![]() But those numbers can't reflect the record's significance over the years.Īlong with American Beauty, in every way a sequel, Workingman's Dead is the Dead at their most basic and accessible. "Uncle John's Band" was pulled as a single, making it to No. It was also their first million-selling LP. 27, the band's highest showing at the time. The cover shot of the album features a sepia-toned portrait the group (plus Hunter) looking like they stepped out of a 19th-century Matthew Brady photo, just like on The Band, a huge influence on the mostly acoustic music found inside. It was all a deliberate move by the Dead to just take it a bit more easy in the new decade. For one, it gave Garcia the opportunity to show off his pedal steel and banjo playing for another, the group worked out vocal harmonies modeled after their pals Crosby, Stills & Nash. Listen to the Grateful Dead Perform 'Uncle John's Band'Ĭoming after 1969's Live/Dead, as well as a drug bust in New Orleans in January 1970, Workingman's Dead cleared the air around the Grateful Dead, opening up sounds and musical explorations that were previously uncharted. It helped that Jerry Garcia and lyricist collaborator Robert Hunter had come up with some of their all-time greatest cuts, from the opening "Uncle John's Band" to the closing "Casey Jones." In between, the sextet effortlessly brings a rustic country-rock shimmer to songs like "Cumberland Blues" and "Black Peter." Armed with some of their strongest songs – not concepts, not skeletal frames, not launching points, but actual songs – the band recorded the LP in nine days with little of the commotion that went into the pieced-together, but excellent, Anthem of the Sun. Without the drugged-out clutter that found its way on their first three albums, the Grateful Dead entered the San Francisco sessions for their fourth record with the idea of getting in and out of there as quickly as possible. Live/Dead may best represent the Dead experience on record, but the band's two 1970 folk albums are musically more interesting and, ultimately, more satisfying. Along with American Beauty, which was released later in the year, Workingman's Dead signaled a creative turning point for the Dead.
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