Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (1970/2020) [FLAC 24bit/96-192kHz]

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.

The 50th-anniversary celebrations for The Grateful Dead are well underway. Reaching the height of their fame in the United States, the Dead were the embodiment of San Francisco’s proto-hippy sound in the ‘60s and are still regarded by many as the last legendary American band. They often played alongside Big Brother & The Holding Cie at the Acid Test parties organised by The Merry Pranksters’, where mass usage of LSD – which was still legal in California – was the name of the game. Following their purely psychedelic debut album, the band then released the experimental Anthem of the Sun and the trippy but expensive to produce Aoxomoxoa, before changing course completely and turning to country-folk music. Indeed, by 1970 the hippie movement was in its twilight years. Inspired by Crosby, Stills and Nash & Young, the band’s iconic guitarist Jerry Garcia decided to play in a different register and toned down his hypnotic guitar riffs, reviving his bluegrass roots and playing the pedal steel guitar instead. The band had to record their album Workingman’s Dead during some lengthy jam sessions at the Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco in a total of just nine days due to their financial situation. In a clever mix of frantic beats such as New Speedway Boogie and shorter folk and country tracks like Uncle John’s Band, the album thrills some and confuses others. Likewise, its companion album American Beauty, which is considered their greatest album, followed suit a few months later. To celebrate its 50th anniversary this 70’s classic has been remastered into two CDs and features live, previously unreleased material from a concert in the Capitol Theatre, New York, in 1970 – that’s more than enough for their diehard fans – the Deadheads – to feast on! – Charlotte Saintoin

Tracklist:
1. Uncle John’s Band (2020 Remaster) (04:44)
2. High Time (2020 Remaster) (05:13)
3. Dire Wolf (2020 Remaster) (03:15)
4. New Speedway Boogie (2020 Remaster) (04:06)
5. Cumberland Blues (2020 Remaster) (03:16)
6. Black Peter (2020 Remaster) (05:45)
7. Easy Wind (2020 Remaster) (04:59)
8. Casey Jones (2020 Remaster) (04:25)
9. Cold Rain And Snow (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (07:36)
10. Me And Bobby McGee (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (07:33)
11. Loser (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (06:46)
12. Easy Wind (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (08:57)
13. Playing In The Band (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (05:26)
14. Bertha (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (06:11)
15. Me And My Uncle (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (03:56)
16. Ripple (False Start) [Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971] [2020 Remaster] (01:09)
17. Ripple (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (05:23)
18. Next Time You See Me (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (04:40)
19. Sugar Magnolia (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (06:08)
20. Greatest Story Ever Told (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (04:09)
21. Johnny B. Goode (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (03:42)
22. China Cat Sunflower (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (06:19)
23. I Know You Rider (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (04:30)
24. Bird Song (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (06:17)
25. Cumberland Blues (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (04:55)
26. I’m A King Bee (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (07:32)
27. Beat It On Down The Line (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (03:17)
28. Wharf Rat (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (09:46)
29. Truckin’ (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (08:07)
30. Casey Jones (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (04:39)
31. Good Lovin’ (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (17:00)
32. Uncle John’s Band (Live at the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2/21/1971) [2020 Remaster] (07:27)