Now Streaming: The Grateful Dead, “Easy Answers” (from READY OR NOT)

Last week – on Halloween, to be specific – was the 30th anniversary of the release of The Grateful Dead’s final studio album, BUILT TO LAST, and for those whose only frame of reference of the band was their recorded material, it might as well as been the last material ever written by the band. As it happens, however, the band continued to write songs, even going so far as to add several of them to their live sets. They never managed to complete them in an actual recording studio, however, so if you didn’t see them live, then they would’ve been off your radar.

On November 22, however, that’s finally going to change: Rhino is releasing READY OR NOT, a collection curated by the band’s archivist, David Lemieux, which features nine previously-unreleased live versions of new songs debuted by the band during their live performances of 1992 and 1993.  The intent of the track listing for READY OR NOT is to try and create a look into the next official studio album that never was, so consider an alternate-universe Grateful Dead LP, if you will.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/4SUj43bTjOn00Hwz93MZCB?si=OcO_ytxfQXqW67WO9j4otQ

READY OR NOT is being released digitally, on CD, and on a 180-gram 2-LP set limited to 10,000 copies, but Dead.net – as ever – is offering up an even more limited-edition version, one which offers one LP on red vinyl and the other LP on blue vinyl. There’ll only be 2,000 copies of that one, so you may want to preorder now, which you can easily do by clicking on this link right here.

Here’s the full track listing:
 
READY OR NOT
CD Track Listing
1.    “Liberty” – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (10/14/94)
2.    “Eternity” – The Pyramid, Memphis, TN (4/2/95)
3.    “Lazy River Road” – Dean Smith Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (3/25/93)
4.    “Samba In The Rain” – The Omni, Atlanta, GA (3/30/95)
5.    “So Many Roads” – Star Lake Amphitheatre, Burgettstown, PA (6/23/92)
6.    “Way To Go Home” – Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN (6/28/92)
7.    “Corrina” – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (10/14/94)
8.    “Easy Answers” – Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA (9/13/93)
9.    “Days Between” – Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA (12/11/94)

READY OR NOT
2-LP Track Listing

Side A
1.    “Liberty”
2.    “Eternity”

Side B
1.    “Lazy River Road”
2.    “Samba In The Rain”
3.    “So Many Roads”

Side C
1.    “Way To Go Home”
2.    “Corrina”

Side D
1.    “Easy Answers”
2.    “Days Between”