Ready Or Not
	Produced by Pat Moran and Lou Gramm
	Released on 1987
	US CHART POSITION #27
	Find it at GEMM
81728-1 cover [high resolution photo]

N ot. Which would pass for witty criticism in some quarters, but not here. Especially since Foreigner fans had been waiting for this moment. Gramm was too great a talent to contain, and this album was in many ways inevitable. So was its success, its failure, its place in history; all plotted and picked out before a single note was played. Because the story of Lou Gramm is an old one, the prodigal son who leaves the manor to escape his surname, creates a name for himself (good or bad) and returns older, wiser, richer or poorer. Ready Or Not will ultimately be remembered for one great song, “Midnight Blue,” and ten more songs that sounded just like it. If an album full of Foreigner filler is attractive to you, then you’re as ready as you’ll ever be. Gramm has an excellent voice and can deliver his lines with the best of them, which energizes otherwise flat material. However, it was during “She’s Got To Know” that Ready and I had our irreconcilable argument, and I quote: “She dresses up for you / Does her hair for you / She wears your ring / It means everything / Now take a look around / Who’s looking at your woman / They wished they had / The sweet thing that you have.” Here, we parted ways, and I walked into a wood where lennon’s “woman is the nigger of the world” and pere ubu’s “not happy” were playing. I love the strange and shiny things that hang from the hem of love, could write a thousand songs about just these, and when someone can look love right in the eyes and distill it down to “I need you,” a little something in all of us dies. Or not.

81728-1 back cover	81728-1 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. READY OR NOT    3:25
2. HEARTACHE    4:26
3. MIDNIGHT BLUE    3:54
4. TIME    3:23
5. IF I DON'T HAVE YOU    4:38
6. SHE'S GOT TO KNOW    (Lou Gramm)    3:59
7. ARROW THRU YOUR HEART    3:46
8. UNTIL I MAKE YOU MINE    3:29
9. CHAIN OF LOVE    3:58
10. LOVER COME BACK    (Lou Gramm)    5:20
    
    All songs written by Lou Gramm/Bruce Turgon unless noted. All songs arranged by Lou Gramm/Bruce Turgon.
    

CREDITS

LOU GRAMM -- vocals
PHILIP ASHLEY -- keyboards and programming
BEN GRAMM -- drums
NILS LOFGREN -- lead guitar
BRUCE TURGON -- bass and rhythm guitars, keyboards, lead guitar (10)
Crispin Cioe -- tenor/baritone sax
Ben Grammatico Jr. -- trumpet
Ben Grammatico Sr. -- lead trumpet
Richard Grammatico -- lead guitar (5), additional guitar (4)
Don Mancuso -- additional guitar (9)
Sherryl Marshall -- background vocals
Eddie Martinez -- additional guitar
Mark Rivera -- soprano sax, tenor sax, background vocals
Stanley Sheldon -- bass guitar (3,5)
Cookie Watkins -- background vocals
Pat Moran -- engineer
Timothy White -- cover photography
Elizabeth Fried -- grooming
Bob Defrin -- art direction
Stephen Nider -- production coordinator

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