"Grateful Dead's change-of-direction album Workingman's Dead celebrated with a 50th anniversary edition including a full live show ... Fifty years later, this package finds the Dead at their most fertile and inventive".
"It's a smoother listen, but like any homespun art, the imperfections are what makes Workingman's Dead compelling. Within those ragged harmonies, hard strums, and fables, it's possible to hear the Grateful Dead transform from psychedelic upstarts to an American institution".
"It's a smoother listen, but like any homespun art, the imperfections are what makes Workingman's Dead compelling. Within those ragged harmonies, hard strums, and fables, it's possible to hear the Grateful Dead transform from psychedelic upstarts to an American institution".
"Workingman's Dead was the record that made it hip to be square ... Fifty years ago, the Dead took the radical step by going backward and seeing their future in the music of the past. "What I want to know is where did the time go?" they sang on Workingman's Dead. The answer still may not be known, but the music remains".
"Workingman's Dead was the record that made it hip to be square ... Fifty years ago, the Dead took the radical step by going backward and seeing their future in the music of the past. "What I want to know is where did the time go?" they sang on Workingman's Dead. The answer still may not be known, but the music remains".
"How Jerry Garcia's cosmic explorers returned to earth and dug up their roots ... Two discs of this deluxe 'Workingman's Dead' contain a previously unreleased live show from [New York 1971], illustrating how these robust tunes were incorporated into the sprawl of a Dead performance. The band aren't quite peaking here (...) - that complete mastery of the cosmic and Americana would come a year later on their Europe '72 tour. Nevertheless (...), for anyone who's been a little trepidatious about the Dead's live canon it's a neat entry point, plying up their songcraft and virtuosity over more unpredictable flights".