we would have to bring the music in, to support the texts: Hunter's Holy Grail' 'This was, sort of, stepping out of our spacesuit and coming down to Earth and putting on a pair of Osh Kosh and digging the furrows. American Beauty became all about having the harmonies to do that'. Workingman's Dead was all about discovering the song. He explained 'We tried to be like a Bakersfield band – but one that still sounded like we were from 300 miles north of that town. Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, the companion album that followed months later, were, according to drummer Bill Kreutzmann, both influenced by the Bakersfield sound. Even the album cover reflects this new direction: The cover for Aoxomoxoa is colorful and psychedelic, and that of Workingman’s Dead is monochromatic and sepia.' In recent years, a search revealed that the photograph was taken at 1199 Evans Avenue in San Francisco. The almost miraculous appearance of these new songs would also generate a massive paradigm shift in our group mind: from the mind-munching frenzy of a seven-headed fire-breathing dragon to the warmth and serenity of a choir of chanting cherubim.

Bassist Phil Lesh stated 'The song lyrics reflected an 'old, weird' America that perhaps never was. Unlike the psychedelic, electrified music for which the band had become known, the new songs took a new direction, reviving their folk-band roots. Lyricist Robert Hunter had joined the band on the road for the first time, resulting in a period of faster song development. was definitely an upper,' said Garcia in an interview. 'In midst of all this adverse stuff that was happening. Additionally, they returned from a tour to find their soon-to-be-fired manager, Lenny Hart (father of drummer Mickey Hart), refusing to show the books to anyone else in the organization. Besides trying to avoid the debt that had accumulated while recording Aoxomoxoa, the band was dealing with the stress of a recent drug bust in New Orleans – which could have resulted in jail time. After the protracted sessions required for the previous two studio albums, Garcia suggested 'Let's do it all in three weeks and get it the hell out of the way'. The band again recorded at Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco, spending just nine days there. It was voted number 371 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 264 in a 2012 revised list, and 409 in the 2020 list. The album and its studio follow-up, American Beauty, were recorded back-to-back using a similar style, eschewing the psychedelic experimentation of previous albums in favor of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's Americana-styled songcraft. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970. Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album (and fifth overall) by American rock band Grateful Dead.

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