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On June 14, 1964, Kesey and 13 Merry Pranksters  boarded "Furthur" at Kesey's ranch in La Honda, California, and set off eastward. Kesey wanted to see what would happen when hallucinogenic-inspired spontaneity confronted what he saw as the banality and conformity of American society. One author has suggested that the bus trip reversed the historic American westward movement of the past centuries.

(wikipedia)

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Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album was reissued in 2003 in three different ways; as part of the The Golden Road (1965-1973) 12-CD box set, as a remastered and expanded CD, and as a DVD-audio release. The first two contain eight exclusive tracks not found on the original 1970 release while the latter contains just the original tracks rendered in DVD-audio.

Making of the album

The title of the album comes from a comment from Jerry Garcia to lyricist Robert Hunter about how "this album was turning into the Workingman's Dead version of the band," a play on the fact the band had recently been covering Merle Haggard's song "Workingman's Blues" in concert.

The band returned to the Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco to record the album and spent just ten days there. Garcia noted that "let's do it all in three weeks and get it the hell out of the way." Besides the weight of their debt in producing their previous album, Aoxomoxoa, the band was also dealing with the stress of a recent drug bust in New Orleans—which could have possibly resulted in jail time—and their manager Lenny Hart (father of drummer Mickey Hart) skipping town with a sizable chunk of the band's wealth. "In midst of all this adverse stuff that was happening ... [recording the album] was definitely an upper," said Garcia in an interview.

Garcia has 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,'" commented Garcia.

Warner Bros. released "Uncle John's Band" backed with "New Speedway Boogie" as a single, but it received limited airplay. This was neither, as earlier postulated, because of length issues nor concerns about profanity, since the single issue had been edited to a very radio-friendly three minute length and the word "goddamn" removed. Still, it would become the band's biggest U. S. hit single from the time of their inception until "Touch of Grey" more than fifteen years later. "Casey Jones" was also released as a single, but did not chart in the U. S.

The album was voted by readers of Rolling Stone as the best album of 1970, in front of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Déjà Vu and Van Morrison's Moondance.


Track listing

All songs written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter unless noted otherwise.

Side one

    "Uncle John's Band" – 4:42
    "High Time" – 5:12
    "Dire Wolf" – 3:11
    "New Speedway Boogie" – 4:01

Side two

    "Cumberland Blues" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 3:14
    "Black Peter" – 5:41
    "Easy Wind" (Hunter) – 4:57
    "Casey Jones" – 4:24


(wikipedia)

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