Anyway, I already posted a lost album Grateful Dead album of sorts, from 1976. Those songs hang together, more or less, whereas this is more of a stray tracks grab-bag from a much wider time period. Nearly all are rare studio tracks, mostly originals, that fell by the wayside for one reason or another. This doesn't compare with their best stuff, but considering that they put some pretty dodgy songs on their late 1970s albums like "Shakedown Street," it's a shame some of these stayed in the vaults.
Generally speaking, from about 1969 to 1973, the Dead had an explosion of creativity, creating dozens of original songs, and covering dozens more. For the time period here, 1974 to 1979, they went back to more typical level of creativity, probably coming up with an average of about an album of new material, if you add in original songs on Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir solo projects. But the Dead as a whole played surprisingly few new cover songs during this time (although they kept playing lots of covers they knew from before). Just about the only one done in concert that I could find was "Let It Rock," originally by Chuck Berry. "Catfish John" and "K. C. Moan" are also covers, but were never or almost never played live during this time.
"Fire on the Mountain" need a little more explanation. The studio version first appeared on the Dead album "Shakedown Street" in 1978, and it became a classic, frequently played in concert. However, it was actually first written by lyricist Robert Hunter, which was common, and drummer Mickey Hart, which was not at all common for the band. Hunter usually wrote with Jerry Garcia, and this might be the only co-write with Hart. Hart attempted to record a second solo album in 1973 and then again in 1974, after putting out a solo album in 1972. However, that album was never released. Hart isn't much of a singer, so he rapped his way through this still unreleased early version, meant for that second solo album. I actually really like this rap version, done long before rap music was popular, although the usual way the Dead played it is great too. Not all members of the Dead played on this version, but he was joined by others, most importantly Jerry Garcia, so I stretched it a bit to credit it to the Dead.
Most of the other songs are studio outtakes that later appeared as bonus tracks. "K. C. Moan" and "This Time Forever" are from a rare acoustic concert. "Ollin Arageed" was only done when the band played in Egypt in 1978. "Hollywood Cantata" is an early version of "The Music Never Stopped," which came out on the "Blues for Allah" album in 1975, but it's different enough that I consider it a separate song. Garcia put out a solo album in 1974 called "Compliments." But it only had one original song (co-written with Robert Hunter, as usual), "Midnight Town." So I've included that here.
This album is 49 minutes long.
01 Fire on the Mountain [Rap Version] (Grateful Dead)
02 Let It Rock (Grateful Dead)
03 Midnight Town (Jerry Garcia)
04 Hollywood Cantata [Early Version of The Music Never Stopped] (Grateful Dead)
05 Showboat (Grateful Dead)
06 Catfish John (Grateful Dead)
07 K. C. Moan (Grateful Dead)
08 Equinox (Grateful Dead)
09 The Ascent [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
10 This Time Forever (Grateful Dead)
11 What'll You Raise (Grateful Dead)
12 Ollin Arageed (Grateful Dead with Hamza El Din)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15281159/TGratefulD_1974-1979_Equinx_atse.zip.html
Since I decided to name this album after the song "Equinox," I chose to do something different for the album cover. Instead of having a picture of the band members, I Googled the word "Equinox," and found this photo of the Milky Way visible at sunset at a science website. You also can see a shooting star underneath the "G" in "Grateful Dead."
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