TheGrateful Dead had worked on songs in the early 1990s for analbum that was intended to be the follow-up toBuilt to Last (1989), but it was never completed.[1][2][3] This has sometimes been referred to as theunfinished last Grateful Dead album[4] andThe Missing Album.[3] The band began work on a new album in February 1992, which was incomplete. AfterJerry Garcia's death, the band considered finishing the album,[5] but it never came into fruition.[1]
On October 8, 2019, it was announced that a new album entitledReady or Not would be released on November 22, 2019. It contains 9 songs, recorded during live performances between 1992 and 1995. All songs are from the list given below.[6]
In the early 1990s, the Grateful Dead had been working on new songs. WhenJerry Garcia died in 1995, the band decided to break up and this album was never finished.[1][2][3] Work on the unfinished album began in February 1992 in West Marin County in California, at a studio the band called "the Site", which was located on a hill with scenic views and occasional views of wildlife.[1] At the time, Jerry Garcia was not particularly interested or focused upon the project, which discouraged its impetus.[1] The studio session work did not have any lead vocals from songs that Garcia performed lead vocals on, and Garcia's guitar work on the tracks was described as "rudimentary."[7] The tracks for the new album were incomplete.[8]
In 1995,Phil Lesh was performing studio work on the unfinished album.[4] At this time, Lesh stated that the album "... doesn't have much Jerry on it",[4] referring to Garcia. In 1997,Bob Weir stated that the album could potentially be completed, but that it would take additional collaboration from the remaining band members.[3] Weir and others stated at this time that they expected for a collaboration to finish the album to occur sometime in 1998.[3] In August 1999, Lesh stated that he felt the content from the studio sessions did not merit use on an album, and that efforts to improve the content would not equate to what Garcia would have performed.[7] In 1999, Dennis McNally, spokesperson for the Grateful Dead, stated that using another guitarist to fill-in for Garcia "would have been unconscionable", and that "without Garcia, there is no last album." So the album never came into fruition.[1]
The box setSo Many Roads (1965–1995) has six songs from live concert performance and rehearsal tracks from the unfinished Grateful Dead album.[5]
This album would have had the most variety of lead singers for songs of any of the Grateful Dead's studio albums, other than 1970'sAmerican Beauty. There were four singers: Garcia, Weir, Lesh andVince Welnick.
The following are the songs that were planned for the unfinished album. "Childhood's End", "If the Shoe Fits", and "Wave to the Wind" were not included inReady or Not.
