Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Edition)

Deluxe 3CD : 3CD with O-Card

3CD : Digipak

Limited LP : Picture Disc

LP : Standard Black Vinyl (Released 21/08/20)

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.

3CD Formats

Disc One: Original Album Remastered
1. Uncle John’s Band
2. High Time
3. Dire Wolf
4. New Speedway Boogie
5. Cumberland Blues
6. Black Peter
7. Easy Wind
8. Casey Jones

Disc Two: Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/21/71)
1. Cold Rain And Snow
2. Me And Bobby McGee
3. Loser
4. Easy Wind
5. Playing In The Band
6. Bertha
7. Me And My Uncle
8. Ripple (False Start)
9. Ripple
10. Next Time You See Me
11. Sugar Magnolia
12. Greatest Story Ever Told
13. Johnny B. Goode

Disc Three: Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/21/71)
1. China Cat Sunflower
2. I Know You Rider
3. Bird Song
4. Cumberland Blues
5. I’m A King Bee
6. Beat It On Down The Line
7. Wharf Rat
8. Truckin’
9. Casey Jones
10. Good Lovin’

Vinyl

A1. Uncle John’s Band
A2. High Time
A3. Dire Wolf
A4. New Speedway Boogie
B1. Cumberland Blues
B2. Black Peter
B3. Easy Wind
B4. Casey Jones

https://youtu.be/fm_YX6LKf0g