Sold Date: January 10, 2025
Start Date: December 23, 2024
Final Price: $50.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 249
Buyer Feedback: 0

This item is not for sale. Gripsweat is an archive of past sales and auctions, none of the items are available for purchase.

GRATEFUL DEAD Workingman's Dead (Original Master Recording limited edition Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 8-track double album 2-LP, mastered by Krieg Wunderlich on the Gain 2 Ultra Analog System, specially plated and pressed on 180-gram High-Definition Vinyl at 45RPM. Forever prized for natural sonics, Workingman's Dead attains audiophile reference status courtesy of this first-ever 45RPM version. As flawless as any rustic album ever released, the 1970 set now brims with soaringharmonies, organic execution, intertwined textures, and uncomplicated structures that furnish the songs a transcendence associated with timeless American music. Colorful, relatable characters seemingly torn from working-class histories and old-time fables inhabit the narratives. Heavyweight gatefold picture sleeve individually gold-foil numbered and still sealed inside its perforated loose bag. Recommended)

#Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time

TRACKLISTING AND EXTRA INFORMATION

#264 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Airy Harmonies, Simple Structures, Concise Arrangements, and Burnished Tones

1/4" / 15 IPS / Dolby A analog master direct to lathe

The first Grateful Dead album to eschew cosmic jams and complex signatures, Workingman's Dead stakes its existence to great songs, homespun warmth, and bare essentials. Its wistful, relaxed state – immediately apparent via the innocent album-opening invitation "Will you come with me?" on "Uncle John's Band" – owes to the circumstances and conditions surrounding its creation. At the time, the Dead owed a considerable financial debt to Warner Bros. and were hobbled by a recent drug bust and financial scandal. Most significantly, the band was recovering from – and reacting to – the tragic events of the Altamont Music Festival and symbolic end of the peace and love era.

As such, Workingman's Dead acts as a retreat from chaos and uncertainty, its songs emblems of simpler times and pleas for compassion in the face of hardship. Lyricist Robert Hunter said he aimed to capture the vintage elements of late 1940s country-and-western jukebox singles as well as old blues classics. In that vein, fare such as the Bakersfield-leaning "Cumberland Blues," pastoral ballad "Dire Wolf," and bluesy "Easy Wind" hit the mark. Leader Jerry Garcia's occasional pedal-steel underpinnings arrive as a bonus.

Of course, aside from the economical concision and thematic consistency, the genius of Workingman's Dead resides in the group's expressive harmonies. Taught by Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Dead produce live "air blends" of multi-part vocal harmonies that provide the foundations of nearly every track. "Uncle John's Band," "High Time," "New Speedway Boogie" (with the iconic refrain "One way or another/This darkness has got to give" referencing the ill wind that greeted the new decade), and the radio favorite "Casey Jones" practically float on the ensemble's communal vocal beds.

Side One

Uncle John's Band

High Time

Side Two

Dire Wolf

New Speedway

Side Three

Cumberland Blues

Black Peter

Side Four

Easy Wind

Casey Jones

Artist - Grateful Dead (click link for complete listing)

Title - Workingman's Dead (click link for more of the same title)

Year of Release - 2024

Format - 2-LP vinyl record set (Double LP Album)

Record Label - Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab

Country of Origin - United States (USA)

Language - Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description.

Audiophile – This is an Audiophile item.

Condition - Factory sealed from new. This item is unplayed.