Cover: Detail of a Peter Max painting

This is the third, completely different, fake album I’ve pulled out of the available soundboard recordings of The Grateful Dead’s March 1994 performances. I think this was a good month.

The first mix combined the final two performances of “Dark Star” with some other remarkable jamming. The second one combined pieces of “Drums” and “Space” to create an Eno-esque ambient jam album.

Going in an another direction entirely, this curation plucks performances of new compositions that never had a chance to make it onto a studio album. They played all their late period songs at least once in March 1994, except for one that had been retired and three that had yet to debut:

"Wave to the Wind" (final performance 12/9/93)

"Samba in the Rain" (debut 6/8/94)

"If the Shoe Fits" (debut 6/9/94)

"Childhood's End" (debut 7/20/94)

It’s weird to me that The Dead have never released something that rolls up most or all of the new compositions of the final years. (The closest they've come is putting six of these compositions on the final disc of "So Many Roads.") It would be a really good album, making a trio with “In the Dark” and “Built to Last.” Such a release seems like low-hanging commercial fruit and something that history requires. I’m sure I’m not the first person to present an amateur substitute. The only major flaw here is Garcia's vocal uncertainty on "So Many Roads." Otherwise, these seem like good benchmarks for all the other songs, until even better versions pop up. Thanks again, March 1994!

76-minute mp3 mix here

Liberty (3/30/94)

Lazy River Road (3/30/94)

Eternity (3/5/94)

That Would Be Something (McCartney cover 3/28/94)

The Days Between (3/28/94)

Way to Go Home (3/5/94)

Easy Answers (3/27/94)

Corrina (3/31/94)

Broken Arrow (3/5/94)

So Many Roads (3/16/94)

If you're interested in Phil Lesh's final two songs, which debuted in June and July, try this





Note: This "Liberty" also appears on the career anthology, "So Many Roads." Otherwise, I believe all of these performances are unreleased.