The 500 - #264 - Workingman's Dead - Grateful Dead

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: #264
Album Title: Workingman’s Dead
Artist: Grateful Dead
Genre: Americana, Roots Rock, Folk Rock, Blues Rock
Recorded: Pacific High Recording, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Released: June, 1970
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: One song
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #409, dropping 145 spots since 2012
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Uncle John’s Band

Workingman's Dead was the fourth studio album (and fifth overall) released by the American rock band Grateful Dead. It was recorded in only nine days, along with all the material that would become their next record, American Beauty (#261 on The 500). It marked a departure from the psychedelic sound heard on their previous records. The group had been influenced by the Bakersfield Sound, a sub-genre of country music developed in the mid-late 1950s.

American Beauty - coming up in three weeks

Times were tough for Grateful Dead in the early '70s. They had accumulated massive debt while recording their previous record, Aoxomoxoa, and their former manager, Lenny Hart (father of drummer Mickey Hart) had disappeared with the band’s revenue (about $155,000) from their recent tour. Additionally, the band was facing potential jail time after a drug bust in New Orleans. "In the midst of all this adverse stuff that was happening ... [recording the album] was definitely an upper," said lead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia in an interview about the record.

Jerry Garcia (early 70s)

To recoup costs and pay their debts, Grateful Dead embarked on a busy tour schedule in 1970, playing more than 100 nights. The group had already become legendary for their live performances and that year cemented their reputation.

Unfortunately, I turned down the opportunity to see Grateful Dead perform live. However, my friend, Joram Ditor, did not and I was fortunate to recruit him as a guest writer this week. My wife and I met Joram and his wife Somia in the late 90s through mutual friends and we would catch-up regularly to see live music at The Brunswick Hotel in London, Ontario. 

Enjoy his post.

-----------------------

I was introduced to the Grateful Dead by a true fan and real Deadhead, Greg. I met Greg while at Western University, in my hometown of London, Ontario. In the early nineties, his car was easy to spot, a yellow Toyota MR2 Turbo with SHKDWN plates.

A Toyota MR2 Turbo (not Greg's)

I was surprised to learn how many Grateful Dead-themed plates, in Ontario had already been taken. Greg had tried for several – DEDHED? No. GRTFLDD? No. What about just GRTFL? No. After going through his list of choices, he was finally able to select plates inspired by the 1978 song and album Shakedown Street. He would, understandably, get upset when someone assumed it was from the Bob Seger song, Shakedown which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1987 movie, Beverly Hills Cop II.

Shakedown Street album cover

I spent a lot of time at Greg’s apartment listening to various Grateful Dead shows, absorbing the culture and eventually becoming a fan, or Deadhead, myself. Like many Deadheads, Greg had travelled across Canada and the United States to follow the group on tour many times during the preceding few years. After hearing his stories, he had no trouble convincing me to join him on their upcoming tour in the summer of 1993, along with his friend, fellow Deadhead, Jay.

Grateful Dead ticket stub from the show

Greg and Jay were going to travel with the band and the plan was for me to meet them at the last stop before they came home...Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The venue, home to the Buffalo Bills Football club, held 65,000 people for concerts – plus there were thousands who would camp out in the surrounding parking lots, having gone there even without tickets for that particular show. That’s the thing about Deadheads, they travel from show to show regardless of whether they have a ticket. If they can’t gain admission, they make the most of the experience in the parking lot then move on to the next venue with the hope of getting a ticket there.

Rich Stadium in Buffalo, New York

At the time, I was working at Jumbo Video and left immediately after my afternoon shift. I got started late and no road trip is complete without a stop at McDonald’s. I can’t remember what the tie-in was with the restaurant, but with my meal I managed to pick up a cheap, bright pink 110-cartridge-style camera which I still have today. The pictures it took are a fantastic, albeit slightly fuzzy, reminder of my crazy weekend.

The camera from the trip

Arriving late in the evening, I struggled to find parking. Eventually. I made my way into an overflow lot. I put the back seats down and slept in the hatchback of my Corolla. My wake-up call Sunday morning was from a pleasant security guard who advised me that I was actually on the property of a community college. I had somehow crossed the property line and, because it was dark when I got in, failed to notice the campus in the distance.

SUNY Erie College (near Rich Stadium)

I had met a group from Boston parked nearby and they managed to help me relocate to a spot close to them. We hung out for a bit and made plans to wander the vendors after I met my friends, Greg and Jay, at the predetermined rendezvous point, a 7-11 convenience store.

The store looked like it was a scene from a disaster movie. It had been picked clean by the time I arrived around noon – there were literally bare shelves where products once stood. Clearly, the proprietors had not anticipated the demands from the throngs of Deadheads who had descended on this area.

I went out to wait for Greg and Jay in front of the store. By this time, the sun was beating down on me and, in the immortal words of Woody Allen, “…I don’t tan, I stroke”. After some time hiding from the June sun, it became evident that I had been stood up. A benevolent woman I will call Earth Mother, who was parked in a nearby Volkswagen van, called me over and said I looked like a lobster, and offered to apply sunscreen. Once again I was saved by the kindness of a stranger. We discussed the state of the store and how difficult it was going to be for me to find my friends if we didn’t see each other here.

Volkswagen vans were popular among Deadheads

Remember, this was before everyone had cell phones. Consequently, if you missed your friends at a meeting spot you were on your own. Eventually, I had to make the difficult decision of abandoning the store and the hope of connecting with Greg and Jay. I went back to the Boston group to see what was offered by the Grateful Dead community.

At every one of their concerts, you can find a makeshift market of Deadheads who follow Jerry Garcia and his merry band of pranksters on their tours.

Deadheads in the parking lot

The police seemed to take a harm-reduction approach and just made sure to contain any shenanigans to the lots surrounding the stadium. For the most part, innocuous recreational drugs such as marijuana, hashish and magic mushrooms, were available. However, within the next couple years, harder substances were being openly solicited, resulting in more police presence and arrests.

Everywhere you looked there were concert shirts available. None was subtle – Deadhead fashion has always been bold and colourful. The shirt I picked looked like a zoetrope of all the Grateful Dead iconography on the front, with the obligatory concert dates printed on the reverse.

Joram at the Dead show

I also picked up a teal, hand-painted bucket-hat with the top completely covered with the classic “steal your face” design. Flipping up its brim showed off a rose and lightning bolts. At another vendor a pair of purple, blue and grey Guatemalan overalls were purchased to complete my Deadhead ensemble.

Joram alongside his new friend from Boston

I already had a frisbee and hacky-sack so, of course, I had to purchase devil sticks. Devil sticks consisted of three sticks. The first, a long, heavier and colourful rod (about 28 inches, or 70 cm, long) is gyroscopically juggled/spun in the air with the other two batons, which are much shorter.

Trying out my new Devil Sticks

At home, I had learned a few tricks on Greg's sticks but it was nice to have a set of my own. I was fairly safe playing with those, but the fire sticks were a different story. Greg would soak the ends in lighter fluid and set them ablaze. It was quite an impressive sight when they were artfully twirled and spun through the air. Thankfully no one was ever set on fire, but there were a couple occasions where shirts were left with scorch marks.

Jewelers and other artisans had booths lined up throughout the parking lot. Some simply set up their wares on a blanket by their vehicles. A dollar for a grilled cheese sandwich was the best deal I could find anywhere and, after purchasing one, we hung out talking with the Deadhead cook. The hope, for each vendor, is to make enough money to feed their Grateful Dead habit and get them to the next show.

The Grilled Cheese Vendor

Speaking of the show, it was time to get into the stadium. I had a general admission ticket but found an unused seat just off the floor which gave me a fantastic vantage point to see the crowd and the stage.

Sting, formerly the front-man and bassist for The Police (with 4 albums on The 500), opened. It seemed a weird choice because his music style, at the time, was in a pop-jazz vein. But The Dead were known for choosing from a wide assortment of genres and artists to open their shows. Case in point…the Violent Femmes, an American folk-punk band, were the openers in 1991 at the show in Buckeye Lake, Ohio!

Sting on stage with Jerry Garcia at one of the shows during this tour

I remember the Dead’s performance starting with Touch of Grey, the group’s biggest hit and one of the few songs that had crossed-over to mainstream audiences. However, the rest of the concert is a bit of a blur. The experience was like nothing I had ever felt. I had heard all of these tunes before, but the arrangements were different – in a good way. One song rolled into another like a conversation among the musicians. You could hear them talking with their instruments as one would convince the others which song to play next. It is for this reason that my collection of Grateful Dead albums consists mainly of live concerts and bootlegs. When performing live, the band adopts a jazz player’s mentality and eschews the standard song structure of “verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus.” Instead, they will offer the audience an improvisational, 20-minute version of Me and My Uncle (a song originally written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas). However, instead of the three-minute interpretations made famous by singers who include Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell, the Dead would re-imagine the song and include spontaneous, but highly melodic and hypnotic, “guitar noodling” as part of a collaborative and extended jam session.

Joram's Grateful Dead collection

After a solid three hours, the stadium lights came on and, with the final notes of the encore still echoing in the air, walking towards me was Greg! Among a crowd larger than the size of a small city, we happened to bump into each other at the last possible moment. The following year I made sure I was travelling with them from the start.

Epilogue

This blog post was written to celebrate the release of Workingman's Dead but my first concert experience didn't contain any of the songs from that album. Its first cut, Uncle John's Band, is one of my favourites, which I eventually did get to hear live.

That was the allure of the Grateful Dead and the reason fans would travel with them for an entire summer. They had a massive repertoire with no predetermined set list. This allowed one show to be completely different from another. They also allowed fans to bring in sound equipment to record the shows because every show was a unique performance, never to be repeated. 

Deadheads regularly exchange cassettes or digital versions of shows and many can talk for hours about their “Top 5 Live performances”. My favourite three are Phil’s Birthday in 1990; New Year’s Eve 1978 at Winterland in San Francisco; with the first of Dick’s Picks from December of 1973 at the top.

I eventually saw them in an amphitheatre and an arena as well. I had an amazingly different experience at each.