RSS Feed

Workingman’s Dead

September 18, 2014 by Garren Christopher Stamp   

While any Grateful Dead fan will tell you that it is impossible to have a favorite Grateful Dead song because there are constantly new songs and rare cuts being discovered.nChoosing just one song to always be your favorite. However i have noticed that there are songs or albums that i will play more often than hoers for a limited amount of time. At this current moment my preferred album is titled Workingman’s dead.

Workingman’s Dead was released June 14, 1970. This record is my current favorite because it has a country-ish feel to it. Before this record was recorded the Grateful Dead was spending a lot of time with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. So with the Dead spending all this time with them it is understandable why this album has country-ish feel. Another reason for this country feel is that Ron “Pigpen” McKernan had a lot of input on this album. Pigpen had been with the band since its inception and his personal music preferences included country and the blues. All of this led to a very country dead album.pigpen_180x270

This also was the first album to include lyrics by Robert Hunter. Robert Hunter was a masterful lyricist and would come to write many of the Dead’s successful songs. His lyrics were deep and meaningful because before he became a lyricist he was a semi successful poet. This added to the Dead’s already impressive lyric and melody set. My current favorite song off of this album is titled easy wind. Pigpen actually sang this song, which was unusual because Jerry Garcia usually sang all the sons. This song emphasizes a heavy drinking, hard labor life. Pigpen demonstrated this lifestyle and therefore him singing this song was very appropriate. Unfortunately, this lifestyle would lead to the death of Pigpen a couple years after this album was released. He died at the age of 27 due to liver damage from excessive drinking.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa9kWiiuV_s easy wind live 1970


1 Comment »

  1. Eric Hodge says:

    This album happens to include my favorite Grateful dead song, which is Casey Jones. I never knew this album had at least partial influence from Crosby Still Nash, which is another band I listen to. The singing in Easy Wind almost reminds me of the singer in Credence Clearwater Revival, because of the strain in his voice.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Skip to toolbar