Due July 10th, WORKINGMAN’S DEAD: 50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION will be available as a three-CD set and digital equivalents featuring the original album with newly remastered sound, plus an unreleased complete 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, along with restoration and speed correction by Plangent Processes. 2/21/71 delivers a plethora of songs from both Workingman’s Dead and the band’s follow-up album, American Beauty. 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.
Summer Box Set
Pretty sure Dave said the reason the 1976 box set came out when it did was because there was a summer box coming.
Box Set #2
Fall 2020, I believe is what Dave said. I would expect an announcement around the first of August.
Early 1970 and 2nd Box
1 2 70 Dark Star is so so good ... Dave's 30 and bonus is greatness ... I thought Dave said they did "the box" early this year due to other things happening (like WD and AB 50th's) implying no second box, but I could be totally wrong.
Beware of inflated value on customs declarations on WD 50th Merc
I am in the UK and decided to order the 50th Ed Colour Vinyl and added a T-Shirt to the order. My bad fo thinking they would be sent together. So the T-shirt got sent first ( so a double whiny with Customs Charges of £8 ($10) per parcel) but with a quoted value is $50 which is double the cost, and hence a whopping £8.64VAT (bill plus customs) when it should have been about £4. Nice T shirt but pissed off.
Contrabandista
I need to wear about 15 brand new Dead T-shirts all at the same time while wearing five fake rolexes on each arm and fly to merry olde England. Set up a table in front of the Chelsea Drugstore and pay for my trip. Just kidding.
50 years ago
Heard at the Fillmore East the night of September 17, 1970. “A whole lot of assholes have been showing up since the Dead released Workingmans Dead”.
I’ll bet that individual didn’t stop attending Grateful Dead concerts.
“It’s all relative.”
Workingmans-Touch
Maybe Working Mans was the Touch if Grey of its day ! It used to make me wonder, when I first started buying albums by them, if the people who followed the Dead changed completely after that album, so different was it from its predecessors. It didn't seem so.
Change is constant
One of the few consistent laws of the Universe. I was the second wave of long hairs following in my brothers footsteps who was an almost original. Dennis Hopper was an amazing photographer who was given a camera in the early 60s from his actress girlfriend Brooke Hayward. Brooke is quoted as saying that Dennis was inseparable from that camera. Quite a few of Dennis’ photographs from the early 60s were of bikers in Southern California. It’s amazing to see men with long hair in 1962, not to mention how outlandish their clothes were. The Beatles started growing long hair in 63. I distinctly remember the local NYC TV news reports in February 1964. A young man who was part of the crowd in front of the Plaza Hotel when the Beatles arrived and was being interviewed. He was ecstatic about the arrival of the Beatles and had longish hair, told the newsman “I’m growing my hair long , this is my Beatles hair”cut”!” This was a wild cultural shift that was way beyond some fashion statement. When I first saw The Rolling Stones on the NYC tv show “The Steve Paul Scene” all the Stones had on Mod suits except for Mick who wore a plain gray sweatshirt. Fucking rebel. Big Daddy Roth who Stanley Miller (Mouse) was cut from the same cloth were the original T-shirt artists. They created t-shirts with images of hot rods with crazed looking drivers , human and otherwise. Soon after Rick Griffin started making surfing T-shirt’s with Murphy that also was the cover of the first issue of Surfer Magazine.
Combine post World War 2 restlessness of veterans (B-17 bomber crews) who formed some of the original biker clubs , abstract expressionism in painting, the evolution of be-bop into free jazz, the rise of Chicago Blues (electrified) the late 50s early 60s folk revival, Rock and Roll, Beat literature , the use of psychedelics (Aldous Huxley, Gordon Wasson or mescaline and mushrooms respectively) brought into to the awareness of those who read Life Magazine and contemporary literature. Bring in Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter participating with the early 60s Menlo Park Veterans Hospital experiments with psychedelics. And five young Bay Area lads who lived, breathed, ate, drank from the deep well of music , with passion, nobody should be shocked or surprised that both here in the U.S. and England , that the two most materialistic nations in the world would become the birthplace of a “cultural revolution” that would rock so much of the world.
That Workingmans Dead would make the music of the Grateful Dead ring true to a much larger audience from a far wider base than just the East Village, Sunset Strip, leave the Haight Ashbury , London (with roots in blue collar Liverpool) and gather momentum akin to a snowball rolling from the top of a mountain into a faster and larger freight train size avalanche , inevitable. Add in the Berkeley free speech movement, the civil rights movement that was in so many ways far greater than the hippie movement , might as well try and stop a freight train with a few branches across the tracks, (Caution, Do Not Stop On Tracks)
So when something really good takes place in the hearts and minds of people , pay attention. If it moves you , do it. One could easily say Workingmans Dead was the first indication of just how popular the Grateful Dead would become. That the Grateful Dead would always be a hardly known band as it was right up to May/ June of 1970. Was not going to happen. Like trying to stop a flash flood with sand bags in the Gila River during a 3-4 day summer monsoon heavy rain. Ain’t a gonna happen. The audience didn’t completely change 50 years ago, it just got bigger .
Richard Alpert / the Beatles
Blue Jay Way “ Don’t be long , don’t be long ,don’t belong”
Ram Dass , cover of Be Here Now.
Be here now, be here now, be nowhere
Look closely , noticed late one night almost 50 years ago with friends.
All good
Strider - interesting post, thanks. It seems to me that The Dead had great cultural and artistic depth, and that this could be the reason why their music and impact has endured. It would be impossible to account for all the associations, and things I have followed up through listening to the Dead-musical, literary and spiritually.
Of course, we all enter the narrative at different points, and from different perspectives. As a 15 year old, in England in 1972, my entry to acid rock came way before I actually took acid, with Hawkwind in 1972. Reading about Hawkwind, I learned that they were like an English version of The Grateful Dead. Who they? Reading on, I learnt something of their history, and eventually bought an album. Which was Workingmans Dead. Ironically, having already listened to all manor of far out British and German bands, this sounded a bit pedestrian, and it was only when I got the ostensibly more obscure Anthem of the Sun, that I started getting into them. To me, Working Mans Dead was harder to get into because it was more specifically American music-whereas the earlier albums were more universal.
This is all listening to records, too. I never actually saw The Dead until 1981-so its also very evident that how we experience the band depends to a large extent where we come from-which country. Which also indicates why country based material can be harder to get into than the psychedelic music for some people. But the more I listened the more the different eras coalesced and fed into each other and seemed to form a wonderfully diverse and rich whole. Listening to The Dead never gets old. Unlike me, unfortunately !
*RE/ Strider & ‘’Blue Jay Way’ !
... it’s funny you posted this song and some of the lyrics! “Don’t Beelong,
“Please Don’t belong , please don’t Belong”
...if you listen really closely the Beatles are actually singing,” Police Don’t Be long, “Police! don’t Belong, “Police Don’t Dont Belong ! Police Don’t Belong!”...give the song an listen to it again with these lyrics in mind! Blue jay = police ...
At least when your trip’n it does! Lmao! Ha ha lol !
The Beatles! George Harrison’s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Coz0TmK2ZIg
The new Dead sound of WMD
I imagine the change and sound from Live Dead to Workingman's Dead must have given Dead fans the same huh? that KISS fans got after latching on to the awesome KISS Alive! Then less than a year later The studio LP Destroyer comes out, and it has a piano ballad on it! (Beth of course). But even without that one, Destroyer was way out of left field with pianos, strings, bells and Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd The Wall). I remember putting on side I of the LP, which was supposed to start with Detroit Rock City , and I'm hearing the sound of silverware being put away while a guy read the morning news. It turned out the silverware was supposed to be glass being swept up in the aftermath of the song lyrics I was about to hear. Classic Bob Ezrin. Those were the days where a producer or manager said jump and Gene Simmons said how high. Now he's just a rich sucky dude who takes advantage of the people that made them him rich. If I had millions of dollars I would sue that guy 10 times over. I would take out op-eds in the New York and L.A. newspapers about him. It's not slander if it's true right? I'm way off the Grateful Dead mark, sorry guys! End of rant.
Not so new sound of WMD
At the time that WMD was released, it didn't seem radical or different. They had been playing some of the songs for a few months. The Dead had been playing acoustic sets and interspersed songs for a while. It was more of a continuation. The album is sublime, but it wasn't a departure from what we had been hearing in concerts, and it certainly did not represent a change in direction for the band. It did not seem to me to be a departure. Live Dead was an approximation of one aspect, WMD gave us new songs, exquisitely performed, but that is all, nothing more.
...”my god it’s full of stars!”
...my god , it’s full of stars!”
Bravo! Thank you for a real good time!
Have a grateful day my brother and sisters!🙏❤️💀🌹
new sound of WMD
Ziffle-yes that makes sense-if you were lucky enough to see them on a regular basis. If you hadn't seen them at all, and only knew them through their records it might have been more surprising.
* news - WMB - “Angels Share” new release coming up! Primo!
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share
Year Of Release: 2020
Label: Grateful Dead/Rhino
Genre: Rock
Total Time: 02:31:31
Workingman's Dead dubbed "the angels share"
1. Uncle John's Band (False Start 1) (Not Slated) (01:04)
2. Uncle John's Band (Breakdown) (Not Slated) (01:08)
3. Uncle John's Band (False Start 2) (Not Slated) (00:27)
4. Uncle John's Band (Complete Track) (Not Slated) (04:44)
5. Uncle John's Band (Take 6 Breakdown) (Slated) (01:02)
6. Uncle John's Band (Take 7 Breakdown) (Slated) (01:46)
7. High Time (Breakdown 1) (Not Slated) (01:23)
8. High Time (Breakdown 2) (Not Slated) (01:09)
9. High Time (Take 3 Breakdown) (Slated) (00:25)
10. High Time (Complete Track 1) (Not Slated) (05:40)
11. High Time (Studio Chatter) (00:44)
12. High Time (Complete Track 2) (Not Slated) (05:32)
13. High Time (Take 6 Breakdown) (Slated) (00:46)
14. High Time (Take 7 Breakdown) (Slated) (00:17)
15. Dire Wolf (Breakdown 1) (Not Slated) (01:25)
16. Dire Wolf (Complete Track 1) (Not Slated) (02:51)
17. Dire Wolf (Complete Track 2) (Not Slated) (04:22)
18. Dire Wolf (Take 2 Breakdown) (Slated) (01:07)
19. Dire Wolf (Take 3 False Start & Breakdown) (Slated) (00:45)
20. Dire Wolf (Breakdown 2) (Not Slated) (00:57)
21. Dire Wolf (Take 6 Breakdown) (Slated) (01:13)
22. Dire Wolf (Breakdown 3) (Not Slated) (00:42)
23. Dire Wolf (False Starts 1) (Not Slated) (00:21)
24. Dire Wolf (Breakdown 4) (Not Slated) (02:18)
25. Dire Wolf (False Starts 2) (Not Slated) (01:07)
26. Dire Wolf (Complete Track 3) (Not Slated) (04:26)
27. Dire Wolf (Complete Track With Vocals) (Not Slated) (04:36)
28. Dire Wolf (False Start 3) (Not Slated) (00:36)
29. New Speedway Boogie (Demo With Acoustic Guitar, Drums & Vocals) (Not Slated) (02:34)
30. New Speedway Boogie (Complete Track With Vocals 1) (Not Slated) (03:57)
31. New Speedway Boogie (Take 2 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (01:34)
32. New Speedway Boogie (Take 3 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (01:38)
33. New Speedway Boogie (Mis-Named As Take 3 False Start With Vocals) (Slated) (00:15)
34. New Speedway Boogie (Take 4 Complete With Vocals & Lead Guitar) (Slated) (04:26)
35. New Speedway Boogie (Arranging Take With Vocals) (Not Slated) (02:37)
36. New Speedway Boogie (Breakdown With Vocals 1) (Not Slated) (01:00)
37. New Speedway Boogie (Breakdown With Vocals 2) (Not Slated) (01:59)
38. New Speedway Boogie (Complete Track With Vocals 2) (Not Slated) (04:48)
39. New Speedway Boogie (Take 8 Complete With Vocals) (Slated) (04:19)
40. Cumberland Blues (Various Breakdowns & Take 9) (Slated) (03:26)
41. Black Peter (Breakdown 1) (Not Slated) (01:05)
42. Black Peter (Breakdown 2) (Not Slated) (01:12)
43. Black Peter (Studio Chatter) (01:45)
44. Black Peter (Breakdown 3) (Not Slated) (05:41)
45. Black Peter (Breakdown 4) (Not Slated) (04:42)
46. Black Peter (Complete Track With Vocals) (Not Slated) (05:43)
47. Easy Wind (Complete Track With Vocals 1) (Not Slated) (04:53)
48. Easy Wind (Breakdown With Vocals 1) (Not Slated) (00:48)
49. Easy Wind (Breakdown With Vocals 2) (Not Slated) (04:20)
50. Easy Wind (Breakdown With Vocals 3) (Not Slated) (01:12)
51. Easy Wind (Breakdown With Vocals 4) (Not Slated) (01:04)
52. Easy Wind (Complete Track With Vocals 2) (Not Slated) (05:52)
53. Easy Wind (False Starts & Breakdowns With Vocals) (Not Slated) (01:43)
54. Easy Wind (Incomplete Track With Vocals) (Not Slated) (01:44)
55. Easy Wind (Take 17 With Vocals) (Slated) (05:42)
56. Easy Wind (Take 18 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (00:45)
57. Easy Wind (Take 19 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (01:05)
58. Easy Wind (Take 20 With Vocals) (Slated) (04:36)
59. Easy Wind (Take 21 False Start With Vocals) (Slated) (00:21)
60. Easy Wind (Take 22 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (00:39)
61. Easy Wind (Take 23 Breakdown With Vocals) (Slated) (00:38)
62. Casey Jones (Breakdown 1) (Not Slated) (02:51)
63. Casey Jones (Breakdown 2) (Not Slated) (03:10)
64. Casey Jones (Complete Track With Vocals) (Not Slated) (04:34)
*** Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share
Year Of Release: 2020
Label: Grateful Dead/Rhino
Genre: Rock
Total Time: 02:31:31
Where are the “Angel’s Share” FLACs?
No complaints about a Digital-Only release but c’mon— Streaming / MP3-level Audio is _garbage_ and a find like this deserves far more respect than that! And I’m not saying they should be giving away FLACs for free— they are sizeable files requiring storage space and significant bandwidth to maintain and distribute. I’ll gladly pay a reasonable sum for a full-fidelity copy of this tasty collection, as I’m sure many others would as well. They wouldn’t need to be Hi-Rez Audio (although that would be nice!), standard, CD-quality— 44.1kHz / 16-bit would be just fine. What most certainly ISN’T fine are these crappy, lossy, compressed versions currently being offered. We’re serious Music Lovers out hear in DeadHeadLand and we need REAL versions of these amazing, newly discovered treasures!
“Angel’s Share”
“Angel’s Share” Should have been the 50th anniversary release!! This is much better than live shows. This is rare studio stuff that is so cool and different. This is the kind of stuff I like for all the studio albums. I love live shows but this kind of stuff is so much more interesting. Just my opinion
Chuck
Almost $50.00 for the CD, …
Almost $50.00 for the CD, Damn !,,, Most of us ''Older'' Deadheads are getting hit pretty hard from this Pandemic,
Being out of work and just barely getting by...
Hopefully I can score a copy on Amazon at a much Cheaper rate....
Be Safe and Good Health to All.....
Angels Delight
It would have been quite something if they had released the unreleased outtakes for Anthem.
Tom_Tom and the Breath of Angels
Check pms (in a minute, I have to type there :-) )
Shipping Notice email...
The tracking number info say that I should have it on Saturday, the day after scheduled release.
Workingmans Dead shirt & hat
Looks like they are all out of large t shirts, hopefully they will restock them. I just ordered two copies of the CD, one for me and one for my brother. I ordered it on amazon, it's $7 dollars cheaper, it's supposed come on July 14th. Hope they get more hats.
*re/ Anthem Out takes /Daverock
... I concure!
I love listening to the production of an album, watching it evolve into a finished piece! But that’s just me. Rock on everyone, have a grateful day! 🙏❤️💀🌹
...coming Up around the bend,Get ready for a train ride! “That Notion just crossed my mind” you know who we are, we won’t complain!
Riding across the sky , what would be the answer to the answer man!? But it doesn’t seem to matter anyway.
...don’t forget to look up. 🤠🤡
*”FOR THE COMMITTED
AND THE CURIOUS”,
Gather round every Thursday as we tell the tales of Grateful Dead days of yore! The Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, the first official podcast of the Grateful Dead, is devoted to exploring the music and mythology behind one of the most enduring, progressive, and influential bands in the history of recorded music. Here, we invite you to delve into the band’s enormous mythology in digestible chunks. Think you know it all? We'll probe corners of the band’s history you never knew existed. No topic will be off limits.
Hosts Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow will take the lead, picking up special guests from the Dead universe along the way. Upcoming episodes will feature interviews with Dennis McNally, David Lemieux, David Nelson, Bill “Grateful Red” Walton and Trixie Garcia, amongst many others.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of WORKINGMAN'S DEAD, we're kicking things off with an eight-episode arch that examines each song on the album individually.
May the long strange trip continue across the pod!
🙏❤️💀🌹
*RE/ Dylan & the Grateful Dead
* https://archive.org/details/gd1987-06-01.sbd-rehearsals.fraser.97489.sh…
Re/ Dylan & The Dead
... I first mentioned this when the giants Boxset was released.
**🙏❤️💀🌹
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-the-grateful-dead-rehearsal-sess…
*Jack Whatley·
**July 7, 2020
*** “Listen back to Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead’s mammoth 74 track rehearsal session,
1987!”
***
Received mine today July 9th…
Received mine today July 9th in the UK from Amazon the day before official release??
Shipping notice from Amazon....
.....being delivered tomorrow (no offense dead.net).
Save money on this
Amazon has it cheaper by quite a bit, $7 about. Plus free shipping if you are a Prime member :)
Digital Download
The remastered album portion is 192/24. The concert portion is 96/24.
Happy to have this release.
well now...
I know it's overkill but i had to purchase the 24 bit download in addition to the physical product that is on it's way...Gotta love Pigpen's lyric gaffe on Easy Wind, cool stuff....PIG POWER!!!!
Workingman's Dead in hand....
....wear headphones or earbuds for this one. The separation is sooooo good.
And that Port Chester Bird Song?? 😊 Lawd have mercy!
I hate you all....
…. everyone else (as usual) is getting theirs first :-(. Once again I can never understand how UPS Our Choice can take so long?! If something takes a week to ship, send a week early! Mine was pushed back to Thursday. Oh the horror!
I bought the Commander Cody from Oswley, that will be here Monday. Only 4 days from ordering!
Dap35 - Scarlet/Fire is 30 minutes!!! I think that combination had it's best days in the 80's.
Just to echo some previous…
Just to echo some previous comments, Amazon has it cheaper and shipping is free if you have Prime. Had I ordered my copy through them I would have saved about $14.00 total and probably had it by now. As it is the tracking number provided suggests a Tuesday delivery. Lesson learned. Anything that is a general release I will not purchase from dead.net. Shame on you folks. And while I'm at it, highlights of the outtakes should have been part of the package along with a live show from the period, not one from a year later. I'm sure it's fine but WTF?
UK ORDERS
I’ll say it again. If you are in Europe then it is foolish to buy any general issue release through dead.net. My copy was delivered by Amazon.co.uk on the day of release with no payments to Royal Mail for handling charges. The lenticular cover is great. The WMD disc sounds good and I’ll get round to the live discs tomorrow. I do buy all the limited edition issues via dead.net and I’m grateful they keep issuing them all.
Is Workingman's Dead 50th CD HDCD encoded?
Is Workingman's Dead 50th Anniversary CD HDCD encoded?
Thanks!
WORKINGMAN'S DEAD 50TH ANNIVERSARY PICTURE DISC
Does anyone know if the picture disc is in stock and ready for shipping? I haven't received a shipping confirmation yet. Someone on FB said there was a delay.
OK -- here's my take. 1.The…
OK -- here's my take.
1.The remastering of WMD sounds fantastic - better than the box set for sure. The vocals in particular really shine.
2. No thank - I don't really want lots of out-takes tagged on the end -
3. The live concert is absolutely fantastic -- one of the best I've heard from this era. It was this being a multi-track that tipped me into buying this release -- and it's great. Perhaps Greatest Story doesn't make the grade but that's the only track that doesn't. Is this the 1st performance ??
1st Greatest
TIMP-according to Deadbase, the first one was played on the first night of this run-2/18/71. It was also played on the 19th and the 20th by the looks of things.
Port Chester....
....playing wise, its just as tight as Three From The Vault. Sonically wise, it sounds better. Hard to dislike early Bird Songs and Greatest Story Ever Told's.
When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction
Hey there fellow rockers!!!
Don't have my WMD50 yet, hopefully soon. Weirdly enough, I don't have my Miami 74 CDs yet either. I blame it all on the Andromeda strain................
Those who have followed my rants know I'm a long time advocate of 2/21/71. Looks rather average on paper, but the execution is inspired. I think those with open minds will find a lot to enjoy.
2/19 may not be a fair comparison. Especially given that remastering technology has improved since then. I expect that sonically, 2/21 will "sound" better (oh such a subjective prediction!), but the bottom line is, both are strong shows.
Knee deep in the novels of HG Wells right now, needed a diversion from the usual Camus, Bradbury, and string theory............
Deadheadqueen, check your pm.
Rock on my friends!
Doc
Many homicides, tomorrow awaits