Workingman's Dead

After two protracted studio albums, Garcia suggested they do the next one in three weeks, and they spent just nine days at Pacific High Recording. The band was dealing with debt left by Aoxomoxoa, the stress of the New Orleans drug bust, and a manager, Lenny Hart, who would not show the books to anyone else in the organization. Hunter had joined the band on the road for the first time. Lesh said their lyrics reflected an old, weird America that perhaps never was. Garcia had bought a steel guitar in Boulder, Colorado, the year before, and he used it on the country-flavored songs. Kreutzmann said both 1970 albums were influenced by the Bakersfield sound.

Close harmony singing was new to the band. Mickey Hart said Stephen Stills stayed at his ranch in Novato in summer 1968, and that Stills and David Crosby turned Garcia and Weir onto the voice as an instrument. The title came when Garcia told Hunter the album was turning into the workingman's Dead version of the band, and Hunter appears on the cover as a seventh member. Warner Bros. issued Uncle John's Band, backed with New Speedway Boogie, as a single.

Readers of Rolling Stone voted it the best album of 1970. It reached 27 on the US Billboard chart and 69 in the UK, and was certified Platinum in 1986. Rolling Stone ranked it 262 on its 2003 list of 500 greatest albums. A 50th anniversary edition in 2020 added a concert recorded on 21 February 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.