Grateful Dead – Stella Blue

I want to thank Jim Adams at https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/. I helped Jim with a computer problem a while back, and he sent me something worth far more than the time we spent repairing it. He sent me my favorite Grateful Dead album, Wake of the Flood. When I heard Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo a few years ago, I knew I had to check that album out.

Most of what I know about the Grateful Dead I credit to Jim. After a few listens to the album, I realized it stacked up well against American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. In time, I started to move it toward the top. This song is one of the album’s standouts. It was written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.

The sessions were important because it was the first Grateful Dead studio album released on their own label after leaving Warner Bros. Keith Godchaux’s piano and Garcia’s guitar gave it that late-night feeling that fit Hunter’s lyrics perfectly. Instead of building toward a huge climax, the band let the song breathe. That became part of its power.

The song was influenced by a nightmarish acid trip that Hunter had in 1969. The Dead usually placed it late in the second set after long jams and space sections. I’ve gone back and listened to a lot of live versions of this song. Garcia’s guitar solos on the song changed from night to night. Some versions were calm and soft. Others became explosive by the end.

The song would not show up live until June 17, 1972, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. That night was also the final show for Pigpen with the band. From the start, it sounded different from a lot of the Dead’s material. It was quieter and more reflective.

The song was played live 328 times by the Grateful Dead between 1972 and 1995. Its final performance came on July 6, 1995, only weeks before Garcia died.

Stella Blue

All the years combine
They melt into a dream
A broken angel sings
From a guitar
In the end there’s just a song
Comes crying like the night (wind)
Through all the broken dreams
And vanished years

Stella Blue
When all the cards are down
There’s nothing left to see
There’s just the pavement left
And broken dreams
In the end there’s still that song
Comes crying like the wind
Down every lonely street
That’s ever been

Stella Blue
I’ve stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel
Can’t win for trying
Dust off those rusty strings just
One more time
Gonna make em shine

It all rolls into one
And nothing comes for free
There’s nothing you can hold
For very long
And when you hear that song
Come crying like the wind
It seems like all this life
Was just a dream
Stella Blue

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

24 thoughts on “Grateful Dead – Stella Blue”

  2. Pingback: Grateful Dead – Stella Blue – MobsterTiger

      1. Thumbs up Jim!
        Like Obverse suggested, the GD don’t normally jump at you (‘Touch of Grey’ excepted…first time I heard that I was like ‘wow! That is cool! Play it again!’) but their songs can sneak up on you and get into your head. I wrote about ‘Casey Jones’ not too long back, cool story with interesting back story and history behind it.

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      2. Yea…with me…it’s kinda like the Stones with me. Usually they have to grow on me with the exception of Start Me Up. I loved it the first time I heard it…other songs took me a while. Same with the Dead.

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  5. Max, I just came back from my 3-night vacation in Orlando, and this is the first post that I am reading. thanks for selecting this, as it is the best song ever about a tribute to a guitar, and I always loved this one.

    Stella is Latin for star, however Stella was an American guitar brand owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company that was founded around 1899.  The Stella brand consists of low and mid-level stringed instruments.  Quite a few of the pre-war blues musicians used Stellas, basically because they didn’t have money to throw around on expensive guitars.  Stella guitars were played by notable artists, including Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Charlie Patton, Doc Watson, Pink Anderson, Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Willie Nelson learned to play on one.  Stella was acquired by the Harmony Company in 1939.  I imagine that it is possible that Stella could have manufactured a guitar with a blue finish.

    The guy in this song seems to be down and out on his luck, regretting the mistakes that he made in his past and all these years seem to have combined and melted into a dream.  He hears a broken angel singing from a guitar. The guy may have been lonely for quite some time and he is reflecting on his life when he says, “In the end there’s just a song Comes crying like the wind Through all the broken dreams And vanished years Stella Blue” which is probably saying that his life was not full of great accomplishments, but he always had his guitar around to keep him satisfied.  He goes on singing, “When all the cards are down There’s nothing left to see There’s just the pavement left”, probably because this guitarist lived his life as a gambler and he feels that he can hit the road at a moment’s notice.  “Down every lonely street That’s ever been”, he was able to hang on to Stella Blue, his most prized possession.

    He says, “I’ve stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel Can’t win for trying Dust off those rusty strings just One more time Gonna make em shine.”  He has had a rough life and this is what the blues are all about and he feels like he just can’t win no matter what he does.  His trusty guitar is always there to remind who he is supposed to be and all he has to do is dust it off a bit and he can make it shine again.  His life is sad but he takes it in stride saying, “It all rolls into one And nothing comes for free There’s nothing you can hold For very long.”  He has this glass is half full optimistic attitude, because he is getting fulfillment from his guitar.  The song ends with him saying, “It seems like all this life Was just a dream Stella Blue”, as his guitar was the only thing that kept him from being disconnected and confused, which is sometimes called dissociative thinking.

     

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    1. Thanks Jim in more than one way! I thank you so much for doing that!
      I should just put what you said in the post! Great info Jim…I appreciate it again.
      The album has been a relief in the “puppyfest” we have going on right. I do believe it’s overtook American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead as my personal favorite. Not a bad song on the album.

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      1. I forgot to ask you about the puppies, and I bet you have your hands full with them. One thing I found interesting about this song was that Hunter wrote it at the Chelsey Hotel in New York City, which has a fabulous history with rock. I am glad you are enjoying the album, and I will be doing the song ‘Eyes of the World’ next Sunday and I dedicated my post to you for fixing my internet problem. I had a computer guy coming over to look at my computer and he would have charged me $100 to fix it, so I ha really happy that I got such a great deal with you. I saw that Nancy wrote a post about a steamship sinking and she mentioned you in her post.

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      2. I’ll be looking forward to that post Jim! Oh the puppies…for the most part Martha has kept them under control. She is a great mom. One whimper and she is trotting back there.
        I like that one as well…also the one I haven’t heard as much is Weather Report Suite…I’m starting to like that more and more.
        Yes! I have to go to that post! Thanks again Jim…just say the work if you have any trouble.

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      2. Yea they have about every style you would want to hear…sometimes it gets lost on how good of musicians were in that band…and Jerry of course could do about anything.

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  7. Great-sounding song I don’t believe I had heard before! The Grateful Dead were a bit of an acquired taste for me. That said, I pretty quickly embraced their “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead” albums. Overall, my knowledge of their music remains spotty.

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  8. The Dead are a band that doesn’t grab you by the lapels and demand your attention, they just gently tug at your ears and slowly inveigle you into their mood, their groove. Come the end of the album the world feels a better place and you have a smile on your face. ‘Wake’ is my favourite too.

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    1. You described them perfectly.
      I had mentioned you in the post but I had to cut it down…but you also played a part in this… After posting Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo from this album you talked about how good it was…I started to listen…yes…obbverse is right! It’s really grown on me and moved to the top of my list of their albums.
      It’s not a bad song on the album. I am loving the suite of songs at the end as well.

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      1. Ta Max, no worries. Yeah, one track just sort of feels as if the next one SHOULD be there, no jarring, no massive change in tempo, it all just woozily blends together track to track.

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      2. Yes…sometimes I don’t like suite of songs because when it’s done bad…it’s bad…but this kept me through the entire thing. Some of them like you said..have a massive change and sometimes I think musicians do that just to say “look what we done”

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