The Grateful Dead anniversary train keeps a-rolling with the July 20 reissue of “Workingman’s Dead.”
The “50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” three-CD set comes with the original album “with newly remastered sound” and an “unreleased complete concert” recorded Feb. 21, 1971, at the Capitol Theatre, a New York venue well-known to Deadheads.
“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, along with restoration and speed correction by Plangent Processes.” (No detail available on the studio album remastering job.)
“Workingman’s Dead” was arguably the most important of the Dead’s long career, as it kick-started a long successful run of roots-influenced music. The band had largely exhausted the psychedelic pyrotechnics of “Anthem of the Sun” and “Aoxomoxoa” as the 1960s did a slow fade.
“This was, sort of, stepping out of our spacesuit and coming down to Earth,” drummer Mickey Hart said of the album.
The new direction had good bones thanks to Jerry Garcia’s background as a young player of bluegrass and folk music. He had started to play the steel guitar at the time of the new album. It was “our first true studio album,” Garcia said.
“Workingman’s Dead” and its follow-up, “American Beauty,” are generally regarded as the band’s best and most listenable studio work.
Key tracks include “Uncle John’s Band,” “Dire Wolf,” “Cumberland Blues” and “Casey Jones.”
Garcia said the album came out of his partnership with lyricist Robert Hunter, who joins the band on the sepia-toned album cover. “I felt that they were all good songs,” Garcia said. “They were successful in the sense you could sing ’em and get off and enjoy singing ’em.” All of the numbers are Garcia-Hunter compositions.
The music of red-hot Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was cited as a key influence, with friends David Crosby and Stephen Stills encouraging the Dead to upgrade their vocal act. The album was recorded not long after the Band had depanted much of the underground music industry, charming fans and pros with its down-home singing and playing.
Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann said, “We tried to be like a Bakersfield (country) 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.”
Only four album tracks appear on the Capitol Theatre discs: “Easy Wind,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Cumberland Blues” and “Casey Jones.”
As with other anniversary reissues, a picture disc will be available. A colored-vinyl album includes a “Casey Jones” live (digital) single. And Barnes & Noble advertises an exclusive “blue collar” blue vinyl version.
“Workingman’s Dead” has been reissued several times over the years, including an audiophile 45 rpm version and DVD-A.
Update: Read about the several hours of “Workingman’s Dead” outtakes, recently discovered and unveiled by the band.