Black Peter

Yet another Grateful Dead song about death

The other night at Rosh Hashonah dinner, my stepbrother was playing my guitar and found his way into "Black Peter." This was not because he had ever sat down and learned it, but because it's embedded so deeply in his unconscious that he could teach it to himself in real time. This is yet another Dead tune that I loved as a kid without knowing why, and then didn't think about for several decades. But now that it's back in the front of my mind, I figured I would work it through.

Like all the best Jerry tunes, this is neither complicated nor difficult to play, but it is unpredictable and intriguing.

I didn't originally come to the song from the studio recording. I first heard it on What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, which includes the Bear's Choice version, recorded live on 2/13/70. It's just Jerry and Bobby on acoustic guitars, and it has more of an introspective vulnerability than the studio version. Jerry sings it extraordinarily well. He could really have been an excellent vocalist if he had taken more care of himself.

The Deadheads also recommend the version from 10/29/77, segueing neatly out of "Not Fade Away". Jerry plays a slide solo, which isn't his strong suit, but then he loses the slide for his outtro solo, and it is a real beauty.