About this songbook

What began as an aspiration to play the songs of Jerry’s vast repertoire became a massive research project to better know the lyrics and song structures of these songs. The challenge was that the Jerry and the Grateful Dead never played songs the same way twice. Moreover, a survey of online and printed resources yields a wildly varying array of lyrics, keys, chords, and song structures that lead the aspiring student astray.

In effort to distill this rich legacy of songs down into a concise trustworthy songbook, I analyzed dozens of live and studio version and devoured various resources online and elsewhere.

The objective was to have each song fit onto one page so that it would print nicely and be a convenient reference. To achieve that goal, this songbook only notates unique sections. Typically, this includes the intro, first verse, and chorus, unless subsequent sections vary. Additionally, if a verse has four lines of a repeating chord progression, only the first line is notated.

Happy pickin’!