Ready Or Not, Grateful Dead's unfinished studio album

Yeah but the thief was awesome after the transformation

 

These are certainly not my favourite Grateful Dead songs, apart from Days Between. But since the Welnick-era is mostly ignored when it comes to live releases and the things on the So Many Roads box set are partly studio rehearsals, I think it does make a fine addition to the catalogue. I'm in.

 

I think Jerry was pretty committed to the new material, at least based on this video:

 

Yes, I know. That was their point, they're just rehearsal recordings, not studio tracks. I don't believe those are multi-tracked. They're recorded nicely, but they are just live takes at the rehearsal studio and recorded as is. Apparently the Dead did that a lot throughout their career and I'd love to hear more of them!

 

Nice cover:

 

I don’t know if the CD version will contain edits but Qobuz says the hi res version is 81 and a half minutes long (looks like the jam that follows Corina that people keep mentioning is on there as it’s 17 minutes)

 

There are lots. Whole bunch of Blues For Allah. Searching "studio" on LMA pulls these up plus things like the Keith and Brent rehearsals.

Workingman's:
Grateful Dead Live at Studio- Workingman's Dead Outtakes on 1970-01-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Wake:
Grateful Dead Live at Wake Of The Flood Sessions on 1973-00-00 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Studio- Wake of the Flood Outtakes on 1973-08-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Record Plant on 1973-08-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Record Plant on 1973-08-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Mars:
Grateful Dead Live at Studio on 1974-12-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Blues:
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's on 1975-01-00 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's Studio on 1975-04-17 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Studio on 1975-03-00 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's Studio on 1975-06-05 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's Studio on 1975-07-07 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's Studio on 1975-06-04 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Ace's Studio on 1975-06-03 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Terrapin:
Grateful Dead Live at Studio (Terrapin Station Outtakes) on 1977-02-20 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Arista Studios on 1977-02-17 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Shakedown:
Grateful Dead Live at Studio on 1978-08-18 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

While this is a hard-pass for me, I'm glad to see these songs get an official release in a single disc format.

 

I'm not differentiating which ones of these are multi-tracked outtakes vs studio full bands rehearsals.

But the Keith and Brent "before their first show" ones are definitely studio rehearsals.

Grateful Dead Live at Studio Rehearsals with Keith Godchaux on 1971-09-29 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
Grateful Dead Live at Studio on 1971-09-30 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Grateful Dead Live at Unknown studio on 1979-04-16 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

and a an early '71 one:
Grateful Dead Live at Unknown on 1971-02-01 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

Getting ready to go back on the road:

Grateful Dead Live at Le Club Front Studios on 1976-05-28 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

There's a guide to the 1975 rehearsals here: Grateful Dead Guide: Brief Guide to 1975 Studio Rehearsals

Some are with David Crosby working on Crosby's songs. If I recall right they planned to play together at Kezar Stadium on 3/23/75, but Crosby got sick so it didn't happen.

 

I listened to Tales From The Golden Road (Grateful Dead channel Sirius/XM for those that don't know).

They were talking about the new album and said Phil didn't want his songs included because they all sounded incomplete/underdeveloped to him.

 

Think about that for a second. They were incomplete and underdeveloped, yet let's play them in huge stadiums to thousands of paying attendees to work out the kinks. Gotta love The Dead!!!

 

I noticed that the Amazon US price has come down to $15.77 - that does seem better.

 

It does, came down last week and I preordered it then. Still a smidge high in all honesty but certainly reasonable for me.

 

Think I’ll order this from dead.net and Later Years from pinkFloyd.com on the same day to see who disappoints more.

 

I made a slight revision to my reconstruction, adding the three songs I dropped to include all twelve, and splitting it into a two disc set. Here you go...

The Grateful Dead – Lazy River Road
(soniclovenoize “Final Album” reconstruction)
Grateful Dead - Lazy River Road (soniclovenoize reconstruction) - Google Drive

Disc 1:
1. Liberty [Atlanta 3/30/94]
2. If The Shoe Fits [Boston 10/2/94 and New York 10/19/94]
3. Corrina [New York 10/14/94]
4. Lazy River Road [New York 10/14/94]
5. Samba In The Rain [New York 10/14/94]
6. Childhood's End [Boston 10/3/94]

Disc 2:
1. Easy Answers [Philadelphia 3/19/95]
2. So Many Roads [Boston 10/1/94]
3. Wave To The Wind [Auburn Hills 6/9/93]
4. Eternity [Mountain View 9/17/94]
5. Days Between [Los Angeles 12/19/94]
6. Way To Go Home [New York 10/19/94]

NOTE these are all sourced from Miller SBD live tapes commonly available on the live music archive and thus is NOT breaking any rules by posting here, as per the board rules.

 

So, are the “other” 9 identical to what you included in your prior comp or are they different so that i should download all 12? Some cross-fades?

 

Er, thread title and OP says Studio Album
.

 

Yes. It's the same thing, but with "Samba", "Childhood" and "Wave" filtered in. The crossfades are redone for the new ones, so I'd just delete the old and redownload.

 

The thread title is misleading, but the OP accurately describes the upcoming release as "a live reconstruction of the Grateful Dead's unfinished studio album."

 

Thanks again. Not sure how the official release can top you're compilation. the cover is awesome too!

Great version of if the shoe fits.

 

This is VERY well done—thanks for a great listen.

I ordered the official release, but I can’t imagine it’s better than what you assembled.

 

Again, that version of if the shoe fits it really tight. Garcia seems to live within the nooks and crannies the melody offers. The song feels fully fleshed out to me as opposed to Childhoods End, which still needed work IMHO.

Really wish they would've included it on the official release.

 

Whoever came up with this idea took it from the book "Grateful Dead FAQ" which came out about seven years ago. I own scads of Dead books, but this was the first one to come up with the concept of a would-be final album and map it out.

The book devotes a full chapter to this. It's called "Days Between: The Final Dead Album That Never Was."

It goes into detail about their attempts to record some of these songs. It also details the history and background of these songs. The book's idea of the final album is this album with the addition of two Phil Lesh tunes, "If The Shoe Fits" and "Wave To The Wind."

The author also had put his own version of it on YouTube, using his favorite live recordings of each songs. Shame it got taken down. I listened to it a lot. Still have my bookmark to it.