh stated "The song lyrics reflected an 'old, weird' America that perhaps never was ... The almost miraculous appearance of these new songs would also generate a massive paradigm shift in our group mind: from the mind-munching frenzy of a seven-headed fire-breathing dragon to the warmth and serenity of a choir of chanting cherubim. Even the album cover reflects this new direction: The cover for Aoxomoxoa is colorful and psychedelic, and that of Workingman’s Dead is monochromatic and sepia."[12] In recent years, a search revealed that the photograph was taken at 1199 Evans Avenue in San Francisco.[13]

Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, the companion album that followed months later, were, according to drummer Bill Kreutzmann, both influenced by the Bakersfield sound. He explained "We tried to be like a Bakersfield band – but one that still sounded like we were from 300 miles north of that town ... we held to our psychedelic roots. Workingman's Dead was all about discovering the song ... American Beauty became all about having the harmonies to do that".[14]

"This was, sort of, stepping out of our spacesuit and coming down to Earth and putting on a pair of Osh Kosh and digging the furrows ... we would have to bring the music in, to support the texts: Hunter's Holy Grail"

- Mickey Hart[15]

While on tour in Boulder, Colorado, the previous year, Garcia had purchased a steel guitar and was now keen to use it on the new batch of songs. Lesh explained, "Just as with any other instrument he picked up, he made it sing. The main impetus for this development was the nature of the new songs Hunter and Jerry had been writing; many of them had a decidedly country flavor ('Dire Wolf,' 'Friend of the Devil,' 'High Time,' 'Casey Jones,' 'Ripple'), and Jerry began using the new axe on these as they were slotted into the set lists. Bobby [Weir] also began bringing in covers of his favorite country tunes and some originals in that vein, so we were starting to see a trend developing. Personally, I was thrilled that the band could make such a complete musical about-face while still maintaining the flat-out weirdness that I’d come to know and love."[16]

Songs such as "Uncle John's Band", "High Time", and "Cumberland Blues" were brought to life with soaring harmonies and layered vocal textures that had not previously been a part of the band's sound. According to the 1992 Dead oral history, Aces Back to Back, in the summer of 1968, Stephen Stills vacationed at Mickey Hart's ranch in Novato. "Stills lived with me for three months around the time of CSN's first record," recalls Hart, "and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument. You know, 'Hey, is this what a voice can do?' That turned us away from pure improvisation and more toward songs."[17]

Garcia commented that much of the sound of the album comes both from his pairing with Hunter, as well as the band's friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash: "Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, 'We can try that. Let's work on it a little'."[18]

Release[edit]

The album title came about when Jerry Garcia commented to lyricist Robert Hunter that the album was "turning into the 'workingman's Dead' version of the band".[19] Having both worked on all of the album's songs and gone out on the road with the band, Hunter appears as a seventh member on the front cover photograph.

Warner Bros. released "Uncle John's Band" (backed with "New Speedway Boogie") as a single to promote the album. It received limited airplay, even though it was edited to a radio-friendly three-minute length and the lyric "goddamn" removed.

Readers of Rolling Stone voted Workingman's Dead the best album of 1970, followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Déjà Vu and Van Morrison's Moondance.[19]

The album was remastered and expanded in 2001 as part of The Golden Road (1965–1973) 12-CD box set. This version, given separate release in 2003, includes eight bonus tracks. A DVD-Audio version was also released in 2001, without the bonus material. In 2014 it was issued as a two-LP set, mastered at 45 rpm by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.

On July 10, 2020 Rhino Records released the "50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" of Workingman's Dead. Disc one contains a newly remastered mix of the album. Discs two and three contain a previously unreleased complete concert from the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York, recorded on February 21, 1971.[20]

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Uncle John's Band"
4:42
2."High Time"
  • Garcia
  • Hunter
Garcia5:13
3."Dire Wolf"
  • Garcia
  • Hunter
Garcia3:13
4."New Speedway Boogie"
  • Garcia
  • Hunter
Garcia4:05
Total length:17:13
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Cumberland Blues"
  • Garcia
  • Lesh
  • Hunter
  • Garcia
  • Weir
  • Lesh
3:15
2."Black Peter"
  • Garcia
  • Hunter
Garcia5:42
3."Easy Wind"HunterRon McKernan4:59
4."Casey Jones"
  • Garcia
  • Hunter
Garcia4:24
Total length:18:20
2001/2003 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
9."New Speedway Boogie" (alternate mix)4:10
10."Dire Wolf" (live)2:31
11."Black Peter" (live)9:07
12."Easy Wind" (live)8:09
13."Cumberland Blues" (live)4:52
14."Mason's Children" (live: Garcia, Lesh, Bob Weir, Hunter)6:32
15."Uncle John's Band" (live)7:57
16."Radio promo"1:00
Total length:44:18 79:51

Bonus track details

  • "Dire Wolf" recorded June 27, 1969, at Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Hall, Santa Rosa, CA
  • "Black Peter" recorded January 10, 1970, at Golden Hall Community Concourse, San Diego, CA
  • "Easy Wind" recorded January 16, 1970, at Springer's Ballroom, Gresham, OR
  • "Cumberland Blues" recorded January 17, 1970, at Oregon State University (Gymnasium), Corvallis, OR
  • "Mason's Children" recorded January 24, 1970 at Civic Auditorium, Honolulu, HI (later released with complete concert on Dave's Picks Volume 19)
  • "Uncle John's Band" recorded October 4, 1970, at Winterland, San Francisco, CA (sleeve notes incorrectly list as December 23, 1970, Winterland;[21] another track from this date is a bonus on American Beauty)

50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition – disc two

February 21, 1971 (Set 1) – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, New York
No.TitleLength
1."Cold Rain and Snow" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)7:36
2."Me and Bobby McGee" (Kris Kristofferson, Fred Foster)7:33
3."Loser" (Garcia, Hunter)6:54
4."Easy Wind"8:49
5."Playing in the Band" (Weir, Hart, Hunter)5:25
6."Bertha" (Garcia, Hunter)6:13
7."Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips)3:56
8."Ripple" (false start)1:09
9."Ripple" (Garcia, Hunter)5:24
10."Next Time You See Me" (Earl Forest, Bill Harvey)4:39
11."Sugar Magnolia" (Bob Weir, Robert Hunter)6:08
12."Greatest Story Ever Told" (Weir, Hunter)4:09
13."Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry)3:42
Total length:71:37 107:10

50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition – disc three

February 21, 1971 (Set 2) – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, New York
No.TitleLength
1."China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia, Hunter)6:20
2."I Know You Rider" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)4:29
3."Bird Song" (Garcia, Hunter)6:17
4."Cumberland Blues"4:55
5."I'm a King Bee" (Slim Harpo)7:32
6."Beat It On Down the Line" (Jesse Fuller)3:17
7."Wharf Rat" (Garcia, Hunter)9:46
8."Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter)8:07
9."Casey Jones"4:39
10."Good Lovin'" (Artie Resnick, Rudy Clark)17:00
11."Uncle John's Band"7:27
Total length:79:49 186:59

Personnel[edit]

Grateful Dead

Charts and certifications[edit]

Billboard

Chart Position
Pop Albums 27[22]

RIAA Certification[23]

Certification Date
Gold July 11, 1974
Platinum October 13, 1986

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Akeny, Jason. "Workingman's Dead". AllMusic. Retrieved September 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Beviglia, Jim (January–February 2014). "The Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead". American Songwriter. 29 (2). ForASong Media, LLC: 55. ISSN 0896-8993. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  3. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: G". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 24, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  4. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (July 11, 2020). "Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  5. ^ [1] Archived June 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  7. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  8. ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  9. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 143. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
  10. ^ Jackson, Blair (1999). Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books, New York, NY. p. 181.
  11. ^ Jackson, Blair (1999). Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books, New York, NY. p. 189.
  12. ^ Lesh, Phil (2005). Searching for the Sound. Little, Brown & Co., New York, NY. Chapter 13. ISBN 978-0-316-00998-0.
  13. ^ "The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead _ Album Cover Location".
  14. ^ Kreutzmann, Bill (2015). Deal. St. Martin's Press, New York. Chapter 9. ISBN 978-1-250-03380-2.
  15. ^ Classic Albums - The Grateful Dead: Anthem to Beauty (DVD). Rhino/WEA. 1999.
  16. ^ Lesh, Phil (2005). Searching for the Sound. Little, Brown & Co., New York, NY. Chapter 11. ISBN 978-0-316-00998-0.
  17. ^ Allen, Scott W. (1992). Aces Back to Back. Parker, Col.: Outskirts Press.
  18. ^ Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, p. 119.
  19. ^ a b Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, p. 108.
  20. ^ "Announcing Workingman's Dead 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition". dead.net. May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  21. ^ "Grateful Dead Guide: The Mysterious Case of 12/17/70". Deadessays.blogspot.com. 2010-10-05. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
  22. ^ "Top 200 Albums - week of June 27, 1970". Billboard. Scroll down to Workingman's Dead and hover. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  23. ^ "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-Workingman's Dead". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
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