Peter Bailey, the young man who inspired the Grateful Dead song “Black Peter” just turned 80 years old. Here he is being interviewed February 4, 2024 by his daughter.
BLACK PETER
Former British photographer and light show artist Peter Bailey reflects on his time living in Haight-Ashbury and the origins of the song Black Peter.
When did you first go to the Haight and what did you see when you got there?
I hitchhiked from New York to San Francisco in February 1968. I was twenty-three years-old and heard good things were happening in California, the counterculture had just kicked in and I wanted to find out what it was about. The last person to pick me up was driving a station wagon and dropped me off right on Haight Street. I got out and it was strange at first because I didn’t know how I was going to live or where I would sleep but it didn’t really matter because the people were so welcoming.
First impressions of Haight-Ashbury?
I was excited because there were lots of people on Haight Street. Everyone was enjoying themselves and going to the park. People were tripping and one guy had a guitar and a drum set and was playing during the early hours of the morning. He suggested a place for me to stay for the night with some other musicians. For the first week I was trying to blend in, going with the flow and seeing where it took me. People were not hung up with possessions and would give you things if you needed them. It felt like a community.
I hear you became friends with the Grateful Dead lyricist’s girlfriend.
Yes, that’s right. I met Patty Warner, Robert Hunter’s then girlfriend in a bar in New York in 1967. She was having a beer and we got chatting. She told me the Grateful Dead were playing in Greenwich Village the next day and invited me along. I hadn’t heard of them at that stage, but I love the Grateful Dead and all of their songs, everyone of them, and it was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to San Francisco. During a break in the set Patty hauled me up onto the stage and introduced me to each band member. I didn’t say an awful lot, it was the first time I met them. She gave me her address and suggested if I ever go to San Francisco to look her up. So after being in the Haight for a week I found her living in a commune on Fell Street which was magical. Everyone was magical. She said I could sleep on her floor and that’s where I met Robert Hunter. I was asleep in my sleeping bag, and I remember waking up one morning around 5am and Robert was sitting on the edge of the bed with Patty. She had a notepad and pencil, and he was saying words and she was writing them down. I fell back to sleep and when I woke up Patty told me that Robert had just written a song and called it Black Peter. I don’t know why he wrote the song perhaps he felt sorry for me as I had nowhere to live at the time. Patty told me the next day that Jerry would be coming over to work on the song. I’d forgotten this story until about 20 years later when I was working with the Cosmic Charlies, a UK Grateful Dead tribute band, and it all fell into place.
You got a job with the Brotherhood of Light, a famous light show in San Francisco what was it like working for them?
Some members of The Brotherhood lived in the commune with Patty. I was into photography, but I didn’t know what a light show was. I got chatting to the members of the Brotherhood and they gave me a job looking after their equipment. I used to rig it up and take it down for them before and after each gig, and I was the first person to show a cartoon at the Avalon Ballroom.
It was a 16 mm Tom and Jerry cartoon, and I thought it would be fun to play it and I accidently played it upside down. Everybody laughed and it took off from there. I worked at the Avalon, Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland and all the ballrooms. We worked for bands like The Who, Led Zeppelin and Ten Years After from England. We also worked for the Dead; we did a lot of light shows for them. Jefferson Airplane were there too.
What was your most memorable light show?
The Who’s show springs to mind, which was an eventful show. Bill Graham used to bring apples to all the gigs, and everyone used to eat them. Someone was eating an apple on the balcony and dropped it onto a policeman’s head who was on the street below. We then decided to lock all the doors. It was heavy. The police didn’t like what was going on and we locked them out. We didn’t want them to spoil our fun.
What were the light shows made from, how did you make them?
They were made from colourful oils and slide projectors. We used two, 12-inch clock faces to create the movement. We normally worked Thursday to Sunday, four nights a week at the Filmore West. I enjoyed working and listening to the bands and while I was working at the Avalon one night, I met my wife, Claire. I was up on the light show platform, and I looked down onto the ballroom and saw this girl with long frizzy hair and I went down and asked what star sign she was. We stayed together for more than 50 years. She worked at a winery in San Francisco and was a real flower power girl. She went to both the Monterey and Summer of Love festivals in 1967. She sadly passed away three years ago. We learned astrology and tarots and really enjoyed our time living in the Haight.
I hear you eventually lived in The Charlatans’ apartment.
Once I got myself established, Claire found the apartment in 1969. The Charlatans were one of the first San Franciscan bands to emerge in the 60s and we rented out their front room. It was in a Victorian house painted in day glow paint, all kinds of colours, very psychedelic. It was really a trip. The Charlatans had broken up by the time we lived in their house and gone their various ways, but we liked living there. We believed in freedom from living in the straight world.
Why did you move out of the Haight?
We moved out in 1969 as it got a bit scary; the scene was breaking up and the atmosphere changed. At first, we moved to the Castro in San Francisco, but it wasn’t Haight-Ashbury which had been our home, so we decided to save up and move to England where I’m originally from.
I bought a half ton flat bed truck and built a camper on the back and drove it across America to New York. I put a plastic dome on the top of the roof so we could see all the stars at night and clouds during the day.
I hear you put on your light show in England
Yes, in the 1990s I created a light show called Liquid Love for the Cosmic Charlies and did more than 50 shows for them. They were a very good Grateful Dead cover band. I went onto become a photographer and live in London. The times at the Haight are still important to me and once you turn on, you become a hippy and are always a hippy. We believe in peace and love.
