Dad's Take:
"Workingman's Dead" is my second favorite Grateful Dead album, and one that I'd consider essential to music collectors. Later in the year, they released "American Beauty," one of my desert island records, but this album is equally strong and was one of many left turns the band took as their sound evolved and changed.
Starting with the iconic "Uncle John's Band" and ending with the brilliant "Casey Jones," the album is, as Jerry Garcia said, influenced by the sound of their friends Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which explains the vocal harmonies heard on several songs, a new element of the Dead's sound. Not what the uninitiated expect from a legendary jam band.
One of the things I really like about this record is its folksy feel and mellow harmonies. I guess that's two things. Whatever. I was never good at math. Listen, for example, to the bluegrass-rock of "Cumberland Blues." Banjos, harmonies, and an upbeat mood despite dark, sad lyrics. Great song. Much of the album is like that. Gentle, friendly tunes with a dark underbelly. This is not simple stuff.
Some of my favorite Dead songs are on this record, including "Uncle John's Band," "Dire Wolf," "Black Peter," and "Casey Jones." Throughout, the record has a good, unified, gentle stoner feel that I find pleasant and entertaining. Much of it is acoustic and intimate. Electric jams like "New Speedway Boogie" still carry the positive mood of the album, which was recording during kind of a rough time for the band, between drug busts and the manager (also band member Mickey Hart's father) running off with much of the band's money. They could have recorded an angry response to their hard times, but instead gave us a record that feels good. Listen closely, though, and you'll hear clues about the band's troubles.
It's an excellent album with a cohesive feel that's just plain fun to listen to. If you don't know the Dead, that last sentence might not match your preconceptions of what their music was about. So, if that sentence surprised you, you need to pick up this record. And maybe some others. This is a band that constantly broke people's preconceptions of who they were.
Brad's Take:
Like my dad said, The Grateful Dead were good at throwing people off from their general preconceptions they had about the band, which includes even myself. I've only ever heard their hippie jam stuff, and never the mellow folk-influenced music that this album is all about.
You can most definitely hear the CSN influences, and that's in no way a bad thing. The Grateful Dead has some awesome vocal harmonies on this album. My favorite example of it is probably "Uncle John's Band." There's a moment in the song where all the instruments stop playing, which gives the vocals to soar openly on their own. That's one of my favorite parts on the whole album.
Some other highlights are "Easy Wind" and "Casey Jones." Those two songs are more upbeat and show the band's blues-rock influences.
Workingman's Dead was pretty cool. I liked hearing the obvious CSN influence that they incorporated into a few songs. A couple songs in the middle dragged a little bit to me. Maybe just because they were super mellow songs that would be perfect to listen to if you were trying to sleep underneath a tree on a sunny afternoon.
If the Grateful Dead have other albums like this, I might need to check out a bit more of their stuff.
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