Grateful Dead, or in these early years The Grateful Dead, was formed in 1965 and Workingman’s Dead is their fourth studio album. This album and it’s followup same year, American Beauty, are the two highest rated albums according to Rateyourmusic. American Beauty will have it’s 50 year celebration coming up in November.

Workingman’s Dead was recorded in February 1970 at the Pacific High Recording studio in San Francisco and released four months later in the US. These pressings are known as the Pitman Pressings and can be pretty expensive in a good state. At the moment one copy in NM condition is for sale on Discogs for about 80 Euro. The Santa Maria Pressings cost around the same, but the Club pressings are normally a bit cheaper. If you choose a German press just one year later you will find it for the quarter of the price. The Pitman pressings are recognized by the “P” in the matrix.

I have traded a few versions of the album during time, as far as I remember they have been German pressings from 1971 or later. Today I have no copies of the album. Though Grateful Dead has been a kind of collectors thing for me, the music haven’t been that important. The album is quite and it’s well performed and produced in my opinion, but I would go for American Beauty if I was buying Grateful Dead again.

Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, steel guitar, banjo, vocals
Bob Weir – guitar, vocals,
Ron McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, vocals
Phil Lesh – bass, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann – drums, percussion
Mickey Hart – drums, percussion