Customer Reviews

Workingman's Dead

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We came into the Dead concert and knew something was up when Jerry Garcia sat down behind a peddle-steel guitar. Instead of the rambling, hit or miss, acid-soaked freeform type of Dead concert we were accustomed to, we heard tightly structured songs, played tightly with economy and clarity. Instead of pyschedelia we were getting blues and country-tinged folk music, albeit played electric with double drummers. It was a new incarnation of the Dead which was to become the Workingman's Dead & American Beauty. It was a surprise.

It still is surprising to listen to this album, especially for those who only know the aura & reputation of the Haight-Ashbury hippie Grateful Dead. Erase that image, and you realize you are listening to quintessential American music, with roots ranging from Appalachian folk to Cajun Bayou to the Oakie dirt farm and the fieldhand's campfire. And it rocks.

This is simply a fine and Classic album. There isn't a wasted song in the bunch, with great music matching Robert Hunter's terrific lyrics. The guitar leads trade with each other over Phil Lesh's restless bass and the rhythms laid down by Kreutzman and Hart, complex and syncopated and kick-ay. And I love Pig Pen on Easy Wind, wailing, hoppin, bluesy and ballsy. It's one of those albums solid from start to finish.

This is great American music played by an American band. It's feet are planted firmly where its title indicates, in the life and music of the workingman. It is timeless.

the pre-cursor to the all time dead classic, american beauty, workingman's dead is just as good. featuring such deadhead staples as uncle john's band, cumberland blues and casey jones, this disc is pure gold. with other great songs as black peter, pigpen's easy wind and the story of the altamont disaster, new speedway boogie. all the songs on this album are incredible with the bouncy and very musical uncle john's band to the heart wrenching high time and everything in between, this album cannot be passed up, a great pair with american beauty, this should be in every deadheads collection. an amazing experience!

"Please don't dominate the rap Jack, if you've got nothing new to say". Heeding the advise of long-time dead lyrisist, Robert Hunter, I'll try to be brief and to the point. This is the album that converted many a skeptic, myself included into diehard Dead-Heads. From the sublime harmonies of Uncle John's Band to the rollicking good humor of Cumberland Blues the Dead cover all the bases. Here is where they clearly turned the corner from psychedelic jugband to America's foremost cult phenomenon. What truly makes Workingman's Dead a classic is the way each song segues into the next, forming a seamless thematic path-quilt, paying homage to America's workingman. Finally, there is the masterful cover art by Kelly Mouse. Those marvelous ink drawings on the back cover stare out through the ages, giving further testament to this masterpiece.

I'll go out on a limb here, and make the statement that 50 years from now, ethnomusicologists will categorize some of the Dead's songs (mostly the Hunter/Garcia collaborations) as quintessential American traditional (i.e., folk) music of the last half of the 20th century. They will look at the music the same way we now consider the songs by Woody Guthrie or Robert Johnson. Many of the tunes on this album fit that bill, especially UJB, Cumberland Blues, and Casey Jones. The songs are just fun (helpful hint: play Casey Jones in the car when driving with the kids as an updated "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad"). If you are a PigPen fan (or just curious about his legendary blues stylings), Easy Wind was a showcase tune for him in the studio. Listen to the bass lines on Cumberland Blues by Phil Lesh. While the Dead couldn't always harmonize on-key live, they certainly got it down in the studio. If you had to buy just one studio Dead album, pick this one.

"Uncle John's Band" is a masterpiece. "Black Peter" is a gem. This album showed that the Dead, when they chose, could put the fancy jamming aside and just play songs.

The Dead started out as The Warlocks, doing country-style acoustic jug-band types of tunes. Then they went psychedelic, WB signed them, and their first 3-4 albums were all pretty much groovy hippie jams. Then by 1969, the psychedelic hippie thing had started to wane, and so to avoid becoming obsolete, guess what?? The Dead went back to their roots and made this record! Not really a stretch for them in retrospect, this CD and "American Beauty" both show the old-style Dead to an audience that hadn't heard them this way before. A great CD, and one worth owning, so own it! ;)

...the other album being, of course, "American Beauty". This album works so well because for once these loveable long-haired, dope-smoking, acid-dropping, heroin-injecting, coke-snorting, whiskey-swilling, barbituate-injesting hippies decided to forsake their nauseatingly self-indulgent free-form jam tendencies (see "Live Dead") and craft a straightforward, unpretentious, no-nonsense album of mellow acoustic rock. If you are wanting to introduce a friend to the Grateful Dead for the first time, this is the record you throw on the turntable. "Casey Jones" and "Uncle John's Band" were the most popular cuts, but there is not a single bad track here.

"I don't know, but I've been told, if the horse don't pull you've got to carry the load. I don't know who's back's that strong. Maybe find out before too long."

Or then again...

"I don't know, but I've been told, it's hard to run with the weight of gold. Other times, I've heard it said, it's hard to run with the weight of lead."

Do I need to say any more?

This album is full of classics. You have the soft, yet sweet High time' which christened quite a dead set as centerpiece or respectable song that gave way to dead sets to remember for ever (i.e. 7 20 94 Deer creek, 6 27 85 Saratoga nY).

Uncle John s became a great 2nd set tune that gave way to some of the most beautiful impriovisation I ve heard from this band (Uncle J s > Playin, or UJB > Jam, or the case of new year s 87 Bucket > UJB, what a blowout !! : ) )

Dire wolf, a strong 1st set number that gave sets identity, depending where the show is played. Gorgeous song.

New Speedway, a great 2nd set big player. Coming in at my favorite the 2 19 95 show in SLC which i attended. More of this song, the 6 28 92 Noblesville IN show where we got lay me down > El Paso > New speedway. Those are the NSB s I remember. strong, full of good playing, and leaving the crowds happy at your show.

The rest of the songs here on Workingman s Dead, Black Peter, Cumberland B s, Easy Wind, and Casey Jones are songs to leave you content with good lyrics, and what I call a good attempt at North American Folklore in songs.

This was certainly the Grateful Dead's greatest studio achievment. Although only containing eight songs, each one is an incredible piece of work. Uncle John's Band is my personal favorite, because it showcases the things the band does best. Their harmonizing is amazing, the beat keeps you going, and Jerry's guitar work is outstanding. The thing about Jerry Garcia is that he didn't write music that was impossible for other people to play along with, it was that his music had so much feeling, coming straight from the heart. Simplicity is bliss if you ask me, and nobody can be simple yet mind-blowing like the Grateful Dead. Lay down, turn the lights low, and relax to some of the best music ever recorded.