Buzz Poole has written about books, design, music, and culture for numerous outlets, including Print, The Village Voice, The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Millions. He is the author of the story collection I Like to Keep My Troubles on the Windy Side of Things; the New Statesman named his examination of unexpected iconography, Madonna of the Toast, one of 2007's Best Underground Books.

Released in 1970, the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead is cold-water-shock departure from the Acid Test feedback madness of the late '60s material, exemplified by songs like “St. Stephen” and “Dark Star.” Rather than relying on chemically-fuelled guitar licks and spacey improvisational explorations, this album is the first listen to what would become an extensive songbook informed and inspired by dusty, rough and tumble American history and world mythologies, charting the long, winding path to self-discovery and individual empowerment.

The eight songs that comprise Workingman's Dead will serve as points of entry from which forms a fully-rendered portrait of an exceptional musical recording, both in terms of the songs but also, and perhaps more importantly, how these songs speak to late twentieth-century America. Buzz Poole considers the attendant cultural and political anxieties that resulted from the idealism of the '60s giving way to the uncomfortable realities of the '70s, making a case for the relevance of this music nearly forty-five years after it was recorded. Based on research, interviews, and personal experience, the book will probe the paradox at the heart of the band's appeal: the Grateful Dead was about much more than music, though it was really just about the music.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Uncle John's Band
Chapter 2: High Time
Chapter 3: Dire Wolf
Chapter 4: New Speedway Boogie
Chapter 5: Cumberland Blues
Chapter 6: Black Peter
Chapter 7: Easy Wind
Chapter 8: Casey Jones
Chapter 9: Encore