What Does "Black Peter" (Hunter/Garcia) Mean To You?

The first time I heard this song was at my first Dead show (yes, I didn't have any of their albums before I saw them live), 7-10-87. I thought, "What a downer! Who wants to hear this?" Needless to say, my opinion evolved over time. I began to take the song at face value - a sad tale of a man facing his imminent death with dignity. Then I read "The Death of Ivan Ilych" by Tolstoy. Maybe it's the fact that Peter is a prominent name in Russian history, but the song and the novella became tied together in my mind. Like Ivan, Peter laments the fact that his death means so little to anyone other than him. Ivan's "friends" and family devote their conversations at his funeral to potential inheritances and promotions at work made possible by his death. His colleagues quietly lament missing their card game for the funeral. Peter's friends, apparently, discuss the weather, and come with morbid curiosity (they "run and see" Peter in his deteriorating condition) rather than actual concern.

Listening to "Box of Rain", written by Hunter a short time later, one hears a heartfelt and sincere expression of being a "gatekeeper" (Did such a term even exist in this context in 1970?) for a terminally ill loved one. By comparison, "Black Peter" may be insincere - Has Hunter provided us with an unreliable narrator? Is Peter as sick as he says? Is he experiencing fevered hallucinations? Is he simply exaggerating and feeling sorry for himself?

The song keeps revealing new things to me, 32 years later. For the first time today, it occurred to me that the wind that blows the door open may very well be Death ("Who can the weather command?" - If the wind is death, the weather commands us all, in the end.)

Here's a good essay on the song from David Dodd, from anyone interested:
Grateful Dead Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Black Peter"

So what do you think?

 

Great tie-in to Tolstoy. I certainly never made that connection. You have inspired me to back and re-read. I really like the Dodd essay. Thought provoking piece.

 

What you say sounds fine to me. I've never really delved too deeply into the song, but now feel I should.

 

It’s about to fall off....

 

When I first heard the song as a teen, I felt sad for Peter. After all, the song was about his death.

Pushing 50, I realize the song is about my own death.

 

Think I'll go spin some early Poco or The Cowsills...

 

Nice post Ray.
I don't have anything to add other than this is my fav version.

 

Thought provoking but still subjective...

Thanks OP

 

Maybe I should really give this song a good listen and reconsider it?

I will confess it’s one my least favorite GD songs. For me, it’s been a downer not just lyrically, but musically as well. That slow song that comes out of a great second set jam that, back when I was attending GD shows... “Black Peter” was a prime example of what I used to call “The Boring Jerry Ballad.”

I say “used to,” because my feelings on that part of the show - and many of the songs that occupied that slot — have evolved over the years. A lot of songs I didn’t love then I do now. But... “Peter” never really became a favorite.

Now, I’ve heard some really standout, bluesy versions where Garcia really rips it up on guitar. So yeah, I know a good one when I hear it. But, even then, it just sort of comes and goes and I don’t usually remember much about any one version afterward. Even the studio track on Workingman’s never stands out.

Then again, what do I know? I am probably the only ‘Head who finds “Althea” bland and dull. The line “This space is getting hot” would always elicit a roar from the crowd, but my reaction was always “Not with this song it ain’t.”

Anyhow, I will give “Black Peter” a listen this week and give it some thought in spirit with this thread.

 

I think your username should be a verb.

The Tolstoy connection makes too much sense not to be somehow involved, but with Hunter, I always get the sense that the lyrics are based on some line of thinking but allow the listener to draw his or her own conclusion about what is meant or what the story is. Thus, there is no right or wrong interpretation, but some might be closer to the original thought line of Hunter.

 

A beautiful rendition. Terrific guitar solos and nice understated contribution from Donna.

 

Coming from a user whose handle IS a verb, I take that as a lofty compliment. I think if the lyric was limited to a clear and direct “correct” interpretation, it wouldn’t rate a thread a half century later. For me it really does come down to “What does it mean to you?” I’m reminded of what Graham Nash wrote in “Lost Another One” - “We all go out alone”, whether your bedside is empty or filled with people whose lives will go on when yours ends.

“See here how everything leads up to this day”: We are the sum of every action and every choice and every experience we’ve had up to today - whether it’s the day we die or just another day like the rest.

 

Back in '93 I traveled back to NY to visit with my grandfather before his passing, and see some shows at Nassau. The 3rd night they landed on Black Peter in the "post-drums Jerry ballad slot," and the tune took on a whole new meaning in the context of my grandfathers impending transition. (He left a couple of weeks later.)

See here how everything,
Lead up to this day,
And it's just like
any other day that's ever been,
Sun goin' up
and then the
sun it goin' down...

 

“Althea” took a while to grow on me but it ended up being a favorite (and a song Mayer really sings well in D&C, for what that’s worth). “China Doll”? “Stella Blue”? “Standing on the Moon”? Yes, thank you.

 

There is a teaching in the Buddhist tradition that the causes and conditions that lead to any given moment are infinite.

 

Thanks for sharing. I think a number of people have had similar experiences with this song. Throughout the last month of my mom’s life I had “Box of Rain” in my head.

 

I agree with Dodd that Hunter is drawing on Ecclesiastes here, and quite effectively I might add.

 

Perhaps my favorite Hunter-Garcia collaboration of them all. More thoughts when I have a couple brain cells to rub together...

 

Lovely song -- on multiple levels.

(I'd try to pretend that I possess something more substantive to present to the dialogue, but just reading this far has kinda bummed my Sunday evening. Nothing now but work tomorrow, and then, impending death...)

 

Suffering results from attachment to transitory phenomena.

 

At least you made me laugh out loud before you checked out.

 

No doubt.
And I am a big practitioner of the process.

 

I love "Black Peter"... a great lement.

So much so that I had copied and saved this post (slightly edited) from who knows when:


Originally Posted by @jacksondownunda


... “Black Peter” has a rather odd source; inspired by a huge public LSD “Big Overdose” in a barrel of electric punch at a 1969 gig, which left Hunter writhing in hallucinations alone in a back alley, vividly re-living a string of historical assassinations.

Somehow the trauma produced this very sublime tune. The song is strong juxtaposition of death AND life. Anyone who’s done the bedside vigil or attended a funeral has looked up or out the window to see the world still scurrying along outside; the world does indeed go on “just like any other day that’s ever been”.

Hunter is clever to bring up the words “as poor as me” suggesting lack of wealth, then proceeds to “poor Peter lying there in pain”. Life is your truest wealth, and you’re never so “poor” as when you’re in bad health or on your death bed… At which point the Living come “run and see”, “run and see”, “run and see” like crashing waves, finally obliterating Peter’s pebble from the banks of the River Styx.

I love the way Jerry would often sing the line “fever run up to a hundred and five” and go sharp on “five”. Despite new tunes at the Dead return from his 1986 coma, it was “Black Peter” the third night that grabbed the heart...

.

 

Let me suggest John Mellencamp's "Don't Need This Body" to cheer you up.

A brief sample (your post brought it to mind):

Well all my friends are
Sick or dying
And I'm here all by myself
All I got left
Is a head full of memories
And a thought of my upcoming death

 

Lovely, languid song. Never thought about its meaning before, so this thread should be good reading.