Nadat The Grateful Dead zich in de jaren ’60 geprofileerd had als een psychedelische band bij uitstek, werd in 1970 het roer omgegooid. Workingman’s Dead markeert de transitie naar een band die een veel akoestischer geluid laat horen. Op de opener van het album Uncle John’s Band horen we de invloeden van de vriendschap met de heren Crosby, Stills & Nash: prachtige close-harmony zang, die ook de rest van het album domineert. Toch horen we bij de Dead ook country-invloeden, zoals in High Time en Dire Wolf, waar een prominente rol te horen is voor de steelgitaar van Jerry Garcia. Ander hoogtepunt is Cumberland Blues waar country, rock ‘n’ roll, folk, psychedelica en close harmony prachtig samensmelten. Met Workingman’s Dead vonden The Grateful Dead zich opnieuw uit. Vanwege het 50-jarig jubileum is het album opnieuw opgepoetst en als bonus is er een compleet concert uit 1971 toegevoegd.
On June 14, 1970, the Grateful Dead released Workingman’s Dead, an album that was unlike anything they had ever done, one that showed the world a new side of the Dead. It was clearly the same band as before, but now with a distinctly different sound and approach to the music, pivoting from psychedelic improvisation to folk-rock storytelling for the “everyman,” as the album’s title suggests.
The 3CD set includes the original album with newly remastered sound, plus an unreleased concert recorded on February 21, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. The show was mixed from the 16-track analog master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Bob Weir’s Marin County TRI Studios and mastered by Grammy® Award-winning engineer, David Glasser.
While the Dead’s first three studio albums appealed to many, the group didn’t yet have the mass breakthrough that would make the entire world take notice of this band of misfits from the Bay Area. Workingman’s Dead changed all that. With eight perfect songs – like Casey Jones and High Time – the album solidified the Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter songwriting tandem as one of the best, and most-important, songwriting collaborations in music history.
Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart recorded the album in about 10 days at Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco with Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor – the band’s live-sound engineers – as producers. Fifty years on, every song on Workingman’s Dead sounds fresh, alive, and new.
Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) includes the band’s previously unreleased live performance from 1971 at the Capitol Theatre. The show featured a plethora of songs from both Workingman’s Dead and the band’s follow-up album, American Beauty, which was released in November 1970. Some highlights include Weir’s moving vocal take on Me and Bobby McGee, Pigpen’s whiskey-seasoned growl on Easy Wind and a stellar run through Uncle John’s Band to close out the show.
