Workingman’s Dead: Bringer of Life for the Grateful Dead

On December 6, 1969, the Rolling Stones held what was supposed to be their West Coast Woodstock at Altamont Raceway in Livermore, CA.  Originally scheduled for Golden Gate Park, but relocated at the last minute to a hardly accessible death-trap of a venue, the concert featured such San Francisco talent as Santana, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead, with the Stones headlining. [i]  With nearly 300,000 fans in attendance, security was essential, but was provided by the always fickle (and in this case, drunk) Hell’s Angels.  Fights and trouble brewed all day, at one point causing Jefferson Airplane lead singer Marty Balin to be knocked unconscious for trying to help a fan, and causing the Grateful Dead to simply refuse to play. [ii] During the Stones’ set, a man who was thought to have a gun was stabbed and killed by an Angel: at days end, Altamont was an utter loss, sending believers in 1967’s “Summer of Love” and the entire social movement of the 60’s a negative signal.  According to Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Adams, “To have it turn into such a nightmare was a serious wake-up call.” [iii]  This shock would prompt lyricist Robert Hunter to pen “New Speedway Boogie,” a tune that was much more overtly socio-political message and a folksier sound then songs from the earlier canon, which mostly dealt with varying degrees of psychedelia or the blues.  A sampling of the lyrics spells out that the Dead were due for a change:

Who can deny? Who can deny?
it’s not just a change in style
One step done and another begun
in I wonder how many miles?

Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
Things went down we don’t understand
but I think in time we will…

One way or another
One way or another
One way or another
this darkness got to give. [iv]

            The Grateful Dead’s first album of the 1970s, Workingman’s Dead, would serve to significantly restructure the band’s sound, giving birth to a fully developed form of their legendary eclecticism.  First, the album was the most coherent and financially fruitful the band had yet recorded, playing off of traditional styles of Americana and infusing them with unmatched energy and freshness.  With the introduction of soft-spoken folk material that required fast pickin’, extensive vocal harmonies and tight structure, the Dead transfigured their live shows to follow suit: the new music lead to special acoustic sets and the first long-term pairing of mind-melting psychedelic rock and alt-country.  Workingman’s Dead solidified the Grateful Dead’s position as an inexorably American band through verbal imagery, musical variety, and a re-fortified sense of adventure.

            The end of 1969 meant a change in personnel for the band.  Bassist Phil Lesh’s friend Tom Constanten, the keyboardist who had helped the Dead create the flawed masterpiece that was Aoxomoxoa, as well as some of the longest and trippiest versions of Dark Star ever conceived (versions from 2/27/69 and 2/28/69 are prime examples of this), amicably split from the band.  Constanten’s departure was probably one of the main reasons that simple structures of Workingman’s Dead could be examined, since his was a music of complexity and extensive improvisation. [v]  With an ensemble that had one less soloist, a “stripped down” sound was entirely possible.

            Robert Hunter, who served as the primary lyricist on the album (generally working in tandem with Jerry Garcia), acknowledged some of the influences on the “new” sound: citing Bob Dylan and his “opening the door to being literate in music,” Robbie Robertson’s (of The Band) song-writing, and “our folk roots, our country and bluegrass roots,” he spoke of a trend of general historical consciousness as what really shapes American music. [vi]  One can easily see the comparison between songs like “Cumberland Blues” and The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”  Each explores a specific place in America at a specific time, fronting blue collar feelings above lilting music that fuses bluegrass, folk and rock. 

            A quick rundown of the songs on the album weaves a general narrative, showcasing songs that draw from a sense of American folklore (“Dire Wolf” and “Casey Jones”), lament over the end of times past (“High Time” and “Black Peter”), or autobiographical resonance (“Uncle John’s Band” and “New Speedway Boogie.”)  It is noteworthy that nearly every song on the album, including the heretofore unmentioned “Easy Wind,” contains pessimistic lyrics: a typical examine can be found in the refrain of “Dire Wolf”: “Don’t murder me / I beg of you don’t murder me / Please / don’t murder me.” [vii]  However, the accompanying music on the album, as is typical of the bluegrass genre, is lively and charged.  Dead scholars David Shenk and Steve Silberman duly note: “Taken together, the songs form a whole that is actually quite relentless in its darkness, yet there is an unexplainable radiance to the musical arrangements that gives Workingman’s Dead its ‘up’ feeling.” [viii]  Thus, there was the energy that permeated previous Dead efforts (a good version of “St. Stephen” from 1968 will easily confirm this) combined with a nostalgic sense of past American music traditions, as well as the more contemporary work of rock/folksters.  On its own, Workingman’s Dead is a collection of great songs that resonate the American way of life even today.  However, it was the introduction of the Workingman’s Dead material into the live setting that made it important to the Grateful Dead, and consequently, to the music establishment as a whole: by raising the bar for eclecticism, song selection, and contrast, the Grateful Dead were not only able to reach more fans, but also become the juggernaut that would leave a 30 year legacy of unequalled fervor. 

            A case study of the Grateful Dead’s show at Harpur College in Binghamton, NY on 5/2/1970 provides the perfect example of place, time, and content.  The show has long been available to traders as a fan-circulated soundboard, but has recently been issued as part of the “Dick’s Picks” series on CD, in crystalline quality.  The show is from a tour that booked the Dead at many colleges on the East Coast, which showed the diversification of the band’s audience beyond the bay area, and an understanding of the general demographic that would be the band’s lifeblood over the next 25 years.  Billed originally as “An Evening with the Grateful Dead,” the night’s entertainment consisted of an acoustic set from the Dead to open, followed by a set of the cowboy-styled music of The New Riders of the Purple Sage (original members included the Dead’s own Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart) followed by one or two electric sets from the Dead.  Dennis McNally, the band’s official historian, claims that “Along with Workingman’s Dead and the next album, this presentation of the Dead as a full-bore experience would fully establish them, after five years, as a commercially viable band.” [ix]

            The acoustic set contains several songs from Workingman’s Dead, as well as some classic covers like “I Know You Rider,” and soon to be placed songs like “Friend of the Devil” (which would later appear on Workingman’s companion piece, American Beauty).  Songs that previously appeared in electric format, like “Beat it on Down the Line” are mixed with new tunes like “Black Peter” making the set particularly appealing for both old fans and fledglings.  “Cold Jordan” provides a rare and heartfelt take on the gospel music of the South.  Including an acoustic set appealed to fans of traditional folk, bluegrass, country and ballads.  The acoustic experience is more personal, as the instruments do not play music approaching the raucous volumes of the electric material: as such, the band takes on a talkative approach to the audience.  Banter, requests, and even an argument or two are not unheard of.  The acoustic sets, unfortunately, were ditched by years end, and did not appear again until 1980. 

            The New Riders set contains the requisite cowboy songs, and has Dead guitarist Bob Weir singing on some tracks.  The main event, the two electric sets, are what lets this show stand as “One of the best.” [x]  The first contains a lengthy “St. Stephen -> That’s It For the Other One Suite -> Cosmic Charlie” movement that contains all of the “Cryptical Envelopment” interludes, making for an acid-drenched performance that has all of the tastiest licks from their work of yesteryear.  “Casey Jones” is integrated into the electric portion, rendering its folk styling and drug content slightly more contemporary.   The last electric set primarily consists of “Viola Lee Blues -> Feedback -> And We Bid You Goodnight”: a more precise reading might say “Complexly structured blues cover -> atonal avant-garde technology orgy -> a cappella cover of a traditional ballad.”  Bearing such eclecticism in mind, it is no wonder that McNally goes on to further state that “[the May 2^nd show] was simply staggering, a concert with so much quality in so many different styles that it became deservedly legendary.” [xi]  Eric Wybenga, who listened to thousands of hours of live shows while writing his Dead to the Core: An Almanck of the Grateful Dead, concludes that “It’s a testament to the Dead’s musical skills and genuine commitment to the new songs of this era that they made an effort and were able to integrate this material into their more extended jamming tunes.” [xii] 

            The range of styles covered in one five hour night drew upon every American tradition: bluegrass, folk music, hillbilly music, the blues, jazz, rock, psychedelia, a cappella, and epic storytelling.  The very presence of all of these, as well as the Dead’s sense of humor and laid-back attitude, combined with a penchant for improvisation, made each Grateful Dead show unique.  Since every show had something that the previous one didn’t, fans jumped on the bus (to borrow the Merry Prankster phrase that is often associated with hippie-dom) and usually stayed on for life.

            The Dead knew that the 60’s were over after the mess at Altamont.  Workingman’s Dead was their manifesto regarding this, as it not only contained songs which lamented death, but also contained a sort of music that was utterly unlike anything the Dead had done in the 60’s.  The Grateful Dead’s thematic “moving on” allowed for their live shows to become even more eclectic, to the point where they could play nearly any sort of American music on a given night.  Because of this, they were able to blossom and find continued success, even when they weren’t making hits or selling many records.  Once they incorporated folk-based music into their oeuvre, they won legions of fans.  The San Francisco scene wasn’t here to stay, but the Dead were.  “Uncle John’s Band,” the opening tune on Workingman’s Dead, is almost an autobiographical statement regarding the changes undergone by the Grateful Dead, and the way that they would approach their audiences as well as the newly dawned decade:

Well, the first days are the hardest days,
don’t you worry anymore
When life looks like Easy Street
there is danger at your door…

Come hear Uncle John’s Band
playing to the tide
Come on along or go alone
he’s come to take his children home. [xiii]

[i] Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip (New York: Broadway Books, 2002).  346.

[ii] Blair Jackson, Garcia: An American Life (New York: Penguin Books, 1999).  173.

[iii] Robert Greenfield, Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia (New York: William Morrow and co., 1996).  119.

[iv] David Dodd, “The Annotated ‘New Speedway Boogie’ by Robert Hunter,” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 6 October 2003, <http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDEAD/AGDL/spee.html> (30 November 2003).

[v] Sandy Troy, Captain Trips (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1994).  131.

[vi] Blair Jackson, “Hunter/Garcia Words/Music” in Going Down the Road: A Grateful Dead Traveling Companion (New York: Harmony Books 1992).  220.

[vii] David Dodd, “The Annotated ‘Dire Wolf’ by Robert Hunter,” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 9 October 2001, <http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDEAD/AGDL/direwolf.html> (30 November 2003).

[viii] David Shenk and Steve Silberman, Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads (New York: Main Street Books, 1994).  332.

[ix] McNally 366.

[x] Blair Jackson, “The Best of the Dead” in Going Down the Road: A Grateful Dead Traveling Companion (New York: Harmony Books 1992).  297.

[xi] McNally 366.

[xii] Eric F. Wybenga, Dead to the Core: An Almanack of the Grateful Dead (New York: Delta Publishers, 1997).  46.

[xiii] David Dodd, “The Annotated ‘Uncle John’s Band’ by Robert Hunter,” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 21 August 21, <http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDEAD/AGDL/uncle.html> (30 November 2003).

Works Cited

Dodd, David.  The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.  24 November 2003.
<http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDEAD/AGDL/>  30 November 2003.

Greenfield, Robert.  Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia.  New York: William
Morrow and co., 1996.

Jackson, Blair.  Garcia: An American Life.   New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Jackson, Blair.  Going Down the Road: A Grateful Dead Traveling Companion.  New
York: Harmony Books, 1992.

McNally, Dennis.  A Long Strange Trip.  New York: Broadway Books, 2002.

Shenk, David and Steve Silbeman.  Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads. 
New York: Main Street Books, 1994.

Troy, Sandy.  Captain Trips.  New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1994.

Wybenga, Eric F.  Dead to the Core: An Almanack of the Grateful Dead.  New York:
Delta Publishers, 1997.