Deal

The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia had a lifelong love of traditional acoustic music, which he performed on both guitar and banjo. (The most famous example of the latter being his performance on Old And In The Way, one of the best-selling bluegrass albums of all time.) He recorded many traditional tunes with the Dead, David Grisman and others, but he and Robert Hunter also wrote songs that were in some way inspired by folk material.

Deal is one such folk-inspired number, even though Garcia always performed it with a full electric compliment. The melody and chord structure are entirely their own, but the tag "Don't you let your deal go down" was clearly drawn from the folk / bluegrass standard of which that line is the title:

[Chorus]:
Don't let your deal go down.
Don't let your deal go down.
Don't let your deal go down, sweet mama
Till your last old dollar's gone.

Audio Clip: Charlie Poole playing Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, recorded in the 1920's

The Grateful Dead first performed Deal in 1971 and it appeared on Garcia's eponymous album a year later. Here's a clip from that recording. Among other things, it will help you learn the melody of the song.

Audio Clip: Deal from JG's Garcia, 1972

Deal never left the Dead's active playlist and they performed it countless times over years of steady touring. Here's a clip from one such live performance featuring one of Garcia's inimitable solos.

Audio Clip: Jerry soloing on Deal

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